Left I on the News

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today on the crisis in Myanmar, calling on the government there to allow more foreign aid workers into the country:

"This is not a matter of politics, this is a matter of a humanitarian crisis and it should be a matter that the government of Burma wants to see its people receive the help that is available to them."

This, of course, is the same Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who refused to allow 1586 much-needed Cuban medical personnel into the United States when a hurricane ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the same Condoleezza Rice who spent her time shopping for shoes and attending Broadway plays while New Orleans was drowning. Condoleezza Rice no more cares about the fate of the people of Myanmar than she did about the people of New Orleans.

In reality, of course, with Rice and her colleagues it is all politics, and she only wants to use this occasion to score points against the government of Myanmar. Just for starters, if she actually wanted to have the government there listen to her, she might have tried using the name "Myanmar" instead of "Burma."

Perhaps Rice should offer the people of Myanmar the same advice she offered the people of New Orleans, in lieu of actual government aid: "The Lord is going to come on time -- if we just wait."