memeorandum: Kentuckians Now More Likely to Align With GOP (Justin McCarthy/Gallup)

2:50 PM ET, October 17, 2014

Top Items:

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: Balloon Juice, Truth Revolt, 6abc.com and CNN

New York Times:
Keeping Ebola at Bay

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

Greg Botelho / CNN:
Nurse may have had symptoms of Ebola longer than first thought

Discussion: Jezebel, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, Instapundit and TODAY

Washington Post:
Cruise ship carrying quarantined Texas hospital worker denied entry by Mexico

Discussion: New York Times, Gawker and Shakesville

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

Discussion: New York Magazine, 6abc.com, FOX News Radio and Gawker

Belizean:
Belize Confirms Patient With Ebola Symptoms On Cruise Ship Off Its Coast

Discussion: Mediaite and The Gateway Pundit

Manny Fernandez / New York Times:
Texas Restricts Movements of Hospital Workers Who Treated Ebola Victim

Discussion: Gawker, Business Insider and New York Magazine

Gene Sloan / USA Today:
Worker who may have handled Ebola specimen on cruise

Discussion: Hot Air and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

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

Discussion: Betsy's Page

John Bacon / USA Today: Nurse with Ebola: 'I'm doing really well'

Jake Tapper / CNN:

First on CNN: Obama will name Ron Klain as Ebola Czar — Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama will appoint Ron Klain his “Ebola czar,” knowledgeable sources tell CNN. — The president on Thursday signaled his openness to the idea to have one individual coordinating the entire federal response …

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, No More Mister Nice Blog, Christian Science Monitor, American Spectator, Althouse, Gawker, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Associated Press, Mashable, The Verge, FOX News Radio, Washington Post and New York Times

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Ron Klain is a great choice for Ebola czar — Something I learned during the first two years of the Obama administration, when the staff infighting was at its worst: if you wanted to get somebody to say something nice, ask them about Ron Klain. — Klain entered the administration as Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Fox News, The Dish and New York Magazine

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

Discussion: The Federalist, Business Insider and Weekly Standard

Wall Street Journal:

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 …

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Biden's son discharged from Navy after testing positive for cocaine

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

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties — In August, Tom Steyer and seven campaign advisers sat in a small conference room in Coral Gables, Fla., trying to figure out how to save the world. Steyer, who is 57, has a fortune of roughly $1.5 billion …

Discussion: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and Hullabaloo

Jonathan V. Last / Weekly Standard:

Six Reasons to Panic — As a rule, one should not panic at whatever crisis has momentarily fixed the attention of cable news producers. But the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has migrated to both Europe and America, may be the exception that proves the rule.

Discussion: American Prospect

Politico:
Why a travel ban wouldn't work

Discussion: Liberal Values, Allen B. West, The Federalist and Mediaite

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republican Joni Ernst Admits Why Republicans Really Hate Obamacare — Another secret recording. — Shares — Conservatives have made a series of specific predictions about the effects of Obamacare — overall costs would rise, insurers would flee the exchanges, premiums would go up, the ranks of the uninsured would not even fall.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality, Raw Story, Washington Center …, Washington Post, msnbc.com and Lawyers, Guns & Money

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: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Hill, Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times and Vox Popoli

Irin Carmon / msnbc.com:

This conservative cause is the GOP's worst nightmare — DENVER - There is one word that has defined the Colorado Senate race and it's a word that Republican Rep. Cory Gardner and other GOP candidates across the country are tired of hearing. The word is Personhood.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and National Review

Steven Beutler / The New Republic:

An infectious-disease specialist says the time for half-measures is over — Over the last several months, scientists at the Food and Drug Administration and World Health Organization have done an excellent job of educating the public about Ebola. They have provided a great deal …

Discussion: The Dish and National Review

RealClearPolitics Videos:
Earnest: “Likely” That Additional Healthcare Workers At Dallas Hospital Will Get Ebola

Discussion: Mediaite and Weekly Standard

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:

Perspectives on Inequality and Opportunity from the Survey of Consumer Finances — The distribution of income and wealth in the United States has been widening more or less steadily for several decades, to a greater extent than in most advanced countries.1 This trend paused during …

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Center …, New York Magazine and Guardian

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: Daily Signal, Rush Limbaugh, New York Times, Raw Story, American Spectator, BillMoyers.com, American Thinker and Balloon Juice

Sylvia Westall / Reuters:

Islamic State training pilots to fly in three jets: Syria monitor — (Reuters) - Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time that the militant group had taken to the air.

Discussion: Lawfare, Washington Post, Defense One, Outside the Beltway, New York Magazine and Guardian

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

Arizona Same-Sex Marriage Ban Is Unconstitutional, Marriages To Begin “Immediately” — Judge also refuses to put his ruling on hold during any possible appeal. [Update: Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne will not appeal, says clerks “can issue licenses for same sex marriages immediately.” ]

Discussion: Joe. My. God.

Justin McCarthy / Gallup:

Kentuckians Now More Likely to Align With GOP — Democratic presence, Obama approval at six-year lows in Kentucky — WASHINGTON, D.C. — A series of disheartening figures could make Democratic Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes' attempt to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all the more difficult.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Rasmussen Reports, Washington Post and Firedoglake

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.