Daddy Daughter Dance

From the Washington Post piece on Jenna Bush's new book:

She applied [to volunteer for UNICEF in Latin America] jointly with Mia Baxter, an old friend who had been working as a photographer for Glamour magazine.

"Our friendship is sort of based on challenging each other," Bush says, grinning, "and I think she was ready to photograph something besides mascara."

The pair set out to document the lives of young people who are living in what UNICEF staff members call exclusion, meaning that, for a variety of reasons, they have been marginalized and don't receive basic education, social services, or healthcare.

From the Washington Post piece on Jenna's father and his cold-hearted plan to veto a bipartisan healthcare bill that would provide for marginalized American children living in exclusion:

President Bush appears determined to veto the $35 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program that the House and Senate approved last week. ***

[T]he measure would limit enrollment in the program to children in families making up to three times the poverty level -- about $64,000 for a family of four. ***

The legislation would extend the program for five years, and the costs would be fully covered by a 61-cents-a-pack increase in the tobacco tax, which is a good idea in itself. ***

The administration's proposal, to increase spending by less than $5 billion over five years, would fall $14 billion short of what's needed to maintain existing coverage in SCHIP alone -- never mind adding the millions of eligible but uncovered children the president once said he was determined to sign up.

In the Spoiled, Drunken Children of a President Bush Sweepstakes, Jenna has now passed Barbara. And both twins continue to pull far ahead their uncle Neil.

George W. remains in last place.