Ted Rall for May 01, 1998
Transcript:
According to the white house, President Clinton decided to develop an Anti-Germ Warfare Program after reading Richard Preston's novel the cobra event." (Bill Clinton: The book is far more frightening than the memo... I'm allocating $370 million to the fight against biological weapons!) Fiction is rapidly becoming threading influence on presidential policy. For instance, the hubble telescope project was inspired by Stephen King's the tommyknickers. (Bill Clinton: I will not stand idly by while Americans mutate because of sub terrain UFOs! Sounds like a $12 billion threat to me.) Lobbyists have caught on to the new paperback politics: Lately Clinton aides have slipped books by John Grisham, Michael Crighton and jackie collins onto the presidential reading list in an effort to enact new legislation. (Bill Clinton: New England is being ravaged by ghosts of murdered children... this calls for a task force at cabinet level!) Now in the works: A bill banning undue influence by writers on the presidency (Bill Clinton: I was deeply touched by Doug Coupland's girlfriend in a coma from now on, anyone with a brain-dead lover and a record by the Smiths will receive a $600 tax credit.)