Four-time winner Doug Swingley is out of the Iditarod with possible broken ribs and dislocated thumb. Swingley would have probably stayed in with just broken ribs, but you can’t really take care of your dogs with only one hand.

While it is cold, there has been a lack of snow this year, which makes the ground icy and bumpy. The snow usually cushions the sled from small irregularities, and softens falls.

During his liar-side chat™ the Shrubbery said he was ‘troubled’ by army scandal. Bovine excrement!

As Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof reports: “It’s Not Just Walter Reed”, and Ellroon of Rants from the Rookery focused on an earlier Washington Post piece, Shortages threaten Guard’s capability.

Facts: the entire military medical system [under the Department of Defense] is in disrepair, the entire veterans medical system [under the Department of Veterans Affairs] is experiencing major problems, FEMA is still not back to the same level of competence it had in 2000, the food system is not as safe as it was in 2000, the deficit is spiking, the housing and stock markets are in the tank.

Have you looked at the privatization scheme at Walter Reed? A five-year contract for $120 million, $24 million a year, and they are supplying 50 people to do the work of 300!? The President is the only one in Federal service who makes $400,000/year, so how is this saving taxpayers money?

The President is the single individual common to all of these problems. The people in charge of all of these areas report to the President. The President appoints these people. The President approves their budgets. The President is responsible for their performance. The “bureaucracy” is a term covering the employees of the execute branch of government – the Presidency. The President is the problem.

The BBC reports on a study by a British think tank: Report warns against Iran attack

The Oxford Research Group report is written by nuclear scientist and arms expert Frank Barnaby.

“If Iran is moving towards a nuclear weapons capacity it is doing so relatively slowly, most estimates put it at least five years away,” he says.

Mr Barnaby adds that an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities “would almost certainly lead to a fast-track programme to develop a small number of nuclear devices as quickly as possible”.

He says it “would be a bit like deciding to build a car from spare parts instead of building the entire car factory”.

The BBC then commits an act of blatant journalism, by assigning Gordon Corera , a security correspondent, to look at the claims in Iran: Can a military strike work?

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