Another reason to move on: Myanmar

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Wednesday May 07, 2008 · 12:39 PM PDT

2008/05/07 · 12:39

It's time for Team Clinton to fold their tent and Bill to get back on the road with George H.W. Bush for disaster relief. While the punditocracy is atwitter with rekindled Obamania, this is happening right under our noses:

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Bodies floated in flood waters and survivors tried to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, while the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar said Wednesday that up to 100,000 people may have died in the devastating cyclone.

That's more than 50 times the number of deaths from Hurricane Katrina. It's nearly half the number of people killed in the 2004 tsunami that wrecked Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and other countries along the Indian Ocean. And what are we doing about it?

There have been a total of two posts at DailyKos on Myanmar. One noted the irony of Laura Bush's criticism of the Myanmar government's failure to warn its citizens of impending disaster. The other, a "cheers and jeers" log, which did link to a list of relief organizations, glibly asked whether this was a vengeful god's payback for Miley Cyrus's Vanity Fair spread.

We've done a bit better with diaries. cosa nostradamus made the Rec List and got the word out. 2501 posted a call for Obama to ask for donations to Myanmar. Fourteen other diaries also deal with this crisis, but they haven't lingered long enough for me--a serial Kos reloader and election obsessee--to register them.

Perhaps disaster stories are just too tired after Katrina, the tsunami and September 11th to make a media splash. But that doesn't mean we can't act out and tell them to cover this latest crisis. That doesn't mean we can't demand that our statesmen, stateswomen and elected representatives work to help the people of Myanmar.

For the rest of us, in light of this:

Forget Operation Oxycontin. Forget what a tool Lanny Davis is and how well Donna Brazile kicked Paul Begala's ass the other night. Stop crowing over McCain's inevitable defeat. Instead, get the word out about Myanmar. If you give money to Obama, send a matching donation to Myanmar relief.

Regardless of which candidate you support, call on them to ask for relief to Myanmar.

Call your elected representatives.

Let's remember how lucky we are to be where we are.

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