Hansen: White House ‘Reviews And Edits’ All Testimony By Government Scientists

[babylonsister]

:nuke: :nuke:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/28/hansen-omb/

Hansen: White House ‘Reviews And Edits’ All Testimony By Government Scientists

In 2006, the government’s top global warming researcher, James Hansen, revealed the government’s efforts to muzzle him from speaking out about climate change. NASA political appointees reviewed all his lectures, papers, and requests for interviews from journalists.

In a new e-mail, Hansen reveals that the censoring is not only happening to him, but to all government scientists. He writes that the White House Office of Management and Budget reviews all scientific testimony to make sure that it’s “consistent with the President’s budget”:

Do you know that before a government scientist testifies to Congress his/her testimony is typically reviewed and edited by the White House Office of Management and Budget? When I asked for a justification, I was told that a government scientist’s testimony “needs to be consistent with the President’s budget”.

Huh? There have never been any budget numbers in my testimony or in the testimony of most scientists. And OMB’s editing of the scientific content is invariably designed to make the testimony fit better with the position of the political party in power (yes, it is a bi-partisan problem). Where is it stated or implied in the Constitution that the Executive Branch should have such authority? (Actually, does the Constitution not vest control of the purse strings to Congress?) Why does not Congress get incensed about this and fight back?

In October, Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had her congressional testimony on the “Human Impacts of Global Warming” “eviscerated” by the OMB. The final version had almost no references to the impacts of global warming.

In Jan. 2007, a survey found that 46 percent of government scientists “personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming,’ or other similar terms from a variety of communications.”

[hatrack]

1. K&R

[ladjf]

2. Totalitarianism.

[Solly Mack]

3. So much damage...all across the board...that man has been nothing

but a disaster for America and for others

[Uncle Joe]

4. In other words, they're trying to fix the facts to the budget, not the other way around.

I imagine the negative effects of global warming climate change will have a tremendous effect on the budget. Flooding, droughts, mass relocation of the people from such catastrophe, the accelerating elimination of species, crop failures, and as a result the drop in tax collections due to economic hardship, etc.

The Bush Maladministration simply want to ignore the possibility of such things happening, so they can continue to promote the meme along with their head in the sand corporate cohorts, that global warming should be a lower priority in the national consciousness than it deserves.

The longer they can keep ambiguity in the equation and hide the economic cost of ignoring this looming catastrophe, the longer they're able to promote the ridiculous frame that it's too expensive to adapt to the ever-growing catastrophe of global warming climate change. I believe they know global warming climate change is for real, but they're, in using a business term "writing off" the people.

I don't know for certain that Bush has purchased vast quantities of land in Paraguay adjacent to one of, if not the world's largest fresh water reservoirs but if he has, I believe global warming climate change is the primary reason, that being their life boat. Some believe it's because of the potentiality of running away due to war crimes but after watching this Congress and the Corporate Media ignore or white wash so many obvious transgressions, I doubt Bush or Cheney are too concerned about that.

Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.

[Uncle Joe]

5. This is what I'm talking about, does anyone believe their is a relationship to these two threads?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3158319


“Big business says addressing climate change 'rates very low on agenda”

[DeepModem Mom]

6. K&R!