The Land Of The Free?

[Lonan3]

Well, it may have been - but GWB changed all that. The latest evidence comes from Dr Richard Carmona, the surgeon general from 2002 until last year.

 

The Bush White House banned Dr Carmona from speaking or issuing reports on stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, prisons, mental health and international health issues, he has revealed.

For years, the White House also tried to "water down" a key report on the dangers of second-hand smoke, he said.

During a nine-month trial of the US tobacco industry, Dr Carmona was heavily leant upon not to testify.

When Dr Carmona tried to address the subject of embryonic stem-cell research, deeply controversial among the religious right, he said he was "told to stand down and not speak about it". He explained: "Much of the discussion was being driven by theology, ideology, [and] preconceived beliefs that were scientifically incorrect.

He was also told that global warming was a "liberal cause" and to decline invitations to attend scientific discussion meetings on the subject.

Even the Special Olympics were deemed politically suspect, because they receive considerable support from the Kennedy family.

LINK TO INDEPENDENT ARTICLE

I don't want this to become another American-bashing thread; this is about the worst president, certainly in living memory, and possibly of all time.

Incidentally, the evidence was given to a congressional panel examining the possible appointment of Dr James Holsinger as the new surgeon general - that's the man who produced a report which concluded that homosexual sex was both unnatural and unhealthy.

[bluemonday]

I like Americans because they look at succesful people and don't continually knock them, they all think that could be me one day. I like the fact they have a written constitution. And I do admire that in that, there is the embedded right to bear arms.

Ignoring their tendancy to view themselves as the worlds policeman and the fact that Tony seemed stuck up Dubyas arse, what I do think is very misguided - one amongst many faults maybe is Dubyas attitude to stem cell research. OK there may be ethical questions but benefits could be vast if they policed it properly. As for Dubya himself, enough said, I thought the idea was he took notice of the people not went off on his own personal belief crusade. Like most countries, the US never seems to get the Government it really needs. Sometimes, they should put away the bible and take a look at reality.

[Amadeus]

Not everything goes across the pond:

 

US Publisher Turns away from Cartoon Nudity

 

The drawings are harmless really. But a US publisher has decided not to publish a series by children's book author Rotraut Susanne Berner. The problem? Cartoon breasts and a half-millimeter-long willy.

 

It is rare that a German book generates any interest in the United States. And children's books are usually completely off the radar. The delight was thus all the greater at the Hildesheimer Gerstenberg publishing house when a query came in from the American children's book purveyor Boyds Mills Press for a series by Rotraut Susanne Berner.

 

"It was really a sensation," Berner told SPIEGEL ONLINE. At first. As it turned out, there were a couple of changes that had to be made before the books could be unleashed on the America public. First off, smokers had to be removed from the illustrations. But that wasn't all. One image shows a scene from an art gallery -- and for realism's sake, there is a cartoonish nude hanging on the wall along with a tiny, seven-millimeter-tall statue of a naked man on a pedestal.

 

American kiddies, obviously, could never be expected to handle such a depiction of the human body. The US publisher, somewhat awkwardly, asked if they could be removed....

 

Er..ok...Paris Hilton hanging her bits into every available camera is fine, but this isn't:

 

 

 

Mind you, it's hardcore stuff