Political Cartoon

VIDEO: President calls out Fox News over ObamaCare coverage

Obama takes heat over swipe at Fox News

President Obama is taking heat for mocking Fox News over its coverage of his health care overhaul. 
The president took the shot Thursday during a speech at Northwestern University in Illinois, as he defended his six-year record in office on the economy, on health care and on the budget. 
He claimed fewer Republicans are "preaching doom on deficits" because deficits are lower. 
On ObamaCare, he added: "There's a reason fewer Republicans, you hear them running about ObamaCare --- because while good, affordable health care might seem like a fanged threat to the freedom of the American people on Fox News, it's turns out it's working pretty well in the real world." 
The president's team, shortly afterward, drove the point home on Twitter: 
But Tim Graham, director of media analysis with the Media Research Center, slammed the president for his remarks. 
"Now ask yourself: Did President George W. Bush ever trash a news network like that?" he wrote on NewsBusters. "Did he ever make a major speech and take a whack at Keith Olbermann? Republicans avoid that, because you can upset the entire liberal media with a remark like that. 
"But Obama bashing Fox is completely acceptable, apparently." 
Graham recalled how Bush was pilloried in the media after being caught on a hot mic calling a New York Times reporter a "major league a-hole." 
"ABC and NBC led off their nightly newscasts with that mini-scandal," Graham noted. 
The president's comments were picked up widely on media news sites, including MediaBistro.com -- one commenter on their article said: "If only this man hated terrorists as much as he hated FOX News ...."

Crew disinfects home where Ebola patient stayed

DALLAS –  A hazardous-materials crew on Friday decontaminated the Texas apartment where an Ebola patient was staying when he got sick, while public-health officials cut by half the number of people being monitored for any symptoms of the deadly disease.
Hours later, the family that was living in the apartment was moved to a private residence in a gated community that was offered by a volunteer.
The decontamination team was to collect bed sheets, towels and a mattress used by the infected man before he was hospitalized, as well as a suitcase and other personal items belonging to Thomas Eric Duncan, officials said.
The materials were sealed in industrial barrels that were to be stored in trucks until they can be hauled away for permanent disposal.
Federal transportation and disease-control officials issued an emergency special permit Friday to allow an Illinois-based company to haul away and dispose of the materials — not only from the apartment but also any from the hospital where Duncan is receiving treatment.
The first Ebola diagnosis in the U.S. has raised concerns about whether the disease that has killed 3,400 people in West Africa could spread in the U.S. Federal health officials say they are confident they can keep it in check.
Elsewhere, NBC News reported that an American freelance cameraman working for the network in Liberia has tested positive for the virus and will be flown back to the United States, along with the rest of the news crew.
Neighbors stood on their balconies and watched the family's grim departure from behind a black tarp hung to shield their front door from view.
The family was placed in a Dallas County deputy's patrol car and driven away, apparently leaving with nothing more than the clothes they wore.
The residence where they will stay had been offered only a short time earlier. Until then, a search for shelter had come up short. The city had been refused by hotels, apartments and other providers.
"No one wants this family," said Sana Syed, a Dallas city spokeswoman.
The family was confined to their home under armed guard while public-health officials monitored them — part of an intense effort to contain the deadly disease before it can get a foothold in the United States.
Louise Troh, originally from Liberia, shares the apartment with her 13-year-old son and two nephews.
When the decontamination is complete, even the crew's protective suits are to be burned, said Tamara Smith, office manager for the Cleaning Guys of Fort Worth.
Judge Clay Jenkins, Dallas County's top administrative official, said he went to the apartment with two epidemiologists to apologize for the delay in removing the soiled items, which happened five days after Duncan was admitted to the hospital.
"I want to see this family treated the way I would want to see my own family treated," Jenkins said.
The confinement order, which also bans visitors, was imposed after the family failed to comply with a request to stay home.
Also Friday, Texas health officials said they had narrowed the number of people they were monitoring from as many as 100 to about 50 who had some type of exposure to Duncan.
Texas Health Commissioner David Lakey said all 50 are meeting with health workers and having their temperatures taken daily. So far, none shows symptoms of the virus. Ten are considered to be at higher risk and are being monitored more closely.
The virus that causes Ebola is not airborne and can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids — blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — of an infected person who is showing symptoms.
Troh's 35-year-old daughter lives a few blocks away in a small apartment with her partner and four children. The two families often visited each other's homes.
Health officials have told Youngor Jallah to keep her family at home. But unlike at her mother's apartment, there are no armed guards preventing them from leaving.
She's now wracked with regret that she did not take greater precautions in her dealings with Duncan.
"I'm just doubting myself every minute," she said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm trying to take my mind off it, but I can't do it."
She is not kissing or hugging her children, ages 2, 4 and 6, or her partner's 11-year-old son, or sharing dishes with them.
Duncan arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and fell ill a few days later. After an initial visit to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, he was sent home, even though he told a nurse he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa.
He returned to the hospital two days later, on Sunday, and has been kept in isolation ever since. He's listed in serious but stable condition.

ISIS' NEXT TARGET: Terror group warns US vet next to be beheaded

The Islamic State terror group identified its next target on Friday, a former U.S. Army Ranger who was captured in Lebanon last year during a relief mission to help Syrian refugees.
Peter Edward Kassig, 26, first visited Beirut on a college spring break trip. What the Indiana native saw there prompted him to return, the next time as a medical assistant and humanitarian worker hoping to offer blankets, food and medical care to victims of the region's conflicts.
Kassig founded a nongovernmental organization that provided aid for refugees fleeing the civil war in neighboring Syria. But his work in Lebanon led to his capture by militants on Oct. 1, 2013, while en route to eastern Syria.
Kassig appeared in an online video that purported to show a masked militant who threatened to behead the Army veteran next, after the apparent beheading of British hostage Alan Henning. The gruesome video was released in the same manner as other Islamic State group recordings and the masked militant sounded similar to the one who carried out other slayings.
In a statement issued Friday evening, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden confirmed that Kassig was being held by Islamic State militants.
"At this point we have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video released earlier today. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal — military, diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence — to try to bring Peter home to his family," Hayden said.
The video and threat were a heartbreaking development for Kassig's family and friends, who have stayed silent since his capture while working to secure his release.
Kassig's parents issued a statement Friday describing their son's work and asking for privacy.
"We ask everyone around the world to pray for the Henning family, for our son, and for the release of all innocent people being held hostage in the Middle East and around the globe," the statement said.
According to his parents, Kassig, an Indianapolis native, converted to Islam while in captivity and now goes by the name Abdul-Rahman.
Kassig enlisted in the Army in 2004, and became a Ranger, ultimately serving in the 75th Ranger Regiment, an Army special operations unit, according to his military record.
He trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 2006, and deployed to Iraq from April to July 2007. He was medically discharged at the rank of private first class in September 2007.
In a January 2013 interview with Time, Kassig said he traveled heavily throughout Lebanon to assess the needs of people there.
He said he designed his aid organization, Special Emergency Response and Assistance, or SERA, around a belief that "there was a lot of room for improvement in terms of how humanitarian organizations interact with and cooperate with the populations that they serve."
SERA, he said, focused on supplementing the work of larger organizations by delivering aid that could "do the most good for the most people over the longest period of time possible."
"It's about showing people that we care, that someone is looking out for those who might be overlooked or who have slipped through the cracks in the system for whatever reason," he said.
SERA has since suspended its efforts while Kassig's family has worked to win his release.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence asked for prayers Friday for Kassig and his family during "this unspeakably difficult time."
This is the fourth such video released by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The full beheadings are not shown in the videos, but the British-accented, English-speaking militant holds a long knife and appears to begin cutting the three men, American reporters James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines.
ISIS has its roots in Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate but was expelled from the global terror network over its brutal tactics and refusal to obey orders to confine its activities to Iraq. It metamorphisized amid the bloody three-year civil war in neighboring Syria, growing stronger to the point of being able to launch a lightning offensive across much of northern Iraq, routing security forces there.
The extremist group has been widely denounced by mainstream Muslim authorities.
Other foreigners are believed held by the Islamic State group. On Friday, the father of John Cantlie, a British photojournalist held by the group, appealed for his release in a video, saying he was a friend of Syria.