Coburn introduces amendment to prevent study of political science; m$m does that

GAK!

http://crookedtimber.org/2009/10/07/tom-coburn-doesnt-like-political-science/

Tom Coburn Doesn’t Like Political Science

by Henry on October 7, 2009


He has just introduced an amendment to prevent the NSF from funding political science research (PDF). Apparently, Fox News and CNN pundits can do our job better than we can.



Whether the answers provided by this ‘myriad of viewpoints’ are good ones, I will leave as an open question. I obviously have a dog in this fight as a political scientist who will probably apply for NSF funding in the future. But I also think that there are measurable Good Things (in terms of understanding how our system of politics works etc) that come from good empirical work in political science. And the politics of Coburn’s amendment are not precisely difficult to discern (among his stated objections are that this money has gone to fund research concluding that the US is increasingly willing to torture suspected terrorists, and carefully unspecified work – doubtless some form of shameless subsidized leftwing punditry – by Paul Krugman). If you feel that political science doesn’t deserve any funding, feel free to say so in comments. If you disagree with Coburn (and are a political scientist) and live in the US, get on to your senator’s office to say so (and ideally, contact your university’s research vice president’s office or whatever while you are at it – they are likely to have good contacts). This may come up for a vote today.

political science, and that's all it takes? Oi.

n/t

Coburn is now my least favorite Congresscritter. Ever.

Gotta keep the peasants away from those goddamn movable type printing presses, lest they learn how to read and then rebel against the landed gentry! We cannot have that! Everybody has a fucking place in society, and unless they are of the monied aristocracy, then they belong at the fucking bottom with the garbage! :sarcasm:

down. Very sad.

Move government political science research funding from NSF to the National Endowment for the Humanities, at the same funding level it receives now.

The National Endowment for the Humanities can then tell Tom Coburn that you "pore" over electoral politics, but the money going to fund the Iraq war or any of a million other pet Repuke priorities is "pour"ed down the drain.