Science, Public Health Get Bushwhacked
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 07.11.07
Want to talk about government conspiracies? The Bush administration has repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress key public-health reports because they were contrary to its political agenda, according to former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona. Carmona, who spoke with a Congressional panel on Tuesday, served for one four-year term from 2002 to 2006.
Just some of the subjects Carmona said he was gagged from speaking or issuing reports about: stem cells, emergency contraception, and sex education, as well as prison, mental, and global health issues. “I was told to stay away from those because we’ve already decided which way we want to go,” Carmona said.
Top officials delayed a landmark report on secondhand smoke for years, he said, and tried to "water [it] down" when it was finally released last year. (It concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.)
Meanwhile, officials also concluded that global warming was a liberal cause and dismissed it, Carmona said.
Repeat after us: Where the hell are we, and what are we doing in this handbasket?
Carmona said he was ordered to mention the Commander in Chief three times on every page of his speeches (we're assuming he couldn't just insert "George W. Bush is a poopyhead" every few paragraphs or so). He also said he was asked to make speeches in support of Republican political candidates.
While Carmona declined from naming names, he did say that the people involved included assistant secretaries of the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as top political appointees outside the Department of Health.
Bill Hall, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said that the administration disagreed with Carmona's testimony. “It has always been this administration’s position that public health policy should be rooted in sound science,” Hall said.
Of course. :: The New York Times
See also: :: Brief for George W. Bush on Climate Change, :: Is George Bush a Closet Green?, and :: A Bush Administration Policy Adjustment
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Wow, every piece of news that spawns from this administration is grounds enough for impeachment proceedings. Whats stopping the proceedings? Clinton got a BJ, and he was nearly impeached; every scandal in the Bush regime is that times 100, with over 100 reasons for impeachment.
I agree. We need resistance from the bottom up and demand impeachment because Congress will not do it alone.
Bill Clinton WAS impeached. He just wasn't convicted. :)
You know, I'm for hugging trees too, and I might actually have enjoyed this site but this first story I've just read is SO onesided and unfair - how can you expect anyone to believe anything you say when you have articles like this one? Bush's attorney general is not the WHOLE story.. just part of it. Clinton's surgeon general and several other surgeon generals also testified that they too, had been unable to properly do their jobs due to political pressures! I don't give a crap about Bush OR Clinton, but I give a great deal about truth.
Why do you think no one does a thing? Because they ARE the law. They talk about "freedom", and "democracy", but these are exactly the things they take away from you. (Not that you had it in the US, anyway...)
They are the epitome of everything that the American Empire stands for.
if we impeach bush, we get Cheney in the position.. and is that any better?