PHILADELPHIA:

Barbra Streisand opened her first US tour in 12 years on Octoebr 4 with a show that ridiculed President George W Bush.

Before a crowd of 16,000 people at Wachovia Center, Streisand gave assured renditions of standards from her career as a singer and actress including Funny Girl, Come Rain or Come Shine, Love Soft as an Easy Chair, and Somewhere.

The show also featured a skit where an actor playing Bush uttered such lines as, “I’m concerned about the national debt, so I’m selling Canada,” and “If I cared about the polls I would have run for president of Poland.”

Streisand, 64, a longtime liberal activist, said she was coming out of retirement to raise money for her foundation, which supports a range of causes related to environment, education, health care and other issues.