One Damn Kitten After Another.

• Author: Ivins, Molly
• Position: President Bush - Brief Article

Every day another little ray of sunshine, a drop of joy added to our lives by the only President we've got:

"U.S. Balks on Plan to Get Plutonium out of Warheads: Joint Project with Russia Was Aimed at Blocking Spread of Bombs to Terrorists."

"U.S. Rejects New Accord on Germ Warfare."

"Bush Will Back Out of ABM Treaty `At Our Convenience.'"

"GOP Devotees Pay Honor to Whittaker Chambers [in the White House]."

"White House Retreating from Medicaid Regulations."

"Gold Miners Eager for Bush to Roll Back Clinton Rules."

"Going into the Tank for Tobacco."

"Missile Interception Test Was Hit-and-Miss, Pentagon Reports."

"GOP Trying New Strategy Against Campaign Finance Reform Bill."

"EPA Delays Further Rules of Clinton Era: Stalls Enforcement of Waterway Plan."

And so forth, and so on.

And then we have the remarkable production, "Honey, I Shrunk the Surplus."

As Mehitabel the Cat once remarked, "Life is just one damn kitten after another."

Consider Bush's appointments to relatively minor positions. One B. John Williams, a corporate tax attorney, is the new chief counsel at the IRS (known to our President as the IRA). Williams previously distinguished himself by winning a case that could jeopardize the government's attempts to crack down on corporate tax havens, allowing two companies to post the same loss when one sells a money-losing unit to the other. Worth about $10 billion to the Treasury.

John Graham, the new "regulatory czar," thinks concerns about pesticides are "trivial," that a little bit of dioxin might prevent cancer, and that the public is "paranoid" about toxic chemicals. He also thinks safe housing codes kill people.

The new deputy secretary at Interior was a top lobbyist for the oil, gas, and coal industries; the new top deputy at the EPA was a lobbyist for Monsanto.

How much fun can we have?

My favorite debate du month is the Great Mexican Truck Question. Do we want Mexican trucks on our highways?

I have a dog in this fight: I live nestled on the shores of I-35...