So Bush is zeroing out Voice of America's English-language broadcasts. I guess the English language is a thing of the past anyway, according to the Bushies at least. Forget about the fact that some people actually learn and practice their English via these broadcasts. Forget about the fact that a number of African countries speak English as their mother tongue:
BotswanaNo, you see, the way the Bush administration wants us to reach the hearts and minds of the developing world is to cut the funding for every US international program that doesn't involve killing people.
Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Malawi
Mauritius
Namibia
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
South Africa
Swaziland
Uganda
United Republic of Tanzania
Zambia
Zimbabwe
And we wonder why they hate us.
PS Of course, it's totally possible that Bush is killing this part of the VOA budget because HE KNOWS it's ridiculous to kill it. Sound crazy? Not at all. It's an old trick used by presidents who have no desire to submit a serious budget to Congress. You see, the president makes his budget balance by killing all sorts of programs that he knows Congress will have to put back in - like this VOA program. That way, Bush gets credit for saving the money from the killed program and can then spend it on other budget priorities, while at the same time it becomes CONGRESS'S FAULT that the program is reinstated and it's CONGRESS'S FAULT that the program adds to the deficit. Cute, no? Talk about your fuzzy math.
