That quote from Henry Waxman can’t possibly be a surprise, can it?
For example, he said he wasn’t allowed to make a speech at the Special Olympics because it was viewed as benefiting a political opponent. However, he said was asked to speak at events designed to benefit Republican lawmakers.
“The reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas,” said Carmona, who served from 2002 to 2006.
This administration wants to sign on a new surgeon general: James Holsinger, a religious homophobe who has received the endorsement of the Reverend Fred Phelps. Ironically, part of their defense against the accusations of Carmona is that the surgeon general has “the obligation to be the leading voice for the health of all Americans,” although it seems to me that they meant to say the voice for the health of wealthy heterosexual Republicans … but then, that’s a phrase I think you can substitute for “American” any time a right-winger uses the word.
It’s just another datum in the history of the politicization of science and medicine by the repugnant Bush administration.
(via Angry by Choice)
This is nothing new. Dr. C. Everett Coop had run-ins with the Reagan administration because his scientific findings didn’t toe the party line! Typical politics – science trumped by popularity.
Koop, not Coop! My bad!
nope, not a surpise at all
i remember everett koop and jocelyn elders both had run-ins with the admin because they espoused sensible workable SCIENTIFICALLY VALID ideas that those-in-charge disagreed with
The principle certainly isn’t new, but the scope and brazenness of this sort of thing in the Chimp administration is unprecedented.
“For example, he said he wasn’t allowed to make a speech at the Special Olympics because it was viewed as benefiting a political opponent. However, he said was asked to speak at events designed to benefit Republican lawmakers.”
This is clearly objectionable, but it ain’t “anti-science.”
Koop and Elders “run ins” with their administrations were largely surrounding the fact that they wanted to tackle AIDS as a public health issue (including education and teaching about safe sex) – which ran contrary to the administration’s prevailing view that AIDS is divine punishment for promiscuity and homosexuality.
Can you be a “scientist” and a homophobe? I’m just wondering… Seems that scientists deal with the world as it is, right? And same-sexuality is pretty prevalent in nature: therefore.
“It” aint anti-science, but there are other examples given by Carmona that most definitely are. Any candidate endorsed by Rev. Fred is bound to be seen as good for the control-freaks’ theocratic Dark Ages Ignorant party line.
Just another instance of political thuggery from these elitist morons. I am sick of the inmates running the asylum. If anyone has any ideas on how to break the mass hypnosis that these egomaniacs use to create their power base, please share! They have so messed with the average person’s head, that there is absolutely no agreement on what is reality, and no ability to filter baldfaced lies from fact. We as a nation are suffering from dis-information overload!
The Bush administration considers The Special Olympics to be a political opponent? I thought we couldn’t top the paranoia of Nixon. Just… wow.
comissarjs, the Special Olympics are a big deal for a powerful political family whose name rhymes with “remedy”.
The US may see its first faith healing Surgeon General yet. Soon, the office of the Surgeon General may start to receive ‘audiences’ as its sole official function.
But, in spite of Bill Frist’s endorsement of the procedure, IM will not count.
Wait a minute…Fred Phelps likes someone?
This statement is not entirely accurate, “the health of wealthy heterosexual Republicans”
You must have meant “the health of wealthy white god-fearing heterosexual Republicans”. Even those that frequent prostitutes.
Mmmmm, maybe more like
“the health of wealthy white god-fearing heterosexual and straight-acting Republicans”
WTF!? This guy’s primary medical mission is to cure gays? That is the most pressing issue facing modern healthcare? OMG my head hurts…
Setting aside the ludicrousness of the proposal, how does he intend to pay for it? What Holsinger and the entire administration need are anal-cranial-ectomies…this is the procedure I would gladly pay additional taxes to fund…
This is the link to the NY Times article on this topic. The number of instances where politics and cronyism trumped science is unfortunately not surprising for this administration, but it is still horrifying.
My apologies… I don’t know how to do links yet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/washington/11surgeon.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp
mojojo, the greatest villain ever!
[comissarjs, the Special Olympics are a big deal for a powerful political family whose name rhymes with “remedy”.]
How does that make the Special Olympics organization political?
PZ doen’t do Carmona’s testimony justice. It’s even more damning of the Bushies than he says, if that’s possible. The list of trangressions is quite long, but perhaps the most telling was that the political appointees who vetted all of Carmona’s reports and speeches tried to make him mention, favorably, of course, Dubya at least three times on every page of every public speech. Shades of Mao, Stalin, and Hussein, all in the name of Bush. It’s disgusting. The best report is from the NY Times this morning, so go to the link in LCR’s (#15 above) post (I tried it and it works) and weep. It’s enough to make one’s blood boil!
RussRules,
seeing disabled people trying give their best reminds us that there are people who DID NOT CAUSE THEIR MISERY, thus negating the just world effect which in turn weakens the support for republican “law of the jungle” policies …
You are looking for logic where it does not exist. If you persist, blood vessels may be endangered.
error : trying TO
And in other news, the Pope is Catholic.
@bob koepp: (#5)
stem cells.
sometimes i hate the way this place parses html tags. the first line was supposed to be inside the blockquote, as it was bob’s quote, but got automatically broken by the line break.
Arach – I compromise by renewing the blockquote wherever a line or paragraph break occurs. It implies a discontinuity that may not be intended and probably doesn’t exist, but it does seem the lesser of two evils.
Amen. This phenomenon has been irritating me ever since that UCS report came out in ’04.
It’s all of a piece. It’s all about King George. This, from the AP:
Why does Lysenko spring to mind?
For more than a few very good reasons.
Phil Plait’s entry at badastronomy.com:
Perhaps he was afraid of losing his job, but if he was so constrained from doing his job while he was there, why did he feel compelled to stay? It’s easy to be courageous after you are out of the fray, and then talk about how rotten things are. Now he is but another voice confirming what we all ready knew. Henry Waxman could have used his support back in 2004.
Bush isn’t even trying to pretend his interests align with those of the American people anymore. I’d spit on him if I saw him in the street.