How Bush Broke the Government

[Demeter]

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=how_bush_broke_the_government

LENGTHY ANALYSIS; SAMPLE EXCERPT

"Juking the Stats

The HBO series The Wire introduced viewers to the concept of police "reducing crime" by simply changing the statistics on record -- in essence, coding in felonies as misdemeanors. The cops on the show call it "juking the stats," and it's a practice that became all too familiar during the Bush years. Administration officials would repeatedly call for a review of the literature of a subject until they got their desired interpretations. They would ask scientists to show proof that a policy they opposed would cause damage to the environment -- or the reverse, that a policy they supported would not hurt the environment. When the facts flew in the face of the Bush agenda, the administration told its agencies to get new facts.

Department of the Interior: Vice President Dick Cheney took a special interest in the Klamath River Basin in Oregon and California, where a law prevented farmers from irrigating the land during a drought because using water from nearby canals would imperil an endangered species of fish. "Cheney asked, ‘Isn't there some way around the law?'" says Barton Gellman, author of Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. Cheney called for a scientific review, which cast doubt on the research showing that using canal water would harm the fish, and cleared the way for the area to be irrigated. As a result, 77,000 salmon washed up dead on the banks of the river -- the biggest man-made fish kill in the West.

Department of Health and Human services: Until the summer of 2002, the National Institutes of Health maintained that women who had an abortion were at no greater risk of breast cancer than those who had not undergone the procedure. But, under Bush, the NIH released a fact sheet that said the evidence was "unclear." The fact sheet made no mention of "the largest, and probably the most reliable, study of this topic," which found no link between abortion and breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. In a similar incident, a Centers for Disease Control fact sheet was altered to downplay the effectiveness of condoms in reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Rep. Henry Waxman and other Democratic lawmakers called it "part of an Orwellian trend at HHS." They confirmed, "simply put, information that used to be based on science is being systematically removed from the public when it conflicts with the administration's political agenda."

Department of Veterans Affairs: Secretary Jim Nicholson embarked on a campaign in 2005 to reduce the number of claims made by veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, announcing a plan to review the cases in which veterans receive full disability benefits for the disorder. He said he wanted to root out "fraud." Shortly thereafter, a New Mexico veteran who was undergoing review committed suicide, partly over concern about the review, according to veterans' advocates. On Nov. 10, 2005, Nicholson discontinued the claim review.

Suppressing Science

The Bush administration didn't just meddle with research, it suppressed solid facts when they were less than favorable to its politics. Time and time again, when the science clearly called on government agencies to adopt stricter regulations or change policies, federal agencies diligently kept the information from becoming public -- and avoided having to change their behavior. If they couldn't rewrite the truth, then they kept it from getting out.

Department of Commerce: The Commerce Department's complicated media-relations policy made it difficult for scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to speak publicly about the links between human behavior and global warming. In 2007, reports by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found that the Commerce Department and the White House Council on Environmental Quality went so far as to water down NOAA scientists' environmental testimony.

Department of Agriculture: In Ames, Iowa, the Agricultural Research Service prevented one of its microbiologists from publishing research indicating that industrial hog farming may contribute to antibiotic resistance. The Bush administration stopped the scientist from publishing 11 times between September 2001 and April 2002. In a February 2002 memo, the Agricultural Research Service told its scientists to seek prior approval on all manuscripts related to "sensitive issues," including agricultural practices with negative health or environmental consequences such as water contamination. In September 2003, the White House stopped the Natural Resources Conservation Service from reprinting a popular brochure explaining carbon sequestration in soil and what farmers can do to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Department of Health and Human Services: A 400-page report, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances, put together by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control, warned that 9 million people who live in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee may face elevated risks of health problems from exposure to dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lead, and mercury. Since 2004, dozens of experts have reviewed various incarnations of the report -- but CDC officials have refused to release it. Instead, they have sought additional revision and review. And in 2007, just before CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding testified in front of a Senate committee on the hazardous effects of climate change on public health, the White House Office of Management and Budget edited out nearly half of her testimony. The expurgated text articulated climate change's direct effects on Americans.

Rewriting the Rules"

A MUST-READ EXPOSE

[jimshoes]

1. When they finally write the book on these criminals

posing as republicans, they could very well call it "How To Ruin Everything" (And get filthy rich doing it)

[liberalla]

2. This looks good!

I have to read it later - Thanks for the link.