How do you feel about Kanye West's Comment

[DableST_1]

Barbara Bush comments on survivors spark outrage
September 7, 2005 - 12:31PM

Page Tools
Email to a friend Printer format


Comments about Hurricane Katrina victims by the mother of President George Bush have fuelled the ire of some Americans, who see the Bush family as out-of-touch patricians.

"They're underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them" ... former first lady Barbara Bush and former president George Bush visit hurricane evacuees in Houston on Monday.


"Almost everyone I've talked to says: 'We're going to move to Houston,' " Mrs Bush said late on Monday after visiting evacuees at the Astrodome with her husband, former president George Bush.

"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," she said.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this - this is working very well for them."

Her comments were aired on Marketplace, an American Public Radio show broadcast nationwide.

They triggered a flood of negative messages on the Huffington Post, a popular left-leaning blog.

"Cold hearted witch," read one of the more polite comments, signed by IowaDem.

"No wonder her son remained on vacation, playing guitar and eating cake instead of seeing that aid and rescue operations were well-managed."

Another writer found the comments hard to believe. "Did she really say that?" wrote 'Stephen.' "My God! What or who have we become?"

Meanwhile, "Katrinagate" fury has spread to US media.

"For God's sake, are you blind?" a woman shouted at Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "You're patting each other on the back, while people here are dying."

The woman was not a victim of Hurricane Katrina. She was a reporter with US television network MSNBC who was so affected by the misery she had witnessed she could hold back no longer.

"Katrinagate" is the term being used by the media to describe the biggest challenge facing the political establishment in the US since the Watergate affair in the 1970s toppled Richard Nixon.

Not for decades has there been such merciless questioning of the President and his Administration by the US media.

Even now, as the rescue operation gets under way in earnest and the flood waters in New Orleans are starting to subside, the Federal Government's inadequate reaction - in the run-up to the hurricane and directly afterwards - is still being criticised by the media in reports that are anything but detached.

Never before, say some observers, have US reporters been so emotionally involved in a story to the point of being enraged. They are not just telling a story, they have become part of it.

"Has Katrina saved the US media?" asked BBC reporter Matt Wells, who sees the shift in tone as a potentially historic development.

A number of US journalists who cover federal politics, especially television presenters, had become part of the political establishment, said Wells.

"They live in the same suburbs, go to the same parties. Their television companies are owned by large conglomerates who contribute to election campaigns."

It's a "perfect recipe" for fearful, self-censoring reportage, he said, but added: "Since last week, that's all over."

But if the Bush Administration's reaction to Hurricane Katrina was slow, so too was the media's.

On Friday, reporters at the scene were still having difficulties establishing the scale of the disaster and the number of dead.

Used to reporting on comparatively harmless storms, heroically riding out the storms with windblown hairdos, they were then confronted with the "Big One".

The television reporters, particularly, were left scrambling in the first few hours of coverage as they tried to comprehend the scale of the disaster.

Then came the emotion. A CNN reporter broke down as she described the cries of help of people stuck on rooftops in Louisiana. Other journalists also related what they saw in broken voices.

Then the federal officials rolled into town and the press conferences started, with politicians thanking one another for their tireless efforts.

Next came anger. "This isn't Iraq, this isn't Somalia, this is our home," one NBC television reporter shouted.

The usually stoic ABC television presenter Ted Koeppel lashed out at the FEMA head in a interview, when he could not give any details on the number of refugees waiting to be rescued from the Convention Centre.

"Don't you people ever look at television?" the veteran presenter raged. "Don't you ever hear the radio? We've been reporting on the crisis at the Convention Centre for a lot longer than just today."

A CNN journalist also attacked Brown. "How it is possible that we have better information than you? Why aren't supplies being dropped in [by plane]? In Banda Aceh, in Indonesia, they did it two days after the tsunami."

Another CNN reporter interrupted Senator Mary Landrieu during an interview in which she was praising Congress for passing an emergency aid package.

"Excuse me Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard anything about that, because I was busy these past four days seeing dead people on the street. And when I hear how one politician congratulating the others ... Yesterday there was a corpse on the street which had been eaten by rats because it had been there for 48 hours."

If the alarm bells are not already going off in the Oval Office, they should be, because the previously staunchly pro-Bush Fox News is also starting to show signs of disaffection.

As one of their reporters was being directed to another area because of the danger caused by looting, he spoke quickly into his microphone, saying: "These people are desperate. Why shouldn't they try to steal water and food from us?"

[Proverbs31]

doesn't surprise me at all.

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by ladygreek
The fact that in your post you tried to remove racism from the situation is what is frustrating. We need White people to stand with us and say"Yes, it is racism now let's work together to do something about it." But to keep being in denial about racism is hurting not helping.

I'm really late but I feel you, ladygreek.

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by irishpipes
I don't know how to ask this without making everyone's head explode, but I am going to try. I am a white person. I can't help that I am a white person. What is it that I can do that would make blacks know that I am not a racist? Do you think that the history is so bad between blacks and whites that this could never happen?

This is a selfish way to approach it and that may be the problem. Why does anyone else need to accept you/not think you're "a racist"? Why is that so important? It shouldn't affect your actions in any way. You keep doing what you know is right and let people think what they want to think about you. No one owes you consolation because your feelings are hurt. There's a lot more at stake than feelings. (I have no intention of offending anyone - and I'm not directing this solely at you, irishpipes.)

On the topic, honestly, I'd have to abstain from commenting on this one because I agree with him but the timing is worrisome. But, I'm leaning toward GOOD FOR YOU, KANYE!

[CrimsonTide4]

Tonight's telethon will NOT be censored. And Kanye is a performer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909/...trina_telethon

[lostnfound117]

http://www.k-otix.com/bush.mp3

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by lostnfound117
http://www.k-otix.com/bush.mp3

OMG Hilarious but true.

[FeeFee]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4
Tonight's telethon will NOT be censored. And Kanye is a performer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909/...trina_telethon

Dangnabbit, I have a hurr appointment, so I will miss this.

[jitterbug13]

I will be watching tonight and will try not to kiss the TV screen...again.

I was reading he's been having a difficult time since the incident. Hopefully, now that his sales have skyrocked since this will make it a little easier.

I think somewhere the Dixie Chicks, barefoot and breastfeeding, are cheering him on!

[IvySpice]

My two cents...

The only reason that what Kanye said was shocking at all is that this administration has been so effective in silencing dissent over the last five years. They've spun criticizing our own government into an act of treason, so you never hear this kind of thing on TV anymore. Literally millions of people are saying the same thing to their friends and family every day. Think about it -- why should it be shocking to hear the same opinions on TV that you hear on the street ten times a day? But it is shocking, because the Bush administration has scared everybody into keeping their mouths shut. Well, finally a few people are beginning to stand up and tell it like it is, and to hell with the consequences. Hopefully Kanye and Mayor Nagin are just the first of many.

[starang21]

http://presstheissue.org/music/MosDe...trina_Klap.mp3

katrina clap

[oOogirlygirloOo]

I agree with Kanye. When is it going to be the right time for such a comment. Was it the right time or was he the wrong color.

No one seemed to have a problem when Eminen shot the aduience and viewers a bird on stage at the grammy's.

[jitterbug13]

LAUNCH Radio Networks
Mon Sep 12, 1:00 PM ET

Earlier this month during a live hurricane relief broadcast on NBC, rapper Kanye West accused President Bush of not caring about black people. First Lady Laura Bush responded to the rapper's comments during a radio interview on Thursday (September 8). The First Lady said, "I think all of those remarks are disgusting, to be perfectly frank, because of course President Bush cares about everyone in our country. And I know that. I mean, I'm the person who lives with him. I know what he's like, and I know what he thinks, and I know how he cares about people."


While rappers such as Jay-Z, David Banner, Nelly, and others have backed West's statement. New Orleans resident Master P thinks that the comments weren't made at the right time. He told allhiphop.com, "I think that if Kanye West [felt] like that, he needed to wait, 'cause I got people in my community dying right now. I got kids lost, I got parents lost, I got people got nowhere to go back to right now, so we need the government. We gon' need the president."

Master P, who started his own relief organization, Team Rescue, added, "We from New Orleans, we feel the pain, we feel the anger. This what we going through. This is not a game for us. This is not a joke, this is not about money. This is not about selling records."

West, for his part, has attempted to clarify and offer an explanation for his statements. During the BET S.O.S. Telethon on Friday (September 9), the rapper said, "I just let my heart speak for itself without thinking about my image or how it's gonna hurt me financially. I felt the world needed to hear from me...I just do it and I say what I really feel."

[starang21]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/13/kat...act/index.html


i guess this settles it

[lostnfound117]

Why was he so cute though!