We're All Kazakhstanis!

At least we're not all Georgians, like the McCain campaign attempted to shout; that fell quite flat on its face. The episode with Georgia reminded me of the great Peter Seller's film, The Mouse That Roared. I note that the U.S. Government gave Georgia a cool billion dollars for 'reconstruction.' It's of course all about oil, Dick Cheney and the lobbyist for Georgia Randy Scheunemann, working for the McCain campaign.

The American citizens weren't fooled by the clever ruse which gives me hope that perhaps, just perhaps, they have grown a bit more wise in the past 4 years. I note the recent OpEd by Thomas Friedman, Georgia on my Mind. He writes:

But where are our priorities? How many wars can we fight at once without finishing even one? Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Georgia. Which is the priority? Americans are struggling to meet their mortgages, and we’re sending $1 billion to a country whose president behaved irresponsibly, just to poke Vladimir Putin in the eye. Couldn’t we poke Putin with $100 million? And shouldn’t we be fostering a dialogue with Georgia and with Putin? Otherwise, where is this going? A new cold war? Over what?

Indeed, where are our priorities. That foolish Iraq War of which John McCain squawks incessantly has cost the American taxpayer billions- money that could have been spent on the state of Georgia or Ohio or 48 others.

Do the American voters really get it? Will they fall for the slick commercials once again? Will they be more interested in Sarah Palin's funky glasses or John McCain's foolish mantra, "Drill, drill drill!" The jury is still out on that question.

By the way, actually we are all Kazakhstanis [another oil rich nation] not because of a lobbyist or the oil or for political gain, but through genetics. Anthropologist Spencer Wells, working through the National Geographic Genographic Project found a common ancestor- out of Africa- in Kazakhstan.