Hurricane Katrina and the race card: 5 years later
President Obama is headed to New Orleans this weekend to mark the 5th anniversary of Katrina. The papers and airwaves will be clogged with all sorts of retrospectives. My column today reminds you of the ugly racial demagoguery by leading Democrats and “civil rights” leaders from Jimmy Carter to Charlie Rangel to Malik Zulu Shabazz. It’s a divide that has also deepened in Obama’s imaginary age of post-racialism.
Related from Charles Krauthammer: The last refuge of a liberal. “What’s a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument. The most venerable of these trumps is, of course, the race card.”
***
Hurricane Katrina and the race card: 5 years later
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
This weekend, on the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, civil rights activists and hip-hop stars will hold what they call a “healing ceremony” to commemorate the disaster. President Obama will speak at a separate event in New Orleans on Sunday. But don’t expect any of these reconciliation-seeking leaders to confront the indelible stain of racial demagoguery left by the left in Katrina’s aftermath. Hating George W. Bush means never having to say you’re sorry.
The Olympic gold medal for racial grievance-mongering went to rapper Kanye West, who railed during a supposedly nonpolitical nationwide telethon that the government was shooting “us,” that “those are my people down there,” and that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people!” West’s vulgar exploitation of a charity drive — which was meant to unite America — left most viewers with the same aghast, frozen expression as the one on comedian Mike Myers’ face as he tried to rescue their fundraising segment from the sewage.
Not to be outdone, the Congressional Black Caucus convened a press conference to blast news reporters for describing Katrina victims as “refugees.” Yes, really. The Rev. Jesse Jackson echoed their complaint: “It is racist to call American citizens refugees.” Refugees are, by dictionary definition, “exiles who flee for safety.” How this could be construed as bigoted remains as much a mystery as the source of unhinged Huffington Post blogger and self-proclaimed “social justice advocate” Randall Robinson’s bogus claim “that black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive.”
Robinson retracted the report, but did not apologize for spreading the black cannibalism tale around the world and using Katrina to vent his own anti-American venom about his country being a “monstrous fraud.” Nation of Islam race hustler-in-chief Louis Farrakhan trafficked in his own baseless conspiracy-mongering about “a 25-foot-deep crater under the levee breach” indicating that the levee “may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry.” Director Spike Lee stoked the levee truthers further, declaring, “If they can rig an election, they can do anything!”
New Black Panther Party head Malik Zulu Shabazz chimed in, calling the Katrina rescue and recovery operation a “racist occupation of subjugation rather than a relief effort,” and saying it was designed “to keep non-white people in a state of subjugation on all levels, and they are viewed as expendable in order to protect the interest of the system.” Donning her own tinfoil hat, Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee suggested that Republican suppression of the black vote in 2000 and 2004 was to blame for the government’s botched Katrina response.
Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel drove the racial wedge in deeper by comparing President Bush to brutal Alabama segregationist Bull Connor. “If there’s one thing that George Bush has done that we should never forget,” Rangel spewed, “it’s that for us and for our children, he has shattered the myth of white supremacy once and for all.” At a House hearing, a Katrina witness testified unchallenged that black New Orleans residents were victims of “genocide and ethnic cleansing.”
The execrable Jimmy Carter waited a few months to unleash his own Bush-bashing bile — at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, no less — in February 2006. “We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, those who were most devastated by Katrina, to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans.”
Carter’s speech not only lacked basic decency. It lacked any grounding in reality. According to vital statistics released just months after the storm by the primary morgue that processed the bodies of the deceased, 48 percent of those who died in the natural disaster were black, 41 percent were white, with another 8 percent unknown and 2 percent Hispanic. Little-noted follow-up analysis confirmed those preliminary results and also debunked the myth that the poor were disproportionately affected by the storm.
Five years later, the same color-coded paranoia and political opportunism that poisoned the Hurricane Katrina recovery permeates every current conflict in the public square: Ground Zero Mosque opponents are all suspiciously funded bigots, according to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Tea Party movement is the new Bull Connor, according to every liberal New York Times columnist. President Obama’s critics hate black people, according to every major black Hollywood director and hip-hop mogul. As for the soul-fixing, Nobel Peace Prize-winning commander-in-chief whose election was supposed to heal the divide, I will guarantee you he won’t ever lift a finger to repudiate the cynical smear tactics against his unjustly accused predecessor.
Post-racial America, we never knew you.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Who’s funding Brett Kimberlin?
May 25, 2012 01:52 PM by Michelle Malkin
18 CommentsObama’s Land of the LOST
May 25, 2012 01:42 PM by Michelle Malkin
27 CommentsObama’s latest campaign angle: I’ve been saving America from wild Republican debts
May 24, 2012 04:33 PM by Doug Powers
48 Comments
Senate finally passes a budget approves bill striking word ‘lunatic’ from federal law
May 24, 2012 11:22 AM by Doug Powers
193 CommentsStammertime: Jay Carney asked if Chicago protests have soured Obama’s support for OWS
May 23, 2012 07:44 PM by Doug Powers
54 Comments
S.E. Cupp, Hustler, and the four stages of conservative female abuse
May 23, 2012 02:13 PM by Michelle Malkin
142 CommentsPig Maher’s boy Bill Burton mocks my support of Hatch challenger Dan Liljenquist
May 23, 2012 11:37 AM by Michelle Malkin
32 CommentsFree speech blogburst: Show solidarity for targeted conservative bloggers; Update: It’s Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day; Donation fund for targets
May 23, 2012 05:59 AM by Michelle Malkin
109 Comments
Jaczko the Jerk: Harry Reid’s sexist crony gets the boot
May 23, 2012 05:15 AM by Michelle Malkin
31 Comments
Categories: Al Sharpton,George W. Bush,Jimmy Carter,Politics,Race Hustlers,Race relations
Babalu Blog
» U.S. Manned Space Flight in The 21st CenturyVillainous Company
» Must Read Post of the Day. Possibly, the YearSister Toldjah
» Barack Obama: Can we call him a Socialist now?Redstate
» Daily Links – May 25, 2012
And yet a big “no comment” regarding the Nashville flooding of 2010.
Obama hates country music fans.
That is not surprising. Obama only commments on those things that make him look good, black people look like victims or Conservatives look like bigots.
I wonder if he’ll squeeze in a trip to the Gulf coast of Mississippi, after all they too were severely impacted by Katrina. Nah, they didn’t whine, just rolled up their sleeves and did for themselves.
Obama sure does like whacking white’s balls around …
100 years of Boy Scouting: bad! Stay away!
5 years of Booosh-bashing Jamboree: good! Get in the middle of it!
Great article Michelle. The irony is that many that died in N.O. did so because they were unofficial wards of the State, dependent upon the government for their survival both before and after Katrina.
It’s time for conservatives to fight back eye for an eye against bogus claims of racism. Those leveling them should be denominated as despicable race-baiters; race hustlers at every opportunity, not just at water coolers. Enough is enough. Libs say that we dont talk about race; well let’s talk about it, and not make it a one-way conversation. Liberals have for too long now, disparaged conservatives this way, and its time to be as vocal as they are.
The true blame for the “non-response” in the Katrina disaster should be put squarely on the shoulders of the corrupt liberal local government. Blanco and Nagin did more harm than good. Look at the difference between then and now. Jindal has handled every catastrophy well and never had to play the race card to cover up incompetence. NOLA was a parasitic city before the hurricane and continues to be one. They have been given more than their share of relief funds and continue to beg for more.
Been there, saw that. And many thanks to Christians!! who with their churches came to help. Special shout out to ‘God’s Katrina Kitchen’. Nope, didn’t need the Federal Government to give them the initiative to rebuild. Never heard grumbling/poor me stuff much less griping about GWB.
(To be fair, the Feds helped a lot almost immediately, especially the Nat’l Guard.)
On August 27th, 2010 at 9:43 am, spaceycakes said:
There were six deaths confirmed at the Superdome. Four of these were from natural causes, one was the result of a drug overdose, and one was a suicide.
Yeah, well, having a mob of poor neglected and underpriveleged Afro-American Katrina victims dismember and cook you for dinner is natural, right?
/sarc off
O.K. NOW THAT WAS FUNNY!
On August 27th, 2010 at 9:36 am, flmom said:
I wonder if he’ll squeeze in a trip to the Gulf coast of Mississippi, after all they too were severely impacted by Katrina. Nah, they didn’t whine, just rolled up their sleeves and did for themselves.
—————————————-
Funny, they’ve been through the same thing, but we’re not still hearing from/about them today.
What about the local Louisiana government, who arguably were primarily responsible for evacuating, etc., but did not? Do they “not care about black people” because of their lack of response? I’m sick of hearing how it was all Bush/ the Feds’ fault that things were handled as badly as they were.
There is a lot of propaganda, rhetoric & kanye-esque proclamations, but do you ever notice how the facts & numbers are so hard to find in print?
Michelle,
Not sure if this would be considered a “race card” story but it definitely fits the crazy category…
Cynthia McKinney’s conspiracy tale about the government shooting 5,000 prisoners in the head and throwing the bodies in a Louisiana swamp after Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0mpjp-akVE
Slightly OT, but did anyone else here know that there is a separate Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans for blacks? I had no idea; just figured it was one big come-one, come-all. Surely, no one is stopping anyone from participating in the “main” Mardi Gras in this day and age because of their race.
My parents saw it on a documentary about the region and mentioned it to me.
I cry:
RRRAAAACCCIIISSSMMM!
New Orleans during Kartina was a perfect example of oppressed poor people and blacks being vicitimized for generations by big government hand-outs, then not having a clue how to save themselves when they desparately needed to. A documentary should be made showing what happens when liberals are in charge. It is so clear that these people were helpless…standing on that bridge waiting for…what? God? What? They just stood there and cried. And in the dome? Those people didn’t even think to take water or baby food or diapers when they left their homes. They just assumed all of that would magically appear when they needed it. And of course, a lot of that would have been there if Nagin and other idiots had been doing their damn jobs! Hardly anyone criticized that man and he even got re-elected. That is how brainwashed those people are down there.
What is the point here? This has been going on for forty years. So what?
Folks we are letting this rhetoric continue. Us…. The approach is simple. When you are subject to this kind of crap, don’t let them distract us.
Example: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people!”
Response: “Your opinion is noted. Now that your comment is resolved, tell me why the Mayor of New Orleans never executed the city’s evacuation plan, despite more than ample warning and allowed thousadns of buses that could have evacuated the city get flooded?”
Igonore the vitrol, pick up the facts and club them like a baby seal with them.
I am so tired of hearing about Katrina.If it had happened anywhere else the city would have been rebuilt,and the people would have moved on to rebuild their lives.
Response: “Your opinion is noted. Now that your comment is resolved, tell me why the Mayor of New Orleans never executed the city’s evacuation plan, despite more than ample warning and allowed thousadns of buses that could have evacuated the city get flooded?”
—————————————-
Perhaps because it was the evil, white BOOOOSSHH who tried to order them to evacuate?
I can almost hear it now: “Booosh says we need to get out? I know what we’ll do! We’ll ignore him, and if horrible things do happen, we’ll say it’s all his fault and call him a racist! And there are people out there who will believe us! Brilliant!”
Those Katrina “victims” are a bunch of saps. They hadn’t an ounce of self-reliance in them, and look how things went for them. As for these race hustlers that profit off of this stuff, they are a scourge on this country. They are agitiators and scum. More people have to call this crap out for what it is. You can’t solve any problem unles you call a thing by its right name.
When will we see the pictures of the parked and flooded school buses in NO?
If Bush was so uncaring, how come everything isn’t peachy there now that we have Øbama in office? Is “stimulus” money flowing in there?
I was working phone lines the night of the national telethon during Kanye West’s outburst. I started receiving calls soon afterward with individuals saying they changed their mind and wanted to cancel their donation because of what he said.
On August 27th, 2010 at 10:25 am, behiker said:
I was working phone lines the night of the national telethon during Kanye West’s outburst. I started receiving calls soon afterward with individuals saying they changed their mind and wanted to cancel their donation because of what he said.
—————————————-
That’s whey telethons normally don’t get political; if they do, people may withhold donations because they’re offended by something someone said. Something Mr. West should have thought of before he opened his big Bush-bashing mouth.
Wonder how much money they lost because of him?
Agree, we ought to be doing our part to counter attack. Most important IMO, our Republican/conservative etc.. politicians need to be rehearsing how they will short circuit (future)attacks. Sure hope they don’t continue to be as naive as they were back then.
I’ve been noticing the Brian Williams “Katrina 5 years later” ad on this blog. I’m sick of hearing about Katrina. Period.
I am really tired of this male bovine feces.
The majority of the “victims” of Hurricane Katrina have only themselves to blame for not taking care of themselves and their neighbors. Instead, they waited for someone to help them. Wrong move.
Many of us who were in South Florida when Katrina hit were stuck in our houses for two to three days because of flooding. Where was the outrage?
Eighteen years ago (Aug 24, 1992) Hurricane Andrew wiped us out. It took ten days for the Red Cross and National Guard to show up in the area in which I lived (right next to Homestead Air Force Base) – and we had roads!
There were no riots, no telethons, and no blaming the president. We dug in and took care of ourselves to the best of our abilities. (My eldest daughter was 20-days old.)
You know, there are still areas down there that have not been rebuilt – eighteen years later!
What is the difference between the two areas? Dependence upon the government?
Maybe the old statistics are true: in an emergency, 20% will do the wrong thing, 60% will wait for someone to help them, and the other 20% will do the right thing and/or lead.
Four days without po-boys and pralines turns the average New Orleanor into canibals?
Yes, Boooooosh should have prepared and started every bus personally. Because he didn’t they failed.
I agree with baboyako in post 23. I live in S. Fl, but was fortunate to be spared of much damage from Andrew. Since then, we’ve had several hurricanes, including 2 of them in the month of September, 2 weeks apart. We took hits on our property, had no power for 2 weeks or better in places, but got right to cleaning it up & re-roofing. Everyone I know did the same. No one waited for a hand out. It comes down to either being a parasite on society or being self reliant.
I remember Andrew well, my baby daughter was 4 weeks old at the time. We lived well north of the storm(about 50 miles), but we felt the impact, though not as severe as Homestead did. Many of my friends and neighbors got into their cars and drove to Homestead with supplies to help the residents. They said it was like a war zone. Those of us that live in Hurricane zones know to be prepared every season, if the eventual inevitability happens then you can only blame yourself. The only “victim’ is your own stupidity.
On August 27th, 2010 at 11:16 am, flmom said:
baboyako said:
Many of my friends and neighbors got into their cars and drove to Homestead with supplies to help the residents.
—————————————-
But when people are “busy” waiting for the government to help or blaming the President, they have no time to help each other. Hence the attitude of the Hurricane Katrina “victims”.
Um, how many gazillions did we spend on Katrina so far?
Where did all the money go????????
How many gazillions were spent in fly-over country during their floods? Hmm?
How did “POOR” get on that list? Poor isn’t a color.
Why in the world is Michelle Malkin obsessing over what a musician said five years ago when her own Fox News colleague Glenn Beck called the current president a racist just last year?
On August 27th, 2010 at 11:34 am, Red State Skeptic said:
—————————————-
She’s pointing out that racial demagoguery has continued and, in fact, has perhaps gotten worse since Katrina – and since Obama, the supposed “post-racial” President, was elected.
And there is a point to be made that, for example, Obama and Holder had racist reasons for not pursuing the case against the Black Panthers. Not the same thing as a blanket statement that any President “doesn’t care about black people”.
Prior to the hurricane, New Orleans was the most integrated city in the country. To yell racism is moronic.
Despite the media agenda, the real problem in Katrina was at the local level. The democratic black mayor Nagin was an imbecile and democratic governor Blanco wasn’t much better. These idiots were warned that New Orleans needed 72 hours to successfully evacuate the city, but didn’t pull the trigger until too late. Everything that happened after was a direct result of the incompetence of these two “leaders”.
This isn’t really a struggle between black and white, rich and poor, Republican and Democrat….this is a struggle between the intelligent and the seriously stupid!
Katrina was a result of decades of massive stupidity and playing the race/bigot card is not a solution.
Decades of dems governing over the gimmy crowd resulted in the tragedy. Bush had nothing to do with money given to reinforce the levies was misused to pander for votes. Bush had nothing to do with election the idiots for governor and gulf mayors. Bush had nothing to do with Nagen not staging an evacuation of people who had done nothing with their lives except be on the dole. Bush had nothing to do with New Orleans gambling that nothing would happen from a direct hit from the hurricane.
Morons blame others for their own short comings. Morons gambled with the lives of others. Morons abdicated their own safety to others. Morons expected the gov to do for them those things that they didn’t want to do for themselves. Morons refuse to learn from mistakes. Morons will continue to repeat the tragedies of history.
Please. She’s not obsessing. She merely awarded him the “Olympic gold medal for racial grievance-mongering….”
There were plenty of others that made the same assertions. Surely, you’re not going to attempt to deny that.
Errah in October, Anderson Cooper and Brian Williams will both have retrospectives on the 944 anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. Bush hates the Romans, English and Normans!
Katrina…when, in God’s name, will we be able to stop hearing about Katrina? I’m sick of it.
How much money has the government thrown at Katrina? I know it’s into the billions, and after all these years, they’re still asking for more?
What about all the private donations designed to help the victims?
When is enough, enough? It certainly appears that neither federal, state, or local governments know how to manage money, nor reconstruction. Three terms come to mind; waste, fraud, abuse!
My guess is that, like ALL government programs, much of the money has been “intercepted” by crooked politicians, grifters, crooked non-profit organizations, and unions.
I will deny that Democratic politicians and high profile media personalities (who of course run the Republican party) called George Bush a racist.
My point is just that if Michelle Malkin really finds the race card that objectionable, she would have called out her own colleague for playing it.
I saw part of this diatribe last night, and one of the things I heard was that the reason the 9th ward was so slow to rebuild, was that there were only 3 charity organizations building these houses for these people, so it was going to take a long time. Isn’t this exactly why hurricane Katrina devastated Nawlins, and merely hurt Biloxi etc. The same damn lazy (_!_) people who wait on the charity to rebuild for them were waiting on the charity to get them out of their homes and into someplace dry and FREE.
Michelle,
I’m really glad you wrote this piece.
The Democrat[ic Socialist]s are playing another variation on the
“Blame Bush” theme.
And to permanently document how strongly they are pushing it,
I captured a JPG of what your site looks like right now
with this as the Lead Story,
and not 1, not 2, but 3 different ads for:
Well then, you lie.
I’d say having “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture” qualifies as a blanket slatement. I don’t know why the Blank Panthers case was dropped, but if you’re trying to find reasons why the president might objectively be a racist, remember that Bush spoke at a college that banned interracial dating.
Who better to comment in a thread about playing the race card than a committed racist?
There’s probably still some people who still believe GW created a biblical sized hurricane to do immense damage to the gulf states.
The Democrat governor at the time refused to allow FEMA in to help for a week for purely political purposes, the governor and the mayor of New Orleans used the levee funds for feel good liberal social projects and the mayor let a fleet of school buses flood instead of evacuating people with them.
Media accelerated their 24-7 Bush bash fest in the face of death, destruction and the courageous rescue efforts.
Pathetic partisan election cycle media Bush hate is back, Democrats have fouled their own mess kits, they can’t run on their record, Blaming a past President for their own anti-American actions is all they got.
On August 27th, 2010 at 12:08 pm, Red State Skeptic said:
I’d say having “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture” qualifies as a blanket slatement. I don’t know why the Blank Panthers case was dropped, but if you’re trying to find reasons why the president might objectively be a racist, remember that Bush spoke at a college that banned interracial dating.
—————————————-
And what church, with what pastor, did Obama attend until it came back to bite him politically during his campaign? Who married him and his wife and baptised their children? A college with a policy against interracial dating, while I don’t agree with that, either, seems tame by comparison.
And there is sworn testimony that the Black Panther case was dropped specifically because the alleged perpetrators of voter intimidation were black, and the alleged victims of said intimidation were white. As long is we’re making comparisons, there is more objective reason to believe Obama is a racist than there ever was that Bush is.
But I draw the line at claiming to know what someone else is feeling or thinking.
Oh, there’s a valid comparison (especially since the university policy you refer to had been repealed long before Bush spoke there).
Jeremiah Wright might be a hateful crackpot, but you can’t tell me he’s a racist hateful crackpot. He has (had? didn’t he retire?) many white members of the church.
Testimony by whom?
Not so. The policy was repealed only after the firestorm that it incited when Bush visited in 2000.
Nobody mentioned how Amtrak (part of the Boosh Admin) notified the Nagin Administration of NOLA that they were pulling all of the passenger equipment out of NOLA and asked the Nagin Administration if they needed to evacuate people Amtrak would let them ride on the passenger cars being removed. They answer from the Nagin Admin was NO!
May the Katrina specials receive low ratings. I have no further interest in viewing any more spin from the political elites and hollywood wackos. I have no interest in revisiting the plight of the learned helplessness crowd. I doubt that any of these Katrina whiners will produce a special on the damage done to the gulf because of the oil spill and related drilling ban. Katrina damage resulted from a poor response to a natural disaster and the economic damage being done now results from gross deliberate human error. This administration owns this man caused disaster.
On August 27th, 2010 at 12:26 pm, Red State Skeptic said:
—————————————-
Jeremiah Wright is a follower of “Black Liberation Theology”, believes that AIDS was created by whites to eliminate the black/minority population, blamed America for 9-11 (remember the “chickens have come home to roost” comment?) and called America “the land of the greedy and the home of the slave” or words to that effect. You see no racist connotations in any of that? Frankly, it gave me more pause about Obama than anything else, including his association with Bill Ayers (and that’s saying something).
The testimony I refer to was by one J. Christian Adams, a former DOJ employee who said that he was given a mandate to drop the case due to the race of the accused and the accusers involved and subsequently resigned in protest.
Now you’re starting to sound like Phil.
You know, the only reason why they are making hay out of Katrina is its the only thing the Democractic media complex has in its quiver against the very likely vendetta in November. The natives are restless so it’s time to bring out the bad old memories of Bush single-handedly destroying New Orleans.
The real narrative on Katrina should be The Epic Fail of Big Government. “Chocolate City” Nagin had no buses to evacuate people; it took one enterprising and smart boy to commandeer a school bus to save himself and his neighbors. But he had plenty of buses to bring ex-N.O. residents from Houston, Atlanta, and other locales in to vote for his re-election (and that he won shows you what dopes he has for constituents). Kathleen Blanco’s utter incompetence is the reason why Bobby Jindal is governor today. Years of government dependency made many of the city’s residents completely unable to take care of themselves. I’ll never forget crowds of them standing around like toddlers, waiting for somebody else to do something. Then, when they got a little testy they decided to help themselves to new t.v.s and designer merchandise. Then there was the failure of FEMA. Remember the trailers? The cruise ship rentals and long hotel stays? Remember the gift cards people used for luxury handbags and strip clubs?
It also marks the epic failure of the media. They were willing to report urban legends and flat out lie on camera in order to jazz up the story. Remember the snipers allegedly shooting people at a hospital or the masses of deaths and rapes going on in the Superdome? A bunch of malarkey they never corrected. I’ve also never seen so many people bawling their eyes out on camera. They weren’t even that upset on Sept. 11. But they knew it would work against Bush, so they kept it up.
I’d already moved from Florida when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, but I remember that people took care of themselves rebuilding and protecting their property; a lot of people in Miami own guns. Not a lot of looting went on there. South Floridians know you prepare for a hurricane and when you get the evacuation order, leave.
Similarly, during the 2007 fires that hit San Diego County, over a million people were peacably evacuated from their homes. There were no tales of mayhem from Qualcomm Stadium. Residents started dropping by with supplies and clothes for people before the Red Cross and other groups even got there.
By the way, who got trucks with supplies out the fastest after Katrina had passed? Wal-Mart.
I said from the beginning that they should have trucked all the debris from the Gulf Coast and dumped it in the parts of New Orleans that are below sea level. Fill the Bowl! THEN rebuild.
Now, it will just happen again sometime.
F&$# this. There was no telethon for the midwest floods in 1993. Just video of farm houses floating away on the evening news.
Everyone in mid-Missouri just pitched in & helped with what they could.
I’m done.
The race card is being flopped all over this weekend.
Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally is one place it’s being thrown in profusion.
Beck is flushing out the crazies…
Rags–dontcha know? Unless Sharpton approves it ahead of time no one is allowed to have any kind of meeting, rally, speaking engagement, wedding, bar mitzvah, or birthday party on the anniversary of King’s speech.
You know, if the Beck and Palin weren’t the EXACT SAME PEOPLE who are saying that due to “sensitivity,” Muslims should stay out of downtown Manhattan, I would say it’s no big deal that these people who follow the mantle of Barry Goldwater conservatism are doing a rally on the anniversary of and at the site of MLK’s greatest moment. But since they are, I think they should really consider moving the rally 10 blocks and 2 weeks away, just to avoid hypocrisy.
Why? Because the political ideology of those people you mention includes blowing up the Lincoln Memorial?
On August 27th, 2010 at 1:02 pm, Red State Skeptic said:
Read the linked piece.
What you’ll see is that King and Beck have a lot in common…more, in fact, than Fauntnoy and King.
You’ll (maybe) be able to see how silly your comment is.
so… you were showing Bush your admiration???
Frankly, it gave me pause too, but really because Rev. Wright is an idiot, and I couldn’t believe that Obama would be so close to such a wacko. Does he go overboard in blaming the US for the ills of the world? Yes. Does that mean he hates the same white people who are sitting in his pews? No.
Oh I forgot all about him! The impartial whistleblower who happens to be a former Bush operative. Good point.
yeah…the same people that would call MLK an uncle Tom if he were alive today!
On August 27th, 2010 at 1:10 pm, Red State Skeptic said:
—————————————-
Ahhh, he worked for Bush; therefore he must have lied under oath! That had never occurred to me! Thanks!
Sarc/
First things first, Glenn Beck is a Mormon, a religion that allowed African Americans to hold leadership positions only after civil rights legislation compelled them to do so, and a religion founded by a man who explained the red skin of Native Americans as a product of God punishing them for being wicked.
Second, I can respect conservatives for supporting limited government, especially limited federal government, but understand that the very thing MLK fought for was intervention by the federal government to compel state governments not to discriminate and not to allow discrimination by private businesses. If Glenn Beck wants to claim the mantle of MLK, he needs to change his entire political philosophy.
Also, what’s up with all the different font sizes?
First, what you assert about the LDS religion is simply false.
Second, STFW?
There are many millions of LDS people all over the world. Are you asserting that Beck is a racist, as are they, by implication?
Speak to the issues. No deflection.
MLK sought local change. I was alive at the time, and a supporter. Local WHITE Southern business leaders were some of his strongest allies.
The Federal government was fairly uniformly AGAINST King. Where did you get your history?
Hey, you format your blog. I’ll format mine.
They’re called “useful idiots”. And the fact that they’re sitting in his pews and filling his coffers has no bearing on whether he hates them or not.
I think that is a perversion of anything Beck has ever thought.
Silly, too.
_________ is a democrat, a political group that opposed the civil rights bill and also founded the KKK,
On August 27th, 2010 at 1:35 pm, txvet2 said:
—————————————-
“Filling his coffers” is the operative phrase; he’s not going to refuse donations from anyone, regardless of skin color. I can’t begrudge him that; it’s his parishioners’ fault for falling for his nonsense.
I’m looking at this transcript right now, and correct me if I’m wrong, but at no point does he offer any facts to support his conclusion that the DOJ dropped the case “specifically because the alleged perpetrators of voter intimidation were black,” as you say, other than that it followed a pattern of DOJ prosecution in the past. You know, before Barack Obama was president.
Not to mention that the millions of dollars white America contributed to the Katrina relief effort disappeared down a black hole of waste and fraud. Never again. The race-baiters and their deluded minions have made their beds and now they can lie in them.
There is no accounting for self-hating liberals. It’s the same syndrome that leads Jewish politicians to support Obama, even though he’s clearly pro-Muslim and anti-Israel.
1) And I am a Lutheran. Lutherans torched Catholic Churches in Germany. What’s your religon or ethnic back ground? I am sure I can find something as attach to you too. Leftists group people and then assume all of them have the same views and values. OBTW, the word that describes that conduct is BIGOTRY, which is the root cause of all racism. Fancy that!
2) Within limited government, one of its most paramount duties is to ensure that all Americans are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; totally consist with what MLK sought for ALL PEOPLE. DUH….
3) Beck has never asked to be equated with MLK. That lie was conjured up by The Left. Beck finds the whole concept ludicrous. When Beck scheduled the event he did not even know it cooincided with MLK’s speech. Once he found out he immediately invited MLK’s daughter to be apart of the event.
What scares the h@11 out of libs is that MLK will be ACCURATELY honored and his words HONESTLY presented at this event.
Repeating MLK’s “I dream of a day when people will be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character,” is not going to be well received by The Left. They need victims and race baiting provides them on a silver platter.
When are they going to have a Hurricane Shaquantay?
The people that name hurricanes are RACIST!!!
On August 27th, 2010 at 1:42 pm, Red State Skeptic said:
—————————————-
Your implication is that he would say anything (lie) to discredit the current administration; therefore, you are saying he would go so far as to perjur himself.
But, moving on. There is also Bartle Bull, the Democrat poll-watcher who was at the polling place in question and said that he was called a “cracker” and told that he was “going to find out what it’s like to be ruled by the black man”. He (Bull) described it as the worst case of intimidation he has ever been witness to, and that is saying something since he was politically active during the fight for civil rights. Are you not a wee bit curious as to why this case was not pursued further?
If there is a mandate within the DOJ that crimes are to be prosecuted or not due to the race of the plaintiff and defendant involved, I want it investigated and stopped. I don’t care when it started and I won’t hold Obama personally responsible for it if he wasn’t. But I want to know.
Not at all. According Joseph Smith, Native Americans, or “Lamanites,” were a group of Jews who somehow journeyed to America and were wicked and rebellious, for which they were cursed with dark skin.
Of course King wanted change at all levels of government, most importantly at the federal level with the Civil Rights Act, which (if I have my history right!) was passed by the United States Congress.
It’s all about ratings. None of the networks give a rat’s a$$ about anyone in NO or anywhere else south of Manhattan. Katy Couric just set or tied a record low for network news (fewest people watching) and these guys would do anything they think will get eyeballs on commercials. Well, anything except providing actual news.
German Catholic! It’s on, Flyoverman. Payback time.
Seriously, given that the very beliefs of Mormonism include the idea that Native Americans are red because they are (or were) wicked strikes me as incredibly racist (not to mention historically ludicrous). You make a good point about all religions having checkered pasts (my own obviously included) so I guess I shouldn’t fault Glenn Beck for being a member of a church that discriminated against black people before he was a member. (Mitt Romney, on the other hand, held a leadership position in the church while it was an officially racist organization.)
Within limited government, as Barry Goldwater envisioned it and as Rand Paul does today, private businesses should be free to discriminate upon whomever they choose. It strikes me as dishonest and cowardly for tea party types like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to say they’re for old timey MLK civil rights, without taking a stand on whether the federal government should tell a mom-and-pop store whom they must serve and hire.
I was referring to this fatuous piece of nonsense.
No such legislation…and no means of enforcing it against a religion…exists. I am a lawyer, so I know whereof I speak.
As to your OTHER assertions about LDS theology, that is a perversion of what the doctrine is, and leaves out the fact that the “Lamanite” people are people of “promise”, not that any of that matters to our discussion.
For most of King’s work, he never dreamed (no pun) of any such thing. And you did not address the FACT that for most of King’s campaign, he was ACTIVELY opposed by the Feds (including several Deemocrat administrations and very prominent pols).
Well, there is a “Chantal” listed for the 2013 season. Must be gradually working in ethnicaly associated names : )
Also, there are only six lists of pre-approved hurricane names that are rotated. A name is retired if it is a devestating hurricane – so we’ll never see Katrina used again. It might take a while before we see a pre-approved hurricane named “Shaquantay” or “Barack” .
On August 27th, 2010 at 2:15 pm, Ragspierre said:
Mormon, a religion that allowed African Americans to hold leadership positions only after civil rights legislation compelled them to do so…
I was referring to this fatuous piece of nonsense.
No such legislation…and no means of enforcing it against a religion…exists. I am a lawyer, so I know whereof I speak.
—————————————-
Of course – that good old “separation of church and state” that we keep hearing about, especially when someone wants to put up a Nativity in a public place at Christmastime. If the government tried to order any church to stop discriminating on the basis of race (or any other basis), it would be struck down so fast their heads would spin. The Civil Rights Act does not apply to churches; if it did, the Roman Catholic church could be forced to ordain female priests, any religion or church could be forced to stop preaching against homosexuality, ordain homosexuals, and perform and recognize same-sex marriages . . . the list could go on and on.
As opposed to being COMPELLED to discriminate by the Federal government, you mean? Or voluntarily, as in university admissions?
Which IS the thrust of MOST of what the NAACP works for today. Which is not the least RACIST? Right?
Amen. Its a chocolate city per Nagin.
It is clear to me (more and more) that MLK struggled for the good of all races and that no one can lay exclusive claim to his principles for the purpose of control. I suspect that the part that bothers alot of people is getting judged by the content of their character…not tolerated, not excused for … but JUDGED!
Cool video that I really like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbqNaIRW9vY&feature=channel
Have you EVER heard either of them militate for repeal of civil rights laws?
Let me help… NO. So that’s either a TPM lode of crap, or your own lie. Maybe both…
Now, me, I’d REALLLLLLLY like to follow the civil rights laws…which we stopped doing years ago in favor of a new, approved racial and gender discrimination.
See, I think MLK would spit on that. I sure do.
On August 27th, 2010 at 2:40 pm, Ragspierre said:
—————————————-
What MLK ultimately wanted, I think, was a country – a world – in which race was no longer a political issue because race was no longer an issue, period.
Those today who thrive on making it a political issue are not fit to tie his shoes. And others are not racists or guilty of doing the same thing themselves because they call out racial demagoguery when they see it.
So what round of the fight would this be 1,284?
It would be inappropriate for me or anyone on this site to equate anything you might believe in to the beliefs of Ted Kennedy, Paul Wellstone, John Kerry, Barack Obama, etc.
Judge Beck on Beck. He is his own self, just as you and I are.
The rally tomorrow’s theme is “Restoring Honor.” It is not about MLK, but if they use the occasion to make a small digression to remind everyone of MLK’s honor and dignity, that would be good.
No. Neither has Rand Paul, but he has made it clear that he does not support government compelling private businesses not to discriminate. That’s why I find it cowardly for these people to take such a strident stand on limited government but remain silent on the content of the Civil Rights Act for fear of being politically incorrect.
If you ask a member of the LDS church, they would tell you that the change…and the policy before it…came from God.
I happen not to be affiliated with any religion, but I know enough LDS doctrine to know you are surely hostile to it to the point of being biased.
You mean, up until 1978, the LDS religion was like the NAACP is today? Or the Congressional BLACK Caucus?
And I find you a coward for implying that “these people” who stand for limited government are hostile to racial equality under the law.
I’m calling you a liar.
Of course they will. They said the same thing about their change in allowing polygamy. My God would never support a policy that barred African Americans from holding leadership positions, but if that’s what they say they got from the big guy, then more power to ‘em.
I will admit my bias, and I will admit that it’s easy to pick on newer religions that have to stand up to historical scrutiny at a higher level than my religion, which has little in historical evidence to back it up. But that doesn’t mean Joseph Smith isn’t one of history’s greatest frauds. If you haven’t read this book, and you are really curious about the true story of the Mormon church, I recommend it highly.
Umm, personally I do not equate affirmative action policy as a means of remedying past discrimination against African Americans to discrimination that bars blacks outright. But that’s me. Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
By definition, limited government is antithetical to laws that prohibit private businesses from discrimination. Is it not?