NASA Public-Affairs Appointee Resigns in Disgrace

belmolis writes "George C. Deutsch, who tried to muzzle top NASA climate scientist James Hansen and ordered NASA web designers to add the word 'theory' to every mention of the Big Bang, has resigned. The New York Times reports that NASA declines to discuss the reasons for his resignation, but that it came the same day that Texas A&M University, from which Deutsch claimed on his resume to have graduated, revealed that he had attended the university but did not complete his degree." The New York Times reports it today, but as of yesterday, it was the Times that had unquestioningly passed along the falsehood of Deutsch's graduation, and it was the blog Scientific Activist whose investigation revealed he'd left before graduating to work on the Bush reelection campaign. For more on the 24-year-old political appointee's interesting viewpoints, see World O' Crap; on Monday, we covered the anger over his attempts to squelch science -- something that, sadly, Jim Hansen has gotten used to.

Jim Henson spins in his grave

[BadAnalogyGuy]

He never would have thought that he would be on the receiving end of a puppeteer's hand.

Could be a win-win...

[SnapShot]

This could be a win-win situation. NASA has an opening for a job to be filled by a Republican crony. Michael Brown is unemployed. Looks like a natural fit! Give that man a call!

What you people don't understand....

[Anonymous Coward]

....is that he could have graduated from college in theory!

Heliocentrism

[soshdin]

I wonder if Deutsch had a problem with heliocentrism. The idea that the earth goes around the sun is as much a theory as the Big Bang or evolution.

Re:Could be a win-win...

[anothy]

i hereby mod you "-1: Don't Give Them Any Ideas".

Re:"He did a heckuva job!"

[damsa]

Considering that the Bush campaign won in 2004 with all sorts of problems. I'd say anyone working on that campaign is qualified for any PR positions in any company or government agency.

Re:Good News and Bad News

[koreaman]

Most people don't know what those are. Try the Theory of Gravity and the Theory that the Planets Revolve around the Sun.

Re:Good News and Bad News

[Anonymous Coward]

The increasing availability and ease of access of information is making it increasingly difficult to get away with lying.

Hey, I'm doing fine so far.

Love,
George W.

And to think ....

[bombadillo]

Only days ago Bush praised George Deutsch for his work at NASA, "Deutschy your doing a heck of a job!"

Resume

[TheZax]

I guess he should have added the word theory after Texas A&M everywhere on his resume.

Re:The Big Bang

[DreamerFi]

It's not the word "theory" you're looking for.

Every time a Christian, Muslim or Jew speaks of anything to do with their religion, they must use the phrase "ancient tribal myth" in the same sentence.

My reaction was, ironically enough,...

[Deslock]

Sweet! There is a god.

Re:Please allow me to say:

[Vengeance]

I think he should be on lauch-pad sweeping duty.

During launches. ;-)

Re:Theory not a bad order

[Anonymous Coward]

Any scientist will tell you that of course it's a theory.

The fact here is that some snotnose bush brat is telling scientist that they must explicitly state the obvious as part of a plan to diminish the value of science on impressionable young minds. If something logical and rational were presented factually, the flock might wander. So "theories" are for science, and facts are for the bible!

"Penguins ain't natural, they was chemically man-made like The Incredible Hulk."
"Anthony, how do you know this about the penguins?"
"It's in the Bible."
"It ain't in the Bible."
"It's in the Bible wit' Noah! Noah didn't take no penguins wit' 'em on the ark, so therefore penguins ain't natural. Read your Bible. There's no mention of penguins whatsoever."
"Okay."

-- The State

Re:What you people don't understand....

[AndroidCat]

And that's just one side's opinion. We have to present opinions from both sides for a fair and balanced viewpoint. A bunch of lefty darwinist university administrators have a theory that says that he doesn't have a degree, and a hard-working young man says he does. Who are you going to believe?

Re:Just one apparatchik -- there are others

[The Angry Mick]

It used to be connected people got their kids internships, or made congressional pages. They didn't get them policy level poliltical appointments.

Or . . . the presidency? ;-D

Re:The Big Bang

[Hatta]

It's not the word "theory" you're looking for.

Every time a Christian, Muslim or Jew speaks of anything to do with their religion, they must use the phrase "ancient tribal myth" in the same sentence.

And from now on, replace "Jesus" with "Santa Claus for grownups"

Re:Good News and Bad News

[brunson]

I think we should start referring to the New Testament as the "Theory of Jesus".
That wouldn't piss anyone off at all.

My theory of gravity

[lahvak]

I demand that my alternative theory of gravity be taught in physics and science classes across the nation as an alternative to the currently accepted "law" of gravity, which, after all, is only a theory.

Here is a brief description of my theory of gravity, which explains some observable phenomena much better than the commonly accepted "law".

First you have to understand that it is not true that things always fall down. What is actually happening is that things fall both down and up, with equal probability. Therefore the sequence of all "falls" in the history of the universe is a random sequence of "ups" and "downs". As every truly random sequence, it contains long strings where frequency of "downs" is much higher than frequency of "ups". We happen to live during one such string, so it appears to us as if things were always falling down. In fact, things still sometimes fall up, however, with very high probability it happens somewhere where nobody can observe it (ocean, deserts, mountains, ...). In the case somebody actually does observe it, he or she will most likely think they were hallucinating, because we are all brainwashed by the so called "law" of gravity, which, in fact, is only a theory. Even if they actually pay attention to it, nobody will believe them that they saw something fall up, and if they insist, they are most likely going to end up in a mental institution. That explains why there seems to be no experimental evidence of things falling up. But we all know from our experience that things sometimes just simply mysteriously disappear!

My theory of gravity explains many unexplained mysteries. Let's look for example at the extinction of dinosaurs. The explanation is very simple: they fell up!
You see, what happens when an animal started to fall up? It tries to saves itself from flying off into the space, or course, so it grabs onto something, like a tree or a bush or a rock. When the animal is a small mammal or an insect, it will hold on, crawl back to the earth, and survive. But when a giant dinosaur grabs onto a tree, both the dinosaur and the tree will end up in the cold emptiness of space. That also explains why we cannot find any large deposits of dinosaur skeletons from the extinction period. There are not any, most of the skeletons are up there somewhere, floating towards Aplha Centauri.

As you can see, my theory of gravity is at least as good, if not better, as the commonly accepted "law" (which is really just a theory), and I demand that it is included into the science curriculum at our schools.