Un-smart Americans: Imagine if a liberal said this:

What does it say for democracy that half of the American population is unable to draw a rational conclusion from unambiguous facts? Americans share this disability with the Bush administration.

We’d be called “Bush haters” or “liberal extremists” — which would would be fine with us. But these statements were made by a Republican, Paul Craig Roberts, who served as an assistant secretary in the Treasury Dept. under Reagan, writing in Counterpunch last month. He also said:

Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll and a New York Times/CBS News poll, indicate why Bush is getting away with impeachable offenses. Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring, processing and understanding information.

Much of the problem is the media itself, which serves as a disinformation agency for the Bush administration. Fox “News” and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with propagandistic outlets setting the standard for truth and patriotism, all of the media is affected to some degree.

Despite the media’s failure, about half the population has managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not made them safer and that the Bush administration’s assault on civil liberties is not a necessary component of the war on terror. The problem, thus, lies with the absence of due diligence on the part of the other half of the population.

Roberts says he considers himself a paleo-conservative. If so, paleo-conservatives think a lot like us:

Americans need desperately to understand that 95 percent of all Muslim terrorists in the world were created in the past three years by Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Americans need desperately to comprehend that if Bush attacks Iran and Syria, as he intends, terrorism will explode, and American civil liberties will disappear into a thirty year war that will bankrupt the United States.

The total lack of rationality and competence in the White House and the inability of half of the US population to acquire and understand information are far larger threats to Americans than terrorism.

America has become a rogue nation, flying blind, guided only by ignorance and hubris. A terrible catastrophe awaits.

Scary on so many levels.

TNX JR!

For the record: I have never met Tancredo and Trish and I are not related to his campaign treasurer, so far as we know:

Rep. Tom Tancredo has asked the Federal Elections Commission to say whether his congressional campaign can give up to $50,000 to a Colorado group behind a proposed constitutional amendment restricting state services for illegal immigrants.

Tancredo, R-Littleton, is seeking an advisory opinion that could have national implications. It could clarify a gray area of the law and determine how much members of Congress can get involved in state ballot initiatives.

Campaign treasurer Jon Ponder said Tancredo has not decided exactly how much to contribute to the group, Defend Colorado Now, but proposed the $50,000 figure in hopes of getting clear guidance on what’s allowed.

[…]

Fox News:

The most recent Fox News poll shows that voters see Democrats as better at handling an array of key issues and gaining public trust on some areas traditionally considered Republican strengths. In addition, more voters think it would be better for the country if Democrats win control of Congress in this year’s election.

The poll finds that by a margin of 42 percent to 34 percent Americans think it would be better if Democrats gain control of Congress this year. Today’s 8-percentage point edge is down from an 11-point edge last month (10-11 Jan 2006).

As would be expected, most Democrats (81 percent) and Republicans (79 percent) want their respective parties to win control. Among independents: 32 percent back the Democrats and 18 percent the Republicans, with a 39 percent plurality saying “neither.”

We’re all gonna die: GovExec.com reported yesterday that the Health and Human Services Department has awarded a Project Bioshield contract for two radiological countermeasures. Remember Project Bioshield? Herr Prez mentioned it in his 2003 State of the Union speech and Congress passed the bill in 2004. The PB supposedly “provides new tools to improve medical countermeasures protecting Americans against a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attack.”

Specifically, HHS is spending $21.9 million on a five-year contract awarded to Akorn Inc., which is expected to deliver 390,000 doses of Ca-DTPA (Pentetate Calcium Trisodium Injection Sterile Solution) and 60,000 doses of its Zn-DTPA (Pentetate Zinc Trisodium Injection Sterile Solution). Hameln Pharmaceuticals GmbH of Hameln, Germany, developed the drugs.

The Federal Drug Administration approved the drugs for treatment of acute radiation exposure in 2004. According to the FDA, they are appropriate for very specific contamination situations:

Until today, there had been no approved drug products for the treatment of internal contamination with plutonium, americium, or curium.

Remember the old days of duck and cover? I do, along with the recurring nightmares of nuclear annihilation that were my childhood companions.

Internal contamination with plutonium, americium, or curium can occur through a variety of routes including ingestion, inhalation, or direct contact through wounds. The goal of treatment with Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA is to enhance the removal of these radioactive contaminants and therefore the risk of possible future biological effects including the development of certain cancers, which may occur years after exposure.

Release of plutonium, americium and curium could occur from laboratory or industrial accidents; or through terrorist attacks using a radiation dispersal device (RDD), commonly known as a “dirty bomb.”

This is just a small part of Project Bioshield, which also calls for stockpiling the following:

• 75 million doses of a second generation anthrax vaccine that was supposed to become available for stockpiling beginning in 2005.
• New medical treatments for anthrax directed at neutralizing the effects of anthrax toxin.
• Polyvalent botulinum antitoxin.
• A safer second generation smallpox vaccine.

[…]

Oh, yeah. This will get to the bottom of it:

“Brit Hume will be interviewing Dick Cheney this afternoon; interview will air on Hume’s 6 PM (EST) show tonight, according to FNC just now.”

Prediction: Hume will not ask the creepiest veep ever if he was drunk when he shot Whittington.

Why have a Congress if all they do is spend money? They should just disband and go home:

Congress appeared ready to launch an investigation into the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance program last week, but an all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed the effort and may kill it, key Republican and Democratic sources said yesterday.

The Senate intelligence committee is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a Democratic-sponsored motion to start an inquiry into the recently revealed program in which the National Security Agency eavesdrops on an undisclosed number of phone calls and e-mails involving U.S. residents without obtaining warrants from a secret court. Two committee Democrats said the panel — made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats — was clearly leaning in favor of the motion last week but now is closely divided and possibly inclined against it.