The paperback edition of SciBling Chris Mooney's book The Republican War on Science comes out today. I read it a while back, and I'm looking forward to going through it again.
This is one of those books that everyone should read. Chris does a fantastic job of documenting case after case after case where science has been misrepresented and/or ignored in efforts to help advance the Republican political agenda. People can debate whether or not the Republicans are consciously trying to downplay science, but the effects are the same. To see that, you need look no further than the recent episode involving the Department of Education. Under previous administrations, scientists would have accepted the official explanation that the omission of Evolutionary Biology from the list was merely a typo. This administration, unfortunately, has abused and denigrated science and scientists so much and for so long that many scientists cannot look at a situation like that with anything other than deep skepticism.
Just food for thought.