BUSH Administration's NASTY Habit of DOCTORING Official Reports...

[RedEarth]

Here's a partial list from Think Progress listing some of the reports this corrupt administration has doctored....also about half way down is a press release from today by the highly respected Manufacturing and Technology News disclosing a "re-write" of an official report on manufacturing outsourcing............this shit is scandalous!!!!!!


The White House’s White-Out Problem
The Bush administration has gotten into the nasty habit of doctoring its reports whenever the facts don’t match its preconceived agenda. Here are some instances of the White House’s magic pen at work:

Cattle Grazing: “The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing relaxed grazing limits on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study…conclusions that the proposed rules might adversely affect water quality and wildlife, including endangered species, were excised and replaced with language justifying less-stringent regulations favored by cattle ranchers.”

Hog Farming: Nationally respected Agriculture Department microbiologist Dr. Zahn discovered that hog farms were emitting drug-resistant airborne bacteria that “if breathed by humans, would make them harder to treat when ill. Zahn presented his findings at a scientific conference in 2000, but the Bush administration stopped him from publishing his data 11 times between September 2001 and April 2002, he said. When Danish researchers sought to learn more about his work, Zahn wasn’t allowed to share his techniques.”

Climate Change: “A White House official who once led the oil industry’s fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.”

Air Quality at Ground Zero: “In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available. That finding is included in a report released Friday by the Office of the Inspector General of the EPA. It noted that some of the agency’s news releases in the weeks after the attack were softened before being released to the public: Reassuring information was added, while cautionary information

more......

http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=1127

.......................




Political Appointees Re-Write Commerce Department Report On Offshore Outsourcing; Original Analysis Is Missing From Final Version


BY RICHARD McCORMACK [e-mail]


The Commerce Department has responded to a half-year-old request by Manufacturing and Technology News for the release a long-awaited study on the issue of "offshore outsourcing" of IT service-sector jobs and high-tech industries. But the 12-page document represented by the agency as its final report is not what was written by its analysts. Rather, it was crafted by political appointees at Commerce and at the White House, according to those familiar with it.

At an estimated cost of $335,000 -- or $28,000 per page -- the document MTN received from the Commerce Department's Technology Administration contains no original research and forsakes its initial intent of providing a balanced view of outsourcing, according to those inside and outside the agency.

The report was requested by Congress in an appropriations bill in December 2003, with a six-month deadline of June 2004. A 12-page version, entitled "Six-Month Assessment of Workforce Globalization In Certain Knowledge-Based Industries," was released on September 8, 2005, as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request that MTN had filed on March 17, 2005. The report, which carries a July 2004 date, has not been posted on the Technology Administration's Web site and is not available to the public.

According to those who have tracked the report's whereabouts, it was completed well before the November 2004 presidential election but was delayed for clearance by the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress due to the controversial nature of the subject. Outsourcing had become a contentious campaign issue, particularly in the swing states.

After the November election, a draft of the report prepared by a "braintrust" of Technology Administration analysts went into a vetting process among political appointees at the Commerce Department and White House. It never resurfaced. The analysts never received any feedback on their work, which is unusual, say those who have written similar reports.

The 12-page version that was released focuses on the allegedly positive impacts for the U.S. economy of the offshore outsourcing -- and "insourcing" -- of jobs in the IT, semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries, argue those who have read it. The report quotes research conducted by organizations and individuals that have been funded by multinationals that benefit from shifting jobs overseas. No mention is made of the conflict of interest inherent in the studies cited by the Commerce report.

Manufacturing & Technology News requested an interview with Ben Wu, the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for Technology Policy, seeking information on why the published version bears little resemblance to the one prepared by his agency's analysts. The interview request was not fulfilled. The following questions were submitted to the Technology Administration via e-mail by MTN:

http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/05/1012/art1.html

[BayouBengal07]

1. Where is the outrage?

The American public KNOWS this has been going on for several years now...recently most pronounced in their global warming edits that made some media noise...

But how the hell do we let them get away with this? Why do people just shrug it off?

[The Doctor.]

21. It's far easier to simply hope a problem will go away

than is is to shoulder any responsibility to do anything about it.

I just keep picturing a 10 ton statue of American Democracy lying broken on the ground, and a million or so people standing around her each of them thinking, "Well gosh... that's to big for me to fix, and it'd be silly of me to point it out to anyone else 'cause they can't lift it either."

[annabanana]

2. truth is dangerous..

truth is the enemy

There will be so much work to do when they get the boot..

nom.

[Digit]

3. Recommended

[journalist3072]

4. Allow me to add to the list

They also doctored a Department of Health and Human Services report on racial disparities in health care.

They made the revised report LESS critical of the racial imbalances in health care.


Racial Disparities Played Down

By Shankar Vedantam

A federal report on racial disparities in health care was revised at
the behest of top administration officials -- and a comparison with an
earlier draft shows that the version released in December played down
the imbalances and was less critical of the lack of equality.

Government officials acknowledged and defended the changes yesterday,
even as critics charged that the Department of Health and Human
Services rewrote what was to be a scientific road map for change to put a
positive spin on a public health crisis: Minorities receive less care, and
less high-quality care, than whites, across a broad range of diseases.

The earlier draft of the report's executive summary, for example,
described in detail the problems faced by minorities and the societal costs
of the disparities, and it called such gaps "national problems."

The final report's executive summary interspersed examples of
disparities with success stories and emphasized the role of geography and
socioeconomic factors -- rather than just race -- in producing different
outcomes. It dropped the reference to "national problems."

Government officials agreed that the tone of the report had been
changed, saying the revisions reflected HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's
strategy of triggering improvement by focusing on the positive.

"That's just the way Secretary Thompson wants to create change," said
Karen Migdail, a spokeswoman at the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality, the HHS unit that drafted the report. "The idea is not to say,
'We failed, we failed, we failed,' but to say, 'We improved, we
improved, we improved.' "

The National Healthcare Disparities Report was intended by HHS to be a
comprehensive look at the scope and reasons for inequalities in health
care. A number of studies have shown that even among people with
identical diseases and the same income level, minorities are less likely to
be diagnosed promptly and more likely to receive sub-optimal care.
Documented disparities exist in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, heart
disease, AIDS, diabetes, pediatric illness, mental disorders and other
conditions. They also exist in surgical procedures and nursing home
services.

The report was based on an earlier study by the Institute of Medicine
(IOM), a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent
institution that advises the government on scientific questions.

An IOM report suggested last year that widespread racial differences
in health care "are rooted in historic and contemporary inequities" and
asserted that stereotyping and bias by doctors, hospitals and other
care providers may be at fault -- a much stronger critique than the HHS
report.

"The final report was much more positive and upbeat" than the
draft, said Donald Steinwachs, a member of the IOM committee. The final
version, he said, "does not really help people focus on the major
problem areas."

"One of the missions of public health is to identify public health
problems," said Steinwachs, chairman of the department of health policy
and management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore. "If you don't identify the problems, then
people don't address them."

The earlier draft of the executive summary was obtained by Rep. Henry
A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who charged that the changes were part of a broad
effort by the Bush administration to politicize science.

"In effect, they whitewashed the issue away, even though they were
told that health care disparities are a national problem and pervasive and
carry a significant personal and societal price," he said. "It's hard
not to reach the obvious result that HHS is wishing the problem away."

The earlier version of the executive summary defined "disparity" and
mentioned it 30 times in the "key findings" section, Waxman said. The
final version mentioned the word only twice in that section and left it
undefined.

In what they called "a case study in politics and science," Waxman and
four other members of Congress said the final version "drops findings
on the societal costs of disparities, and replaces them with a
discussion of 'successes.' "

The final report cited positive examples such as these: that Asians or
Pacific Islanders have lower death rates from cancer; that black and
Hispanic patients are "more likely to report that their provider usually
asks about medications from other doctors"; and that Hispanics and
Asians or Pacific Islanders have "lower rates of hospitalization from
influenza."

Bill Pierce, a spokesman at HHS, said the department is well aware of
the importance of disparities and that the changes made to the
executive summary were only a matter of seeing the glass "half empty" or "half
full." No statistics or tables were changed in the final report, he
said.

Pierce said the Bush administration has launched public health
initiatives in minority communities such as "Take a Loved One to the Doctor
Day," created eight centers to study the issue of disparities, and
started programs to screen low-income women for breast and cervical cancer.

Focusing on the positive was a better approach, he said, "versus
saying, 'We don't do this well, and it is these people's fault.' "

[RedEarth]

7. Super....I glad you added to it.....what's tragic this list could go on...

forever....all the deceitful ways the administration tricks the public...."fake journalist", doctoring reports, out and out lying.... these people are truly evil.

[journalist3072]

9. You hit the nail on the head. What's more....

The Bush Administration doesn't live in the reality-based community. They are wedded to their own ideas, and they do not like to be presented with a set of facts that will debunk their ideas.

In their world, they fix the facts around the policy, when they should be fixing the policy around the facts.

[RedEarth]

11. That's right....it's just what the Downing Street Memos showed...

fixing the facts around their policy...and look what it got us.

[rucky]

5. Mike Nesmith must be rich by now! n/t

[journalist3072]

6. And yet another goodie

The infamous medicare memo the Administration tried to hide:

White House Won't Release Medicare Memo
Wed Jun 25, 6:47 PM ET Add Politics - U. S. Congress to My Yahoo!


By LAURA MECKLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's top Medicare accountant has calculated how millions of senior citizens would be affected by bringing private managed care into the program, but the administration won't release the information.



An earlier analysis suggested that a Republican plan to inject market forces into Medicare could increase premiums for those who stay in traditional programs by as much as 25 percent. If that's still the case, it could help Democrats who argue that the GOP plan is risky for those who want to stay in traditional Medicare, where they can pick any doctor, rather than move to a managed care plan.


The administration's Medicare chief threatened to fire his top actuary, Rick Foster, if Foster released his calculations to Capitol Hill Democrats who requested the analysis, officials said.


Medicare chief Tom Scully said in an interview Wednesday that Democrats had no right to request the information from Foster in the first place.


"They don't have the right on the Hill to call up my actuary and demand things," said Scully, chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "These people work for the executive branch, period."


Scully said he would release the analysis "if I feel like it."


Medicare spokesman Peter Ashkenaz said Foster is working to update his original memo based on changes being considered by House Republicans so the original version is not relevant.


Scully added that Democrats want the memo in hopes of scoring political points, as Congress debates legislation adding prescription drugs to Medicare and making other changes to the program.


"We're at the end of the Medicare debate," Scully said. "People are looking for bombs to throw."


Officials on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites) said Scully threatened to fire Foster if he released his memo. Scully said that was an exaggeration, saying his comments were just "heated rhetoric in middle of the night."


Democrats responded by pointing to legislative language approved in 1997 that specifically requires the top Medicare actuary to answer questions from Congress.


"While the chief actuary is an official within the administration, this individual and his or her office often must work with the committees of jurisdiction in the development of legislation," said the legislative report.


Democrats suspect the information is being withheld because it will undercut the administration's case for changes to Medicare. Democrats object to a proposal that would set premiums for seniors through competition between private plans and the traditional, government-run program.


Republicans believe it will drive down Medicare spending by directing more seniors to cost-effective plans. Democrats worry that the sickest seniors will wind up in the government-run program, paying more for health coverage than they do today.


"The administration is resisting the release of it because it's not good news for the Republican House plan," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.


The earlier Foster memo, written in 2000, found that a similar proposal would boost premiums for traditional Medicare by 47 percent. But nearly half the increase was attributable to a provision that is no longer on the table. The provision now being considered would increase premiums by 25 percent, Foster said in 2000. Democrats asked for an updated estimate.


Scully has repeatedly touted Foster and his colleagues as the best actuaries anywhere. Just last week, in defending a separate Foster analysis that supports the administration's position, Scully noted that Foster has worked for both Democrats and Republicans and is a professional actuary totally divorced from politics.

[carolinalady]

8. This was a story on Lou Dobbs--he said, "the Bush adm. is

lying to us." He was pissed. I wish it would be picked up by more MSM.

[RedEarth]

10. I'm damned glad someone in the media is reporting on it.....maybe

some of the rest of the MSM will pick up on it as well.....it is outrageous that this is allowed to happen.....makes me furious!!!!!

[Tigress DEM]

12. Tell the MSM to step up and cover this stuff. Gloves are off these days.

THIS is what journalist's get pultizer's for! Right? In this time when the rethugs are scrambling, let's pile on the heat and keep fanning the flames. Let's open those closets REALLY W I D E and let all the creepy crawly shit they've been doing spill out and fall at the feet of the voting public.

TRUTH in ADVERTISING ----- The Product = Democracy for the Republic.

FACTS ARE NOT OPTIONAL IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. THEY ARE REQUIRED OR IT IS JUST PROPOGANDA.

WHITE HOUSE has a WHITE OUT ADDICTION. Treatment = massive doses of Truth administered liberally via media sources every 2-4 hours 24 x 7.

[CornField]

13. They missed one my personal favs: Charter Schools

In an August 2004 article in the NY Times, it was exposed that the Department of Education is sharply cutting back on the information it collects about charter schools for the periodic report that provides a detailed national profile of public, private and charter schools.

In mid-August, the first national comparison of test scores showed students in charter schools largely trailing comparable students in traditional public schools. The federal report, known as the Schools and Staffing Survey, provides a wealth of information about charter schools, including the location and number of such schools, their share of low-income students, the qualifications of principals and teachers and the ratio of teachers to students.

In the future, however, the National Center for Education Statistics, which conducts the survey, will cover only a random sample of about 300 charter schools. The Department of Education said the decision to switch from a random sample had been made in the first year of the Bush Administration "for technical reasons."

Charters are self-governed schools that operate independent of local school boards, but with public money. They vary widely in style, focus and performance, including some that emphasize music or art, foreign languages, or rigorous academic programs.

The most recent survey, published in 2002, provides profiles of all 1,010 charter schools that federal researchers found operating for the two academic years ending in spring 2000. With it, researchers have been able to analyze types of charter schools, comparing the qualifications of teachers at urban charter schools, for example, with those at regular public schools or at other charters in the suburbs.

While charter schools currently account for a sliver of the nation's 88,000 public schools, they are likely to grow tremendously under the federal No Child Left Behind Education Act, which prescribes conversion to charters as a remedy for chronically failing traditional schools.

NYT Article - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0A11FF3B5B0C748DDDA10894DC404482

Schools & Staffing Survey - http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/

National Center for Education Statistics - http://nces.ed.gov/

[CrackpotAmerica]

14. Lou Dobbs Actually Used The Words "The Government Is Lying"

I almost cried.

[linazelle]

15. This is old news, it's been going on for at least two years since I've

been here. They put Cheney in charge of classifying documents--which are scrubbed and locked away if they want them to be. They fired the official archivist/records historian and put an unqualified guy in to ensure that only the documents they want to reflect their "reality" will be kept.

The Bush administration is so corrupt it's mindboggling. And people are pretty much sleeping while they steal from under our noses.

[linazelle]

16. Check out this link to an MSN story about their secret activity

http://slate.msn.com/id/2114963/

[RedEarth]

19. Part old news, part yesterdays article from Manufacturing & Technology New

dealing with outsourcing. From what I understand, the outsourcing story did make the Lou Dobbs show on Friday, so perhaps some people other than the folks on DU will get will start to realize how corrupt this administration is. For what it's worth, I am mailing the Mfg. & Technology article to my local papers to see if they have the guts to run it.....if I had to guess, I would say no.

BTW....thanks for the link to the article on Slate....very good read!

[texpatriot2004]

17. Awesome list of their lies. n.t

[PinkyisBlue]

18. Voting

They also hide the fact that they're deciding who wins elections. They let us THINK we have free and fair elections but all the while they're adjusting the vote counts and stealing elections.

[indepat]

20. What hasn't this administration doctored?