Well, I'm sleeping easier tonight. The State Legislature and Gov. Doyle can't seem to make any progress on making health care more affordable for Wisconsin families. They haven't lifted a finger so far to provide help with gas prices or the enormous home heating bills looming in the not-so-distant future. But you should rest easy too. They've got bird flu under control.
The Speaker today put out a release today naming the rest of the members of the Avian Flu Task Force. No, I'm serious. We have a task force on bird flu.
I suppose I was mistaken in thinking that the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could handle this. Apparently they can't get the job done here in Wisconsin without the help of noted bird flu experts like Kitty Rhoades, Amy Sue Vruwink, and Brett Davis. I'm sure the scientists at the CDC breathed a sigh of relief when they heard about this monumental breakthrough. Hell, they're probably all on vacation now that they know Marlin Schneider is on the job.
This is a classic example of bait and switch politics. The Legislature has accomplished little to nothing this session on issues it actually has control over - health care and school finance come to mind immediately. Mindful of its inadequate record, Assembly leadership will try to distract voters by "solving" a high-profile "problem" that it has virtually no control over - in this case, bird flu.
What ever happened to West Nile virus? Weren't we all supposed to be dead of that already? We must have been spared because so many states formed West Nile Task Forces to draft legislation. Or maybe it's just that politicians, having scored all the points they could out of that entirely manufactured crisis, left it behind and moved on to the next crisis du jour. West Nile is still out there, and it's still posing the same old non-threat of mass extinction it always was.
As of November 9, the WHO had confirmed 125 cases of bird flu since December 2003. That's about one case every five days. Worldwide. All over the planet. Nobody in Wisconsin has died of bird flu. Oh, but they could.
What's next? The Speaker's Task Force on Kitchen Mishaps? Stairway Falls? Zombie Attacks? Lightning Strikes? You're way more likely to die of any of those than you are of bird flu. So maybe the Legislature should get back to working on actual problems instead of groping blindly for press.
The Speaker today put out a release today naming the rest of the members of the Avian Flu Task Force. No, I'm serious. We have a task force on bird flu.
I suppose I was mistaken in thinking that the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could handle this. Apparently they can't get the job done here in Wisconsin without the help of noted bird flu experts like Kitty Rhoades, Amy Sue Vruwink, and Brett Davis. I'm sure the scientists at the CDC breathed a sigh of relief when they heard about this monumental breakthrough. Hell, they're probably all on vacation now that they know Marlin Schneider is on the job.
This is a classic example of bait and switch politics. The Legislature has accomplished little to nothing this session on issues it actually has control over - health care and school finance come to mind immediately. Mindful of its inadequate record, Assembly leadership will try to distract voters by "solving" a high-profile "problem" that it has virtually no control over - in this case, bird flu.
What ever happened to West Nile virus? Weren't we all supposed to be dead of that already? We must have been spared because so many states formed West Nile Task Forces to draft legislation. Or maybe it's just that politicians, having scored all the points they could out of that entirely manufactured crisis, left it behind and moved on to the next crisis du jour. West Nile is still out there, and it's still posing the same old non-threat of mass extinction it always was.
As of November 9, the WHO had confirmed 125 cases of bird flu since December 2003. That's about one case every five days. Worldwide. All over the planet. Nobody in Wisconsin has died of bird flu. Oh, but they could.
What's next? The Speaker's Task Force on Kitchen Mishaps? Stairway Falls? Zombie Attacks? Lightning Strikes? You're way more likely to die of any of those than you are of bird flu. So maybe the Legislature should get back to working on actual problems instead of groping blindly for press.
1 comment:
Two quibbles:
1) The legislature's IN-activity is not necessarily a bad thing. They could all go home for a year and most of us wouldn't miss them.
2) Your post flogs them for "inactivity" when on the other hand it begs them FOR "activity." Which way do you want to have it?
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