The Politics Of Fear And Ebola In America

I tuned into my local news last night, and as you might guess, Ebola dominated the broadcast. And maybe that would be acceptable if this coverage, using title graphics like “Ebola Outbreak,” and “Ebola Crisis,” was centered in West Africa. Nope.

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Harry Reid And Senate Democrats Vote To Limit Filibuster Use

Today Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Democrats voted for the so-called “nuclear option,” to end the procedural filibuster and the 60-vote threshold for judicial and executive nominees. Democrats had good reason to change the Senate rules in the middle of a session because Republicans have managed to double the all-time number of judicial and executive nominee filibusters during Obama’s presidency. Now that’s some bat shit crazy conservative obstruction.

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Reports Of Gun-Control’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Over on The Atlantic, Molly Ball has announced “The Death of Gun Control.” She says that any serious efforts on gun control ended when the Senate voted down enhanced background checks back in April. And if that wasn’t the death of gun control, the recall of two pro-gun-control Democrats in Colorado on Tuesday made it official.

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Harry Reid Says Obamacare Puts U.S. On Path To Single-Payer Health Care System

On a local PBS program “Nevada Week in Review,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever.” Reid said ultimately they had to drop the idea of a public option during health care legislative negotiations in 2009. “We had a real good run at the public option,” said Reid. He said Senator Joe Lieberman was the main opposition to a public option, at least among those who would otherwise support health care legislation. Because of course no Republicans supported health care reform. But Reid also acknowledged their was support for a true single-payer system saying, “Don’t think we didn’t have a tremendous number of people who wanted a single-payer system.”

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VIDEO: White House Correspondents’ Dinner: ‘House of Cards’ Spoof

I’m a big fan of Netflix’s House of Cards, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you should. The entire first season is excellent, but you could watch just for Kevin Spacey’s performance alone. In a sign of just how successful this online series is, last night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner opened with a “House of Cards” spoof titled “House of Nerds.”

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