nota bene: Agathidium Panzer is a genus of fungus beetle, family Leiodidae (aka truffle beetles, slime-mold beetles, round fungus beetles). These minute, hemispherical beetles live in leaf litter and rotting logs, where they feed on fruiting bodies of fungus and slime mold plasmodia. The ideal habitat for these beetles (as well as thousands of other North American insect species) is primary- or secondary- growth temperate forest, preferably undisturbed by logging or a large number of paved roads. It is quite possibly due to the undeveloped nature of much of Mexico's wilderness that so many new Agathidium species were discovered in Chiapas, including A. cheneyi (named for Dick Cheney)

A major goal of research such as Wheeler and Miller's is to generate a phylogenetic hypothesis or phylogeny, the better to make taxonomic changes that reflect monophyletic groupings (thus enriching the information content of the phylogenetic system). Despite a small amount of argument to the contrary, it is agreed upon by the vast majority of biologists in general and systematists in particular that a phylogeny or cladogram represents the evolutionary history of an organismal lineage. Evolution is thus integral to the study of phylogenetic systematics, and is considered by a majority of biologists to be the "unifying theory" of biology.

Bush on Evolution:

“I think that, for example, on the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the earth.”
Source: New York Times, October 22, 2000


“After all, religion has been around a lot longer than Darwinism. And I think it's important for people to know what people believe in–but whatever the case, here's what I believe. I believe God did create the world. And I think we're finding out more and more and more as to how it actually happened.”
Source: US News and World Report, December 12, 1999

Under the Bush Administration, the head of the National Park Service has approved the sale of a creationist book at the Grand Canyon Visitor’s Center that claims that the site was created by Noah’s flood and that the earth is “A few thousand years old.” When scientists and parks officials protested, the Park Service refused to approve the publication of a text that informs rangers and tour guides of the facts of evolution and stonewalled requests from the Superintendent of the Grand Canyon National Park.
Source: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, February 26, 2004


The Bush Administration and NSF/EPA Funding:

The 2006 budget proposes significant buts to both education and environmental protection. 1 in 3 of the programs that will be eliminated concerns education. Among the relevant programs being cut are:

-Almost $300 million in land and water conservation projects

-Federal grants and loans to university students (including the Byrd scholarships and Perkins loans, which allowed the senior and junior authors, respectively, to attend universities of their choice)

-Funding for all local research projects sponsored by the EPA
Sources: Washington Post, February 7, 2005

Federal Budget Supporting Document: Major Savings and Reforms in the President’s 2006 Budget (whitehouse.gov)

Bush has also consistently cut funding to the National Science Foundation. Under Clinton, the Foundation enjoyed a 5.8% budget increase. Two years later, the White House budget request was for a 1.3% funding increase, which was below the rate of inflation. The 2002 request also included a 5.9% funding decrease in NSF undergraduate science education programs. The 107th congress overrode this proposal by passing the NSF Reauthorization Act of 2002, which authorized significant research increases. That progress was negated in the president’s 2006 budget request, which proposed a 2% NSF budget decrease. The 2006 presidential budget request is a full 34% below the 2006 figure mandated by the Reauthorization Act.

And, hey, about that forest habitat? Don't forget the Bush Environmental Record! (nrdc.org)

relevant excerpts:
February 2, 2004: Bush budget proposes $10 million cut in funds for endangered species

July 12, 2004: Administration to eliminate Clinton-era roadless rule, ending protections for 58.5 million acres of forest


Cheney on Education:
Voted against Department of Education and financial aid to college students
Source: Washington Post, August 26, 2000

Cheney on Chiapas:
While the Chief Executive at Halliburton, Cheney negotiated the largest drilling project yet in the oil fields under Chiapas, MX, destabilizing democratization and peace negotiations with the Zapatistas.
Source: Corporate Watch International, August 8, 2000 and March 22, 2001


Scientists on Bush:
“Across a broad range of issues, the administration has undermined the quality of the scientific advisory system and the morale of the government’s outstanding scientific personnel.”
- Dr. Kurt Gottfried, emeritus professor of physics at Cornell University and Chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement released on February 18, 2004 and signed by over sixty scientists, and including 20 Nobel laureates.

We invite the reader to contribute any corrections, errata, addenda, etc.