Dust and Deception... (Paul Krugman). Dust and Deception... (Paul Krugman) [Common Dreams]
Every report on this uses the word 'misled'. We have been misled for two years now by an administration that believes that scientific facts can be warped to fit their own political agenda. If the facts do not fit the myth, massage them until they do, or use misleading words or just flat out lie. These are the guys that subverted the will of Congress 20 years ago and gave us Iran-Contra. They continue to warp the world to fit their view and apparently do not care how many Americans will get asbestosis and other lung diseases as long as Wall Street is open.
A recent report from Congress details the many ways that this administration has warped and lied about science. As a scientist, I abhor seeing scientific data politicized and censored in order to fit a hidden agenda. As time goes on, I believe less and less ANYTHING this government says because I continue to see how it falsely manipulates scientific work that I know something about. I do not feel better seeing the work of the CDC being altered to fit a political ideology or to see work from the NIH being controlled by politicians. Read the report. There are a huge number of items and areas where ideology is more important than facts. It is an Orwellian world where Lies Are Truth and Facts Are Lies. If they can have this effect in areas where scientific rigor can be used, what sorts of distortions are they making in the gray sciences such as the ecology, sociology, or economics. This disregard for any fact they do not like will either result in their downfall if we are lucky, or our downfall if we are not.
Read the report. Even if someone claims that it is partisan - since a Democrat chaired the report - and misleading in its own way - because he does not like Bush- there are still enough instances of White House meddling in scientific matters to be extremely worried. Because of this, I simply can not believe anything the White House says about scientific matters. I need to hear it from a trusted source, which the White House is not.
We have a White House that is altering science to strengthen an ideology in much the same way that Stalin pushed Lysenko and his views on evolution forward because they fit Communism. Luckily we do not yet have a state that arrests and imprisons scientists who do not toe the party line. But we do have one that plays fast and loose with science in order to provide underpinnings for its ideology.
In the 30 years of my adult life, I have not seen any administration so blatantly seek to warp the goals of scientific explorations. If for no other reason, this administration must be voted out before it has a permanent effect on our basic research infrastructure. Health and Human Services continues to try an damage the NIH, to try and apply top down centralized approaches to an organization that thrives on bottom-up innovation, leading (or rather mis-leading) to reduced morale at one of our best factories for basic research. 12:39:40 AM 
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