How is Kerry like a Weeble?

Slate ^ | March 22, 2004, at 1:17 AM PT | Mickey Kaus

[Nasty McPhilthy]

Kf Switches Obsessions Plus, how is Kerry like a Weeble? By Mickey Kaus Posted Monday, March 22, 2004, at 1:17 AM PT

It's win-win for the opponents of welfare reform. If welfare rolls had gone up during the last three years, they would have said, "See, the caseload drop that reformers have bragged about was all due to the economy." But, contrary to their predictions, rolls haven't gone up despite the recession and slow economy. No problem! They instead complain that the failure of the caseload to rise shows that welfare isn't helping those in need.

[S]hawn Fremstad, a policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning research and advocacy group, said, "Falling caseloads amid rising poverty should be a cause for concern."

Wendell E. Primus, a welfare official in the Clinton administration who resigned to protest signing of the 1996 law, amplified that concern: "It's an indictment of the welfare law, the welfare system, that it has not been more responsive to economic conditions."

It's certainly possible that poor people are suffering because in some states "the application process is so difficult or complex" that it discourages them from applying. But it's also possible that, as the reformers and officials cited in Robert Pear's article claim, once poor single mothers were in the workforce they stayed in the workforce and thus weathered the recession (which hit hardest farther up in the labor market) fairly well, without resorting to welfare.

In order to make the anti-reform case, Primus and Fremstad need to show, not just that welfare rolls haven't risen, but that people are actually suffering more than in previous recessions--something that's hard to show by just pointing at charts with numbers in Washington, even child poverty numbers (which in fact have not risen as much as in prior recessions). Surely the Center on Budget and Policy priorities doesn't consider rising welfare caseloads in themselves an inherently good thing! But in effect, Fremstad and Primus' argument treats them as a good thing.

They're not. American society is much better off today--and not just in economistic terms--because millions of mothers who used to be isolated in the welfare culture are now integrated into the labor market. We've only begun to see the positive long term effects--on the number of African-American children raised by married parents, for example. As one former Clinton welfare official, Wendell E. Primus, told the New York Times back in 2001, after noting the favorable marriage trends: "The sky isn't falling anymore. Whatever we have been doing over the last five years, we ought to keep going." That Wendell Primus makes sense. ...

[Frank_Discussion]

Because he's basically geared to appeal to kids and is out-of-date?

[5by5]

I always figured he was more of a Wobbly.

[pubmom]

And made of plastic.

[Not A Snowbird]

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down... they get knocked over by Secret Service Agents.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[GSWarrior]

Because he is wooden and always has the same expression?

[OpusatFR]

I always thought ~waffle~ fitted him.

Maybe we can through frozen waffles at him during his next appearance.

[EggsAckley]

Good one!

[Not A Snowbird]

I like your tag line.

How about we all show up at his next appearance, dressed as waffles and holding signs that say, "I see the idiot is here"!

Wouldn't that be fun?

[binger]

He keeps a finger in the wind...

[EggsAckley]

I love it!



Is FR kind of slow today for you? (yes, I'm logged in.)
Seems like molasses here.

[Not A Snowbird]

Everything's slow today. I have two windows open so I can pop in and out on FR while pulling data for my weekly report and both are slower than all get out.

Must be because it's sunny in Seattle. Screws everything up, nationwide. :-)

[Joy Angela]

"The Ugly Similarities between Hillary Clinton and John Kerry"

from http://www.hilldabeast.com -

Recent events show the ugly similarities between Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
They share many of the disgusting traits from the underbelly of liberal bottom dwellers.

Both, Hillary and John have the following in common:

• Socialist/extreme left agenda.
• Contradict themselves regularly.
• Want to raise taxes and distribute wealth.
• Could care less about the country due to their own power hungry plans of destruction.
• Not easy on the eyes.
• Look horrible in a skirt.

Just to name a few.




(FR Posters add some more...)
-- "treat secret service like 'the help'"

-- "Use their offspring as props.

Kerry got caught in some faux pas that was fodder for
the Boston "news" people. He deliberately went on a
shopping spree (where have I heard that before??) with
his then - young daughters. The hounding press were
unable to ask the biting questions.

And, of course, he denied using the girls as a shield.

[EggsAckley]

I thought when it was sunny in Seattle nobody went to work. (it happens so rarely, after all)

Happy sunny day!

[Not A Snowbird]

I thought when it was sunny in Seattle nobody went to work

Don't give me any ideas, now!