Tag: Ebola

Panetta Ponders Presidential Priority Problem

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

AFBrancoObamaPanetta1072014Clintonista Leon Panetta is making the rounds of the talk shows, hawking his new tell – all book detailing the goings-on inside the Obama White House.

According to the Former Secretary of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief has a Priority Problem.

Breitbart.com reports that

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared President Barack Obama’s approach to be like a law professor, however without the aspect of rolling up his sleeves and to get the job done.
Instead he suggested Obama has given up.

Panetta said, “He [Obama] approaches things like a law professor in presenting a logic of his position. There is nothing wrong with that. We want to have a president who thinks through the issues. My experience in Washington is that logic alone doesn’t work. Once you lay out a position, you are going to roll up your sleeves and you have to fight to get it done. That is key in Washington. In order for presidents to succeed, they cannot just — when they run into problems, step back and give up.”

“There is a feeling and I have a feeling that the leadership and the president have given up on the big issues facing this country whether it’s immigration or a budget deal or infrastructure funding or trade or energy. there is a sense that you can’t deal with that. This country needs that. They can’t give up.”

Don’t Worry. Even though the world is out-of-control, everything’s just breezy with the Preezy. And, as long as he has himself, he will never be alone.

Per weeklystandard.com,

At a DNC fundraiser today, President Barack Obama voiced a concern many Americans might now have. “[T]here’s a sense possibly that the world is spinning so fast and nobody is able to control it,” Obama told Democrats at the White Street Restaurant in New York, New York.

But Obama suggested that he has things under control.

I was here in New York just a couple weeks ago — you noticed the traffic was even worse then — during the United Nations General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders. And it’s appropriate to talk a little bit on the front end about why this particular General Assembly was so indicative of America’s position in the world. There are times where I think in this country we doubt ourselves, and there are times when we’re uncertain of all the changes that are taking place all across the globe. And understandably, when you see the headlines every single day and you read about ISIS and Ebola and the Russian incursions into Ukraine, there’s a sense possibly that the world is spinning so fast and nobody is able to control it.

And yet if you look at what happened at the General Assembly on the terrorist group ISIS and the need to mobilize an international community to push back against their radical violence, it was the United States that mobilized that coalition both in the Middle East and around the world.

When you look at Ebola, a humanitarian crisis in West Africa, but also a public health crisis that has the possibility of affecting people around the world, it was the United States that is committed to building the infrastructure that allows health workers to get in and start saving lives and making sure that children aren’t dying on the streets.

When it came to blunting Russian aggression, it was the United States that mobilized NATO countries and the world community to stand up for the principle that people are independent and have the ability to make their own decisions about their own lives and to seek freedom and prosperity on their own terms.
The commander in chief continued:

On climate change, it was the United States that led the way in continuing to mobilize the world community to reduce carbon emissions that are going to affect our kids and our grandchildren.

On every single issue of importance, when there are challenges and there are opportunities around the world, it’s not Moscow they call; it’s not Beijing. They call us. Because they understand that for all the challenges we sometimes face and the mistakes that we occasionally make, that America continues to be the one indispensable nation — (applause) — and that what we stand for –– liberty and democracy and conservation and fairness and justice — those are the things that people around the world aspire to and seek, and they expect the United States to be on their side.

And that’s something we can be very proud of. It’s a burden. It means we do more than anybody else. We’re asked to respond even by folks who are critical of us. People don’t always appreciate the work that we do. But in the end, it’s a burden that we bear proudly because it’s part of what makes us American, and it’s part of what that lady with the torch in the middle of the water means. It’s part of what attracts people from every corner of the globe to this country, understanding that for all our flaws there’s something essential that we stand for that nobody else does, and we’re willing to put our money and time and effort and resources and occasionally our lives on behalf of that.

Well gosh, boys and girls. Don’t you feel better already?

And since the world is Obama’s oyster, that gives him time to take care of what’s really #1 on his Priority List.

According to nationalreview.com

President Obama is participating in his 56th fundraiser of 2014, Republicans note, as his fading popularity limits his ability to support Democratic candidates otherwise.

“Today Obama is doing three fundraisers to help Democrats running in the midterms, which brings his total to 56 this year,” Republican National Committee spokesman Raffi Williams points out. “This is interesting given that Senate Democrats are running from him and his policies every chance they get. With Obama’s toxic approval ratings it’s not surprising that vulnerable Democrats want to hide how indebted to Obama they are if they get reelected.”

The fundraisers “will take place in private, sparing the candidates on the ballot from a presidential photo op that could wind up in a Republican campaign ad,” according to the Associated Press.

The RNC list of Obama’s fundraisers shows that he has helped the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Governors’ Association. He has also raised money for Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s super PAC, the Senate Majority PAC. Reid’s group is “the biggest spending super PAC by far,” according to NPR.

It’s unsurprising that Obama is raising money for his party, but the Democrats’ dependence on a financial advantage this cycle puts candidates who are avoiding Obama in an awkward spot. They don’t want him around, but they need the money he raises.

“President Obama’s name is not on the ballot and on Election Day I won’t owe President Obama anything,” Representative Bruce Braley(D., Iowa) said, for instance, during his first Senate debate with Republican opponent Joni Ernst.

Priorities matter.

Our nation was built on the backs of leaders. American men and women who saw what needed to be done to ensure the continuance of our liberty…and, they went out and did it.

These leaders included Mother and Fathers, who took responsibility for themselves , their relationship, and their children…including handling the important parental task of guiding and disciplining those young lives, whom they were responsible for.

As I have written before, I am the son of members of the Greatest Generation, those who sacrificed to keep their families together and our country strong and free.

To this day, you can see “4…5…6…” on the back of my legs from my mother’s yardstick.

But, I digress…

Even “public servants”, back in the day” took the responsibility of their jobs very seriously, from the local dog catcher to the President of the United States.

Everybody “took care of business”, even the Leader of the Free World, as Harry Truman reminded us, with a sign sitting on his desk, which read,

The Buck Stops Here.

…as opposed to the sign which sits on our current President’s desk in the Oval Office, which reads,

It’s Not My Fault!

For America to reclaim our rightful place, as the Greatest Country on God’s Green Earth, it is going to take LEADERSHIP…

An attribute which the current president severely lacks.

Obama does not understand…

Liberty is Freedom…with Responsibility.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Kids Quarantined For Ebola in Dallas. Government Report From 2000 Warns about Sub-Sahara Africa.

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

ObamaEbola1012014With the arrival of Ebola on our shores, an Outbreak’s best friend, Panic, has tagged along for the ride. The Dallas Star-Telegram reports that

Parents rushed to get their children from school Wednesday after learning five students may have had contact with the Ebola victim in a Dallas hospital, as Gov. Rick Perry and other leaders reassured the public there is no cause for alarm.

The patient, identified by The Associated Press as Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia, arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20 to visit family. Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson said county officials suspect 12 to 18 people may have come in contact with Duncan.

“Right now the base number is 18 people, and that could increase,” he said. Thompson said more details are expected by Thursday afternoon. The number includes five students at four different schools, Dallas school district Superintendent Mike Miles said.

“This case is serious,” Perry said at a press conference in Dallas at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Duncan is being treated. “Rest assured that our system is working as it should. Professionals on every level on the chain of command know what to do to minimize this potential risk to the people of Texas and of this country.”

Miles said DISD officials learned Wednesday morning that five students at four different schools — Tasby Middle School, L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary School, Dan D. Rogers Elementary and Conrad High School — had come in contact with Duncan. Lowe Elementary is also being watched because it connects to Tasby.

“Since none of the students had symptoms, I’m pretty confident that none of the kids were exposed,” Miles said.

At L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary, parents pulled their children out of school early Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m scared,” said parent Kia Collins, who has four children at the school ages 5-11. “I may keep them home all week.”

DISD officials said they planned to have counselors and translators reaching out to parents — 32 languages are spoken just at Conrad High School.

How long have our country’s leaders know about the potential of virulent, deadly diseases arriving at or shores? Well…would you believe…since 2000?

The National Intelligence Council supports the Director of National Intelligence in his role as head of the Intelligence Community (IC) and is the IC’s center for long-term strategic analysis.

Since its establishment in 1979, the NIC has served as a bridge between the intelligence and policy communities, a source of deep substantive expertise on intelligence issues, and a facilitator of Intelligence Community collaboration and outreach.

The NIC’s National Intelligence Officers — drawn from government, academia, and the private sector—are the Intelligence Community’s senior experts on a range of regional and functional issues.

In January of 2,000, the NIC published the following report titled, “The Global Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the United States”. Given the outbreak of an enterovirus which is attacking children from coast-to-coast and diseases, such as tuberculosis, which have been brought into our country by the recent invasion of illegal minors, whom the Obama Administration has transported and settled throughout our country, and last, but not least, the appearance of the deadly Ebola Virus in our country, this report is surprisingly prophetic.

Impact Within the United States

Although the infectious disease threat in the United States remains relatively modest as compared to that of noninfectious diseases, the trend is up. Annual infectious disease-related death rates in the United States have nearly doubled to some 170,000 annually after reaching an historic low in 1980. Many infectious diseases–most recently, the West Nile virus–originate outside US borders and are introduced by international travelers, immigrants, returning US military personnel, or imported animals and foodstuffs. In the opinion of the US Institute of Medicine, the next major infectious disease threat to the United States may be, like HIV, a previously unrecognized pathogen. Barring that, the most dangerous known infectious diseases likely to threaten the United States over the next two decades will be HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, TB, and new, more lethal variants of influenza. Hospital-acquired infections and foodborne illnesses also will pose a threat.

  • Although multidrug therapies have cut HIV/AIDS deaths by two-thirds to 17,000 annually since 1995, emerging microbial resistance to such drugs and continued new infections will sustain the threat.
  • TB, exacerbated by multidrug resistant strains and HIV/AIDS co-infection, has made a comeback. Although a massive and costly control effort is achieving considerable success, the threat will be sustained by the spread of HIV and the growing number of new, particularly illegal, immigrants infected with TB.
  • Influenza now kills some 30,000 Americans annually, and epidemiologists generally agree that it is not a question of whether, but when, the next killer pandemic will occur.
  • Highly virulent and increasingly antimicrobial resistant pathogens, such as Staphylococcus aureus, are major sources of hospital-acquired infections that kill some 14,000 patients annually. 
  • The doubling of US food imports over the last five years is one of the factors contributing to tens of millions of foodborne illnesses and 9,000 deaths that occur annually, and the trend is up.

Regional Trends

Developing and former communist countries will continue to experience the greatest impact from infectious diseases–because of malnutrition, poor sanitation, poor water quality, and inadequate health care–but developed countries also will be affected:

  • Sub-Saharan Africa–accounting for nearly half of infectious disease deaths globally–will remain the most vulnerable region. The death rates for many diseases, including HIV/AIDS and malaria, exceed those in all other regions. Sub-Saharan Africa’s health care capacity–the poorest in the world–will continue to lag.
  • Asia and the Pacific, where multidrug resistant TB, malaria, and cholera are rampant, is likely to witness a dramatic increase in infectious disease deaths, largely driven by the spread of HIV/AIDS in South and Southeast Asia and its likely spread to East Asia. By 2010, the region could surpass Africa in the number of HIV infections.
  • The former Soviet Union (FSU) and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Europe also are likely to see a substantial increase in infectious disease incidence and deaths. In the FSU especially, the steep deterioration in health care and other services owing to economic decline has led to a sharp rise in diphtheria, dysentery, cholera, and hepatitis B and C. TB has reached epidemic proportions throughout the FSU, while the HIV-infected population in Russia alone could exceed 1 million by the end of 2000 and double yet again by 2002.
  • Latin American countries generally are making progress in infectious disease control, including the eradication of polio, but uneven economic development has contributed to widespread resurgence of cholera, malaria, TB, and dengue. These diseases will continue to take a heavy toll in tropical and poorer countries.
  • The Middle East and North Africa region has substantial TB and hepatitis B and C prevalence, but conservative social mores, climatic factors, and the high level of health spending in the oil-producing states tend to limit some globally prevalent diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. The region has the lowest HIV infection rate among all regions, although this is probably due in part to above-average underreporting because of the stigma associated with the disease in Muslim societies.
  • Western Europe faces threats from several infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, TB, and hepatitis B and C, as well as from several economically costly zoonotic diseases (that is, those transmitted from animals to humans). The region’s large volume of travel, trade, and immigration increases the risks of importing diseases from other regions, but its highly developed health care system will limit their impact.

The report also states that

Sub-Saharan Africa will remain the region most affected by the global infectious disease phenomenon–accounting for nearly half of infectious disease-caused deaths worldwide. Deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria, cholera, and several lesser known diseases exceed those in all other regions. Sixty-five percent of all deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa are caused by infectious diseases. Rudimentary health care delivery and response systems, the unavailability or misuse of drugs, the lack of funds, and the multiplicity of conflicts are exacerbating the crisis. According to the AFMIC typology, with the exception of southern Africa, most of Sub-Saharan Africa falls in the lowest category. Investment in health care in the region is minimal, less than 40 percent of the people in countries such as Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC) have access to basic medical care, and even in relatively well off South Africa, only 50 to 70 percent have such access, with black populations at the low end of the spectrum.

So, our government has known that Sub-Sahara Africa has been a disease incubator for all these years…and, yet, now President Barack Hussein Obama has decided that their plight is an emergency, sending 3,000 of our Brightest and Best into the midst of that diseased land, risking the possibility that they will be come infected and bring their infection back home with them.

Given this fact, my question is:

Why have we not stopped travel to and from our Sovereign Nation, as regards these diseased countries? And, why did this Administration allow those diseased illegal “minors” into our country?

This scenario we see playing out before our very eyes, reminds me of the end scene in the second “Planet of the Apes” movie, where a diseased pilot, bitten by Caesar the Ape, prepares to board a plane, starting the spread of a disease which will wipe out the majority of the human population on Earth.

If you guys see any apes riding horseback, let me know.

If you see four weirdly dressed guys on horseback…run.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama’s Unlikelyhood Becomes Reality: Ebola in the USA!

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

EbolaFirst and foremost, I want the American people to know that our experts, here at the CDC and across our government, agree that the chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low. We’ve been taking the necessary precautions, including working with countries in West Africa to increase screening at airports so that someone with the virus doesn’t get on a plane for the United States. In the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores, we’ve taken new measures so that we’re prepared here at home. We’re working to help flight crews identify people who are sick, and more labs across our country now have the capacity to quickly test for the virus. We’re working with hospitals to make sure that they are prepared, and to ensure that our doctors, our nurses and our medical staff are trained, are ready, and are able to deal with a possible case safely. – President Barack Hussein Obama, “Remarks by the President on the Ebola Outbreak,  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, 9/16/2014

Wrong again, Scooter.

FoxNews.com reports that…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Tuesday that a patient being treated at a Dallas hospital has tested positive for Ebola, the first case diagnosed in the United States.

The patient left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20, CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. It’s the first patient to be diagnosed with this particular strain of Ebola outside of Africa.

“[The patient] had no symptoms when departing Liberia or entering this country. But four or five days later on the 24th of September, he began to develop symptoms,” said Frieden.

The patient, who was in the U.S. visiting family in Texas, initially sought care on September 26, but was sent home and was not admitted until two days later. He was placed in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, where he remains critically ill, according to Frieden.

“The next steps are basically threefold,” said Frieden.  “First, to care for the patient … to provide the most effective care possible as safely as possible to keep to an absolute minimum the likelihood or possibility that anyone would become affected, and second, to maximize the chances that the patient might recover,” said Frieden.

Frieden said the CDC and Texas health officials were working to identify and monitor anyone who may have come in contact with the patient.

“It’s only someone who’s sick with Ebola who can spread the disease,” said Frieden. “Once those contacts are all identified, they’re all monitored for 21 days after exposure to see if they develop a fever.”

Frieden added that while it is possible that someone who had contact with the patient could develop Ebola in the coming weeks, he has no doubt the infection will be contained. At this point, he said, there is zero risk of transmission to anyone on the flight with the patient because he was not showing any symptoms at the time of travel.

It’s unclear how the patient became infected, but health officials said he “undoubtedly had close contact with someone who was sick with Ebola or who had died from it.”

The patient will stay at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for treatment, where epidemiologist Dr. Edward Goodman, said medical staff have a plan in place for some time now in the event that a traveler brought Ebola to the United States, noting that the team had a crisis preparedness meeting just one week before the patient arrived at the facility. 

Hospital officials are currently evaluating different treatment options, including experimental therapies which have been successful in other patients, according to Frieden.

I hope that unfortunate soul hasn’t been in contact with a lot of people during the last 21 days…or, we’re choomed.

It’s a scary situation. So scary in fact, that even one of Obama’s most slavish sycophants was too scared for his own safety to try to spin this potential plague.

Last Night, on Hardball Tonight on MSNBC, Chris Matthews had a 10 minute heated exchange with the architect of Obamacare, Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel.

It seems that ol’ Chrissie doesn’t have that tingle running up his leg for his fallen messiah, anymore.

Grab your popcorn.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: I’m just trying to follow the logic here. Everybody’s being told, don’t worry unless they have the infectious symptoms, you can see them, that you don’t have to worry about catching them. Yet, this guy picked up the disease apparently from somebody who did not have the infectious symptoms.

DR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL: Again, don’t hypothesize because we just don’t know. We have no idea what he did or didn’t do and how he got it. I’m sure that’s going to be vital information to try to understand the transmission, but the idea that there’s going to be a widespread outbreak here, I think is just, again, it’s a bit of fear mongering. We have a single case. This is not a big, widespread —

MATTHEWS: Yeah, yeah, but I’m just going back to the president’s statement, doctor, and that is that the president said it would be unlikely if we had a case in this country. Unlikely to even have one case. You want to see the tape again?

EMANUEL: He said there wouldn’t be an Ebola outbreak.

MATTHEWS: No, and in the second part of his sentence he said in the unlikely case someone brings it here. In the unlikely case someone brings it here. Well, they’ve done it. We’re living in the world of the unlikely already. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not fear mongering. I’m stating the facts and I wonder if everybody else is.

EMANUEL: The reason we can be assured here that this isn’t going to be a major outbreak is we have a CDC that can do very good contact tracing. We have a very good health system that takes universal precautions on all patients, with the gloves. And you’re not regularly in contact with people’s bodily fluids the way it is much more common in Liberia. I think those things distinguish it. And I don’t think we should get into a panic because we were reassured it would never be in the United States.

MATTHEWS: No, the president said it was unlikely two weeks ago. Well, it’s not the unlikely, it has happened. It’s here.

Evidently, the rats are starting to desert Obama’s sinking ship of State.

Such is the cost of idolatry.

So, to summarize, a deadly disease, which has been contained in Africa for quite some time now, is now here in America, while 3,000 American Sons and Daughters, our Brightest and Best, have been sent by Obama to “combat it” and possibly become exposed to it.

What happens when they bring it back home with them?

Please don’t tell me that’s “unlikely”, also.

Oh, and here’s another pleasant thought: I read yesterday that those tens of thousands of “unaccompanied minors” who invaded our Southern Border recently, have been spread all over America by Barack Hussein Obama.

And, as I reported before, they brought tuberculosis and other diseases with them.

Can you say, “Fourth Horseman”, boys and girls?

The greatest United States President in my lifetime, Ronald Wilson Reagan, once quipped,

The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

Unfortunately, what Obama doesn’t know…could kill us.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

Leadership Vacuum At The Department of Homeland Security

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

HomelandSecurity9212014The Office of Homeland Security was formed in the aftermath of the worst Terrorist Attack ever committed on American Soil, in the days following September 11, 2001.  President George W. Bush picked Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge (1945-) as the first Office of Homeland Security Advisor.

The office became a department on November 25, 2002, as President Bush signed into law the Homeland Security Act, which created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and mde Ridge a cabinet-level administrator.

The DHS pledged to carry out new initiatives to, the extent possible, protect the nation from further attacks.

In creating Homeland Security, Congress lumped together 22 previously unconnected federal agencies under a new Cabinet secretary. 108 congressional committees and subcommittees oversee the department’s operations.

In an Organization so huge, as you can imagine, some “little things” may “slip through the cracks” from time to time.

Some “BIG THINGS”, too.

Back on September 8th, Reuters.com reported that

The Department of Homeland Security failed to assess the supplies it needed to deal with a potential pandemic and now has expired stockpiles including medications, 200,000 respirators and 4,184 bottles of hand sanitizers, an inspector general report showed.

The department bought 16 million surgical masks and 350,000 white coverall suits without establishing the need for them, according to its inspector general’s report, which included photographs of stacks of unopened boxes piled high in a storeroom.

Eighty-one percent of DHS’ supply of 296,000 doses of antiviral medication, called medical countermeasures, will expire next year, according to the report completed in late August and released on Monday.
 
DHS also did not keep track of its supplies or where they were kept.

“As a result, the department has no assurance it has sufficient personal protective equipment and antiviral medical countermeasures for a pandemic response,” it concluded.

The report comes as the United States prepares to help African countries devastated by the rapid spread of the Ebola virus and work to keep it from spreading to its shores.

The inspector general said DHS spent $47 million Congress appropriated in 2006 for a potential pandemic on the preparedness equipment, medication, research and exercises.

The Transportation Security Administration’s stock of pandemic preparedness equipment includes 200,000 respirators that are past the five-year manufacturer’s guaranteed usability, the report said.

The inspector general said 84 percent of the department’s 4,982 bottles of hand sanitizers were expired, some by up to four years.

The inspector general made 11 recommendations.

“While DHS concurs with the OIG’s recommendations, we had already previously identified many of the issues prior to the review, and have taken comprehensive actions to address them,” including finalizing the recall of the expired medicines, DHS spokesman S.Y. Lee said in a statement.

So, with a virus attacking young asthmatic Americans from coast to coast, and with Obama sending 3,000 of our Brightest and Best into the heart of Africa’s Ebola Outbreak, it has been shown that DHS is not prepared to handle the possibility of a pandemic in our country.

Unfortunately, that “little problem” appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.

According to The Washington Post,

An exodus of top-level officials from the Department of Homeland Security is undercutting the agency’s ability to stay ahead of a range of emerging threats, including potential terrorist strikes and cyberattacks, according to interviews with current and former officials.

Over the past four years, employees have left DHS at a rate nearly twice as fast as in the federal government overall, and the trend is accelerating, according to a review of a federal database.

The departures are a result of what employees widely describe as a dysfunctional work environment, abysmal morale, and the lure of private security companies paying top dollar that have proliferated in Washington since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The department’s terrorism intelligence arm, for example, has cycled through six directors during the Obama administration, decimating morale and contributing to months-long delays in releasing intelligence reports, according to interviews and government reports.

A parade of high-level departures, on top of other factors, has meanwhile helped slow the rollout of key cybersecurity initiatives, including a program aimed at blocking malicious software before it can infiltrate civilian government computers, former officials say.

With the country facing a crisis of unaccompanied minors crossing the southwest border in recent months, the pair of DHS agencies responsible for tackling this problem have been hindered by turnover of top officials. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, for instance, has had six commissioners under President Obama, four of them in a caretaker role because they were not confirmed by the Senate.

And at the Transportation Security Administration, a DHS agency created after 9/11 to enhance airport security, the hemorrhaging of both senior and junior personnel has “had a tremendous effect,’’ said Kenneth Kasprisin, a former acting TSA head who left the agency in May.

“You cannot sustain a high level of security operations when you have that kind of turnover,’’ he said, attributing the defections to “a toxic culture” and “terrible” morale.

Seriously, would you want to work in the Obama Administration?

As I wrote the other day, their planning for the prosecution of the war-which-is-not-a-war against ISIS/ISIL, alone, is reminiscent of a Benny Hill Show-Ending Chase Scene.

How can there be any sort of consistent leadership in such a huge organization experiencing a “revolving door”, spinning at the speed of the turnstile at Disney World or, Madonna’s Bedroom Door back in the 1980s, take your pick.

Why is this department experiencing all this turnover in personnel?

Well, the fact of the matter is that DHS is mirroring the instability and misplaced priorities of the entire Obama White House.

In order to do a good job at any position, much less a Government Job, you have to be a dedicated employee, or, in the case of DHS, a dedicated public servant.

If those above you, from the President on down, are not dedicated public servants, then why should you be?

Let’s face it:  The President went golfing, immediately after announcing that an American Journalist had been beheaded by the Muslim Barbarians known as ISIS/ISIL.

If the Leader of the Free World doesn’t give a hoot ‘n holler about performing his job duties to the best of his ability, why should his employees at DHS?

And, with jobs available for them in the private sector, it is very easy for them to “Take the Money and Run” (hoo hoo hoo).

Unfortunately, as I alluded to earlier, without consistent leadership, to keep employees motivated and “on mission”, any organization will begin to swirl down the ol’ porcelain receptacle very quickly, resulting in the “toxic culture” and “terrible morale” mentioned in the article.

Because, just as they say in the Military and the Business World,

**it rolls downhill.

And, any organization is on;y as strong as its leadership.

However, when it is an organization that has the powers and responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security, this vacuum of leadership becomes a volatile and dangerous situation, which affects the safety of our entire nation.

So, until January of 2017, DHS is screwed.

And, so are we.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama To Put “Boots On The Ground”…To Fight Ebola In Africa

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

AFBrancoObamaElevator9142014Americans shouldn’t be concerned about the prospects of contagion here in the United States, short term, because this is not an airborne disease. – President Barack Hussein Obama, NBC’s”Meet The Press”, September 7, 2014

Just when you think that Obama could not do anything else to slap our Brightest and Best in the face, he makes another blatantly dismissive move.

The Wall Street Journal reports that

President Barack Obama plans to dramatically boost the U.S. effort to mitigate the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including greater involvement of the U.S. military, people familiar with the proposal said.

Mr. Obama is expected to detail the plan during a visit Tuesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, these people said. Among the possible moves: sending additional portable hospitals, doctors and health-care experts, providing medical supplies and conducting training for health workers in Liberia and other countries.

Mr. Obama also is expected to ask Congress for an additional $88 million to fund his proposal.

“There’s a lot that we’ve been putting toward this, but it is not sufficient,” Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, said in an interview Sunday. “So the president has directed a more scaled-up response and that’s what you’re going to hear more about on Tuesday.”

The strategy has four components: control the outbreak at its source in West Africa; build competence in the region’s public-health system, particularly in Liberia; bolster the capacity of local officials through enhanced training for health-care providers; and increase support from international organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

Mr. Obama plans to use a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations next week to seek commitments of funds, materials and health workers for a more robust international response.

The Ebola outbreak has infected at least 4,784 people as of Sept. 12, with 2,400 of them dying—a jump from 3,707 cases and 1,848 deaths as of Aug. 31. The true toll probably is much higher, the WHO says.

In that same interview on “Meet The Press”, Obama contradicted himself, saying about the danger of the Ebola Virus and involving our military,

If we don’t make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa, but other parts of the world, there’s the prospect then that the virus mutates, it becomes more easily transmittable, and then it could be a serious danger to the United States

So, let me get this straight. Obama refuses to allow our Brightest and Best to prosecute the war against ISIS/ISIL, but, he is more than willing to send them to Africa, to assist medical personnel in fighting a virulent, deadly disease, which, at first, he said could not reach our shores, only to say later, in the same interview, that there was a possibility that it could hit our country.

Got that? I’ve got a headache.

The truth is, Barack Hussein Obama,  Commander-in Chief of America’s Armed Forces, has never respected America’s Fighting Men and Women.

The day that the Islamic Terrorist, Major Hassan killed and wounded those members of our Best and Brightest, Obama was less than  what you would expect the CIC to be at the post-Tragedy Press Conference.

NBCChicago.com reported:

At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a “shout-out” to “Dr. Joe Medicine Crow — that Congressional Medal of Honor winner.” Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

Who , indeed. That was a glimpse into this CIC’s disdain for our Brightest and best.

Obama was just getting started.

On July 22, 2011, the New York Times told us that

President Obama formally certified on Friday that the American military is ready for the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as Pentagon officials said that nearly two million service members had been trained in preparation for gay men and women serving openly in their ranks.

“As of Sept. 20, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. He signed the certification, along with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about 3:30 p.m. in the Oval Office.

Then, before the Presidential Election of  November 6th, 2012, Obama filed a lawsuit against the Armed Forces He is supposed to be the Commander-in-Chief of!

Foxnews.com had the story:

The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have filed a lawsuit to block a new state law allowing men and women in uniform to vote up until the Monday right before an election, while the cutoff on early voting for the rest of the public is three days earlier.

Top Obama campaign officials told Fox News in interviews that the lawsuit in no way tries to restrict the voting rights of military members. All they are trying to do is even the playing field for all voters in Ohio by allowing early voting up until Monday for everyone, including members of the military, because they believe a two-tiered, early-voting process is unfair.

“Along with the DNC and Ohio Democratic Party, this campaign filed a lawsuit to reinstate equal, early-voting rights for all Ohioans — rights the Republican-controlled legislature arbitrarily stripped away this past year,” Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager, told supporters in an email.

And, finally, last February, Obama ordered his Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, to offer a budget proposal which reduced America’s Military prowess by 1/8th, taking it down to Pre-World War II levels.

Yahoo News reported that

The proposed 13 percent reduction in the army would be carried out by 2017, a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The spending plan is the first to “fully reflect” a transition away from a war footing that has been in place for 13 years, Hagel said at a press conference.

The plan comes amid growing fiscal pressures and after years of protracted counter-insurgency campaigns, which saw the army reach a peak of more than 566,000 troops in 2010.

Having withdrawn US forces from Iraq in 2011, President Barack Obama has promised to end America’s combat role in Afghanistan by the end of this year

The proposed cut in manpower along with plans to retire some older aircraft and reform benefits for troops could run into stiff resistance in Congress.

A senior US military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged the political challenge.

“We’re going to need some help from our elected representatives to get this budget across the finish line,” the officer said.

Obama does not want to send soldiers to to fight the  Radical Muslims of ISIS/ISIL in Iraq, but he has no qualms about sending them to Africa, where they could die from exposure to Ebola, while acting as Medical Assistants.

Obama seems more concerned with protecting the Land of his Father, than he is protecting the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

As he proved with the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, suing our military over their Constitutional Right to Vote, and downsizing  our Armed Forces to a pre-World War II level, Obama views the finest Fighting Men and Women in the World as nothing more that lab rats and vassals, at his beck and call for the purposes of social experimentation and political expediencies.

May God protect them from Obama’s misuse and abuse.

Until He Comes,

KJ