LIKE THE MERCURY REPORT FLAP, ONLY PRE-EMPTIVE

Matthew Yglesias points to this piece of Bush administration hilarity, this time on, oh, a relatively insignificant topic: terrorism.

The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

Says Yglesias, "[I]t really does seem to be as simple as that. According to Landay's sources, the administration only wants reports showing that terrorism is going down, and if the State Departments methods don't produce that result, then there report just won't be done. Lovely."

Note that the State Dept defenses of the decision -- few and flimsy to begin with -- are anonymous.