Wednesday, May 29, 2002

While other issues continue to overshadow this, debate about renewing 1996's welfare "reform" act continues. According to Peter Edleman, things are not looking good: The repoliticized welfare debate, put in play by the White House, ignores the purpose of welfare policy, which should be to help the poorest families earn enough to lift more children above the poverty line. The further tragedy is that it diverts attention from the broader issue: the millions of Americans whose earnings from work, while not technically placing them in poverty, leave them struggling daily to make ends meet. 4:20:39 PM

Will Leshner picks up on the connections between Bush's foreign policy and "Attack of the Clones," similar to what I mentioned yesterday. Speaking of which, check out the of The Nation. It also links to the Nichols' piece about Aaron McGruder, which I also mentioned yesterday. (Leshner is the creator of Radio Poster and he says a new version should be out shortly. I can't wait!) 2:05:24 PM

Making the DayPop circuit today is Bush's bristling response to questions about tensions between Europe and the U.S. Bush, revealing his one-track mind, said, "There's a heck of a lot more that unites us than divides us. We share the same values; we trade $2 trillion a year," he added. "I feel very comfortable coming to Europe; I feel very comfortable coming to France. I've got a lot of friends here." So there you go. As long as we have trillions of dollars of "trade" with someone, we share the same values. Recent U.S. policy on environmental, human rights, and foreign policy issues could not be more different from prevailing sentiments in Europe, but as long as that "trade" remains strong, we've got "more that unites us than divides us." Sure. Whatever. Later in the article "a senior administration official aboard Air Force One" calls the media "the chattering classes," but later specifies he/she meant people who write op-eds. Dan Rather was right when he said the media has failed in its coverage of this administration, which is incredible since the people who end up looking the worst are the media themselves, and especially the White House Press Corps that let Bush get away with crap like this. To his credit, NBC News White House correspondent David Gregory was the one that prompted Bush's vitriol; we need more people like Gregory willing to ask pointed questions and to force Bush to reveal himself for the "trade" nut that he is. 12:11:56 PM