Republican Wishful Thinking

Much of today's Republican philosophy seems to consist of flapping the arms and bellowing something often enough and loud enough until enough people believe the nonsense or at least look the other way. An example is Republican 'science'; Gene C. Gerard in Truthout has the story:

Unions representing thousands of scientists and other specialists employed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently complained that EPA officials are ignoring science. The unions indicated that agency administrators are allowing numerous toxic substances to be used in agricultural pesticides. This revelation comes on the heels of a survey of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists which found that the agency has become so political that it's no longer protecting public safety. While all presidential administrations, by their very nature, are political, it's increasingly clear that the Bush administration is using politics to corrupt science.

Nine unions comprised of 9,000 EPA scientists maintained that multiple agricultural pesticides are dangerous for pregnant women, children, and the elderly. In a letter to EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson, union leaders indicated that agency officials seem to believe that "the concerns of agriculture and the pesticide industry come before our responsibility to protect the health of our nation's citizens." An EPA scientist warned that the agency often ignores scientific studies that disagree with industry-funded studies. This isn't surprising, given that the EPA's own inspector general acknowledged earlier this year that the agency had failed to protect children from pesticide exposure.

Late last month, the Union of Concerned Scientists released the disturbing results of its survey of FDA scientists. The survey was sent to almost 6,000 FDA scientists, of whom about one-fifth responded. The responses revealed that 20 percent had been asked explicitly by FDA administrators to provide incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information to the public. And 60 percent of the scientists reported that commercial interests have inappropriately induced or attempted to induce the reversal, withdrawal or modification of FDA actions.

I'm a Democrat but I admired my Republican grandfather. He used to have a saying for new employees he was training; it was essentially a first warning. He would say, "If you agree to do a job, you do it right, or don't bother showing up." Let's not pretend that Bush cares about environmental protection or that he has any intention of doing it right.