Posted on 09/02/2005 7:22:43 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson fired off a fierce attack on President George W. Bush over Hurricane Katrina and claimed black people were being locked out of top relief roles.
Jackson raised the sensitive issue of race, simmering below the surface in New Orleans, even before the hurricane tragedy, pointing out that many of those trapped in the city by the storm were poor and black.
"There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people, and black people ... we seem to adjust more easily to black pain."
Jackson spoke after leading a bus convoy into New Orleans to rescue 450 students trapped at Xavier University, and said he had been shocked by scenes of pain among refugees trying to flee the city.
"We reach out today for our president to lead from the ground, not the air," Jackson said, as Bush toured hurricane hit areas by foot and by helicopter after admitting government relief efforts so far were "not acceptable."
Jackson said 120,000 people in New Orleans make less than 8,000 dollars a year. "They are poor people, black people for the most part without private transportation, many of them are old and sick."
And he also criticized the role given to former presidents George Bush senior and Bill Clinton as coordinators for a fund raising effort following the Katrina tragedy, similar to their role as tsunami fund raisers.
"Why are there no African Americans in that circle?" Jackson asked.
"How can blacks be left out of the leadership and trapped into the suffering?"
Jackson also found time to throw political barbs Bush's way, claiming the president's policies had given the top five percent of Americans a tax cut and a "five billion dollar a month war in Iraq" while federal officials had neglected flood control systems in New Orleans.
"When the 9/11 tragedy struck us, the president was there in two days, on the ground embracing police and firemen. When the tsunami struck, he immediately mobilized world opinion.
"The UN relief effort for the tsunami was superior to the US effort for New Orleans and Louisiana. For American citizens, we deserve better."
Bush earlier on Friday rejected claims that expenditure or use of troops in Iraq had been partly to blame for what critics say was a sluggish, initial response by the US government to the Hurricane Katrina crisis.
"We've got plenty of resources to do both," Bush said, and also predicted that "the great city of New Orleans will rise again."
"I'm going to fly out of here in a minute, but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen. I understand the devastation requires more than one day's attention," Bush said at New Orleans airport.
"It's going to require the attention of this country for a long period of time. This is one of the worst natural disasters we have faced, with national consequences. And therefore, there will be a national response," he said.
Perfect pic to go with what I'm feeling. :)
Exactly why hasn't a MAJOR investigation been opened into Jessie Jackson's whatever they can dig up? The idiot hasn't met a WHITE politician, especially Republican, that he likes.
EVERYTHING has a racial basis to him. He spouts hate and lies, yet nothing is ever done to REALLY disprove or discredit him in a public way. IT's past time to shut him up.
Jackson said: "we seem to adjust more easily to black pain".
For once, I agree with that s.o.b. He was talking to a bunch of liberal phonies, and he and they do adjust more easily to black pain. They just like to make a big show. I can't politely express my contempt for these sleazy, hypocritical bastards.
For the rest of us, skin color does not make a difference; we're upset by their pain, and contributing to alleviate it.
Jesse Lee Peterson Show P.O. Box 35090 Los Angeles, CA 90035-0090 Phone: (323) 782-1980 Fax: (323) 782-0122
Hope this helps you get answers to your questions.
Je$$e Jackson is a swine.
But Jesse wants Black Chiefs not Black Indians.
aint it the truth
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Why in Gods name are we arguing about trivial bullshit worrying about what damn color person we appoint to lead a recovery effort when people are starving!
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Words fail me. This guy just got back from Caracas, praising its dictator while Venezuelans were getting beaten up in the streets. Plenty of them were black.
Where was Jackson't 'concern'?
Jesse (unprintable, unprintable, unprintable)
In other astounding news, area dog licks his own b*##s.
Has Jesse ever worked a day in his life?
Thanks!! :)
I couldn't of said it better. He is one of the most ignorant people I have ever heard.
Let me be the first to raise the sensitive issue for Jesse Jackson that the rescuers seemed to be overwhelmingly white. Hmmmmm, how many black pilots, EMTs, doctors, nurses, soldiers, etc., did I see helping the blacks?
True. I noticed that the pilots, EMTs, doctors, nurses, rescuers, etc., were white folks.
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