Bush Administration
scientificactivist | July 18, 2007As I've mentioned previously, the Senate Finance Committee is considering a $35 billion expansion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP or CHIP), which is currently scheduled to expire in September. Incredibly enough, President Bush has already declared that he will veto such a bill. This is the same president who, just a year ago from tomorrow, used his first veto after five and a half years of office on, of all things, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. It appears, then, that the President will be the most significant obstacle to overcome in passing an expansion of…
scientificactivist | July 16, 2007The Corpus Callosum has more on the currently unfolding CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) fiasco:
In the context of the pro and con lobbying over the proposed expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, pharmaceutical companies decided to join the pro side. After all, if more children are insured, more of them will get prescription medication. But is is not just the drug companies, it is a broad-spectrum coalition....
And the response of the Administration? ...
Bush administration officials recently advised drug company executives not to support a major expansion of…
scientificactivist | July 15, 2007I always find it surprising that something as obvious as the need to provide health coverage to children can be so controversial. In 2004, Arlene Wohlgemuth, the Republican running against Democrat Chet Edwards for US Congressional District 17 in Texas, made as a cornerstone of her campaign her sponsorship of HB 2292 the previous year in the Texas House. By substantially cutting back and altering the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP or CHIP) in Texas, Wohlgemuth argued, she had saved Texas taxpayers a significant sum. She had also, however, caused well over 100,000 children…
scientificactivist | July 11, 2007I meant to comment on this when I originally read it in the New York Times article on the political suppression by the Bush Administration of former Surgeon General Richard Carmona:
Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, said the surgeon general "is the leading voice for the health of all Americans."
"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."
"Yes, it's your fault, Mr. Surgeon General, that our political interference kept you from doing your job…
scientificactivist | July 11, 2007Add one more to the list.
Yesterday, former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona testified before congress that he was subjected to extensive and systematic political interference in his work by the Bush Administration. From Gardiner Harris of The New York Times:
Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.
The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency…
scientificactivist | July 2, 2007Absurdity. Complete and total absurdity.
George Bush, a president who has pardoned fewer people than any president in the past century, today commutes the sentence of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a guilty man who lied about the leaking of sensitive government information for political purposes.
Stay updated on further developments here.
scientificactivist | June 22, 2007I'm at a conference right now and unfortunately don't have time to write extensively about this, but for those who were not aware, President Bush vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (S. 5) on Wednesday. There are not enough votes in the House and Senate to override this veto, so it's clear that our lack of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research will continue until we have a new President in the White House.
On Wednesday the President also announced an executive order to encourage research into alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. As I've written before, these…
scientificactivist | April 29, 2007On Friday, Randall Tobias--the Bush Administration's chief promoter of foreign abstinence-only sex education programs--resigned from his position as Deputy Secretary of State after getting busted for frequenting DC prostitutes. If your head hasn't already exploded, check out Timothy Noah's humorous but detailed commentary at Slate.
Tobias advocated an ABC program (Abstinence; Be faithful; a brief, skeptical, and largely inaccurate mention of Condoms). Clearly the A and the B didn't really pan out here (which isn't surprising, since these programs don't actually affect participants' sexual…
scientificactivist | April 29, 2007In a recent interview published in New York Magazine, writer Christopher Hitchens is asked "Has anyone in the Bush administration confided in you about being an atheist?". His answer:
Well, I don't talk that much to them--maybe people think I do. I know something which is known to few but is not a secret. Karl Rove is not a believer, and he doesn't shout it from the rooftops, but when asked, he answers quite honestly. I think the way he puts it is, "I'm not fortunate enough to be a person of faith."
To be completely honest, I don't find the idea that Karl Rove is an atheist all that…
scientificactivist | March 14, 2007(See update here.)
The Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform--chaired by Henry Waxman--will hold part two of its "Hearing to Examine Allegations of Political Interference with Government Climate Change Science" on Monday, 19 March, at 10:00 am EST. The full witness list is supposed to be made available later today (Update: It looks like the list isn't going to be posted today, but hopefully it will be sometime soon). To see it (once it's posted), and to watch the video of the hearing (once the hearing has begun), go to the committee's schedule page.
The witness list…
scientificactivist | January 30, 2007Although the Bush Administration has already proven itself pretty effective at interfering with science and regulation through existing channels, yesterday's New York Times reports that this wasn't quite enough:
President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.
In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political…
scientificactivist | January 11, 2007Oh boy, it just never stops with this administration and its contempt for science. Via Keith Cowing's NASA Watch comes news of a, well, interesting new Bush Administration appointee at NASA:
NASA Headquarters has a new political appointee in its employ: Patrick Rhode. He'll be working on the 9th floor.
For those of you who followed the post-Katrina management fiasco at FEMA you may recall hearing his name. Rhode served as FEMA Director Michael Brown's Chief of Staff and later, as Acting Deputy Director of FEMA. I am sure the folks at Stennis and Michoud will be thrilled to learn this.…
scientificactivist | January 11, 2007From a news analysis by Sheryl Gay Stolberg in today's New York Times:
By stepping up the American military presence in Iraq, President Bush is not only inviting an epic clash with the Democrats who run Capitol Hill. He is ignoring the results of the November elections, rejecting the central thrust of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and flouting the advice of some of his own generals, as well as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq....
In a sense, it is a predictable path for Mr. Bush. This, after all, is the same president who lost the popular vote in 2000, was installed in the White…
scientificactivist | November 20, 2006One of the most significant anticipated results for many--particularly within the scientific community--of a Democratic victory on Election Day was going to be a new-found ability to hold in check the Bush Administration and its penchant for political interference in science. It appears that the Democrats are looking to make good on their promise, and to do so in an impressively proactive way, by making oversight of the Bush Administration a top priority for the incoming Congress. This oversight will include taking on political interference in science and environmental issues, as Roll Call…
scientificactivist | November 10, 2006With the election results almost completely finalized, it's time to reflect on what they mean. Make no mistake about it, Tuesday demonstrated a true mandate for the Democrats. The Democrats achieved a majority in both the Senate and the House, picking up 6 seats and 29 seats, respectively. The Democrats did not lose any seats in either house. In total votes, the Democrats had a 13.4% advantage over the Republicans in Senate races and 5.6% advantage in House races (this shows that, in the Senate in particular, the 2 seat advantage that the Democrats hold hardly does them justice). The main…
scientificactivist | November 8, 2006It has just been announced that unpopular Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is "stepping down". This is no doubt a positive step for the Bush Administration, the nation, and the world as a whole, but it comes as too little too late, as the disastrous Iraq war has already cost the lives of almost 3,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of others.
What's interesting about this story, to me at least, is who President Bush has nominated to replace Rumsfield: former CIA Director (under George Bush, Sr.) and current Texas A&M University president Dr. Robert Gates. Gates has already turned…
scientificactivist | November 7, 2006There is so much to say about the importance of today's election, but not a great deal that hasn't already been spelled out time and time again. Most importantly, if you haven't already voted, go vote today! Hopefully you'll have time to research the individual races and find out where the candidates stand on the important issues, particularly those related to science. Either way, though, if you are concerned and disheartened with the direction our nation has taken lately, and if you want to ease the suffering that U.S. science has been forced to endure, you'll probably be voting…
scientificactivist | November 6, 2006If George Bush is driving our nation down a one-way road to hell, it's the Republican-controlled House and Senate that are enabling him to do this. On October 17th, Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which had previously passed the Senate and House on the 28th and 29th of September, respectively. This is another dangerous piece of legislation from the Bush Administration, one that should leave us all slightly disturbed and give us something else to think about on election day. Current Yale Law student and former Oxford student (and India travel buddy) Cyrus Habib…
scientificactivist | October 31, 2006Yesterday's Washington Post reported that several environmental groups have obtained strong evidence that Bush Administration political appointee and deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks Julie MacDonald has actively censored scientific information and given elevated and inappropriate consideration to non-environmental concerns in order to prevent the adding of new species to the Endangered Species list. The Union of Concerned Scientists, one of the original organizations to make the revelation, has detailed information on the actions of MacDonald and…
scientificactivist | September 11, 2006When I was a freshman in college, at Texas A&M University, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings I had two classes back-to-back in the same lecture hall. Because of a weird scheduling fluke, these classes were about 45 minutes apart, though. During that break, sometimes I would go eat breakfast, other times I would do something else, and occasionally I would just stay in the room and study.
On this particular day, I had decided to catch up on some reading for class, and, as usual, there were a few other students in the room as well. A few minutes after the first class ended, maybe about 9:…