President Bush has named a delegation to tour Asia and assess the Tsunami stricken areas. Colin Powell and Jeb Bush will lead the delegation. They will be leaving on Sunday.

White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy in Crawford, Texas said:

....including the president's brother, who has experience with extensive hurricane damage in Florida, "signifies the high level of importance that the president puts on this delegation."

The Government began it's closing this week but will finish next week, followed by the defense closings. International Action Center reports:

We have just learned that the schedule for the summations in the Trial of Lynne Stewart have changed. The government is going to be continuing their summation on Monday, January 3rd, [2005]. Only comment from the defense is that they must have written it before the evidence was entered. The defense summations will begin immediately after the government summations end and will be David Stern for Mohammed Yousry, followed by the attorney for Ahmed Sattar. Michael Tigar on behalf of Lynne Stewart will be last and will be on either Tuesday, January 4th or Wednesday, January 5th. It is impossible for us to predict exactly what day Tigar's summation will be. Feel free to call 212-625-9696. We will send out another announcement when we know for sure. Come to court for Lynne Stewart. 40 Foley Square, Rm. 110, NYC.

The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security are having a tiff about fingerprints. The critical issue, according to a new report by the Inspector General's Office: Should two fingers or ten be fingerprinted?

The core of the problem, the report said, was that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department disagree on two basic issues: whether 2 or 10 fingers should be printed and what agencies should have access to those prints.

The F.B.I. has for years used prints of all 10 fingers to identify criminals. But the Department of Homeland Security relies on prints of only the two index fingers to keep track of illegal aliens. Similarly, both the Homeland Security and State Departments have since September relied on digital prints of the two index fingers to keep records of visitors to the United States from 27 specified nations.

The net result of the dispute is that 99% of visitors to the U.S. from foreign countries do not get their fingerprints checked against the FBI database that has 47 million prints and which includes some suspected non-American terrorists. Homeland Securiy's database is much smaller.

The number of laser beams directed into cockpits of flying airplanes is now at seven since Christmas. The airports affected so far: Teeterboro (N.J.); Houston, Medford, Ore., Washington, D.C.; Cleveland and Colorado Springs;

On the same day at the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the FBI says, a green laser light beam was directed into the cockpit of a Continental 737 that was 15 miles from the runway. "This plane was targeted," said FBI special agent Bob Hawk. "It just didn't flash for a moment inside the cockpit. The plane was traveling at about 300 miles an hour, at about 8,500 to 10,000 feet. It followed the plane inside the cockpit for two to four seconds."

Despite the issuance of a homeland security alert last month warning that terrorist groups had shown an interest in the laser devices, the FBI says not to worry:

Last month the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to law enforcement agencies, warning "terrorist groups overseas have expressed an interest in using these devices." But, they added, there is "no specific or credible intelligence indicating that terrorists intend to use lasers as weapons against civilian targets in the homeland."

The Air Line Pilots Association isn't so sure:

A very sad story from Kho Lak in Thailand.

Khao Lak, Thailand — The naked body of a dead female tourist was lying in plain sight on a beach in southern Thailand yesterday, her legs caught beneath a heap of wood debris. Her eyes were bulging; her body grossly bloated and pale in the blazing tropical sun.

A few metres, away, a team of rescue workers ignored the corpse. Exhausted and overwhelmed by four days of collecting bodies, they knew the woman's was just one of the hundreds that still remain to be extracted from the apocalyptic landscape of this strip of beach resorts.

Via Converger's diary at Daily Kos:

• Number of deaths due to four Florida hurricanes in 2004: 117
• Number of deaths due to Aceh earthquake and tsunami in 2004: 120,000+
• Homeless due to Florida hurricanes: 11,000
• Homeless due to Aceh earthquake/tsunami: 5,000,000
• US government aid to help Florida hurricane victims: $2.04 billion
• US government aid to help Aceh earthquake/tsunami victims: $35 million
• Estimated cost of George Bush's upcoming inaguration celebration, not including security costs: $40 million
• US government direct cost, per hour, of the US war in Iraq: $9 million

Sidney Blumenthal writes in The Guardian about Bush's second term and how he has purged the last members from his father's team.

The transition to President Bush's second term, filled with backstage betrayals, plots and pathologies, would make for an excellent chapter of I, Claudius. To begin with, Bush has unceremoniously and without public acknowledgement dumped Brent Scowcroft, his father's closest associate and friend, as chairman of the foreign intelligence advisory board.

A fact from the article worth noting:

Since the election, 203 US soldiers have been killed and 1,674 wounded.

A Pastor's wife in Sri Lanka used some quick thinking and saved 28 children from death by the Tsunami. The pastor was in bed, contemplating the sermon he would deliver in a few hours. The children were in their rooms, playing and getting dressed:

Then he heard the pounding of feet in the corridor outside his room, and his wife burst through the door, a frantic look on her face. "The sea is coming!" she said. "Come! Come! Look at the sea!"

Thanks to quick thinking, blind luck and an outboard motor that somehow started on the first pull, the orphans and their caretakers joined the ranks of countless survivors of the epic disaster that so far has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Sri Lanka and 10 other countries.

Grits for Breakfast has the goods on the Dallas Police who are sharing surveillance tapes from cameras installed on public thoroughfares with businesses. More proof, it says, that the proliferation of police cameras isn't really about traffic enforcement.

Oxfam America is a Boston-based international development and relief agency and an affiliate of Oxfam International. Working with local partners, Oxfam delivers development programs and emergency relief services, and campaigns for change in global practices and policies that keep people in poverty.

Oxfam is seeking donations for the Tsunami relief effort.

[graphics via Apple.com]

Help survivors and their families by making monetary donations to these organizations:

• American Red Cross International Response Fund
• AmeriCares South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund
• Direct Relief International International Assistance Fund
• Médecins Sans Frontières International Tsunami Emergency Appeal
• Oxfam Asian Earthquake & Tsunami Fund
• Sarvodaya Relief Fund for Tsunami Tragedy
• UNICEF South Asia Tsunami Relief Efforts