PC Obama Wrong on Ebola

PC Obama Wrong on Ebola

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

October 24, 2014

Once again, Barack Obama’s myopic fecklessness has put Americans in harm’s way. This is not a race issue. This is not a public relations issue. Instead this is a health issue that knows no bounds, does not discriminate amongst the races or genders, and has no cure.

Obama could have done the right thing – the same thing that 30 African nations did; the same thing that countless other countries did – ban travel to the United States from West Africa, the home of the latest outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

With the latest revelation that Dr. Craig Spencer, working with Doctors Without Borders, returned to the United States and had been wandering around the Hamilton Heights section of New York City in recent days is the latest victim of Ebola, now more than ever it is incumbent upon Obama to take action – real action.

Spencer had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea. Make no mistake, Spencer is selfless for his actions as a doctor, putting others before himself, but as a doctor he should have known better than to return to the United States and inflict himself among the general population of this nation’s largest city – or anywhere else for that matter.

Spencer is now the fourth person in the United States to contract the deadly virus, putting potentially hundreds of thousands, if not more in a precarious health situation. This could have been prevented had Obama not taken the politically correct path – a path well worn out by now, and shut the doors to all those traveling to the United States from West Africa.

Obama should have taken the advice of US Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) who wisely suggested, on the heels of Obama’s refusal to institute the travel ban, that those traveling to the United States from countries such as Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone be automatically quarantined for the 21 day period prescribed by the CDC. People exhibiting symptoms of the virus would either get better or die – a short menu when there is no cure. This is precisely what happened to Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan. “Ebola symptoms can take up to 21 days to appear — a dormancy period that allowed Duncan to enter the U.S. undetected. Ebola patients are not contagious until symptoms arise.” (www.thehill.com 10/09/14)

Calls for travel bans are bi-partisan, reaching across the aisle as among those speaking out include two Democrats from Florida. Senator Bill Nelson and US Rep. Dennis Ross both called for travel bans.

"My constituents and I do not want to begin the venture of quarantining those living in our country. Unfortunately, by allowing travel to and from countries that have been infected with this deadly virus, we could be heading in that direction. This is the only way to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the United States and its citizens is preserved," Ross said. (www.thehill.com 10/09/14)

Obama initially said it is “unlikely anyone with Ebola will reach our shores,” on September 16. A month later his sentiments were echoed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who after Spencer was identified as an Ebola carrier, said, “There’s no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed.” Yet the bowling alley Spencer patronized this week has been shut down.

There is a difference between being “cautiously optimistic,” as Obama declared himself, versus simply being blinded by political correctness and not wanting to offend the African nations in question. At one point the Obama administration determined the economic cost to the African countries would be too great were a travel ban imposed. If it’s a choice between their money or our lives, there is no contest. (It’s the latter, Mr. Obama, in case you needed a hint.)

Wake up, Mr. Obama, this is a life and death situation and if 30 African countries can impose travel restrictions, so can the United States – a nation that should be leading, not following. But this is a typically tepid Obama reaction. Reactive, once again, not proactive. This is not leading from behind, as Obama famously likes to claim, it is simply being behind. Obama is not leader of the world, in spite of what he and his genuflecting acolytes like to believe. He is supposed to be leader of the United States and looking out for what is best for the American people.

Lead by leading, Mr. Obama. Impose the travel ban. Require all those exhibiting symptoms of Ebola be quarantined for the 21 day period as recommended by the CDC and demonstrate that you give a damn about the American people – for once.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Holder: For Obama, Against the People

Holder: For Obama, Against the People

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

October 2, 2014

The strategy behind the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder is about as dangerous as the six-year tenure we the people have endured with him on the job in the first place.

From Fast and Furious to voter fraud/ID issues to the New Black Panther Party to constantly injecting race into virtually every issue flying anywhere close to his radar, Holder should have been out of his job almost as soon as his swearing in. Fortunately, the United States Constitution has deeper roots than the resolve of Holder and Barack Obama combined.

Ironically, it was Holder’s supposed “independence” that Obama touted as a reason for nominating him for the post of attorney general in the first place. Yet Holder remained steadfastly loyal to Obama – even when the Constitution took a back seat. This in an administration determined to be the most transparent in history, yet has been anything but.

Holder and Obama have worked in unison to impede virtually all legislation that would help secure the borders or pertain to limiting the “rights” of illegal aliens, who should have no rights in the US in the first place. Holder called any attempts to curtail illegal immigration “racial profiling.” In getting involved with state matters such as illegal immigration, as he did in the Arizona SB 1070 case, Holder violated the 10^th Amendment of the US Constitution.

Early in his tenure at the helm of the Justice Department, Holder loudly decried, that on the issue of race, America was, and is, a nation of cowards. However, once the racial missile was launched, any response would have been viewed as defensive (for good reason) and racially insensitive. The present day politically correct environment disallows honest discussion or debate and lends credence to Holder’s accusation, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If Holder actually wants to have the race conversation, fine, but it should be conducted sans recriminations where people can opine at will without fear or threat of the loss of career, reputation, or garnering the label of racist. We are not a nation of cowards when the mere mention of race as an issue is so volatile and divisive that it provokes a hair-trigger response rich with venom and an unwillingness to listen.

Announcing he typically did not trust police officers, Holder often came down on the wrong side of issues involving law enforcement. He did not serve the best interest of the American people, and was too often an activist attorney general.

At every turn Holder thwarted the employment of photo identification requirements pertaining to voting. Yet, he remained silent when myriad events featuring government officials and particular Democrat candidates required ID of those wishing to attend. Photo ID would be vilified and castigated by Holder as a racist tool of the GOP or conservatives to stunt the vote of ethnic minorities. In reality, requiring photo ID to vote protects the sanctity of all votes and voters, preventing voter fraud by not diluting the power and value of any singular vote cast by legal voters.

Holder also came down on the wrong side of another voter issue – voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia in 2008. Wielding nightsticks and baseball bats, members of the New Black Panther Party scared, exclusively potential white voters, from several polling places. This was wrong when whites did the same thing to potential black voters in the 1950s and 1960s in numerous southern precincts, and it is just as wrong in the 21^st Century.

Tit for tat, and all that, does not work in the justice system and revenge justice is neither justice nor does it right the wrongs of prior injustice. Holder should have done his job and prosecuted the New Black Panther Party members as well as all who have committed voter fraud.

Fast and Furious, the failed program that literally put American guns in the hands of Mexican drug lords under the foolhardy machinations of capturing said drug lords, only made the border crisis more dangerous and the borders themselves more porous and welcoming to illegals. Add to that failure, the tragic murder of border patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010. Failure by Holder to produce documents demanded by Congress made him the first sitting cabinet member to be hold in contempt of Congress – June 2012.

Mere grumblings of an attempt to remove Holder from office were met with resistance and cries of racism. The Obama administration plays the race card with such regularity and ease, yet this is the same so-called racist nation that elected a black president – twice.

But it is the behavior – the actions – of Holder and his Justice Department that are under scrutiny, not the color of his skin. Holder and the DOJ behaved questionably with regard to spying on Fox News reporter James Rosen and other members of the press, under the guise that they violated the Espionage Act. This scandal did not receive the full measure of attention it required as the actions by the Justice Department were egregious at best, illegal at worst, and an attempt by the Obama administration to hamper an otherwise free press.

Military activities and the methods of terrorists notwithstanding, a free press should be sacrosanct.

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” – Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson adroitly prioritized the press above the government: “…were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

With the Barack Obamas and the Eric Holders in charge of the nation and its laws, a free press may be civilization’s last line of defense against the tyranny of our own government.

And as for the strategy behind Holder’s departure, tyranny should be on the minds of the rank and file. Holder has agreed to remain on the job until Obama nominates a replacement. Obama will no doubt attempt to nominate a candidate prior to the November 4 midterm election and have this nominee approved by the lame duck Senate before a potential Republican majority Senate convenes January 5, 2015. While this is bad enough, worse yet, is what will become of Holder once he leaves the Justice Department behind.

With two years remaining in his term, Obama would sacrifice a kidney for the crack at putting another of his acolytes on the Supreme Court – a lifetime appointment. Out goes octogenarian Ruth Bader Ginsburg who will finally retire, paving the way for Holder to rise to the High Court. Thus a greater imperative for the GOP to claim the Senate. Obama’s AG appointee will only serve two years maximum, while Holder, at 63, could serve upwards of a quarter century.

Keep the power in the hands of the people by electing Republicans to the Senate from Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia – pivotal states to a GOP majority. Simultaneously the Republicans must hold the states where there is little to no Democratic threat. Let’s ensure Holder’s retirement is permanent.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.