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Surgeon General Describes Censorship From Bush Administration
UniversalVM writes "The NY Times is reporting that the former Surgeon General in damaging testimony given to the senate describes how he was repeatedly censored by the Bush administration while speaking out about topics such as global warming, Stem cell research and so on. The effort was to 'water down' or weaken reports on important issues to suit Republican Agenda. He describes how he attended one meeting where Global Warming was being described as a 'Liberal Agenda' and being dismissed. He tried to intervene thinking that the people there did not understand the science so he set about explaining it to them, the result? He was never invited back."
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
Bush at work again, I see....
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
I can't wait until Bush has to get a tattoo on his back that reads: "SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING! Election of this individual may result in death and will increase the risk of the rest of the world hating you."
My work here is dung.
Recently, I went to this party, and when the band left, I grabbed the mic and started singing (I was imbibed). I've not been invited back....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
On a more serious note, even if you think that global warming is a pile of horse manure, why would anyone object to the measures that are being suggested? Unless they owned a coal mine of course...
There's a lot of sense in heavy investment in nuclear, solar and wind power plus hybrid, diesel and electric vehicles even in a situation where the world isn't going wrong. Same with switching to CFLs and generally improving efficiency of resource usage etc... it's not like there are people who find clean air offensive... or at least I hope not.
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
Science should never bow to political pressures. Bush is guilty of this, obviously...This is hardly the first evidence.
But, especially in the area of health care, he's far from the only one who has gotten involved in a negative manner. Reagan tried to squash talk about AIDS, Clinton poo poo'd needle exchange programs, Bush Jr. jumped on everything just as part of the administrations obsession about managing information.
This stuff really needs to be separate and non-partisan...I am so freaking tired of this or that issue being batted around because of peoples inborn prejudices. A reputable expert with actual facts puts together a well thought-out, scientific report, and they get defunded, their speeches are edited and pre-reviewed. People from within the administration work to discredit their testimony. It's just ridiculous, and there is no way good science or good policy is coming out of it.
Hell, while they're at it, they should add a scientist general, and do the same damn thing. This stuff isn't about opinion. There is a right answer.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I'm not sure 2008 can come quickly enough.
I don't for a moment think that any of the potential presidential candidates and their future administrations will not be rife with corruption and political mumbo jumbo. However, the constant news of abuses of power and position to make hideously bad decisions has me regretting the past 7 years thoroughly.
We need Mr. T for president, or at least Secretary of Defense.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
Try explaining anything scientific to your friends -- you soon won't have any.
...Bush Administration And at what point does the meter raise to impeachment of the clan?
I don't condone censorship of scientists in any way, shape or form. But why is the Surgeon General talking about global warming? He should leave that discussion to the climate experts (e.g. Jim Hansen). There are too many armchair climatologists out there, which contributes to the misunderstandings about global warming.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Join Scientists and Engineers for America. They are "a non-profit organization dedicated to renewing respect for evidence-based debate and decision-making in politics and at all levels of government."
If groups like that had the same sort of clout that religious groups have, America could remain the economic and philosophical leader of the world.
Of course, if we continue to elect politicians who make decisions based on theology instead of science, it may be time to start looking for jobs in western europe.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Sorry, the parent is not a valid, Bush Administration Surgeon General position. You only mentioned Bush only once and you full well know the standard for any proper scientific position is that President Bush must be mentioned in glowing terms 3 times per page. Please edit and resubmit your paper accordingly.
(If only that wasn't **actually true**!!!)
Look Clinton had a BJ and they tried to get him out of office. Bush has been screwing up a war form day one, went in when the evidence said no WMD's. Hell he even tried to pion sept 11 on Iraq, tho the evidence just was not there. Toss in things like the wire tapping issue where illegal wire tapping's occurred even tho getting a warrant to do it was basically a rubber stamp, and nothing happened. This is not the first time someone has said bushes gang tried to change the facts, and force bad info down on the public. In the end Bush is a oil guy, he don't care about the environment or anything, just making his own cash. Yet some how he is still in office, and Clinton who ya was not perfect almost got tossed out because of a BJ, give me a break.
What really sucks about this to me is that hearing news of claims like this should really surprise us, but really...
How many of us read the title and were shocked and/or appauled?
Kinda sad that we're numbed to seeing stuff like this.
This is my signature. There are many like it but this one is mine.
"Reality has a well known liberal bias." - Stephen Colbert
--
make install -not war
I used to be furious that our soldiers were dying for a lie in the desert...then I learned that the military voted Bush in 2004...88%...and they kept spouting the usual lies on TV. I quit caring about them.
Then, amazingly, I just quit caring about Iraq. Nobody I care about is over there fighting that honor-less conflict.
*shrug*
Patriotism is for suckers. Citizenship is a business relationship, and that is IT! It's give and take. What can the country do for me, in return for my support.
Blar.
"I was specifically told by a senior person, 'Why would you want to help those people?' " Dr. Carmona said. Wow... just... wow. Let's torpedo the Special Olympics because they're associated with someone from the other party. That's pretty damn low.
"Coming up on our 11 o'clock news... President Bush unexpectedly attacked by an unruly mob and severely beaten with crutches and canes. VP Cheney terrorized by motorized wheelchairs. Gov't suspects Al Quada."
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
- Malaria and other diseases
- heatwave deaths
- water quality
It sure would have been helpful to have talked about them over the last seven years.After World WarII, several Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Not everyone wanted to do that. Winston Churchill, for example, just wanted to execute those Nazis. But the USA insisted on fair trials, saying that it was important to establish the principle of the rule of law.
Back then, the USA had leadership that demonstrated to the world how even the most heinous crimes (particularly the Holocaust)—in which many millions of people died—can and should be handled according to law and principle.
Compare that with what George W. does today.
There's a difference between
a. You being correct
b. Someone else being wrong
Claiming that someone else said something is no excuse nor justification.
This Censorship is brought to you by:
The letter B and
The number 666.
So, let's see here...
From TFA:
- The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. (because, yanno, those have nothing to do with the guy in charge of health for the country...)
- Top officials delayed for years and tried to "water down" a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said (Ve must toe ze party line, mein Heir)
- Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. (Umm... Godwins Law warning!)
- He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings. (You work for us, not for those namby-pamby girly men)
- And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics (because we in the Republican party hate those damn cripples. They're just sponging off social welfare anyways.)
- The officials concluded that global warming was a liberal cause and dismissed it, he said. (It's true, actually. If we could instantly kill every liberal, global warming would be solved. Mostly because of the >50% loss in population, but still, technically, true...)
- Dr. Carmona described being invited to testify at the government's nine-month racketeering trial of the tobacco industry that ended in 2005. He said top administration officials discouraged him from testifying while simultaneously telling the lead government lawyer in the case that he was not competent to testify. (pfft! What would a DOCTOR know about TOBACCO?)
- When stem cells became a focus of debate, Dr. Carmona said he proposed that his office offer guidance "so that we can have, if you will, informed consent." "I was told to stand down and not speak about it," he said. "It was removed from my speeches." (pfft! What would a DOCTOR know about STEM CELLS?)
- The global health report was never approved, Dr. Carmona said, because he refused to sprinkle the report with glowing references to the efforts of the Bush administration. (truthfully, he did mention the Bush administration, but only in the context of "World health is suffering because Bush makes everyone sick to their stomachs...)
- Because the administration does not want to spend more money on prisoners' health care, the report has been delayed, Dr. Carmona said. (this must be why Libby never went to jail)
And the administrations response?
"It's disappointing to us," Ms. Lawrimore said, "if he failed to use this position to the fullest extent in advocating for policies he thought were in the best interests of the nation."
The only good side of all of this is that we only have ~1.3 years left.
I just fear it's ~1 year too much.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
Somehow, somewhere along the line, science allowed itself to be bought through sponsorship of research, and then politicized through endorsement of certain political agendas which were suggested to be incarnations of scientific truth. Now, science itself is sullied, and is forever going to be caught in this battle between special interest groups vying for control of an oblivious electorate.
I think Lou Dobbs said it well:
With the electorate asserting a strong impulse to be independent, and with populism exerting a significant influence in the 2006 midterm elections, there is a possibility that all of those incumbents in the House and Senate may have to consider the possibility of actually having to represent their constituents and the popular will, rather than corporate America, socio-ethnic special interest groups and the tens of thousands of lobbyists who represent every interest but that of the common good and the nation.
Lou Dobbs - July 11, 2007
He's talking about government in general, but the same could be applied to science and even large parts of the computer industry. If science wants to have respect again, it needs to get rid of the perception that loyalties and bribes have made it a partisan football.
technical writing / development
It's that belief structure that makes democracy not work.
Who cares if he's republican, who cares if he's conservative. He's the president. That means he should act in the best interests of the nation WHETHER OR NOT he personally agrees with it. That means letting all sides be heard, not squelching things he doesn't agree with. That means doing things that his party may not like, because it's the right thing to do.
That type of thinking is why most elections are worthless nowadays, because you have people who tick a box for a party without caring about the person's beliefs or if that party really agrees with that they believe themselves.
You never realize how much manually made unmanaged "linked" lists suck, till you have src.link.link.link.link...
I will assume you mean our illicit drug laws (as opposed to the law about importing prescription meds which I largely agree with).
I have to think that if most illegal drugs were treated like alcohol (specifically relating to public intoxication, DUI, coming to work drunk earns a pink slip) then the black market economy would collapse (a good thing), and we could focus on treatment for those who want it (a good thing), and better enforce the few remaining drugs that are genuinely bad. While I personally would tan my kids' hides if I caught them doing X or speed (and related) I see that as my right (and responsibility) as a parent.
Back on topic though,
I am really saddened by my government's actions, and it's not really the president's fault (sure he's complicit), it is our system's fault. If either we had both parties agree that social support programs were necessary and the only difference of opinion was how to implement the programs, or if both parties were focused on private charity and support being the way to go, this country would be vastly improved. Fact is, that career politicians look after their career first and the public second. That is the root of the problem. One of my co-workers said he felt that every term in office should be followed by a term in jail, I'm almost inclined to agree.
-nB
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Yeah, all those climatologists are really liars. What do they know? A small number of inactive researchers, oil company shills and White Office spokespeople weigh a lot more than the climatological community.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
medreport 3.12.06 reporting gw globalwarming doubleplusungood refs unthings rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling
First of all, he has resigned. He is no longer in office. He's not blowing off his duties, he's unhappy with some of the tasks he was asked to perform. I think I've heard of senior military officers complaining after they resigned about orders from the Commander-in-Chief. Are they angling to be politicians too? Being appointed to a position (and that's what SG is, not a promotion from within the ranks of an officer corps) does not remove one's obligation to provide accurate information and good-faith opinions. To be constantly told to suppress scientific information and praise his Highness George II in speeches does not seem appropriate. (Neither was Clinton's firing of Jocelyn Elders.)
"The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), an organization that was covertly created by Philip Morris for the express purpose of generating scientific controversy regarding the link between secondhand smoke and cancer."
They have recently been mostly funded by the oil lobby for the express purpose of... well, you can deduce that last bit.
You can't take the sky from me...
And please, conservatives, drop the "small government" mantra. Everyone knows by now that it's a load of hypocritical crap.
Back in what we all tend to think of as the dark ages and other periods of ancient history, we had people suppressing science for religious reasons... but back then religion and politics were mostly the same thing anyway. Technically, today they are not the same thing though there are some clear connections being allowed anyway.
It seems that so many important advances in the sciences have been in spite of government and religion instead of because of them. And yet while we HAVE these useful technologies, government and religion are all about using them and abusing them and often thanking "god" for them.
Will we ever have more than tiny revolutions where real "thinking" becomes popular?
I often hold forth in a pithy and informative way on a variety of scientific topics, and usually find my audience struck dumb with admiration.
I was concerned at first by the fact that they never seem to have any questions. But I learned to ask, "I'm not boring you, am I?" They never are. Clearly I have enlightened them in such a lucid manner that questions are superfluous.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
That's probably because Bush thought he was spozedta be the "Surgin' General" to take all them troops into Iraq. When he instead heard a bunch of science mumbo jumbo he HAD to do SOMETHING!!
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
Of course they do. Didn't you know conservatives opposed the Americans with Disabilities Act as unfair government meddling with business? Much like any other minority, conservatives would be happier if they were simply swept under the rug and were forced to deal with a world built for the majority.
It's a combination of Social Darwinism from the libertarian side of the party and a desire to see crippled people more dependent on private organizations (i.e. churches) from the religious right side. (Another reason why, as a Christian, I can't stand the religious right.)
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Now just what in the hell is that? A rubber that comes with duct tape?
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
You dislike the Republican party right now and think that they at least had some dignity in the past; you know a candidate for the Republican party that actually DOES stand for what you want, and because he is running on a Republican ticket he has a chance of winning. And you refuse to vote for him?
If you can't say something nice, make sure you have something heavy to throw.
Disclaimer: I am an Australian and I don't hate the US, this is just an honest observation. Most of the Americans I meet are good people.
Maybe not the bully in the revolution, although some of the things you yanks lumped on the British were exaggerated.
The problem is that you essentially became bullies, victims of your own success in your revolution and as a result you are unable to untie your nation from war and violence. We hear volumes of about the great America at war, but next to nothing about the great America at peace. Like I said this is due to being victims of your own success early on, up to and including WWII, then you made the worst mistake possible, you believed your own marketing and got into a few unwinable wars at it has cost the US. A great many social and political problems would be greatly diminished (some would disappear completely) if US society stopped glorifying violence.
As I said I don't hate the US, I was and still am a staunch supporter of the ANZUS treaty despite the quagmire you got us involved with in Iraq and the terrible trade policies the US has against us (Australia).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
If the liberals have their way, this will become a Nanny State or a Prison Nation in that we are told what to eat, how to behave, and how to act.
The Surgeon General has released statements that use fear to control people's eating habits, buying habits, behavior and actions. He uses fear to control people in the same way that a terrorist uses fear. He takes money from companies that want him to make statements that use fear to control people to buy their products. In this case the Surgeon General took money from the pro-global warming lobbyists so that he can release statements that force people to buy carbon credits and use products that the pro-global warming companies and organizations sell. In this way global warming is a scam. Global warming is a new religion spawned from liberals in order to control people with it and eventually control the world. Releasing CO2 into the atmosphere is a sin, but can be forgiven by buying carbon credits.
Soon, people won't be able to have the freedom to decide for themselves anymore, and will have organizations run by liberals telling them what to do. Everyone should have the freedom to choose how to live their lives and what they should do. Let us end this tyranny that the Surgeon General, PETA, etc have on the lives of many people that force them how to decide using scare tactics. Let us give back the freedom to decide for themselves to the people again once more!
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
When did I work with you?
Our founding fathers removed the guys in charge. Be American. Vote incumbents out.
Al Gore did not come up with the information in his movie, the IPCC did. What I would like to know is who do people who poo-poo Gore think we should listen too?
Jim Hansen does know a thing or two about climate, yet he also recieved similar treatment.
For the record: Gore originally attacked Hansen's assertions on climate change in the senate, Hansen and NOAA are both contributors to the IPCC reports.
"...we should question why anybody listens to Al Gore on the subject"
No we shouldn't, I listened to you and you have ZERO credibility. Science has no political or personal boundries, that is what TFA is all about.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Anal sex is common in pre-literate societies and has been frequently observed among primates (especially bonobos). According to this Wikipedia article, it has been observed among many hundreds of species, and "No species has been found in which homosexual behavior has not been shown to exist, with the exception of species that never have sex at all".
180 degree double take. A Prison Nation where we are highly controled through fear? How on earth can you blame liberals for the things the Bush administration is working like mad to implement right now? Have you not been paying attention to the play by play? Need proof? Try taking a walk through downtown New York wearing a head scarf and take a bunch of tourist photos sometime. Try lighting up in a public place and see what happens. Try preventing your kids from being immunized in some states. Try owning a gun in others. Try getting an abortion for your girlfriend. Try wearing a teeshirt which says "Impeach Bush" to the Whitehouse. Heck, try buying Organic food, (the Bush government just made it legal for non-organic food producers to use the Organic label.) Try taking a book out of the library about how to blow stuff up. Try making a phone call through AT&T and expecting privacy. And on and on.
In this case the Surgeon General took money from the pro-global warming lobbyists [. .
Give me a break. You can't back that up. The Surgeon General doesn't even have the power to do anything about fossil fuel emissions. Heck, the major sticking point had more to do with Stem Cell research than anything else.
I don't think Wester Medicine is all too great, and I'm not even a liberal. (I don't play the tweedle dee and tweedle dum political division game.) --But I have noticed that people who cleave to the conservative side often exist in a state of perpetual delusion and anger.
Take a deep breath and rethink your statements because they don't make sense.
-FL
Thanks for providing a good example of how hard it can be to understand science.
This project has the potential to be meaningful, but it has a long way to go yet. They need a hypothesis, a rigorous way to test it, and repeatable results.
What the surfacestations project has right now is the beginnings of a hypothesis--that local changes have biased the long-term trends that weather stations have recorded. It's not really a strong one yet because they don't have good coverage yet...last time I checked there were like 15 station reports, out of well over a thousand, and that's just the NOAA stations.
Once they have good coverage they'll need to devise a quantitative way to test for bias in the readings. This might involve placing duplicate weather stations nearby but further from the alleged bias factors, and looking for long-term differences in readings. Or it might involve comparative statistical analysis to check the data trends from these terrestial stations with satellite and other terrestrial data sets. The point is, they are going to have to do some testing or comparison involving precise numerical data.
Then their conclusions have to be peer reviewed and published, where they will become public knowledge for other scientists to poke around in, look for flaws, and try to repeat.
Unfortunately you jumped right past all that stuff, straight to a belief that the mere existence of this site somehow provides support for your pet theory. It doesn't.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Ah, so you're one of those. Link to an article where mainstream science, or Al Gore for that matter, said global warming would "jeapardize the existence of man." You're creating a classic strawman argument. By pretending that the scientists investigating global warming are all alarmist hand-wavers, you have identified what your "research" consisted of. You read a bunch of conservative talking points saying that "alarmist" scientists think that global warming will wipe out all life, and since it won't, we can't trust them. But that isn't the mainstream scientific position, and anyone who has "researched" this would know that.
Do you also feel qualified to "research" the germ theory and weigh in with your insights? How damned arrogant can you really be? Can I do a bit of reading in my study, ponder a bit, and just expect to wash away plate tectonics, the heliocentric model of the solar system, the germ theory, the atomic theory, or other mainstream scientific theories? No, and only an arrogant ass would think that their opinion, based on a bit of half-assed "research" on conservative blogs, was more informed that the entire damned scientific community. Could you possibly have a higher opinion of yourself?
I also noticed that 80% of Americans hip-hip hoorayed a war in Iraq killing 100s of thousands of innocent people and providing a hotbed for global terrorism.
I recall quite vividly that every critic of the war, was derided, smeared, insulted and partially threated for their lives.
I noted that this administration, elected (at least the second time by a majority of US citizens) leaked the name of an undercover intelligence operative for no better reason then to smear her husband, who the administration didn't like.
I recall a hell of a lot really bad and rotten things for which this administration and ultimnately the people that elected them are responsible.
That, quite likely, includes you.
So please don't give me this "we're all so much against it, but those in power..." bullshit.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
.... a delicious moment of visualising Bruce Willis standing over GWB with a Desert Eagle, saying "Yippie kay ay, melonfarmer".