\"An Open Letter to the American People\"

[Grendel]

Source.

An Open Letter to the American People
September 25, 2008

This year's presidential election is among the most significant in our nation's history. The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate change, security, and economic competitiveness.

We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him.

During the administration of George W. Bush, vital parts of our country's scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government's scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations. As a result, our once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk. We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy.

We have watched Senator Obama's approach to these issues with admiration. We especially applaud his emphasis during the campaign on the power of science and technology to enhance our nation's competitiveness. In particular, we support the measures he plans to take – through new initiatives in education and training, expanded research funding, an unbiased process for obtaining scientific advice, and an appropriate balance of basic and applied research – to meet the nation's and the world's most urgent needs.

Senator Obama understands that Presidential leadership and federal investments in science and technology are crucial elements in successful governance of the world's leading country. We hope you will join us as we work together to ensure his election in November.

Signed,

Alexei Abrikosov Physics 2003 Roger Guillemin Medicine 1977
Peter Agre Chemistry 2003 John L. Hall Physics 2005
Sidney Altman Chemistry 1989 Leland H. Hartwell Medicine 2001
Philip W. Anderson Physics 1977 Dudley Herschbach Chemistry 1986
Richard Axel Medicine 2004 Roald Hoffmann Chemistry 1981
David Baltimore Medicine 1975 H. Robert Horvitz Medicine 2002
Baruj Benacerraf Medicine 1980 Louis Ignarro Medicine 1998
Paul Berg Chemistry 1980 Eric R. Kandel Medicine 2000
J. Michael Bishop Medicine 1989 Walter Kohn Chemistry 1998
N. Bloembergen Physics 1981 Roger Kornberg Chemistry 2006
Michael S. Brown Medicine 1985 Leon M. Lederman Physics 1988
Linda B. Buck Medicine 2004 Craig C. Mello Medicine 2006
Mario R. Capecchi Medicine 2007 Marshall Nirenberg Medicine 1968
Stanley Cohen Medicine 1986 Douglas D. Osheroff Physics 1996
Leon Cooper Physics 1972 Stanley B. Prusiner Medicine 1997
James W. Cronin Physics 1980 Norman F. Ramsey Physics 1989
Robert F. Curl Chemistry 1996 Robert Richardson Physics 1996
Johann Diesenhofer Chemistry 1988 Burton Richter Physics 1976
John B. Fenn Chemistry 2002 Sherwood Rowland Chemistry 1995
Edmond H. Fischer Medicine 1992 Oliver Smithies Medicine 2007
Val Fitch Physics 1980 Richard R Schrock Chemistry 2005
Jerome I. Friedman Physics 1990 Joseph H. Taylor Jr. Physics 1993
Riccardo Giacconi Physics 2002 E. Donnall Thomas Medicine 1990
Walter Gilbert Chemistry 1980 Charles H. Townes Physics 1964
Alfred G. Gilman Medicine 1994 Daniel C.Tsui Physics 1998
Donald A. Glaser Physics 1960 Harold Varmus Medicine 1989
Sheldon L. Glashow Physics 1979 James D. Watson Medicine 1962
Joseph Goldstein Medicine 1985 Eric Wieschaus Medicine 1995
Paul Greengard Medicine 2000 Frank Wilczek Physics 2004
David Gross Physics 2004 Robert W. Wilson Physics 1978
Robert H. Grubbs Chemistry 2005

The views expressed in this letter represent those of the signers acting as individual citizens. They do not necessarily represent the views of the institutions with which they are affiliated. The Medicine award is for “Physiology or Medicine.”

There you have it. 76 Nobel prize winners get my attention.

[Foil]

Interesting, and a good subject change (scientific funding and education, finally a subject that hasn't been overdone for the last two months! ).

[Spidey]

Try to remember, Bush is not running for president, McCain is, and he is no slouch when it comes to advocating science and technology. Remember he is the first one to come up with an actual idea. (the reward for the new battery)

How many of those people are Americans, quite frankly I don’t give a rats ass, which candidate the rest of the left leaning world wants.

[BlueFlames]

Try to remember, Bush is not running for president, McCain is, and he is no slouch when it comes to advocating science and technology.

He also vocally advocates an across-the-board spending freeze, indicating that, at best, federally-funded science programs would be left to cope with inflation without additional subsidy, under a McCain administration. Unless McCain very suddenly broadens his definition of \"essential services,\" the science community will be just as bad off under him as under Bush Jr. If you want to argue that the sciences should be run purely on private funds, fine, but don't try to pretend that McCain's stated positions are anything other than what they are.

How many of those people are Americans?

On a preliminary Google search...

1. Peter Agre
2. Philip W. Anderson
3. Richard Axel
4. David Baltimore
5. Baruj Benacerraf
6. Paul Berg
7. J. Michael Bishop
8. Michael S. Brown
9. Linda B. Buck
10. Mario R. Capecchi
11. Stanley Cohen
12. Leon Cooper
13. James W. Cronin
14. Robert F. Curl
15. John B. Fenn
16. Edmond H. Fischer
17. Val Fitch
18. Jerome I. Friedman
19. Riccardo Giacconi
20. Walter Gilbert
21. Alfred G. Gilman
22. Donald A. Glaser
23. Sheldon L. Glashow
24. Joseph Goldstein
25. Paul Greengard
26. David Gross
27. Robert H. Grubbs
28. Roger Guillemin
29. John L. Hall
30. Leland H. Hartwell
31. Dudley Herschbach
32. Roald Hoffmann
33. H. Robert Horvitz
34. Louis Ignarro
35. Walter Kohn
36. Roger Kornberg
37. Leon M. Lederman
38. Craig C. Mello
39. Marshall Nirenberg
40. Douglas D. Osheroff
41. Stanley B. Prusiner
42. Norman F. Ramsey
43. Robert Richardson
44. Burton Richter
45. Sherwood Rowland
46. Oliver Smithies
47. Richard R Schrock
48. Joseph H. Taylor Jr.
49. E. Donnall Thomas
50. Charles H. Townes
51. Daniel C. Tsui
52. Harold Varmus
53. James D. Watson
54. Eric Wieschaus
55. Frank Wilczek
56. Robert W. Wilson

Fifty-six of seventy-six a good enough ratio for you, or will you now just disregard their endorsement because of who they're endorsing?

Now, it's about 4:30am, on the first Saturday of the month, so I have to go to the local branch office to meet with my fellow Global Liberal Conspirators.

[/driveby trolling]

[Jesus Freak]

haha good stuff

I hope NASA gets the funding they deserve. You'd think that \"rocket scientists\" would be one of the highest paid positions. The technical careers need higher remuneration if we're going to promote that field!

[Spidey]

A freeze is only temporary, and has been proposed only because of the current crisis, so the lab coats should keep getting more money while the rest of us suffer? (remember the question about sacrifices asked during the debate)

And, sure that’s a good enuf ratio. (I still don’t care what the others think)

So 1 point for me and some of a point for you…

[Will Robinson]

If endorsements are important should we consider every one who endorses Obama? Because there are a lot of people who endorse him that don't really thrill me too much....

[Spidey]

Good Point

[Gooberman]

This country puts no value on Education when choosing our leaders, especially the Republican party: Look at George Bush, Sarah Palin and John McCain. (They have smart conservatives, there are smart conservatives, but they can't get past the \"I want someone like me, drink drink\" primaries).

Such a list will only hurt Obama. Please put that thing away.

[Spidey]

Education is for eggheads, character and vision are for leaders.

[Gooberman]

See.

<3 Spidey

[Duper]

Knowledge is no indicator of wisdom. Just because a large or medium size group of folks sign a piece of paper does not necessarily make it right. As you might have noticed a lot of democrats fee that way about our Constitution.

[Cuda68]

Obama just does not have what it takes. period!

[Nightshade]

What worries me is not that list, but a list of Obama's other supporters-

Fidel Castro - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... pport.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/ ... ma_ag.html

Hugo Chavez - Oh wait, he withdrew it http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/ju ... d=politics

Kim Yong-il - http://freekorea.us/2008/06/22/obama-ge ... dorsement/

Hamas - http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Hama ... 88754.html , http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/04 ... dorsement/

Hezbollah - , http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/why-isnt-o ... t-support/

Khadafi -
Palestinian Liberation Organization

Ahmed Yousef - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_endo ... al_leaders

Daniel Ortega - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_endo ... al_leaders

and other such \"luminaries.\"

[TechPro]

ThunderBunny, those names you'll have to show (links please) that they support him. You can't just say it.

[Nightshade]

There are many more \"unwanted\" endorsements but I could go on and on.

[Bet51987]

adding links

I have one....

http://washingtonindependent.com/14218/ ... for-mccain

Bee

[TechPro]

adding links

I have one....

http://washingtonindependent.com/14218/ ... for-mccain

Bee

That's not an endorsement. Surely you can do better than that. That's a blog talking about response to content found in an Islamic terrorist's blog of another terrorist blog.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd put more trust in the content of an SNL script than the content of that stuff.

The real jist of it is that Al Qaeda might prefer McCain to win over Obama (tho I don't see why, Obama would prefer we'd pull out which would help Al Qauda) simply because they want us to keep spending our money.

Big wup. For all they really know, McCain might get a lot more done over there than the current administration has done. We know for sure that Obama won't get more done over there.