February 22, 2004

  • Just as the Patriot Act has become for the Bush administration the grid of implementation in restricting internal threats to America from a horde of potential hidden enemies, so too has this administration extensively devised an unprecedented intellectual grid to screen findings from the sciences for their ‘relevance’ to the its agenda.


    The difference is that whereas the Patriot Act restricts behavior in response to a demonstrated menace (I’m not here judging the merits of this Act, but no one can deny it was a response to very real threats),  the spin-policy on science that Bush has concocted and implemented  restricts the tradition of impartial across-the-board input from the sciences to government, regardless of the implications , that scientists throughout all previous American administrations had professionally invested in.  For Bush, the implications of science are now judged as “threatening” or “non-threatening”.  And any scientific work or findings, no matter how merited , that is assessed as “threatening” to “sensitive issues” is routinely undermined and subdued.


    An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science


    “A growing number of scientists, policy makers, and technical specialists both inside and outside the government allege that the Bush administration has suppressed or distorted the scientific analyses of federal agencies to bring these results in line with administration policy.”  So says the Union of Concerned Scientists, a diverse group of scientists both in and out of government, from all political spectrums, and with more than 60 of the nation's top scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, and former federal agency directors, as well as university chairs and presidents.


    You can read the actual report here:


    http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/report.html


    Or a news summary of the report here: 


    http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/79763/1/


    Both are rich with amazing details of scientific censorship and abuse.


    But the gist is this:


    "This is akin to the White House directing the National Weather Service to alter a hurricane forecast because they want everyone to think we have clear skies ahead," said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists "The hurricane is still coming, but without factual information no one will be ready for it."


    "Blue skies, Nothin' but blue skies from now on …" (a la Willie Nelson). Oh, and don’t forget: it’s the calm Oval Office eye at the center of the hurricane that rules.  There’s nothing more sublime than looking straight up into the heavens to see nothing but blue skies while the rage of imminent destruction swirls everywhere else around you. (Actually, I’m not being sarcastic—that is the true beauty of an ultimate storm.)

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