*snarl*

[lagilman]

Bush gives it to us sans lube, once again....

The Bush administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the latest agency subjected to controls on research that might go against official policy.

New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists who study everything from caribou mating to global warming. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

...The new requirements state that the USGS's communications office must be "alerted about information products containing high-visibility topics or topics of a policy-sensitive nature."

The agency's director, Mark Myers, and its communications office also must be told - prior to any submission for publication - "of findings or data that may be especially newsworthy, have an impact on government policy, or contradict previous public understanding to ensure that proper officials are notified and that communication strategies are developed."


Bah and Humbug to you, too, Mr. Bush. Are you really that scared of anything that doesn't slide neatly into your narrow world-view? Because that doesn't sound like peer-review. THAT sounds like the implied threat of censorship.

What's next? Will there be a midnight knock on the door of a scientist who declares that the earth may not be the center of the universe?

I don't know what can be done to protest this. But people need to know it's happening.



(thanks to windrose for the heads-up.)

Comments

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

I don't know what's scarier: the fact that they're doing it, or the double-speak they're using to justify it. Speaking as someone whose research deals with climate change and is funded by a government agency, I'm not exactly getting a warm and fuzzy feeling from this.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Scary stuff, isn't it?

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Right, because the terrorists might use US caribou mating habits in their next attack...?
Right.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Nope, friction caused by mating caribou is actually the cause of melting arctic icecaps.

[autojim.livejournal.com]

And it's damned hard to tell if the caribou are in fact heretosexually mating 'cause they're one of the few ungulate species where both sexes have antlers... wouldn't cotton to no gay caribou, nosireebob.

[lagilman]

Thank you. Now I have the urge to write a children's book about Sid the Metrosexual Caribou and his best friend/roommate Bob...

[autojim.livejournal.com]

Now I have the urge to write a children's book about Sid the Metrosexual Caribou and his best friend/roommate Bob...

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Hey, well, I just lob 'em up, you hit 'em out of the park.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Cripes.

SOMEONE plase give the man a blow job so we can impeach his ass.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

I'd so buy it for my niece}:P

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

He's already been performing six years of promiscuous anal intercourse on non-consenting government scientists for the past six years... now if only there were pictures of it him doing such a thing non-metaphorically....

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

And someone without their head so far up his ass to actually bring impeachment charges against him.