Not afraid of hurricanes? In his continuing effort to keep you scared to death - and therefore unwilling to change political horses - Bush turns to the bird flu.
His proposed legislation gives huge subsidies to, and makes huge purchases of vaccines from, pharmaceutical manufacturers - despite the fact that there is no evidence that this flu strain has ever mutated, and no cases involving humans. Opportunist that he is, he has included a bit of tort reform - a provision immunizing manufacturers from suit for "side effects."
In this effort he is greatly abetted by the press - which needs terror as much as he does - and a bunch of medical talking heads who are using the "threat" of avian flu to advance their own careers. Same old same old. Sickening.
Here's the only problem: people no longer trust Bush to keep them safe. So a little logic may play with the public. It would be nice if they could be made to understand the politics behind this move. Who's going to do it? Who knows?