$30 Million to Save the Saltwater Marsh Mouse

Nancy Pelosi claims there are no earmarks in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But, there are plenty of pet projects, including one near and dear to her heart for years.

American taxpayers are about to spend $30 million for habitat protection for the endangered Saltwater Marsh Mouse, a native of Pelosi’s San Francisco district. Yes, America, you are about to spend $30 million to save vermin or rodents. Aren’t you proud? What a country!

Now most normal people want to avoid or destroy mice, rats, and other disease-bearing rodents, especially when located near or in major metropolitan areas. Humans have learned over the eons that vermin and people should not mix. Of course, here we are dealing with a far left liberal from California so normalcy is out of the question.

So, what will the advantages of this federal largesse to Pelosi’s pet mouse be? Well, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has a long list of all the wonderful diseases that rodents like Nancy’s Saltwater Marsh Mouse may offer us in return for our tax dollars:

“Worldwide, rats and mice spread over 35 diseases. Rodent-borne diseases are spread directly to humans through bite wounds, consuming food or water that is contaminated with rodent feces, coming in contact with surface water contaminated with rodent urine, or through breathing in germs that may be present in rodent urine or droppings that have been stirred into the air (a process known as ‘aerosolization’). Diseases from rodents are also spread indirectly to humans by way of ticks, mites, and fleas that transmit the infection to humans after feeding on infected rodents. In some cases, the rodents are the reservoirs (carriers) of the diseases, while in other cases the ticks, mites, or fleas act as the disease reservoirs."

Diseases directly transmitted by rodents, including mice and rats, are plague, salmonellosis, various hemorrhagic fevers, tularemia, lymphocytic choriomenigitis, and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Diseases indirectly transmitted include babesiosis, various tick fevers, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, cutaneous leuhmaniasis, various typhuses, various encephalitises, and rickettsialpox. (Source: http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/index.htm)

Evidently, Nancy wants to keep San Francisco hospitals full. Don’t they have enough AIDS patients already? Some of these diseases, especially plague and tularemia, are biological agents the Department of Homeland Security is trying to keep terrorists from bringing to us. Nancy again proves Pogo’s truth: “We’ve met the enemy and they are us.”