memeorandum: No one at the helm on Ebola — The spread of Ebola in America … (A.B. Stoddard/The Hill)

9:05 AM ET, October 17, 2014

Top Items:

Biden's Son Hunter Discharged From Navy Reserve After Failing Cocaine Test — Lawyer Pursued Military Service Relatively Late as a Public-Affairs Officer — WASHINGTON—Vice President Joe Biden 's son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after testing positive for cocaine …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Defense One, Reuters, Outside the Beltway, Hit & Run, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Gateway Pundit, ABC News, Washington Post, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Fox News, Gawker, Washington Free Beacon and 6abc.com

Eric Bradner / CNN:

Biden's son discharged from Navy after testing positive for cocaine — Washington (CNN) — The Navy Reserve discharged Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter this year after he tested positive for cocaine, U.S. officials confirmed. — The discharge of Biden, a 44-year-old lawyer …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Truth Revolt, Business Insider and Raw Story

Steve Mason / ABC News:

Hospital Worker Who Handled Ebola Samples Is on Cruise Ship — A Dallas health care worker who handled clinical specimens from an Ebola-infected patient is on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, with the worker self-quarantined and being monitored for signs of infection, the State Department said in a statement.

Discussion: Business Insider, Truth Revolt and 6abc.com

New York Times:

Keeping Ebola at Bay — The Ebola cases in the United States show that American hospitals and public health officials have much to learn about effective ways to protect health care workers and the public from possible infection. — Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the first hospital put to the test …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Mediaite and Business Insider

Greg Botelho / CNN:

Nurse may have had symptoms of Ebola longer than first thought — Are you on the front lines of Ebola? We'd like to hear your story. — (CNN) — A nurse with Ebola may have shown symptoms of the virus as many as four days before authorities once indicated, meaning that she might …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, Instapundit and Business Insider

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Charles Krauthammer: Ebola vs. civil liberties

Discussion: Betsy's Page and National Review

Eun Kyung Kim / TODAY:
Dallas nurse Briana Aguirre: ‘We never talked about Ebola’ before Thomas Eric Duncan arrived

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Guardian, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, NBC News, Corrente, The PJ Tatler, Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway, Scientific American Content and New York Times

Rachelle Blidner / NY Daily News:
Ebola patient Nina Pham arrives at Maryland hospital after thanking Texas medical staff in emotional video

Discussion: Liberaland, New York Magazine, 6abc.com and Gawker

Ford Vox / CNN:
Why CDC chief must go

Discussion: Fox News, Business Insider, The Scoop Blog and Daily Kos

The Hill:

Ebola, Wall Street stock slide deepen '14 gloom for Dems — The Democrats' midterm prospects took a beating this week as concerns over the Ebola virus and a jittery economy churned up countless grim headlines and darkened an already-dissatisfied national mood.

Politico: Obama's Ebola challenge

Politico:
Why a travel ban wouldn't work

Discussion: Mediaite

Politico:

As Dems sweat Iowa, Sen. Tom Harkin sits on millions — Cernojevich said that Harkin has headlined more than 20 fundraisers for Braley and attended more than 30 events to raise money for the Senate hopeful and other Iowa Democrats on the ticket. In addition to a $10,000 donation …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Laura Bassett / The Huffington Post:
Senate Candidate Joni Ernst Endorses Federal Personhood Bill For Fetuses

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Roll Call, PoliticusUSA and Washington Free Beacon

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Joni Ernst's hog-castrating ideology, revealed!

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine and Liberaland

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

“It's An Object of Gallows Humor for the Staff” — TPM Reader JM on Rick Scott, hospital preparedness and the “Ebola cart” ...

Discussion: his vorpal sword, Balloon Juice, No More Mister Nice Blog, nationalnursesunited.org and Mediaite

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:
Blitzer Grills Rick Scott: Why Was Crist's Fan an Issue in the First Place?

Discussion: Washington Post

Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:
Charlie Crist's Fan: A Love Story

Discussion: Salon, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, Mediaite, Wall Street Journal, National Review, Mashable, The Reality-Based Community, Politico and Jezebel

New York Post:

Alarm after vomiting passenger dies on flight from Nigeria to JFK — Demonstrators demand a travel ban outside the White House on Oct. 16 to stop the spread of the Ebola virus. — A plane from Nigeria landed at JFK Airport Thursday with a male passenger aboard who had died during the flight …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times and Vox Popoli

Stuart Stevens / The Daily Beast:

How Older Voters Will Decide Your Future — Older voters are the electorate's fast growing demographic - and a major reason Republicans can win big in 2016. — The political impact of shifting demographics is a hot topic. Judging from the coverage, it would be easy to assume …

Discussion: Yahoo! News

A.B. Stoddard / The Hill:

No one at the helm on Ebola — The spread of Ebola in America, once described in repeated reassurances as only a remote possibility, has caught our health system flat-footed. Sadly, that doesn't come as a big surprise. — But now, weeks after the disease was first diagnosed in our country …

Discussion: The Federalist and Weekly Standard

Katherine Miller / BuzzFeed:

Here Are The Most Conservative And Liberal Names In America — There's... a pattern. — Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed — The most conservative and liberal names in America are Doyle and Natasha. — Crowdpac, a nonpartisan group, focuses on how money and policy work in politics.

Discussion: Mediaite and FOX News Radio

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:

Insiders Blame Rove for Covering Up Iraq's Real WMD — There's one man, some Republicans say, who kept the public from learning about the chemical shells littered around Iraq. He was Bush's most important political adviser. — Starting in 2004, some members of the George W. Bush administration …

Discussion: American Spectator, American Thinker, Balloon Juice and The Dish

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Everyone In What Looks Like A Group Photo On GOP Governor's Website Is Photoshopped — On Gov. Tom Corbett's campaign website. Update (6:58 p.m.): The Corbett campaign says the “whole website footer graphic” is Photoshopped, including a stock image of a black woman.

Discussion: Philly.com

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

What Markets Will — In the Middle Ages, the call for a crusade to conquer the Holy Land was met with cries of “Deus vult!” — God wills it. But did the crusaders really know what God wanted? Given how the venture turned out, apparently not. — Now, that was a long time ago, and …

Lee Enterprises / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Teen mother gives tot to heroin user, then claims son was kidnapped, St. Charles police say — • By Susan Weich sweich@post-dispatch.com 636-493-9674 — ST. CHARLES • A teen mother who told police someone had kidnapped her toddler really gave her son away to a heroin user, police said.

Discussion: Liberaland, NY Daily News and FOX2now.com