New Publishing Rules Restrict Scientists

This is sickening. The Patrick Leahy mentioned CANNOT be the senator. If it is, than this article makes no sense, I cannot believe that he would have anything to do with censureship other than SERIOUS national security, which this isn't. I will be writing to his office hoping for clarification.
P.S. Who are you guys, I've never heard of you.
Can you cite another source? (Let's face it, the media have little to be proud of in the last 6 years, usually by ignoring egregious gov't decisions, not pointing them out)
If this is true the USGS scientists should resign en masse.

Addendum: Looked up Patrick Leahy; this one is Dr. Leahy, he has a long and apparently distinguished record, except he has been with Interior too long and got a Meritorious something from Bush in 2003.

Good thing Darwin didn't work for the Federal Government. No, this is not about improving "product flow" or harmonizing anything. It is about control. This article does not really do the subject justice. If any product is deemed to be of potential "high-impact" it goes down the rabbit hole somewhere in the Interior Department. At the same time scientists are being lashed to produce, this crack-pot scheme is instituted and will do nothing to improve quality or timeliness. This is an extraordinary attempt to impede science, at least any science that gets in the way of the Administration's cow-towing to industry pressures. Somehow, good science has been done for centuries, why these restrictions now? I think the reality is evident. This latest move is just another example of heavy-handed meddling and second-guessing of USGS scientists that is driving internationally known researchers out of the Government by the droves. They are getting fed up with it, and who is going to loose as a result, the people of the United States. Oh yeah, and the Nation's natural resources as well. "Who will watch the watchers" Lets hope the new Congress will.

"This is not about stifling or suppressing our science, or politicizing our science in any way," Barbara Wainman, the agency's director of communications, said Wednesday. "I don't have approval authority. What it was designed to do is to improve our product flow."

WTF is that... product flow... ? I thought this was science research, not product r&d.

One side benefit to the censors (call them what they really are) is that this will encourage the good ones to leave. Easier to control science output of lesser scientists. Once you decimate an agency of good scientists, it's a lot harder to build it up again. That's another part of the Bush administration's tactics.

It seems the Bush administration was not as fazed by the results of recent elections as one might have hoped. Apparently the neocons are still alive and well somewhere hiding in a cave and now merely directing the administration from behind the scenes.

Read Sinclair Lewis's book It Can't Happen Here. It is happening here. It's like they're using it as a playbook.

And the nightmare continues. Secrecy and censorship does not a democracy make. I suppose that the proposed $500 million presidential library will be closed to the public and will just be a vault to hold as many incriminating documents as possible. Brilliant!

Man if I was one of those Scientists faced with restricts I would publish every thing I could get my hands on and wouldn't stop I forced the issue in to the courts!

Bottom line the bush administration (with small letters) is turning fascist right before our very eyes!

But you can't blame them for what there doing - they have already lost the election in 2008!

Now it all about G.W. Bush's agenda - christian fascism!

Clearly, the election did nothing to reverse the course of the bush administration. Indeed, there is nothing 'to harmonize'. This is simply code for making sure that facts that are dug up by the USGS (pardon the pun) are in line with pre-determined courses of action that this fascist regime has already come up with.

As one poster has already pointed out, there is nothing this administration won't touch to make sure that the stupidest citizens of our nation aren't fed BS. The stupidest citizens of our nation are most likely to vote for the most dogmatic candidate, bush is that man, and those who support him continue to spin reality according to his dictates.

The last bastion of hope in this nation is fact-based reality. We are continuing to watch it be dismantled before our very eyes. I had lots of hope for the 21st century. Not any more. Not for this country. Certainly not for this president.

This gives them the time to intimidate or "swiftboat" the scientists. It will give the administration the opportunity to put on hold anything that they don't want... ostensibly to ensure "quality". I thought that was what peer review was for. Spin. Spin. Spin.

Why should anyone be surprised? It isn't about facts, truth (they own the truth according to them)... it is about control.

This program is really nothing new in the USGS, it's just formalizing previous requests for sending "heads ups" to Regional Offices and HQ in Reston on potentially controversial reports.

This mandate is, however, likely to have an additional chilling effect on USGS scientists and is likely to lead to "policy review" by Headquarters and Dept. of Interior PR flacks of major findings in USGS reports.

For quite some time, USGS scientists have been subject to demotion and other reprisals for "being too negative", in other words, for inspiring complaints from special interests. So this move is just ratcheting up the "control" a notch.

I retired (early out + buyout) in April. Boy am I glad!

What "deserves" publication!? Gee, does this sound like any original thoughts on issues and gathering data to verify ones thinking MAY become stifled??? Last I heard the scientific method was the accepted procedure- peers did notice poorly done studies and peers have kept fellow scientists "accountable".

I'm horrified.

I retired just in time. There is nothing wrong with the review process in USGS. Internal reviews include policy considerations for statements made. Assertions not supported by data are not supposed to go forward in USGS "Product flow". Now that Bushie & Co. have their oil man Myers in place, they can move forward to quashing USGS work and ideas much as they have been doing with EPA & NASA for the last 6 years.

Their stock and trade is that as civil servants, we have little or no ability to speak out or fight back against their tyranny and the general public is convinced by them that we are part of "Big Government" that does nothing but waste their taxes. Their distaste for bureaucracy of any kind shows. They don't know how to use bureaucracy to achieve stuff. That's a major reason why they failed in Iraq, not knowing how to build a functioning bureaucracy nor run one effectively. Don't use the bureaucracy, marginalize and degrade it.

More censorship by the religiously insane. Is anyone really surprised?

Orwell tried to anticipate George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when he wrote both "1984", and "Animal Farm". He didn't even come close. The monstrous, illegal, and criminal war in Iraq, the stripping of the Treasury, the concentration of wealth and political power, the repression of every form of science..even stem cell research, and other monstrous White House acts, too long to exist. What Orwell did not anticipate was how the incredible control over all this would be supported by both far-right religious groups, and the criminal lobbyists for Big Oil. The sudden illness of the good Senator from Illinois may yet place Dick Cheney once again in full control over the entire political spectrum, and the formerly great and independent fields of science. America, "The World's Greatest Political Concept", dead at 225 years old. And we hardly knew ye.
Ed McClendon

USGA....oh yeah, that's the department that keeps track when peak world oil production will (has) happened. Can't have the population realize how dire the situation is.

Government has no business in the business of science (or the arts, or trade, or business) all scientists should be in the private sector. All these letter agencies (FDA, NASA, USGS, etc.) are not Constitutionally under the purview of government. We'd have much more scientific success if all science was funded by provate citizens instead of government. Stem-cell research should not be funded with taxpayer dollars, nor should the exploration of space, the oceans, or anything at all. Let's get government out of science. Separation of science and state. Separation of school and state, too.

Moonrider is obviously ignorent of the costs and risks involved in "big" science, until recently there was no one with the amounts of cash needed. And the will to gamble with it?, I think not.

Let's face it - anyone who doesn't believe that the world was created 6000 years ago and, I suppose, our pious ancestors on the prairie rode dinosaurs to Sunday church, isn't a real American . True patriotism now demands the belief in utter nonsense. Our enlightened founding fathers would be sickened by what we have become.

Well, I say the scientists can still get "the word" out if they really want to. They may not be able to attach their name to it, but they can sure as heck post on the internet the same as anyone else, and if they have a conscience, that's what they will do.

I tried to get "the word" out via the Internet, before and after Bush (2001), in posting that climate change was already happening in the Upper Midwest with impact to hydrology. Nothing came of it except that I got into big trouble with my employer (National Weather Service). I'm out of work now.

I knew a few people who worked in USGS states offices in the Midwest. Without USGS data and quality control, National Weather Service flood predictions would be worthless.

The USGS is the scientific agency charged with research that we all know reveals both the impact of climate change and the underlying causes of human-generated global warming. The fact that scientists are now being forced to reveal dialogue with colleagues and peer review of scientific inquiry and to submit findings to USGS review prior to publication can only indicate that the governmental public relations machine is at work on the last objective line of defense (at least intellectually, if not economically and morally) against climatic devastation. The number of you who have posted that you have lost your jobs is a frightening reminder of what the pressures of PR campaigns can do to those who speak out - why should scientists be forced to become anonymous voices on the web when they should be the guiding force behind environmental responsibility and accountability ... and viable solutions? DeSmogBlog at www.desmogblog.com is a great resource for revealing PR that is stifling the scientific community (the real scientific community, not the government's deputized "climate change specialists."

Dear angela,

Thank you for posting your comment (above).

In continuing my effort to speak out on my experiences while at NWS in my goals to address climate change in hydrologic modeling and flood prediction and to recognize a moral obligation which scientists in government have pertaining to global warming, the following FEB 2000 AGREEMENT IN TRUST which was not handed out as we (me and my brother) had planned for at the first annual Government on Display Exposition at the Mall of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota Feb 4-6, 2000. I had prepared a bulletin board for showing at the Display of Government Services Exposition, with the approval of Jim Cline who was the coordinator that year for the NWS Weather Forecast Office, Twin Cities.

On Feb 4, 2000 I was ordered by my supervisor not to go to Mall of America that weekend (Feb 4-6, 2000), not even as a private citizen, because merely my being seen at the Mall while the Display of Government Services Exposition was going on might have "given the appearance that my views were associated in some way with the NWS agency. I called NOAA personel and spoke with supervisor Pat Jordan at the NOAA regional office in Kansas City, and she confirmed to me that if I was seen at the Mall of America that weekend, even as just a private citizen, that would be grounds for disciplinary action against me by NWS and NOAA supervisors.

FEB 2000 AGREEMENT IN TRUST

Prepared for handing out to the public at the Mall of America
government services weekend.

Feb 4, 2000: A sad day for America and the world, in my view as a U.S. private citizen.
Not allowed to go to the Mall of America that weekend by my NWS NOAA supervisors.
Therefore, I could not make this copy available to the general public for signatures.

FEBRUARY 2000

AGREEMENT IN TRUST to help slow global warming and air pollution.

I WILL MINIMIZE my personal contribution to global warming and air pollution.

I WILL ENCOURAGE others to minimize their contribution to the same.

I WILL PROTECT this agreement in trust by keeping it in a safe place.

I WILL REMEMBER to follow this agreement, and review it often.

GUIDELINES FOR HOW TO MINIMIZE ENERGY CONSUMPTION, GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, AND
AIR POLLUTION

Reduce energy dependant travel
Reduce use of personal car and truck
Walk and bike, rather than drive.
Car pool to places that are too far to walk or bike.
Take the bus rather than drive
Drive only when necessary
Combine shopping trips to reduce miles traveled.
Reduce travel by air
Plan vacations that are close to where I live
Use more electronic communication rather than travel
Reduce use of gasoline for play and recreation
Minimize the amount of oil, gasoline, electricity
Join sports teams that are close to home only
Plan vacations that are close to where I live
Reduce distance to work
Talk to employer about potential office moves
Persuade employer not to move far from people's home
Plan to move closer to work, and then do it
Look for a better opportunity that is closer to home
Request to work part of the week at home or nearby library

Reduce household energy use

Minimize use of existing appliances, furnace, and Air Cond.
Limit purchase of appliances, buy most efficient ones.
Chose products produced locally, not those shipped & trucked
Choose products that require less energy in production
Cooperate with other members of my community in finding the
best ways possible to lower our daily use of energy.

Signature

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Date

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