<$BlogRSDUrl$>

My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-12-30

From the Depaartment of Stupid Ideas Based On Old Numbers. . .

The New York Times is running a brilliant editorial this morning. I know I shouldn't be surprised or get at all worked up about the Grey Lady's stupidity, but this one couldn't go by.

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.

First of all, by the time this runs, it will be two days that the number has been sitting at $35 million, a number which is still DWARFED by the independent giving of Americans, which so far have pledged into the hundreds of millions. Add to this the non-monetary aid of US military transport planes, ships and personnel, and the picture is of a far more generous giving than the NYTimes can possibly comprehend.

Of course, this sort of thing wouldn't fit in with the meme of "USA bad"; but you would hope that they would at least try to get the numbers right.

Oh, and the little slap towards the inauguration? That's PRIVATE MONEY, you nitwits; and, once given to a political party, fairly strictly controlled as to its appropriate uses. Perhaps you ought to be questioning George Soros about whether some of his vast personal wealth could be appropriately spent helping out the disaster victims.
Posted by: Michael / 12/30/2004 01:12:00 AM

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?