Sweating the small stuff

by Ted on May 23, 2004

Last year, I fell off my bike, and had to have my arm in a sling for a couple of days. I don’t care, even a little bit, that Bush had a spill. It happens.

But if the White House is going to come out and blame the fall on “what the White House described as soil loosened by recent rainfall”… (Here’s the quote: “It’s been raining a lot. The topsoil was loose.”)

Well, I can check that. There hasn’t been any rain in Crawford all week. The last day with more than an inch of precipitation was May 1.

Again, not a big deal, but why would they say that? And do you share my suspicion that Caren Bohan, who wrote the Reuters report from Crawford, knows perfectly well that there wasn’t any rain?

UPDATE: Kos has a similar post, with a different data set but the same conclusion.

Pig pile

by Ted on May 23, 2004

I keep getting emails asking for more posts with a long string of unconnected links, about which I have nothing intelligent to say. I live to serve:

BusinessWeek on government waste.

Kos on the Bush campaign’s crazy money burn rate

Katherine at Obsidian Wings has three reactions to the stories that Chalabi has been working for Iran: the initial reaction, the responsible reaction, and the snarky reaction.

Respectful of Otters asks why a crime prevention program with a remarkable history of success has to bow and scrap for funding.

TalkLeft reminds us, “Every few months, it’s worth remembering that your tax dollars are being spent to incarcerate Tommy Chong so that the Justice Department could send a message about pot pipes and bongs.”

The Poor Man goes all kung-fu on the idiotic claim that one (1) chemical weapons shell is “an arsenal”. He also writes a mean Dem Panic Watch.

Gary Farber on how to resurrect old New York Times stories.

Ogged at Unfogged refutes an untrue smear on Iranian Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

Jeanne D’Arc makes the new images from Abu Ghraib sting in a thoughtful post.

Finally. Something funny.