More reality-bashing by Bush

I recently wrote about how the Bush administration is losing the war on Terrorable diseases (to borrow a John Stewart line) undermining scientific progress in order to replace it with pure faith (in lobbyists).

I just noticed two more topics where the Bush administration is trying to undermine science and expert advice in the same manner; by saying things are too generic or ineffective to be believed and thus should be replaced with belief in an autocratic/theocratic decision (for sale to the highest bidder). The more policy areas that fall under this fog (science=uncertain, faith=certain), the further backwards in time America will go. Here‘s the first topic:

They “are increasingly trying to portray contraceptives as ineffective and trying to redefine some of the most popular and effective methods as abortion — such as birth control pills and emergency contraception,” said Cynthia Dailard, senior public policy analyst for the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which advocates family planning.

If these Christianists were genuinely interested in curbing abortions, they’d support the use of contraceptives. But their goal is to turn back the clock, to bring back the days when women had no control over reproduction. Like right-wing Muslims, they rage against modernity itself.

And here is the second topic:

The most embarrassing moment came when Bush loyalists argued that the United States could not follow the Geneva Conventions because Common Article Three, which has governed the treatment of wartime prisoners for more than half a century, was too vague. Which part of “civilized peoples,� “judicial guarantees� or “humiliating and degrading treatment� do they find confusing?

[…]

Jane Mayer provided a close look at this effort to undermine the constitutional separation of powers in a chilling article in the July 3 issue of The New Yorker. She showed how it grew out of Vice President Dick Cheney’s long and deeply held conviction that the real lesson of Watergate and the later Iran-contra debacle was that the president needed more power and that Congress and the courts should get out of the way.

To a disturbing degree, the horror of 9/11 became an excuse to take up this cause behind the shield of Americans’ deep insecurity. The results have been devastating. Americans’ civil liberties have been trampled. The nation’s image as a champion of human rights has been gravely harmed. Prisoners have been abused, tortured and even killed at the prisons we know about, while other prisons operate in secret. American agents “disappear� people, some entirely innocent, and send them off to torture chambers in distant lands. Hundreds of innocent men have been jailed at Guantánamo Bay without charges or rudimentary rights. And Congress has shirked its duty to correct this out of fear of being painted as pro-terrorist at election time.

Perhaps Monty Python said it best:

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…. our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency…. Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope…. Our four…no… amongst our weapons…. amongst our weaponry…are such elements as fear, surprise…. I’ll come in again. […] Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms – oh damn!

BioDiesel reaches the stars

AFP has the story:

Biodiesel has Hollywood backers like actress Julia Roberts and Morgan Freeman, is sung about by country star Willie Nelson but also meets the political correctness of the American right wing which has made the campaign against imported oil a mantra. “It’s better for the engine, way better for the environment, it’s cheaper, but it depends how you price your labor,” said Dan Goodman, an entrepreneur in residence at the University of Maryland Business School who runs his Mercedes on biodiesel.

Good point Dan. How much for some BioDiesel made by Julia Roberts?

Spanish Bombs

by The Clash

Spanish songs in Andalucia
The shooting sites in the days of ’39
Oh, please, leave the vendanna open
Federico Lorca is dead and gone

Bullet holes in the cemetery wall
The black cars of the Guardia Civil
Spanish bombs on the Costa Rica
I’m flying in on a DC 10 tonight

Spanish bombs, yo te quiero y finito
Yo te querda, oh mi corazon
Spanish bombs, yo te quiero y finito
Yo te querda, oh mi corazon

Spanish weeks in my disco casino
The freedom fighters died upon the hill
They sang the red flag, they wore the black one
After they died it was Mockingbird Hill

Back home the buses went up in flashes
The Irish tomb was drenched in blood
Spanish bombs shatter the hotel
My senorita’s rose was nipped in the bud

Spanish bombs, yo te quiero y finito
Yo te querda, oh mi corazon
Spanish bombs, yo te quiero y finito
Yo te querda, oh mi corazon

The hillsides ring with “Free the people”
Or can I hear the echo from the days of ’39?
Trenches full of poets, the ragged army
Fixing bayonets to fight the other line

Spanish bombs rock the province
I’m hearing music from another time
Spanish bombs on Costa Brava
I’m flying in on a DC 10 tonight

Spanish bombs, yo te quiero y finito
Yo te querda, oh mi corazon
Spanish bombs, yo te quiero y finito
Yo te querda, oh mi corazon

Oh mi corazon
Oh mi corazon

Spanish songs in Andalucia, mandolina
Oh mi corazon
Spanish songs in Granada
Oh mi corazon
Oh mi corazon
Oh mi corazon
Oh mi corazon

~~~

Felt like I should review again and then post these lyrics after I finished my prior log entry.