Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Garbage Du Jour

Great post over at Stubborn Facts concerning the academic left's latest flight of fancy.

The left-wing nutroots need to get their act together and settle on a single message. Are the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress the most corrupt, most investigated bunch of crooks ever, or does the Bush Justice Department engage in "political profiling," selectively targeting Democrats for investigation by a margin of 7 to 1, an even greater rate than African-Americans are profiled for traffic stops, as claimed in a recent "academic" study of DoJ prosecutions of political candidates and elected officials?

Tom Maguire, posting as an Insta-temp, discusses the latest, a left-wing "statistical" attack on the Bush Justice Department (also discussed in detail at Obsidian Wings). Two academics, Donald C. Shields and John F. Cragan, claim to prove that the Bush Administration has engaged in "political profiling" of Democratic elected officials and candidates in The Political Profiling of Elected Democratic Officials: When Rhetorical Vision Participation Runs Amok. Unsurprisingly for an article which includes in its opening paragraph a reference to the "Bush/Ashcroft/Gonzales Justice Department's blended religious-fundamentalist and neo-conservative rhetorical vision," it fails to support its outlandish claims. Its biggest flaw: omitted data.


There is much more to read over at Stubborn Facts, including the comment section wherein this op-ed gets additionally punctured.

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