Discussion for article #228949
This is utterly ridiculous. Two Americans have Ebola. Both are in quarantine. At least one of them is doing quite well. Many of the people exposed to the only person to die from Ebola in the US so far are about to end their 21 day isolation period. Why the hell do we need a czar for that?
In 2013, we lost 30 people a day in the US to gun violence. But we can barely even talk about this death toll in public. On average, about 24,000 people die a year in the US from the flu (roughly 66 people a day) , which can often be prevented by simple measures like washing your hands, covering your mouth when you sneeze, etc…
This Ebola thing is just nuts, plain nuts. And I blame the mainstream media for most of it.
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Here is the transcript of the CZARRR question:
Q Will you appoint an Ebola czar?THE PRESIDENT: I will answer this one question about an Ebola czar. The truth is, is that up until this point, the individuals here have been running point and doing an outstanding job in dealing with what is a very complicated and fluid situation.Those of you who don’t know, Lisa Monaco, who does a lot of my counterterrorism work as well as national security work, has been working with our Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Tom Frieden at the CDC. It may be appropriate for me to appoint an additional person, not because the three of these folks have not been doing an outstanding job – I should mention, and Susan Rice, my National Security Advisor. It’s not that they haven’t been doing an outstanding job really working hard on this issue, but they also are responsible for a whole bunch of other stuff.
So Lisa is also dealing, as Susan is, with ISIL. And we’re going into flu season, which means, by the way, that people should be looking to get their flu shots. We know that every year tens of thousands of people potentially die of the flu, and a hundred-thousand or more may be actually going to the emergency room and hospitalized because of the flu. So that’s something that Tom also is responsible for.
So it may make sense for us to have one person, in part just so that after this initial surge of activity we can have a more regular process just to make sure that we’re crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s going forward.
Not really to “cave” but to take the load of hysterical media idiots and rightwing loonies with their hair on fire off the WH staff, testify at ginned up hearings. Plus, added bonus, it will shut John McCain up.
What’s not to like?
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I heard it too. He didn’t say he was “weighing in on a czar” or anything even close to that. But as soon as he answered the question all the cable punditocracy and headlines decided to change what he said into something he did not actually say. Its so ridiculous but its a real problem with our media. They hear what they want to hear. I could not believe the headlines thereafter. It didn’t even resemble what he said. He may in fact be talking about having an actual Surgeon General that he wasn’t allowed to get confirmed as President because of pure obstruction by the Republicans. But the media won’t take that on, so we have this shit instead. Leave it to AP to mislead the way…
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I know! That’s why I always go to the live feed or a transcript, because the corpse at the white house press always always gets it wrong. And then that sets off a round of handwringing and fist-shaking in the liberal blogos and hysterical head-exploding in the rightwing looney bin, and then the cable pundits spend all day musing and speculating about stuff that he did not say and so it goes.
When you read what he actually said, it makes sense.
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Isn’t that what a Surgeon General is supposed to do?
OOPS, I forgot that the Tiny Penis Club, er, NRA gets a veto on who can be Surgeon General and they’d rather have that position vacant.
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Ebola Czar? How 'bout drones?
??? Huh? Sorry, I must be undercaffienated this morning. I don’t get the joke. Or is it a joke? Is it more of a rhetorical question? Or are you just trolling me now, Darcy? Trying to pick a fight before I’m at my fightin caffiene level? Not fair!
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LOL! Thought I’d ambush you this morning as you appear to be on a roll.
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Yes, the whole thing is ridiculous - but remember - there’s plenty of dumbasses out there (think TX) who have there own protocols. I’ll give the president a pass - this time - but the press loves this stuff. And ISIS may be infecting their true believers and sneaking them in the U.S. as prostitutes. EBOLAAAA baby!
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Hey Congress how about approving the nominee for Surgeon General ?
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Once again, thanks to media and craven, utterly worthless alleged lawmakers, panic seems to be forcing this once great nation down the path of stupidity that brought us the Iraq war, the tech bubble, the housing bubble and the banking collapse…
I guess I should hold my nose until history’s rewritten and that memory pill’s perfected.
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That’s right, because the TPC knows so much about public health and disease control.
Ha! Just trying to get my punches in before I go to work.
That’s just damn generous of you, Darcy. I’ll bet he tears up when he hears that. No really! A gesture of support that brightens the whole day. Carry on! (I’m gonna go notify chammy this very minute.)
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While it would be great to have the nominated Surgeon General, it’s not really the SG’s function to be the point person for coordinating policy and press hysteria. The SG is a Public Health doc who heads of the PH Commissioned Corps, kind of an odd-duck uniformed health service. An actual pseudo-military officer, and the CC are actual pseudo-military officers that fight disease. He’s more of a generalist and not a policy person or high-level media spox.
If you read the transcript i copied above, the scope of a CZARRRRR would be much wider than the SG.
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Yes, it has become embarrassing and has been for a while. I can remember when American Exceptionalism was the envy of the world. Now, high anxiety rules the day. Must be communicating with someone, anyone, or anything at all times. And there’s no where to hide if you want out.
“Obama weighs Ebola czar”. He should appoint Chris Christie who is a real heavyweight. Yet another great TPM headline
Ebola Czar is the name of my new indie rock band.
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Why not a lightning czar? http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/us-2014-lightning-deaths-climb/30648037
WhY doeS thIS articlE not TELL us HOW heavY is THis czar. ANother MIsleADing HEadLINE from ExTreme LIBtard TPM!1!!!one!!!1!!!