Another Bush crony who lied about his qualifications on his resume resigns.

[Harry Tuttle]

I think the kid is from Texas.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Edan
What a deutsch bag

Best pun of the day!!

[Mordoch]

The Washington Post wrote an editorial on this subject with the following observation.

The spectacle of a young political appointee with no college degree exerting crude political control over senior government scientists and civil servants with many decades of experience is deeply disturbing. More disturbing is the fact that Mr. Deutsch's attempts to manipulate science and scientists, although unusually blatant, were not unique. Just before Christmas, the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued "talking points" to local environmental agencies. These suggestions were intended to help their spokesmen play down an Associated Press story that -- using the EPA's own data -- showed that impoverished neighborhoods had higher levels of air pollution.

At the Food and Drug Administration, the director of the Office of Women's Health recently resigned because she believed that the administration was twisting science to stall approval of over-the-counter emergency contraception. Off the record -- because they fear losing their jobs -- some scientists at the Department of Health and Human Services say that Bush administration public affairs officers screen their appearances and utterances more carefully than anyone ever did. Scientists at places such as the Agriculture Department, not a part of the government known for its publicity hounds, have made the same claim.

In every administration there will be spokesmen and public affairs officers who try to spin the news to make the president look good. But this administration is trying to spin scientific data and muzzle scientists toward that end. NASA's Mr. Hansen was right when he told the Times that Mr. Deutsch was only a bit player. "The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies," he said. We agree.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020801991.html

[mindseye]

What was his appointed position? NASA Comissar?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle


I don't need to. The process of appointments has been ongoing for nearly 215 years. I think this kid is being made the fall guy. Mainly because he's a dumb peon. Also, I think a good part of this has to do with your buddy Dr. Hansen making a stir a few years ago with his politically charged climate book.

The main complaint here is that Dr. Hansen is saying that Nasa tried to "muzzle" him about speaking on climate change. Unfortunately, the real details are that they asked him to run his speaking engagements, as a Nasa scientist, through public relations. Fast forward and Dr. Hansen is screaming bloody murder because he's paranoid. Also, he seems to have a problem with following any rules it seems: http://www.space.com/spacenews/busin...ay_060206.html

All in all, I think Hansen is freaking out. I'd hardly call him "heroic"

your guy going against Hansen in the article (Acosta) is a political apointee too

Heh, you bet he will be very objective in his remarks, as if he has no agenda to push.

As for Hansen the only agenda he is pushing is that the political apointees have no business ammending scientific papers, and their conclusions. I cannot see how can that be presented as "paranoia".

Not to mention that the whole issue must have shook the whole agency so that they got this statement out:

"It is not the job of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA’s technical staff."

Don't you think this should have been the principle along all 215 years of political appointments in government agencies?

[SpencerH]

Its obviously another piece of the complex Bush plot to seize ultimate power here.

[Harry Tuttle]

As for Hansen the only agenda he is pushing is that the political apointees have no business ammending scientific papers, and their conclusions. I cannot see how can that be presented as "paranoia".

Where exactly does he go on about this? His beef is that he's saying he was "muzzled" for his views on climate change. His papers weren't amended. The kid who resigned worked on press releases and asked some web designer to add the word "theory" to instances of "Big Bang". Guess what, until we actually see the Big Bang it is still a theory, Washington Post journalistic IQ or not.

[Q Classic]

Yes, Real Ultimate Power.

[Q Classic]

Yes, the Big Bang is only a theory. So is the Theory of Gravity and the Theory of Evolution.

However, when used in a scientific context, a "theory" means something far weightier than a regular hypothesis. A scientific theory tends to be one that is supported by a great deal of evidence-- as opposed to the layman's theory, which can be as bat**** crazy as you can make up.

It's that dichotomy of connotation that political operatives use to cast doubt and aspersions in their quest against authority.

[Q Classic]

Put another way:

In the age of the internet, everybody's an "authority". People have the right to expoud insane, illogical, or unsubstantiated notions as layman's theories; on the internet, context is often hard to determine, particularly for those who are not saavy readers.

This, in turn, confuddles the boundaries between scientific theory and normal theory, eroding something based on scads of evidence by conflating it with something that isn't.

In this particular case, Deutsch was--at least by appearances--attempting to cast doubt among the lay public about the evidence garnered to support the Big Bang Theory.

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
It's that dichotomy of connotation that political operatives use to cast doubt and aspersions in their quest against authority.

Yeah well I think God farted and Dinosaurs came out.

[Q Classic]

Yeah well I think God farted and Dinosaurs came out.

That's your theory, but it ain't a scientific theory.

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by Q Cubed

Yeah well I think God farted and Dinosaurs came out.

That's your theory, but it ain't a scientific theory.

I don't know, heck of a lot of gas in space...

[Q Classic]

That said, I don't mind Deutsch's pedanticness so much. Yes, it's the Big Bang Theory. The problem is there appears to be evidence that his pedanticness arose not out of an attempt to be more accurate with language, but out of a firm belief in... well, a biblical belief.

This biblical belief apparently clouded his judgement on scientific matters, for a scientific agency. That's what's gotten many in such a tizzy.

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
I don't know, heck of a lot of gas in space...

Flatulence tends to be mostly methane. While there's plenty of it, there's by far a lot more plain hydrogen and all.

You're also lacking a mechanism that explains in detail how the dinosaurs were created, and lacking a reasonable, logical explanation that can be verified with experimental results on how a deity's flatulence (comprised largely of methane) resulted in complex hydrocarbons and other organic compounds that are predominantly non-gaseous.

(I'm currently imagining an omnipotent anus excreting fully formed terrible lizards.)

Not to mention the "spark of life", or the soul that resides in each and every dinosaur, that makes them gosh-darned unique. Like snowflakes. (Or do dinosaurs not have souls?)