The Bush administration will leave us with another legacy: unqualified Republican ideologues receiving appointments in various institutions, including scientific organizations, as their ship of state sinks. The rats are scuttling overboard, and are being rewarded with captaincies on any available vessel. An article in the Washington post discusses the trend.PZ hammers on specific examples while Steve Benen, after linking to PZ (two of my favorite bloggers in one place! Yowsa!), highlights the statement of a man in dire need of a Smack-o-Matic:
Alas, we are. Which means that not only are the rats burrowing, they're of the extremely incompetent variety. The only thing they're good at, in fact, is looking after themselves.He's referring to this.
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."
Well, yes, one would like to think that. But we're talking about the Bush gang here.
So. Does anybody know of a hypoallergenic breed of rat terrier that could go after the burrowing Bush rats and drag them out? And if so, can you secure us about a dozen to start with?
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