Cherokee People

This is blogging like it oughta be - the Brainster digs into the Abramoff donation numbers ignored by the media, TAP, and everyone else.  He concludes that, contra TAP and Krugman, "up" is not "down".  The question revolves around the contribution habits of various Indian tribes before and after they retained Abramoff:

Now when I first tackled this article I quickly discovered an obvious flaw.  The Prospect article claimed:

At the same time, two of those four tribes -- Saginaw and Chitimacha -- saw their giving to Democrats drop or remain static.

But when you looked at the information on the Saginaw tribe, it said:

1) Tribe: Saginaw Chippewa (Michigan)
Pre-Abramoff contributions to Dems (1991 - 9/2000): $371,250
Post-Abramoff contributions to Dems (9/2000 - 2003): $191,960

Okay, so pre-Abramoff the Saginaw Chippewa gave $371,250 to the Democrats over about 9 years, that's a little over $41,000 per year, while post Abramoff, they gave the Democrats $191,960 over three years, that's $64,000 per year.

So to the American Prospect, going from $41,000 per year to $64,000 per year--a 50% increase in donations from that tribe per year to the Democrats--means that tribe "saw their giving to Democrats drop or remain static."

But it gets better...

Indeed it does.  Folks interested in the Abramoff scandal will be interested in this.

And let's note - anyone who wants to validate or refute the Brainster's number-crunching should hit his trackback.  He provides plenty of links to the underlying data.

Hat tip to Don Luskin.

Comments

[Jim E.]

Dude, we be needin' a Plame fix.

250 e-mails from OVP (from 2003) just turned over to Fitz . . .

Could every one be benign?

[kim]

Where do the Indigeans get all this wampum to squander? Are they some sort of protected class of people?
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[kim]

One Nation, Under Blah, Blah, Blah. Wait, how come they got the big wheel turning?
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[R C Dean]

Well, figuring out that giving to Dems actually increased would require knowledge of esoteric mathematical techniques.

Like division.

Math is hard. Too hard for journalists, at least.

[Brainster]

Thanks Tom! Looks like we won't get a correction out of Krugman; per Donald Luskin, CaLAME says the column is "factual but unfair", and columnists are allowed to be unfair.

[Gary Maxwell]

OT but tangently related you know like perpendicular to the thread.

Wisdom from the BBC:

The Democrats need a message and a new way of communicating that message to a mass audience. They have neither.

And do not be fooled by those who say this malaise is structural, at this stage of the electoral cycle there isn't a presidential candidate etc.

No, it is more than that. The American left has faded away.

Only their bumper stickers remain, like cockroaches after a nuclear holocaust.

"Re-defeat George Bush," they whine. Not knowing, not caring that the world has changed.

[clarice]

Gary, I wish that last part were true..They vanished into the woodwork vey briefly after 9/11 only to pop up at every opportunity since then.

[Jim Glass]

"Looks like we won't get a correction out of Krugman..."

That's surprising, eh? ;-)

Don't expect a correction from Brad DeLong either, after his...

The American Prospect performs a public service--one that the Washington Post would have long ago performed, were it a real newspaper..."

... about all this.

I can remember when Krugman used to bash the American Prosepct on a regular basis for its crap innumeracy and bias.

But now there's no level of crap innumeracy so low that these two won't set it up as their journalisitic ideal, as long as the bias goes their preferred way.

I can also remember when DeLong first set up his blog and said it was to have a forum for discussion at a level above usenet's rudeness, and used to request a modicum of intellectual rigor from contributors.

But now his posts are all this guy is the "stupidest man alive" about this, that guy is "deranged" about that, and why oh why can't anyone else in any line of work do a better enough job to live up to his high standards -- while he holds up this kind of dumb innumeracy as his model of "public service".

Hmm ... I don't think DeLong ever reconsidered his ...

"Let me sharpen that: after this, I cannot see how Alito can be confirmed. If the Bushies are smart, they will withdraw Alito's nomination now..."

... either.

It seems that among the symptoms of Bush Derangement Syndrome is a disabling of the part of the brain where the feeling of embarrassment sits, and from which apologies and corrections come.

[TM]

Re-defeat George Bush," they whine...

Keep hope alive - I bet anything that Bush won't win in 2008!

[Gary Maxwell]

Is this like the old joke? "Keep the money I saw the movie before too and I did not think he would die again."

[kim]

Wait'll Steve McIntyre destroys the statistics behind the hockey stick and calls into question the argument for the anthropogenic componenet of so-called global warming. There will be a whole new breed of bumperstickers.
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[clarice]

So Krugman's innumeracy isn't a hindrance to his economics professorship at Princeton-

[Leonidas]

I'm still hoping there's some chance that Krugman himself goes to jail on this. He did some very questionable consulting work for Abramoff. The NY Post is supposed to do a piece on this on Monday.

[noah]

I read somewhere that Krugman lives in a 15,000 sq ft house in Princeton. Pretty comfy digs from which to pontificate about social justice and the "rich". Let 'em eat cake he cries!!

[kim]

Ten years ago, Krugman thought SS was in crisis. He'll rot in Hell.
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[richard mcenroe]

"Wait'll Steve McIntyre destroys the statistics behind the hockey stick and calls into question the argument for the anthropogenic componenet of so-called global warming."

Hey, don't go poaching Tim Blair's turf!

[Pat Curley]

Tom TAP has now issued an "update" to their article where they acknowledge (with a lot of grumbling) that they were wrong about the 9% decrease. Don Luskin is still working to get a correction out of Krugman/the Times, but I can't imagine they'll be able to duck it now that TAP has caved.

[JJ]

Hey, better late than never!

Krugman corrected himself under the column in today's paper, saying he was sloppy -- but it didn't matter because he is still right. He concludes.

I believe that means he fell into correctness in a sloppy way. Although he does mentions that "they" (them who supplied the report that he quoted) did it too.

Sort of sounds like he was saying, "You can make me correct this, but I don't have to like it!"

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