Katrina "racism" testimony further erodes nation's good will

Politicsla.com ^ | 12/8/05 | Jeffrey Sadow

[Polybius]

[wouldntbprudent]

And neither will the rest of the nation as it debates what kind of assistance the state will receive, and it won’t be too willing to send much to an environment where such moronic attitudes flourish

Indeed, many thinking people will think the best thing we can do to HELP these people long-term is make them sink or swim right now; preclude the rebuilding of the plantations; dilute the influence of these moronic attitudes on a previously captive audience; and help those willing to open their eyes to how the rest of the nation "stops being poor" to stop being poor.

[IronJack]

I think the country is suffering a case of Katrina overload. I don't want to hear one more boo-hoo story about a lost home, a harrowing escape from the swirling flood waters, or the anomie that pervades the displaced population.

The story is months old. The time for pity is past. If you're not willing to get up off your butts and make something happen, then shut up and go away. I'm not going to do it for you.

[retiredcpo]

Excellent article

[Neville72]

"Is there any place in America whose people, from its top officials on down, do a better job of shooting themselves in their own feet?"


No, there's not. I hate to say it but watching this train wreck on a daily basis leads me to believe that Orleans Parish needs to be federalized. That would solve 99% of the problems. Just take the damn thing over for the next 10 years, boot out the race pimps and numbskulls who couldn't run a lemonade stand much less a city of half a million people and run it like any other city that operates in a "normal" fashion.

Otherwise, don't send those IDIOTS one more dime.

[Sweetjustusnow]

Very good article and to the point.

[gieriscm]

"Is there any place in America whose people, from its top officials on down, do a better job of shooting themselves in their own feet?"

Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and Baltimore also spring to mind, as does San Francisco... oh wait, they voted to ban guns, never mind...

[caryatid]

... because of income differentials blacks disproportionately had reduced private means of evacuation ...

How do you square this with the images of countless ... countless ... unused, flooded automobiles in the Lower 9th Ward?

The fact that people chose not to evacuate ... after a mandatory evacuation order ... is not a matter of reduced private means of evacacuation ... but of free will.

A thousand brand new automobiles per square mile would have done no good at all ... if people had chosen not to use them.

Willful disobedience of a mandatory evacuation order ... and a refusal to accept personal responsibility for one's own safety ... are the culprits here ... not reduced private means of transportation!

[Certainly there are some few exceptions for elderly and/or disabled folks ... but the majority of those died in situ ... so we are talking about mostly able bodied folks who were rescued.]

[Polybius]

Excellent article

Unfortunately, the White House and the Republicans in Washington have been so afraid of being accused of "blaming the victim" that they have allowed the liberal news media to totally ignore the abysmal failures of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco. Instead, the Big Lie of Republican racism has been what the American Sheeple have been spoon-fed.

[Lou L]

Just take the damn thing over for the next 10 years, boot out the race pimps and numbskulls who couldn't run a lemonade stand

Sadly, "federalizing it" would only mean that federal government race pimps and numbskulls would be appointed, rather than the home-grown ones they have today. I mean, what competent person would want to take on a job like that?

[Youngman442002]

First it was sad..now its stupid....they had plenty of warning..and they stayed...and I don't fall for the "poor" excuse...and now the true story is that the levees failed....somehting that the residents were in control of..corruption and stupidity...even the Police...My wallet is closed to these idiots...they voted for them...they should live by them

[Neville72]

Appoint General "Don't get stuck on stupid" Honore as Parish Benevolent Dictator.

That's about the only way things will change.

[blam]

Excellent article.

Goodwill for NO evaporated with these claims of racism. And, that loss of goodwill will generate more claims of racism.

[Wristpin]

I didn't see any racism by the military helo crews that flew 24/7 pulling 40,000 of these people off roof tops.

The biggest airborne rescue operation in history, yet they didn't even receive a "Thank you". It didn't go along with the DNC/media script.

[CajunConservative]

Except for the disabled and those without *any* transportation we need to start laying the blame where it squarely belongs, the individuals who failed to leave. I lived on the other side of the state and as soon as it got into the Gulf I started making my preparations. It's what you do when you live on the Gulf Coast.

*Louisiana Ping List

If you would like on or off the Louisiana Ping list please FReepmail me and your name will be added or taken off of the list.

[Dick Bachert]

Looks like it might be time to repost this from one of the brightest of the Founding Fathers.

"The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIX, 1782. ME 2:230


I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. Papers 12:442

"I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173

"Our cities... exhibit specimens of London only; our country is a different nation." --Thomas Jefferson to Andre de Daschkoff, 1809. ME 12:304

"Everyone, by his property or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs and a degree of freedom which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:401

"An insurrection... of science, talents, and courage, against rank and birth... has failed in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could not be restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from the panic of this first catastrophe." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:402

"I fear nothing for our liberty from the assaults of force; but I have seen and felt much, and fear more from English books, English prejudices, English manners, and the apes, the dupes, and designs among our professional crafts. When I look around me for security against these seductions, I find it in the wide spread of our agricultural citizens, in their unsophisticated minds, their independence and their power, if called on, to crush the Humists of our cities, and to maintain the principles which severed us from England." --Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:120

[oldcomputerguy]

"The time for pity is past. "

Spoken by a true horse's back end.

The point missed is that the bulk of the people crying racism are not in New Orleans anymore, they evacuated and are not coming back. The town is, and is likely to stay, whiter and more Republican.

The biggest point is that this entire disaster was caused by *human error*. The Corp Of Engineers allowed inadequate sheet pilings to be be installed on failed canals. Then they compounded the mistake by allowing dredging right up to the inadequate flood-walls in the early 80's of those same canals!

The rest of the flooding was accounted for by another Corp oversight project, the MR-GO which channeled storm surge right into St Bernard and New Orleans East as predicted by its detractors from the start.

As Ted Stevens of Alaska testified, this was not a natural disaster but human error. It's about time people like you figure out the difference.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

My grandparents left Syria and Lebanon in 1905 to flee Islamic murdering radicals. They knew no English, they had no money, but they came here legally.

Grandpa worked as a painter, laborer, etc. to earn pennies to put food on a table for seven kids. There was no such thing as welfare or government assistance, and my grandparents would not have done that anyway.

The seven children they raised were taxpayers who had a higher standard of living, as the kids attended school and worked hard.

These seven kids had 27 kids (my generation) who generally attended college and have an even higher standard of living. We are productive taxpayers enjoying the best America has to offer, and our only misery comes when we talk about the taxes we pay to take care of worthless slugs like those in New Orleans. We have no compassion for lazy ass parasites who do not want to make any effort to do what my grandparents did. Two generations later, New Orleans people could all be well off if they would just get off their lazy damn butts and teach kids that happiness and financial security requires some effort on their part.

[WatchOutForSnakes]

Didn't receive a thank you? Didn't receive a thank you by who? The 40,000 you speak of or the idiots on the panel. I would assume most if not all of the rescued thanked the crews. I wouldn't expect the idiots on the panel to thank them. That wasn't their agenda.