Slashdot Mirror


Federal Science Gets More Politicized

amigoro writes to let us know about the noise a group of scientists is making to call attention to Executive Order 13422, going into effect today, that gives political appointees final say regarding science-based federal agency regulations. The Union of Concerned Scientists wrote a letter to two Senate committee chairs urging that questions about this executive order be asked at the confirmation hearings for the nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget. "UCS urged the Senate committee to ask [the nominee] Mr. Nussle how he would ensure that political appointees would not interfere with the work of agency scientists." Late last month the House voted to prohibit the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from spending federal money on Executive Order 13422. Democrats called the order a "power grab."

14 of 567 comments (clear)

  1. Surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't imagine how it would be possible to fund anything through tax money and not expect the outcome to be determined by the power elite who control that money.

    1. Re:Surprised? by dpilot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sometimes the greatest wisdom is to simply say, "I don't know, but this is my best effort, and I'm ready to be corrected."

      The most dangerous facet of this administration has been their certainty in every single thing they do, and their machinations to give that certainty free reign in every way possible.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    2. Re:Surprised? by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can't imagine how it would be possible to fund anything through tax money and not expect the outcome to be determined by the power elite who control that money.

      Except that until now, the outcome has not been controlled by the people who control the money; it's been controlled by people hired by the people who control the money, and given the authority to do as they see fit.

      This is a lesson that every businessman worth his salt learns early in his career: don't micromanage. Just because you pay the bills doesn't mean that it's appropriate for you to tell your employees how to do their jobs. Hire smart people, make sure they understand the overall goals of the organization, and give them a free hand. If they screw up, that means you hired the wrong people; it does not mean you should try to control every detail of how the job is done.

      And it's a lesson the US government learned too, once upon a time -- but now, under our MBA President, is busily unlearning, like just about every other lesson on good governance which history can provide.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    3. Re:Surprised? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Please. Plenty of leaders regardless of party say that. Reagen in my opinion was particularly good at recognizing when his ideals didn't mesh with reality on the ground. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, are all way off the charts of believing that whatever they think is right is right regardless of what anyone else says or what actually happens. Nobody has been as completely brazen about ignoring the advice of experts within their own administration telling them that their pet theories are wrong. Has there been a single failure in Iraq that was not predicted in advance by experts, including top generals? Even members of Rumsfeld's office were trying to prepare for the obvious problems, but he forbid them from doing so because he believed it wasn't necessary.

      I'm serious, drop the "oh, everyone thinks their party is great and hates the other guy" bullshit. It's crap. If you don't realize that Bush's administration is running on pure ideology and letting not a single fact get in their way, you're just not paying attention. If you care about what party they are in, then you're a partisan stooge. If you don't care, you're just ignorant. I don't care which is the case -- wake up, and stop saying "the other guy is just as bad, so this guy is okay". That's a lame and meaningless excuse. Start looking at the actual person, the actual decisions being made, the disconnection from reality that is by now well documented, the continuous stream of former officials saying they didn't know jack shit. I suppose they all just hate bush because he's a republican too. Or maybe, just maybe, what the evidence seems to say is actually true: The country is being run by idiots who think ideology trumps reality and thus reality can be ignored.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    4. Re:Surprised? by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      but now, under our MBA President, is busily unlearning, like just about every other lesson on good governance which history can provide. I think you're missing what is going on here.

      Bush isn't unlearning anything.
      He is doing exactly what you said, with one caveat.
      He is also changing the "overall goals of the organization".

      In the past, the goal was to provide policy based on sound science.
      Now, the goal is to provide policy that jibes with the White House agenda.
      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    5. Re:Surprised? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I do not believe for a single instant that Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice are idiots

      Oh, I do. I absolutely do. If they weren't idiots, the war would be going better. You think that wouldn't serve them? The American people would be pleased as hell to let our troops stay in Iraq for years while Halliburton builds huge army bases and all the defense contractors suck up billions of taxpayer $s, if the war were going better. They'd have their non-Saudi middle east military bases, their oil reserves locked up where our troops are close by, and a friendly government right next door to what they wanted to be their next adventure, Iran. Instead, they've botched everything up, more and more Americans are demanding we leave lucrative base-building contracts be damned, and they lost their pet Congress that was allowing them to get away with all this crap. No, no, if they were smart, they could satisfy whatever their desires are without all this blow-back. They have simply fucked up majorly because they never had any idea what they were doing.

      I used to think that they were smart but duplicitous. Then mistake after mistake after mistake after predictable mistake. When we found out that the administration had been taking most of their cues on Iraq from an Iranian agent, I knew they were fucking clueless. He told them exactly what they wanted to hear, and they believed it whole heartedly. They ignored any military adviser who told them something they didn't want to hear, such as that Rumsfeld's fast & light military strategy was retarded. They just didn't want to hear it, even though if they heard it and acted on it then their goals would have been better served. That means they're stupid.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    6. Re:Surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I never understood why some people consider loyalty to be a virtue. As far as I can understand it, "loyalty" means "standing by someone even when they're wrong" most of the time. Correcting someone when they're wrong is treated as disloyal by many...

  2. great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now that Mr President can control scientific results. A few simple changes to the laws of thermodynamics should solve all of our energy problems.

  3. oh, how many books I read...... by acvh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    .....where in the Soviet Union a political officer was attached to just about every governmental agency, department, road crew etc.

    when do we start calling a spade a spade?

  4. Re:So... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Informative

    When are you guys going to re-take your country?

    They can't. Intelligent voters are about 1% of the population.

  5. Once upon a time... by NIN1385 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Once upon a time in a land far far away, I was helping Mr. Nussle record a radio ad that he was recording in response to his candidate attacking him. I watched him go over the script and when he got done reading some of the critical points he just looked at me and rolled his eyes and muttered "Yeah, right." I simply grinned as to not reveal what I really thought of that statement and his character.

    I was very happy the day I was able to cast my vote against him and he lost because I got to see the true side of this man and do something about it. People would be shocked and awed (sorry for the terminology) if they heard half the crap that comes out of these politician's mouthes.

    Right now Michael Vick is in big trouble over a dog fighting ring he was in the middle of, and the first thing the media jumps all over is how we hold our athletes to such high standards. Well, when politicians are caught lying, cheating, stealing and whatever else they ALL do... I cannot help but wonder why the media doesn't ask why we hold our politicians to such high standards as well.

    I don't think we will ever know the answer to this unless some real political and campaign finance reform is put into place, but I like to ask questions. I still blame the fluoride.

    --

    If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up. - Comedian Mitch Hedberg R.I.P. 03/30/68-2/24/05
  6. Re:Optimist by The+Spoonman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The answer is simple. If you don't vote, don't count yourself as "intelligent".

    Yeah, 'cause voting counts for anything anymore. We're trapped, and he's going to seize all of the power and make himself emperor. And, yes, I still vote. I just don't see the point anymore. I don't get to vote FOR anyone anymore, just against.

    --
    Which is more painful? Going to work or gouging your eye out with a spoon? Find out!
    http://www.workorspoon.com
  7. We are the corporate masters by tjstork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know who the corporate masters are? It is the biggest joke that you don't. WE, that is, you and I and just about everyone else on this board that has a 401k of some kind, are the corporate masters. There's not some kabal out there of people trying to conspiratize anything. There's only a bunch of CEOs that are getting paid a ton of money by a board of directors who, in turn, take their marching orders directly from what you and I decide to do with their stock.

    Every time you shop at Walmart, or buy something made offshore, you indirectly encourage other corporations to do the same. I'd be more than willing to bet that the vast majority of Democrats , that's right, Democrats, are as heavily invested in the likes of McDonalds, Walmart as are Republicans. I'd be even more willing to bet that the vast majority of Democrats, that's right, Democrats, would invest in a company that dumped nuclear waste on children in the 3rd world while making adults convert to Christianity, if that company had an annual rate of return of more than 30%.

    There's no conspiracy. There's no fingers to point or people to blame except that the ones we see in the mirror in the morning. There's no country to "take back". We've got it! The so-called powers that be spend billions of dollars trying to figure out what we want, from Amazon with its data mining, to all the spyware, to all the web, tv, and radio demographic surveys, from opinion polling, cross selling, it is all about what WE WANT.

    We have invented the most perfect democracy in the world, and also the laziest. We don't even have to protest to get what we want. We just live out our lives as normal, and whoever wants to get rich, will do so, but only if they sell us what we want. The whole illusion of power in Washington or in the corporate boardroom is just that, an illusion. We are the power. And, if we don't like the society that we have, its only because we are doing it to ourselves.

    --
    This is my sig.
  8. Re:We did, we like this. by tjstork · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you think that a low Bush approval translates into an approval of liberal politics, you are smoking some good stuff.

    The only reason Bush is not at 50% is because of his stance on immigration and his budget. If he were to have come down hard on illegal immigration, then, he would have a much higher approval rating. The moral of the story is that the vast majority of the country remains conservative, and only really disapprove of Bush because of the liberal-sounding things that he has done. Republicans are uneasy about the war, to be sure, but, amnesty is the third rail of Republican politics and Bush touched it.

    You watch. Hillary is the only candidate that has a shot at winning the presidency on the national stage because everyone else is too far to the left. Obama already has said enough during the primary to doom his national campaign. Yeah, run that footage of Obama saying that he would talk to the likes of Chavez unilaterally. Yeah, run that footage of Obama saying he would not retaliate if the USA had two cities attacked ala 9/11. He might take California and Massachusetts, but that's it.

    --
    This is my sig.