Free Republic

Yes, the presence of a deadly disease in Texas has benefited a certain governor. What with intense and alarming media coverage of two Ebola cases in the Lone Star state, Gov. Rick Perry has risen to the opportunity and gotten decisive indeed. It has paid off. Republican attitudes toward Mr. Perry have “improved significantly,” says YouGov polling analyst Kathy Frankovic, who reports that Mr. Perry’s favorability ratings have quickly jumped 16 percentage points — rising from 51 percent in late September to 67 percent by late last week. While President Obama has yet to appoint an Ebola “czar” to coordinate...

“But now, as the nature of the threat we face evolves to including the possibility of individual radicalization via the Internet, it is critical that we return our focus to potential extremists here at home,” Holder said

Obama administration officials met with a nationwide task force of state and local leaders in Los Angeles Thursday to hear what the federal government can do to help communities confront climate change. Gov. Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti were among the governors, mayors and tribal leaders from across the country who joined federal officials for a closed-door meeting at Los Angeles City Hall.

David Cameron is planning new powers to muzzle Islamic hate preachers accused of provoking terrorist outrages such as the killing of soldier Lee Rigby. The Prime Minister wants to stop extremist clerics using schools, colleges, prisons and mosques to spread their “poison”, and is to head a new Tackling Extremism and Radicalization Task Force (TERFOR) made up of senior Ministers, MI5, police and moderate religious leaders.The high-powered group will study a number of measures, including banning extremist clerics from being given public platforms to incite students, prisoners and other followers—and forcing mosque leaders to answer for “hate preachers”. It will...

As a result of Vice President Joe Biden’s task force to explore changes to gun laws, the Center for American Progress, an influential liberal think-tank funded by George Soros, has released 13 recommendations to “prevent gun violence in our nation.” Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, told Fox News Sunday that her group will “absolutely” mount a full-scale campaign to push for more gun control. The proposal targets three key areas:...

House Democrats have named the leaders of a new panel designed to fight gun violence. The task force, formed in the wake of last month's shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn., will be led by lawmakers as diverse as Reps. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), an ardent supporter of gun control; John Dingell (Mich.), a long-time ally of the National Rifle Association; and Ron Barber (D-Ariz.), who was injured in the Tucson shooting that almost killed former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.). Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), appointed chairman of the panel last month by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said the group's task...

Whenever I have a medical appointment, my wife inquires, "What did the doctor say?" I always give the same answer: "She said I'm going to die." Not because I have some fatal illness, but because life is a terminal condition. Americans might keep that fact in mind in considering the recent news made by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. It recently recommended against routine screening of healthy men for prostate cancer, on two grounds: The test doesn't save lives, on balance, and the treatments are usually worse than the disease. Everyone who gets prostate cancer will die. But usually...

The CIA has launched a task force to assess the impact of the exposure of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and military files by WikiLeaks. Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. But at CIA headquarters, it's mainly known by its all-too-apt acronym: W.T.F. The irreverence is perhaps understandable for an agency that has been relatively unscathed by WikiLeaks. Only a handful of CIA files have surfaced on the WikiLeaks Web site, and records from other agencies posted online reveal remarkably little about CIA employees or operations. Even so, CIA officials said the agency is conducting an extensive...

The New York State Task Force on Police-on-Police Shootings recently concluded that black police officers who wield a gun out of uniform face an elevated chance of getting fatally shot by their fellow officers because of those officers’ racial bias. The report, publicized by the New York Times and embraced by the Obama administration, is a classic example of fitting nonexistent evidence to a predetermined conclusion. Yet however faulty the report’s methodology, it will undoubtedly become a standard piece of anti-cop ideology and further fuel the hostility that makes police work in black neighborhoods so difficult.

The ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula has become one of the key battlegrounds in the long-running effort to implement a state law designed to create a network of habitats off the California coast to protect depleted fish populations. The contentious debate over the size of the marine habitat in the waters around Rocky Point is emblematic of the disputes and hard-fought battles that have been waged since the Marine Life Protection Act was adopted in 1999. The waters off the promontory are abundant with marine life and have long been favored by sport and commercial fishing crews. But the...

Note: The following text is a quote: Special Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies Issues Its Recommendations to the President WASHINGTON—Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that the Special Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies, which was created pursuant to Executive Order 13491 on Jan. 22, 2009, has proposed that the Obama Administration establish a specialized interrogation group to bring together officials from law enforcement, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and the Department of Defense to conduct interrogations in a manner that will strengthen national security consistent with the rule of law. The Task Force also made policy recommendations...

MANAMA, Bahrain, Aug. 13, 2009 – The combined task force of international navies that counter piracy off the coast of Somalia and throughout the Gulf of Aden was returned to U.S. command at a ceremony here today. U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Scott E. Sanders salutes the side boys as he arrives to relieve Turkish navy Rear Adm. Caner Bener as commander of Combined Task Force 151 during a change-of-command ceremony held aboard USS Anzio in Manama, Bahrain, Aug. 13, 2009. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathan Schaeffer  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Navy Rear Adm. Scott...

Note: The following post is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ____________________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 12, 2009 MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES SUBJECT: NATIONAL POLICY FOR THE OCEANS, OUR COASTS, AND THE GREAT LAKES The oceans, our coasts, and the Great Lakes provide jobs, food, energy resources, ecological services, recreation, and tourism opportunities, and play critical roles in our Nation's transportation, economy, and trade, as well as the global mobility of our Armed Forces and the maintenance of international peace and security. We have a stewardship responsibility to...

Middle class, typically defined as from $30K and 100K mean household income. I am sure they will seek the input of the real middle class, the ones paying along with the rich for the fiscal fiasco unfolding ..

Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Geithner-Summers-Convene-Official-Designees-to-Presidential-Task-Force-on-the-Auto-Industry/ THE BRIEFING ROOM Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 5:09 pm Geithner, Summers Convene Official Designees to Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ____________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release February 20, 2009 Geithner, Summers Convene Official Designees to Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry WASHINGTON – Today, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council (NEC) Director Larry Summers convened official designees to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry to discuss recently submitted restructuring plans from Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corporation. The...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog_post/about_the_task_force_1/ Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 10:01 am About the Task Force About the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families: The Task Force is a major initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America. It is comprised of top-level administration policy makers, and in addition to regular meetings, it will conduct outreach sessions with representatives of labor, business, and the advocacy communities. The Task Force will be chaired by Vice President Joe Biden. The Vice President and members of the task force will work with...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=52311 Emergency Response Units Won’t Perform Law Enforcement, Official Says By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2008 – The Pentagon’s three new rapid-response task forces will assist civil authorities during possible terrorist attacks or natural disasters, but they won’t perform law-enforcement missions, a senior Defense Department official said here yesterday. Some people have surfaced concerns that active-duty soldiers, who make up the core of the first 4,700-member joint task force established in early October, could be used to perform police functions, which would be in violation of the...

Representative Keith Ellison (a Muslim Democrat from Minnesota) has been assigned to a Congressional Task Force on Anti-Semitism. That would be like assigning me to head a task force for universal suffrage. That wouldn't be a wise appointment. Now some groups are calling for Chairman Joe Kaufman (a Democrat from Florida) to remove Ellison ... and perhaps with good reason. It's ironic that a man with direct contact with radical Muslim organizations would be placed on a task force on anti-Semitism. Ellison has ties to both the Muslim American Society and our favorite Council on American-Islamic Relations ... both of...

IT equipment is thought to be as harmful as the airline industry Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the production, operation and disposal of computers is to be the aim of a new government taskforce. Computers and other IT equipment have been blamed for causing as much global warming as the airline industry. The taskforce will oversee the piloting of a "green PC" service in which individual machines use 98% less energy than standard PCs. IT equipment is thought to generate 35m tonnes of harmful CO2 gas each year.