Posted on 09/04/2005 8:55:02 PM PDT by wagglebee
International singing star Celine Dion has little problem with the large amount of looting taking place in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, and she's slamming the U.S. government for its perceived slow response to Katrina's impact.
"You know, some people are stealing and they're making a big deal out of it," Dion said on CNN's "Larry King Live," as she said she'd donate $1 million toward relief.
"Oh, they're stealing 20 pair of jeans or they're stealing television sets. Who cares? They're not going to go too far with it. Maybe those people are so poor, some of the people who do that they're so poor they've never touched anything in their lives. Let them touch those things for once."
Dion, an celebrity from Canada who now lives and performs in Las Vegas, took a double swipe at U.S. war policy while criticizing the recovery effort.
"How come it's so easy to send planes in another country to kill everyone in a second, to destroy lives?"
"I open the television, there's people still there waiting to be rescued and for me it's not acceptable. I know there's reasons for it. I'm sorry to say I'm being rude but I don't want to hear those reasons."
Fellow singer Harry Connick Jr., who hails from New Orleans, and was able to make it into the hard-hit region last week, said he was horrified by the number of bodies, including an old woman in a chair at the city's convention center.
Connick also told King a friend commandeered an abandoned city bus to help evacuate refugees.
"And I'm thinking, if [she] can get on a bus and drive a bus out with sick people, you know, well, we can't get a barge to park back up on the Mississippi behind the convention center and get these people out?"
The Bush administration was also accused of racism on national TV during a celebrity relief effort on NBC.
"George Bush doesn't care about black people!" exclaimed rapper Kayne West.
West continued:
I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help – with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way – and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!
Meanwhile, actor Sean Penn made his own personal attempt to aid those in New Orleans, but the small boat he was piloting to launch a rescue attempt sprang a leak.
The 45-year-old Oscar winner had planned on rescuing stranded children, but an Agence France-Presse report indicates he apparently forgot to plug a hole in the vessel's bottom, which took on water within seconds of its launch.
Asked about his goal in the soaked city, Penn replied: "Whatever I can do to help."
But with the boat loaded with members of his entourage, including his personal photographer, one bystander taunted: "How are you going to get any people in that thing?"
ping
If they loot, we must shoot.
Shut up and sing, dammit!
I'm guessing that she doesn't own a store in New Orleans.
perhaps she would like to house some of the refugees at her place
It was UN F'ing believable! larry just sat there.HA. He kept trying to get her to calm down and she kept wiping her nose and face with her hands from the crying. YEESH! It is worth a repeat video...I wish we could get the video on Freeper. Her hands were flailing in the air and none of her tears messed her make up and then, bam! On cue Larry asked her to sing a song and she sang.HA.
I'm going to wait and see if she goes off about her songs being pirated or someone sneaking a tape recorder into one of her performances.
roflmao!!! Great line. I love it!!!!!!
It's refreshing to see an idiot with deep pockets kick in a few bucks to cover the cost of her ignorant press statement.
If she kicks in another million, I'd let her spout all the crap she wants for at least another minute or 2. :-)
Q: One quick follow-up. Is it fair to say, using the convention center as an example, that one reason it took until Friday to get aid in is the National Guard needed time to build up a response team with military police to ensure law and order because the New Orleans Police Department had degraded so much?
GEN. BLUM: That is not only fair, it is accurate.
Looters stealing diapers? Not a problem.
Looters shooting at rescue workers? That will slow down relief efforts and cause people to die.
New keyboard, please.
This woman expertise is what? Singing movie theme songs and getting paid unfathomable sums of money to sing in Vegas. I'm sure by the end of the year she will be testifying before some Congressional committee as an expert on hurricanes and racism.
As for the looting. I can see it both ways. Many of these people are society's dregs...touching wealth for perhaps the first and only time. But maybe they're stealing from someone who's worked damn hard to get what he has - so shoot them.
A friend reminded me that the Irish of a century and a half ago had the reputation blacks now have - and for the same reason; they'd been treated like dogs for so long that they acted like dogs.
My brother-in-law was mugged there a couple of years ago. The night he was mugged, there were over 20 muggings and four murders.
Stress didn't bring anything out! These criminals are just acting the way they always have, but this week the whole world got to see it.
His boat was also loaded with his entourage and his personal photographer.
I would have to loot to afford a ticket to one of her concerts!
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