...this time associating stronger hurricanes with global warming.
Story here, courtesy of the AP.
Our tax dollars at work. And then squashed. I sure would prefer to see the results of my tax dollars be these scientific reports, rather than fake news reports sent to TV stations, or torture, or any number of other things. Wouldn't you?
One of my pet peeves about the Bush Adminsitation, which gets too little play here, is the way their ideology (usually religious) is allowed to trump scientific fact and evidence. You can see this is the refusal to release the "morning-after" pill for OTC use, in the drive to get creationism taught in science classes as an "alternative theory", in the way they have environmental reports re-written to de-emphasize the stuff they don't want to hear...like about global warming and such.
And perhaps most notably in their attitude towards stem cell research.
Recently Ben Kaplan from Palo Alto contacted us to tell us about his blog: Ben's Stem Cell News.
Ben has a more than passing interest n the subject:
As someone who has cerebral palsy resulting from a stroke shortly after birth, I am interested in the potential of stem cells to treat my condition in the future. Having worked in public relations, I created the blog to provide a single site that compiles information from many different sources about this promising area of scientific research. I update the blog daily with the latest research news and information.
I've checked it out and found it to be a wonderful resource, and one that delivers some surprises. We may hear about the really big diseases and conditions stem cells may help with, but there are other applications big and small for stem cell research.
Check out this commercial featuring Ben and his twin brother. I wonder how often that happens...that one twin is struck with cerebral palsy and the other isn't?
Anyway, Ben's an SCCDP reader with something pretty worth reading himself. So check out Ben's Stem Cell News.
We have a whole category on this blog devoted to the Bush Administration prioritizing ideology over good science, but I've been quiet on the topic of late.
This NY Times article reminds me that this is a very important topic. It speaks to our national security. It speaks to our economic security. It speaks to the health of our citizens.
We should all be concerned. Just read it, and see if I'm not right to feel paranoid.
There was a result in another state far away that made me happy yesterday.
Check out this post on my personal blog to find out which one.
One of the things that most galls me about the Bush Administration (and the radical right wing in general) is their willingness to scoff in the face of science, or medicine, or statistics etc. when it clashes with their ideology.
And they want to use the US's superpowers to enforce their ideology on the rest of the world.
The latest appalling example is regarding AIDS program overseas.
Although drug use with infected needles is a major cause of AIDS overseas, the US wants to withhold our monetary aid to AIDS programs if they won't renounce needle exchange programs.
So, the goal isn't to prevent AIDS. It's apparently to eradicate it by killing off more of those immoral drug abusers more quickly.
Quite a plan, Dubya.
Why, Dubya's against them both of course.
I'm one of those that thinks when someone lies you call them a liar...even if it's the President. AmericaBlog agrees. And the latest lie is on the environment. Apparently to save corporations lots of money in meeting regulatory standards, the administration has had findings stripped from an EPA report that indicate exactly how dangerous mercury is.
And, according to Kicking Ass it is particularly dangerous to unborn fetuses.
So, if I'm understanding right...according to Dubya women don't have the right to control their own bodies, but the government can willfully take measure that will harm those same fetuses they are so anxious for the women to deliver.
Now the study that was axed shows that putting stricter regulations in place could save up to $5 billion per year in health care costs.
But here's Dubya's choice: make big business spend some money to prevent that later health care cost. Or accept that health care cost, figuring that the cost will mostly fall on the average person with the health problem.
Of course that logic is faulty all the way around. Everyone pays in some way for those health care costs...even the big businesses.
So, let's see: They lied. They let ideology trump science again. They display unbelievable hypocrisy when it comes to the issue of a "culture of life." And they once again favor their big business cronies over the interests of average Americans.
Yup. Sounds like the Bush Administration to me.
More on this from The Daily Kos
Your tax dollars are going to lie to women that if they get an abortion they have an increased risk of getting breast cancer.
You know, 'cause the Republicans are the party of both fiscal responsibility (spending money on incorrect brochures) and small government (forcing wait periods for abortions, during which women are given this erroneous material to read.)
It's easy (and funny) to question Bush's basic smarts, but whatever else you say, he is proving to be a man who acts on his philosophies-in big and small ways.
While we are all worried about the big events: the war, the job losses, a gay marriage constitutional amendment, the Bush White House is quietly pushing their ideology into every facet of government, insisting on changes to various government reports to omit facts that do not serve their agenda.
Facts like: condom use education does not correlate with higher levels of sexual activity.
Or how about that there is no correlation between abortions and breast cancer?
Both of these facts wouldn't serve the Bush White House's agenda, so they had them omitted from government reports. Yes, omitted.
On the flip side, when a report did find that there is a "health gap" between how whites and people of color are treated in our health care system, those references were also removed by the Dept. of Health & Human Services.
And yes, these are government-sponsored reports, so they are paid for by our tax dollars. So, essentially we pay taxes to be lied to.
So, while we are protesting the big things we can see, this White House is doing a lot of little things we are not meant to see. Things that replace truth, fact, research, numbers with obfuscation and mis-direction.
We're living in an 'X-Files' world as far as I can tell.
Read on to the extended entry to get all of the latest ammunition on this topic.
First of all, here is the column by Leonard Pitts, from the Miami Herald, that first brought this issue to my attention:
Article on White House Distorting Government Reports
Luckily, this issue did not die, but rather started getting more attention. It is heartening that voices for the truth are actually having an impact.
First, 60 noted scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, issued a statement asserting that the Bush administration had systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals. They issued a 38-page report detailing the accusations: namely that the administration repeatedly censors and suppresses reports by its own scientists, stacks advisory committees with unqualified political appointees, disbands government panels that provide unwanted advice and refuses to seek any independent scientific expertise in some cases.
But even more amazingly, the White House actually had to respond, and did so by re-issuing at least one of the reports in question with the controversial omissions re-instated. here's the NY Times story on that:
NY Times on Scientists' Letter
I believe in the power of the individual, the power of the written word, the power of the Internet. We all need to jump on this bandwagon and spread common sense, spread necessary outrage, spread truth, spread knowledge.
We cannot be deterred by a belief in a foregone conclusion. We, the people, are all the "alternate voices" needed to turn this country in a better direction. The choice is clear: we can stand by and say nothing and send the message that it's okay to lie to us, or we can spread the word and force a change.
If I sound like I'm evangelizing, I am. And you should go out and do it too. get involved, get out the vote and get our country back on the right track