Jeb Bush officially throws his hat into the presidential ring for 2016.

I am excited to announce I will actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States: https://t.co/luY4lCF2cA.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 16, 2014

Not that this is a surprise, but now there is not longer any remaining doubt.

I actually think that this will do for the Republican field, essentially what having Hillary contemplating a run has done to the Democratic field.

I'm not saying that Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Rand Paul, and Chris Christie will not necessarily run, I am just saying that they will have little chance of beating Jeb. And he will for all intents and purposes draw the majority of media attention.

And let me just add at this point that the Democrats have no choice but to rally behind Hillary at this point. Because like it or not she has the very best chance of beating Bush in the general.

Time Magazine's Person of the Year is certainly going to irritate a certain New Jersey Governor.

Here is brief portion of the article courtesy of Time Magazine: 

The death in Dallas of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed on U.S. soil, and the infection of two nurses who treated him, shook our faith in the ability of U.S. hospitals to handle this kind of disease. From there the road to full freak-out was a short one. An Ohio middle school closed because an employee had flown on the same plane as one of Duncan’s nurses. Not the same flight, just the same plane. A Texas college rejected applicants from Nigeria, since that country had some “confirmed Ebola cases.” A Maine schoolteacher had to take a three-week leave because she went to a teachers’ conference in Dallas. Fear, too, was global. When a nurse in Spain contracted Ebola from a priest, Spanish authorities killed her dog as a precaution, while #VamosAMorirTodos (We’re all going to die) trended on Twitter. Guests at a hotel in Macedonia were trapped in their rooms for days after a British guest got sick and died. Turned out to have nothing to do with Ebola. 

The problem with irrational responses is that they can cloud the need for rational ones. Just when the world needed more medical volunteers, the price of serving soared. When nurse Kaci Hickox, returning from a stint with MSF in Sierra Leone with no symptoms and a negative blood test, was quarantined in a tent in Newark, N.J., by a combustible governor, it forced a reckoning. “It is crazy we are spending so much time having this debate about how to safely monitor people coming back from Ebola-endemic countries,” says Hickox, “when the one thing we can do to protect the population is to stop the outbreak in West Africa.” 

I don't know if it was purposeful or not, but Time is certainly going to ruffle more than a few conservative feathers with this choice. 

After all it was the conservatives, and their propaganda channel that were yelling "The sky is falling, the sky is falling" when all that was really happening was that America discovered that they were no more immune from getting sick than everybody else.

The treatment of Kaci Hickox was simply embarrassing and I think it is awesome that she is being vindicated for her understanding that she was not a risk to her fellow citizens, and recognition for her selflessness in trying to help those who desperately needed her even at risk to her own health.

Oh and by eh way, and fuck Governors Chris Christie and Paul LePage.

Kaci Hickox never had Ebola and would very kindly like to ask everybody to stop calling her "The Ebola Nurse"-now!

Courtesy of the Guardian:

 I never had Ebola. I never had symptoms of Ebola. I tested negative for Ebola the first night I stayed in New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s private prison in Newark. I am now past the incubation period – meaning that I will not develop symptoms of Ebola. 

I never had Ebola, so please stop calling me “the Ebola Nurse” – now!

Hickox goes on to call out both New Jersey's Chris Christie and the Governor of her state of Maine, Paul LePage:

This is what did happen: I was quarantined against my will by overzealous politicians after I volunteered to go and treat people affected by Ebola in west Africa. My liberty, my interests and consequently my civil rights were ignored because some ambitious governors saw an opportunity to use an age-old political tactic: fear. Christie and my governor in Maine, Paul LePage, decided to disregard medical science and the constitution in hopes of advancing their careers. They bet that, by multiplying the existing fear and misinformation about Ebola – a disease most Americans know little about – they could ultimately manipulate everyone and proclaim themselves the protectors of the people by “protecting” the public from a disease that hasn’t killed a single American. Politicians who tell lies such as “she is obviously ill” and mistreat citizens by telling them to “sit down and shut up” will hopefully never make it to the White House.

Oh, I REALLY like this nurse!

Hickox goes into quite a lot of detail about the importance of having medical professionals willing to travel overseas to places dealing with infectious diseases, and how the response by a handful of politicians here at home endangers that process.

She summed up with this: 

I want to live in a country that understands Ebola. I want to live in a world that cares about those dying from this terrible disease in West Africa. Nobody should’ve had to watch me ride my bicycle out in the open as politicians fed the public false fears and misinformation. I want to live in an America that reaches out to aid workers as they return from West Africa and says, “We loved and stood by you when you were fighting this disease. We will love and stand by you now.” 

We can define compassion, instead of being ruled by fear and fear-mongers.

Wow! I think I may have a new hero. 

Chris Christie demonstrating once again why he will NEVER be the Republican presidential candidate.

Wow, what a dick!

Here is how Raw Story covered this exchange:

A New Jersey activist and Hurricane Sandy survivor filmed during a confrontation with Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Wednesday accused his administration of short-changing a $1.1 billion federal relief package meant to help residents. 

“Only 20 percent of those dollars have gotten to the people,” James Keady told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “Of the $1.1 billion, $219 million has gone out. That means that the governor and his staff in Trenton are sitting on $800 million.” 

According to Keady’s advocacy group, Finish The Job, Christie’s administration has mismanaged the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) while boasting about its success in the public eye. 

“Photo ops, Christie, President Obama, everybody walking on the beach, kumbaya, giving the hugs,” he said. 

Keady faced off with Christie as the governor gave a speech in Belmar commemorating two years since the hurricane devastated New Jersey. Video of the encounter shows Keady standing in front of Christie bearing a sign saying, “Get Sandy families back in their homes,” prompting Christie to berate him from the stage. 

“I’m glad you had your day to show off, but we’re the ones who are here to actually do the work,” Christie told him. “So turn around and get your 15 minutes of fame and then maybe take your jacket off and roll up your sleeves and do something for the people of this state.”

By the way it seems that in a contest as to who has rolled up their sleeves and done something for the people of this state, that this James Keady guy is miles ahead of Chris Christie: 

“When the hurricane happened, I actually took a month off from work, dropped everything and volunteered to help clean out peoples’ homes,” James Keady told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “It actually reached the point within a day or two [that] the borough gave me a borough dump truck running all the clean-up crews all over town.”

You know there has always been this criticism of President Obama that he is a little TOO cool, and does not express his emotion enough for people to relate to him.

But I do not think for a second that that means they would rather replace him with a wannabe "Sopranos" stand in wielding a temper that would make Joe Pesci say "Hey calm the fuck down."

Christie is angry man with virtually no filter. That might play in New Jersey but would do him no favors in the national arena.

After all what's he gonna do, leave a panda head in China Premier Li Keqiang's bed?

Dr. Sarah Palin once again weighs in on the Ebola non-crisis. Prepare to have the crap bugged out of you.

Courtesy of the Facebook page for a woman whose icy disposition kills viruses on contact:

I enjoyed talking On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, and you can catch the replay of it later tonight. In discussing the response to Ebola, I made the point that every crisis will be capitalized on by a liberal federal government as an excuse to expand government authority. (Does she mean like the Bush administration did in response to terrorism? The Right Wing has predicted that Obama would do this since his inauguration, so far nothing.) The Obama administration made clear early on that they abide by the Alinsky tactic to “never let a crisis go to waste.” (Once again, a false allegation.) The latest crisis has been drummed up by their incompetent reaction to the spread of Ebola. The purpose of any crisis for them is to ultimately exert more control over people as more Americans become fearful; the "solution" they'll offer will be another false big government promise: "Hey, little people, just give up more freedom in exchange for our promise of a little security!" Obviously with this Washington liberal M.O. we are losing both. (She does realize that what she is describing above is EXACTLY what Chris Christie did to a nurse,  even though she does NOT fall into the high risk group requiring quarantine, right?)

We do need to keep each level of government accountable. I agree with state governors who are filling this Obama leadership void and setting rules to tackle Ebola because the leader of the country cannot do it (Does she not know that we only have one confirmed case of Ebola in this country? How much better could this be handled?), and the 10th Amendment protects states rights in a case like this. But beware of allowing any level of government (especially the federal government) even an inch more power over the people. Liberals can turn that inch into the LAST mile toward statism. That's why politics must be excised from the Ebola issue, and the medical and scientific community must be listened to by the Obama Administration. They MUST put Americans first, and we must not buy into any hysteria as we calmly yet aggressively keep the Ebola virus out of our country.

 - Sarah Palin

Okay once again the main group of individuals using the Ebola virus for political purposes are the conservatives. 

The CDC has very definite guidelines on how to handle this disease and the reason such a federal agency exists is to fight panic, and to keep local politicians from using fear to manipulate their constituents. Which is exactly what we see some politicians, and Fox News, doing right now.

Besides Palin knows less about this than she does foreign relations, economics, or even parenting. And that is REALLY saying something.

She is simply being used as one more yapping mongrel attempting to fill the air with white noise to keep Americans from hearing any truth which might quiet their fears.

Remember unafraid people are less likely to vote Republican.