PLAYING THE FLU FEAR CARD

How does one explain the article below about our Vice President speaking out today regarding the danger of the H1N1 flu, now spreading around the globe?

Biden is playing fear card, pure and simple. Consider the scenario: last night at his "press conference" event, the President directly addressed the flu issue but made zero reference to trains, planes or subways. Why? All the President's men are aware of the panic that such a statement would cause and it would trace straight back to Obama. Can't have that.

Further, neither the WHO or the CDC have warned people to stay away from mass transit. Why? Because the existing possible pandemic has not yet reached that level of concern. If it does, expect such announcements. If not, there will be no such proclamations.

But as has been stated before within Team Obama, "...a crisis is a terrible thing to waste". So those behind the scenes, who have to date proven very effective in spreading public panic, trot out old slow Joe Biden to do a bit of fear mongering for the good of their cause. As expected it worked, which triggered part two of the plan for the day. Send Joe back out again to backtrack, after the damage has already been done. Doing so dulls the fear just a bit, making everyone (other than Joe) look professional and responsible.

For those of you who cannot believe such things go on, it is time for you to review how the rough and tumble world of Chicago machine politics works. After all, it takes a little panic to help justify the $1.5 billion request the President mentioned last night that he has made to Congress to deal with the flu. He earlier proposed and Congress passed a budget in the trillions of dollars. Cannot the needed flu funds come out of that if this is in fact such an emergency? Sure, but it won't. Common sense solutions are not in the game plan.

Fear mongering a potential flu pandemic to drive even more tax payer dollars into the hands of our nanny state federal government is what the Obama administration is all about. Take-take-take: all under the guise of panic and fear, with the government the only one who can save us all.

Remember the financial panic: government had to save the banks with taxpayer money. How has that worked? The big banks are still on full life support and need even more money, which they will get after additional panic is spread around. Some banks want to pay back the loans and get out from under the control of Team Obama. Geithner and the Obama Euro socialists will not allow them to do so since they would lose control of those operations. There were voices insisting on bankruptcy as a solution from the start. The difference now of course is that the federal government controls our big banking institutions which was obviously not the case to begin with. But with our banks nationalized, it is OK to consider all options.

How about the automaker fear mongering: government said the big three were too big to fail. The Feds had to save them. Taxpayer generated billions were poured into GM and Chrysler. How has that worked? Both are on the fast track to bankruptcy and the billions of public dollars poured into their coffers has gone to pay off union members. The topper now is that in the case of both companies, the unions will come out owning close to half of each, a sweet deal for them. Last night the President said he doesn't want to be in the car business. So instead he is putting his union minions in control. In the meantime, the majority of bond holders will lose their shirts. Thus government saved them from bankruptcy by guiding them into a bankruptcy that benefits the Obama union constituencies. That's a big political payoff.

To date, fear and panic have worked so effectively that Axlerod and Emanuel most certainly are on the lookout for more opportunity to extend their remake of American society. Conveniently, along comes H1N1 and a whole new focus for panic can be manipulated to extend the string of spending more and failing more.

Slow Joe Biden is the tool for today (which answers the mystery as to why he was selected by Team Obama to be VP). The American people are, like Chicagoans have long been, the suckers.


Biden says avoid planes, subways; puts out clarifying statement
By: Carol E. Lee and Amie Parnes

Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car “at this point” because swine flu virus can spread “in confined places.” A little more than one hour later, Biden rushed out a statement backing off.“I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show.. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico. It’s [that] you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. … “So, from my perspective, what it relates to is mitigation. If you’re out in the middle of a field when someone sneezes, that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft or closed container or closed car or closed classroom, it’s a different thing.” That contradicted more restrained advice from President Barack Obama and the federal government — and the last thing the White House wants to do right now is shut down the airline industry and big-city subways out of mass panic. The White House quickly arranged for Biden to make this statement through a spokesperson.
“On the Today Show this morning, the vice president was asked what he would tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico this week. The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the vice president has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week. As the president said just last night, every American should take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu: Keep your hands washed; cover your mouth when you cough; stay home from work if you're sick and keep your children home from school if they're sick.”
Host Matt Lauer had asked the vice president: “This is by no means a ‘gotcha’ type of question. … But if a member of your family came to you … and said, ‘Look, I want to go on a commercial airliner to Mexico, and back within the next week,’ would you think it’s a good idea?” Biden made it unmistakably clear he would not want his family to make any trips on planes or subways.These sorts of comments are what the Obama administration fears from Biden, who after more than three decades in Washington is known for making gaffes.
Biden has had fewer of them since the election and even fewer since taking office. Recently, he stirred things up by saying he was once in the Oval Office with George W. Bush and told the president that no one was following his leadership. Karl Rove flatly called Biden a "liar." “If you are feeling certain flu symptoms, don't get on an airplane, don't get on any system of public transportation where you're confined and you could potentially spread the virus. So those are the steps that I think we need to take right now. But understand that because this is a new strain, we have to be cautious.”
Before taking office, Biden was the unpredictable one in the Obama team. He compared the economic crisis with Sept. 11, saying, "We're at war!" and he said it was “a mistake” that Obama selected a CIA director without consulting the Senate Intelligence Committee. Geoff Freeman, the senior vice president of the Travel Industry Association of America, called Biden's comments "unfortunate." "We need to leave this in the hands of the medical experts, and medical experts are not discouraging anyone" from using these modes of transportation, he said. Biden and other government officials "need to be very cognizant of the words they use and not make inflammatory comments." "We're pleased to see the White House working to clarify these comments, and we urge all elected officials to watch their words because they can take on a life of their own." To keep from getting sick, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends: “Try to avoid close contact with sick people. If you get sick with influenza, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.” Obama said at his news conference on Wednesday night that “individual families [need to] start taking very sensible precautions — that can make a huge difference. “So wash your hands when you shake hands,” he advised. “Cover your mouth when you cough. I know it sounds trivial, but it makes a huge difference. If you are sick, stay home. If your child is sick, keep them out of school.

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