Got outrage?
So, wonder what the members of our exceutive branch were doing while the corpses float down Bourbon Street?
VP Cheney is on vacation Wyoming.
Secretary of State Rice was in NYC last night, catching "Spamalot," then spending a grand on ... shoes. When a woman starting screaming at her "How dare you shop while people are dying," said woman was forceably removed from the store.
And in case you missed it, Karl Rove lookalike Dennis Hastert, august speaker of the House, wonders whether we should "waste" tax dollars rebuilding New Orleans. I've been accused of taking those comments out-of-context, but I don't see where.
And in New Orleans, the babies cry, and die. God help us.
Posts
8 comments:
Actually you're taking Hastert's comments out of context. He said that NO shouldn't be rebuilt in the same manner it was. WHICH IS TRUE. As a NO resident, I realize that rebuilding a city of any sort BELOW sea level is a bad idea. Now if we were to BULLDOZE everything damaged an use it for fill, then build on top of that to a level ABOVE the projected lake and river levels, THEN you have a viable rebuilding situation for NO.
REMEMBER, that the current location of New Orleans was the result of an argument that led to espionage on the part of Iberville who was directed to place the city on higher ground and a defensible position to close the port. Iberville took payments from the Dutch East India company to locate the city and it's defenses in a poor location so the Dutch could take the city.
Rebuilding NO in the same manner (or a similar manner) to what existed prior to Katrina IS a bad idea.
By the way, there are PLENTY of stuck WHITE PEOPLE in the region too. My grandmother and grandfather among them, who chose not to leave to protect their home from looters (moot point now), and are STILL trapped.
Before you make this a black and white issue, realize that IT IS NOT.
If you must find something partisan to bitch about, concentrate on Sheehan or something else. Don't bitch about what you're obviously clueless about.
Sorry about your grandparents, and hey, of course I realize there are white people in the same sorry state of affairs (but you will not convince me that they are in the majority; most of the people left behind either had no cars, i.e., couldn't afford them, or chose to stay (your grandparents).
So, I went back and reread Hassert's comments. I don't think I took them out of context.
So, I calmed down, and removed the racially-charged comment (though it is pretty damned difficult not to conclude that it is true), and also my expletive against Hastert.
The reason you're seeing mainly African-Americans is
1. The city itself is 67%++ African-American.
2. The downtown area is 80%++ African-American.
Most of the "whiter" areas of the city are under 6 to 10 feet of water. Look at the footage from Veterans Highway. Those are the people cowering under a freeway offramp EXPOSED TOTALLY to the elements. You'll find many whites, asians and blacks in that group.
I suggest you're seeing more what you WANT to see (or are being programmed to see) rather than the reality of the situation, which is a HUGE URBAN EVENT affecting all classes and races.
There are many middle class whites and blacks in the city who stayed and have lost everything, they are just getting plucked out of the water and taken to the airport rather than downtown.
Over in Slidell, there are plenty of poor whites who are UNDER water, without potable water and without electricity. The media just isn't there (why? maybe there's your inherent racism -- the media, rather than the government).
--Jason
Jason,
I would agree that there is probably an inherent subliminal cultural racism is the media - to wit, someone sent me two photos from the same periodical, one of a white couple, one an Afro-American. Both were treading through waist deep water with a bag of spoils. The black couple were captioned as "after looting a local store;" the white couple "after 'finding' [my quotes] food in a local store..."
Be that as it may - I went back and reviewed Hastert's initial comments yet again - I'm sorry, but I could find no ambiguity there. Of course, he is now back-pedaling wildly to spin his comments in the direction (or context) that you placed over them.
Oh, c'mon. Programmed to see? By whom? I visited your blog. I could hoist you by that same petard. Why do you folks on the right always presume that only you have America's best interests at heart?
This is not a black-white issue nor is it a right-left issue. You seem to think it's both. Do you believe that the Hurricane itself was a "white oppressor hurricane" and the levee flood was a right-wing plot. These are just as ridiculous scenarios as what you're positing.
Hastert said it wasn't sensible to rebuild a city that is 6 to 12+ feet BELOW sea level. That's just common sense. There are other locations that the port and megalopolsis that IS New Orleans without having to redirect the largest river on the continent (a fight we WILL one day lose as the Mississippi takes the course of the Achafalaya. There are locations for the port and city that are on "HIGH" ground and won't have to pump water OUT of the city every time it rains.
Much of New Orleans is built over a swamp, this is an opportunity to CHANGE our largest port on our largest river for the better. Make a safer, more efficient, healthier and more robust city. That's what Hastert is talking about. Move the Port and subsequent megalopolis to Morgan City, let the Mississippi take it's natural course somewhat and build a city that will last 500 years without having to route a river over the heads of a million or more people separated only by a falliable levee system.
This issue is so much more than left, white, right or black, it's about HUMANS making a decision to do what's right for future generations. Another CAT 4/5 storm WILL hit the gulf coast again, just as it has for millenia. Use our knowledge and technology to avoid another lost city put upon another generation.
To politicize this issue is to admit that you truely do not understand the nature of the tragedy, nor the cost to the people involved. Saving these people is the largest domestic rescue effort EVER, in a dense urban environ, that also happens to be UNDER WATER. Let's get the people out and do what's right for future generations, part of that is taking a long hard look at the wisdom and hubris of placing a major population center back in a situation where they live below the waterline of the continents largest river sandwiched against a large brackish water lake.
I'm sorry you don't like my blog, which has nothing to do with this discussion (I'm still wondering why you decided to spam multiple identical comments, and I suggest if you actually 'read' any of it, you'd find that I'm not the righty fundy you seem to think).
I'm not hoisting you on any petard, I'm merely pointing out that the situation is beyond the scope of partisan politics and more in the realm of national cooperation, assistance, mercy and ultimately (in the case of rebuilding) intelligence.
--Jason
PS, Thank you for your concern about my family, as of 6PM this evening, we found out that they made their way to shelter and will be evacuated to Baton Rouge. We still have many friends (white and black) who have perished from the storm and it's aftermath, many are still trapped in buildings surrounded by water (white and black) but rescue operations are increasing exponentially and I am confident that NO will be fully evacuated within a few days.
Jason,
Sorry for the "spam" posts - when I didn't see them showing up I thought I was doing something wrong so I ignorantly kept re-posting. I suspect it was the odd way Foxfire retains its cache.
Didn't say whether I liked or disliked it (your blog) - if I mislabelled your sentiments, my apologies, but the Roberts piece kind of put me in that frame of mind. No, I didn't explore it thoroughly (I bookmarked it and will in time). You are clearly a man of intelligence and I respect that, for which I would expect to find more evidence when I have the chance to explore your site.
"I'm merely pointing out that the situation is beyond the scope of partisan politics and more in the realm of national cooperation, assistance, mercy and ultimately (in the case of rebuilding) intelligence."
I cannot argue with that. I don't see how anyone could. But I still cannot shed the uncomfortable feeling that an executive administration so consumed with a senseless war engendered by a failed ideology was woefully ill-prepared to respond to a natural catastrophe of this magnitude.
I am thrilled to hear that your grandparents are safe. I have friends in the area that I am very worried about as well, from which there is yet no word. I am planning to join an authorized volunteer group from my workplace to help FEMA once the most basic recovery infrastructure is in place.
"Rebuilding NO in the same manner (or a similar manner) to what existed prior to Katrina IS a bad idea."
I can't argue with that either. But I STILL didn't hear your reasoned explanation come out of Dennis Hastert's mouth.
I hope you will only continue to hear only good news about those close to you in the hardest hit areas.
Avram
Ok then, we'll parse if need be. Most are attributing Hastert's comments to the Bill Walsh article from the Times-Picayune Washington Bureau.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#075833
Walsh takes the inflamatory parts:
"It doesn't make sense to me," Hastert told the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago in editions published today. "And it's a question that certainly we should ask."
And puts them in the lead.
Read on, and later Walsh admits:
"Hastert questioned the wisdom of rebuilding a city below sea level that will continue to be in the path of powerful hurricanes."
I hope this shows that Hastert wasn't so much concerned about "waste" as he was the destruction of New New Orleans sometime in the future.
--Jason
Post a Comment