There was a time when that blog title amused me for comically exaggerating my and other lefties’ worst fears about our present Republican leadership.
A surgeon general’s report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration’s policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.
[…] Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services. […] Carmona told lawmakers that, as he fought to release the document, he was “called in and again admonished . . . via a senior official who said, ‘You don’t get it.’ ” He said a senior official told him that “this will be a political document, or it will not be released.”After a long struggle that pitted top scientific and medical experts inside and outside the government against Steiger and his political bosses, Carmona refused to make the requested changes, according to the officials. Carmona engaged in similar fights over other public health reports, including an unpublished report on prison health. A few days before the end of his term as the nation’s senior medical officer, he was abruptly told he would not be reappointed.
Ha ha. Sigh.
***Update***
More here.
Redhand
Hell, Politburo Diktat 2.0’s blog subtitle is: “another conservative who’s been mugged by reality.” I never visited the place when Commie made fun of “lefties,” as you say, just like I didn’t know John Cole’s blog before his anti-Bush conversion. It has to be months and months if not years since both saw things differently. So your segway’s wrong, Tim, even if your criticism of the Bush Administration’s latest hackery is right on target.
Rome Again
Politics is trump. If the political message isn’t included, no document will see the light of day. George Bush’s ego at work.
Tim F.
Redhand, the segue was a personal anecdote. Obviously your mileage may vary.
The Other Steve
This is clearly Scott Beauchamps fault.
RSA
:-) I have to applaud such subtlety.
Otto Man
Steiger’s the same douchebag who refused to have the US support a WHO report that linked junk food and soda with childhood obesity. That’s right — if you believe that candy bars can make children fat, then you’re a wild-eyed Al Gore lefty lunatic!
Apparently, the only scientific advancement the Bushies care about is having their sense of shame surgically removed.
TR
Science has a well-known liberal bias.
Redhand
Tough crowd here, as always.
myiq2xu
Remember Suskind’s article talking about the complete lack of policy apparatus and everything being run by the political arm of the White House (i.e. Karl Rove?)
The Soviets set themselves back many years when a government minister name Lysenko ordered that scientific research conform to communist doctrine and party needs.
Is it January 2009 yet?
Chuck Butcher
“Is it January 2009 yet?”
Somehow it seems farther away each passing week…
ConservativelyLiberal
I guess he refused to start the document with
Maybe that would have helped?
TR
You’ve got it backwards. Emperor George appointed God, not the other way around.
ConservativelyLiberal
Fixed by self.
Better? ;)
The Commissar
Tim,
Thanks (I think) for the mention.
Wouldn’t one’s mileage be more likely to vary with a Segway than a segue?
TenguPhule
Does anyone still think this nation will actually *survive* to 2009 at the rate things are going?
There is not one aspect of government that has not been ruined by this administration…and there are still 16 months of releases about the damage to go….
Lupin
I don’t know if anyone here has read Philip K Dick but his psychotic delusion in VALIS about the Empire which never ended and tries to control reality becomes more tragic every day. Who would have thought that Dick would be a better prophet than, say, Asimov?