Schooling our elected officials

[Matariki]

I naively tend to assume that members of Congress are much more aware of current events, the intricacies of politics, and foreign affairs than the average citizen.

A caller on Thom Hartmann's show, speaking to Senator Bernie Sanders, mentioned the existence of the U.S. Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce and pointed out how many PNAC members were, or are, on its board - including Dick Cheney, James Baker and Henry Kissinger. In case you don't know, Azerbaijan borders Georgia and also has the BTC pipeline running through it.

Now, you would think a Senator as smart as Mr. Sanders would already be aware of this. But it was the first he'd heard of it. And to be certain, if he isn't aware of stuff like this, you can imagine that most members of the House and Senate know even less. It has profound implications as to what's going on in that region as we're possibly being dragged into WWIII.

We need to elect more intellectually curious public officials. Or send them to school. Or something.