According to multiple sources, Jason Richwine has resigned from Heritage, presumably after it was discovered he was approaching white nationalist groups with his “research.” My absolutely favorite wingnut response comes from Malkin:
No researcher or academic institution is safe if this smear campaign succeeds.
Holy loads of self-awareness fail, batman.
drkrick
Well, no racist researcher or institution is safe. Some of us think that’s a good thing.
Punchy
Did she spew that while violently shaking pom-poms?
PsiFighter37
How’d this asshole manage to get a postgraduate degree from Harvard? I guess some bad ones slip through the cracks.
Quaker in a Basement
Now don’t you people remember how Malkin stood up for poor old Ward Churchill?
Me neither.
zombie rotten mcdonald
He probably has nice conservative plastic laminate counters, like a Good American.
PsiFighter37
I won’t consider Malkin’s duty fulfilled until she films a YouTube video of her doing a cheer, with Pom-poms, about this. If someone can link me up, that would be great, because that bit of hackery was so over-the-top absurd.
Chris
The anchor baby who hates anchor babies is also a nonwhite person who defends white racists?
Say it ain’t so.
jayjaybear
Malkin is just amazingly clueless. She’s like Clayton Bigsby, the Dave Chappelle Blind Black Klansman character. “Wait…what do you mean I’m Filipino? I’m…Filipino?! NO WAY!!! REALLY?! DAAAAAAAAAD!”
WereBear
Mr WereBear just brought up the video from Rachel Maddow’s blog:
Why don’t we have a special interest group?
Gee, I don’t know, because you are actually a coddled and protected subgroup in our society?
Suffern ACE
@jayjaybear: It is quite possible that we could find IQ studies from back when the Philippines were a colony that justified limiting migration to Hawaii.
David Koch
White people are being persecuted!
Violet
Can’t believe Malkin’s site is called Twitchy. So many negative connotations with that, most of which seem to fit her. Is it on purpose or is she that dumb?
Bill E Pilgrim
Can right wing bloggers defend a white supremacist on the same day that they claim that Hitler was gay? I get so confused.
marindenver
I’m not getting out of the boat but I love her title “The Crucifixion of Jason Richwine”. Because holding a racist responsible for his racist rantings is just like torturing and killing him. Luckily for Malkin she didn’t have to pass an IQ test to become a citizen.
quannlace
Burnspbesq
An unqualified employee has been let go. Isn’t that how free markets are supposed to work?
Hill Dweller
OT: The emails Jonathan Karl released today, as if they were some sort of bombshell, had been shown to congress two months ago during the negotiations over the confirmation of Brennan’s CIA gig.
Boehner, who called for the emails release today, would have seen them during the Feb. briefing, but he didn’t show up. (h/t Salon)
poco
BWAHAHAHA!
Another self-awareness fail!
BGinCHI
First they came for the white supremacists with large salaries at well-funded right wing think tanks and I said nothing.
PeorgieTirebiter
Unfortunately, HF has a deep bench when it comes to sociopaths. They’re distraction team is already hitting the airwaves waving the bloody Benghazi flag.
Burnspbesq
I’m appalled that IRS leadership is hanging TE/GE employees who exercised appropriate judgment about how to review applications for exempt status out to dry.
Anoniminous
This vile practice of repeating what people say MUST stop!
Poopyman
@Burnspbesq: Malkin wouldn’t recognize the difference between a sinecure and a free market if it hit her upside the head. Really hard. Reeeeeealy hard.
Bill E Pilgrim
@marindenver: She heaps scorn on liberals like GOS, John McCain, and Jennifer Rubin. This gives you a pretty good idea where she is on the spectrum, i.e. far to the right of Rubin, which I actually didn’t think was possible.
Chris
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Maybe “Hitler was gay” is their attempt at outreach towards the gay community. “You know, some of the most famous right wingers were just like you! That’s why you should join us!”
Lee Rudolph
@PsiFighter37: Well, he did get it from one of the trade schools associated to the Harvard brand (specifically, the JFK School, refuge of any number of scoundrels).
Walker
@PsiFighter37:
Masters degrees are notoriously abused money makers. Unlike undergraduate, most of the money goes direcly to the sponsoring department. So the department holds its nose and keeps the bar as low as it can stomach to fund its “real” endeavors (undergraduate and PhD).
Shorter: a masters from a place like Harvard is actually less impressive than a bachelors.
Mike in NC
@Hill Dweller:
It was Happy Hour. Priorities!
Mike in NC
@PsiFighter37:It generally involves relatives who donate large quantities of money.
Yatsuno
@Burnspbesq: I’m not. Leadership has been appalling in a lot of areas lately. I’m expecting a sick-out any day now over it.
the Conster
@BGinCHI:
LOL
Steeplejack
@Chris:
The Malkin disconnect is stunning. She is an apologist for people who 50 years ago would have been interested in her only as a maid or a prostutute. (And who haven’t advanced much since then.)
David Koch
Cole blew it.
The obvious title of this post should have been “Hasta la Vista, Baby“
Trollhattan
“No countertop is safe if my blowtorch lights, mwa-ha-ha-ha!”
“No retinas are safe if I post another cheer video, mwa-ha-ha-ha!”
Oh you special princess, we can play this all day long.
Warren Terra
When Richwine was doing his PhD at the Kennedy School, AEI paid him (tuition and stipend, I assume), and provided him with the research efforts four interns. Obviously they should complete the circle and hire this bigot. He can be Charles Murray’s chauffeur.
Warren Terra
@David Koch:
Or at least “Adios, muchacho”
burnspbesq
@Yatsuno:
With respect to the TE/GE review people who are about to get crucified, I hope NTEU jumps in with both feet and kicks some serious ass on their behalf. This is fucking ridiculous. Those people did EXACTLY what they are trained to do, i.e., flag for special scrutiny applications that contain indications of potential future non-compliance.
Chris
@Steeplejack:
I’d normally say she’s just milking a “conservatives’ minority best friend” niche for her own benefit, but I don’t think it’s true in her case. She, like Sarah Palin, shows every sign of believing her own bullshit.
Bubblegum Tate
She was, of course, talking about the smear campaigns launched at climate scientists, right?
She wasn’t? Huh…how odd.
Narcissus
@Steeplejack: That’s still how they think of her, only they’ve moved beyond mere physicality to ideology.
Tokyokie
@Walker: Hey, the last GOP president and last GOP presidential candidate had master’s degrees from Harvard! Oh yeah, I guess that’s your point.
@David Koch: Or to quote Gov. Goodhair, “Adiós, mofo.”
Gravenstone
@PsiFighter37: Have you always been a masochist, or is this a new manifestation?
Schlemizel
if only those fucking racist motherfuckers were not safe. That would be a world worth saving
gnomedad
@Steeplejack:
And now they’re also interested in her as an apologist. How can you say we haven’t advanced?
Bubblegum Tate
@Chris:
Oh yeah, I’ve long been convinced that Malkin believes her own bullshit. And at this point, she might be the only one who does. Coulter, Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck–they all know that they’re just grifting. But Malkin? She doesn’t seem to get it at all.
g
Wait, isn’t this the same person who hounded the Chancellor of UC Santa Cruz to her death?
Suzanne
@PsiFighter37:
I’m going to go with “Legacy” for $200.
Burnspbesq
This is too crazy. Must be read to be believed.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/10/18170756-crazy-from-the-heat?lite
A triple-scoop cone of corruption and fail.
Senyordave
I think one day we will all look back on this and realize that Malkin is right, and that Jason Richwine is pretty much the modern day equivalent of Jesus Christ. The parallels are striking.
GregB
Marble white Jesus weeps.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Good to see the racist ass decided to ‘spend more time with his family’. At Wikipedia I saw this quote about some of his earlier work:
This turd likes to float in conservative punch bowls.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Richwine’s next stop, the Pioneer Fund?
Suffern ACE
Frankly, I’m surprised he was let go so quickly. His claims aren’t much different than Charles Murray and he is still a member of good standing. It’s like they suddenly looked in the cupboard found one expired can of worms and threw it all out. I wonder if there is more?
Next: why not start looking at that report and the co-author, or other heritage policy papers?
Spaghetti Lee
Well, humanity isn’t safe if Michelle Malkin succeeds, so I guess we’ll call it even.
rk
I haven’t read what Richwine wrote, but I’m curious as to how he reached the conclusion that Hispanics have a lower IQ. From a biological point of view, nobody even knows what genes are responsible for “intelligence”, or even how they interact with the environment. For example if Einstein was born in Ethiopia during a famine he most probably would not have come up with the theory of relativity. Even if the “intelligence” genes were identified they’d have to be shown to somehow be linked to skin color (which was a protective response to ultraviolet light). Also Hispanics are not a race. Is he talking about Mexicans, or Argentinians or European Spaniards? I have never understood how anyone who does not even have a basic biology background is ever taken seriously when they talk about race and intelligence, much less given a stamp of approval from so called elite schools. This sort of explosive claim about IQ needs to be submitted to a peer reviewed journal of biology (where I’m sure it’ll be promptly thrown into the trash).
jake the snake
@jayjaybear:
Malkin and Dinesh D’Souza are conservatives choice to speak out on race, but for some reason I can’t put my finger on why that would be.
jl
@PsiFighter37:
I can’t see the whole dissertation, even though the library at my work claims it has a subscription to the online dissertation archive (so I should be able to, right?) , but that online subscription stuff doesn’t work half the time anyway, seems like.
I think people shouldn’t slam the dissertation unless they are willing to plunk down the 40 bucks and at least read it.
A student can do a good dissertation, and then make the advisers look bad by misusing or misstating the results after graduation, or using the dissertation as a credential to get weird gigs and say all sorts of crazy stuff.
The part I could read in the preview was pretty careful to treat IQ and the factor analysis gimcrack ‘g’ it is based on carefully as a statistical construct that was merely correlated with other measures of productivity. I didn’t see any genetic determinism goofballery.
One of the reviewers on Google books who had read it, slammed it as barely masters level work: literature review, summary statistics and a few regressions. Maybe so, I haven’t read it. But Richwine’s field was ‘Public Policy’ or some ‘Policy’ thing. Not economics, or sociology or political science. And, for better or worse, a lot of PhD dissertations in ‘Policy’ fields are just that, or look like that.
I’m not defending the dissertation, since I haven’t read it. But I don’t think people can know what was going on until they actually read the thing.
Chris
@rk:
I suppose for the same reason “scientists” who have absolutely no background in biology are cited by conservatives as creationists in order to create the illusion of a controversy – or “scientists” with no background in climate research, for the same reason. Namely, important people like what they hear and don’t really care where it came from.
Warren Terra
@jl:
The HuffPo has a scan of his thesis.
Incitatus for Senate
@Steeplejack: Well, to be fair, I’m interested in her only as a maid or a prostutute.
jl
@Warren Terra: Thanks.
Ash Can
Michele Malkin has devoted her entire life to making herself a WASP. Poor thing.
mclaren
Reality is conducting a savagely ruthless smear campaign against the Republican party. Pity them.
Woodrowfan
Malkin is still a prostitute, she just doesn’t have to work on her back now…
sm*t cl*de
When Richwine was doing his PhD at the Kennedy School, AEI paid him (tuition and stipend, I assume), and provided him with the research efforts [of] four interns.
Not to mention the encouragement & mentorship of Murray, mentioned in the Acknowledgements. I don’t know why Harvard didn’t just drop the facade and award the PhD to AEI directly.
An interesting admission that “loyalty” is more important than accuracy.
But it was Heritage and deMint who were keeping a job warm for Richwine as soon as he finished his thesis, to spin the interns’ research into a Study (before they discovered that the person providing them with white-supremacist boilerplate for the puke funnel was himself a white supremacist). If Murray feels so strongly about keeping his protege on Wingnut Welfare, he should have arranged the job himself.
JR in WV
@Burnspbesq:
What’s with that? Here we have a self-proclaimed group of anti-tax zealots organizing to fight against taxes. And some one thinks these people don’t deserve extra scrutiny???
These tax forms need microscopic attention from forensic CPAs, not a quick once-over by a data entry clerk! Tax evasion is STILL a crime! and the IRS is allowed to look for it on the returns.
JR in WV
@jl:
But you can have a well-informed strong suspicion, just from the surrounding details in the public record. Like employment history, public remarks, etc.
Kay
@Burnspbesq:
That is wild. I read his explanation for leaving the scene and believed it.
I didn’t know he was 1. with his mistress, 2. being followed by the FBI.
No wonder he had a fender bender. That’s a lot of stress he’s under.
RSA
@jl:
The genetic argument he makes is based on studies of twins and statements by the American Psychological Association about IQ heritability being around 0.45 for children. For longitudinal analysis he uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. I don’t know this area, so I can’t judge the dissertation in context, but the summary above seems about right to me. As for the problem of causation versus correlation, there’s a lot of handwaving that I find completely unconvincing. Finally, I suppose because this comes from the Department of Public Policy, he ends with a proposal for “IQ selection” in U.S. immigration policy. If I remember correctly, this was also proposed in the early part of the 20th century by people we now consider flat-out racists. Richwine and his advisors really shouldn’t be surprised about the reaction to his work.
(I’ve spent maybe an hour browsing through the dissertation, out of curiosity, though I haven’t read it in detail.)
Bobby Thomson
@Violet:
Yes.
DirtyAussie
I have worked quite a bit with the NLSY79 (the data set he uses). I would just like to point out that the data set does not contain an IQ test, rather it uses the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT). As far as I can tell (with a quick literature search), there is little proof that this correlates with intelligence, especially in the general population. The only citation he gives for this conversion is Herrnstein and Murray’s “The Bell Curve”, a book which argues for, you guessed it, racial differences in IQ. As far as peer reviewed studies showing that AFQT is synonymous with IQ, I cannot find anything.
In short, Malkin’s main defense of “but he has a PhD from Harvard” does not seem as impressive once you read the actual dissertation. I am honestly surprised his committee signed off on that one. It has holes in it you could drive a truck through.
karen
@WereBear:
Who? Lesbians? Gay people? Women?
By the way, I worked at AEI in the late 90s, during Clinton’s 2nd term. I worked in the department that handled letters to the donors and thanking them, getting rooms ready for the speakers conferences and panels and sending out the “scholar’s” newsletters and other propaganda. At the time I was working there, it was more Libertarian, more in the middle with Brookings on its left and Heritage on its right. Everyone of us (and we were all women) were either liberal or independent. We worked for Chris DeMuth of course but not as acolytes.
I worked there from fall 1996 to spring 1998. I was at that event where Greenspan claimed “Irrational exuberance.” I knew all about Scaife and the right wing conspiracy because they were some of our biggest donors at the time.
I had no loyalty. I just needed a job.
AxelFoley
@PeorgieTirebiter:
Congressional Republicans?
peggy
@jl:
free copy dissertation
Richwine-thesis
Just skim to see how little is required for that PhD.