Deeply troubled by the Bush administration’s distortion of science for political ends, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service report that agency science is suffering under political manipulation and inappropriate influence of special interests.

According to the survey released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the agency is increasingly unable to carry out its charge of protecting imperiled fish, seal and whale populations from extinction.

“Scientists are struggling against a strong political current at NOAA Fisheries.” said UCS Washington Representative Lexi Shultz. “From global warming to fish and wildlife, we’ve seen that the Bush administration has little regard for scientific findings that don’t support its predetermined policies. And compromised science here can only be bad for fish, bad for fishing interests, and bad for the taxpayers who pay for and expect an honest process.”

Here’s a related story from a recent article in the LA Times courtesy of Mark York.

As if we weren’t already screwed to the wall, now comes the news that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said Friday she is retiring, according to the AP.

We knew the manipuatlion of science was going on, in part by what we learned during the debate on global warming and climage change. And we knew O’Connor’s retirement was coming. Will the educated people in this country please stand up and stop the court from being packed with religious zealots who will distort science and the purpose of democracy and the press further?

All I can do is write about it folks - for free no less. Get up and dance - save your country and the world by protesting this mess.

Send money to activists such as The People for the American Way, or to your favorite blog. With a significant budget, we could make more of a difference. Did you see this story in your local newspaper? With funding, we could investigate things like this and write original stories about them here and in The Locust Fork Journal. One of these days we’ll get around to producing a print edition - mostly to pass around free in local bars and promote traffic to the Web site.

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