Salon: They Blinded Me With Pseudo Science

The Bush administration is jettisoning real scientists in favor of yes men.

In the final days of October, Craig Manson, assistant interior secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, dealt a "Godfather"-style blow to a team of government biologists that was about to release a final report with flow recommendations for the Missouri River -- a blow that could have a sizable ripple effect on the river itself. The report was to have argued for the need to better mimic the natural flow of the Missouri (releasing more water from hydroelectric dams in the spring and less in the summer) to prevent extinction of the river's endangered sturgeon, tern and plover populations, and to reduce the risk of future flooding.

Responding to objections from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the report's suggestions would economically inconvenience dam owners and the Missouri River's barge industry, Manson penned a three-paragraph memo ordering a second opinion on Missouri River management. This opinion is to be provided by a "special national team of (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) Service experts ... referred to as 'the Wise Guys' or the 'SWAT Team,' has served well in other complex, high-interest consultations,'" he wrote, with nary a trace of irony to soften the mafia-boss language. The replacement biological SWAT team will reach its conclusions after a 45-day study; the original team's findings were based on more than 10 years of research and were confirmed by independent peer review as well as by the National Academy of Sciences.

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http://salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/11/14/grist1/index.html

Nor liberal judges or objective scientists; nor fair voting systems and not even the U.S. Constitution shall get in the way of the Bush right-wing agenda.