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.
Old Jesse can't allow a crisis to pass without getting his 15 minutes on CNN..
Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson, seen here in June 2005, 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(AFP/POOL/File/Justin Sullivan)
Words almost fail me .. almost.
Move to Cuba, yOu SOB!
How many has Jackson offered to help? To Provide shelter, to feed, to clothe?
ST*U, Jesse, bigamist and racist.
Oh my God. I was shocked at the title. Who coulda seen that one coming?
Go Je$$ee!
Who's he in bed with tonight?
Well, the lying hypocrite adulterer sticks up his ugly head again --- and playing the RACE CARD again, again, again. It is unfortunate for this entire country there are still enough ignorant people that support Jackson's professional victimization efforts...
Geez, that's amazing. JJ said this? Naw!
Wonder how long this one will last?
Martin Luther King, Jr: "I have a dream!"
Howard Dean: "I have a scream!"
Jesse Jackson: "I have a scheme!"
Should have revoked his passport while he was down visiting his buddy Chavez in Venezuela.
P.O.S.
The biggest threat to the Black People in New Orleans right now is their incompetent Black Mayor.
President Bush takes walking tour with Kim Bassier, left, 21, of Biloxi, Miss., and her sister Bronwynne Bassier, 23, in a Biloxi neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Friday, Sept. 2, 2005. Bush is touring the Gulf Coast communities battered by Hurricane Katrina, hoping to boost the spirits of increasingly desperate storm victims and exhausted rescuers. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
"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."
---
What a miserable life he must lead, never knowing where the next kid of his will pop up from, or who he will shakedown next.
The Chief "Looter" has arrived! He will show them how to really turn a crises into a profitable venture.
Actually, a fair question. Where are the Colin Powells? Condoleezza Rices? Rod Paiges? Janice Rogers Brownses?
Jesse is such a race baiter. He's a malignant human being and it's a waste of bandwidth to even comment on him further.
excellent
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