The Commentariat -- Nov. 1, 2014
Internal links removed.
Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "... travelers [to the U.S. from from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea] now have to submit to temperature checks and questioning. But scientific studies published by the National Institutes of Health have shown that similar protocols were largely ineffective during an outbreak of Swine Flu in 2009, as Government Executive pointed out in an article last week.... A study of screenings at Australia's Sydney Airport during the Swine Flu pandemic found that ... screeners likely missed the vast majority of individuals who arrived at the facility with Swine Flu, despite grabbing thousands of travelers who showed signs of fever." ...
... Jerome Groopman of the New Yorker: "... there are still serious gaps in what we know about the biology of Ebola, and that ignorance inhibits us from preventing future outbreaks and reducing death rates that still exceed seventy per cent. We don't know enough about the biology of Ebola to bring the outbreak under full control, or to neutralize the virus once the outbreak is contained."
Stupid FBI Tricks. New York Times Editors: "The F.B.I. has a history of pushing the limits that protect Americans' civil liberties. And it has continued to broaden agents' investigative powers in troubling ways.... Deceptive tactics used in Las Vegas and Seattle, if not prohibited by the agency or blocked by courts, risk opening the door to constitutional abuses on a much wider scale."
Joe Nocera of the the New York Times on developments in the case against force-feeding Guantanamo prisoners.
I'm not a scientist. -- Republicans
I'm not a Republican. -- Scientists
Maria Konnikova of the New Yorker takes seriously Jonathan Haidt's assertion that social psychologists are biased against Republicans. CW: What both Konnikova & Haidt overlook is that most of what passes for conservatism today is laughable bullshit. Where it's not cohesive sociopathy, it's incoherent, non-intellectual rationalization based on disproved hypotheses or deceit. So, yeah, I guess the vast majority of social psychologists are "biased" against conservatives to the extent they can see through the malarkey & discount it -- or study! -- it.
Corby Kummer of the Atlantic: "Long before the food movement took shape, [Boston's former mayor] Thomas Menino believed in -- and acted on -- its ideals: fresh food available to everyone of every income level, and as a route to better health."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW: I've sort of avoided this story because it seemed thin at best & bogus at worst. Steve M. has done the legwork for us, & he's going with bogus: "Sharyl Attkisson, the former CBS reporter turned wingnut hero, has a new book out in which she claims that sinister forces from the government invaded her computer and monkeyed with her data. She's now released a video purporting to show what happened.... Robert Graham, in a post at the blog Errata Security, says that a lot of the claims in excerpts from her book don't pass his smell test." Neither does the video offer any measure of convincing "proof" that a government agency has hacked Attkisson's computer. Graham says he is a "right-winger," so he hasn't released his conclusions because of some political bias. Post includes Attkisson's scary video, wherein the most incriminating evidence revealed is that she watches "Dancing with the Stars." ...
... Hannah Groch-Begley & Joe Strupp of Media Matters: "Computer security experts say that a video released by former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson appears to show her computer 'malfunction[ing],' likely due to a stuck backspace key, not being hacked by government agents as she had suggested." Groch-Begley & Strupp cite four experts who find no evidence of hacking. ...
... OR, as J. K. Trotter of Gawker puts it: Sharyl Attkisson blames broken laptop on Benghazi.... A stuck backspace key is, unfortunately, a less dramatic explanation than a hidden government conspiracy to surveil reporters who write unflattering things about the President. It is also the more likely one." ...
... CW: So, kids, if your backspace key gets stuck, it isn't a government plot; it's a crappy keyboard. And all along I thought that time my "e" & "t" died on my old computer, it was Barack Obama out to get me. Such are the dreams of the everyday paranoid.
November Elections
Here's your election day pop quiz from Gail Collins.
All the News Is Bad News. CW: I'll let Nate Silver break it to you.
Sam Wang in the New Yorker on gerrymandering. "Using the tool of redistricting, [Republicans] have successfully tilted the political playing field to secure a large majority for at least the next two years without the same popular appeal."
Jonathan Chait: "The contest to control the Senate is about one thing: whether Obama can confirm judges and staff his administration.... What's more, if a Supreme Court justice becomes incapacitated or dies, the judicial gridlock could become a Constitutional struggle.... News reports have wildly overstated the legislative importance of Republican Senate control. At the same time, they have understated its importance to the judiciary." ...
... David Firestone of the New York Times Channels Victoria D. (See yesterday's Comments): "... given the universal mythology that a lower deficit is always a good thing, would it kill Democrats to point out that the deficit actually has fallen by more than 50 percent since President Obama took office? None of [the Democratic candidates] mention that the budget is in far better shape largely because taxes went up on the rich, and because health care costs are falling. It's unusual even to hear that unemployment is down to 5.9 percent, or that 5.5 million jobs have been added since 2009, which is four times more than under all eight years of George W. Bush.... If Democrats lose control of the Senate next week, they may wonder why they ... left out the country's good news." Read the whole post. ...
... Here's the President, yesterday, mentioning the good stuff that Democratic candidates are too skeert stoopid to tout:
Richard Hasen & Dahlia Lithwick in Slate: "This year's scary election ads will destroy any lingering confidence in the judicial branch....In 39 states, some or all judges must face some kind of election -- often a partisan one. These races used to be about as interesting to watch as Bingo night. But now, it's all Law and Order, and all the time. The ads are scarier than the shows they interrupt. These new judicial attack ads are a consequence of a series of Supreme Court rulings that have allowed judicial elections to get noisier, nastier, and costlier, with no limit on outside spending by groups such as the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity." CW: Thanks again, Supremes!
Colorado. Molly Ball of the Atlantic tries to profile Colorado's GOP Senate nominee Cory Gardner, which isn't easy to do since in all likelihood he's an arch-conservative now parading around as a moderate.
Kentucky. Sahil Kapur of TPM: "The campaign of Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes has filed a lawsuit to stop Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's campaign from distributing a mailer that it says amounts to illegal voter intimidation tactics. The Grimes campaign on Friday said it had filed for an immediate injunction.... The mailers have the words 'ELECTION VIOLATION NOTICE' sprawled at the top and attack Grimes for spreading 'fraudulent' information." ...
... Michael Beckel of the Center for Public Integrity: "The most mysterious force in Kentucky's pivotal U.S. Senate race is a ghost that dwells in a hole in a wall. Hunt for the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, and one finds no grassroots army, no canvassing operation, no office or headquarters at all -- just a scuffed U.S. Postal Service box nestled inside a suburban shopping plaza about 10 miles from downtown Louisville.... Corporeal or not, the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition has ... haunt[ed] Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in her increasingly unlikely bid to unseat incumbent Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky." Via Charles Pierce.
Maine. Darren Fishell of the Bangor Daily News: "Wondering how to blow $1.2 million in two days? Try a whole lot of TV ads. At least, that's how seven political action committees spent their $1.2 million over the last two days, according to the latest filings with the Maine Ethics Commission. Most of that spending -- about $852,000 -- went to benefit the campaign of Democrat Mike Michaud, who is locked in a dead heat against incumbent Republican Gov. Paul LePage, according to a BDN/Ipsos poll released today."
Massachusetts. Fish Story. Nestor Ramos & Michael Levenson of the Boston Globe: "Some of the details of Charlie Baker's emotional 2009 encounter with a soulful fisherman may have been lost at sea. Baker on Thursday acknowledged that he may have misstated some of the particulars of the story he told tearfully during a debate this week. That, in turn, has complicated efforts to locate the man whose hardships, in Baker's retelling, produced one of the most remarkable moments in this year's race for governor.... Despite searches mounted by both campaigns, several media outlets, and various New Bedford fishing industry lifers, no one has been able to find the massive man whose embrace Baker described as 'like hugging a mountain.'" Via Charles Pierce. ...
... Justin Snow of Metro Weekly: "Responding to calls from the National Organization for Marriage for social conservatives to vote for pro-LGBT Democrat Seth Moulton over his openly gay Republican opponent, Richard Tisei, Moulton's campaign refused such support Thursday." ...
... As Charles Pierce reminded us yesterday, vote for Moulton.
Texas. Joshua Fechter of the San Antonio Express-News: "Four days before federal authorities arrested him on federal weapons charges and found ammonium nitrate in his South Texas hotel room, border militia leader Kevin Lyndel 'K.C.' Massey chatted and posed for a photo with Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott at a campaign event in Brownsville.... Video footage captured by Fox 2 News in Brownsville also shows Massey taking photos of Abbott while wearing a GoPro camera on his head, which was later confiscated during the raid.... Abbott deputy communications director Amelia Chasse ... declined to say whether Abbott supports the [militia] group." Via TPM. CW: Your next governor of Texas is a guy who can't decide whether or not he supports a group that the feds suspect of planning to bomb something.
Beyond the Beltway
Sari Horwitz & Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "Justice Department investigators have all but concluded they do not have a strong enough case to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., law enforcement officials said."
Free to Be My Congressman Again. AP: "Former Florida Congressman Trey Radel, who resigned in January after pleading guilty to cocaine possession, has had his record expunged.... U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman William Miller said Friday that Radel completed all the conditions of his probation and was granted an early termination of it in July. Miller said Radel then asked to have his case dismissed and his record expunged, and prosecutors agreed with the request."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Doctors have upgraded the condition of New York City's first Ebola patient [Craig Spencer] to stable, health officials said on Saturday."
Guardian: "US fighter and bomber planes have launched five attacks against Islamic State militants near Kobani, Syria, and five in Iraq since Friday, Central Command said on Saturday. The Kobani strikes 'suppressed or destroyed' nine Islamic State fighting positions and a building. In Iraq, air strikes destroyed an Islamic State vehicle south-west of Mosul dam and hit four vehicles and four buildings used by militants near Al-Qaim, the US military said in a statement."
AP: "With a malevolent laugh, the leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremists tells the world that more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls have all been converted to Islam and married off, dashing hopes for their freedom.... In a new video released late Friday night, the Boko Haram leader also denies there is a cease-fire with the Nigerian government and threatens to kill an unidentified German hostage."
Guardian: "Sir Richard Branson acknowledged on Saturday that his dream of commercial space tourism may have ended in the explosion that consumed Virgin Galactic's test craft SpaceShipTwo in the skies above California's Mojave desert."
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Reader Comments (5)
Wow, a public official (Maine judge) decided to follow science instead of politics. I am totally shocked.
And as for the temperature screening issue. Yes, it will not catch everyone infected with any viral disease. The infection doesn't result in a rise in temperature 2 min. later. It could take days. So for Ebola where temperature rise is the first sign of infection and THE FIRST SIGN OF RISK FOR SPREAD, taking temperature at the airport makes sense. But it will not catch everyone infected. The perfect trick would be to tell people to report to the hospital if they have any fever in the next 3 weeks but there is no guarantee they will do it.
And speaking of panic, lots of NYT commentators didn't trust Kaci to report fever. I assume they thought she planned on committing suicide.
So the real risk are people with contact with Ebola patients who are not healthcare workers (Mr. Duncan).
@Marvin Schwalb: As I believe you noted yesterday, none of the people living with Duncan (nor the dog!) when he had Ebola symptoms contracted the virus. Since Duncan was visiting his fiancee after a long absence, we have to assume they got real close & personal during the visit, even if he wasn't feeling well.
If I'm not mistaken, the only two people who have contracted Ebola in the U.S. were the nurses caring for Duncan while he way dying of the disease.
Marie
Regarding the gerrymandering story by Sam Wang, I am reminded of The Daily Show piece a few days ago on Austin. After establishing the "weirdness" of Austin and how they vote overwhelmingly for Democratic mayors, the show drops the surprising fact that of all six Congresspersons representing parts of Austin, only one of them is a Democrat. This is thanks to extreme gerrymandering that has some of the districts extending almost as far as Houston or Dallas.
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/kwgaxa/democalypse-2014---south-by-south-mess--austin-s-real-weirdness
Marie, the fact that the only two people infected in the US were the nurses treating the, by then, seriously ill patient tell a lot. The infection occurs by contact with infected body fluids,blood, urine, feces, vomit and even sweat. But the experience says that the infection is a very low risk until the symptoms get serious. In an example of the worst case scenario, if you are cleaning up the vomit from your mate at home you are in big trouble (or if you are doing this a hospital in Texas). The evidence says that if you shake hands with a person who gets the fever two hours later, very unlikely problem.
And lastly, the idea that a person with Kaci's credentials is a risk misses the whole issue. It is the non-healthcare workers traveling from west Africa Ebola countries that raise a risk. And I still waiting to hear when we are going to quarantine the people treating Dr. Spencer at Bellevue Hospital.
@Marvin Schwalb: Looks as if we're going to have a long wait. It doesn't appear Dr. Cuomo there ever considered quarantining any of the staff at Bellevue.
Marie