Salon Politics reports with barely-concealed glee about George W. Bush’s slide in the polls from 60% approval ratings to 53% approval ratings from his first hundred days to now. Well, this bodes well for Democrats in 2002 and all, but the real question is: why are half the American people still supporting this idiot? He lost the popular vote, he may have lost the election, he put into place the most Right-wing cabinet of the past 70 years or so, and he’s pushing an agenda that looks like The Beast From 1982 (or 1994). The answer of course is that newsmedia soft-peddled the President while simultaneously providing a smokescreen by slagging Bill Clinton for several weeks after he’d left office. I remember watching an episode of NBC Nightly News shortly after the inauguration that ran a misty-eyed piece pointing out the similarities between George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan (W. is, in fact, a conservative! He does, in fact, favor tax cuts!), immediately followed by a segment entitled–I kid you not–ClintonWatch on the latest tidbits of the Presidential pardon fiascos (and I don’t mean those pardons of nonviolent drug offenders in federal prisons or of 1970s leftist activists).

Damn that liberal media.

Stephen O’Connor points out that President Bush’s faith-based initiatives are nothing new, and some of its likely limitations can be found by examining the history of government-funded religious child welfare groups in New York City [NY Times].

The House International Relations Committee has approved a Democratic measure to amend the State Department authorization bill for 2002 which will overturn Bush’s re-imposition of the global gag rule. Thank God for Congressional Democrats finally getting something done against Bush’s Napoleonic Hundred Days.

The beautiful, but evil, Arianna Huffington has continued her tilt away from nouveau conservative pundit and towards the decidedly awesome with her column blasting the Bush administration’s vacuous attempts to appear environmental around Earth Day [Salon.com]. I’m remembering Pappy Bush’s declaration in the early 1990s that he would be the environmental President (which still makes me laugh today).

The ACLU has published a press release which endorses John Conyer’s introduction of legislation to ensure that the widespread problems with our voting system that were highlighted in last year’s election, are resolved. The press release also criticizes President Bush and the Republican Congress, who have not lifted a finger to do anything about the bill or the problem as a whole. The House has not scheduled any hearings on election irregularities and has no timetable for addressing it. ACLU representative Christopher Anders testified to the Democratic Caucus of the House:

Although the 2002 and 2004 elections may seem distant, Anders added, we are already very late if we want to get the reforms in place to achieve equality in the polling place.

Gee, the problems of the electoral system disproportionately disenfranchise poor and minority voters. If it weren’t for the problems that this bill aims to fix, George W. Bush would not have been elected President. And now the Republican Congress and Republican President are not willing to take concerted action to ensure fairness in voting. What a surprise!