"Amid Assurances on Ebola, Obama Is Said to Seethe"

[applegrove]

Last edited Sat Oct 18, 2014, 01:38 AM - Edit history (1)

Amid Assurances on Ebola, Obama Is Said to Seethe

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MARK LANDLER at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/amid-assurances-on-ebola-obama-is-said-to-seethe.html

"SNIP......................


Those frustrations spilled over when Mr. Obama convened his top aides in the Cabinet room after canceling his schedule on Wednesday. Medical officials were providing information that later turned out to be wrong. Guidance to local health teams was not adequate. It was unclear which Ebola patients belonged in which threat categories.

“It’s not tight,” a visibly angry Mr. Obama said of the response, according to people briefed on the meeting. He told aides they needed to get ahead of events and demanded a more hands-on approach, particularly from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “He was not satisfied with the response,” a senior official said.


The difference between the public and private messages illustrates the dilemma Mr. Obama faces on Ebola — and a range of other national security issues — as he tries to galvanize the response to a public health scare while not adding to the sense of panic fueled by 24-hour cable TV and the nonstop Twitter chatter.

People briefed on a cabinet meeting said Mr. Obama was angry at the Ebola response. Credit Jabin Botsford/The New York Times






.......................SNIP"

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Will he fire anyone?

The incompetence demonstrated was breathtaking.

[Control-Z]

4. Yeah, how about firing no-regulations Texans.

And greedy, for-profit hospitals?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. too bad he can't actually do that, since that's where the horrible, anti-human rw culture incubates

......(Yes, I used a disease metaphor. So sue me.)......

Greedy reich-wing privatisation conservatives (and their corporate handlers) put mind-boggling amounts of attention to steering the public mind, twisting normal, long-respected understandings of human decency into sadistic, self-absorbed narcissism. And religious zealotry.

[meaculpa2011]

19. Texas Health Resources is non-profit. n/t

[BlueStreak]

2. It is no different from the NSA stuff

Bureaucracies are programmed to propagandize everything, and the propaganda is calibrated to maximize the self-preservation and aggregation of power by the bureaucracy. It is hereditary -- an evolved instinct that happens every time.

And Obama goes along with it because, well what option does he have? The president isn't all that powerful in these situations.

[uppityperson]

3. I am glad he is upset and look forward to seeing what happens next.

[Rod Beauvex]

5. I'm glad he is angry.

What the hell did he expect putting a bunch of lobbyists and corporate stooges in his cabinet?

[oldandhappy]

6. Seems a reasonable response to me.

I support the president. And I rather suspect that he will be glad to get out of the WH. It has been a cruel time for him.

I respect his graciousness in all circumstances. With this ebola thing: 1) Texas hospital needs to be investigated and the head fired, not a low level person; 2) resources need to be given to foreign airports to aid their pre-flight screening; 3) anyone involved in care of patients needs to not travel during the 21 days after their last shift with a patient; 4) we need to ramp up the possibility of inoculations or maybe treatment as preventative for all health care workers.

[tblue37]

7. Why no link? nt

[applegrove]

9. Sorry. I forgot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/amid-assurances-on-ebola-obama-is-said-to-seethe.html

[tblue37]

12. Thanks. nt

[hedda_foil]

8. Here's the NYT link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/amid-assurances-on-ebola-obama-is-said-to-seethe.html

[Warren DeMontague]

10. It looks bad, particularly given that they've been telling us since August "We're ready for ebola"

Maybe they should have spent less time telling us how ready they were, and more time actually getting ready.

[KMOD]

11. So what happens when your computer stinks

and you rec too many times, then you undo, but wish to rec again just once?

Anyway, nice post. I'm glad the President is upset.

Edit: Never mind, I was able to rec after a few seconds. Forgive me while I figure out the forum.

[The Traveler]

14. No worries

And welcome to DU!

Trav

[KMOD]

16. Thanks, Trav! :) n/t

[whereisjustice]

15. So angry that if you listen closely, you can almost hear the sound

of his hand as it almost makes contact with the wrist of CDC Director Tom Frieden.

It's the same strategy that Eric Holder used when disciplining Wall Street banks.

Some say it's torture, unforgivable.

But there's nothing too extreme in the defense of our nation.

I guess I'm just a patriot.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. He has a right to be mad.

There's 40 years of experience with Ebola. The CDC has no excuse for not knowing current facts about the virus.

[boston bean]

18. Well, his reasoning for allowing travel from those areas was based

on the CDC saying we could handle it here.

That was shown to be false, by anyone who even takes a quick glance at the headlines.

Hospitals in this country, no matter what the CDC says, are not equipped nor trained to handle ebola. Also, their own guidelines were a complete clusterfuck. No hair coverings, skin showing, no foot protection...

And hospitals pointing the finger back to the CDC. They have a point. Although, they aren't blameless either.

It's been a clusterfuck all the way around. So, we should stop the travel from those areas into this country. African countries have already applied travel bans from the area, but from infected areas, one can hop a plane and travel internationally. WTH??