A very good point found here as usual:
http://www.911blogger.com/
Bush's bad science
If you've been paying attention, you know that the Bush administration has been playing fast and loose with science. But I'm not sure people fully grasp the implications.
Examples of bad science include:
? Global warming. The 2000 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ("IPCC") said that man-made pollution was causing global warming... Unsatisfied, Bush orchestrated the ouster of the IPCC Chair, Robert Watson and replacing this eminent atmospheric scientists with an Indian economist, Rejandra Pachauri. See
http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/020419a.asp
Then Bush put in a crony who blue-pencil vetoed parts of science reports which were not sufficiently pro-industry.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0608-05.htm
? In 2002, the US Geological Survey submitted the results of a 12- year study, concluding that oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would adversely affect the habitat of the wildlife of the region (duh). Interior Secretary Gail Norton ordered a reassessment and -- coincidentally -- got the desired result in one week: arctic wildlife just love oil rigs. See
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=6431
? Also in 2002, the Pentagon terminated the contract of the "Jason" panel ? an advisory group composed of forty to fifty elite scientists. John Marburger, Bush's science advisor, described the group as "working scientists ? top-notch people who are experts in their fields". One member suggested that the termination Jason followed from an attempt by the Bush administration "to place political appointees to [the] scientific panel." (NY TIMES, 3/23/02).
? Critics of Bush's "National Missile Defense System" faced retaliation by the Bush administration. By way of example, the dissent of Dr. Theodore Postal of MIT cost him federal research grants, along with threats of research cutbacks to MIT. In addition, Dr. Nira Schwartz, a scientist and computer expert, was fired by the defense contractor, TRW, immediately after determining that the design of the defense missiles (i.e., "kill vehicles") was fatally flawed. In early march, the General Accounting Office confirmed her findings. See
http://www.salon.com/news/col/huff/2002/03/14/trw/index_np.html.
So can we agree that the Bush administration -- directly and through its allies -- has put enormous pressure on scientists and engineers to give results which favor industry?
Okay, now how about cooked intelligence? Can we agree that the Bush administration faked the whole Iraq WMD thing, and is now faking intelligence about Iranian weapons capabilities?
Okay, then ... why is it so hard to believe that the Bush administration pressured NIST into reaching certain conclusions about the collapse of the World Trade Centers? NIST, the agency charged with figuring out why the WTC buildings collapsed on 9/11, refused to model the collapses themselves (huh?), and is delaying on reaching a conclusion about why World Trade Center building 7 -- which was not hit by a plane -- collapsed on 9/11. See
http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/nist/index.html,
http://911review.com/articles/griffin/nyc1.html and
http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html