Agricultural Minister Elena Espinosa of Spain, during a radio broadcast on Cadena Ser (attributed to Agence France-Presse), said the H5N1 strain of the avia flu is “solely and exclusively a veterinary problem.”

Espinosa said “The idea of a pandemic among humans is something from science fiction.” Further, she said human infections currently in Asia were “in very specific poultry raising situations where the families lived with the chickens and infection was due to constant inhalation.”

Is this not the nation that, following the Al Queda attack on March 12, 2004, elected an administration that folded its tent in Iraq and assumed the fetal position when confronted by terrorists? I suppose that’s a nice way of saying I’m “considering the source.”

In the real world, the strain of H5N1 has been documented and specifically linked to the deaths of 60 persons in Asia in the past three years. Scientists say that, though the strain does not yet spread easily from person to person, the possibility exists that it could mutate into a variety that could be spread as easily as any seasonal flu.

CDC Director Julie Gerberding said “If ever there was a time when the risk (of a pandemic) was higher than usual, it is now.”

World Health Organization Regional Director for the Western Pacific, Shigeru Omi, said that with one small genetic adjustment in Influenza A, or H5N1, millions of people across the planet could die on a scale of the 1918 flu pandemic. Public health officials from the Western Pacific region recently gathered at Noumea, New Caledonia, on September 19th, to discuss the issue.

The worst-case scenario, the New York Times reported, would be if person-to-person transmission spawned successive generations of severe disease with high mortality – the situation during the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, which killed an estimated 40 to 50 million people.

The early 20th century disaster resulted from the emergence of a completely new influenza virus subtype that spread worldwide in four to six months, causing several waves of infection over two years.

The H5N1 virus, which spreads through migratory birds, has plagued poultry populations in Asia since 2003, exposing more humans.

Several nations in Europe and Asia are now reporting new cases of the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain among poultry, sparking new fears that humans could be at risk. Fresh outbreaks have been reported in Romania and Russia. China says it has lost thousands of fowl to the virus.

More on this in later posts.

The New York Times and Associated Press reported yesterday:

President Bush vowed on Tuesday to get tough on illegal immigrants even as he urged Congress to adopt a temporary-worker program that would allow some to remain in the United States for as long as six years.

“We’re going to get control of our borders,” Mr. Bush said in the White House East Room just before signing a $32 billion domestic security bill that has big increases for the Border Patrol, including money for 1,000 new agents and improved technology. “We’ll make this country safer for all our citizens.”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department aims without exception to expel all those who enter the United States illegally. “Our goal at DHS (Homeland Security) is to completely eliminate the ‘catch and release’ enforcement problem, and return every single illegal entrant, no exceptions.

“It should be possible to achieve significant and measurable progress to this end in less than a year,” Chertoff told a Senate hearing.

Thousands of “Mexicans who are caught entering the United States illegally are returned immediately to Mexico. But other parts of the system have nearly collapsed under the weight of numbers. The problem is especially severe for non-Mexicans apprehended at the southwest border,” Chertoff explained.

“Today, a non-Mexican illegal immigrant caught trying to enter the United States across the southwest border has an 80 percent chance of being released immediately because we lack the holding facilities,” he added.

“Through a comprehensive approach, we are moving to end this ‘catch and release’ style of border enforcement by reengineering our detention and removal process.” Chertoff’s remarks in favor of returning “every illegal entrant, no exceptions” appeared to conflict directly with the US policy toward illegal Cuban migrants.

Though Cubans picked up at sea are returned to their country, those who reach US soil by air, sea or ground are allowed to stay and work — a fact Cuba says encourages dangerous illegal emigration attempts. Mr. Bush added, “If somebody is here illegally, we’ve got to do everything we can to find them.” Once illegal immigrants are caught, he said, they must be “returned to their home countries as soon as possible.”

Mr. Bush’s words, among his most insistent on illegal immigrants to date, were intended to calm conservatives upset at his temporary-worker plan, which a number of Republicans view as an amnesty program. Mr. Bush first proposed the plan in January 2004, but it has run into resistance.

In a renewed effort to win support, the White House is now emphasizing the border enforcement part of the plan, but at the same time insisting that enforcement can work only as a part of what Mr. Bush on Tuesday called “a larger, comprehensive immigration reform program.”

The timing of this re-focus on immigration issues by the Bush Administration coincides with the overall noise in the blogosphere (myself included) and other fronts (National Review) about the Harriet Miers nomination, and appears to be something of a conciliatory measure to reassure the more conservative base that the president has not abandoned his core.

I have no problem with a temporary worker program; it can be changed and amended when desired. Physically, there is no way to “expel” all those illegal aliens present in the country. The holding facilities and courts sufficient to handle the numbers simply don’t exist. Vetting each person entering the country from this point out (or doing our best to do so) and buttressing our borders is a step in the right direction.

In addition, the avian H5N1 flu will impact how we conduct our immigration business as well. It’s not a matter of if but when the bird flu arrives in the US, and when it converts from the avian population to the human population. LAX, which moves 10,000 persons a day, is already making plans to take 1,600 passengers at a time and move them to detention centers for a 4 to 10 day flu quarantine.

More on the avian flu issue later — the potential hazard here is staggering — perhaps not unlike the 1918 flu pandemic.

This is another reason I enjoy blogging and finding new blogs.

By way of Fetching Jen’s blog, I found the Big White Hat. On Saturday, 10-15, he wrote about being “chosen.” Rather than simply providing a link, I wanted to reprint it here in its entirety. A truly moving piece:

CHOSEN
Have you ever been the odd man out? Rejection is reality. It happens to us all. It happens all the time. For every evil in the world there is an unequal and opposite good. I say unequal because the good is far greater.

The greatest desire of both God and man is to be chosen.

Chosen. I like to be chosen.

All that is good and right in my life is because I am chosen.

It all started with an irresponsible pair of college students in Lubbock Texas. Wise beyond her years, my birth mother wanted more for me than what she thought she could offer. She checked herself into a home for pregnant women. She knew it would be better for me to be chosen.

Two local kids and their young son were making a go of life in Amarillo. They knew something was missing. So my parents and my brother stood before a judge and I was chosen. They took me to Odessa Texas and never let me forget that I was chosen.

When I was 16, my behavior merited a separation from my car. I rode the bus home one day. At the back of the bus was a young looker sitting with her boyfriend. She looked right through the crowd and zeroed in on me. I did not know it yet but I was chosen.

When I was 17 my good friend informed me that a really good looking girl wanted to meet me. Then I met the girl from the bus. I have never stopped loving her. It is good to be chosen.

Years later, I had made a real mess of my life. The only thing that kept me hanging on was the realization that I was chosen. My loving parents and my friends at a Church across from the park in Odessa Texas wouldn’t let me forget that I was chosen.

One day I was talking to my father. He told me someone had called asking about me. That girl from the bus was back in town. She was back in town to find me. I guess she never really stopped loving me either. Once again I was chosen.

As I ponder my children, I wonder,” Why me?” How could I be the one chosen to turn them into responsible adults? Each of them has their own strengths and needs. I don’t always understand how to do this. But, I know who must do it. Once again I have been chosen.

I try to live my life deliberately. I have my own place in this world. I have a fate, a destiny, a purpose. I am chosen.

When I count my blessings on Earth and when I look forward to my treasures in heaven, I take joy that I am chosen.

I like to be chosen.

Remember I wrote that I’d explain the reason for many conservatives’ reaction to Harriet Miers? The time is here. To begin:

George Bush was reelected one year ago next month, acquiring 62 million votes, winning 51% of the vote. His was the first campaign since 1988 to win a majority of the popular vote. He won more votes than any candidate in US history. His first term primarily addressed terrorism. In the second, the issues were social security reform, the continued war on terrorism, continued economic growth. But let’s examine these things more closely.

First, social security reform tanked, on a concept that was too blunt, too frank, beyond most politicians’ ken — and a good portion of the electorate as well. The problem hasn’t gone away; it’s just been tabled until someone else has the guts to broach the issue or the system itself tanks under its own weight and lack of funding.

But ten years ago, when Bill Clinton himself declared “The era of big government is over” — well, it appears to many conservatives that there isn’t a spending measure, bill, or program expansion that George Bush doesn’t like. He has yet to veto even one spending bill. Some persons peg the phrase “compassionate conservative” on President Bush. But is the CC label achieving results — and at what cost? — literally.

One of the basic tenets underpinning my conservative philosophy is: less government. That which governs least governs best. Push decisions, funding, politics down to the lowest levels: local and state. President Bush has done his best to water the expansion of the federal flower: the Medicare drug benefit (single most expensive entitlement since the 60’s), billions and billions for AIDS (where are the other countries with their generous funding, hmm?), supercharging the Department of Education, creating a huge new department (Homeland Security) and now, “whatever it takes” to “rebuild New Orleans” to the tune of $200 billion.

One one hand, Bush is spending money like water. On the other, we got a tax cut. My dad says: tax cuts are good, we always need tax cuts. So I took my “tax cut” and paid a bill. But “tax cuts” or “no more taxes” + prodigious spending = where the hell is this money coming from? Oh: the money will come from cuts. Tom Delay recently said the federal budget was “pared down pretty good.” He also said “There is simply no fat left to cut from the federal budget.” What?? He recently amended his statement when he saw men approaching with the jacket and Posey cuffs.

Federal spending grew 30% under Bush’s first term. Before the hurricanes, federal spending grew 7% this year so far. Despite this, contrary to doomsayers, the economy is still doing well. Murders are at their lowest rate since 1965.

Then of course, there is that niggling little Border Issue. The possibility that there may be a nuclear mushroom cloud over a US city. See either movie: Dirty War or Last Best Chance. Not to mention the fact that illegal immigration is, well, illegal. President Bush called those in the Minuteman Project “vigilantes.” I call them American citizens doing a job the President lacks the courage to perform himself. When it takes a French acquaintance of mine seven years to become a US citizen vs. someone who got his or her ankles wet in the Rio Grande — and they achieve the same results — why would you want to go the legal route?

This is an entirely separate hotbutton topic for me which deserves later scrutiny.

In any event, massive spending + (in my opinion) unnecessary appeasement of the left wing (my, that’s working well, isn’t it?) + refusal to secure our borders + the nomination of Harriet Miers = final, open dissatisfaction on the right with a Bush decision.

Plus: President Bush may in fact get the opportunity to make an historical three nominations to the SCOTUS, as it’s possible Ruth Bader Ginsberg or John Paul Stevens may retire in the future, during Bush’s term. That would give the president the chance to impact a full one-third of this court.

So: the Harriet Miers “upheaval?” Not that difficult to figure out. I voted for George Bush, not LBJ. To be coarse: show me some sack, Mr. President.

So there I was. Rummaging around the digital ether when all of a sudden: bang! Pythons are taking over the world! To wit:

A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said. The snake was found with the gator’s hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor, said the alligator may have clawed at the python’s stomach as the snake tried to digest it.

Ewww!!

The finding confirmed that snakes and gators have an appetite for each other.