Kim Kardashian
I can’t get the Faux-Ebola panic off my mind…
Fortunately more Americans have been married to Kim Kardashian than have died of Ebola. And frankly, I’m not sure which would be more painful, but that’s another story for another time.
Ebola Czar Ron Klain is our man. To show my prejudice right up front, I have no use for the term “czar.”
Actually, “tsar” was Russian term, referring to the emperor. Webster defines a czar as a tyrant, autocrat, emperor or king, an autocratic ruler or leader, or, a person with great authority or power in a particular field.
According to factcheck.org, there are 32 czars ensconced in the White House, but only eight are Obama-appointed – the rest just picked up the nickname from the media.
An abundance of news stories have questioned Klain’s qualifications for the job since he really doesn’t know anything about Ebola.
“That the president chose a political operative rather than a health care expert to head up his administration’s response to an outbreak of a deadly disease says a lot – and nothing positive – about the White House’s line of thinking,” said Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, a surgeon.
There’s so much frenzy whipped up over the right guy-wrong debate that the fundamental question has been overlooked.
Why do we need an Ebola Czar in the first place?
We have the CDC and this falls under their watch. They’re supposed to be on the bleeding edge of the Pandemic of the Month Club.
Ebola has struck so much unfounded fear that it’s become important enough that we must have a czar. At the same time, it’s not important enough for the czar to report directly to the President.
A look at Klain’s resume shows he served as Chief of Staff to vice presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden. I’m not sure he’s the man for a job we don’t need done.
It’s hard to see this as anything but ongoing incompetence. I don’t care if the guy can’t diagram the molecular structure of the Ebola virus on a bar napkin, he has to wade through the morass of the federal government and have a sense of foreign policy because this is a foreign disease.
Seriously, how hard is it to tell the CDC to just do its job, lock down the borders and keep these people off flights headed to the US? Apparently it’s exceedingly difficult.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former deputy commissioner of the FDA stepped up to give his two cents, since the Dixie Chicks were unavailable for comment. Gottlieb said, “We don’t fully understand this Ebola strain. In short, we are treading on uncharted ground.”
Here’s what you’ll probably see our new czar do:
First, he’ll tell the CDC to put out more confusing messages and continue to tell us that they don’t have a clue what they’re doing. This epidemic needs is to be whipped into full blown, code blue hysteria. The fear must grow until we can taste it in the air.
In the meantime, every major pharmaceutical company you can name is in a lab whipping up a cure and vaccination for Ebola. As it fans itself into a blowtorch like flame, the czar will need to fast track the FDA approval process before we all succumb to the imminent Black Death. You won’t see double blind testing and patients getting placebos, not this time. We have to get a cure out and on the streets of America.
There’s an X/Y graph associated with this.
When the fear factor reaches the drug’s release date and the optimal profits have been calculated, we’ll have our cure. And the epidemic that would have been will never be.
Rest easy, America, our drug companies have our backs.
Very aptly put, Paul.
The greatest fear factory of all, the USG, will blaze a $$$ trail for the pharma folks.
Thanks, Lib! Means a lot coming from you…
oh shoedog…do some research..how many czars did republicans have?
surprise!!!!!! your boys had so many you’d think the white house
was the kremlin.
I agree this is being whipped into a frenzy by the media. It will only take 1 untreated person to cause a localized problem, but the chances of an epidemic in the general population are quite low. And quite honestly, I’d take my chances with Ebola over being married to Kim Kardashian.
Always good to hear from female readers in Phoenix; thanks for spreading the word, my friend. We need more smart females to offset the Harley’s of the world.
nice to hear a woman’s comments.
she’s exactly right gomer. its jut another blown up story for you to fill up
hearne’s valuable blog space with.
now…did you find someone to fix our vase?
thanks.
You are right that this hasn’t amounted to anything so far. What concerns me is Obama sending thousands of troops into the Ebola hot zone in Africa to “fight Ebola”. I could understand sending trained MEDICAL people over there AFTER we have developed an effective vaccine for this disease, but what is the military going to do? What is going to happen if they get sick? Are we going to bring them back here at that point? The potential harm is off the charts and there was no reason for it.
Mike, he’s a stranger in a strange land….. and at this point, his legacy will be how completely clueless he was.
Many good managers are not experts in their field, but employ people who are and listen to them. If he would do that, he might be alright. Unfortunately, his hubris won’t let him do that.
Mike, thats totally correct and why I said I dont care that he can’t diagram the virus on a bar napkin. I’ve managed multi million dollar software development projects; I dont know the first thing about code. The last business I did from the business plan level, which I wrote, I took to $750M in 5 years. I was NOT an expert in that field either. I do know how to build a team and manage a process. Thats all it takes…..
That is what it takes to be a good President. Much like a CEO, he can’t be an expert on everything he is in charge of. He has to be self-aware enough to realize that and listen to people who are experts in their particular areas.
again…shoedog the sad shoe flopper and mike are wrong.
Please save me time having to correct you and the shoedog.
troops are not “fighting” ebola. Those are distribution/building
and mechanical personel sent to set upa medical infrastructure.
If you heard President Clinton he explained this…and how his
global initiative with just 4people in the region were working to
put together with drs. without borders and other health organizations
an infrastructure that has not existed there in that area to fight ebola.
Yes..lets fight it at the source…not wait for it to spread….
WHEN WILL SHOEDOG STFU…HE KNOWS NOTHING…
they’re not fighting…they are part of a team that has been sent there
to help the people and fight the disease at its source…..
and shoedog…your boy bush had a bird flu czar….rememeber that?
BOTH OF YOU NEED TO DO SOME RESEARCH BEFORE OPENING
YOUR MOUTH.
YOU ARE BOTH IGNORANT OF WHATS BEING DONE.
NOW PLEASE STFU AND MAKING YOURSELVES LOOK LIKE
FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK Harley Dog, here’s the deal…
I’ve been trying to keep you on a somewhat shorter leash for the sake of limiting some of your ultra repetitive “critiques.”
Have you heard the term “broken record.”
It’s somewhat dated, but refers in general to something being repeated over-and-over-and-over-and-over, etc.
So here’s the deal.
For the time being, I’ve going to give you one crack at the Shoedog per column…unless he responds in kind and then you can respond to that. That’s fair.
Look, he only writes the columns one time. And you get one shot at ripping him or – however unlikely complimenting him – so make it good.
One exception: If someone brings up a point and you are going back and forth on that point or with another commenter, that can happen.
The bottom line being, it’s beyond old bashing someone however many times over a single column with largely the same lame critiques. They aren’t really even critiques as often as not.
Capiche?
I love wislun. But he’s factually wrong consistently.
His stories are wrong based on facts and information
that he should check out before it’s printed on your
blog.
Every story has information that he failed to
fact check. Its become a time consuming event for
me to have to constantly correct him on his
false facts and statements.
He’s wrong about everything and it’s fair that someone
who has studied/read/ and followed up on the
issue he’s writing about adequately corrects him.
If you see something in the STar that’s wrong you
want a reprintor a clarification.
I wish he would not be wrong and disperse wrong
facts and data. His jobas an investigative reporter
is to be accurate and double check his facts before
they become viewed by the public.
Yes…he has some quirky things he does…and I do
love to point them out…but as a compromise to my
fellow kcc readers I will stick to the facts.
This story about ebola is full of holes and misprints.
So I take it as my god given talent to point out that
he and others are wrong.
I love wilsun. He makes me laugh.
I love glaze. Who else could get sports so wrong.
and I am not the only one who does this.
I would suggest writer like southy or maybe stomper
be writers because they add real life stuff to their
comments and stories.
Yes..my jokes about wislun and his shoes have
gotten old. I would rather get some fresh material.
So I will wait for his next story.
Please tell mr. wislun that I truly like him but we
agree to disagree and that as a reporter with a
big time blog it’s his responsibility to fact check
the items he writes and that he has every right to
express his opinion but his facts must be
checked and correct.
I’m sorry. There will be no more shoe jokes anymore.
I’ve run out of material and like glaze knows a
good comedian knows when its time to walk off
the stage. That’s when the audience keeps screaming
for more.
I hereby promise no more shoe jokes and I will
stick to the facts of mr. wisluns stories.
Thanks for all you do for kcc and the readers.
Your friend forever..
Harley.
Look Harley:
I don’t mind the shoe jokes, not sure he does either.
But when you fire volley after volley of endlessly long, repetitive to a fault diatribes, it gets really, really old.
Plus I’m not so sure that you are the best candidate to be the arbiter of factual statements.
There’s plenty of gray to go around in the wide world of news and politics and everybody clings to the “facts” they find most fitting.
My politics are quite different from Paul’s…more often than not anyway. But that’s just me and KCC isn’t here for my exclusive, pocket pool enjoyment.
All I’m saying is, make your points and move on. Just don’t beat the horse so much long after it’s dead.
It doesn’t add to your message or your credibility.
Surely you get that.
BTW Paul was fantasizing the other day that I might secretly be you. Imagine that.
Imagine the conversation I would now be having with, you know, myself right now.
And maybe I’d slip up at times – like the Scribe did when he was posting those fantasy comments a few years back – and refer to you as me by mistake.
In any case, the truth is out there somewhere, right?
uh…wislun was fanasizing I was hearne?
okay…I promised no more shoe jokes..but
this is absolutely hilarious.
I knew you guys had some “Personal problems”
but after watching 800 EDspots on the royals
games you should know now that theres
a pill to help with your fantasies.
This is hilarious….hearne and Harley the
same guy.
Please …there’s only 3 Harleys (and that’s the
truth).
Admin, you can’t teach this asshat anything. He serves no redeeming purpose here other than to trash up your moderation bucket.
The comments you do release only show him to be the illiterate fool he is. It can be funny the first few times, but his tired act has degenerated to nothing but the pathetic and sad rants a psychiatrically off balance, narcissistic sociopath.
And if I hear one more time about all the emails he gets supporting his comment views I’m just going to jab a fork in my eye. No one on KCC befriends him, no readers are sending emails in his support and he can’t prove otherwise.
In fact, he can’t prove anything about himself, come to think of it, but wants to take on everyone else.
I write OPINION pieces and ESSAYS, not investigative reporting, you dolt. I thought YOU were the one who went to the pressteegous MU Skool of Jurnulisum…..
I’m done responding to a phantom person who has ZERO credibility. I’m buried so far in your brain…. I OWN YOU!
Nine comments, on this one story alone! None of them make an ounce of sense, plus you have to mention me in every comment you makes on any other writer’s stories.
I was published in six papers last week beside this blog and you can’t as much as get your much ballyhooed second KCC scribble out the door.
I’ll let what I do stand on its own.
You’re entire life is lived to read the next story, spend 30 minutes on GOOGLE looking for all the relevant info you can find so you can respond and appear you know something about the topic.
In the end, you’re just a trained parrot; you have all the right words, but you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
Your fascination with me borders on the obsessed. If your mom wasn’t bringing food down to your basement lair you’d starve.
I’ll let you go now, Springer’s about to come on and I don’t want to make you late… put on some fresh boxers and clean that place up, for God’s sake.
To be fair, it isn’t like he is sending in ground troops to shoot at ebola. He is sending troops (mostly for security reasons), medical personal, and engineers. This Reuters article from last month gives some details as to why Obama decided to send in troops and the outcomes that they are hoping for: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/16/us-health-ebola-obama-idUSKBN0HB08S20140916
Fair enough, but we are still putting thousands of our people in harms way. If we had developed the vaccine first, vaccinated all of our guys, then sent them over, I would have no problem with it. Another thing bothers me. If the only way it can be transmitted is being in contact with bodily fluids of a symptomatic individual, why are all of these people that are not in direct contact with these bodily fluids wearing biohazard suits?
I nominate myself for the panty raid czar. Stop sniffing panties Homeland Security!!