neo cons closing Environmental Protection Agency libraries

[donsu]

http://www.alternet.org/story/44528/


A Step Shy of Book-Burning


The White House has begun closing the Enviromental Protection Agency's research libraries to the public and to its own staff, cementing Bush's reputation as usher of a new dark age.


-snip-

The EPA's professional staff objected strongly, insisting that closing the libraries would hamstring them in their jobs. In a letter to Congress protesting the closures, public employees said, "We believe that this budget cut is just one of many Bush administration initiatives to reduce the effectiveness of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and to continue to demoralize its employees."

The EPA's precipitous move to close the libraries was based on a $2 million cut in Bush's proposed $8 billion EPA budget for 2007. EPA bureaucrats did not wait to see if Congress might restore the funds or shift budget priorities in order to save the libraries; it acted immediately to box up documents for deep storage, and shut the doors.

While the official EPA line is that all of the documents will be eventually be digitized and made available online, this will cost money that the agency does not have, so for practical purposes, all of the thousands of reports and maps that now exist only on paper or microfiche will be lost to the public and to agency scientists. They might as well just burn them.

-snip-

the article ends with this:

In the end, it comes down to people. People have voted out the Republicans and voted in the light of reason. Without access to information, reason cannot operate. Let there be libraries!
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[MadHound]

1. This is just another way that Bushco is going to continue

Trashing our government and country at large. They figure they have another two years left to raid and wreck this country, so they figure it's time to get cracking. Shut down the EPA, deny funding, veto, veto, veto. And if at all possible, widen the war to Iran as well.

This is why we have got impeach, Bush and his minions are going to do irrepairable harm for the next two years. Sadly, for whatever reason, Pelosi and the Dems took impeachment off the table.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Conservatives are proud of their ignorance

They can not debate intellectually so they burn books. They have no solutions for what ails the planet so they burn books. Thinking and researching is hard work so they burn books. Spending billions so others can kill innocent "ragheads," why thats a good use of our tax dollars; all of the above, good examples of christian conservative values.

[bonito]

3. Kick & R n/t

[OneBlueSky]

4. this isn't the first time BushCo has tried to destroy knowledge . . .

that doesn't conform to their worldview . . . early in Bush's first term, they began removing anything that didn't support the BushCo agenda from the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) database . . . the information in ERIC consists largely of decades worth of educational research paid for with your tax dollars . . .

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal

I remember that some website was working overtime to capture and archive virtually everything in ERIC to ensure that it wasn't destroyed, but I don't know the results of their efforts . . . or how much information BushCo succeeding in destroying . . .

[SutaUvaca]

5. Arrgghhh! Destroying knowledge!

That pretty much says it all. And if they burn the "deep storage" material, who would know until it's too late.?
This is another sickening crime against humanity.

[cali]

6. This has nothing whatsoever to do with neocons.

Talk about taking liberties with an article. I have no use whatsoever for the neocon philosophy, but as far as I know, neocons have no philosophy when it comes to the environment. That philosophy involves America's role in world affairs. It doesn't extend to the environment or abortion or any domestic affairs.

[OneBlueSky]

7. "neocons have no philosophy when it comes to the environment" . . .

not so . . . their philosophy of the environment is that it is a vast storehouse of riches available for corporate plunder . . .

if there's oil in Iraq, for example, neocons consider it right and proper to employ the greatest military force in the history of humankind to ensure that it flows unimpeded to multinational corporations . . .