Allahpundit quotes a press release containing a story from the next issue of Time. This sentence struck me as odd:

Bush staff members rely on technorati.com and truthlaidbear.com, which track political blogs and websites to see what items in local papers, on websites or in blogs are getting the most hits.

I hope this is not what the story itself will say. Has the reporter even visited The Truth Laid Bear? The famous Ecosystem does not track the most-read ("getting the most hits") posts or stories or subjects, it tracks the most-linked blogs, which is not the same thing at all.* It would be completely useless for the purpose attributed to it by Time. I certainly hope "Bush staff members" are not wasting time trying to figure out which topics are hot from N. Z. Bear. Of course, like any other blogger, he posts his own thoughts on various timely topics, but is no more useful than any other low-volume blogger for tracking what is hot. (I originally wrote that he is "no more useless than any other low-value blogger", which is equally true, if less pertinent.)

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* I'm a "large mammal", ranked 477th out of 15,035. If anyone is wondering, number 15,035 is the "George Bush is a Liar" blog, which sounds about right -- the rank, I mean, not the assertion, which is both hopelessly banal and obviously false.