Bush Vs. Science: Science Loses

Here's a good, meaty New York Times article about how Bush has turned science into a partisan issue. It's a little wishy-washy at first (some of the scientists who criticize Bush are -- gasp! -- Democrats). But then it gets into the facts and shows how many, many scientists who have served both Republican and Democratic adminsitrations over the decades think Bush ignores science and is trying to subvert scientific information for political purposes.

A big battleground? Global warming, where scientific studies and group after group insisted that the evidence for human impact on global warming was overwhelming but Bush lied anyway and said the jury was still out.

"Several dozen interviews with administration officials and with scientists in and out of government, along with a variety of documents, show that the core of the clash is over instances in which scientists say that objective and relevant information is ignored or distorted in service of pre-established policy goals. Scientists were essentially locked out of important internal White House debates; candidates for advisory panels were asked about their politics as well as their scientific work; and the White House exerted broad control over how scientific findings were to be presented in public reports or news releases."

Then there's the overt politicizing of what should be non-partisan scientific advisory panels.

"Despite three years of charges that it is remaking scientific and medical advisory panels to favor the goals of industry or social conservatives, the White House has continued to ask some panel nominees not only about their political views, but explicitly whether they support Mr. Bush."

If Albert Einstein were still around, he'd probably be locked up in Guantanamo Bay.