The Bush Administration just can't not profit from America's woes, it seems.
George Bush dragged himself up to the podium this morning and gave his requisite Fear of the Week Speech.
This week's installment - Pandemic.
The pandemic I fear is the pandemic of corruption overwhelming the White House.
The pandemic I fear is the pandemic of fear this President inculcates with every speech he makes.
The pandemic I fear is the pandemic of lies erupting out of the mouths of pundits and political operatives who have hijacked our system and fill our television screens and radio waves with thoughtless garbage, inuendo, and insinuation.
Please notice the number of times the President used the word "pandemic" today.
Please notice how Bush preaches preemption rather than precaution - sick birds in Asia are the smoking gun preceding the mushroom cloud that is millions of Americans sick and dying from a disease that has, to date, killed 62 people.
Please notice how Bush ties disease to his war on terror, and how he wishes to terrorize us now with disease.
Please notice that Republicans like Donald Rumsfeld, George Schultz, and ex-Governor of California Pete Wilson big bucks because they were in on the ground floor of Tamiflu.
(Lisa in Los Angeles posted this article in a great diary yesterday.)
Fortune Magazine reports that the panic over Avian Flu is making rich members and friends of the Bush Administration even richer.
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, 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.
Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.
Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson.