Posted on 12/30/2004 5:07:39 AM PST by .cnI redruM
President Bush finally roused himself yesterday from his vacation in Crawford, Tex., to telephone his sympathy to the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, and to speak publicly about the devastation of Sunday's tsunamis in Asia. He also hurried to put as much distance as possible between himself and America's initial measly aid offer of $15 million, and he took issue with an earlier statement by the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, who had called the overall aid efforts by rich Western nations "stingy." "The person who made that statement was very misguided and ill informed," the president said.
We beg to differ. Mr. Egeland was right on target. We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world's richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That's less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities.
The American aid figure for the current disaster is now $35 million, and we applaud Mr. Bush's turnaround. But $35 million remains a miserly drop in the bucket, and is in keeping with the pitiful amount of the United States budget that we allocate for nonmilitary foreign aid. According to a poll, most Americans believe the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
WHERE'S the HOLLYWOOD CROWD?
Does the fact that they're "out of power" exempt
them from contributing to disaster relief?
If the 'Toon were still in office, we'd be seeing
endless press conferences about all the fundraisers
being held by the glitterati...with the 'Toon as
keynote speaker, of course.
Never forget.
Yes, a good liberal is always generous with the other guy's money!
Noted....
The Democrats created a welfare state in America and now they want to create one with the rest of the world. What has the New York Times ever contributed other than blarney and to the Democrat Party?
40% of all donations in 2004 were from the USA!
As usual, the UN takes time out of it's busy schedule to disrespect the USA. They are more than irrelevant!
Well, few watch CNN anymore. I watch to see what the enemy is doing.
Everytime Egeland opens his stupid mouth, he makes a bigger fool of himself.
So, life is good. Be happy. Don't drink the leftist Koolade. LOL
There was a democratic talking point that went out on just this subject. In the face of tragedy, how best to hit Bush.
I believe the inaugural will cost 2 million less than Clinton's second term inaugural which cost 31 million. Taxpayers fund 12 million of this current inaugural.
The NYT always goes out of their way to get out the democratic talking points.
Who is loonie? The one who does lunacy or the one who funds it?
I was trying really hard not to notice that first sentence. The boss prefers us not to urinate on the computer monitors.
If we were stupid enough to give cash directly to muslim countries, it would be translated into the deaths of our soldiers and our loved ones here in America.
Japan 7bn
US 6.9bn
UK 5.6bn
France 5.4bn
Germany 4.5bn
Source: CIA worldfactbook
Only until the low dollar rises again, the US will again take the top spot. :)
Just like when California and France always flip flop GDP positions because of fluctuating foreign exchange rates.
This is a disgraceful article.
30 December 2004
President Bush finally roused himself yesterday from his vacation in Crawford, Tex., to telephone his sympathy...
They are saying that he made his calls on the 29th, "finally." We were traveling home from Texas on the 27th, listening to the news. Fox news reported then that he had already called 7 nations.
That doesn't count private donations, which we give at probably triple what our government gives. Other nations have little organized private giving.
You just gave me an idea. ;0)
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