Dubya's handlers are pushin' the Kennedyesque "vision thing" for the election season. Spare us! He's already made such a mess down here, he's ready for another Star Wars project and a hiding place for himself. For someone whose vision didn't even extend to an exit strategy in Iraq, today's moon speech was laughable--especially in light of his reputation with the sciences!
Politics in the lab hits US scientific integrity
By Barton Reppert
Christian Science Monitor
GAITHERSBURG, MD. – In theory, science is supposed to be cold, analytical, dispassionate -- and studiously apolitical. But in the real world of competing demands for federal research dollars, savvy scientists of all disciplines -- from cognitive psychologists running rats through mazes to nuclear physicists operating massive particle accelerators -- recognize that a certain amount of political meddling in their research by policymakers in the executive branch and Congress is to be expected.
However, there are limits -- limits the Bush administration has frequently disregarded by imposing stringent political controls on a broad variety of federal scientific programs and activities. This has raised acute concern in the American scientific community that the administration's drive to stamp its conservative values on science isn't just affecting policy decisions, but undermining the integrity of the US research infrastructure itself. [Emphasis added. -v]
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0106/p11s02-coop.html?
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