That's right. $50,000 dollars. One wonders what the amount would be had it been a Muslim country (Here) or even the State of Israel struck by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake.

On Monday, the Obama administration offered fifty thousand dollars in emergency aid to Berlusconi's Italy, which was recently hit by a colossal 6.4 earthquake just fifty-three miles northeast of Rome.  The earthquake has so far claimed the lives of over two hundred people and injured fifteen hundred more.  It has reduced priceless medieval buildings to rubble in the central town of L'Aquila while leaving twenty-eight thousand people homeless.

"We send our heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the earthquake. Our embassy in Rome will provide 50,000 (dollars) in emergency relief funding," said Robert Wood, a U.S. State Department spokesman.  While in Turkey, President Barack Hussein Obama expressed his condolences and suggested America could send rescuers.  "Italian authorities told the United States they did not need rescue teams," Wood explained.  Wood said there were no reports of US citizens among the dead or injured but that the US embassy in Rome was reaching out to Americans living in the region.  The open-minded can't help but compare this polite refusal of assistance with the desperate pleas for government assistance spewing forth from the bowls of Katrina in the summer of 2005.  Quite contrary to what the world witnessed at Katrina is perhaps best epitomized by the patient, calm, and dignified behavior of Maria D'Antuono, a ninety-eight year-old woman in Tempera who knitted for thirty hours before being rescued.

It is likely that, given Obama's well-documented sympathies for Islam coupled with Italy's recent restrictionist policies on Muslim immigrants, this paltry $50,000 (especially when compared with the billions of dollars given to Africa, Asia, South America, and Israel in similar circumstances) is a deliberate insult to a Catholic Italy which currently has a right-wing government incongruous with the Obamamaniacs.  Perhaps this will help educate many Italians (and many Europeans) how grave an error it is to get caught up in the Obama hype.  Not that Italy even has its hand out, but Italians are showing gratitude for any help offered to them from all over the world.  Besides, Italians are quite capable of handling this natural disaster on their own. 

As Frank Pentangeli [already disgusted with what can be synonomized to Vincent Voice readers as a "multicultural" faction in his own ranks with loyalty to a "Neocon" named Hyman Roth] said in The Godfather: Part II, "I don't like this C-note, Rosato. I take that as an insult."  A second later, Frankie was nearly strangled to death.  Rosato didn't appreciate Frankie, and Obama doesn't really appreciate Europe.  Viaggi di Vincenzo salutes those brave Italians in the heart of Europe who, even now, are exhibiting the best qualities of Western Civilization by acting heroically and courageously in the face of adversity.

News Source: Vincent Voice