WHY IS BUSH HARPING SO MUCH ON THE BIRD FLU THING ? I MEAN RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU THINK HE CARES EVEN A TINY BIT

Have you started thinking all this Bird Flu palaver was just a way for BushCo to change the subject? He can terrorize people with a somewhat preposterous warning about a pandemic (that has killed 40 people in rural areas of Thailand, Indonesia and Laos mostly-- less people than get killed in Bush's Iraqi ocupation in a bad month)-- and get their minds off the host of problems beleaguring his Regime and driving his approval ratings into nonexistence. The mass media seems to go along; I get the feeling they'd go along with anything at all, as long as it was spoonfed to them and they didn't have to do any work. And that's one thing BushCo actually is good at, probably the only thing!

Anyway, pal Johnny just alerted me to a CNN report tonight that brings up that there is an entirely different reason for BushCo to push the bird flu pandemic story. I'm sure Donald Rumsfeld's stock portfolio is just as blind as "Dollar" Bill Frist's. Nevertheless, and it must be a coincidence, Rummy's growing stake in Gilead, the corporation that makes the much-touted Tamiflu, has fattened his portfolio considerably lately. According to CNN-sister company FORTUNE, "the prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld served as Gilead Research's chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million (quite a spread), according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer." Or maybe $5 million richer. Other rich Repugs making out like bandits on this one include ex-Secretary of State George Shultz and ex-California Gov. Pete Wilson.

And with the Pentagon emerging as one of the world's biggest customers for Tamiflu, it doesn't look like Rummy's got anything to worry about (except Iraq and Afghanistan and the falling-apart military, unless they're planning to invade some more countries to distract people when Rove gets indicted or DeLay gets convicted). Besides, Fortune is reporting that "Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase."