Ask Dr. Schmience

Less than a week after a NASA scientist said that he had been leaned on by administration officials to stop talking about scientific issues they didn't like, more revelations appear from scientists who are pretty ticked at the Bushies' war on science (although it's going much better than their war on terror).

The Big Bang memo came from Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose résumé says he was an intern in the "war room" of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. A 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M, he was also the public-affairs officer who sought more control over Dr. Hansen's public statements.

In October 2005, Mr. Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. The message said the word "theory" needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang.

The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator."

It continued: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."

The memo also noted that The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual specified the phrasing "Big Bang theory." Mr. Acosta, Mr. Deutsch's boss, said in an interview yesterday that for that reason, it should be used in all NASA documents.

The Deutsch memo was provided by an official at NASA headquarters who said he was upset with the effort to justify changes to descriptions of science by referring to politically charged issues like intelligent design. Senior NASA officials did not dispute the message's authenticity.

Remember, folks-- White House Criminality is only a theory. It has not been proven by a court of law. It should not be considered as evidence that this administration was not created by an Evil Genius.

UPDATE (2/07): The blog Scientific Activist has learned that Deutsch's credentials were wrongly reported by the NYT. He dropped out of Texas A&M without a degree. In short, ripe for promotion by the administration.

UPDATE (2/08): Deutsch has resigned from his position for falsifying his resume. Watch for him to fail upward, in keeping with the Bizarroworld policy of political appointments.