Progressive Democrat Issue 101: SCIENTIFIC FRAUD BY BUSH ADMINISTRATION

I have written extensively about the ongoing anti-science policies of the Republican Party. Well, the latest anti-science activity, in fact outright scientific fraud, is happening at the Fish and Wildlife Service.

This comes from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS):

Recently obtained documents demonstrate that Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald and other high-ranking political appointees within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) at the Department of the Interior have systematically distorted, manipulated, and misused the scientific process prescribed by the Endangered Species Act. In several notable cases, this interference resulted in changing a "positive" finding--in favor of protecting species under the Endangered Species Act--to a "negative" finding. In making these changes, MacDonald, whose training is in engineering, overrode the recommendations of the agency’s own biologists.

These examples of the manipulation and distortion of scientific information at the Interior Department are the tip of the iceberg. A Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) survey of scientists at the FWS, released in February 2005, demonstrated pervasive political interference in science at the agency. Unfortunately, the significant editing of scientific documents described below shows that the misuse of science at the FWS has continued.

There is far more detail at the UCS website, linked to above, including a list of species which are affected.

Why do Republicans reject science? Isn't a rejection of reality defined as insanity? Facts are facts. Rewriting facts is outright lying. It is time for this to stop.

Please write a letter to the editor rejecting Republican fraud at the Interior Department. Also write your Congress Critters asking them to investigate scientific fraud at the Interior Department.


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