WaPo story should be online soon. http://www.washingtonpost.com

The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post. Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Wishing it not so.

Maybe it is just me, because as a journalist I often have to report stuff I WISH weren't true.

Even global warming, for instance. I truly wish it wasn't true. It would be one less thing to worry about. But unlike the right wingers, who choose to wish it away and presto-chango, it isn't happening, I feel I have to base my reporting on reality. On facts. On evidence.

So sadly, I think the evidence is clear that global warming is real and largely caused by human activity.

The Bush administration, of course, acts exactly the opposite.

Despite having a responsibility to GOVERN and base policies on actual data and reality; despite having a responsibility to listen to scientists and experts in various fields of public policy, they will instead gag any message from such real authorities if the message does not suit their political agenda.

So it is, that we again find the Bush administration deep-sixing a report from the Surgeon General for political reasons. Not based on reality -- just their own self interest.

A political hack with no expertise on such matters simply cans the report, cans the inconvenient truth.

To call that irresponsible is being perhaps too polite. It is lying by omission, in a way.

More from WaPo:

The draft report itself, in language linking public health problems with violence and other social ills, says ``we cannot overstate ... that problems in remote parts of the globe can no longer be ignored. Diseases that Americans once read about as affecting people in regions ... most of us would never visit are now capable of reaching us directly. The hunger, disease, and death resulting from poor food and nutrition create social and political instability ... and that instability may spread to other nations as people migrate to survive.'' In 65 pages, the report charts trends in infectious and chronic disease; reviews efforts to curb AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; calls for the careful monitoring of public health to safeguard against bioterrorism; and explains the importance of proper nutrition, childhood immunizations and clean air and water, among other topics. Its underlying message is that disease and suffering do not respect political boundaries in an era of globalization and mass population movements. ...

The report calls on the administration to consider spending more money on global health improvement, for instance. And it warns that ``the environmental conditions that poison our water and contaminate our air are not contained within national boundaries. ... The use of pesticides is also of concern to health officials, scientists and government leaders around the world.''

And aside from Surgeon General Carmona's report, we have this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

With the active encouragement of the Bush administration, U.S. scientists in the past year have developed several methods for creating embryonic stem cells without having to destroy human embryos. But some who now wish to test their alternatively derived cells have found themselves stymied by an unexpected barrier: President Bush's stem cell policy.



The 2001 policy says that federal funds may not be used to study embryonic stem cells created after Aug. 9 of that year. It is based on the assumption that the only way to make the cells is by destroying human embryos -- a truism in 2001 but not any longer. As a result, the National Institutes of Health recently refused to consider a grant application for what would have been the first federal study to compare several of the new, less politically contentious stem cell lines.

The Bush mantra: Don't let facts get in the way of your policies.

P.S.; Hope you guys didn't miss me. I haven't filed a diary in some time.