MSNBC
Steve Kornacki discusses the results of an MSNBC survey conducted after President Obama’s State of the Union address.
Generally, most people gave the president a favorable rating.
Tag: response
Joni Ernst Family Farm Took $460,000 In Subsidies
Secular Talk
Joni Ernst’s family farm benefited from substantial farm subsidies. Ernst’s family farm in Red Oak, Iowa received over $460,000 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2006. Family members received conservation payments, commodity subsidies, and agricultural aid. (The District Sentinel)
More on the Joni Ernst family farm here.
State Of The Union: Spanish Translation Of Response Different Than English
Last night, Freshman right-wing Senator Joni Ernst gave the official Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. Republican Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) was supposed to deliver the speech in Spanish.
In theory, this was supposed to be simple. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) would give her GOP response to President Obama’s speech, while Rep Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) would deliver an identical speech in Spanish.
However, according to MSNBC, the two speeches were reportedly not exactly the same. The difference centered around immigration reform.
Joni Ernst is a fierce opponent of immigration reform, while the Florida Republican has actually criticized his party for blocking bipartisan immigration solutions.
Politico was one of many outlets to notice what happened:
“Republicans sent mixed signals on immigration in their two official rebuttals to President Obama Tuesday night: Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst’s rebuttal made no mention of the topic, but the Spanish-language version of the rebuttal, delivered by Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, said Republicans wanted to work with Obama to fix the immigration system.
“‘We should also work through the appropriate channels to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, to secure our borders, modernize legal immigration, and strengthen our economy,’ said Curbelo in Spanish. ‘In the past, the president has expressed support for ideas like these. Now we ask him to cooperate with us to get it done.’”
So Curbelo, while speaking Spanish, said they should work to create solutions for immigration reform, but Joni Ernst – in the English speech – didn’t mention it.
According to MSNBC, if Republican officials had said the two lawmakers intended to give different speeches, this might not be an issue, but they actually said the opposite.
House Republicans specifically told several news outlets that Curbelo would deliver “the Spanish-Language translated address of Sen. Joni Ernst response.”
He’d have to change personal details such as his own name, but otherwise, it was supposed to be the same speech.
Senator Joni Ernst To Give Response To State Of The Union
Freshman Republican Senator from Iowa Joni Ernst is supposed to give the response to the State of the Union address tonight.
Ernst ran as the far-right Tea Party candidate.
Kyle Kulinski
The Importance Of Doing Ebola Right
The U.S. has 120 times more doctors per capita than Sierra Leone – it has 240 doctors per 100,000 people compared to 2 doctors per 100,000 people in Sierra Leone.
According to the Washington Post, the hospital that treated Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan had to learn on the fly how to control the deadly virus, adding new layers of protective gear for workers in what became a losing battle to keep the contagion from spreading, a top official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
“They kept adding more protective equipment as the patient [Duncan] deteriorated. They had masks first, then face shields, then the positive-pressure respirator. They added a second pair of gloves,” said Pierre Rollin, a CDC epidemiologist.
Despite the infection-control efforts, a nurse, Nina Pham, 26, somehow contracted Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas while caring for Duncan. Pham was treated at the same hospital, and was later moved to Bethesda, Maryland and is now Ebola-free.
A second worker who cared for Duncan, Amber Vinson, also tested positive for the virus. She was treated in Dallas and then moved to Atlanta and has now also completely recovered.
On October 14th, CDC Director Thomas Frieden expressed regret that his agency had not done more to help the hospital control the infection. He said that, from now on, “Ebola response teams” will travel within hours to any hospital in the United States with a confirmed Ebola case. Already, one of those teams is in Texas and has put in place a site-manager system, requiring that someone monitor the use of personal protective equipment.
“I wish we had put a team like this on the ground the day the first patient was diagnosed,” he said. “That might have prevented this infection.”
There are widespread concerns about the Ebola epidemic in the United States. In the Duncan case, the CDC sent disease detectives to help track down people who might have been exposed, but the agency largely let the hospital handle its own infection control.
At least 76 workers were potentially exposed to Duncan in the hospital before he died Oct. 8, and they were monitored daily for any signs of fever or other symptoms.
From the beginning of the Ebola crisis, disease experts and Frieden in particular have insisted that U.S. hospitals have the training and equipment to handle a highly contagious patient.
Any advanced hospital in the country has the capacity to isolate a patient, he said. “There is nothing particularly special about the isolation of an Ebola patient other than it’s really important to do it right,” he said at the time.
The revelations in mid-October suggest that Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was not fully prepared for the unfamiliar virus and had to adjust its protocols as Duncan’s illness progressed. The hospital did not respond to a request for comment by the Washington Post.
Rachel Maddow: Stark Partisan Contrast In Ebola Response
Congressman Darrell Issa (R, CA) calls Guinea “Guyana” and Ebola “E.boli.” Video by Rachel Maddow.
Pentagon Creates Ebola Response Team
The Pentagon is training a 30-person medical response team designed to be deployed nationally in case anyone else in the country is diagnosed with Ebola.
“The team will consist of 20 critical care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease, and five trainers in infectious disease protocols,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby. He said the team was formed based on a request from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The team, which will be trained in Fort Sam Houston in Texas by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, will help back up civilian doctors and won’t be deployed outside the United States.
“Identifying, training, and preparing forces in advance of potential requests ensures that we can respond quickly and is analogous to how we prepare [Department of Defense] personnel in advance of other potential civil support missions, such as hurricane relief and wildland firefighting,” Kirby said.
OK, Fine. 