Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, says Bush should cancel his 9 inaugural balls and 3 "candelit dinners" and instead donate the 40 million dollars to tsunami relief efforts.
That is something that would really show the world that the United States cares about being part of the global community. This story is making news all over the world. It's in the Khaleej Times Online in the United Arab Emirates, and it appeared in the New Straits Times in Malaysia (but their link doesn't work anymore).
I would love Bush so much if he did this. Just once, why can't he do something that everyone would like?
5 comments:
I think the NBA should cancel all its games and give the player's salaries to the relief fund.
I think Europe should cancel it's pro soccer season and do the same.
And the oil shieks are bound to have something they can cancel.
And while we're at it, why don't we ask the "insurgents" to donate some of their funding? Surely they can give up paying for a few IED's to help their fellow Muslims instead?
-ubu
Lovely suggestions from the pews! Realistically, he probably couldn't canx the festivities to send the money to Asia. It's either government money allocated specifically for the inaugaration and cancelling the events just puts it back in the kitty (minus what's already been spent, which I would guess is a hefty chunk); or it's money donated from supporters and federal law allows it to be used only for what it's donated for (the price we pay to keep elections clean (more or less)). And again, only the cash not spent is available. Think of a wedding planned months, even years in advance. Then cancel it 3 weeks prior to D-day. How much $ is gone? Besides, the US government has earmarked what, $350 million? You want Bush to donate money? Fine, but that means George W. Bush, private citizen and who are you to look into a private citizen's handling of his money? You want the US President to tone down festivites in view of the tragedy? A legitimate opinion, but why not for the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afganistan? Or the citizen-victims of those countries? Or the victims in Sudan? In Rwanda? Saddam's victims? Cancer victims?
MU
Regardless of the worth of this suggestion, it should be pointed out that just because you would like it and a lot of others would like it does not follow that everyone would like it.
I think we should kick the UN out of the USA, set it up again in Nigeria where there's a matching level of corruption, sell the UN's present land, buildings, vehicles, office furniture, other assets, etc. in the USA. We should fire 85% of the UN's bloated, anti-USA bureaucracy, starting with Jan Egeland, with anyone from France a close second. We should dun UN salaries and severance pay, confiscate bank accounts filled with ill-gotten gains from UN scams like the Oil-for-Food con.
And just for the hell of it, we should make Barbara Streisand and Michael Moore "honorary" French UN diplomats, and include them in the financial house cleaning of the UN.
We should take all that money (several billion dollars, I would conservatively estimate) and donate it to the victims of the tsunami.
We should announce that Mark Cuban, the humanitarian that he is with other people's money, is the first designated source for funding the relief efforts of major disasters in 2005. The Sudan is a humanitarian disaster that continues into 2005. Where is your checkbook Mr. Cuban? Professional basketball is merely entertainment. Reality shows like "The Benefactor" are even worse. Wealthy hypocrites like Mr. Cuban, et al, who continue such blatant pimping to the masses when so many suffer in the world, and still blather on about what other people should be doing with their money, are contemptable and should be ignored.
I'm not wealthy, and commenting on someone's blog may or may not be pimping to the masses, so I believe I deserve a somewhat lighter sentence.
-- MS
Post a Comment