Former Bush surgeon general says he was muzzled

From Reuters courtesy of AlterNet:

he first U.S. surgeon general appointed by President George W. Bush accused the administration on Tuesday of political interference and muzzling him on key issues like embryonic stem cell research.

"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as the nation's top doctor from 2002 until 2006, told a House of Representatives committee.

"The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party," Carmona added.

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Of course, this has been known for some years now: Bush plays politics with science. It is not enough, however, to use the phrase "plays politics" because that doesn't really get the reality of the situation across. Our President lies. Constantly, and on a galactic scale. His lies aren't simply utterances of non-truths. Bush literally tampers with our nation's understanding of knowledge in order to provide cover and support for his lies; he uses the vast power of his office to give his dangerous mendacity the appearance of reality. And his lies are literally dangerous and life-threatening. From the creative fiction about Saddam's WMDs to abstinence based sex education, which discourages condom use, people, lots of people, are dying because of Bush's cavalier attitude about truth.

Maybe the spectacle of a man as respected as the Surgeon General publicly calling the President out on this will make people understand how grave things really are. The fact that the Democrats are so angrily dead-set against impeachment continues to piss me off to no end.

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