NRN - Real Science Should Trump Politics

Bill Wilson, the author of the below post, is the President of Americans for Limited Government of which NetRight Nation is part.

From the Washington Examiner:

Remember when President Obama vowed to "restore science to its rightful place?" His inaugural commitment, followed by executive orders, carried a message that methodologically sound science would trump politicized, ideological science.

It turns out, however, that the president's love affair with science isn't quite as clear-cut as it first seemed. Shortly after his inaugural pledge, Obama issued an Executive Order directing his chief science advisor to ensure that administration policies be based on sound science.

The EO called for the appointment of science advisers on credentials rather than political leanings, and transparency about scientific decisions. "The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions," he said. One year later, Obama has yet to earn a passing grade on his scientific integrity pledge.

For one thing, Obama simply has not acted, a point driven home by the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, a left-wing advocacy group that normally supports the administration. They point out that Obama last year called for a science strategy to be developed within 120 days of his inauguration.

Yet the Office of Science and Technology Policy has still not finalized a plan, which leads to uneven application among federal agencies.

Other shortcomings are apparent as well. Sunshine is indeed a disinfectant, allowing the public to identify ideologically-based "science" that has driven public policy decisions in the wrong direction.

But too many Freedom of Information Act requests for underlying scientific data used to formulate conclusions still languish too long in federal bureaucracies, effectively denying the public from being able to identify ideologically-driven "science".

Foot-dragging on transparency is one of Obama's greatest failures. He still has not established guidelines for promoting open communication among scientists, the media, policymakers and the public. Nor has it set a process to release all scientific papers early in the policy process, before they might be altered by political appointees.

Another troublesome development involves the scientific advisory panels that are vital in agencies, especially the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For example, an FDA scientific advisory panel was directed by Congress last year to make recommendations on the impact of menthol in cigarettes. It's a question for which sound scientific studies would seem to be needed.

Yet, according to one Wall Street analyst, some members of the administration-appointed panel have already come out for a menthol ban. And yet others have what appears to be a clear conflict of interest as they have worked for pharmaceutical firms that sell smoking cessation products. Given these viewpoints and conflicts, it's questionable whether the public could trust their analysis.

It's a bit like having a Red Sox fan call balls and strikes at a Yankees baseball game

To "restore science to its proper place," the Administration still must convince the public that it has washed ideologically biased science from government and that appointees to scientific positions throughout government are dedicated to methodologically sound science, not to a pre-determined agenda.

It may be that the Obama administration never really had any intention of doing what it discussed with lofty rhetoric in its executive orders. If that is the case, substituting left-wing "science" under the ruse of "sound science" is no way to ensure that the public trusts the scientific process, and ultimately for the Obama Administration trust is the issue.

Bill Wilson is the president of Americans for Limited Government.

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NetRightNation.com


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Birthers - Obama Got Financial Aid as a Foreign Student

Lolo Soetoro, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, baby Maya Soetoro, and 9 year old Barry Soetoro.

This registration document, made available on Jan. 24, 2007, by the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia, shows the registration of Barack Obama under the name Barry Soetoro made by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro.

Name: Barry Soetoro
Religion: Islam
Nationality: Indonesian

How did this little INDONESIAN Muslim child - Barry Soetoro, (A.K.A. Barack Obama) get around the issue of nationality to become President of the United States of America ?

PART 2:

In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama's qualifications for the presidency, the group Americans for Freedom of Information" has released copies of President Obama's college transcripts from Occidental College.

The transcript indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia while an undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify for this scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship.

This document provides the smoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been seeking - that he is NOT a natural-born citizen of the United States - necessary to be President of these United States. Along with the evidence that he was first born in Kenya, here we see that there is no record of him ever applying for US citizenship.

Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation of Obama's campaign spending. This study estimates that Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal resources to block disclosure of any of his personal records.

Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still on-going but that the final report will be provided to the U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder.

Mr. Holder has refused comment on this matter.

LET OTHER FOLKS KNOW THIS NEWS - THE MEDIA WON'T!



DOJ Office of Legal Counsel Violates Freedom of Information Act

By Robert Romano

February 16^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—A government watchdog group's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Justice Department's (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has gone unheeded in spite of a 20-day statutory requirement.

Americans for Limited Government's (ALG) counsel, Nathan Mehrens, has been attempting to confirm or deny allegations that Dawn Johnsen, Barack Obama's nominee for Assistant Attorney General to the Office of Legal Counsel, has been performing duties pursuant to that office without being confirmed by the Senate, including making hiring decisions.

"It's been almost 3-and-a-half months now," said Mehrens.  "There is a diminishing window of opportunity for this information to even be useful." ALG filed its request on October 26^th, 2009, according to the group's request.

According to National Review Online, Johnsen may have been "involving herself in OLC's decisions on hiring junior lawyers.  If those reports are accurate, Johnsen's actions would seem a serious violation of the Senate's understanding of pre-confirmation etiquette—an etiquette that is especially punctilious for nominees who have generated controversy—and would give senators additional reason to oppose her nomination."

Mehrens explained the urgency involved, "The information is critical to senators who are being asked to confirm her or not, and if the Office of Legal Counsel does not respond to our FOIA request before then, or before Easter recess when she could be recess-appointed by Obama, it will be too late."

According to Politico, Barack Obama may exercise his power to make recess appointments on Johnsen in spite of the claims, and Senator Patrick Leahy has encouraged the White House to do so. 

Although Obama has said he will not make any recess appointments this week, it did threaten to "to use my recess appointment authority in the future," indicating that Johnsen could be appointed over the Easter recess.

Mehrens said he has made repeated attempts to contact the Freedom of Information office within the Office of Legal Counsel, and received no response until the morning of Feb. 12^th.  "All they could tell me was that they had not even started yet with processing our FOIA request."

ALG Research Director Don Todd said that the Office of Legal Counsel was "stonewalling" ALG's request.

"If they are truly back-logged, they need to get more people in there to fulfill these requests in a timely manner," Todd declared, concluding, "because right now they're in violation of the law."

The Freedom of Information Act requires a response by a FOIA'ed department or agency within 20 business days.

Robert Romano is the Washington News Alert Bureau Chief.

http://washingtonalert.org/?p=1908