P.S.A.s From The G.O.P.

UPDATE BELOW

h/t Democratic Underground

h/t D.U.

UPDATE:


Here's some Stupid for lunch, brought to you by Americans who know diddly-squat about geography and who've listened to the ALL SCARY EBOLA ALL THE TIME! 

From Talking Points Memo:

Two Rwandan students who were supposed to begin classes Monday at a New Jersey elementary school are instead being held at home after parents expressed concern about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. 

 Philadelphia TV station WTXF reported that the school nurse at Howard Yocum Elementary School in Maple Shade, N.J. sent a letter to staff members informing them that the school planned to take the new students' temperature three times a day for 21 days as a precaution. But that letter began to circulate among concerned parents, according to WTXF, prompting the school district to post a public statement Saturday on its website. 

 "The Maple Shade School District takes the health of all students and staff very seriously," Superintendent Beth Norcia said in the statement. "As many of you are aware, we have students who have spent time in the eastern portion of Africa that were scheduled to start in our schools on Monday. This area of Africa has been unaffected by the Ebola virus. 

Despite the fact that the students are symptom-free and not from an affected area, the parents have elected to keep their children home past the 21 day waiting period." Twenty-one days is the longest known incubation period for the Ebola virus. But as WTXF pointed out, Rwanda is an east African country that lays 2,600 miles from the closest affected country in West Africa — that's about the same distance from Seattle, Washington to Philadelphia. 

 Norcia's statement said that the students would begin classes the week following the 21-day waiting period. It's unclear whether the students' parents volunteered to keep their children out of school or whether the school district suggested they do so, according to WTXF.

What You Won't Read on the Hysterical Right About Ebola

UPDATE BELOW


The shameful politicization of Ebola by the right continues with politicians blaming President Obama for their refusal to confirm his Surgeon General nominee, and the rightwing pundits and bloggers spooking themselves and their followers with predictions of certain death for millions of Americans. The reality, of course, is nowhere near their ridiculous Chicken Little squawkings.

Here is that reality from Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo:


Today's Very Good News on Ebola - That You Probably Haven't Heard


"...[As of] October 19th, the last day of the quarantine for the family members who were living with Duncan just before he was hospitalized. I don't know precisely when today public health authorities will end the quarantine or precisely how they will handle it. But as far as we know, according to news reports as recently as yesterday, none of the family members have shown any symptoms of the disease. So we can now say close to definitively that none of them contracted Ebola even though they were living with him in close quarters as he entered the infectious period. So what does this mean? Obviously it's good news for the family members. But it is also good news generally because of what it tells us - or rather confirms for us - about the disease we are dealing with. It is a horrific disease. But prior to the end stage when victims have profuse diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding with extremely high viral loads of the contagion, it is not that easy to transmit."

[skip]

"... why did two nurses come down with it? It now seems that hospital staff were given contradictory and insufficient guidance on how to protect themselves, were not given access to the proper protective gear and much more. It was literally and figuratively a mess - a failure on the part of the hospital (which the two nurses will hopefully not pay too high a price for) but also a warning that your average US hospital was simply not prepared to deal with the mix of confusion, uncertainty and lack of familiarity with basic protocols that were virtually inevitable with the first 'walk-in' case of Ebola anywhere in the industrialized world. 

 Luckily, though, procedures in hospital settings can be tightened, changed - the contagiousness of Ebola 'in the wild', out in society in the early stages of the disease - can't be. This evidence tends to confirm that it does not move rapidly or that efficiently. The CDC has already created a rapid response team that will go to a hospital as soon as the presence of an Ebola patient is reasonably suspected, to make sure correct protocols are being followed. That clearly should have been thought of and put in place before. It wasn't. But now it has."



From Forbes:


"...the United States’ built-in defenses are stronger than this infection. Every Ebola patient on American soil – there are four – was infected either in Liberia or Sierra Leone or because they were treating Thomas Duncan, the Liberian patient in Dallas. Even though that nurse traveled on a plane, it’s entirely possible—and likely –that she did not infect a single person on that plane. Health officials still have plenty of opportunity to keep the virus from spreading here in the United States. And even if more people do come to the U.S. while infected with Ebola and develop symptoms here, it will still be their family members and the healthcare workers who care for them who will be at risk, not the population at large.

Despite the closure of schools in Ohio and Texas because students or staff members were on the plane with that nurse, despite the fact that people all over the country are suddenly becoming nervous about flying, your risk of catching Ebola is still far less than your risk of dying from the flu, which killed 53,667 Americans in 2010. In fact, if you’re not a healthcare worker treating an Ebola patient, it’s probably zero. The news that a potentially exposed health care worker who had gone on a cruise ship was, in fact, not infected should drive this fact home. 

 'This is not influenza or measles,' says Paul Offit, the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. 'It’s not spread by the respiratory route. If you’re sitting next to someone on a plane, you’re not going to catch it. People should take note of the fact that Duncan’s family never got sick.' 

 How do we know that this virus can be corralled and controlled? Here’s a one-word answer: Nigeria."

READ MORE NON-HYSTERICAL FACTS HERE.  





Why do politicians, pundits and bloggers on the right continue to spread fear and misunderstanding about Ebola?  

Answer: OBAMA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME

If you're getting your information only from those sources, it is no wonder you're hiding under your bed.

UPDATE:

Senator Ted Cruz (Bat-Shyte-Crazy-TX) intoned on one of the Sunday morning news shows: 



"CANDY CROWLEY: Do you think it would have helped … had there been a surgeon general in place to kind of calm what has become the fear of Ebola? 

 CRUZ: Look – look, of course we should have a surgeon general in place. And we don’t have one because President Obama, instead of nominating a health professional, he nominated someone who is an anti- gun activist. 

To hear the Texas Republican tell it, Dr. Vivek Murthy isn’t even a “health professional,” which is the exact opposite of reality. Outside of far-right politics, the facts are not in dispute.

Murthy is an attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. He’s also the founder of TrialNetworks, an Internet portal for clinical-trial operations that counts Merck and Biogen Idec as customers. 

Earlier, he helped start a rural community health program in Sringeri, India, and an HIV/AIDS youth education program in India and the United States. He went to Harvard for his undergraduate degree and Yale for medical and business degrees."





Dr. Murthy's anti-gun activity?  He would like pediatricians to be able to ask parents if they own guns and if they keep those guns safely locked away from toddlers and children so that they don't accidently shoot and kill their siblings or anyone else.  

That is the definition of "anti-gun activism" in Senator Cruz's mangled mind.  

Cruz is a miserable blight on American politics.

Sunday at the Movies

Here's a Fellini gem, Toby Dammit.

Spookier than any Halloween movie (or any Hollywood movie) you've ever seen. 

Only 40 minutes long.  Enjoy.

Should We Be Comparing President Reagan's Economy With President Obama's?

No.  We shouldn't.  There are too many factors that have changed since Reagan's presidency to make any accurate comparisons.


From the link below:





But now that we’ve crunched those numbers, I think it’s necessary to point out how ridiculous it is to compare Reagan and Obama’s presidencies in the first place. The first and most important factor that makes this comparison ridiculous is the drastically changing jobs environment- specifically, the disappearance of a vast majority of the U.S. manufacturing sector. To put it more simply, about half of the manufacturing jobs that were available to unskilled workers (ie. those without a college degree) when Reagan became president had disappeared by the time Obama took office, most of them outsourced or replaced by machines and computers.



Here's an excellent analysis of what those comparisons are and why it is not helpful to keep making them:

Is Obama’s Economy Really Better Than Reagan’s? A Closer Look

(BTW, the stock market HAS done much better under "sochalist" President Obama than it did under President Reagan.  But don't upset the you-know-who-folks with that fact.  Presidents don't really have control over the stock market, but sometimes its growth is an indication of the confidence investors have -- sometimes.)

Ebola Lunacy

The lunatic wing of the GOP urges Americans and the military to assassinate President Obama, because he wants everyone to die of Ebola:




And this gigantic arsebag, who's their favorite arsebag, leads all the rest:


Rush Limbaugh Says Obama Is Letting Ebola into America as Payback for Slavery




Klayman: Obama Must Be 'Taken Alive' For Bringing Ebola To America To Afflict White People



TPM:  A Republican Missouri lawmaker said that she meant "no ill intent" toward President Obama when she asked on her Facebook page if the U.S. military was able to oust the president. In a Facebook post last week, Jefferson County Recorder of Deeds Debbie Dunnegan referred to Obama as "our domestic enemy," according to a screenshot published by Progress Missouri.

 "I have a question for all my friends who have served or are currently serving in our military … having not put on a uniform nor taken any type military oath, there has to be something that I am just not aware of. But I cannot and do not understand why no action is being taken against our domestic enemy. I know he is supposedly the commander in chief, but the constitution gives you the authority," she wrote in the post.

"What am I missing? Thank you for your bravery and may God keep you safe." Dunnegan, who is up for re-election in November, said that her question was taken out of context, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.



GOP Congressman: Obama Wants Ebola To Spread So He Can 'Take Control' Of Everything




Fox News host Gretchen Carlson managed to wrap Ebola, the Secret Service scandal, the Veterans Affairs scandal, Obamacare, the IRS and Benghazi into one long string of questions on competence and safety on her Monday show: 


"Time now for my take. So, should we trust the government to keep us all safe from Ebola? With the government's recent track record not being so hot, well, we learned we couldn't trust the IRS, after the targeting of conservative groups. The Secret Service, after an armed man made his way into the White House. The VA, after reports men and women who served this country died waiting to get health care. We couldn't trust the promise that Obamacare that we could keep our doctors that we wanted. And do we trust that we know all the answers yet about Benghazi? What more and more people seem to be asking about Ebola now isn't that they're necessarily scared about actually getting the disease, but that they're scared the government agencies responsible with helping us if we do get sick might not be up to the task. So if Ebola becomes a bigger issue the question still remains, will we be safe?"



John Nolte: "The administration would cover this up"Breitbart News's John Nolte also invoked Benghazi and the Mexican border crisis to explain his distrust of the Obama administration on Ebola. 


"In a situation where an Ebola outbreak could in some way hurt President Obama's popularity numbers or agenda, do I believe the Obama Administration is morally corrupt to the point where they would put politics above the safety of the public?" he wrote in August. "I'd tell you to ask our Libyan ambassador and three other foreign services workers that question, but they're all dead."



As Charlie Pierce would say, "Here's some Stupid for lunch (and dinner).  This guy is beyond help. Where does FAUX find these idiots?


Fox News Contributor Claims Obama Wants Ebola To Spread In US Because He Hates America


"During an appearance on Fox News Radio’s The John Gibson Show Tuesday, Fox News contributor and psychiatrist Keith Ablow claimed that President Obama wants the Ebola virus to spread in the United States because “his affiliations are with” Africa. Ablow also stated that Obama considers himself the leader of Africa and not the President of the United States. The member of Fox News’ ‘Medical A-Team’ also went on a rant about the United States only electing Obama because the country was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. In Ablow’s opinion, Americans thought if we elected a black man with a name that sounded like a mix of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein that we would no longer be attacked by terrorists. Seriously, he actually said this."







Then the lunatic fringies of the GOP pretend their people are NOT politicizing the Ebola crisis:

"This morning, I’m hearing a leftist on FOX saying Republicans are using EBOLA as a wedge issue in the Midterms. WHEN? HOW did this get politicized?"

...when the fact that they are is right under their noses.


VERY IMPORTANT PIECE OF EVIDENCE:


Family that lived with Texas Ebola victim showing no symptoms, mayor says




And to the hysterical bloggers who've been out of their minds for weeks over Ebola, here's one of your own on your favorite HATE OBAMA ALL THE TIME cable news programs telling you what colossal derps you are by doing ALL EBOLA ALL THE TIME: 

 Shepherd Smith of Fox News: 

 "You should have no concerns about Ebola at all. None. I promise," stated Smith. He went on to tell viewers, "Do not listen to the hysterical voices on the radio and the television or read the fear-provoking words online. 

The people who say and write hysterical things are being very irresponsible." He explained: "We do not have an outbreak of Ebola in the United States. Nowhere. We do have two healthcare workers who contracted the disease from a dying man. 

They are isolated. 

There is no information to suggest that the virus has spread to anyone in the general population in America. Not one person in the general population in the United States."




New York Times:

"The risk of Ebola infection remains vanishingly small in this country...in some years, the flu kills more than 30,000 people in the United States.  Yet this causes little anxiety."  



And yet the right wing blogs continue promoting their hysteria.  Why? Perhaps because they're hoping there WILL be an epidemic in this country so that their irrational fears will prove to be correct and so that they can continue to BLAME OBAMA for EBOLA! 

Hey what happened to their hysterics over beheadings?

No, The Time's Report Doesn't Prove Saddam Had CURRENT Weapons of Mass Destruction

But the howler monkeys on the right read three words in the report and started flinging their predictable poo.  Here's why they're WRONG, again, and the reason:


From SALON:

The reason is very simple, and the Times report conservatives are claiming vindicates Bush actually explains very clearly why it does no such thing: 

“The United States had gone to war declaring it must destroy an active weapons of mass destruction program. Instead, American troops gradually found and ultimately suffered from the remnants of long-abandoned programs, built in close collaboration with the West.” 

Many of the weapons, according to the Times, “appeared to have been designed in the United States, manufactured in Europe and filled in chemical agent production lines built in Iraq by Western companies.” 

 The discovery of old, degraded chemical munitions in Iraq is not news. The Bush administration went to war expecting to find older weapons, along with a thriving new chemical weapons program (that didn’t exist). 

Ten years ago, the final report of the weapons inspectors sent to find Saddam Hussein’s WMDs (commonly known as the Duelfer Report) was released, and it noted that “a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered” in the country, but that Iraq had not produced any new weapons.

[skip]


The discovery of old, degraded chemical munitions in Iraq is not news. The Bush administration went to war expecting to find older weapons, along with a thriving new chemical weapons program (that didn’t exist). Ten years ago, the final report of the weapons inspectors sent to find Saddam Hussein’s WMDs (commonly known as the Duelfer Report) was released, and it noted that “a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered” in the country, but that Iraq had not produced any new weapons. 

 Back in the summer of 2006, Rick Santorum was on his way to losing his Senate seat and needed a “game changer” to save his political career. So he threw together a press conference to triumphantly announce: “We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons.” 

He was talking about “500 chemical munitions shells that had been buried near the Iranian border, and then long forgotten, by Iraqi troops during their eight-year war with Iran, which ended in 1988,” according to the Washington Post. Everyone laughed at him, not just for how transparently desperate the stunt was, but also because Bush administration said Santorum was wrong. 

I’ll repeat that, so there’s no confusion – Bush administration officials said that the presence of ancient chemical weapons in Iraq did not vindicate George W. Bush’s case for war.

Feminist's Life Threatened for Planning to Speak at Utah State University

Anita Sarkeesian was scheduled to speak at Utah State University because she dared to bring up the subject of how women are portrayed in popular media. She cancelled her visit because of threats of violence against her--shooting to be exact.

There's tolerance for you. 

Citing gun laws, feminist speaker cancels Utah State visit following threat of campus shooting 

Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist known for her critical look at how women are portrayed in popular media. 

A prominent feminist scheduled to speak at Utah State University on Wednesday canceled her presentation, citing Utah gun laws, after an email threatening a campus shooting was sent to the school. 

The message, sent to about a dozen school offices late Monday night, threatened "the deadliest school shooting in American history" if Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist known for her critical look at how women are portrayed in popular media, is allowed to speak at the school. 

The email, provided to the Deseret News by USU, purports to have been written by a student with access to a semiautomatic rifle, several pistols and pipe bombs. "I'm giving you a chance to stop it," the message reads, demanding that Sarkeesian's presentation be canceled. Sarkeesian was invited by USU's Center for Women and Gender to speak Wednesday as part of the school's weekly Common Hour presentation series. 

The speech had been scheduled to take place as planned until Sarkeesian contacted the school and canceled Tuesday night. Sarkeesian asked school officials whether firearms would be allowed in the auditorium where she was scheduled to speak. USU officials replied that, in accordance with Utah law, anyone with a valid concealed carry permit would be able to enter with a gun, according to a statement released by the university.


From "A Shred of Truth:"

"In 2006...Utah became the first state to allow campus carry. Under the law, students may request not to share a dormitory room with someone carrying a firearm, but pretty much anywhere else on campus is fair game. There is a stipulation that some “secure areas” can bar guns, but the room where Sarkeesian’s event should have taken place apparently did not qualify. 

Not only does Utah have no waiting period at all to buy a gun, the state has broken records with the number of concealed carry permits it issues. At the end of last year, the number of permits issued by the state hit half a million. 

Sixty-two percent of those permits, however, went to people who did not live in Utah. After the news broke that Sarkeesian would be canceling her event due to threats, another feminist activist, Shelby Knox, tweeted that the story sounded familiar to her. “I’m a feminist speaker & had a gun pulled on me at an event,” she wrote, “in my home state of TX, a concealed carry state.”

September 2014 Warmest on Record

September 2014 warmest on record.



September 2014 was the warmest September on record globally for land/ocean combined, averaging 0.77 degrees C. above the 1951-1980 global mean. 

May and August of 2014 were also the warmest of those respective months globally, according to GISS. Records go back to 1880. September of 2005, which averaged +0.73 degrees C. now falls to second warmest on record for September. 

So far through September, 2014 is averaging 0.65 degrees above the 1951-1980 mean, according to the GISS data, which currently puts it on pace to be the 2nd warmest year on record behind 2010. 

However, if latest trends continue into December then 2014 will likely end up the warmest on record. What is impressive is that we are still not officially under El Nino conditions.







Climate Change/Global Warming deniers can take their skepticism to the military and tell them they're wrong.

The Pentagon's recent announcement won't change lunkheaded deniers' opinions, but it will be interesting to witness how they'll deal with this:




RELEASE: Military Leaders Agree with New Pentagon Roadmap: Climate Change an “Immediate Risk to National Security” 

Washington, D.C. — The Center for Climate and Security (CCS), a policy institute with an Advisory Board of retired senior military officers and national security experts, concurs with the U.S. Department of Defense’s recently-released 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap (CCAR), which states: 

“Climate change will affect the DoD’s ability to defend the nation and poses immediate risks to U.S. national security.” CCS also supports concrete actions called for in the roadmap, such as the integration of climate change considerations into “Department-wide plans and guidance to the Combatant Commanders,” while noting that important choices lie ahead.



Climate change threatens national security, Pentagon says



Drastic weather, rising seas and changing storm patterns could become “threat multipliers” for the United States, vastly complicating security challenges faced by American forces, the Pentagon said in a new report on the impact of climate change released Monday. 

 The report, described as a “climate change adaptation roadmap,” included a foreword from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in which he urged the nation’s military’s planners to grapple now with the implications of a warming planet, even as scientists are “converging toward consensus on future climate projections.” 

 “Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning,” Hagel said. “Our armed forces must prepare for a future with a wide spectrum of possible threats, weighing risks and probabilities to ensure that we will continue to keep our country secure.”

Viruses and the Spreading of Fear

"AN OBSERVATION," by Infidel753.



UPDATE BELOW



Oct 12 (Reuters) - "A man in Massachusetts who was being evaluated at a Boston hospital for a possible Ebola infection does not appear to have the deadly disease, officials at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said on Sunday night.

The patient, who recently returned from Liberia, had complained of headache and muscle aches, prompting his admittance to an isolation ward with close monitoring, the hospital said. 'This patient does not appear to meet CDC criteria to be considered someone at high risk for Ebola and the likelihood of Ebola Virus Disease is extremely low,' the hospital said in a statement emailed to Reuters. Even so, the patient will remain in isolation, the hospital said."

 [skip]

 "On Sunday, a United Airlines flight from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York landed at an isolated terminal at Los Angeles International Airport after a passenger who had recently visited Africa began vomiting and running a fever, officials said. However, it turned out that the woman had visited South Africa, which is not an area of concern for Ebola.

 The Massachusetts patient first reported to the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates hospital in Braintree, Massachusetts, and was then transferred to Beth Israel, said Ben Kruskal, a physician and chief of infectious disease at Vanguard, in a statement. Kruskal said the Braintree building was closed briefly but reopened."




The internet is in full panic and fear mode since the first case of Ebola in Texas was reported.  All one has to do is visit some of the far right blogs to see the hysteria and just plain idiotic finger-pointing -- the more red in tooth and claw bloggers and shock radio idiots are blaming President Obama for the Ebola outbreak and even accusing the president of deliberately spreading the virus for political reasons:  



From a red in tooth and claw blog:

"Let us consider this: never let a good crisis go to waste, and if there is not a crisis, then create one. So we had Valarie Jarrett telling everyone, 'There will be payback,' and now we have Ebola here in America. What an amazing coincidence!" 

"... my thoughts exactly- import the disease- create a crisis- a set up – for sure– "

" If obama would have had a son, it may have been Ebola."





Robert Fisk, writing about fear mongering attitudes from the crazed right on the subject of ISIS or ISIL had this to say about those who give into their deepest fears and hatreds (and it applies to the Ebola issue as well):



At its most basic, you have only to read the viciousness of internet chatrooms. Major newspapers – hopelessly late – have only now started to realise that chatrooms are not a new technical version of “Letters to the Editor” but a dangerous forum for people to let loose their most-disturbing characteristics. Thus a major political shift in the Middle East, transferred to the internet, takes on cataclysmic proportions.



We now have far right Americans actually believing that President Obama deliberately spread the ebola virus for some obscure political reason.  And the people who sincerely believe this want their party and the people they approve of and vote for to take control of our government.  

This is massive ignorance and sickening paranoia on display.  Just as dangerous to the US as a deadly virus.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself and right wing fear mongers.



UPDATE (What you won't read on the fear-mongering and Obama slandering blogs):


CHART: Public Health Emergency Funding Has Taken Major Hit

"A writer for Scientific American recently pointed out that funding for the Center for Disease Control's funding for public health preparedness has taken serious hits over the course of the past decade. 

 According to funding data analyzed by Judy Stone, annual funding for preparedness efforts have fallen by $1 billion between 2002 and 2013."



Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director




Who controls the purse strings for funding? 

Coleman Hawkins, Body and Soul, October 11, 1939

October 11 marked the 75th anniversary of Coleman Hawkins' recording of Body and Soul, a popular song and an American jazz standard:



BODY AND SOUL

Coleman Hawkins version:

One of the most famous and influential takes was recorded by Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra on October 11, 1939, at their only recording session for Bluebird, a subsidiary of RCA Victor. 

The recording is unusual in that the song's melody is only hinted at in the recording; Hawkins' two-choruses of improvisation over the tune's chord progression constitute almost the entire take.

Because of this, as well as the imaginative use of harmony and break from traditional swing cliches, the recording is recognised as part of the "early tremors of bebop". 

In 2004, the Library of Congress entered it into the National Recording Registry.





Bonus for Sunday Night:

Sunday Science Blog

While the media are focused on Ebola, we need to pay attention to these six diseases as well:

These six diseases should worry you more than Ebola

ENTEROVIRUS D-68 

MEASLES 

WHOOPING COUGH 

DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA 

RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS 

INFLUENZA AND PNEUMONIA

Eating Well Is The Best Revenge

Chicken cutlet with arborio rice cake and carrot topped with sweet and sour beets and roasted broccoli florets. 

Coppola Pinot Grigio to accompany the meal. 

Eating well is the best revenge.

Everything made from scratch.

"On The Cover of Rolling Stone"

The howls from certain people on the right will be heard on Neptune, I'm sure.  But that doesn't change what Rolling Stone magazine and Nobel Prize winning economist (and one of Mr. Obama's critics), Paul Krugman have to say about Mr. Obama's presidency.

It is true President Obama's popularity poll numbers are not good at this time, but that's not indicative of his entire presidency, it indicates the mood of the country at this point, and nothing else.  Like all presidents, Mr. Obama has made mistakes and has regretted them, and not all of his supporters, including this blogger, agree with all of his policies.  There is no doubt, however, that as  representative of what conservatives consider "family values," this president has been an excellent role model as a husband and father.  

One thing that separates us from the rabble, whose default position is outrage on anything and everything he does, is that we can talk rationally about why we disagree with his policies, while the rabble offers nothing but poisonous rumors and lies. 




"David H. Donald, noted biographer of Lincoln, relates that when he met John F. Kennedy in 1961, Kennedy voiced his deep dissatisfaction and resentment with historians who had rated some of his predecessors. Kennedy said, 'No one has a right to grade a President—even poor James Buchanan—who has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and information that came across his desk, and learned why he made his decisions.' 

Historian and political scientist Julian E. Zelizer argues that traditional presidential rankings do not explain much concerning actual presidential history, and that they are "weak mechanisms for evaluating what has taken place in the White House."  SOURCE


One of the most successful presidents in American history? We don't know that yet. Meanwhile, this is an antidote to all the vile, and sometimes racially charged hatred directed at this man, and his wife, since he took office.  Historians will judge Mr. Obama's presidency, which has two more years to go, not the howling malcontents whose heads explode whenever he breathes and exhales.

Rolling Stone Names President Obama ‘One of the Most Successful Presidents in American History’

Ebola: Panic and Irresponsible Overreaction

UPDATE:  Capt. Fogg of The Swash Zone has a post up on this subject.


The panic and irresponsible overreaction by certain elements on the right demonstrates that they will never let a crisis go to waste nor an opportunity to bash President Obama for anything and everything happening anywhere within our solar system.


Why Ebola triggers massive right-wing hysteria

Here's a chart to show us all how their overreaction makes them look foolish and like the political opportunists they are:

The ninnyhammers who predict imminent death from immigrants crossing the border or by every other feverish nightmare that haunts their dreams are not to be taken seriously. Everything I've read indicates that although the virus is serious, the U.S. will be able to deal with the threat. 

Will “Tightening The Borders” Keep Ebola Out?

Ebola has been politicized and used as another cudgel to whack the Obama administration.  How many people have died so far from the ebola virus in the U.S.?    

One. 

And he was infected in another country.

Go HERE for more facts and fewer hysterics.

1) How worried should I be about Ebola?

The first-ever diagnosis (and ultimate death) of an Ebola patient in the United States was a frightening and unexpected event. But it doesn't signal the start of an American outbreak, nor does it give reason for Americans to panic about the possibility of contracting the disease.

EBOLA IS LESS CONTAGIOUS THAN MOST OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES WE'RE FAMILIAR WITH

The Last Word

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

CYBER-BULLIES: ENABLING PREDATORS by (O)CT(O)PUS of The Swash Zone

Addendum below

By (O)CT(O)PUS

If you happen to be the wrong gender, in the wrong neighborhood, or on the wrong side of the Tea Party, criminal acts now have a partisan bias. Not all partisans! Most conservatives, liberals and libertarians – with their moral compass fully intact – condemn sadistic acts of malice. Yet, there appears to be a radical fringe that rejects all standards of common decency. When I first learned of this incident …

Sexual harassment and threats of sexual violence

prompted Shaw Kenawe to suspend her web log

... I posted a quick announcement on this web log, Who’s Your Daddy - a forum frequented by the same predators who tormented Shaw. The proprietress of subject blog issued an immediate denial:

Lisa: “Nobody here has ever made any direct threats” [Deleted]. 

In a follow-up post, I described these malicious acts (source):

"Hate messages, threats of sexual violence, allusions to smearing

victims in excrement – illustrated with vile pornography."

Hardly free speech, threats of physical violence meet the legal definition of “attempted assault.” Threats of sexual violence meet the legal definition of ‘predation.’  Any distribution of unsolicited and unwanted pornography is a violation of state and Federal laws. ALL ARE CRIMINAL OFFENSES!

In response to my article cross-posted at Progressive Eruptions, the proprietress of Who’s Your Daddy commandeered a discussion thread with blanket denials:

Lisa “Being you are all about free speech … Don't blame me for something others do” (September 30, 2014 at 9:59 PM).

Lisa: “I had nothing to do with any of whatever it is you claim happened” (September 30, 2014 at 10:04 PM).

Lisa: “Nobody ever threatened you on my blog” (September 30, 2014 at 10:32 PM). Lisa “Hey Octo … or shithead” (October 1, 2014 at 4:37 PM).

Lisa “Like I stated before and this is the last time, I am not responsible for what others post on your blog” (October 1, 2014 at 4:42 PM) 

The argument is not over comments posted on Shaw’s blog, but over comments posted on Lisa’s blog by her patrons. In essence, the argument is about hosting and enabling predators.

Apparently, Teflon Lisa has now decided to play the victim card. Consider the irony: My original post was NOT ABOUT LISA but about malice in Cyberspace. Yet, reactive and combative, Lisa turned the focus of attention to herself by denying the offenses and defending the offenders.

Given this turn of events, I am now compelled to show actual examples. By no means trivial, these examples demonstrate the kinds of harassment, humiliation, and torment endured by Shaw, not just in Cyberspace but sent to her private email account.

THE GOODS ON TEFLON LISA

Radical Redneck posted this comment on Lisa’s web log:

Radical Redneck: “Shaw will hide her fornicator’s head in unprecedented shame by ANY MEANS NECESSARY!” (March 12, 2012 at 11:12 AM). 

Embedded in Radical Redneck’s comment is a live link that brings you to a website containing offensive pornography. WARNING: Reader discretion advised.

Here is a direct exchange between Lisa and Radical Redneck:

Lisa [speaking directly to Radical Redneck]: “Hey RR the link doesn't work” (August 26, 2011 at 9:21 PM)

Radical Redneck: “http://img31.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc49&image=44132_14833499.jpg” (August 27, 2011 at 11:46 AM).

If you copy the URL string in Radical Redneck’s comment and paste it into your browser, it brings you to a website containing offensive pornography. WARNING: Reader discretion advised.

Here is another comment posted by Radical Redneck on Lisa’s web log:

Radical Redneck: “Shaw and her “Life Partner” celebrate Ogabe’s *Spit* victory!” (February 18, 2011 at 7:14 PM).

Embedded in Radical Redneck’s comment is a live link that brings you to a website containing offensive pornography. WARNING: Reader discretion advised.

Yet another comment by Radical Redneck posted on Lisa’s web log:

Radical Redneck: “Chaw is sucking worthless dick … pick up a thug gaggle and resemble a negroe [sic] porcupine with the countless pricks going in you” (August 29, 2014 at 9:00 AM).

Radical Redneck: “Poor, simple, stupid pest Chaw. Devastated that she's far too contrived and annoying to ever get a black guy, and much to hideous to ever dream of a white guy, must compensate with banal trolling while consuming her default daddy's latest Cleveland Steamer (he always gives her a big one for Kwaanza) out of old Ben & Jerry's containers” (July 16, 2011 at 12:14 PM).

[From the Urban Dictionary: ‘Cleveland Steamer’ is defined as a crude fetishistic sex act whereupon one person – the ‘cacaphile’ - defecates on the chest of another person and smears excrement by rocking back and forth like a steam roller.]

Clearly, Lisa’s offal of denial does not pass the sniff test.  Not merely isolated examples, there are dozens of lurid comments, links to disturbing images, and threatening email messages sent to private email accounts - clearly a persistent and pervasive pattern of Cyber-Bullying.

Radical Redneck: “Shaw has never looked better!” (August 22, 2011 at 11:26 PM).

Embedded in Radical Redneck’s comment is a live link that brings you to a website containing offensive pornography. WARNING: Reader discretion advised.

The above comment originally appeared under this post. Yesterday, it disappeared from Cyberspace along with this comment:

Rusty Shackelford: “Shaw, the FCFB* (Fat Cunt From Boston) .... chief Obama jock sniffer .....” (July 15, 2014 at 8:01 PM)

No doubt, Teflon Lisa will scour her archives and delete all comments referenced herein. No matter. Posts and comments removed from Cyberspace never completely disappear without a trace. There will always be saved texts with embedded links, screen snapshots, copies of menacing email, IP addresses, and digital records stored on computer servers … documented for prosecutors and the process server with due diligence. Notwithstanding, there will also be indignant desert birds reeling in self-righteous anger grasping for self validation:

Kenosha Marge, Liberated Conservative Women: “I'm in total agreement with all of these comments that side with you against those obnoxious liberals” (October 1, 2014 at 1:57 PM).

Exposing the Hypocrisy of the Liberal Left: “… pure ignorance and extreme bull-shit …” (October 4, 2014 at 1:14 PM).

Duckys here: “Lisa, did Rotweiler post the rape and porn material?” (October 2, 2014 at 9:31 PM).

Lisa: “Ducky get lost” (October 3, 2014 at 7:40 AM).

Postscript: Honestly! I never understood nor will I ever understand why some men … and the women who enable them … harass, humiliate, debase, defile, stalk, and torment the women of this world. Women are the mothers of all humanity! Thankfully, there are far more GOOD MEN who respect and protect their partners in life and often refer to them - lovingly - as their “better half.”


ADDENDUM:

Radical Redneck's pornographic email to Shaw Kenawe. WARNING: Reader discretion advised.

Radical Redneck

To

Me

Sep 26, 2011

Radical Redneck has left a new comment on your post ""50 REASONS WHY I REJECT EVOLUTION"":

Shaw, you've NEVER looked better!



Posted by Radical Redneck to Progressive Eruptions at September 26, 2011 4:51 AM

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Any distribution of unsolicited and unwanted pornography is a violation of state and Federal laws. ALL ARE CRIMINAL OFFENSES!