STINGINESS UPDATE: The Amazon tsunami relief total is now well over $1 million — and several readers who were compulsively hitting “refresh” report that it crossed the million-dollar-mark at 6:38 Eastern. It is kind of hypnotic to see the numbers going up every time you reload the page.

Meanwhile, Tim Blair notes that France has sent $177,000:

That French figure seems impossibly low, but it checks out here and here (100,000 euros = $A177,000 = $US135,400). France is also sending rescue workers to Thailand and humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka, but please … $177,000? Andrew Sullivan probably makes more during his Pledge Week.

And while amateurs outperform the French government, the United States government is sending $35 million plus two Naval groups. Not that that has stopped people from bitching about the United States’ response. It’s almost as if they’re determined to find fault no matter what.

However, at this rate the Amazon donations will soon pass the German government’s contribution of 2 million Euros (2.7 million dollars), too.

UPDATE: A USAF reader notes that the U.S. is sending much more than two naval groups, and note, “And, as is usually the case in our relief efforts, the first ones in are U.S. Air Force C-130s.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: I wonder if ScrappleFace readers will surpass France?

FRANCE-DEFENDING UPDATE: The French Foreign Ministry puts France’s contribution at a much-more-respectable 15 million Euros, or roughly $20 Million dollars. Who to believe: Reuters or the French Foreign Ministry? That’s a tough one, but I think I’ll go with the larger figure because, as Tim Blair notes, the smaller one is just too absurdly small.