The badge of honor for the coming decades? Being fired or muzzled by George W. Bush.

Glen Hubbard was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. Before the Iraq war started George Bush and his lying cronies told the world the war would cost $50 billion. Mr. Hubbard said the war would cost $200 billion. They were both wrong. To date the war has cost more than $238 billion and the cost goes up by the minute. Mr. Hubbard was fired.

Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill opposed tax cuts for the rich and federal budget deficits. He was fired. Lawrence Greenfield was the director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. A congressionally ordered study found that Hispanic and black motorists were three times more likely to be searched or have their vehicles searched than were whites. Mr. Greenfield included the findings in his agency's press release announcing the study's results. He was told to delete the reference and refused. He was demoted.

Brian Steidle was a Marine captain who worked in Darfur, Sudan as a military advisor. He showed people pictures of acts of genocide taking place there. The state department ordered him to quit showing the photos. He refused. Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times reports that Mr. Steidle has been told he is blacklisted from all U.S. government jobs.

We find more and more examples like this that show the administration does not "cotton to no backtalk" from its subordinates. They have access to all of these brilliant minds and then they stick them in the back room someplace and never pay any attention to them or they fire them outright! In my opinion this may be the most dangerous tendency of this administration.

And if I may be so bold as to say that this is also why I am sometimes untrusting of people with a powerful religious faith. To continue to adhere to your belief you are forced to ignore any information which might shake your confidence that you are correct. Give me a president with a thirst for knowledge and an open mind any day of the week. Believe but question.