blzrul

For all YOU know, Clinton approached GWB or GHWB and suggested it. You certainly don't have any inside information into the workings of the White House to say one way or another. Unless you live in a rathole and never interact with other people, you ought to know that everyone takes the credit for a good idea, and sidles away from a bad one. GHWB knows a lot of well-heeled folks AND is in TIGHT with the Saudis who can open the deep pockets over there. Bubba's fundraising abilities are well known. So it's a good idea to team the two. It is not inconceivable that the same cast of clowns who conceived Operation Infinite Quagmire came up with this, but even idiots have a good idea every so often. Maybe even you had one once

How about Dr. Phil?

Only to A-holes who lift quotes from different threads which have nothing to do with the generosity of any nation, person or other entity.

Yea heaven forbid anyone have convictions and the courage to act on them. And what the !@#$ is this crap about VOTING?! Sounds to me like he's trying to spread democracy. What a load of RKFast - doesn't he know that for freedom to be on the march you need troops and tanks and a whole lotta shock and awe. The NERVE of some people.

Before all this chest thumping gets out of hand everyone would do well to remember that the aid coming from governments (not just ours) is PLEDGES. Just that. Someone with some time on their hands could do some research and find out that many times those pledges don't come through, or don't come through in their entirety. The money donated by individuals is "real money" insofar as it goes to the various relief agencies, although once again how much of it gets to the point of need will vary. That's why a thinking person will do a little research on these agencies before selecting one. In any event to argue over who is and isn't helping is childish and stupid. Those people over there are human beings who probably spend much of their time like us - working to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. And probably working a LOT harder.

Just passed in late fall. There's a table you can use if you didn't save your sales receipts - which most people wouldn't have during 2004 since the law was only just enacted.

That reminds me of the old routine Sam Kinison used to do in talking about the starving people in Africa - relief workers would freak out because there were tons of goods donated, sitting around and eventually spoiling. Why? Wll, you have to get the people to where the food is if you can't get the food to the people. Sometimes you have to work hard to find them, and sometimes they have to find you. Donating money is the easy part. Coordinating the actual acquisition of the supplies and the ongoing logistics of getting the right supplies to where they're needed when they're needed is the hard part. I am sure it's already happening - people who need food are going to receive clothing and vice versa. You can pre-plan till the cows come home but this is something never before experienced in terms of the scope - it hit what, 9 countries on two continents? Probably the best able to manage this type of crises are the Indians because they have experienced so many flooding disasters ...

If you go to eBay you will see that MissionFish has a number of charity auctions there to benefit tsunami victims. I participated after 9/11 - sold my kid's Christmas presents as a matter of fact. Just watch out, some of these folks are only donating a small portion of the proceeds. I only bid on those with 100% donation. And I see that the US has upped the figure to $350m. That's more like it.

I wouldn't give a rat's ass if Saddam - or some nutcase like him - controlled the world's oil. In fact the world might be better off because then we'd have been forced to find alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles. But that didn't happen because we defended our oil I mean our friends in Kuwait. The terrorists don't have diamonds but for a long time they controlled quite a bit of the world's tanzanite (which is only mined in Tanzania), which if you price it ain't cheap. In fact I am proud to have been the one to call this to the attention of two major (I mean MAJOR) jewelry outlets and was gratified to receive a call from the President of the company thanking me, and of seeing them BOTH discontinue their sales of this gemstone until they could verify that their sources was NOT one of those feeding the revenues directly to Al Qaeda. And what have YOU done for the world's well-being today? Refrained from scratching you butt in public, or perhaps merely belching once after your fifteenth beer?

Stealing an election, my my, what harsh words. Here try this "Get Over It".

Apparently the total worldwide is about $500m so far. Eventually it will get to the point of diminishing returns - the key now is SPEED. There are people who haven't eaten for 5 days, have no water, and bodies fouling the air and water. Ugh. Good thing that corporations are always looking for good PR. I don't remember seeing WallyWorld in this article but surely it's there. Some little kids in my area are selling their toys (Legos I think) on eBay to raise money for the relief efforts. Donations

Nothing was corporate about him but I didn't see anything corporate in the other headlines either. The "NBC" tipped me off.

Don't be slamming my guy Jerry. I really liked him.

Unfair to whom? And the result? Harm.

Hey Melissa, me too! I worked in the biggest firm in my city, where if you weren't "H-Y-P" (Harvard, Yale or Princeton) Law you got picked on. Oh those poor guys from Brown and Cornell. I agree with your assessment - many of the guys who were fun and easy to work with were totally stressed and only there for the money. They lived for the day when they made partner and could then torture associates themselves. Many were open about their unhappiness but were trapped by student loans, families etc. Those who left to practice general law or go into public sector expressed great relief at having the pressures lifted and they enjoyed the work much more. I guess it's a question of values and priorities. I will say I witnessed on or two of the hardest cases have epiphanies based on life situations but they were rare.

Anyone who wonders why the Confederate Flag evokes such strong emotions ought to watch Rosewood, it's on STARZ this month. I saw it when it first came out and was horrified. I Tivo'd it for my daughter to watch - as a teen recently moved North from TX she's coming out with that "proud Southern heritage" sh-- to try to impress her friends. This ought to cure her of that. There are plenty of Southerners who have accomplished amazing things and made great contributions to society, but I can't think of one who'd wrap him or herself in the Confederate flag. When I was in high school kids drew swastikas and confederate flags on their notebooks to indicate their teen rebellion. Most outgrew it.

Given that the original pledge was $15m I thought it sounded stingy too. Given that after the comment we immediately raised it to $35m I guess our government agreed. Given that we spend over $200m for presidential elections, $40m for inauguaral celebrations, and piss away billions on other stuff we don't need (like international airports in Mississippi for example) $35m still doesn't seem like much considering that over 80,000 people are dead and hundreds of thousands will die of disease and other causes if the rescue efforts don't move swiftly enough. The Saudis gave $10m and I thought they were stingy too.

I know they have precious gems, got any oil? Indonesia sure does. All those defenseless natural resources may need protecting from evildoers. And of course which corporations are going to get those contracts to rebuild?

OK well then North Korea - we'd surely accept their aid without question or condition if we were in the same condition, and they were in a position to give it, right? Riiiiggghhttttt. Sure. My point is (a) RIO is an idiot as usual and (b) if politicians weren't generally turkeys, in times like these they wouldn't have to worry about where it came from.

My friend Jo just returned from 2.5 weeks in Thailand. She mentioned visiting Phuket and thinking it was ... well, not great ... agreeing with her boss, who's Indian and been there many times. She was home about 3 days before her home was broken into while she was at work, they spent hours inside from what the police can tell....we all thought how lucky she was not to be home or that her home wasn't broken into while she was gone. HA! Now we all know how lucky she truly was.

I am sure the US would welcome aid from Cuba (if it were offered) should we suffer a devastating catastrophe...right? A pox on all politicians.

ohhhhh that is so horrible. Good people go too soon.

"Season's Greetings" has been used since time out of mind on cards, commercials and everything else and it never occurred to me until now that perhaps it was done to to avoid saying "Merry Christmas". I had a Hindu guy wish me Merry Christmas and thought it was droll in his sincerity; I don't know why the WORDS matter more than the SPIRIT. To me, they don't. Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Amen.

There's plenty of work you can do without suing people. You could defend people if that's your bent. My sister is an attorney. She started out working for a firm that represented school districts, so she had all sorts of fun defending the schools from suits of all sorts, from the mundane to the ridiculous. She enjoyed it but she didn't like the firm, so she left. Her next position was with the state legislature where she wrote legislation - it's really a craft. She's taking some time off to raise kids but plans to return and do mediation. I work with several people who have law degrees but don't practice any more - for whatever reason. One's in sales, one's in marketing, another one is a technical type person. It is nice to have a "craft", which is really what's cool about being a doctor or lawyer. An education never hurt anyone - just be sure you understand your motives and if your gut reaction is "I'm not sure I see myself doing that but I could make a ton of money" then maybe it's not for you.

How wrong you are. I hope that for Christmas you get the stick removed from your ass. How about sticking the topic instead of bashing people personally - I said nothing to you or about you. Perhaps YOU stayed home squeezing pimples all during high school, I wouldn't know. I DO know that had that silly girl worn that dress she probably would have been laughed out of the prom anyway and, 20 years later, embarrassed by the whole thing.