[Beethoven]

Just came back from a trip to Europe. I know most of you guys hate them chardonnay-sipping bastards, but boy did they ever come around on organizing and pleding help for the tsunami victims. People are donating, two prime ministers asked that everybody cut down on new year's celebrations, and generally everybody is hugely concerned.
I don't want to harp on Bush's tardy response, and on initially pleding half the sum they're planning to spend on his swearing-in--maybe he didn't know yet how big this was. But generally I don't get the impression that this is high on the administration's agenda and, it seems like, on people's mind in this country. I'm disappointed, but not surprised.