Originally Posted by Testimony of Dr. Richard Carmona, Surgeon General 2002-2006

"...Although most Americans believe that their Surgeon General has the ability to impact the course of public health as "the nation's doctor," the reality is that the nation's doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political apointees with partisan agendas. Anything that doesn't fit into the political apointee's ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized, or simply buried.

The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds."

Full testimony of Dr. richard H. Carmona (outgoing U.S. Surgeon General)
http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw....7testimony.pdf

Originally Posted by NYTimes

The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.

Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/wa...agewanted=1&hp

My opinion:
While this certainly isn't limited to the Bush administration, I think that as with a number of related issues, Bush's administration continues to be the most controlling and manipulative of all former executive administrations. Five surgeon generals are now backing this up. We've seen this type of control/censorship within NASA as well with regard to climatological studies. If some type of congressional reform comes about as a result of this, then we can say at least one good thing came out of the Bush administration - increased independence and protection from politically fueled executive oversight.

A second aspect of this issue that fascinates me - and has more of an overarching influence on humankind - is that this issue is an excellent example of the increasing conflicts between cultural ideology (and theology) and modern science. I believe that this will be an increasingly common theme in the 21st century.