Top Scientist: Bush's Political Appointees Lack Science Backgrounds, Will "Leave Wreckage Behind"

The president of the nation's largest general science organization yesterday sharply criticized recent cases of Bush administration political appointees gaining permanent federal jobs with responsibility for making or administering scientific policies, saying the result would be "to leave wreckage behind."

"It's ludicrous to have people who do not have a scientific background, who are not trained and skilled in the ways of science, make decisions that involve resources, that involve facilities in the scientific infrastructure," said James McCarthy, a Harvard University oceanographer who is president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "You'd just like to think people have more respect for the institution of government than to leave wreckage behind with these appointments."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Tom95134]

DUH!

[LiberalBuzz]

I simply cannot believe that Obama has no choice to but accep these moles.

There HAS to be a way to get rid of them before they do further damage.

[ReHoover51]

make their job-life unbearable ... make them have to learn science! they will crack because they are faith-based neanderthals and it wont compute to them ... they will spin in their chairs until they spontaneously emplode

[OldKnute]

LiberalBuzz and Hoover,

I think you are both right; there must be a way. We must keep in mind that the only support for these appointments, is the Bush Administration. Their qualifications are secondary and will be the method of their removal, will be their own incompliancy.

Dismissal for Cause, is neither Political or unfair.

The deeper general message coming out of the Obama Team is one of getting things done. To surround yourself with not only who agrees with you but those who are fully engaged in making a difference.

Bush made his appointments to hobble the influences of sciences, especially in fields surrounding medical sciences along ideological lines and to promote large-scale Pharmaceutical Companies interests.

Simple peer review and evaluation will weed out these speed-bumps to progress. Locally, Fairly and based on their own merit, or lack there of.

Just as with Global Warming, you simply need facilitate the proper environment, the rest; nature will cure for you.

Once Obama gains the confidence of scientific and academic leadership, they will act for him and the rigorous standards of science, restored.

All the best

Knute

[research]

Worst case,

Obama and the democrats could

eliminate entire agencies and

replace them with new ones.

[bannorhill]

Since when is your background important in top Government?

Obama has no executive experience and he will be our President.

Hillary has no state department experience and she will be secretary of state (reportedly).

Should they be disqualified?

[iPolitics]

It must all be way over your head. If you don't understand you must have want Palin as vice president

[HHUA]

So Obama's eight YEARS as a state Senator (and his broad knowledge both domestic AND foreign) account for nothing? Or how about the fact that he is a C ONST ITUTIONAL PROFESSOR, considering that the OATH of a newly sworn in President IS to UPHOLD THE C ONST ITUTION?!? Wouldn't you think that in order to "uphold it" one must know what's in it? Take our illustrious G.W., who t rashed our c onst itution because in his own words "it's just a piece of paper"... So much for HIS "executive experience"!!

Btw, McCain also had NO executive experience, so I guess by your standards, we would've had to rely on Palin's 2 year gov. stint, who's sole foreign policy experience came from her ability to "see Russia" (compared to Obama's 10 years total as a senator, 2 years working on f oreign n uclear pr olifer ation, and his FAR superior intellect and knowledge overall)? I guess 8 years of incompetence wasn't enough? Perhaps you could move to Alaska and when they secede (as per Todd's VERY Un-American AIP party), no worries, P res ident Palin will simply "wink" at Putin when he "rears his head" over Alaska!

Having a "working knowledge base" in the area of gov't you are "working in" IS IMPORTANT... especially in matters of science! You cannot learn science "on the job" just as you cannot "learn" to uphold the constitution if you have NO CLUE what it is!!!

[bannorhill]

This article says you have to have a scientific background to administer scientific policies. If that is true then likewise you need an executive background to be an executive and a state department background to run the state department. Your points support my premise that the article is wrong.

As for McCain he served as in 1976 he was commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida with about 1000 people under his command. That is executive experiance. (check Wikipedia).

[glaze]

Put another way, the argument maintains that NO ONE could possibly become President or Secretary of State, because they were never in that position before!

And- politely put, EXPERIENCE does not always equate with QUALITY or EFFECTIVENESS in office. The history of the world is littered with examples of misfitting people and jobs.

Just keeping your office seat warm year after year does not make you a genius-grade statesman/stateswoman- IT ONLY MEANS A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME WAS SERVED- AT PUBLIC EXPENSE.

The argument also goes to the old job-seeker complaint: You can't get hired without experience, and you can't get experience without being hired.

This time the majority hired someone who at least shows a successful history of effectively FACING and SOLVING PROBLEMS.
Enough said.

[larry278]

You call that news? It doesn't take a rocket scientist or oceanographer to learn that. BTW-W has till 1/20/09 to vomit on a foreign official as Poppy did.

[sposton]

Does anyone think Bush is going back to Crawford?

[Toonadude]

Bush is a big advocate of science. Just today, in order to solve the financial crisis, he issued a request to M.I.T. for their best alchemist to turn our national lead deposits into gold.

[thedirtman]

Institutionalizing stupidity at tax payer expense. Could it get any worse?

[research]

GOP fanatic.

[Haditup2here]

As an employee of the DOE, this article really makes my blood boil and steam !! No wonder why there so much bureaucracy that doesn't do anything but impede progress.

[sposton]

These are Bush's moles that could deliver damage for years. Give them an office in a storage room and keep them away from anything important. They will eventually get bored and leave.

[thedirtman]

A storage room would be much too generous. How about a chemical outhouse?

[twofish]

I'm sure we could create Wichita, Fargo and Fairbanks field offices that need staffing... Anywhere else we can send them? Lots of endangered frogs that need counting, too. Give them a stack of 3x5 cards and a couple of pencils and point them at the nearest swamp.

[shaf]

We need a de-Bushification of the federal government. Embedding unqualified Bush loyalists in key civil service positions will allow the bad decisions of the past eight years to continue unabated for dozens of years more. Enough!

[gnomic]

Correction: Incorrect Verb Tense. "Will Leave Wreckage Behind" should be "IS "LeavING Wreckage Behind"

And the various scientific academies should very clearly take the lead on cleaning this house up.

[lessbs]

It's almost over--we need to give it a rest. If you can't figure out how to fire some worthless appointee that has been moved into a permanent position, you don't deserve to be in a supervisory position. If worse comes to worse, you form a new group, move the losers into it, and then eliminate the group due to budgetary constraints. You would think that no one has ever been fired in the federal government.

[thedirtman]

This is an effective tactic and it's done before. Simply draft those that are needed to a new job description and fire the rest.

[feo]

Quit picking on Bush. He is the most successful president we've ever had. He successfully turned the second most Mickey Mouse war we've ever been in (Grenada being first) into the most expensive adventure we've ever attempted, so cleverly done that no one has any idea where the money was spent.

[bannorhill]

Wrong. The most Mickey Mouse war was Vietnam. When you need to get President Johnson's approval before you are allowed to bomb a truck that is Mickey Mouse war.

[mjb5406]

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone... Bush favors religion over science. All yo0u need is someone in a position that believes in God, not someone actually qualified for the job.