Please oppose the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency

[elfs]

The Obama administration is looking to fill out its roster of appointments and executives for its various branches. There are various rumors floating around about this person being named to that seat and so on and so forth. Thus far, we know only a few executives in the White House specifically; two people from the Obama campaign have been given similar communications positions in the West Wing, and Rahm Emmanuel has accepted the job of White House Chief of Staff.

The rumor yesterday is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be asked to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and if he is, he has announced that he's ready to serve.

Kennedy is well-known as an anti-vaccination crusader who has gleefully deployed whatever psuedoscientific rationales he can find to push an agenda that will ultimately hurt our country. He has deliberately misquoted pharmaceutical industry documents, taken material out of contexts, and backed various fringe groups and individuals in an effort to force the conspiracy between the Centers for Disease Control, the American Association of Pediatric Physicians, and "big pharma" to cough up the real story linking vaccination and autism.

Somehow, the fact that no one, anywhere, in any country on this planet, has yet backed his version of reality has in any way dismayed him.

In other places, Kennedy has said that Downs Syndrome is caused by air pollution, automakers long ago broke the 100MPG barrier but are keeping it a secret because they're in cahoots with the oil companies, that organic farms are "more efficient" than industrial farms, and that seven families "control virtually all the world's media." As head of the EPA, Kennedy would impose pollution limits on industry and farming that would roll us back to the 19th century in terms of production viability. I'm all for sensible pollution limits, but my idea of a liveable country does not include horse-and-buggies anymore.

Kennedy recently said that Hugo Chavez, the man currently running Venezuela into the ground even faster than our own administration succeeded in ruining this country, is "The kind of leader my father and President Kennedy were looking for." I want my administration to talk to its enemies, to talk them down from the heights of outrage, but Kennedy seems more intent on kissing their asses.

ScienceBlogger Orac has more (and more links) on why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should not be a candidate. He's kind and doesn't even mention Kennedy's little problem with heroin. (I am not so kind.)

If you agree that Kennedy would be a bad choice to head the EPA and that he's better off as a strident, outsider activist voice than as managerial policy wonk, the Obama Transition Team has generously given us a page where we can make our voices heard.

Comments

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Wait, a hard-left candidate has just been elected to the Presidency, and you're surprised that he's making his Cabinet picks from a hard-left perspective?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Wait, you're opposing my raising my voice in opposition to bad choices?

Jordan, don't become a parody.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I'm not opposing it. Merely pointing out that bad choices of this sort, on Obama's part, were quite predictable. RFK Jr. is associated with one of the richest and most influential Democratic factions, and his blind worship of the anti-American Third World (*) is pretty much par for the Democratic Leftist course.

By the way, neither black Christians nor Muslims of any stripe are in favor of polyamory (save male-dominated polygyny) or porn. Watch your back.

===
(*) Rather disgusting, considering who killed RFK, and why.

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

Of course Obama was going to both make decisions I disagree with and make mistakes. How could he not? He's human, and has his own opinions. That doesn't make him a worse choice than McCain.

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

... and his blind worship of the anti-American Third World ...

Cites, please...

[qtplatypus.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of people on the left who make decisions based on rational evaluation of the facts. The enlightenment isn't the exclusive property of any side of the ideological spectrum.

[rand0m1.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

... a hard-left candidate ...

What constitutes a "hard-left" position, and how does Barak Obama qualify?

[tagryn]

Tim Noah over at Slate agrees.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Where is the picture from, and how does it relate?

(In small all I can say is it looks neat, and I'd like to know what I'm looking at.)

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

I'm betting it's George Washington, the outfit and horse look quite right. Where and when the painting is from, I'm not sure. It's cold, so possibly Valley Forge.

Woo, I win the internet! Searching on {George Washington Valley Forge painting} got me the painting it's from, it's called The Prayer at Valley Forge by Arnold Friberg.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

And thanks for the mention, I'll be talking to gootmu tonight who usually keeps up with things like this better, I want to see what he thinks, then we can maybe write in and say WTF?

:)