Flies in the Ointment.

I was watching some reporting on Palin's speech today about her desire to fund programs for special needs children. I was already thinking, that's great, but I thought you were going to implement a spending freeze, when she started talking about how they'd fund it by cutting earmarks. I wish I had a tally of all the things they plan to fund with the money they save by making sure planetariums (planetaria?) are no longer able to spread rumors that the sun doesn't revolve around Earth, and Earth is more than 6,000 years old. And then she made an example of fruit flies. First I'll give you what she said, and then we'll talk about why it might be a problem for the credibility she was just trying to build.



She is apparently mocking an earmark that went toward studying olive fruit flies, which was championed by Rep. Mike Thompson of California. He contends that these fruit flies represent the single largest threat to the U.S. olive and olive oil industries. According to this information from UC Davis, his concerns are well founded. According to their site:

The rapid invasion of California by the olive fruit fly poses a severe economic threat for the state’s commercial olive growers. The olive fruit fly is considered the most devastating insect pest of olives in the Mediterranean region, where it has occurred for over 2000 years... In areas of the world where the olive fruit fly is well established, it has been responsible for losses of 100% of some table cultivars and up to 80% of oil value. For table olive growers, the presence of even a few infested fruit can lead to rejection of an entire crop.

So, to someone who spends two minutes on Google trying to understand the reason for the requested earmark (like I just did), spending less than a million dollars ($742,764) to try and avoid major injury to California's agricultural economy sounds like a potentially worthwhile expense. To Palin, however, it's a punchline for political gain. I wonder what Joe the Farmer would have to say about that.

The larger laugh line here (for me at least) is the other, more pertinent aspect of her remark. You see, it is probably unwise to mock fruit fly research in your speech that advocates programs for special needs children. It appears that fruit fly research, including a recent study at the University of North Carolina, is potentially instrumental in the fight against autism.

Now, if you'll remember, at the 3rd debate McCain said, about Palin and autism, "She understands that better than almost any American that I know." So surely she would know about the fruit fly study and would know better than to mock scientific research on the little bugs. Either that or McCain confused Down Syndrome for autism, and believes that Palin is the world's foremost expert on special needs children, the science of energy, and Russian diplomacy merely because she has had contact with all three subjects. Sadly, "my friends", it appears to be the latter. So when Palin says, "I kid you not", we can only wish she was.

Footnote:
Did anyone else notice that Electoral-Vote.com has Obama getting 375 electoral votes today? That could be 400 and I'd still be concerned.