I was startled to see that John McCain hasn’t been retired to the WaxWorks Museum of Irrelevant Political Figures yet — he’s still making speeches. Could somebody tell him that he’ll never, ever have a shot at the presidency again?
Anyway the subject of his speech was to sneer at fruit fly research again, and mock lobster research. What’s with the hatin’ on invertebrates, Mr McCain?
At least we don’t have to care what he says anymore: he is officially nobody, a washed-up politician who let himself get upstaged by his airhead running mate.
Everyone knows that the real leaders of the Cong were a gang of vicious lobsters hellbent on revenge against their spiny oppressors.
Straight up. David Icke told me.
Grrrrrr …. grrrrrr … grrrrr …. THAT ONE!
That’s what I’ll remember of John McCain, infamous narcissist.
Ugh, we clearly need better education on science research and the whole concept of “model organisms” (and why they’re awesome).
Unrelated: Here are some awesome “Teach the controversy” shirts that I think readers here might enjoy: http://controversy.wearscience.com/
Is he the twin of William Proxmire? Stupid stuff for his stupid fans.
Everyone knows that the real leaders of the Cong were a gang of vicious lobsters hellbent on revenge against their spiny oppressors.
Straight up. David Icke told me.
Everyone knows that the real leaders of the Cong were a gang of vicious lobsters hellbent on revenge against their spiny oppressors.
Straight up. David Icke told me.
Yeah, what can we possibly learn from these creatures that is pertinent to human biology?
I mean, that would imply that there was some sort of common descent!
Politicians go down this route to play to the base. Regardless of the value of fruit fly research, there are those people who will always believe it is a waste of money.
Yeah, what can we possibly learn from these creatures that is pertinent to human biology?
I mean, that would imply that there was some sort of common descent!
Unfortunately he still holds considerable sway in the Senate and will probably get reelected to his Senate Seat next go around. You don’t think he’s going to just fade away, do you?
And so many people said that Palin was going off the reservation. This dispels all doubts.
We did the right thing, not letting McInsane anywhere near the Oval Office.
the spineless slagging off the spineless…
sounds not untypical.
McCain, from a state famed for its commercial fishing, complains about a grant to help Maine lobsterfishers. What’s more, he even has the details wrong. One would have thought that he’d heard about how Palin was shown to be ignorant about both fruit fly research and olive fruit fly research. Apparently not, because he manages to make the same mistakes as her.
As Bugs Bunny would say, “What a maroon!”
Oh yeah? Well at least he wasn’t born in another country?
What? He was? Oh.
And Obama was born in Hawaii? Hmmmm.
Nevermind.
As it turns out, the “lobster cam” is actually not funded through this grant. What’s more, the grant (worth $188,000) is devoted to protecting Maine’s lobster stocks from microbial diseases. I personally prefer my state’s economy to not be devastated because John McCain is such a MAVERICK!!OMG!!!
Robster, he was born on a military base in the canal zone, which at the time was US territory.
I could sort of understand (though not approve) if he felt a need to stir up the yahoos during the campaign, but why now? This is embarrassing.
And it seems like every alleged boondoggle he’s attacked — every one he brought up in the debates, or that I heard about in speeches — has been scientific or educational in nature. Is it just me, or has it really been that way?
Can he really be as pro-ignorance as this makes him sound? Does he think (perhaps rightly) that aggressive, willful ignorance is the only thing left sustaining his party? And why is he still campaigning?
Janine @ #16:
I think the point is that most arguments the wingers use against Obama apply equally to McCain. Basically, if Obama isn’t a “natural-born citizen”, then neither is McCain. (But of course we know that Obama is a natural-born citizen—doubly so, as he was born inside the US, and a child of an American citizen—and so is McCain, so the whole argument is moot.)
So McCain is back to the earmarks,and again demonstrates a total lack of understanding for science.
What else is new??
Interesting tho that Palin’s “Paris,France” comments seem to have been authorized or generated by McCain people as well.
About the Olive Fruit Flies that McCain mocks, it is very important to California agriculture. Since people are becoming more health conscious, they had started to eat more olives. Olive is not only good for your health but it also help the california agriculture economy.
In fact, Napa Valley are doing really well because of the olive business. but their olives had been infested by the olive fruit flies. Salon wrote a really great article about why the Olive Fruit flies are extremely important.
http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/10/27/sarah_palin_fruit_flies/
The olive fruit flies migrated from France to the US and had been an pest ever since the late 90’s. Understanding the olive fruit flies in their nature habitat can lead Olive farmers in the US to get rid of them without damaging the olives.
That anti-research schtick is as tired as the ‘Happy Monkey’ greeting.
And both not exactly atheist inventions,are they…..
He can always retire and make Viagra commercials. Worked for Bob Dole.
‘Can he really be as pro-ignorance as this makes him sound? Does he think (perhaps rightly) that aggressive, willful ignorance is the only thing left sustaining his party? And why is he still campaigning?’
In certain circles ignorance is the preferred trait…
Dealing with some god fearing imbeciles requires pragmatic diplomacy above and beyond honesty…
His comments seem to echo Palin’s rant early in the election..maybe he just woke up from his nap and started a conversation about the last thing he remembered hearing…geriatrics tend to that default behaviour…
Being out of touch is one thing…using ignorance as a tool of political spin is summat else…
You would think that given the law of probability some genetic scientists might indeed have Republican leanings…one wonders at their silence over the issue… when crass and inflammatory inaccurate and misleading rants are bandied about as truth regarding their speciality…apart from the republicanism in their psyche…is this another form of cognitive dissonance?
I know why he hasn’t gone away yet.
People keep giving him attention. This is the first thing that I agree with Dr. Myers on. I’d have completely ignored that he’s out there giving speeches.
As for his senate seat, he *does* have *incurable* cancer. He might not live that long. I really think he’ll be dead by the next presidential campaign season.
And, yes, we did do the right thing by voting for Obama, who could be markedly more progressive, but still, better than THIS one… hehe
Kev :)
Are we back yet?
We’re at least getting halfway to being back at each step, Zeno.
Olive fruit fly research isn’t any more important than the research into other agricultural pests. The Obama/Biden compaign and much of the “scientific community” and the critical bloggers showed their ignorance of fruit fly research by jumping the gun and assuming this was about the model organism.
This was just to study the fly in its natural environment (southern Europe and Africa), in the presence of a predator wasp from Africa, that has ALREADY been introduced to California.
The is no evidence that the research is important enough to bypass the normal way of assessing national priorities. As #20, GrahamGirl says, the NAPA valley is doing very well because of olive growing. Now why couldn’t the growers themselves have funded the research, if the profits and economic importance is the justification. This research was just the pork barrel politics of one politician.
Can you believe that Ryan Grim of the Huffington post thinks all fruit flies are the same?
Let’s wish Sen. McCain success in his noble efforts to end earmarks which escape the priority setting representative review process.
Vote, you heathens. Pharyngula is losing by about 2400 votes.
http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-science-blog/
Janine (16), what Benjamin (18) said.
#30, there is a statute for the case of dependents born to military serving overseas, so the McCain case can be distinguished from the alleged Obama case. Perhaps an argument can be made that a statute is insufficient, and that a constitutional amendment should have been required.
Janine said:
Actually, that was what the first birth certificate his campaign supplied said, until it was pointed out that the hospital he was supposed to be born in wasn’t built until 20 years later. The second birth certificate they then came up with said he was born in Colón–outside the Canal Zone.
Of course it doesn’t make any difference either way, but McCain undoubtedly grew up thinking, as I did, that to be President, you had to be born in the US or its possessions. That was why they fabricated this first, forged document.
McCain’s Birth
Both parents were US citizens.
Both were serving the US at the time of his birth.
Thus, even if John McCain had been born in a flat in Adua (The Blade Itself) he would still be a natural born American citizen. It isn’t just a matter of where you are born, but also of who you are born to.
But what about funding for the lobster magnet?
Sad to see a once great man go downhill so fast.
I mean, he used to rail against friggin’ bears, and now he’s reduced to whining about fruitflies.
Sic transit …
PS: YAY! PHARYNGULA IS BACK! :breathes again:
My guess is that John McCain’s mom [note American terminology] told him when he was a kid that he’d be President one day, and since she’s still going, he can’t yet admit, even to himself, that it’s never going to happen. Sad, really.
Arthropods are elitists.
O/T: You all need to go and tear Matt Nisbett a new arsehole. Now he’s saying that New Atheists are an embarrassment because a religious Jew has made a movie that briefly features a black man portraying Jesus.
He probably won’t show any comments criticising him but it will fun making him moderate a couple of hundred.
WARNING: Only click on this link if you WANT to see Nisbett’s inanity. It’s your choice. Don’t come blaming me.
KnockGoats #37
McCain’s father and grandfather both were Admirals (four star). McCain was passed over for flag rank by the Navy. The only way John S. McCain III could surpass John S. McCain Sr. and John S. McCain Jr. was to become President.
Still wondering why some claim McLame was a war hero, when he just was another privileged under-achieving shithead who happended to be allowed to fly when he should have been grounded several crashes earlier.
Being a POW no hero maketh (unless you have lots of powerful connections through family)!
shonny,
After the swiftboating of Kerry, I’ve stayed away from commenting on whether a military combat veteran was a hero or not. Please, just let that argument go away.
28*
“The Obama/Biden compaign and much of the “scientific community” and the critical bloggers showed their ignorance of fruit fly research by jumping the gun and assuming this was about the model organism.”
It is debatable if Palin was aware of any differences in fruit fly research…It seems she would opt for squishing fruit flies in her Christian way…or shoot bears or other equally charming habits that required a bit of gore…
But when she made that claim that the USA were wasting tax payers money on playing with flies she was certainly not aware that her speech… in which she was denigrating Fruit fly research… was ostensibly to promote the well being of kids with autism…
She was arguing that the money could be better spent on the kids…fair enough…but it was also not anywhere near her radar that in fact fruit fly research is the one avenue of inquiry that showed most likelihood of understanding the physiological pre-cursor environment for this malady…
She never made the comment specifically against olive fruit fly research…just fruit fly research in ‘Paris France’… I kid you not!’
She was playing on folks ignorance by cluck clucking about wasted funds on seemingly ridiculous topics when so many other topics were apparently more urgent and in so doing was undermining her own efforts in her campaigning issue for the kids with autism…in the same speech…
As for McCain well he thinks he is still relevant…maybe he is trying to clarify Palin’s gaffe by pretending it was a specific attack ….on orders from on high and all that to try and do damage repair on Palin’s sorry grasp of reality in the public’s eye…pity it is a bit to late to fool anyone…except those that wish to be fooled!
Well, this settles it- even with the tapping of the odious Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation, I have no “buyer’s remorse” due to voting for Obama.
I believe that the fruit fly attacks were made (and apparently still are) because of ignorance. The campaign claim that I found infuriating was the “overhead projector” statement. That one was deliberately crafted to mislead.
strangest brew@43,
But the criticism of Palin only makes sense if the other candidates were more knowledgable BEFORE this incident. The actual point was earmarks which couldn’t make the grade for national priorities on their own. McCain is opposing all earmarks that bypass review, and this olive fruit fly research that benefits one congressman’s well-to-do constituency is still a pertinent example of abuse of the system. We need to clean up the system by eliminating these methods of buying votes and financial support. We don’t even have evidence that this earmark increase olive fruit fly research. The prosperous olive growers may well have funded the research themselves instead of making contributions to the congressman, IF it was one of their top priorities.
Africa:
I think it’s important to not give the remark a life of it’s own. There was no mention of olive growers paying for their own research or any other aspect of the work. His comment was of the “Golden Fleece” variety using the terms “fruit flies” and “Paris, France” to get a predictable response from his listeners. A lot of his listeners may well have been all for “Freedom Fries” back when France was smart enough to not jump into Iraq.
Your point on funding research is well taken, but candidates level of knowledge has nada to do with what was said and why. It was pandering to an anti-intellectualism and faux patriotism that seems to be an earmark of the right.
The farmers aren’t the only people who have an interest in the olives. There is a national interest in the farmers paying taxes…
Sounds good, but picking Palin, who voted for the Bridge To Nowhere before she was against it, makes McShame look deeply hypocritical. Don’t you think?
Not at all, no.
Arguing that the hundreds of billions stuffed into the military, which already has a budget about the size of all other military budgets of the world together, could be better spent on science — that would have been fair enough. Arguing that a few hundred kilobucks should be moved around within the science budget is pathetic. Embarrassing, outright.
Allen@47, I can see your point about the pandoring. Noble ends can’t justify such means, unfortunately we live in a sound-bite age, so we are bound to see more of this from all sides.
I couldn’t believe someone actually tried to defend this stupidity, much less Palin’s initial blather.
Well, let’s look at Caribou Barbie’s actual words:
First she said this:
Hm. NIH? Aren’t they the people who do things like, you know…RESEARCH? And look at that mention of autism!
This seems to indicate that she’s talking about the need to address the needs of people with disabilities, and that it might be important to look for cures for those disabilities. Cures require… Say it with me now:
RESEARCH!
Now let’s look at what she says next:
You know, if Palin wanted to bitch about earmarks, she needed to leave off the “have little or nothing to do with the public good.” By opening that door, then one has to allow that sometimes using funds for research that does good is a good thing. I’d say that doing research to cure autism would be a good thing.
Now let’s consider this:
She wants funding to research autism. She makes fun of fruit fly research. Then it turns out fruit flies are important to researching autism.
Now the next weasel will of course be that this particular research was for the Napa Valley olive industry, but the problem is that she doesn’t say that. She’s making fun of fruit fly research, like the moron she is. She doesn’t bother to say “fruit fly research in France, for protecting olives.”
Now why would a Republican leave an impression of opposing science rather than mentioning those olives…
Let’s see… Because olives are a..wait…it’s coming to me… BUSINESS!
Republicans don’t mess with business. There’s little they wont’ do for business. So, shit, they can’t attack business. What to do… What to do…
You can just imagine that speechwriting session:
“Earmarks, yeah, got it, got. Hey, Chad, what’s that fly research one you found, the one in France? Let’s put it in here.”
“Brilliant!”
“Uh… We have a problem. This is for agribusiness. I don’t think we want to go there, y’know…”
“Argh. You’re right. Well, let’s get in the stuff about earmarks, leave an implication that it’s just looking at a bunch of fruit flies, crazy scientists, and definitely throw in some xenophobia with the France thing.”
But of course someone had to make a list, keep it simple:
1. Imply scientists care more about flies than saving you money.
2. Hate on the French.
3. ??????
4. Profit!!!
Only it ended up being EPIC FAIL. Palin looked even more like a moron, just when we thought she couldn’t get any dumber. And now McCain’s wallowing in the ignorance sewer with her.
david@47,
McCain has been an unhypocrital oppenent of military earmarks and pork barrel military programs. There are programs that even Rumsfeld couldn’t manage to kill.
Taking a page from the Republican book of political framing and false dichotomies, I’d like to ask Senator McCain wether he is Pro-Cancer or just plain ol’ Pro-Ignorance.
K@51,
There are very few false dichotomies in economics, education and cancer research compete for scarce resources.
45*
‘But the criticism of Palin only makes sense if the other candidates were more knowledgable BEFORE this incident.
The point is very few people be they candidates or the general public are knowledgeable about ‘Fruit fly Research’
It was a cheap shot trying to denigrate ANY research into flies…Folk she was appealing to were the bar room orators…the Joe the plumbers…the religiously afflicted…simply because they DO NOT UNDERSTAND the work…but they understand they pay tax and they also are aware that that tax might be better spent in their pockets or on causes that they have a little more knowledge on…rather then being spent on fruit fly research…that was a view she was trying to elucidate…the view that science is a waste of money…a view which resonates more with the bunnies that have a religious ideology to protect.
Maybe the system of earmarking does need a revamp…and although it is okay to criticize the system it is rather foolish pandering to the uninformed view that government was wasting tax money on frivolous research grants…that was her point…nothing whatever to do with olives…it was a cheap shot at science…it somewhat misfired…
What Mc pain is doing jumping on that banana skin after all this time I have no idea?…but after the debacle about ‘overhead projectors’ one would have thought someone might have explained the point a little deeper to him…maybe they did…now he is bitchin about fruit fly research again…because no one has informed about that particular problem with the rhetoric…after all it seemed to ring a bell with the voters last time….this potentially shows several things…
1. Mcshame does not learn
2. He has no interest in science particularly
3. The republican party still have the hots for Sarah and worship every inanity she can muster
4. Mcshame naps to often to keep up with the debate
5. He thinks it is an issue that voters feel passionately about…or…
6. He thinks he is still on the hustings!
Umm…as much as I enjoy the attacks on irrelevant political figures…there is a rather large mistake being made here.
The fruit flies that everyone are leaping to defend are members of the familiy Drosophilidae. Many lab-reared species (including the famous Drosophila melanogaster) are in this family.
Olive fruit flies are members of the true fruit fly family Tephritidae which are common crop pests. As far as I know they’re not used as models for human disease (they can be very difficult to culture in the lab).
So saying that McCain is attacking basic research that are useful human disease models is not true. What he is attacking is applied research into an important crop pest. I’m not saying applied research isn’t valuable…but if we’re going to criticize his lack of scientific knowledge, we should check our own first!
Africa @52:
Is it your contention that it is a zero sum game? That is the implied when you state that there are very few false dichotomies. I would us the example of “You’re either our allies or our enemies” which was a view fostered by the Republicans to frame opponents to the war in Iraq. Likewise, to paint science research as either for kids OR for silly stuff like fruit flies is also a false dichotomy.
Stating that pandering may occur on all sides is a weak attempt to justify it. In effect, you take back your statement about ends and means. It is the ol’ “everyone else does it”- if theÿ actually do so or not.
katie #54
The problem is that both Drosophilidae and Tephritidae are both commonly referred to as fruit flies. The difference between the two was thoroughly discussed when Palin kidded us not about Parisian fruit fly research. For most of us with a nodding acquaintance of genetic research, “fruit flies” refers to Drosophila but we are aware that first Palin and now McCain were complaining about research on the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae.
*54
Katie…you have a fair point…but does Mc Cain know the difference…or did Palin when she started off this debacle…and if he does know why is this research such a problem…what does Arnie Schwarzenegger think about possible loss of a valuable crop in his backyard?…what does Arnie think about a fellow republican trying to condemn the olive industry in California to a reduced harvest?…what do the growers think?…do they vote republican?…
If the point is that the olive growers should fund the research…then why not Farmers in the mid west funding Colorado beetle…or Prion research…or a dozen other bugs and diseases that attack crops or livestock…
Seems that scientific research is being used and abused to provide sound byte policies favouring right wing attitudes.
Trying in affect to imply that it is a scam and money is being needlesly wasted on studying itty bitty fruit flies..
That was the tone originally and McCain is seemingly echoing that prejudice again…
Lobster research is also mentioned as collaborating evidence of scientific skulduggery.
Everyone has a right to their opinion …but what actually is this opinion he has…seems rather crafted to illicit disgust at money frittering by governmental incompetence …if it was about the system that allocates funds then bitchin about the projects is rather irrelevant!
@Jodi #23:
Viagra-pitching might have worked for Dole a few years back, but have you seen a recent pic lately? He increasingly looks like Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera! Compare:
Dole | Chaney
Even so, I suppose he probably meets someone’s definition of “sexy.”
Allen@55,
At any moment in time, it is a zero sum game. Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources.
Fortunately there is a lot of surplus wealth and many things can be funded, but that doesn’t mean everything can be funded. Bypassing the deliberative process means that the usual process for weighing a program against other priorities hasn’t been considered. Yes raising “kids” as the competing project is bringing emotion into the issue, but I was focusing on the economic aspect and not the emotional aspect of your post. Hmmm, I now recognize the emotional dichotomy that was your point, and I agree with you. Is it unfair to suggest that someone diverting resources to an agricultural constituency that contributes to his election, opposes kids in particular?
He’s forgotten that Louis Pasteur became the hero of France for mucking about in fungus research–and saving the grapes and thus the vineyards and the wine industry.
What’s with this fixation on Paris? The research is to be done out of Montpellier. I thought perhaps Palin was too uneducated to know that there are cities in France besides Paris, but now McCain repeats the same error. Is “Gay Paris” an anti-liberal talking point code word or something?
@African
Did you read the article by Salon about Sarah Palin after she mock the Fruit Flies? My purpose is that the State is suffering from the Olive Fruit Flies which is threatening the Olive Industries, which is a part of California Agriculture business. Their business is going down even through there is a return to Olives because of the Fruit Flies.
Besides, if you are so concern about all these pay for play politics, I am sure you will be fair and balance by equally saying that Bush decision to finance millions of taxpayer dollars to fund abstinence only and the faith base initiative, where many of his hardcore supporters had receive millions to misinformed the people so his far right wing base would vote for him again, or giving millions of dollars to Halliburton, KBR, and other military defense contractors who had donated liberally to his campaign is also wrong?
So, I guess there is no difference between Mike Thompson 200,000 earmark for Fruit Flies research and Bush 10 billion a month to secure 2/3 of the Iraqi oil reserve for the private oil industries which are making more money than any business that ever existed, porking millions to abstinence only education, or porking millions to his base through the faith initiative.
So, why should my tax dollars fiancé Bush Abstinence only education, or his occupation of Iraq, or even his faith base initiative? Let me guess, you hate science because you would rather billions be spend on wars, abstinence only education, and faith base iniatives? Just one question, do you support the 10 billion being spend on Iraq, the millions on abstinence only education, and the far right wing base receiving millions of dollars in the faith base initiative?
Here is my way to make both of us happy:
10 billion dollars for Iraq – 200,000 Fruit Flies = 9,999,800,000 for the conservatives Iraq pork
Or 1 billion for abstinence only education – 200,000 fruit flies = 999,800,000 left over to fund abstinence only education
I kid you not
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/11/MNG7VO2LUV1.DTL
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/19/business/NA-FIN-US-Congress-KBR.php
Reginald Selkirk, you are talking about the same type of people who think that there is such a thing as San Francisco Values.
@57
The olive farmers in congressmen Thompson district had not vote for a republican president ever since George H.W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election, they also voted against Prop 8, and had voted for a democratic representative ever since the 1996.
@african
The olive fruit flies are conducted in Monterpeller, France not Paris, France. The universities in Napa Valley had a study aboard programs, where students can go to a French university in Montpellier. Also, the USA already had laboratories established in France that received an annual budget of 700,000 each year. So, the earmark by congressmen Thompson means that 200,000 of the 700,000 yearly budgets will be use to study the olive fruit flies in their natural habitat.
“In April, when Thompson won the dubious achievement, he responded: “The olive fruit fly has infested thousands of California olive groves and is the single largest threat to the U.S. olive and olive oil industries.” He explained that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will employ a portion ($211,000) of the $750,000 award for research in France. “This USDA research facility is located in France because Mediterranean countries like France have dealt with the olive fruit fly for decades, while California has only been exposed since the late 1990s,” he said.”
When I said that the California olive industries are doing well, I mean that there is a return to olives for health reasons. However, the olive fruit flies are destroying the crops. They had become such a serious threat that the US department of agriculture acknowledges the flies’ faults.
A healthy industry, for sure, and one now threatened by the fruit fly. A University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources report declares that currently “the olive fruit fly occurs in at least 41 counties in California,” adding that in other areas of the world where the olive fruit fly has flourished, the pest has wiped out 100 percent of some olive varieties. As Thompson knew, a 2004 USDA report did not mince words: “The recent establishment of the olive fruit fly … in California has threatened to destroy the U.S. olive industry.”
McCain et al. can fuck off. Srsly!
Signed,
-One who works on a European weed-
Long live Arabidopsis! Long live model organisms!
I wonder if by seizing upon comments she made, McCain is aiming to lend what credibility he can to Palin in support of her 2012 campaign we keep being threatened with.
McCain doesn’t really hate fruit flies. He just wants to defend the traditional sanctity of flies. Therefore, fruit flies should not be allowed to marry.
Maine lobstermen..Maine went for Obama
California olive growers… Califonia went for Obama
Do we see a pattern?
Those are not businesses that should benefit from research!
Now that “we’re up,” I’ll post this late.
Some years ago, when I was just a noncynical kid, I remember being incensed when I heard Senator William Proxmire describing his awarding of the “Golden Fleece Award” to researchers investigating “How Radishes Have Sex.” (What a prurient image!)
I just happened to know a tiny bit of what was being investigated (that Raphanus ovules are preferentially fertilized by foreign pollen), and that the radish research was basic to understanding the differences between outcrossing species like apples and maize, and inbreeding species like wheat and peas. Pretty important stuff, but easily ridiculed to make political hay. Cynical spin-manipulation for selfish reasons is infuriating: our new administration will hopefully cultivate a culture of honest and patient explanation rather than spin. Thank FSM McCain and Palin are on their way to historical irrelevance.
Good job here, but it would make me happy if any political criticism of a research project was met by one or another Science Blog (or the researchers themselves) publishing an expert, accessible synopsis of the project, and if deliberately misleading characterizations were political suicide, worse than a blowjob. Oh, and jetpacks! Yeah, jetpacks.