12.31.2004

Jan. 20 inauguration: $40 million; U.S. Tsunami Aid-$35 million.

It may be too slow to move Bush's congress and republican donors from their fancy inauguration, but individuals can send directly to support those in need and bypass bureacracy through groups like Oxfam.

SenatorLeahy's suggestion to take some of the $18 billion Bush has budgeted for Iraq and send to Asia makes sense. So does taking some from the j20 party.

===========

George Bush ended 2004 on a sour note.
But at least he maintained his record as the most disingenuous president since Richard Nixon.
When other world leaders rushed to respond to the crisis caused by last Sunday's tsunamis in southern Asia, George Bush decamped to his ranch in Texas for another vacation. For three days after the disaster, the only formal response from the White House was issued by a deputy press secretary. Finally, after a United Nations official made comments that seemed to highlight the disengaged nature of the official U.S. reaction to one of the worst catastrophes in human history, the president appeared at a hastily-scheduled press conference to grumble about how critics of his embarrassing performance were "misguided and ill-informed."

Bush bragged about the U.S. commitment of $35 million to help respond to a tragedy that has cost more than 100,000 lives and displaced millions of people in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Somalia and other countries.

What the president did not say is that this initial commitment is less than the planned expenditure for his Jan. 20 inauguration: $40 million.
--from Bush fails a global test