The Post has an article on John McCain’s outrage over $3,000,000 spent on science and wildlife management, in the form of a study which collected DNA samples from grizzly bears:

If you’ve heard Sen. John McCain’s stump speech, you’ve surely heard him talk about grizzly bears. The federal government, he declares with horror and astonishment, has spent $3 million to study grizzly bear DNA. “I don’t know if it was a paternity issue or criminal,” he jokes, “but it was a waste of money.”

A McCain campaign commercial also tweaks the bear research: “Three million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. Unbelievable.”

According to McCain, the federal government “wasted” this $3 million ostensibly contributing to the $3,700,000 million deficit which is the legacy of Bush the II and his lapdog Republican Congress.

But not so fast — it turns out the collection of DNA samples was a means to an end — counting the population of grizzlies, an endangered species:

The secret to counting bears is obtaining hair. One way is to pluck it off of “rub trees,” which bears use for marking territory. The other trick is to use a string of barbed wire to make a pen. Place some stinking bear bait in the center, and the bear will slip under (or sometimes, if the bear is huge, over) the wire. Snagging hair that way doesn’t hurt the animal.

In 2002 Kendall and her colleagues proposed using such hair traps to count bears in Glacier National Park and the nearby wilderness. Multiple state and federal agencies backed the plan. So did Montana’s governor at the time, Judy Martz, a Republican, who asked the congressional delegation for support. The project found a powerful ally in Burns, who chaired the subcommittee overseeing the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey. Burns, Kendall said, added $1 million to the USGS budget in 2003 and pushed through add-ons for the next four years.

While McCain is decrying $3 million (actually $4.8) spent to conduct a census of a species which is an American icon, adorning the flag of the State of California, and a source of food upon which Lewis and Clark relied on their travel to the Pacific, the United States is spending about $12,000 million per month on Iraq, or $400,000,000 per day. Not to mention the human costs in lives, limbs, head injuries and the like.

And while McCain abhors the spending of $3 million to help conserve the grizzlies, he is enthusiastic about spending $400 million each day, for 100 years if need be, to keep an American Army occupying Iraq.

Little minds, little problems.