NASA nudge/political appointee Deutsch may have lied about his degree

[BurtWorm]

George Deutsch is the prissy like puke who nixed a NASA scientists interview on global warming with NPR because the network was too "liberal." More of his hackwork is described here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/science/04climate.html?ei=5090&en=485e8873aed34738&ex=1296709200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all


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."


.....................



Now it turns out he may not just be a hack but a fraud to boot:

http://scientificactivist.blogspot.com/2006/02/breaking-news-george-deutsch-did-not.html

BREAKING NEWS: George Deutsch Did Not Graduate From Texas A & M University

Through my own investigations I have just discovered that George Deutsch, the Bush political appointee at the heart of administration efforts to censor NASA scientists (most notably to prevent James Hansen from speaking out about global warming), did not actually graduate from Texas A&M University. This should come as a surprise, since the media has implied otherwise, with even The New York Times describing the 24-year-old NASA public affairs officer, as “a 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M.” Although Deutsch did attend Texas A&M University, where he majored in journalism and was scheduled to graduate in 2003, he left in 2004 without a degree, a revelation that I was tipped off to by one of his former coworkers at A&M's student newspaper The Battalion. I later confirmed this discovery through the records department of the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students.

Deutsch’s former coworker informed me that in the summer of 2004, when Deutsch was the Opinion Editor for The Battalion, he was offered a position in George W. Bush’s presidential reelection campaign. The position was apparently too good to turn down, so Deutsch not only left his editorial post, but he also left A&M completely. Deutsch's coworker was not aware of him returning to A&M to complete his education. I investigating this further, and through the Association of Former Students, I learned that George Deutsch never graduated from Texas A&M, and the last record of him was from June 9, 2004, when he withdrew....

[Warpy]

1. Cheaters and men who think short cuts were a good idea

are choking this administration with their utter incompetence. We're all getting a very hard lesson in why cheating your way through life is a really rotten idea. Eventually, someone or some occasion will force you to do your job. If you've cheated and taken the easy way through life, you will not be able to do it.

This can be annoying to someone who is trying to sell soap. It is fatal when it's responsible for the aftermath of a disaster or for the smooth running of a scientific agency.

[mod mom]

2. another heckova job crony.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. Well you don't need a degree to be a "political officer" like this guy is,

in the mold of the Nazis and the old Soviet Union.

His job, if you've been following the news on global warming etc., is to ride herd on any outspoken scientists who express any opinion other than the shrubco line "there is no such thing as global warming".

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0129-01.htm

Published on Sunday, January 29, 2006 by the New York Times
Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him
by Andrew C. Revkin


The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

...

In one call, George Deutsch, a recently appointed public affairs officer at NASA headquarters, rejected a request from a producer at National Public Radio to interview Dr. Hansen, said Leslie McCarthy, a public affairs officer responsible for the Goddard Institute.

Citing handwritten notes taken during the conversation, Ms. McCarthy said Mr. Deutsch called N.P.R. "the most liberal" media outlet in the country. She said that in that call and others, Mr. Deutsch said his job was "to make the president look good" and that as a White House appointee that might be Mr. Deutsch's priority.

But she added: "I'm a career civil servant and Jim Hansen is a scientist. That's not our job. That's not our mission. The inference was that Hansen was disloyal."
...

Copyright © 2006 New York Times Company