Republican Congressman Is Unaware There Is No Surgeon General To Head Ebola Response

The attached story highlights quite clearly just how stupid the Republicans cadre is.  Ferguson has done an exquisite job in laying out the timeline from the nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy to why he isn't where he should be.  What's that saying, ignorance is bliss,,,?  It is time for you to grow up Mr Chaffetz, the days of your youth are long over.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) says Ron Klain is "off to a bad start" in his new role as the president's Ebola response coordinator, and that the U.S. Surgeon General should be the one leading the effort.  But what Chaffetz doesn't seem to realize is that there hasn't been asurgeon general for more than a year.

“Why not have the surgeon general head this up?" Chaffetz asked in a Wednesday appearance on Fox News.
"I think that’s a very legitimate question. At least you have somebody who has a medical background whose been confirmed by the United States Senate.”

“It begs the question, what does the surgeon general do?" he added. "Why aren’t we empowering that person?”

President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Vivek Murthy to serve as the nation's top doctor in late 2013, but his nomination has stalled in the Senate ever since. The reason? The National Rifle Association has been pressuring Republicans and conservative Democrats to oppose him over his positions on gun control. Murthy has advocated for an assault weapons ban, and in 2012, he tweeted that gun violence is "a health care issue." That didn't sit well with the NRA's chief.

"Simply ut, confirmation of Dr. Murthy is a prescription for disaster for America's gun owners," Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's legislative arm, wrote to Senate leaders in February.

The result is the country is now dealing with cases of Ebola without a surgeon general at the top, providing public education and guidance on the situation.The last surgeon general, Regina Benjamin, left the post in July 2013.Boris Lushniak has been the acting surgeon general ever since.

Republican Congressman Is Unaware There Is No Surgeon General To Head Ebola Response

Charles Vacca, Shooting Instructor, Fatally Shot By 9-Year-Old Student - Huffington Post

I have been brooding over this tragic accident since it occurred, wondering what ever happened to common sense.  Why not just go out and play catch with a hand grenade if you want to be that stupid.  A 9 year old and an Uzi do not mix, it is that simple.  Mr. Vacca paid with his life and a young girl will be traumatized for the rest of her life.  Hell at 20 I could barely handle a 22 rifle in the standing position and I was NRA trained and a "certified camp instructor" working on my 9th Bar.  Even my single shot target pistol (for what is now the 50 meter free pistol competition) caused me pain.  How anyone can justify a child firing a (micro ?) sub-machine gun on full auto is beyond me.  You would think one would remember the 2008 incident involving Christopher Bizilj. 

This is not a gun rights issue, this is idiocy followed by exploitation by an organization I once supported,

Less than two days after a 9-year-old girl in Arizona accidentally shot and killed a gun range instructor who was showing her how to fire an Uzi, the National Rifle Association on Wednesday touted new ways for children to "have fun" at shooting ranges.

The nation's largest gun lobby posted a tweet Wednesday afternoon to its NRA Women account that read "7 Ways Children Can Have Fun at the Shooting Range." The tweet included a link to an article with the same title published on the website of Women's Outdoor News. A little over an hour after posting it, NRA Women deleted the tweet without explanation.

As HuffPo points out, the article linked to by the NRA - though a bit tasteless in its description of the Mutants and zombie targets - is not the issue as it was published prior to the accident.  The issue posed by Wilkie is,

The timing of the NRA's tweet appears to be linked to this debate. Anstine's column about children's shooting targets was posted on August 20, almost a week before the Arizona shooting. Why the NRA would decide to push out this column to the more than 7,000 followers of its "NRA Women" account is unclear. The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

I am all for children learning about the proper use/cleaning/storage of a firearm as lack of knowledge breeds fear.  I have many friends who hunt and their children participate as well.  My 5 year old great niece has been learning the basics from her mother (hopefully with an air rifle, as I'm too afraid to ask)  But Bullets and Burgers?  Seriously?

The girl's parents huddled around her as she gripped her shoulder that she said was injured by the gun's powerful recoil after she fired the automatic weapon at Bullets and Burgers gun range in Arizona. The girl's parents comforted their injured daughter, not realizing at that point that she had fatally shot her instructor, Charles Vacca.

The girl's mother told police that she saw her daughter drop the gun before turning towards her parents and telling them "the gun was too much for her and it hurt her shoulder."

Charles Vacca, Shooting Instructor, Fatally Shot By 9-Year-Old Student - Huffington Post