The Case for Panic

The Washington Free Beacon ^ | October 3, 2014 | Matthew Continetti

[right-wing agnostic]

Deadly, irrational, and determined, the intruder snuck across a weakened perimeter. Eluding capture, the intruder was detained only after missteps and close calls. The spin began soon after the threat was isolated. Information was selectively leaked. Half-truths and untruths were uttered. Responsibility was avoided; privileges and credentials asserted; authority reasserted. Trust us. Remain calm. Don’t panic.

This is the template of recent events. A mental case jumps the White House fence. He makes it to the East Room before he’s tackled by an off-duty Secret Service agent. Initial statements turn out to be misleading or false. We discover that lapses in security are much worse than previously understood, that in recent memory the White House was sprayed with bullets, and that an armed man with a criminal record rode in an elevator with the president. The official in charge of the Secret Service, promoted for reasons of affirmative action, resigns hours after the White House expresses its confidence in her abilities. The overriding impression is of disarray, confusion, bad management, failed communication, anomie, disillusion, corruption, and secrecy. But do not worry. Things are under control.

The elevator? It was in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where the president told the American people that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is not a threat to our country. President Obama said the chances of Ebola appearing in the United States are “extremely low.” If a carrier somehow finds his way to the 50 states, “We have world-class facilities and professionals ready to respond. And we have effective surveillance mechanisms in place.” Two weeks later, as Byron York points out, the president was proven utterly wrong.

[ClearCase_guy]

“We have world-class facilities and professionals ready to respond."

Response has been completely amateurish.

The guy in Dallas said he had been in Liberia. The hospital staff yawned and thought nothing of it.
Ebola vomit on the sidewalk? Get a power washer -- the storm drain is over there ...
Quarantining the victims contacts? Maybe at a hotel? Maybe have a pizza delivery guy swing by ...

No one seems to have thought about how to react. We knew this was going to happen. And when it does, we just fly by the seat of our pants.

[EagleUSA]

And the buck does stop in the Oval Office — but not with this Congress...

[Sherman Logan]

IMO the Ebola issue is not a big problem, if there was a proper response to it.

The problem, however, is that our present leaders seem to be incapable of providing such a response.

[ClearCase_guy]

Agreed. The level of incompetence is disturbing.

[lurk]

Scripture forecasts pestilence as one of the really big problems of the last days. Pestilence is mass outbreak of disease.

Not to be confused with collectivism, although symptoms look similar.

[butterdezillion]

The request of any self-respecting journalist to Obola should be this:

Given what they’ve seen since Jan 20, 2009, please give the American public one good reason that they should believe anything that comes out of your mouth, or consider your regime competent to handle any issue.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Not to mention the Enterovirus and its connection to the hoards of Central American “visitors.”

Go to hand it to Obummer.....he got Lois Lerner, the VA scandal, Benghazi, and the ISIS debacle off the front pages.

[GreyHoundSailor]

Let’s just set up a tour of the White House for a group of 25 Liberians - see what happens then.

[bitt]

Let the teens stuck in isolation in Dallas attend the Sitwell School with the Obola girls.

They like ‘diversity!’

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping…

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[null and void]

The game of Ebola Roulette continues...

*click* spin *click* spin *click* spin…BANG!

Eeeee-bolllll-aaaaaa ping!

Bring Out Your Dead

We’re gonna need

a bigger cart!

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...