January 2009
During his last press conference with White House reporters yesterday, President Bush defended his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, saying, “don’t tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed.” He even repeated the statistic three times. The performance of the Coast Guard in response to the natural disaster has been commended by many, but that statistic is a bit inflated, according to the Guard’s own records. While... Click to read more
Summary It has started. A new TV spot is running nationally saying that "fixing health care" is "something that we must do." It is the first ad in what we expect will be a massive barrage of public relations claims on all sides of the coming debate over President-elect Obama’s promised push for expanding federal health insurance programs. This one is notable primarily for who is sponsoring it: a collection of unlikely political bedfellows that includes the pharmaceutical... Click to read more
Q: Is it true that 36 percent to 37 percent of eligible voters failed to vote in the recent presidential election? A:Actually, the number is slightly higher than that: 38.4 percent of eligible voters didn’t cast a ballot for president in 2008. Even more — 39.9 percent — didn’t vote in 2006. Click to read more Read More →
Q: What’s the deal with Prof. Joseph Olson’s "unreported stats" from the 2008 election? A: This chain e-mail is a hoax. The "statistics" are grossly incorrect, and Prof. Olson says he didn’t write it. Click to read more Read More →
Q: Is it true that the Big Three American automakers made charitable contributions after 9/11, while foreign companies, by and large, did nothing? A: Actually, foreign car companies gave lots of money, too, despite what an old chain e-mail claims. Click to read more Read More →
