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.
{ 28 comments }
Rich 05.24.04 at 12:07 am
But did he wipe out with his ribbons, or with his pedals?
Small stuff, indeed.
asg 05.24.04 at 12:13 am
“Less than 1 inch of rainfall” != “wasn’t any rain”.
Adam Kotsko 05.24.04 at 12:44 am
Anything short of a full investigation of these outrageous lies in the context of a front page story in the New York Times will definitively document the decadence of what we laughingly call our nation’s “press corps.”
Grand Moff Texan 05.24.04 at 12:53 am
“Did the training wheels fall off?”
-Kerry
John Lederer 05.24.04 at 12:55 am
Most rain in that part of Texas at this time of year is thunderstorms– often localized. You did not check Crawford. You checked MacGregor Texas.
Randy Paul 05.24.04 at 1:12 am
John Lederer,
I was concerned about the same thing so I punched in the zip code for Crawford (76638) and it gave me essentially the same information. AccuWeather shows using the same zip code that on May 1 there was 2.89 inches of rain, a trace on May 8 & 9, .92 on the 13th, and .02 on the 14th with zero since then, thus nearly nine days with no rain; not even a trace.
By the way, when I was kid after several skinned knees and elbows in rain-slicked surfaces (I grew up in Miami and Alabama), I always tried to be cautious when riding my bike after rainfall. Apparently, a hallmark of this presidency is to plunge recklessly and carelessly into just about anything.
Strange Doctrines 05.24.04 at 2:59 am
Recent weather notwithstanding, I think it’s amply embarrassing that the Bush White House has stooped to blaming the ground for Bush’s having fallen on it. I mean, does the buck ever stop with Bush?
nick 05.24.04 at 3:07 am
The topsoil was an anti-American hater of freedom.
It’s become all too clear that the ground in Crawford has an anti-Bush agenda. It’s these signs of weakness in the earth that place the President in harm’s way. The gravel is apparently so caught up in partisan hatred that its instability threatens the lives of brave troops in Iraq.
The facts on the ground are very clear: it was wet, and any reports otherwise are the product of a meteorological bias that harms the war effort.
Anno-nymous 05.24.04 at 3:29 am
Kos has a similar post, but different data. His numbers:
May 22: 0″
May 21: 0″
May 20: 0″
May 19: 0″
May 18: 0″
May 17: 0″
May 16: 0″
May 15: 0″
May 14: 0.03″
May 13: 2.79″
May 12: 0″
May 11: 0.15″
May 10: 0″
May 9: 0″
Anno-nymous 05.24.04 at 3:32 am
Damn, I hate it when that happens. Here.
Maynard Handley 05.24.04 at 5:30 am
Why would they lie about something like that you ask?
Well duh, Bush the alcoholic is drinking again. Right now it’s one incident at a time that comes out; the question is will they be able to keep this secret all the way till the election?
We might also want to keep a lookout for any visits by Noelle Bush to the White House.
Simon 05.24.04 at 5:52 am
I don’t get the comment by Whitehouse spokesman Trent Duffy – “Suffice to say he wasn’t whistling show tunes.” Is that significant?
Constantine 05.24.04 at 6:13 am
“Suffice to say he wasn’t whistling show tunes.†Is that significant?
Yes, it is significant. In short, “Though the president not only engages in Mountain Bike Riding, a habit of west coast flighty hippies, and can’t even do that without taking a spill, he is not gay. No, really, I swear he’s straight.“
dave heasman 05.24.04 at 11:14 am
I’d think Bush was hitting the bottle again, too, except for the logistical problems – isn’t he surrounded by minders every hour of the day? He can’t just slip out to the liquor store can he? Or do you think he has a stash at Crawford that he put there before he went on the wagon?
Dr. Weevil 05.24.04 at 12:21 pm
I’m astonished that anyone thinks he can judge soil conditions in Crawford by reading weather reports on the web. Those who actually live in the area find the White House story plausible. Here’s Buddy Larsen on Just One Minute:
“I live 45 minutes from Crawford. The dominant topsoil on slopes is called ‘caliche’. It’s got a lot of bentonite it, a clay which becomes slippery and ubstable when hydrated, and on north-facing slopes, will retain moisture for quite a long time. The lower slopes especially, due to drainage, stay wet long after the last rainfall.”
So far, so good. He continues:
“What we will need to ascertain is, azimuth, attitude, angle of approach, and velocity. A good topo map, plus affidavits from witnesses, a study of bike tireology, and at least two independant medical reports on the injuries, will set the groundwork for a full investigation, with perhaps a congessional hearing if it turns out that he fell on a southern exposure slope, which, according to my charts, should have been less slippery than the president may or may not have indicated. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom!..posted by Buddy”
Here’s ‘Dave in Texas’ on A Small Victory:
“I live here, 40 miles south of Crawford. We are 10″ ahead of normal rainfall for the year. 2 weeks ago I dumped 11” of water out of the rain gauge over the course of the week.
“And you’re dead on about the soil. It expands with the water, contracts and crumbles with dry heat.”
Kind of makes most of these comments look ignorant and petty.
Barry 05.24.04 at 2:33 pm
dave heasman:
” I’d think Bush was hitting the bottle again, too, except for the logistical problems – isn’t he surrounded by minders every hour of the day? He can’t just slip out to the liquor store can he? Or do you think he has a stash at Crawford that he put there before he went on the wagon?”
Dave, he also came into the office with an incredibly experienced staff and set of connections which might not have been seen since FDR, or John Quincy Adams. Then, he was ‘blessed’ with a gift from a lower power (9/11, which I count as a gift for his administration, because he has certainly treated it that way). And Bush has still managed to screw things up to an amazing degree. The problem with “Bush is inexperienced, but he has good advisors” is that advisors advise; the president decides.
So the idea that he tells his minders to get him a drink or get a new job is quite plausible.
Randy Paul 05.24.04 at 2:39 pm
Dr. Weevil,
It doesn’t mean that he didn’t act recklessly, a trait which he seems to be comfortable with whether it’s biking, eating pretzels or say, invading a country on false pretenses.
Nat Whilk 05.24.04 at 3:40 pm
Randy Paul wrote:
“AccuWeather shows using the same zip code that on May 1 there was 2.89 inches of rain, a trace on May 8 & 9, .92 on the 13th, and .02 on the 14th with zero since then, thus nearly nine days with no rain; not even a trace.”
If you’ll look closely at that report, you’ll see that it’s actually for Waco.
rvman 05.24.04 at 3:51 pm
What reckless? If we are to believe the accounts, not only was he wearing a helmet and mouthguard, he was riding with his doctor. People wipe out on bikes all the time, especially on broken ground. If Bush was “reckless”, so is anyone who rides a bike. His dad jumps out of perfectly serviceable airplanes. W probably grew up active and slightly klutzy, so he is used to occasionally doing this, and doesn’t mind it so much as some of us would.
99% of the ground is dry around Crawford, but believe me, there are the occasional rut and scrape and streambed which are still muddy – he may have hit one of those. Those won’t all be dry until July sometime, and even then, they will be crusty and broken and still hazards. (My credentials – lifelong Texan with a fair amount of time spent on trails similar to the ones Bush biked, albeit on foot.)
Randy Paul 05.24.04 at 4:03 pm
Nat Whilk:
Crawford is probably too small to have it’s own weather measuring facilities, however, we are talking about a town 24 miles away on relatively lowlying Texas plains. I’m sure that the weather for Waco is probably about the same for Crawford.
Rvman:
He was accompanied by several other bicyclists and he’s the only one I read about falling.
Nat Whilk 05.24.04 at 4:28 pm
Randy Paul wrote:
“I’m sure that the weather for Waco is probably about the same for Crawford.”
Why then is the weather for Waco not the same as the weather for McGregor? Or do you think that the 2.79 inches that McGregor received on 5/13 (2.73 inches in one hour) is about the same as the 0.92 inches that Waco received on that date?
scott h. 05.24.04 at 5:02 pm
“It doesn’t mean that he didn’t act recklessly..” It doesn’t mean he did act recklessly, unless you think riding a bike a little over a week after a rainfall is particularly foolhardy.
BTW, the White House spokesman said “It’s been raining a lot and the topsoil is loose”, not “the pavement was wet” or even “the topsoil was wet”.
derek 05.24.04 at 6:44 pm
I just tried to get past weather data for Crawford, Texas [station 2004] and you can’t get any!!! Here is what comes up when you click on the May 1 link in the post:
“Today’s Date: May 24, 2004
Climatology for ,
View this data in Metric | English units. View Records Information. Show CDD.
Key: e = estimated; M = not available; *= tied, most recent year shown
*** No Climo Data Available for Station 2004 ***
Select a Month:
Jan04 | Feb04 | Mar04 | Apr04 | May04 | Jun03 |
Jul03 | Aug03 | Sep03 | Oct03 | Nov03 | Dec03 |
Get Climatology for thePast 12 Years
Get Climatology for the whole world”
trostky 05.24.04 at 7:37 pm
OK, you people are just as insane as the bloggers making a stir of Kerry’s bicycle accident two weeks ago.
Ride a bicycle long enough, and you will wreck it, even if you’re the leader of the free world. Yeesshhh….
nick 05.24.04 at 7:48 pm
trostky: it’s not the arse-over-tit bike crash, it’s the cover-up. And it’s the fact that Bush’s White House handlers are so habituated to lying than they lie about something so trivial as an arse-over-tit bike crash.
Nat Whilk 05.24.04 at 9:11 pm
Nick wrote:
“it’s not the [expletive deleted] bike crash, it’s the cover-up.”
And the evidence for this alleged cover-up is what? That a 3-inch downpour on 5/13 couldn’t possibly have affected the topsoil on 5/22?
bikerchick 05.25.04 at 12:11 am
This does read like The Onion!!! My gawd!
Tom Maguire 05.25.04 at 5:19 pm
Careful study of the weather data shows that the temperature has been dropping to the dew point each evening, so it is entirely possible that each morning, some city-slicker White House aide sees dewey lawns and concludes that it must have rained the previous night.
Or maybe Georege Tenet gave the weather briefing.
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