US Politics
retrospectacle | November 15, 2007This trend has continued until the present.
Despite the NIH's budget remaining stagnant for years, not even compensating for inflation, Bush has decided to wield the presidential veto against an increase in just $1 billion for the next fiscal year. The bill also contained new open-access legislation-- a mandate for any government-funded manuscript to be submitted to PubMed for full text open-access within one year. The veto seemed more a response to the budget increase rather than the open access issue, which is not surprising given Bush's own fiscal, uh, issues. But, for comparison, the US…
retrospectacle | August 31, 2007I came across a story on Digg.com that describes an interesting dilemma for universities: how to reconcile the needs of their students while maintaining delineations of church and state. Specifically, the University of Michigan-Dearborn (I go to the main campus in Ann Arbor) has come under criticism for plans to install two footbaths, at a cost of $25,000, to accommodate their Muslim students. Muslims are required to wash their feet prior to the five times daily prayers, and non-Muslim students had complained that bathroom sinks were being used for this purpose. This created unsafe, slippery…
retrospectacle | March 6, 2007Ladies and gentlemen, the fat lady has sung.
A federal jury today found Lewis "Scooter" Libby guilty on four counts.
Libby was convicted of:
1. obstruction of justice when he intentionally deceived a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame;
2. making a false statement by intentionally lying to FBI agents about a conversation with NBC newsman Tim Russert;
3. perjury when he lied in court about his conversation with Russert;
4. a second count of perjury when he lied in court about conversations with other reporters.
He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison…
retrospectacle | February 28, 2007Just ask 1st Lt. Ehren Watada who's second court martial is coming up. He's refused to be deployed to Iraq and made (GASP!) critical statements of Bush and the war.
Watada has acknowledged making public statements criticizing the war and Bush. He has said deploying to Baghdad last year with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division would have made him guilty of war crimes by participating in an illegal war.
How DARE he???
He's being court-martialed for missing movement and for conduct unbecoming an officer. If convicted, Watada could get six years in prison and be dishonorably discharged.
I'm…
retrospectacle | January 30, 2007Nancy Pelosi apparently had a Q&A session with a few dozen bloggers after being sworn in as House Speaker, and has hired a full-time staff member who's job is blogger outreach!! This is big--the Speaker of the House is conferring a sense of legitimacy to bloggers as a news source and important voice to woo in "new media." Even if no science bloggers were included (hey, we care about politics too!), it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Pelosi is also launching a blog of her own.
"They've gone from an initial writing blogs off, then moving to skepticism, then moving to, 'OK, maybe…