Kanye West Rips Into Bush during live feed

[33girl]

Bush's guitar is the new My Pet Goat.

[Rudey]

People don't care if others die. To them it's just another time to play the game of politics.

Bill Clinton attacked FEMA and took away its funding. The administration after continued it.

George Bush decided to cause this hurricane because he hates black people. It's obviously the reason why he allowed for a state of emergency so early on (August 28) and mobilized FEMA. He knew in advance because he caused the hurricane!

The mayor admitted that he and every government official shared blame. He went on to say that he felt as if George Bush was doing a lot but that a lot of info hadn't gotten through the layers to the president early on and appreciated help from the General that was sent down.

The governor didn't want to allow the Feds to use the National Guard.

People with no proof or analysis on race factors in this disaster are speaking like Cornel West. They also have somehow become disaster-relief experts.

And Kanye? Well Kanye makes some strange remarks. His Live 8 remarks were absurd (and a quick photo-op) and so is this. I guess now that we have rescuers down there saving people and stopping the chaos, it's still racist because the whites went down there to kill the blacks. Kanye's gotta do what he can to make his money too and this is just another way to help himself.

-Rudey

[KSig RC]

Andy -

While I respect the effort you put into the plan (and especially enjoyed the citations - thanks man), it simply doesn't meet the conditions fully. I'm not sure what the process is for FEMA planning, but I'm sure it has to be much more complete than that before implementation.

Guys - this was a clusterfuck, no doubt about it, but we're pinning the tail on here with very little support for these views. Kanye West didn't help that, but again, no one should be surprised, shocked or even mildly upset that, when given a stage and an audience, he chose to use it. That's his right, and I would have done the same thing.

[madmax]

Originally posted by Imperial1
So can you tell us what Bush was doing after Katrina hit New Orleans and flooded it?

Imperial1

He was at my house. I had some water damage after the storm. President Bush came over to help clean the carpets becuase I am a Republican.

Where was Jesse Jackson when you needed him?

[lifesaver]

Originally posted by BigCityStripper
C-5 Galaxies huh? That's a cute theory. Just to ask, how many of those do the Army, AF, Navy or USMC have just sitting around on runways, perfectly adapted to such needs? Oh, I'm sure there's hundreds and hundreds of these aircraft just sittin around, perfectly configured for just such an extraction and evacuation situation as this. Oh well, yes, and besides how MANY of these planes there are, I'm sure the LA Gov. and NO mayor have the authority to press these into service. The plain fact is, that if the NO mayor was serious about evac, him and the Gov. wouldn't have blown off Pres. Bush when he CALLED for evac, would have comandeered NO city buses and school buses, and rolled them through the poor neighborhoods and evacuated all they could. Instead they let their political differences blind them to the fact that, holy crap, W might actually have a clue what's good for them, and sentenced a large part of their constitunecy to death by their inaction.

People can smoke screen the blame all they want. They can try to shift the blame to Bush, or Republicans, or Whitey, or white devils all they want, but the true fumble here was by the elected mayor of NO and the Gov. of LA. I would venture to say that the enviornmental movement, who places a value on saving 'endangered' plants and animals in front of flood control and development measures is also partly to blame.

Thanks. I pride myself on my cute theories. It's what got me through college. Its a skill I use daily in running my own business.

Thanks Coop for the C-5 Specs. I didn't know how many were specifically available. I did know that a shitload are at Tinker AFB (in OKlahoma). In an ironic twist, they used to be serviced (Maintenance Depot) at the former Kelly AFB, the location now called Kelly USA, and home to several thousand Katrina refugees.

At any rate, Rob, I agree I didn't answer your requirements for evacuation BEFORE the storm. I went with the actual instead of the hypothetical, because 1) thats where the most immefiate need was (everyone agrees that the superdome was an acceptable shelter during the storm and for a few hours after the storm {improvments could have been made, the anticipated need for stockpiles of food, water and portable toilets after the water / power went out}) and 2) I really dont know that it actually is cost efficient to remove 100,000 people everytime there is a strong storm in the gulf - even if it is headded to an area like NOLA. I think the costs and time requirements are too high. But an Emergency Action Plan could be put into place during the storm or as soon as the scope of the emergency becomes fully known (Monday afternoon in the case of the levee breaks).

I also acknowlege the constitutional issues so eloquently pointed out by BCS. There's no one person that can authorize the moblization of the millitary and there has to be cooperation between local, state and federal agencies. I think the process needs to be streamlined for worst case scenarios.

[Kimmie1913]

I think if blame is what you are after there is enough to go around. I do not care about kanye's comments. I think they shine a light on some people's feelings and concerns where race and class are concerned. I think there has always been a "looking down one's nose" towards parts of the South because of issues of race and class. I think it is impossible to truly prove or disprove the influence of race and class on anyone's actions in this situation.

You can play what came first the chicken or the egg with this one all day. Before the storm, it would have been helpful in NOLA gov had done more to assist people with evacuating. Before the storm, it would have been helpful if more resources had been put in protecting the levees. Ultimately very little of the damage in NOLA is directly related to the hurricane, it is the result of the levee breach. Sadly, this point is going to become more and more important in the coming days as only about 40% of the population there had flood insurance and homeowners insurance WILL NOT cover damage from flood. Before that, you could say it would have been helpful if a more effective method of containing the river and the Lake had been developed. Let's blame the original engineers.

And after the storm, maybe it would have served us all better to have someone with a better background in emergency management heading FEMA. I do not care what anyone says but when I know there are evacuees at the Convention Center 2 days ahead of the Director of FEMA, something is seriously amiss.

Sept. 5, 2005 -- The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had virtually no experience with emergency management when he was appointed to the position by President Bush two years ago.

Before becoming part of the agency, Michael Brown was a top official of an Arabian Horse Association. The secretary of that association says it asked him to resign in 2001. See http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/HurricaneK...C-RSSFeeds0312)

When it is being portrayed as impossible to get anything or anyone in to or out of NOLA but every major media outlet has someone on the ground, you cannot be surprised when the average person feels like something is amiss.

And we all know in reality the President does very little. (Seriously, not even a dig a Dubya and his idiotic self) President's rely on others to actually get the work done. No one thinks (or should think) that he was getting in a helicopter and pulling people off of roofs. But as one analyst put it, what people need is for the President to look Presidential. Unfortunately, if e cannot give a “we're going to catch em and kill em” kind of speech, he has always been weak in the looking presidential department. They need for their leaders to seem to have a handle on the situation. It does not strengthen the country's support to know you got up in the middle of the night for Terry Schivo, a sad story about a person who was already dead for all intents and purposes, but took two days to decide to cut your vacation short and return to the helm when thousands of people are dead or dying. And you can make all the teleworking arguments you want, leadership and politics are as much about how it looks as what you do. It is nonsensical to condemn "looters" looking for food and water to survive when you know not one supply has hit the ground. I know I am going to stop listening to any person who would say better that you lay on the street and die then break in to the Winn Dixie. To lump those stealing bread together with those stealing tv's is absurd, insulting and insensitive. The secretary of state shopping for $400 shoes is just not the right image at the moment. The ability to ferry aid to the tsunami victims faster that people in this country is not a good image right now. The president lauding the work of the FEMA director, who knew less about where refugees were staying than CNN, and then saying that the results of the gov's efforts are "unacceptable" is not a good picture right now. How NOLA, LA, MI and AL will recover from this is a heck of a good question. When you add in those who did in fact flee but have none the less lost everything, we are going to have half a million people in financial crisis. My best friend nearly entire immediate family lived in NOLA until last week. Together her immediate family lost 3 houses and a business the employed many of them. Mercifully they did not lose their lives. But while they are alive rebuilding a life is going to really take some time. I pray that they do. Right now, I am praying for a lot of things.

And for me, the scariest long term thoughts are: How the US will not look vulnerable to an attack to the world is a good question. Somewhere, some would be terrorist is kicking himself for not attacking that levee when everybody was home. Imagine what they could have done with city full of residents. And what would the response have been? The fact that even a minor attack is more than we can withstand at the moment says quite a bit.

[Aduladi]

WELL SAID KIMMIE1913!!

[sugar and spice]

Stars Support West's Outburst


Jay-Z, Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Matt Damon are among a host of stars who have applauded Kanye West for his public attack on Us President George W. Bush on Friday. During an appearance on A Concert For Hurricane Relief - a live telethon broadcast across America - West broke away from his script to voice his disgust at the media's portrayal of the Gulf Region's African-Americans and to slam the slow delivery of aid. But the biggest stir of all came when West boldly declared, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." West's Def Jam colleague Jay-Z says, "I'm backing Kanye 100 per cent. This is America. You should be able to say what you want to say. We have freedom of speech. (The slow response to the disaster) is really numbing. You can't believe it's happening in America. You wonder, what's going on? Why were people so slow to react? I don't understand it." Combs notes, "I think he spoke from his heart. He spoke what a lot of people feel... It ain't adding up, man. It's not making sense. If the reporters can get there and you all can get there with microphones, somebody should be able to get there with food." Damon adds, "This guy with his moment on live television made a statement that hopefully now Bush will come out and address, because he doesn't have to address anything else... The White House Press Corp, they should all have their credentials taken away. Not one of them's an honest journalist. Not one of them asked a question of the guy." Meanwhile, actress Susan Sarandon has a slightly different take on West's comments: "I don't think that's an original thought, but it's probably true."

-- imdb.com

[starang21]

http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle10121.htm

[aabby757]

Kimmie, your post was amazing. I enjoyed reading it.

I was watching some Showbiz tonight show (I think on CNN? Headline News or MSNBC.) I can't remember.

And MasterP kinda sorta brought up the fact that Kanye's new CD is coming out next week. To me that insinuated that he thought that Kanye did it for publicity and to sell more records.

That is too heinous of a thougth for me to entertain right now.

What are peoples thoughts about that though?

I feel that NBC should not have edited his comments on the West coast.

Wasn't he the one that spoke out on Gay hate crimes and abolishing them? Granted, maybe people disagree with him (I personally don't) but his comment was aired.

I know I'm not quite comparing apples to apples but censorship is censorship and airing people's comments are airing people's comments.

Regardless, this trajedy is awful. Simply horrific.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by aabby757
Kimmie, your post was amazing. I enjoyed reading it.

I was watching some Showbiz tonight show (I think on CNN? Headline News or MSNBC.) I can't remember.

And MasterP kinda sorta brought up the fact that Kanye's new CD is coming out next week. To me that insinuated that he thought that Kanye did it for publicity and to sell more records.

That is too heinous of a thougth for me to entertain right now.

What are peoples thoughts about that though?

I feel that NBC should not have edited his comments on the West coast.

Wasn't he the one that spoke out on Gay hate crimes and abolishing them? Granted, maybe people disagree with him (I personally don't) but his comment was aired.

I know I'm not quite comparing apples to apples but censorship is censorship and airing people's comments are airing people's comments.

Regardless, this trajedy is awful. Simply horrific.

Of course Kanye did it for publicity.

“In the 2004 election, President Bush carried Louisiana by 281,870 votes, according to data from David Leip's election atlas. A breakdown by parish shows that the two candidates ran almost exactly even in the New Orleans area: John Kerry had a 109,763-vote margin within the city (Orleans Parish), while Bush beat Kerry by a combined 109,546 votes in the suburban parishes of Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany.

Obviously if more New Orleans residents than suburbanites move out of state, Louisiana will become more Republican. Less obviously, the state will become more Republican even if flight from the suburbs equals that from New Orleans, since the evenly divided New Orleans region will account for a smaller part of the population than the heavily GOP-leaning rest of the state.

New Orleans's Mayor Ray Nagin is up for re-election in February 2006, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu in November 2007, and Sen. Mary Landrieu in November 2008. All four are Democrats. When they point the finger at the federal government for whatever went wrong in the Katrina response, remember that they are fighting for their political lives.”

-Rudey

[AKA_Monet]

Rudey-

After this fiasco, I doubt ANY of these elected officials (with the exception of those in Congress) will run for re-election...

Besides, Nagin doesn't have a city to be Mayor of... He's basically relying on what Honore is telling him now...


Coramoor and BigCityStripper--

Neither of you are poor and I seriousssssly doubt you have loved ones or know more than a few folks that were hit by the hurricane and the effects afterwards so what you all say in my eyes is an EXCUSE and FULL OF SHIT!!!

Whereas most of us posting here in defense of the negativity we have seen over the last few weeks is practically a result of having SEVERAL of own fraternity and sorority members, as well as their families being DIRECTLY AFFECTED by this tragedy...

You can point and spin doctor all the bullshit you want. But it is still bullshit you are spinning... It still reeks of the putrid sewage that's being removed from NOLA today and it is explosive...

I could say more but I'd probably be banned for it...

Maybe I am getting too old for GC now and it is time for me to leave like numerous others have before me...

[FeeFee]

Originally posted by AKA_Monet
Rudey-

After this fiasco, I doubt ANY of these elected officials (with the exception of those in Congress) will run for re-election...

Besides, Nagin doesn't have a city to be Mayor of... He's basically relying on what Honore is telling him now...


Coramoor and BigCityStripper--

Neither of you are poor and I seriousssssly doubt you have loved ones or know more than a few folks that were hit by the hurricane and the effects afterwards so what you all say in my eyes is an EXCUSE and FULL OF SHIT!!!

Whereas most of us posting here in defense of the negativity we have seen over the last few weeks is practically a result of having SEVERAL of own fraternity and sorority members, as well as their families being DIRECTLY AFFECTED by this tragedy...

You can point and spin doctor all the bullshit you want. But it is still bullshit you are spinning... It still reeks of the putrid sewage that's being removed from NOLA today and it is explosive...

I could say more but I'd probably be banned for it...

Maybe I am getting too old for GC now and it is time for me to leave like numerous others have before me...

Nooooooooo Soror, don't leave!!!

[BetteDavisEyes]

It amazes me that the blame game is still being played. Too many of these damn politicians are wasting so much time trying to find out whose fault it is that they are still not giving all the help & resources these people need.

Also, may I add that when we had the earthquakes here in CA that had our freeways collapse, our water to be contaminated (though not as bad as NO), & buildings to fall, we had help almost immediately. In total, the Northridge quake cost over $40 billion dollars in damage & the area was declared a federal disaster by President Clinton. We had help almost immediately which was amazing considering no one knew an earthquake was coming. How is it that here in California, we had almost immediate help from an unforeseen disaster but New Orleans is still needing help when they had prior warning? How does the government explaing that?

[Rudey]

I beg to differ. Politics is politics and money is money even when people's lives are on the line.

All the elected officials from each party has used this as an occasion to attack each other.

Kanye has used this as an occasion to make money (publicity for his new CD).

I'm not saying everyone is innocent. In fact I'm saying there is enough guilt for everyone involved.

If these people were really that concerned they would be more active in helping instead of holding press conferences and getting their photos taken.

-Rudey

Originally posted by AKA_Monet
Rudey-

After this fiasco, I doubt ANY of these elected officials (with the exception of those in Congress) will run for re-election...

Besides, Nagin doesn't have a city to be Mayor of... He's basically relying on what Honore is telling him now...


Coramoor and BigCityStripper--

Neither of you are poor and I seriousssssly doubt you have loved ones or know more than a few folks that were hit by the hurricane and the effects afterwards so what you all say in my eyes is an EXCUSE and FULL OF SHIT!!!

Whereas most of us posting here in defense of the negativity we have seen over the last few weeks is practically a result of having SEVERAL of own fraternity and sorority members, as well as their families being DIRECTLY AFFECTED by this tragedy...

You can point and spin doctor all the bullshit you want. But it is still bullshit you are spinning... It still reeks of the putrid sewage that's being removed from NOLA today and it is explosive...

I could say more but I'd probably be banned for it...

Maybe I am getting too old for GC now and it is time for me to leave like numerous others have before me...