Bow Down to Your Ebola Czar, Get Gay-Married in Arizona, and Buy More Things with Your IPhone: P.M. Links

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CNN Ron Klain, the man who once failed to contain the spread of Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore, is going to be put in charge of containing the spread of the Ebola virus.
- A judge has struck down Arizona's ban on gay marriage recognition and the state's attorney general says he's not going to fight it.
- Nigeria has reportedly declared a ceasefire with the Boko Haram terrorist group. But previous reports of ceasefires have proven to be untrue, so maybe not. Releasing all those kidnapped schoolgirls (remember them?) may be part of the deal.
- Because Gina Raimondo, Democratic candidate for governor of Rhode Island, pushed through huge reforms of the state's public employee pensions, unions are throwing support behind the Republican opponents. Her lieutenant governor pick, Dan McKee, is also a supporter of charter schools.
- You'll be able to spend your hard-earned bucks on all sorts of regrettable purchases at hundreds of thousands of stores beginning Monday with just your iPhone as the new Apple Pay service launches.
- Amazon launched its grocery delivery service in New York City today, but only to the hipsters in Brooklyn. They must have given up on the beehives and rooftop veggie gardens.
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...is going to be put in charge of containing the spread of the Ebola virus.
The Obama Administration is going to look pretty dated in two years when we still have an Ebola czar twiddling his unqualified thumbs.
You haven't heard of mission creep? He'll be spending billions on eradicating viral videos or some shit.
This goes way beyond mission creep--this is nominally supposed to be what the head of the CDC is responsible for doing. Instead, the president has to appoint some patsy to serve as his P.R. deflector.
The guy handled Biden's offspring eruptions, didn't he? Impressive Damage Control abilities. I wouldn't be surprised if he was Beau's coke dealer.
Biteme's youngest worthless turd of a son lasted for a whole month in the Navy Reserves. Couldn't put down the cocaine. What a contemptible little worm*.
*Not for the coke. For the lack of commitment.
Are there any Nostradamus predictions about Ebola?
Looks like someone beat you to it.
Skip to 7:55 for the best of the best of the best.
The triangle of aids, Ebola and flu make a 66 degree angle. The number of the beast. No, seriously.
The god emperor saw this,it's in the golden path
Hello.
"Ron Klain, the man who once failed to contain the spread of Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore, is going to be put in charge of containing the spread of the Ebola virus."
Is it me or does it take a special kind of arrogant person to take a job he knowingly is unqualified for? Worse, what kind of person offers it to such a man?
Sure, he's unqualified, but he also knows he isn't expected to do a damn thing in this job except provide assurances to TV cameras.
Heckuva job Brownie!
"except provide assurances to TV cameras" and be prepared to be sacrificed when the shit hits the fan.
Political ablative.
Hey Suderman, now that Obama has promoted a political hack to be the ebola czar - can we blame him now ?
At least Bush fires Brown. He did not bring him in to fix things
John, I take back 'the jack squat' comment in the AM Links.
If only it was possible to reunite The Clash, they could do a protest song about this,
"Klain in Vain".
That would be apropos if and when Obama throws him under the bus when things go bad.
Klain is perfectly qualified for his job: protecting Obama from criticism about the administration's handling of Ebola.
(You didn't think Klain's job was to protect Americans from Ebola, did you?)
An arrogant person who was unqualified for his job when he sought it?
Went to Sam's Club today, they were out of Lysol disinfectant spray (in the economic three pack) and running low on products containing bleach. Not sure if a failure in the supply chain or people getting the ebola willies.
Also, why are we capitalizing ebola? We don't capitalize influenza, mumps, polio, etc.
Because It's The Big One.
The virus was named after the Ebola river.
(Kind of like the Civil War tradition of naming battles after nearby rivers or creeks.)
It's a proper name.
Okay. Still seems a bit silly, but okay.
No, what is silly is that somewhere in this great nation of ours, someone has named their daughter after the disease.
Just planning ahead for when boys start sniffing around, I'm sure.
someone has named their daughter after the disease
racist!
I wasn't really going there. I just meant people in general are getting weird about names.
Somebody in Florida, no doubt.
Oh, sure. Ebolameth is her full first name.
I think that's Ebolonics.
The Ebola river? Wow. I'll bet you could buy riverfront property there really, really cheaply.
I capitalize Ebola because my spell check puts a red line under it if I don't.
Also, why are we capitalizing ebola?
We should hyphenate it (E-bola) and make people think it's something you get online.
Or make it into a company name: eBola.
Don't just drink cola. Drink eBola!
And introducing zero calorie ZBola!
Lose weight the eBola way!
I'm incredibly impressed with the president's laser-focus on appointing political hacks. No matter what crisis, he never misses the opportunity to reward political cronies.
Change!
...for the worse, but still, it's change. Previous administrations would occasionally appoint someone with at least academic qualifications in the area covered.
Looking back at Bush, except for that one hack for the court, I don't recall many that weren't at least superficially qualified for the position. And he sucked ass, too, but I can't say that I viewed him personally corrupt the way I do Obama.
I prefer the Russian method of dealing with Czars.
You mean submitting to their every whim for centuries?
I should have specified the 1917 version.
OTOH: The earlier versions had a way of offing them every couple of generations.
Peter II
Ivan VI
Peter III
Paul I
Alexander II
Killing czars and replacing them with more czars does not impress me.
To be honest, that hasn't stopped. They've had czars all along since the Romanovs.
The Yeltsin era could be an exception. Maybe.
Yes, there are a couple of really brief non-czar moments. Another one is right after the revolution, before the Bolsheviks took over.
Alexander Kerensky, who died in New York in 1970.
No, he went into deep space and founded the Clans.
Fair enough, though I think I'd prefer Nicholas II to the Bolshevik Czars.
As for Vladimir IV of the Okhrana, he is around the middle of the pack on the tyrant scale.
I wonder what American czars will be like? I hope not like Obama.
Check the Jezebel or Slate commentariat. Your future Czar is among them.
Ye gods. I 'd better go check my backup countries. New Zealand?
The Surgeon General says czars are bad for your health. And really bad for his job security.
Who is, and where is the SG anyway?
Nigeria has reportedly declared a ceasefire with the Boko Haram terrorist group.
How about a ceasefire on those poor princes who have to keep moving their money around.
Boko Harum was never the same after Robin Trower left.
Compared to the rest of Nigeria,
the Boko Harum members are a whiter shade of pale.
Nice.
Are those guys still around? I haven't seen one of those for years.
Well, if you insist.
Here's your reply.
Zackly!
It wasn't a top shelf comment anyway, as I recall.
Are they ever?
Most of Fist's comments are of the well variety: fast and cheap.
Just like my love making.
"Did he say 'make some fuck'?"
FoE, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!
the man who once failed to contain the spread of Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore
Hey, what is failing to contain the spread of The Stimulus, chopped liver?
Ron Klain, the man who once failed to contain the spread of Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore, is going to be put in charge of containing the spread of the Ebola virus.
This administration really does believe that political hack lawyers are the answer to every problem.
Lighten up, Brandon. They're following established protocol.
That's an F U to the GOP who insisted on an Ebola czar in the first place.
Wow, he sure showed them!
LOL
"Take that, you obstructionist assholes -- Another *Democrat*!"
There's precedent: http://img.timeinc.net/time/da.....or0531.jpg
...unions are throwing support behind the Republican opponents.
Apparently union support ain't as valuable as it used to be.
apparattchik
I saw that. And you are right.
Your eyes are better than mine.
Well, I did have to go and commit a spelling error, so I only get half a point.
I don't see it anywhere on the page at all.
Alt-text.
Ah. I can never see that on my phone.
Mobiles are great, but they do have limitations.
Hold on the pic. It will ask if you want to copy and you can see the alt text.
Meanwhile in Yemen: Shi'ite Zaydi Houthis are sweeping through the country with complicity from generals loyal to former leader Saleh. They've taken the capital and are fighting AQAP in their strongholds. They basically veto the government if they don't like it. Unfortunately, they're pawns of Iran and share the same anti-Western outlook, and want gas subsidies back. The southern secessionist Herak movement is taking this opportunity to mobilize tens of thousands of protesters. This is a great time for America to just slowly step back and ease out of the room, like you did when you were a kid and the drunk relatives were starting to shout at each other.
Because Gina Raimondo, Democratic candidate for governor of Rhode Island, pushed through huge reforms of the state's public employee pensions, unions are throwing support behind the Republican opponents. Her lieutenant governor pick, Dan McKee, is also a supporter of charter schools.
Meanwhile, the rest of us will continue not giving half a fuck about Rhode Island.
I heard it's not even a real island.
More of an isthmus, really...
"No man is an island; he's a peninsula."
Florida does look like a cock
Curiously, you didn't say "looks like my cock."
Florida needs a proper circumsicion to resemble my cock.
Cut off Miami.
Are there even any plantations anymore, Providence or otherwise?
RAIMONDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The raving Quakers have not settled down -- for altho our government has issued orders against these fanatics, nevertheless they do not fail to pour forth their venom. There is one place in New England where they are tolerated and that is Rhode Island, which is the caeca latrina (sewer) of New England.
Dutch Reformed Ministers, New Amsterdam, 1658
I will not tolerate such slander concerning the home of coffee milk.
Coffee milk is unlibertarian, considering the big brand of coffee syrup is named Autocrat.
A judge has struck down Arizona's ban on gay marriage recognition and the state's attorney general says he's not going to fight it.
Shackford is the one contributor who consistently and correctly inserts the word recognition. I think I might ask him to marry me.
I think that a better word would be "takeover".
Since now the government in Arizona will be the controlling party in homosexual marrage and make the rules on such marrages and not only that but the one who can change those rules whenever it wants without the permission of the two people who got married.
AmazonFresh is the best. I don't ever have to wade through the sea of mouth breathers, retirees, and screaming children at the supermarket any more. In fact, God bless Amazon. The only time I ever leave home is to go to a bar/restaurant/theater/concert.
Do they know how to deliver a ripe avocado?
And a ripe peach? Fuck, if they can do that, I'm never shopping outside my home again.
At least out here in Cali, through AmazonFresh I can order a $35.00 produce box assembled by the Out of the Box Collective. It's all grown in SoCal, organic, pesticide free, blah blah blah. The cool thing is it is all ripe, fresh from the fields. There is no consistency in what fruits/veggies are in the box because it is whatever is ripe and harvested that week. But it is always a nice variety of fruits/veggies/fresh herbs. It's a cool surprise, and it's a fun challenge to learn how to cook new stuff. So for $35 I get fresh ripe produce for an entire week worth of meals. Pretty cool.
Specifically, for the past couple of weeks I've getting perfectly ripe peaches and plums. Beautifully ripe heirloom tomatoes. And some of the most colorful and delicious carrots ever.
We do that here. Get a share from some farmers, with much of the produce being purely seasonal stuff. Yum.
Can you make a shoe smell?
I'll bet you were really something before electricity.
Just don't order the clam chowder.
Now you can stay home and guard your lawn!
All Hail Plankton!
All Hail Plankton!
Pentagon police shut down a building entrance and a portion of the south parking lot Friday because a woman was sick and told emergency personnel she had recently been to West Africa
[She] works for Total Spectrum, whose ... Managing Director Steve Gordon ... said the woman had not been out of the Washington area.
So, can we start waterboarding again?
Do libertarians think that "marriage is a fundamental right"?
new around here, huh?
Hmmm.
Well, do libertarians think that "death is a fundamental right"?
Yes.
Re: Winston,
Entering into an agreement or life-long commitment and calling it "marriage", YES.
A right to a ceremony - NO. You can't make a priest, pastor or minister marry you.
A right to a ceremony - NO. You can't make a priest, pastor or minister marry you.
Wonder what the judges will say about that.
Bake me a cake, bitch.
I'm optimistic that they will do the right thing when it comes to religious ceremony. Freedom of religion is pretty clearly protected. For cake bakers and such, it looks less good. But we are already very far down that road with or without gay marriage.
Where's my cake, bitch? I'm suing you. Late cake is cake denied.
Nothing based on an arbitrary social construct such as the idea that people's peaceful interaction with each other can be legitimately controlled by third parties through the threat of violence can be considered remotely "fundamental." The very notion of marriage as a state institution implies that fundamental liberties such as freedom of association are up for government control.
It depends on what you mean by "marriage" and "fundamental".
I don't think that many do think of it as a fundamental right. It's more of an equal protection issue for those who favor it. I think most would rather just get rid of marriage as a predefined legal concept regulated by the state.
Do you know how I know you're so gay? Because you won't fight it!
"Ha-ha, very funny. Now, if you excuse me, my groceries and the organic trash container I ordered just arrived..."
President Obama said he hugged and kissed some of the nurses in Atlanta who had treated the patients with Ebola. Man, Obama will do anything to get out of that job right now.
- Conan O'Brien, October 16, 2014
The question I have is did she offer consent or did the president kiss-rape her?
11 children have tested positive for TB so far out of a possible 850.
http://www.krgv.com/news/more-.....erculosis/
It's not as if they tested positive for ebola.
THE BARTENDER WHO ACCIDENTALLY SAVED THE WORLD
No comments on this one? I am dissapoint. I found this story fascinating.
That was a good read.
I was in Fourth Grade at that time and don't recall ever being in any sort of concern. However, a year or so later Dad moved us out of the city into the nearby mountains and I now wonder if the missile crisis was on his mind when making plans.
... Hobbit
The problem with your link is that, like TV Tropes used to, it inspired me to binge read another 10 posts at that site. And I really have other stuff to do.
Bookmarked, fuck you, and thank you.
I agree with his point that historic events can turn on some awfully small details. Reading about those details was what inspired me to learn history in college, and it also killed any idea I ever had of believing that human institutions have any great idea about, or control of, what happens next.
The Ebola Tsar is not a doctor but a lawyer political hack. This is like if George Bush had brought in Mary Madlon to fix the Latrina response. It is so bad as to be insulting. It is Obama saying "fuck you America".
It really is. I mean, it's stupid on its face. . .and, of course, as corrupt as it gets. Here, political hack, have a sinecure created by a crisis.
Even mere window-dressing to make it look like you're doing something would involve someone with an arguable connection to epidemiology.
He doesn't even have a survival instinct anymore. Doesn't he understand that the public is going to blame him if this goes bad? He has lost his mind
No, John. He doesn't care.
I bet the Democrats who are going to get blamed with him do.
Sure, but they aren't sociopaths. Not all of them, anyway.
The madness of King Barack
It is insulting yes, but perhaps comforting as well: Obama could be certain that Ebola will end up a red herring. Tsar Hack will be praised for his monumental effort and dedication and move up to fill a cabinet position vacated by someone wanting to spend more time with the.family.
I'm pretty sure Obama and Valerie only see this.as an opportunity.ity to groom this.guy for a more "responsible" position, and are completely discounting the idea that Ebola could be a real problem.
If the GOP Senate does anything other than reject EVERY SINGLE OBAMA appointee going forward, it has failed.
How can they possibly deny a caBinet post to the man who singlehandedly saved us all from certain foaming.bloody death?
Easy. REQUEST DENIED.
You are right. And I hope they get lucky. Sadly the laws of nature and biology don't really care about politics.
Maybe AG after Holder leaves? If he can stop Ebola he can fight crime?
Now you 're talking. This Administration has become completely severed from reality.
Obama could be certain that Ebola will end up a red herring.
I don't believe that, or that he believes that. Cases in West Africa are doubling every few weeks. It's only a matter of time before more people leave with the virus.
Best typo ever.
Smart phone error. But beautifully appropriate if you have ever been to NOLA
Many times. Got robbed while getting a handjob once.
At least you enjoyed the experience. And I love the place but it is a dump.
Umm...never mind.
We have top men working on it. Top. Men.
Topem who have no medical training. You can't make this shit up.
WAIT TIL YOU SEE HIS BUDGET!!!!!
Why women leave tech.
Slight discomfort caused the majority to quit a high-paying job. Now that's privilege.
Hmmm, what enables a person to up and quit a high.paying job? It must be superior financial planning.
And in their thirties, no less.
I've been involved in the medical billing field for a big chunk of my adult life. There have been times when I was the only man out of 50 or 60 women in my department. The only time I had any consistent difficulty is when I was in the position of being manager. Trying to manage a bunch of low paid, man hating single mom bitches was a nightmare. I would be talking to them calmly and politely and they would be screaming at me. Then the tears.... I'm pretty immune to female tears now except for my wife and daughter.
I worked in a lab like that. 28 women and two men. One was an older gentlemen only two years from full retirement. With 2 daughters in college. The environment got so bad he quit to run a video store. If you can't finish out the last two years of a 40 year run, it must be pretty bad.
They actually openly plotted to get rid of the men working there. It was kinda like the movie "Heathers", only with a bunch of med-techs instead of high school girls.
They were vicious to each other as well. At one point I had a group of about a dozen gals for whom I was "team leader" ie, manager without the real authority or pay. Four or five of the more disgruntled decided to go Mean Girls on one of the other gals. I'm assuming because the victim was pretty, and had a good relationship with her devoted husband. In other words, she was happy, and the others couldn't stand it.
Oh yeah... they went beyond just talking behind each other's backs and stealing lunches from the fridge. They even sabotaged reagents and hid supplies to hurt the quality of the other women's work. Pretty much as close to "Lord of the Flies" as you can get in the workplace. When I was a teen I worked in a kitchen filled with convicted felons where the head chef never called me anything nicer than "piss ant" and it was never close to the all-women environment. In fact it was positively cordial by comparison.
I've worked for some very talented women in my time, and every single one of them was irrationally hated by at least one woman they managed.
Of all the stories I've seen posted here under my comment, this is the only one I can claim to have seen myself.
If half this shit was true there should be some really awesome all-female tech companies out there, what with all this highly qualified talent that is underutilized.
Nah, they'd get sick of the computer with its mansplaining seg faults and 404 errors.
There is a grain of truth here, but it is not gender specific. Tech has a very specific culture - nerd culture like scifi is part of it, but it is more than that. It is very much a culture where geek cred is earned by being brainy. Brainy in a specific way that relates to the job at hand.
So coming up with an awesome optimization of an SQL query to get the runtime down to milliseconds from minutes is where you get your juice. There are a lot of guys who don't do well with that either, despite being perfectly fine at their jobs. (not great, just perfectly fine).
There are a lot of very bright people who don't suffer fools well in tech. It kinda draws them like flies.
It really isn't all that different from any other specific skill set job though. A machine shop has its own specific culture too, and despite all the ancillary things that bring coolness, being able to do a high quality weld in a difficult spot will get you credibility in the shop, not just being a NASCAR fan.
Being a kick-ass problem solver is the way to earn cred in a tech environment. I worked for a software company, and the top techs were both men and women, gay and straight. If you could get the job done and keep the customer happy you were respected.
Not always. I've just learned I'm being held back because of my lack of office political skills. There's a perception that I'm hard to work with because my emails are terse.
Though I was told by a manager that if I worked on the East Coast it probably wouldn't be an issue.
Never let a welder drill a hole. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were not welders.
Russell Brand: 'I want to address the alienation and despair'
Power to the people is Russell Brand's new manifesto. He tells us why he's 'ready to die for this'
How convenient now that his career is in the shitter.
You know, if he really wants to help people in need he could go to west Africa and suit up.
Never liked Brand, not a damn bit.
Russell Brand is a crack monkey. If he wants to go overthrow something, try Her Majesty's Government in his very own UK.
I've hated this fool ever since I saw a clip on TV of him exhorting me to vote for Obama in '08. What is it with these damn foreigners sticking their noses in American politics? I don't tell him which no-chin limey to vote for.
waylaid by success
And Katy Perry.
Truly, it is a world of wonders.
Well 9-11 brought the TSA,Homeland Security and endless war.Ebola has a lot of catching up to do.
Bird says fuck you
Bubbles: Liquor and Whores.
Miami University Welcomes George Will Despite Campus Rape Controversy
But the feminists have been telling me that that's corrupt journalism.
Quick, someone stop the man before he uses basic arithmetic again!!!
He should have barely consensual sex with a coed.
He takes forever because baseball is all he ever thinks about.
+1
He denies feminists his essence.
This bullshit is getting out of hand. Now they can't even tell comedy from reality.
There's a whole mess of clips on efukt proving that wrong.
Look at this bullshit:
You were. just now. When you ignored the "black-out" elephant in the room.
Wow, way to miss the entire fucking point random feminist! Enjoy all that smugbola.
I watched a little MSNBC, earlier, because I'm fresh out of red hot knitting needles to stab myself in the ears with. The smarmy, annoying bitch (Name? Who knows? There's a fleet of them, and they are completely indistinguishable from one another.) was sassily pointing out that the One True Czar of all the Ebolians does not NEED to be a medical professional because of his indomitable organizational skills, and the Republicans have no one to blame but themselves, because obstructionism! Those crazy redneck teabaggers were against a czar before they were for one, but now that they see what an awesome selection the Healer-in-Chief has come up with, they're against it again. They're jealous.
There were some other OFA talking points, but by that time, I had swallowed my tongue and couldn't hear over the ringing in my ears.
That's interesting. So the administrators already in government, all the way to the president, are so incompetent that they need someone else to do the administrating?
Also, Rand Paul is a racist, because he says SOME things the race griefers agree with, but it's just a ruse to bring back slavery by stealing black votes, or something.
So the administrators already in government, all the way to the president, are so incompetent that they need someone else to do the administrating?
It's not so much that they're incompetent, per se; but this guy is super qualified to manage the political optics in a way a doctor might not grasp.
What's needed here? I mean, taking off the libertarian hat and looking at things through the statist glasses for a moment. Isn't it someone who understands the proper response to a biological threat? How is that not a doctor or, at least, someone who has managed a response to a contagious disease?
So let me get this straight: we already have a CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL*, which already has a Director...BUT, we need to go find some other--totally unqualified--schmuck and pay him 200,000 dollars a year to "control" ONE "disease".
* Read that name again, over and over, very slowly, America: CENTER. FOR. DISEASE. CONTROL.
Is there even the slightest doubt this is a sinecure that has the sole purpose of giving the appointee an income?
No its purpose is to groom him for higher sinecure down the road. Ebola Czar is not a career termination, it is a stepping stone to Secretary of Education, or Secretary of the Interior, or (dare I say) Attorney General.
Very well, a starter income.
Isn't it someone who understands the proper response to a biological threat? How is that not a doctor or, at least, someone who has managed a response to a contagious disease?
There are doctors galore at CDC; the place is lousy with them, but they are just functionaries. They can be trotted out on stage like trained seals to toot the horns and balance the balls as needed, but they just can't see The Big Picture. That requires a top of the line political consultant.
Pre-law, pre-med, what's the difference?
Obama should have offered the position to Rand Paul.
Just calm the heckavoo down, people! The CDC has spoken, and its words are sweet comfort: "Nope; not Ebola!" If you can't trust the CDC, who can you trust? They're Top. Men. people!
Why not put the eboma patients in the VA?
"Ron Klain, the man who once failed to contain the spread of Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore,"
Yes he certainly failed to contain Al Gore's spread. Gore spread out quite a bit after he failed in his attempt to steal the 2000 election.
Too many triple cheeseburgers,