Just reading Lileks' July 9th post regarding Iran (you should read it, too) and listening to BBC news on the radio doing a story on George Bush's pledge of $15Billion (somehow the word "Billion" just seems as though it needs to be capitalized) over the next five years towards AIDS projects in Africa. It's easy to hear what the BBC editorial slant is. They're desperately trying to find ways of assuring themselves that it can't be true, and breathlessly asking questions to insinuate that somehow, the money won't be spent, that once the public's attention is focussed elsewhere, the funding won't come - that kind of thing.

BBC Interviewer to Republican Senator: "Well, 15 Billion Dollars over 5 years is 3 Billion per year...so why isn't this year's funding at 3 Billion?"

Senator: "Well, this is the first year, so there's nothing to spend all that money on yet, but that just means subsequent years will be more than 3 Billion."

BBS: "You're sure? How do we know that once some time goes by that funding will simply be reduced when people's attention is elsewhere? It's less that 3 Billion isn't it?! "

Senator: "Uh...yeah...."