Monday, February 18, 2008

David Baltimore on the Bush Administration

Source: "Tell Us What You Really Think, Professor Baltimore," Science Now,February 15, 2008.

Outgoing AAAS president and Nobel laureate David Baltimore wrapped up his Friday night opening address at the AAAS annual meeting sayin: America needs a political change, and President George W. Bush has been bad for science and bad for the world.
"I've held my breath awaiting new leaders in Washington ... who I consider true Americans," he said. The lines elicited neither applause nor boos from the crowd of about 1200. He called for a science debate among presidential candidates. "The United States allowed itself to become mesmerized by the terrorist threat," he said. Baltimore marveled at "how much growth there is in Europe while the US has been fighting in Iraq," blasted Congress and the White House for passing "a budget that does not meet the needs" of American science, and called on Americans to "hold our head low in penance for the horrors inflicted by our country in Abu Ghraib."

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