Hugh is upset about this statement from Amazon.com:

But mainstream Web sites that had jumped to pull in money for the tsunami victims showed no evidence of repeating it here in the U.S. for Katrina's. Amazon.com, which raised more than $14 million for the American Red Cross in January via a donation link on its home page, didn't have one as of mid-day Monday. Nor did Google, Yahoo, MSN, or eBay, all of which hustled earlier in the year to put up donation links on their portals. (Google slapped up an "Information about Hurricane Katrina" link on its Spartan home page, but that led to news sources and stories.)

An Amazon spokesperson said that the online retailer had no plans to post a donation link on its site. "Each case is different," she said. "The Red Cross has essentially given over its entire site to donations. The tsunami came out of the blue, so it was an 'all hands on deck' situation, but the Red Cross has been getting ready for this and getting its message out there for several days."

Seems like a lame statement from Amazon to me. Barnes and Noble, anyone?

Not a good idea to offend someone with as big a bullhorn as Hugh, over something like this, for no good reason at all. Remember Target last Christmas? I suspect Amazon is going to backtrack fairly quickly, or come to seriously regret their statement when the profits plummet.

Amazon should drop the brainless excuses, and prodigously join in on the relief effort right now.

UPDATE: Hugh notes on the air that Amazon has now changed its policy, and a contribution button will be up on its site shortly.

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But it's rotating!...As Hugh notes. It took me 7 tries to get it to come up.

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Now it's coming up all the time. At least Amazon is listening.