Monthly Archives: May 2007

CBS News: Andrew Harley Speaker Identified as Extreme TB Carrier

So much for HIPAA. According to press reports he’s a personal injury lawyer whose father-in-law works for the CDC.

A tuberculosis patient under the first federal quarantine since 1963 was taken Thursday to National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, which specializes in respiratory disorders, officials said.

CBS News has learned the man with the extreme form of tuberculosis is Andrew Harley Speaker, a 31-year-old lawyer from Atlanta. A medical official in Atlanta also confirmed the name on condition of anonymity.

In an odd twist, Speaker’s father-in-law works as a microbiologist at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory that studies tuberculosis and other bacterial infections.

Bob Cooksey said he gave his son-in-law “fatherly advice” when he learned he had contracted the disease.

They say Andrew could be confined to his room for several weeks. I think he’ll find that life has changed once he’s allowed to roam freely. People aren’t happy with the seemingly selfish choices he made – his profession isn’t helping matters. The jokes have already started:

What do you call a personal injury lawyer with a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis? A good start.

Now how long do you think it will be until this guy and his family are on Oprah?

Update:
Diane Sawyer got to him first. He’s apologizing and claims to have a reasonable explanation:

Andrew Speaker has asked for forgiveness from the airline passengers he exposed to a rare strain of tuberculosis, and told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview that he has a tape recording of a meeting with health officials that he claims will confirm his view that it was all right to travel in his condition.

“He says he wants everyone to know how he made the decision, why he felt so strongly that it was not endangering anybody else and [is] also asking forgiveness of those onboard who are now having to be tested,” Sawyer said after spending an hour with the TB patient and his wife, Sarah Speaker, at the National Jewish Research Center in Denver, where he is currently in isolation

Bloggers React:

Michelle Malkin
He is Andrew Harley Speaker–and what a selfish, reckless man he is.

Wizbang!
He’s educated enough to have known better than to fly on an airplane when he was infected with tuberculosis. You do not need to be a doctor to know you don’t put yourself in an enclosed space with hundreds of other unsuspecting people for hours at a time when you have an infectious airborne disease.

Raytheon Delivers First Joint Standoff Weapon Block II

JSOW is all about stealth, survivability, and flexibility – and they say it’s cheaper:

A joint Navy and Air Force program, JSOW is a family of low-cost, air-to- ground weapons that employs an integrated GPS and inertial navigation system to guide them to the target. The JSOW uses a common and modular weapon body capable of carrying various payloads. Its long standoff range, up to 70 nautical miles (approximately 80.5 statute miles), allows
delivery from well outside the lethal range of most enemy air defenses. It is produced for use on the F/A-18, F-16, F-15E, B-2 and B-52 aircraft.

The improved JSOW is hitting the shelves now and could soon be found in locations near you.

On the Web:
Raytheon

Need to Know 5.31.2008 – New Media to Night Vision Goggles

Need to Know is a short roundup of key stories that shouldn’t be missed on your cruise through the blogosphere. The number of links in the roundup may vary but if you find it here you can trust that it’s must-read material.

Homeland Security Watch | The financial fallout from a terrorist nuke
As we debate the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed Securing the Cities Initiative, its worth considering the actual impact of a nuclear weapon detonated in a densely populated urban environment. Defense Canada’s R&D arm partnered with Battelle to produce a schematic illustrating a “preliminary analysis on the economic impact of a nuclear weapon event in Vancouver.”

DefenseTech | The risk of sharing
One of the American military’s strongest advantages in ground combat is its ownership of the night. IR markers, glint tape and IR illuminators are key to nighttime fighting for US forces. If the NVG technology intended for our Afghan allies falls into the wrong hands, that advantage will quickly turn into a major vulnerability.

Times Online | We own the night
The SAS and SBS have been engaged in covert missions against al-Qaeda for four years, serving with American troops from the US Joint Special Operations Command under Lieutenant-General Stanley McCrystal. US military sources said the special forces teams had killed a total of 2,000 al-Qaeda fighters, carrying out missions at night.

Human Rights Foundation | Chavez democratizes protesters with live ammo
Mass protests shook Venezuela over the last three days as people—many of them high school and university students—took to the streets to protest this weekend’s shutdown of the Venezuelan television station Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). Severe government crackdowns included the use of live ammunition, tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, and riot gear. More than one hundred minors and eighty adults were in custody of the Venezuelan police as of this afternoon. Their identities and condition are being withheld by the government.

James P. Pinkerton | How the Dems can lose 2008
So when the Republicans finally found their voice on immigration, the Reagan Democrats were re-Reaganized. Finally, Republicans were speaking about realism and the national interest, always a winner for them. The Democrats tried to fight back, using the health care issue, but the GOP was ready with a response, pointing to moderate health plans enacted by Republican governors from Massachusetts to California. Finally, late in the ’08 campaign, the Democrats attempted to energize their own small base, endorsing gay marriage and repeal of the Patriot Act.
It didn’t work. The Republicans, nominating a ticket free of any close association with the outgoing administration, won a comfortable victory. And so, for the eighth time in 11 presidential elections, liberalism was defeated.

The New York Sun | Islamic extremism is a global threat – Duh
Switzerland seems to be an unlikely locus for a battle over jihadist Islamism, but according to reports, its Muslim citizens, who make up about 5% of the total population, increasingly look to radical Middle East clerics for spiritual guidance. The country is also home to a controversial professor, Tariq Ramadan, whose visa to come to America was revoked by the State Department, and reports indicate there has been a rising tension between Muslims and non-Muslims there. In what could be considered pouring fuel on a fire, two weeks ago, the League of Swiss Muslims invited Sheik Salman bin Fahd Al-Odah of Saudi Arabia to participate in their annual conference.

BuzzMachine | Newspapers are lagging. Lag = death
How many newspapers have reconfigured their staffing to reflect the new hybrid print/online reality? Why are high-paid editors and reporters uploading jpegs and podcasts when digital assistants ought to be doing the mechanical tasks? Fast-moving web companies have learned to move with audiences and make those audiences part of a community. Newspapers, for the most part, hold on to rigid models and jump on new tools (everybody blog now!) without understanding how those tools can be used.

David Limbaugh | Global Warming & Euro hypocrisy
Again, the facts are not Speaker Pelosi’s friends. According to Chris Horner’s delicious “Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism,” Europe promised it would live up to Kyoto; it isn’t. It promised its carbon dioxide emissions would be down, but they’re up, it promised its emissions would be dropping, but they are rising. “Since 2000 they are increasing three times as fast as America’s.” No matter. Europe still lambastes America because, like good liberals, it subscribes to the axiom that good intentions mean more than results.

Gateway Pundit | A revealing photo from Iraq

Right Wing Nut House | Watching Fred Thompson
When I survey the disaster that is the current Republican party – a leaderless, rudderless, dispirited mob without a clue of how to begin fixing what’s broke – the obvious question that leaps to mind is can anything be salvaged from the current situation? Or is the GOP condemned to walk the earth like Zombies for the foreseeable future with no direction, no heart, and little in the way of motivation to animate its followers?

D-Ring | Preaching the new media gospel
I’ll be speaking at Fort Meade on June 11 to a group of students at the Defense Information School (holding down the new media front on a panel with two MSMers). I’m excited to be joining Scott Wykoff of Baltimore-Washington radio fame and Gina Cavallaro, who has made quite a name for herself at Army Times. Are you in the next Public Affairs Officer course for distance learners at DINFOS? If so, leave a comment or pop me an e-mail. I am curious to see who among the class is down with new media.

Patterico’s Pontifications | MSM Spins a Gitmo suicide
Of course, the New York Times editors who reprinted this piece might remember that they published a lengthy article in September 2006, based on interviews with over a hundred detainees and GTMO personnel, that provided extensive and detailed support for the idea that the 2006 suicides at GTMO were a publicity stunt. That article set forth clear evidence that the suicides were designed as an act of propaganda, specifically to get people across the world to believe that Gitmo was driving inmates to suicide, and had to be shut down. Have New York Times editors forgotten about that article? Is the AP unaware of it?

USA Today | DHS Taps Sci-Fi Writers for Sigma
The writers make up a group called Sigma, which Andrews put together 15 years ago to advise government officials. The last time the group gathered was in the late 1990s, when members met with government scientists to discuss what a post-nuclear age might look like, says group member Greg Bear. He has written 30 sci-fi books, including the best seller Darwin’s Radio.

Fred Thompson’s Senate Record

Thanks to CQPolitics you can easily compare Fred Thompson’s Senate record to John McCain’s – if you haven’t made up your mind in that contest already:

Earlier this year, when Thompson made it clear he was contemplating a 2008 White House bid, CQPolitics.com published a chart and analysis of Thompson’s positions on key votes. The chart, which can be accessed here, compares Thompson’s votes with those of three GOP senators who served with Thompson and who are running for president or weighing a bid — Sam Brownback of Kansas and John McCain of Arizona, who are announced candidates, and Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record) of Nebraska, who is still considering a presidential bid, possibly as an independent.

The CQPolitics.com analysis found that Thompson and McCain voted the same way on 83 of 102 CQ-defined “key votes” (81.4 percent) during the eight years the two men served together. Thompson agreed with Brownback on 57 of 70 votes (81.4 percent) and with Hagel on 57 of 71 votes (80.3 percent).

Thompson amassed an average score of 86 percent (out of a maximum 100) from the American Conservative Union (ACU), with scores ranging from 83 percent in 1995 to 92 percent in 2000. His average score is lower than that of Brownback (94 percent) and slightly higher than that of Hagel (85 percent) and McCain (82 percent).

Thompson sided with conservative groups and with most Republican senators in voting to cut taxes and spending; remove barriers among banking, securities and insurance companies; drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; protect gun owners’ rights; and oppose abortion.

My main problem (and I’m not alone here) is his support of McCain-Feingold. It’s an issue he’s addressed recently:

Many on the right remain angry Mr. Thompson supported the campaign finance law sponsored by his friend, John McCain. “There are problems with people giving politicians large sums of money and then asking them to pass legislation,” Mr. Thompson says. Still, he notes he proposed the amendment to raise the $1,000 per person “hard money” federal contribution limit. Conceding that McCain-Feingold hasn’t worked as intended, and is being riddled with new loopholes, he throws his hands open in exasperation. “I’m not prepared to go there yet, but I wonder if we shouldn’t just take off the limits and have full disclosure with harsh penalties for not reporting everything on the Internet immediately.”

I’ve started compiling links for even more voting record fun.