White House Cartoon

Krauthammer: 'We have a presidency falling apart'

Charles Krauthammer said Wednesday on "Special Report With Bret Baier" that President Obama is dealing with a "crisis of competence," adding he believes Obama's presidency "is falling apart."
Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and a Fox News contributor, cited the scandals surrounding the IRS, the VA and the Secret Service as examples of problems plaguing the administration.
"All the institutions in the past you'd make a movie about," he said. "Secret Service is the hero ... all of these agencies we had trust in, under this administration are showing how bad the government is run. You combine them and you get a sense that things are out of control."
Krauthammer said Obama's policies have led to these various crises. 
"I think it is a sense in the country," he said. "Now we have a presidency that is falling apart. And it isn't as if it all happened at once."

Palestinians draft UN resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from West Bank, East Jerusalem

The Palestinians have drafted a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem by November 2016 as part of a new push for independence and full U.N. recognition. 
The draft resolution, which was given to Fox News Wednesday by a diplomat who wished to remain anonymous, has not yet been shared with all of the Security Council's 15 members. Jordan, as the Arab Group's representative on the Security Council, would be charged with introducing the resolution. 
The resolution calls for Israel to return all territory seized since the 1967 Six-Day War, a condition that Israel has not agreed to in any of the recent U.S.-backed peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued that ongoing rocket attacks from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, as well as Israel's relatively small amount of territory, make it too perilous for his government to accept a return to the pre-1967 borders. 
The draft calls for intensified efforts, including through negotiations, to reach a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and "a just resolution" of the status of Jerusalem as the capital of two states and of the Palestinian refugee problem.
The Associated Press reported that Abbas told a meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on Wednesday evening that the draft was submitted last Friday "and we hope to get an answer within a month."
"Of course we are not sure whether the Security Council will agree on it or whether we will get the right number of countries on our side. But whatever will happen, we have something to say. We put it in writing and this is clear. We don't need to repeat it again," he said.
It is the first time that the U.S. has had to consider such a forceful draft Security Council resolution. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said on Tuesday that Washington’s position remains that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be reached through negotiations. Several Arab diplomats have told Fox News that they expect US opposition to the text. They say, however, that if Washington vetoes the resolution it will isolate the United States in world opinion. The United States is one of five permanent, veto-holding members of the Security Council.
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly last Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he would ask the council to set a deadline for a pullout and dictate the ground rules for any further talks with Israel. Abbas also accused Israel of conducting a "war of genocide" in during the 50-day conflict in Gaza over the summer, a charge that drew a furious response from Netanyahu Monday. 
Decrying Hamas for its use of human shields and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, Netanyahu said, addressing Abbas, "these are the war crimes committed by your Hamas partners in the national unity government which you head and you are responsible for. And these are the real war crimes you should have investigated, or spoken out against from this podium last week."

Hospital reportedly failed to follow protocol by releasing Ebola patient

Officials at a Dallas hospital apparently failed to follow federally issued guidelines last week when they sent home the patient later diagnosed with the first case of the Ebola virus on U.S. soil.
The Dallas Morning News reports that Thomas Eric Duncan arrived in the emergency room of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital late on the evening of Sept. 25 complaining of a fever and abdominal pain. When questioned by a nurse, Duncan admitted that he had been in Liberia as recently as the prior week. 
At that point, according to an Aug. 1 protocol issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Duncan should have been placed in an isolation unit and tested for Ebola immediately. However, the News reports that key medical personnel at the hospital were not told of Duncan's travel history, and he was given antibiotics and sent home, a decision that could have exposed dozens of people to the virus for several hours. 
Duncan's condition later worsened, and he returned to the hospital Sunday in an ambulance. At that point, the CDC protocol was followed. The Ebola diagnosis was confirmed by health officials Tuesday. 
Dr. Mark Lester, the southeast clinical leader for hospital parent company Texas Health Resources, acknowledged Wednesday that Duncan had voluntarily provided his travel history. However, Lester said, "that information was not fully disseminated." Lester did not say who he thought might be responsible for the miscommunication. 
Hospital officials defended the initial handling of Duncan, issuing a statement describing his fever as "low-grade," and insisting "his condition did not warrant admission." They added that they are still investigating why Duncan's travel history was not conveyed to the doctors who sent him home. Hospital epidemiologist Dr. Edward Goodman told the Associated Press that the patient did not show the riskier symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
KDFW reported late Wednesday that Duncan's condition had been upgraded to serious. Goodman wouldn't comment on drugs being used to treat the patient, but he said that there isn't any more ZMapp available. ZMapp is an experimental drug that was used on two previous Ebola patients.
Meanwhile, a nine-member team of federal health officials has begun tracking anyone who had close contact with him after Duncan fell ill on Sept. 24. The group of 12 to 18 people included three members of the ambulance crew that took Duncan to the hospital and a group schoolchildren. They will be checked every day for 21 days, the disease's incubation period.
Neither the ambulance crew nor the children showed any symptoms and were being monitored at home. It was not clear how Duncan knew the children, but his sister told the AP he had been visiting with family, including two nephews.
The CDC sent a team to the airport in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, on Wednesday to make sure health officials there are screening passengers properly. All people traveling from the outbreak zone are supposed to be checked for fever and asked about their travel history before being allowed to leave. Plastic buckets filled with chlorinated water for hand-washing are present throughout the airport.
"There were no signs of any disease when the gentleman boarded the flight," said Dr. Tom Kenyon, director of the CDC's Center for Global Health. "This was not a failure of the screening process at the airport."
Since the man had no symptoms on the plane, the CDC stressed there is no risk to his fellow passengers.
The Dallas apartment complex where Duncan was believed to be staying was cordoned off Wednesday, and the management was turning away visitors. TV cameras lined the fence of the parking lot, and at least one helicopter hovered overhead.