Yesterday, in a sidebar to a post, I noted that the Bush Administration was being criticized by a growing number of scientists.

CalPundit lists specific claims made by the scientists and notes,

[t]he report also talks about the litmus tests that are widely in place for appointment to scientific panels. Rather than picking the best scientists, the White House instead chooses people who are most likely to agree with their own ideological preferences. As the report puts it, “the current administration has repeatedly allowed political considerations to trump scientific qualifications in the appointment process.”

The same article by CalPundit notes,

[a]s John Quiggin pointed out last year, there is now virtually no academic discipline acceptable to orthodox Republicans. They don’t want to hear about facts and they don’t want to hear about research. Rather, they seem to think that somehow the world will conform to their views regardless of what the reality actually is, and anyone who says that the reality is different is simply a political enemy to be ignored or smeared as circumstances require.

On the plus side, this means in a few more years, the United States is unlikely to be able to wage war on the rest of the world. We won’t be able to keep up with them on technology. On the down side, it means we will also be unable to fulfill Dubya’s wishes (and ours) by sending him to Mars.