Monday Reads: Surreal and Surrealer
Posted: October 13, 2014 Filed under: morning reads 54 CommentsGood Morning!
There are some things you just can’t make up. This would include Republican Senator John McCain telling CNN’s Candy Crowley that Obama needs to appoint an “Ebola Czar”. Wasn’t one of the main right wing talking points a few years ago that Obama was czar happy? Also, why wasn’t McCain asked about the stalled appointment of our US Surgeon General?
Remember a couple years ago how President Barack Obama had eighty million czars and it was bad because czars = Russia? Well czars are good now.
“From spending time here in Arizona, my constituents are not comforted,” Senator John McCain (R-AZ) told State of the Union host Candy Crowley Sunday morning. “There has to be more reassurance given to them. I would say that we don’t know exactly who’s in charge. There has to be some kind of czar.”
Hard to see what good a czar would do, given that McCain added that he “was impressed” with Crowley’s panel of experts, in the sense that he nonetheless didn’t believe them.
Yes, that’s the deal. Thanks to the Republicans we have no Surgeon General.
Currently the U.S. does not have a permanent surgeon general. President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Vivek Murthy to fill the spot last November after the previous surgeon general vacated the position.
Murthy’s nomination has been tied up in the Senate since March amid concerns from conservative gun rights group, the National Rifle Association, that the Harvard and Yale educated doctor would seek to implement restrictions on the Second Amendment if he were confirmed for the position.
British-born Murthy is a supporter of President Obama’s efforts to reduce gun violence by restricting the sale of certain firearms.
In October of 2012 he sent the following tweet out from his twitter account: ‘Tired of politicians playing politics w/ guns, putting lives at risk b/c they’re scared of NRA. Guns are a health care issue.’
The NRA and it’s powerful lobbying arm pounced on the statement after Murthy, who also co-chaired a group called Doctors for Obama, was nominated and warned Senators that they would punish them if they voted to confirm the 36-year-old doctor as the spokesman for the government’s public health initiatives.
At a nomination hearing before a Senate subcommittee in February, Murthy testified that his views on gun control would not affect his ability to serve as surgeon general
‘My concerns with regard to issues like gun violence have to do with my experience as a physician, he further explained and ‘seeing patients in emergency rooms.’
But that didn’t quell the NRA’s concerns that he may allow his political beliefs to seep into his medical work.
In mid-March a spokesman for the organization told the New York Times that ‘given Dr. Murthy’s blatant activism on behalf of gun control, that’s not a gamble we’re willing to take.’
As a result, Murthy’s nomination has still not come for a vote before the Democratically-controlled Senate – more than six months later – as vulnerable Democrats in conservative-leaning states have tried to distance themselves from anti-gun efforts ahead of November’s federal elections.
Two weeks ago in the Senate, committees on Appropriations and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions convened a hearing to “discuss” what kind of resources are necessary to address, and stop the virus from spreading. According to the director of the CDC National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Dr. Beth Bell, the epidemic could have been stopped if more had been done sooner to build global health security.
Bell asserted that if the Republican sequester had not cut aid budgets and global health programs indiscriminately by $411 million, and USAID by $289 million, the epidemic could been reduced to a manageable situation if not stopped altogether. Bell said, “If even modest investments had been made to build a public health infrastructure in West Africa previously, the current Ebola epidemic could have been detected earlier, and it could have been identified and contained. This Ebola epidemic shows that any vulnerability could have widespread impact if not stopped at the source.” Now it has the possibility of impacting Americans.
Despite warnings from economic experts and myriad agencies across the government, Republicans parlayed their fear-mongering about deficits, debt, and “foolish, wasteful, out-of-control, and unnecessary spending” into a devastating sequester that put a major dent in the CDC’s budget that is bearing exactly the fruit experts warned Republicans about. NIH representative Anthony Fauci reiterated Bell’s conclusion and told the committees, “honestly it’s (the sequester) been a significant impact on us. It has both in an acute and a chronic, insidious way eroded our ability to respond in the way that I and my colleagues would like to see us be able to respond to these emerging threats. And in my institute particularly, that’s responsible for responding on the dime to an emerging infectious disease threat, this is particularly damaging.”
The Republicans’ precious sequester required the NIH to cut its budget by $1.55 billion in 2013 across the board that had the desired result of affecting every area of medical research within the agency. Bell agreed with Fauci that her department is leading the U.S. intervention in West Africa, but complained the agency is being hamstrung by a $13 million sequester cut that a minuscule increase in 2014 and 2015 is not going to make up in time to effectively stop the virus’s inevitable spread.
Stopping the spread of the disease means stopping the disease in West Africa. However, Republicans won’t approve money to do this because the money would go to Africa. Yup, the usual suspects are also holding up Ebola aid.
A Republican senator is urging his colleagues to hold up the $1 billion the White House has requested to combat the Ebola virus in part because the plan “focuses on Africa.”
“I ask you to oppose fully allowing the additional $1 billion in reprogramming requests until previously requested additional information is available for members of Congress to be fully briefed,” Louisiana Senator David Vitter wrote in a letter to members of the Senate Appropriations and Armed Services committees. The $1 billion that the administration has requested would be redirected from funds from the war operations budget to pay for the construction of medical facilities, supply distribution, medical training and for military and civilian personnel. Most of the money has been held up for nearly a month, as Republicans on key committees demand more details from the administration.
While Vitter criticized Obama for not fully presenting a plan, he apparently knows enough about it to be concerned that it “focuses on Africa, and largely ignores our own borders.” Vitter wants the United States to bar noncitizens traveling from countries affected by Ebola from entering the country.
While Congress delays, world leaders are pleading for assistance. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Thursday that twenty times more aid was needed in West Africa to fight the epidemic. Speaking at the same World Bank conference, the director of the Centers for Disease Control called for swift action. “Speed is the most important variable here,” Thomas Frieden said. “This is controllable, and this was preventable. It’s preventable by investing in core public health services.”
Senator Chris Murphy, in an interview on MSNBC on Thursday morning, called the delay in Congress “unconscionable.” He said the committees should release the full funds this week. Murphy acknowledged that some of the questions committee members have about the administration’s plan are “legitimate,” but noted that his colleagues only selectively care about missing details.
“In contrast to the lack of questions we asked when we made a decision to get involved in a war in the Middle East that’s going to cost us $10 billion a year, we seem to have a different level of inspection when it comes to questions being asked about money that’s going to protect the United States from a very real and very present threat of Ebola,” Murphy said.
Many lawmakers (and the media) are in a frenzy about the prospect of Ebola spreading through the United States, but there’s a conspicuous lack of urgency when it comes to doing more to treat the epidemic where it’s already having a devastating effect. Members of Congress have been far quicker to criticize the president for inaction than their colleagues. On Thursday, twenty-six lawmakers wrote to Obama asking him to “take aggressive action to combat and prevent the spread of this disease in the United States,” specifically by banning travel to the US by citizens of affected countries. Meanwhile, the congressional committees that have to approve the redirected funds have blocked most of it until they get a more detailed plan from the administration.
Here’s a few quick things to read that might interest you. If you watched American Horror Story: Coven last year, you know about the mythical axman. Here’s some information about the real axman murders in New Orleans and the infamous mass murderer.
It was the screaming that awakened Esther Pepitone.
The woman and her husband, Michel “Mike” Pepitone, had turned in for the night at their Mid-City home. They operated a corner store at the front of their building at South Scott and Ulloa streets, and with a circus on Tulane Avenue just a block away that weekend, their day had been busy.
She woke up shortly before 1 a.m. on October 27, 1919, when she heard her husband’s cry, “Oh my God!”
Esther Pepitone found her husband unconscious. Their mattress was saturated with blood. A picture of the Virgin Mary that hung above the bed was specked with crimson, and the walls were splattered from the floor nearly to the ceiling.
Mike Pepitone’s head had been bashed 18 times with at least one weapon. But it was hard to tell just what had happened because his skull was so badly damaged. “It was battered into an almost unrecognizable mass,” reported The Times-Picayune.
Esther Pepitone told police she had caught a glimpse of two shadowy figures in the darkened bedroom, but she could not identify the men. The two wordlessly slipped toward the back of the house, she said, through the room where the Pepitones’ six children were sleeping, and exited through the back door, heading down South Scott Street toward Canal.
Mike Pepitone was in agony. “Every time he turned his head, blood came from his head and face,” Esther Pepitone was quoted as saying by the New Orleans States. “It simply poured over the bed.”
She threw open a window and began screaming, too, and their 11-year-old daughter ran outside to get help.
The first one on the scene was Ben Corcoran (or Cochran, depending on the source), a sheriff’s deputy who lived on the block and who was on his way home from work. He found Mike Pepitone mortally wounded and a weapon, described alternately as a large bolt with a heavy nut attached to it and as a stake used to secure a tent at the circus, sitting on the chair next to him. Five of the Pepitone children were still in bed, fast asleep. The door to the back yard and the gate that opened onto South Scott Street remained ajar.
Mike Pepitone, 36, was rushed to Charity Hospital. Within two hours he was pronounced dead.
His savage murder was never solved. It was the last in a string of attacks commonly attributed to a now-mythical serial killer known as the Axman.
I’ve started watching this year’s American Horror Story: Freak Show which is visually interesting but hasn’t really grabbed me yet. It’s all about those freak shows of old times. If you’re watching it, let me know what you think. The sociopathic killer in this season’s horror story is scary clown Twisty. It appears that Bakersfield, California is also experiencing an invasion of scary clowns.
Reports of creepy clowns carrying knives and other weapons have been scaring people in the California city of Bakersfield for the past week, police said on Sunday.
In the latest incident, a person telephoned the Bakersfield Police Department on Saturday night, reporting a clown armed with a firearm, said watch commander Lieutenant Jason Matson.
“We’ve been having sightings all over the city,” Matson said. “They range from anywhere from a guy carrying a gun to a guy carrying a knife running up to houses.”
The Bakersfield Californian newspaper reported earlier in the week that at least some of the reports were hoaxes. Matson said he did not know whether the incidents were pranks.At least one of the reports was not a hoax – police arrested a teen on Friday who had dressed up as a clown and was chasing children on the west side of town, Matson said. The juvenile, whose name was not released, said he was doing it to perpetrate a hoax he had seen online.
He was arrested on suspicion of annoying a minor and booked into the Kern County Juvenile Hall, Bakersfield police said in a news release.
A child who had been chased “was clearly scared,” the release said.
Here in Louisiana, it’s right wing Christians that are scaring the local children.
This is is an open letter to the Christian terrorists living in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Since I don’t know you, and there’s no threat of you leaving notes in MY mailbox — “We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work.” — I’m not going to be as polite as the atheist you’ve decided to persecute with “God’s love.” Go to hell — whatever form that concept takes inside your sick brain, just pull up a chair and stay while. There’s not one chance in a million you actually understand the “love and message of the Lord” you claim to follow.
Those voices inside your head? That’s not God, Allah, Yahweh or any other monotheist notion of an eternal being. He (or She) who tells you “I am who I am,” is most likely just an auditory hallucination — a symptom of a schizophrenic disorder, manic depression or psychosis. Look, if talking to your inner voice gives you peace of mind — God bless. Did those voices tell you to harass a neighbor and threaten their children? A qualified psychiatrist will most likely prescribe some pretty heavy-duty tranquilizers; the bad news is, medication probably won’t rid your diseased mind of the voices.
So, who are the real freaks? That’s the question asked in the FX show.
Jon Jeffels, whose family received the anonymous notes, is handling this as well as he possible can. He reported the messages to the police and moved the other members of his family to an undisclosed location for the time being. Jeffels also wants to reiterate that this appears to be the work of one or two people, certainly not representative of the religious population at large.
Frankly, if I wanted to put up pictures of the real freak show it would mostly contain Republican Presidential Candidates of the last few elections and their buddies.
Anyway, wouldn’t want you to get too scared! Just scared enough to vote on Novemeber 4th!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Makes you wonder what would happen if the Republicans actually stood up the the NRA and confirmed the Surgeon General. Would the NRA turn to the Dems? Not likely. Would the NRA stop flooding our government with money? Nah. Maybe just maybe the NRA would take whatever crumbs we give them if only politicians had backbones and actually gave a shit about this country.
dak, I can’t believe you got this magnificent post up considering everything you’ve been going through these past few days. When my dad died I spent most days curled up on the couch for two straight weeks. You are an inspiration and an amazing woman.
I’m really exhausted at the moment but it’s good to have distractions too. I am pretty much curling up in bed.
Fantastic post!
I’m going to watch the first Freak Show episode today. Last night I started watching Z Nation on SyFy, and I loved it! It is so much better than The Walking Dead, which IMHO has very unlikable characters and boring plots. I can’t wait to watch the four remaining episodes.
I also watched a very good supernatural horror movie called The Innkeepers. It was so suspenseful that Z Nation provided me with comic relief.
Still, the crazy Republicans are scarier than any horror or TV show!
Thanks! I thought you’d like Z Nation. It does find humor in the situation and makes fun of the genre
I liked it a lot.
Here’s a long write-up on the Axman of New Orleans. I never heard about him before.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/axeman/index.html
His killing was erratic so they never figured out who he was. He’s still quite the mystery down here. He’d go on sprees and then quit. I didn’t know he targeted grocers. Interesting article thx!!!
Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/12/ebola-vaccine_n_5974148.html
Some very good points here. And for McCain to call for a new Czar when Congress is sitting on the Surgeon General appointment is the height of hypocrisy.
Erick Erickson: “Fat lesbians got all the Ebola dollars”
The conservative commentator excuses the GOP’s cuts to research funds by launching another homophobic attack
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/13/erick_erickson_fat_lesbians_got_all_the_ebola_dollars/
http://leftwingnation.us/2014/10/13/gop-douchebag-says-democratic-congresswoman-will-lose-shes-ugly-sin/
from New Hampshire
We should always pick on politicians on the basis of prettiness. /s
They can’t even come up with anything new in their attacks — same ol’ misogynist BS.
Go look at his picture. You won’t believe it.
OMG, he is one of the ugliest people I’ve ever seen. He should be in a horror movie.
His outfit is reminiscent of a bad 1970s gangster movie
What a horrible man. He really does need to look in the mirror.
Or maybe the supporters of the CongressWoman need to decorate his lawn with mirrors
Ebola, Ebola!!!!!! Blame the Lesbians!!!!! More specifically, blame the “fat” Lesbians!!!!! 🙂 Well I’ve been reading blog comments for days where L/G’s are being blamed for the scourge of Ebola as “god’s punishment” for legalizing gay marriage, but this is a whole new angle.
And “lesbians” have a “propensity” “to be fat”?????? I’ve been socializing in the L/G community for over 5 decades and the “lesbians are fat & ugly” stuff is pure horseshit!!!
Oklahoma Man To Keep His Tasteless Obama Gravestone Decoration – Because Freedom!
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/10/oklahoma-man-keep-tasteless-obama?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Check this out. Deranged Obama-Hating Tea Partier Tells Liberals To ‘Eat Sh*t And Die’, Posts Pic Of Daughter With Gun (Video)
I think he should be charged with child abuse, frankly.
http://firebrandprogressives.org/deranged-obama-hating-tea-partier-tells-liberals-eat-sht-die-f-bomb-loaded-rant-video/
Unbelievable……The guy is seething hatred and seems to have a vocabulary problem or maybe he suffers from Tourette Syndrome where using the word “fuck” is hard wired into his brain and he can’t stop doing it. And I pity his child having to grow up with THAT for a father.
Somebody might give him a taste of his own medicine and throw some dung in the front yard. The kind that smells to the high heavens.
Good morning Sky Dancers. Was able to get away for our 38th anniversary into California. Glad a lot of Idaho people will be getting married on Tuesday. See they had dancing all over the city. Cheers.
The NRA will not allow any republicans to vote for Vivek Hallegere Murthy, because he said gun violence was a health problem. John McCain backs the NRA 110%.
I think the hospital has camera’s, as the last patient did, and his family viewed him via video. The nurses ought to be filmed so that the review might show where they are not following guidelines. I know it’s easy to do, but if we can put camera on police, maybe those who are in contact with ebola should be filmed, only to help stop the spread of the disease. I listened to one republican in Texas who wants to stop travel, all of a sudden you got them acting like medical doctors, where have we seen this before? Yet, on this very day, the Governor of Texas is having his (felony) trial, and he doesn’t have to be there. You’ll find him traveling to Europe, looking to bring companies into Texas. Unreal, huh.
Most administrators are hired to make money for the hospital, believe me it doesn’t appear they are concerned about patients, or nurses. They have no clue what to do, and how to deal with Ebola, and we ought not put our hope in those administrators, they are not acting in the best interest of patients.
Have a super Monday.
That sounds wonderful! I’m glad you got to celebrate!!!
Thank you both. Was deep in the fire country, and saddened by the damage that was done.
Happy Anniversary, Fannie. I’m glad you were able to get away for a celebration.
Yes….Congrats on the Anniversary Fannie. I hope your trip was fun
Looks like they need to protect and train their nurses better.
Administrators have been cutting back on clinical positions while increasing levels of administrator positions. All the while increasing your patient load to “improve productivity.” It’s do more, with less. And the consequences hit clinical staff and patients, not the administrators.
This is happening with universities too. It’s the transference of the moral hazard model of private entities into public entities. The entire top level of management is turning into a group of self satisfied, ignorant grifters that take resources away from the primary service providers and their consumers.
The stunning cuts to America’s budget to fight disease outbreaks
http://www.vox.com/2014/10/12/6964671/ebola-budget-cuts-emergency-preparedness
Too damn true.
Yep!
I agree – you could not have said it any better.
My friend Lamar was trolled by this horrid POS winger for his appearance at Wendy Davis’ rally. I want the dude humiliated for this bullying POS blogpost.
http://freebeacon.com/blog/wendy-davis-wheelchair-gaffe/
My friend Lamar’s response: http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2014/10/wendy-davis-supporter-i-asked-them-to-move-me/
Lamar seems like a great guy. Humiliation is too good for the cretins!
He is really smart and nice. You should read his blog CenLamar. He writes and researches brilliantly!
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/10/12/state-with-highest-uninsured-rate-is-the-first-to-find-ebola-in-its-borders/
Ebola is exactly why we need healthcare for all, a strong public-health system, and worker protections.
Robert Mann @RTMannJr 19m19 minutes ago
Not The Onion: “He is, in many ways, the conscience of the U.S. Senate,” said @SenJohnMcCain about @DavidVitter http://ow.ly/CH5o7
headdesk
A conservative judge’s devastating take on why voter ID laws are evil
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-why-voter-id-laws-are-evil-20141013-column.html#page=1
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-29578302
Get away from the bad news for a bit and take a look at this article with several very cool photos of natural formations (and a few intriguing built structures):
I was wondering the other day if Pope Frank would intervene and tell his hard-core-gay-hating Cardinals & Bishops in the Synod to STFU. It appears that he has:
Vatican Proposes Dramatic Shift In Attitude Towards Gays, Same Sex Couples
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/catholic-church-gays-_n_5976134.html
It would be nice if they shifted their attitudes towards women.
I totally agree, but the catholic church has no women whatsoever (not one woman) in it’s hierarchy to advocate for women. Until catholic women refuse to be a part of a centuries old oppression, exclusion and injustice toward women, nothing changes. Most catholic women have normalized their treatment by the church and see absolutely nothing wrong with it.
As for the softened toned toward L/G’s, I suspect it could be about sounding correct more than being correct.
Mouse, you always write the most perceptive comments – this one is no different. Until those scales are removed from the eyes of women who participate in catholicism, nothing within that institution will change.
And as far as Lesbians and Gays within the church, it will be the men who are accepted way before the women will be – business as usual.
Completely agreed
“And as far as Lesbians and Gays within the church, it will be the men who are accepted way before the women will be – business as usual”
I totally agree.
The latest from the BatshitNuttery where the gay hating Religo-ZealNuts reside:
President of NOM (National Organization for Marriage) Brian Brown Fears Self-Marriage
“When #marriage is redefined what prevents a person from marrying him/herself?”
Brian!!!!!! What????? Hmmmmmm!!!!! Maybe it’s the same rationale that prevents a person from adopting him/herself? Or maybe it’s why people don’t put their house up for sale and then buy it themselves? What next, will Brian worry about what prevents a person from divorcing him/herself? What an idiot!!!! He must make all the gay haters proud
LOL! I ❤ you, Mouse!
You too Delphyne! 🙂