Ah, so many Bushites "bite." Would that we could lop them all so easily. How's this for wishful motto-gizing, after the late Johnny Cochrane : "If they bite, you must indict." BW > > Another totally inappropriate Bush appointee. This one bites the dust! > Phyllis > > -- > February 8, 2006 > > New York Times > > A Young Bush Appointee Resigns His Post at NASA > > By ANDREW C. REVKIN > <http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=ANDREW%20C.%20REV > KIN&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=ANDREW%20C.%20 > REVKIN&inline=nyt-per> > > George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told > public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate > scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every > mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said. > > Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas > A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his > résumé on file at the agency asserted. > > Officials at NASA headquarters declined to discuss the reason for the > resignation. > > "Under NASA policy, it is inappropriate to discuss personnel matters," > said Dean Acosta, the deputy assistant administrator for public affairs > and Mr. Deutsch's boss. > > The resignation came as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration > was preparing to review its policies for communicating science to the > public. The review was ordered Friday by Michael D. Griffin, the NASA > administrator, after a week in which many agency scientists and midlevel > public affairs officials described to The New York Times instances in > which they said political pressure was applied to limit or flavor > discussions of topics uncomfortable to the Bush administration, > particularly global warming. > > "As we have stated in the past, NASA is in the process of revising our > public affairs policies across the agency to ensure our commitment to > open and full communications," the statement from Mr. Acosta said. > > The statement said the resignation of Mr. Deutsch was "a separate > matter." > > Mr. Deutsch, 24, was offered a job as a writer and editor in NASA's > public affairs office in Washington last year after working on President > Bush's re-election campaign and inaugural committee, according to his > résumé. No one has disputed those parts of the document. > > According to his résumé, Mr. Deutsch received a "Bachelor of Arts in > journalism, Class of 2003." > > Yesterday, officials at Texas A&M said that was not the case. > > "George Carlton Deutsch III did attend Texas A&M University but has not > completed the requirements for a degree," said an e-mail message from > Rita Presley, assistant to the registrar at the university, responding to > a query from The Times. > > Repeated calls and e-mail messages to Mr. Deutsch on Tuesday were not > answered. > > Mr. Deutsch's educational record was first challenged on Monday by Nick > Anthis, who graduated from Texas A&M last year with a biochemistry degree > and has been writing a Web log on science policy, > scientificactivist.blogspot.com <http://scientificactivist.blogspot.com> > . > > After Mr. Anthis read about the problems at NASA, he said in an > interview: "It seemed like political figures had really overstepped the > line. I was just going to write some commentary on this when somebody > tipped me off that George Deutsch might not have graduated." > > He posted a blog entry asserting this after he checked with the > university's association of former students. He reported that the > association said Mr. Deutsch received no degree. > > A copy of Mr. Deutsch's résumé was provided to The Times by someone > working in NASA headquarters who, along with many other NASA employees, > said Mr. Deutsch played a small but significant role in an intensifying > effort at the agency to exert political control over the flow of > information to the public. > > Such complaints came to the fore starting in late January, when James E. > Hansen, the climate scientist, and several midlevel public affairs > officers told The Times that political appointees, including Mr. Deutsch, > were pressing to limit Dr. Hansen's speaking and interviews on the > threats posed by global warming. > > Yesterday, Dr. Hansen said that the questions about Mr. Deutsch's > credentials were important, but were a distraction from the broader issue > of political control of scientific information. > > "He's only a bit player," Dr. Hansen said of Mr. Deutsch. " The problem > is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. That's what > I'm really concerned about." > > "On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed," he said. > "The foundation of a democracy is an informed public, which obviously > means an honestly informed public. That's the big issue here." > > > > > > > > > > February 4, 2006 > > New York Times > > NASA Chief Backs Agency Openness > > By ANDREW C. REVKIN > <http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=ANDREW%20C.%20REV > KIN&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=ANDREW%20C.%20 > REVKIN&inline=nyt-per> > > A week after NASA's top climate scientist complained that the space > agency's public-affairs office was trying to silence his statements on > global warming, the agency's administrator, Michael D. Griffin, issued a > sharply worded statement yesterday calling for "scientific openness" > throughout the agency. > > "It is not the job of public-affairs officers," Dr. Griffin wrote in an > e-mail message to the agency's 19,000 employees, "to alter, filter or > adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical > staff." > > The statement came six days after The New York Times quoted the > scientist, James E. Hansen, as saying he was threatened with "dire > consequences" if he continued to call for prompt action to limit > emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. He and > intermediaries in the agency's 350-member public-affairs staff said the > warnings came from White House appointees in NASA headquarters. > > Other National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists and > public-affairs employees came forward this week to say that beyond Dr. > Hansen's case, there were several other instances in which political > appointees had sought to control the flow of scientific information from > the agency. > > They called or e-mailed The Times and sent documents showing that news > releases were delayed or altered to mesh with Bush administration > policies. > > In October, for example, George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA > headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word > "theory" after every mention of the Big Bang, according to an e-mail > message from Mr. Deutsch that another NASA employee forwarded to The > Times. > > And in December 2004, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory > complained to the agency that he had been pressured to say in a news > release that his oceanic research would help advance the administration's > goal of space exploration. > > On Thursday night and Friday, The Times sent some of the documents to Dr. > Griffin and senior public-affairs officials requesting a response. > > While Dr. Griffin did not respond directly, he issued the "statement of > scientific openness" to agency employees, saying, "NASA has always been, > is and will continue to be committed to open scientific and technical > inquiry and dialogue with the public." > > Because NASA encompasses a nationwide network of research centers on > everything from cosmology to climate, Dr. Griffin said, some central > coordination was necessary. But he added that changes in the > public-affairs office's procedures "can and will be made," and that a > revised policy would "be disseminated throughout the agency." > > Asked if the statement came in response to the new documents and the > furor over Dr. Hansen's complaints, Dr. Griffin's press secretary, Dean > Acosta, replied by e-mail: > > "From time to time, the administrator communicates with NASA employees on > policy and issues. Today was one of those days. I hope this helps. Have a > good weekend." > > Climate science has been a thorny issue for the administration since > 2001, when Mr. Bush abandoned a campaign pledge to restrict power plant > emissions of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas linked to global > warming, and said the United States would not join the Kyoto Protocol, > the first climate treaty requiring reductions. > > But the accusations of political interference with the language of news > releases and other public information on science go beyond climate > change. > > In interviews this week, more than a dozen public-affairs officials, > along with half a dozen agency scientists, spoke of growing efforts by > political appointees to control the flow of scientific information. > > In the months before the 2004 election, according to interviews and some > documents, these appointees sought to review news releases and to approve > or deny news media requests to interview NASA scientists. > > Repeatedly that year, public-affairs directors at all of NASA's science > centers were admonished by White House appointees at headquarters to > focus all attention on Mr. Bush's January 2004 "vision" for returning to > the Moon and eventually traveling to Mars. > > Starting early in 2004, directives, almost always transmitted verbally > through a chain of midlevel workers, went out from NASA headquarters to > the agency's far-flung research centers and institutes saying that all > news releases on earth science developments had to allude to goals set > out in Mr. Bush's "vision statement" for the agency, according to > interviews with public-affairs officials working in headquarters and at > three research centers. > > Many people working at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and > the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said that at the same > time, there was a slowdown in these centers' ability to publish anything > related to climate. > > Most of these career government employees said they could speak only on > condition of anonymity, saying they feared reprisals. But their accounts > tightly meshed with one another. > > One NASA scientist, William Patzert, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, > confirmed the general tone of the agency that year. > > "That was the time when NASA was reorganizing and all of a sudden earth > science disappeared," Mr. Patzert said. "Earth kind of got relegated to > just being one of the 9 or 10 planets. It was ludicrous." > > In another incident, on Dec. 2, 2004, the propulsion lab and NASA > headquarters issued a news release describing research on links between > wind patterns and the recent warming of the Indian Ocean. > > It included a statement in quotation marks from Tong Lee, a scientist at > the laboratory, saying some of the analytical tools used in the study > could "advance space exploration" and "may someday prove useful in > studying climate systems on other planets." > > But after other scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory queried Dr. > Lee on the statement, he e-mailed public-affairs officers saying he > disavowed the quotation and demanded that the release be taken off the > Web site. His message was part of a sequence of e-mail messages exchanged > between scientists and public-affairs officers. That string of messages > was provided to The Times on Friday by a NASA official. > > In his e-mail message, Dr. Lee explained that he had cobbled together > part of the statement on space exploration under "the pressure of the new > HQ requirement for relevance to space exploration" and under a timeline > requiring that NASA "needed something instantly." > > The press office dropped the quotation from its version of the release, > but in Washington, the NASA headquarters public affairs office did not. > > Dr. Lee declined to be interviewed for this article. > > According to other e-mail messages, the flare-up did not stop senior > officials in headquarters from insisting that Mr. Bush's space-oriented > vision continue to be reflected in all earth-science releases. > > In the end, the news release with Dr. Lee's disavowed remark remained up > on the NASA headquarters public affairs Web site until The Times asked > about it yesterday. It was removed from the Web at midday. > > The Big Bang memo came from Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential > appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose résumé says he > was an intern in the "war room" of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election > campaign. A 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M, he was also the > public-affairs officer who sought more control over Dr. Hansen's public > statements. > > In October 2005, Mr. Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA > contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for > middle-school students. The message said the word "theory" needed to be > added after every mention of the Big Bang. > > The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, > adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration > such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts > intelligent design by a creator." > > It continued: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious > issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting > one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to > properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information > the most." > > The memo also noted that The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual > specified the phrasing "Big Bang theory." Mr. Acosta, Mr. Deutsch's boss, > said in an interview yesterday that for that reason, it should be used in > all NASA documents. > > The Deutsch memo was provided by an official at NASA headquarters who > said he was upset with the effort to justify changes to descriptions of > science by referring to politically charged issues like intelligent > design. Senior NASA officials did not dispute the message's authenticity. > > > Mr. Wild declined to be interviewed; Mr. Deutsch did not respond to > e-mail or phone messages. On Friday evening, repeated queries were made > to the White House about how a young presidential appointee with no > science background came to be supervising Web presentations on cosmology > and interview requests to senior NASA scientists. > > The only response came from Donald Tighe of the White House Office of > Science and Technology Policy. "Science is respected and protected and > highly valued by the administration," he said. > > Dennis Overbye contributed reporting for this article. > > > > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship > e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's > latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent > editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/ > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/