Any sane person would look at the ratings of MSNBC and CNN and conclude that aping them with their failed cast-offs might not be a good idea. But when you are Al Jazeera America, and owned by an oil-rich Middle Eastern nation, you can make anti-science decisions like setting yourself up to become America’s third low-rated left-wing cable news outlet.

What else are we to believe about Al Jazeera America, a cable news network set to launch August 2 and hiring the likes of the racially divisive Soledad O’Brien and Barack Obama’s economic cheerleader, Ali Velshi? Both are left-wing, both were dumped by CNN.

Obviously not content with all that leftism, Al Jazeera America removed the bottom of the barrel to dig even deeper, and on Monday came up with MSNBC castaway David Shuster — a poor man’s Keith Olbermann.

These are, thus far, the three biggest names attached to the new network.

Other hires include Michael Viqueira; who will be the network’s White House correspondent and comes from NBC/MSNBC. Finally, there is Kim Bondy, a former CNN vice president.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC