I was a career environmental scientist with the Dept of the Interior, and I can tell you that the Bush administration placed all manner of yahoos and anti-environmental and anti-intellectual political hacks in positions of authority. These preening arrogant jerks would not hesitate to punish dissent that did not support their political goals, which included privatizing water, forest, and land resources and eliminating experienced staff who used to perform environmental science services. Many of these "government is the enemy" nincompoops have nonetheless assumed permanent executive series positions in the bureaucracies, and special attention should given by the Obama transition team to get rid of these idiots. Research involving water quality was not funded because the words "water quality" became heretical in a Stalinesque way. My former agency, the Bureau of Reclamation has lost many skilled and experienced environmental scientists to buyouts and early-out retirements who have not been replaced. I am one who took an early-out - the relentless BS was depressing! Good luck and god speed to president-elect Obama in his efforts to rebuild the agencies responsible for protecting the environment and managing our valuable public resources.

The senior EPA analyst whose historic anti-discrimination case led to legislation protecting whistleblowers is being fired from her job at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo sees her ouster as the ultimate act of retaliation, a payback for continuing her fight to protect federal employees who speak out against wrongdoing in government agencies.