(Commercialism before people—as always.)

… The Associated Press counts 67,000 dead in the eleven nations of the Indian Ocean. Reuters News Services calculates 69,900. A United Nations spokesman believes the toll just in Aceh Province, Indonesia, will be between 50,000 and 80,000. The International Red Cross currently confirms 68,000 deaths, and predicts the number will cross 100,000.

More terrifying still is the growing realization— reported sporadically in South Asia and Europe but almost unmentioned here— that some percentage of these deaths could have been prevented by timely warnings, but were not, out of fear of damaging tourism....   more »

(Bush will spend more on inauguration festivities than we as a country will send to aid the tsunami victims.)

Soldiers will dance free of charge at President Bush's second inauguration, a record $40 million-plus celebration for "a nation at war" financed by some of the same big donors who bankrolled Bush's re-election campaign.

The president's private inaugural committee, calling on corporate and individual donors to contribute as much as $250,000 apiece, has struck a military-minded theme for a three-day series of events leading to the swearing-in on Jan. 20.

"Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service" is the slogan for a festival that ...   more »

Despite reports of an improving economy, some charities say growing numbers of people have come to them in recent months asking for help to pay the rent or feed their children.

The SullivanCenter, which takes applications for rental assistance one day a month, got requests from 399 people Tuesday. Over the previous three months, more than 400 people have come in every month to seek help with rent or utilities, said Sister Marie Sullivan. That's double the number of applicants who came in during the same period last year, she said.

The increase is sobering because the agency ...   more »

(“Who cares what you think?” – George W. Bush, July 4, 2001)

WASHINGTON – Leaders of organizations representing millions of working Americans today declared at a Campaign for America's Future news conference that they will work together to stop President Bush's plan to dismantle Social Security shortly before the president delivered his closing remarks at the White House economic conference.

The groups, including the AFL-CIO, NAACP, NOW, the Alliance for Retired Americans, disability rights groups and the Campaign for America's Future, represent a coordinated effort to mobilize citizen action in every community and Congressional district in ...   more »

(This is wonderful, but private charity is never enough.  We must have government programs, as well.)

RALEIGH, N.C. – From a modest suite in downtown Charlotte, N.C., Pat's Place operates with a noble mission: to give battered children a refuge.

For director Anne Pfeiffer, who's planning to move the small nonprofit into a 2,400-square-foot house, asking for money has become second nature. But a few months ago, Pat's Place received one of its largest and least expected gifts: a $100,000 windfall, not from a corporate donor, but from a tightly knit group of no-name philanthropists from ...   more »

(Only the ethically challenged want to make ethics challenges more difficult.)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 - In the wake of back-to-back ethics slaps at the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, House Republicans are preparing to make it more difficult to initiate ethics investigations and could remove the Republican chairman who presided over the admonishments of Mr. DeLay last fall.

A House leadership aide said a package of rules changes to be presented to the House when Congress convenes on Tuesday could include a plan that would require a majority vote of the ethics panel to pursue a formal investigation. Now, a deadlock on the panel, which is evenly split between parties, keeps a case pending. The possible change, the aide said, would mean that a tie vote would effectively dismiss the case.

The aide said the change would instill more bipartisanship in ethics cases. But Democrats and outside groups said the proposal would dilute an already weak ethics process…

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