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November 18, 2005
The Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford

Science Fictionalization

     In addition to the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war on drugs, and all of the other Bush wars which are being waged, there is another war which is being prosecuted but has not been openly declared. It is the war on science, and it is being fought in all types of administrative agencies and departments under the Bush administration. Time after time, when science does not support a favored public policy, the Bush administration has taken steps to change the science. The scientists are up in arms about it.

     In February of 2004, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a statement that excoriated the Bush administration for systematic and unprecedented abuses of science in support of its preferred policies. That statement, which is backed up by a detailed report, has been endorsed by 49 Nobel laureates, 63 National Medal of Science recipients and 169 members of the National Academies of Science, as well as many thousands of other scientists. That statement can be found here.

     What are some of the Bush administration practices that have prompted this protest? It is seeking to limit scientific input into Endangered Species Act designations. It has removed inconvenient scientific information from government web sites, and prevented other scientific information from being released at all. Administration officials have also changed scientific reports to make them more supportive of their reactionary policies. It has not only fired qualified scientists on scientific advisory boards, and replaced them with unqualified political hacks, but it has also disbanded entire scientific advisory boards.

     Do you think this does not affect you? If you drink water, the abandonment of scientific pollution studies, and their proposed replacement with liability protections for polluters of drinking water, may affect you. If you work for a living, the rejection of qualified scientists who were nominated to work on peer reviewed studies of workplace safety is likely to injure many thousands of workers. If you have children in school, they are being affected by the wholesale removal of scientific information from the Department of Education website. If you live on planet earth, the suppression and manipulation of the science relating to global warming and pollution threatens you and all of your progeny. Virtually every aspect of your life is affected by government policy, and the scope of scientific manipulation that has taken place is staggering. I have not even been able to scratch the surface in this short column.

     The Union of Concerned Scientists statement is not the first time this issue has been raised. Representative Henry Waxman issued a report in August of 2003 raising numerous examples of the Bush Administration’s abuse of science. You can read his report here.

     More recently, even the mainstream media have been picking up on this issue. The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have both run front page stories about the abuse of science. The Union of Concerned Scientists and another group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (www.peer.org), have started tracking the abuse by using surveys sent to government scientists. Those surveys are starting to come back, and are revealing even more manipulations than were previously known.

     Just this week, a new outrage has been revealed by a draft report from the Government Accountability Office. The FDA’s recent decision to overrule its own scientific advisory panels by withholding the morning after pill known as “Plan B” from the over-the-counter market had been made months before the FDA had even completed its review process. Apparently there was no need to wait for the science, because the FDA already knew what was good for you.

     What this whole scandal really reveals is the complete moral bankruptcy of the neo-cons and reactionaries in the Bush administration. Whether it be intelligence information, scientific information or just plain old facts, they will lie, suppress, manipulate and cheat in order to get the policy they want. You can’t let a few inconvenient facts get in the way of a corrupt ideology, especially when it is making your friends in business even richer than they were five years ago.








Kevin Morford is a political activist and an attorney in private practice in the Anchorage area.  He can be reached at kmorford@insurgent49.com.
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in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.