Sabato's Crystal Ball: Republicans Should Gain 5-8 Seats in the Senate

The latest from Larry's Sabato's election projection outfit, "2014: A Tale of Two Elections: New 2014 Senate and House Ratings."

Ebola Cruise Ship Denied Entry by Mexico

This is starting to look like a Hollywood production.

At the Washington Post, "Amid Ebola concerns, Mexico fails to grant access to cruise ship carrying Texas health worker." (Via Memeorandum.)

Nurse from Texas Health Presbyterian Blasts Ebola Response

Oh man, she's fired up!



Just wow.

More here, "Whistle-blower nurse: 'I feel lied to'," and "Nurse: Ebola gear left neck exposed."

No Reason to Panic About Ebola!

And certainly no reason to panic until after the midterms. The Democrats need to mitigate the political damage. That comes before public health.

Ebola Not Contagious Until After Nov. 4 Election, Says CDC http://t.co/03Q0h3jQlt #TCOT #Ebola pic.twitter.com/s6X4Bnov70

— The People's Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) October 16, 2014

And see Jonathan Last, at the Weekly Standard, "Six Reasons to Panic":

Not everyone is convinced that this Ebola isn’t airborne. Last month, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy published an article arguing that the current Ebola has “unclear modes of transmission” and that “there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.”

Lovely.

More.

The Centers for Anything But Disease Control

From Michelle Malkin, at RCP:

So now the federal health bureaucrats in charge of controlling diseases and pandemics want more money to do their jobs. Hmph. Maybe if they hadn't been so busy squandering their massive government subsidies on everything but their core mission, we taxpayers might actually feel a twinge of sympathy.

At $7 billion, the Centers for Disease Control 2014 budget is nearly 200 percent bigger now than it was in 2000.

Those evil, stingy Republicans actually approved CDC funding increases in January larger than what President Obama requested.

What are we getting for this ever-increasing amount of money? Answer: A power-hungry busybody brigade of politicized blame-mongers.

Money, money, it's always the money. Yet, while Ebola and enterovirus D68 wreak havoc on our health system, the CDC has been busying itself with an ever-widening array of non-disease control campaigns, like these recent crusades:

--Mandatory motorcycle helmet laws. CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden appoints a 15-member "Community Preventive Services Task Force" to promote pet Nanny State projects. An obscure Obamacare rule -- Section 4003(b)(1) -- stealthily increased the task force's authority to study "any policies, programs, processes or activities designed to affect or otherwise affecting health at the population level." Last year, the meddling panel extended the agency's reach into transportation safety with a call to impose a federal universal motorcycle helmet law on the country. Is riding a Harley a disease? Why is this the CDC's business?

--Video games and TV violence. At Obama's behest, in the wake of high-profile school shootings, the CDC scored $10 million last year to study violent video games and media images, as well as to assess "existing strategies for preventing gun violence and identifying the most pressing research questions, with the greatest potential public health impact." Whatever that means. Why is this the CDC's business?

--Playground equipment. The CDC's "Injury Centers" (Did you know there are 13 of them?) have crafted a "national action plan" and funded countless studies to prevent boo-boos and accidents on the nation's playgrounds. Apparently, there aren't enough teachers, parents, local school districts, and county and state regulators to police the slides and seesaws. Why is this the CDC's business?

--"Social norming" in the schools. The CDC has funded studies and campaigns "promoting positive community norms" and "safe, stable, nurturing relationships (SSNRs)" in homes and schools. It's the mother of all government values clarifications programs. So bad attitudes are now a disease. Again, I ask: Why is this the CDC's business?

After every public health disaster, CDC bureaucrats play the money card while expanding their regulatory and research reach into anti-gun screeds, anti-smoking propaganda, anti-bullying lessons, gender inequity studies and unlimited behavior modification programs that treat individual vices -- personal lifestyle choices -- as germs to be eradicated.

Here's a reminder of what the CDC does with money that's supposed to go to real disease control...

Continue reading.

Ebola Outbreak: Response Ripples Across Nation

At the Wall Street Journal, "Officials Scramble to Limit Chance of Spreading Infection":

Concerns about the Dallas nurse who flew to Cleveland shortly before being diagnosed with Ebola rippled across the country Thursday, as officials tried to limit the chance of spreading infection by those who came into direct or indirect contact with her.

A handful of schools in Texas and Ohio closed their doors for disinfection. A group of Ohio nurses who flew from Dallas to Cleveland were put on leave, as was a Frontier Airlines flight crew who flew her back to Dallas. And eight people in the Cleveland and Akron area who spent significant time with the nurse, identified as Amber Joy Vinson, put themselves into voluntary quarantine.

Amid the tumult, the Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday issued new rules barring dozens of health-care workers who treated Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., from taking public transportation and visiting public places.

Judge Clay Jenkins, the county’s highest elected official, said that although the directions restricting workers’ movements are binding, he’s confident that they will voluntary comply. “These are hometown healthcare heroes who are going to honor that,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, a Yale student who had traveled to Liberia and checked into a hospital with “Ebola-like symptoms” tested negative for the virus. The student’s symptoms and subsequent hospitalization on Wednesday night set off an urgent reaction among Connecticut health officials, prompting Gov. Dannel Malloy to invoke the state’s authority to quarantine and isolate patients with the virus or suspected of having the virus.

Despite the nationwide agitation, public health officials preached a message of calm. “Just because someone may have been exposed does not mean they are infected,” Dr. Chris Braden of the CDC said at an Ohio news conference.

Ms. Vinson, who helped treat Mr. Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas before he died Oct. 8, was in the Akron area visiting family and preparing for her wedding, local health and law-enforcement officials said. On Thursday, public health officials stressed Ms. Vinson was aware of her possible exposure and kept largely close quarters with family members and friends.

“She was being very distant,” said Summit County Health Commissioner Gene Nixon, adding that she refrained from hugging or kissing anyone.

Another public health official said a relative later reported that Ms. Vinson had appeared lethargic and unwell over the weekend.

Late Thursday night, Ms. Vinson’s family released a statement through Kent State University, where she attended and where several of her relatives work.

“Amber is a respected professional and has always had a strong passion for nursing,” said Lawrence Vinson, her uncle, in the statement. “She followed all of the protocols necessary when treating a patient in Dallas, and right now, she’s trusting in her doctors and nurses as she is now the patient.”

ADDED: "U.S. Ebola Response Is Slammed by Lawmakers: Obama Considers Appointing Czar After Bipartisan Criticism Mounts."

More Americans Support Ground Troops to Fight #ISIS

Boy, does this ever put Obama in a bind.

He's said repeatedly that he won't send ground troops back to Iraq (or into Syria), and more and more he's finding himself on the wrong side of public opinion. What a loser.

At NBC News, "More Americans Back U.S. Ground Troops in ISIS Fight."

5 Takeaways From the October WSJ/NBC News Poll

From Janet Hook, at WSJ:

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that Republicans enter the final three weeks of the midterm election campaign well-positioned to make gains in Congress. At the same time, the political environment is riddled with volatile elements that could produce surprises. Here are some main takeaways of the new poll.

And got to the full survey, "Republicans Hold Advantage as Midterms Near: Poll Shows Low Interest, Disillusionment Create Room for Surprises."

Polls Show Massive Repudiation of Democratic Party on Election Day

Voters are actually highly dissatisfied with the direction of American politics, but as the party controlling the White House and the Senate, the public is on the verge of dealing a massive repudiation to the Obama-Democrats on November 4th.

Here's ABC News, "Trouble Looms for Obama, Democrats with Election Day 2014 Approaching" (via Memeorandum):

Barack Obama and his political party are heading into the midterm elections in trouble. The president’s 40 percent job approval rating in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll is the lowest of his career – and the Democratic Party’s popularity is its weakest in polling back 30 years, with more than half of Americans seeing the party unfavorably for the first time.

The Republican Party is even more unpopular. But benefitting from their supporters’ greater likelihood of voting, GOP candidates nonetheless hold a 50-43 percent lead among likely voters for U.S. House seats in the Nov. 4 election.

These and other results are informed by an array of public concerns on issues from the economy to international terrorism to the Ebola virus, crashing into a long-running crisis of confidence in the nation’s political leadership. Almost two-thirds say the country is headed seriously off on the wrong track. Even more, three-quarters, are dissatisfied with the way the political system is working.

Scorn is widely cast: Among those who are dissatisfied with the political system, two-thirds say both sides are equally to blame, with the rest dividing evenly between Obama and his party, vs. the Republicans in Congress, as the chief culprits. But as a nearly six-year incumbent president, Obama – and by extension his party – are most at risk.

Beyond his overall rating, Obama is at career lows in approval for his handling of immigration, international affairs and terrorism (long his best issue) in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. Approval of his handling of the conflict with Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria has plummeted by percentage 15 points in the last two weeks, amid questions about the progress of the air campaign now under way.

Further, while Obama’s negative rating on handling the economy has eased, more Americans say they’ve gotten worse off rather than better off under his presidency; the plurality is “about the same” financially, for most not a happy outcome. Even with the recovery to date, 77 percent are worried about the economy’s future, and 57 percent say the country has been experiencing a long-term decline in living standards – all grim assessments as Election Day looms.

Such views can carry a punch. An analysis conducted for this report shows that presidential approval ratings (in data since 1946) and views that the country’s on the right track (since 1974) highly correlate with midterm gains or losses for the party in power. (The correlations are .68 and .65, respectively; 0 means no relationship and 1 is a perfect, positive fit.)

Moreover, an index of dissatisfaction, also produced for this study, finds that the public’s unease on a range of issues strongly predicts vote preferences; these wide-ranging concerns emerge as a key factor in the 2014 contest. In addition to persistent doubts about the economy, for instance, 71 percent express worry about a terrorist attack and 65 percent say they’re concerned about an Ebola epidemic – disquieting sentiments when confidence in the political system is so weak. (Details of the dissatisfaction index will be covered in a separate report tomorrow.)

History, for its part, offers the Democrats cold comfort. Obama’s approval rating matches George W. Bush’s heading into the 2006 midterms, when the Republicans lost 30 seats. The only postwar president numerically lower heading into a second midterm was Harry Truman, at 39 percent approval, in 1950; his Democrats lost 28 seats. While race-by-race assessments don’t suggest those kinds of losses this year, the comparison adds context to the GOP’s upper hand.

Such results also help explain why Obama is attending his first public campaign rally of 2014 only today, for Gov. Dan Malloy of Connecticut.

More.

Far-Left Ghoul Scott Lemieux: Killing Babies is a 'Positive Social Good'

Just wow.

Let's just kill more babies, as if we haven't killed enough already, with the left's pro-abortion genocide that's cut a murderous swath across America since the Supreme Court so egregiously ruled in 1973.

For as ghoulish at take you're likely to read, here's your go-to wannabe baby-killer Scotty Lemieux, at the regressive hate-site Leftists, Ghouls and Murder, "Abortion Rights Without Apology." (Via Memeorandum.)

Just read it at the link --- and be ready for the most shameless advocacy for the killing of society's most vulnerable, the unborn.

Leszek Kolakowski: The Man Who Killed Marxism

From Mark Michalski, at RealClearReligion, "The Man Who Killed Marxism":

In Main Currents of Marxism, Kolakowski wrote that "Marxism has been the greatest fantasy of our century." According to him, socialism signifies giving the solution which can never exist. "At present," the author pointed out, "Marxism neither interprets the world nor changes it; it is merely a repetition of slogans." And this is because the ruling elite does not represent the society's needs, but places empty ideology above anything else. Clearly the most important premise of the socialist rule is that it can be exercised by those who possess power. The system which exacts stern order and blind obedience may only triumph through violence, fear, and military coercion. At the same time this system generates only alienation, and stagnation. The sad story of our times is that the system which claims to embody the rights, privileges and welfare of the working class is the same system whose biggest enemy is its very citizens. Kolakowski jokes that socialism would be a splendid idea if only there were no people.

An astounding tome, Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders - The Golden Age - The Breakdown.

Accused College Rapists Have Rights, Too

From Judith Shulevitz, at the New Republic.

It's a great piece, so RTWT. The conclusion's killer:

What’s happening at universities represents an often necessary effort to recategorize once-acceptable behaviors as unacceptable. But the government, via Title IX, is effectively acting on the notion popularized in the 1970s and ’80s by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon that male domination is so pervasive that women need special protection from the rigors of the law. Men, as a class, have more power than women, but American law rests on the principle that individuals have rights even when accused of doing bad things. And American liberalism has long rejected the notion that those rights may be curtailed even for a noble cause. “We need to take into account our obligations to due process not because we are soft on rapists and other exploiters of women,” says Halley, but because “the danger of holding an innocent person responsible is real.”

There's your radical feminism infecting the "real world."

The Indecent Mind of Andrea Dworkin

Another one from Robert Stacy McCain!

"All that is necessary to defeat feminism is to tell the truth about feminism." http://t.co/cnskNpDDEJ @AmPowerBlog pic.twitter.com/nmBwH9SeXu

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) October 12, 2014

The 'Government is Not Competent to Handle' the Ebola Virus and #ISIS Threat

Oh, well, here's that notorious right-wing whack job Susan Page, of USA Today, glibly circulating those widely ridiculed conservative fever-swamp talking points. You know, the ones where the White House is completely incapable of handling the various threats to basic American safety and security.

Yes, so go ahead and completely discount Ms. Page's comments. She's simply a FUBAR RWNJ. The truth is, the Obama administration has everything under control. It's all copacetic man.

Alison Lundergan Grimes Will Not Compromise Her Constitutional Right to Deny She Voted for President Barack Obama!

Because the Founders guaranteed the right to hide behind the "secret ballot" if you're a Kentucky Senate candidate who voted for President Obola.

She's seriously in contention for the worst candidate ever.

Truly mind-boggling.

From Mary Katharine Ham, at Hot Air, "Video: Alison Lundergan Grimes sticking with this whole my-vote-is-private shtick."

From Comedy to Farce

From Victor Davis Hanson, at Pajamas Media:

It was tragically comical that the commander in chief in just a few weeks could go from referring to ISIS as “jayvee” and a manageable problem to declaring it an existential threat, in the same manner he upgraded the Free Syrian Army from amateurs and a fantasy to our ground linchpin in the new air war. All that tragic comedy was a continuance of his previous untruths, such as the assurance that existing health plans and doctors would not change under the Affordable Care Act or that there was not a smidgeon of corruption at the IRS.

But lately the Obama confusion has descended into the territory not of tragedy or even tragic comedy, but rather of outright farce...

Keep reading.

Seattle Boots Columbus Day for 'Indigenous Peoples' Day'

I wrote on this earlier, and today's the day.

At NBC News:

Highway 73 Toll Road to Be Refinanced

I hate the toll roads. I avoid them like the plague, and I'm not the only one. Screw the transportation agency. They can suck on that debt until 2200 for all I care.

At LAT, "O.C. toll road to be refinanced again; drivers may be paying until 2050."

Go Navy!

Heh, just now on Twitter:

#239NavyBday RT @AdamBaldwin: #GoNavy! "For 239 Years, the @USNavy Has Stood the Watch!" - http://t.co/Cmrt8kvS0Y

— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) October 13, 2014

Penelope Cruz for Esquire Magazine November 2014

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem have backed off from their attacks on Israel. That's good, especially since Ms. Penelope is one of the hottest of the hots.

See Egotastic, "Penelope Cruz Sweet Cleavage in Esquire Magazine November 2014."