Kanye West Comment

[JJ18]

Have any of yall herd what rapper Kanye West said about Bush, something about "President Bush don't care about black people" and "When people see on the news black people are looting and white people are getting food". I personaly think he needs to shut his fu**ing mouth up. I know Bush isn't the best President we've had but I hate it when people blame politics (presidents) without knowing how the system works. People think Bush has a little magic wann and he can make things happend with it. I also know the whole Katrina situation wasn't handle like it should have been and if I was a politician I would have done everything in my power to get all those people out of there.....

Well as for Kanye West he's an IDIOT insted of him spending millions in stupid ____ he should help those people, in other words he should put his money where his mouth is.

[pineda]

I was dismayed (but not surprised) when I heard Kanye West's comments. I was surprised, however, when I heard the comments from the Mayor Nagin of New Orleans. I would have thought he would have been able to keep his cool a little better than that under pressure, but this entire disaster has brought out such strong emotions. Some bad (and unhelpful ones), like Kanye and Mayor Nagin, (and Jesse Jackson...), but it's also brought out some extraordinarily good emotions like the outpouring of support from all the volunteer at the shelters being set up for these evacuees. I think Houston has emerged as a real shining star throughout this crisis and I'm very proud to call it my home, and I hope that the people displaced by Katrina can feel comfortable here during their stay.

[editor]

The Mayor was on local (Baton Rouge, at least) TV on Saturday morning being very clear on the topic -- he doesn't think it's about race. He says class played a big role but he doesn't buy the race thing.

[Heights2Bastrop]

I am sure the producers knew something like that was bound to happen. My guess is that they didn

[RedScare]

According to articles, there was a delay...but the person on the switch was only listening for profanity, not entertainers straying from the script.

[tomv]

Comments by Kanye West-

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/02.html#a4762

[C2H]

I don't think that Kanye West said anything very profound because race is obviously a key factor, which is being talked about amongst many. The slow response the government showed was completely unacceptable. I saw on the news where a black man was held at gunpoint because he had been trying to get some clothing from one of the stores. When referring to blacks, yes the media is quick to portray it as looting and when whites do it, it's looking. What would anybody, including the media do in a situation like this when they're stripped for all they had? Nobody can tell me that they wouldn't do what they had to do to survive.

I'm sorry to be the one to say it but some of you on this board try to avoid the race issue like its not still a problem that exists in America. It's funny how threads get closed when the race issue is brought up because it's painfully obvious.

After we bomb a foreign country, we're quick to drop food and respond . The U.S. is so quick to try to help out the poverty in foreign countries. We have people in need in our own country and those people are ignored. It's all about POWER. Why did they stop with the rescue mission in Louisisanna? They say they're getting some troops to come back from Iraq. In the mean time, people are still starving, drowning, dying. Policemen are quitting the force! The government is wrong because there isn't a second to waiste.

Not a single one of you mentioned the fact that Kanye West did acknowledge the Red Cross for doing everything possible to help. I think there was validity into some of what Kanye West said. Maybe if i were white, i'd probably try to forget about the issue too. Some of you who criticize Kanye West, need to shut YOUR fu**ing mouths and quit trying to pretend that race is not an issue.

[Heights2Bastrop]

Kanye made the statement, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

I don

[citykid09]

You guys know if it was George Bushes mother, or cousins or somebody like that he would have had those people in there ASAP! But it wasn't so he played around touring the area while laughing, joking, and taking pictures with people.

If I where president I would have been out there helping rescue people to make sure people know that I care.

[editor]

Race is an easy and convenient way for many people to explain what happened in New Orleans. In difficult situations the easiest answer is rarely the correct one.

It's amazing to me that there are people who actually think the president sits in his chair and says to himself, "Look at all those people dying. At least they're black people. So there's no rush. We'll just watch them twitch a little longer." That just shows that your mind has been polluted by Hollywood and programmed by the Democratic party. Try to find some free will.

I laugh to myself every time I see some member of congress complaining about the "Federal Government's" lack of response or planning. Umm... you ARE the federal government. Congress has known about this possibility for decades.

There's lots of blame to go around here, and I think it should be assigned in this order:

1. People who could have left but didn't because they were too arrogant.

2. The Mayor of New Orleans who on August 27th publically predicted the flood walls would collapse, then did nothing to help the poor/disabled/elderly evacuate, but managed to get his butt to Baton Rouge.

3. The governor of Louisiana who started this whole thing off looking like a deer in the headlights and never got any better.

4. The Louisiana congressional delegation which spent billions of our tax dollars on pork projects while things that could have saved people's lives took a back seat.

It should be noted that Mississippi is doing comparatively well compared to Louisiana. This is in part because they didn't have the massive flooding, but mostly because they have a governor who showed some leadership. Mississippi took a harder hit from the storm than Louisiana because of its path, and within hours Mississippi National Guard units were rebuilding roads and bridges.

While the mayor of New Orleans was playing the race card, people in Mississippi were rolling truckloads of food and water to the disaster zone.

To borrow a line from Cool Hand Luke:

What we have here is... a failure of leadership.

[C2H]

Race is an easy and convenient way for many people to explain what happened in New Orleans.

[midtown 4.2]

Poor Bush, he's dammed if he does & dammed if he doesn't!

He was critisized for not visiting the affected areas soon enough, and when he does show up, his critics call it a "photo-op" and critisize him once again.

[Heights2Bastrop]

My compliments to the editor for a voice of reason among many partisan voices.

[pineda]

One good thing to come out of all this (hopefully!) will be that our own coastal towns like Galveston will beef up their own evacuation plans, remembering how poorly executed they were in NOLA. One big flaw in the whole plan that has become painfully obvious is that the poor, those without transportation or money, the elderly and infirm, and their children and pets were apparently not included in the evacuation plans, because a lot of these people got left behind. I hope Galveston is taking steps now to prevent that same situation from happening there.

[RedScare]

Race is an easy and convenient way for many people to explain what happened in New Orleans.  In difficult situations the easiest answer is rarely the correct one.

It's amazing to me that there are people who actually think the president sits in his chair and says to himself, "Look at all those people dying.  At least they're black people.  So there's no rush.  We'll just watch them twitch a little longer."  That just shows that your mind has been polluted by Hollywood and programmed by the Democratic party.  Try to find some free will.

I laugh to myself every time I see some member of congress complaining about the "Federal Government's" lack of response or planning.  Umm... you ARE the federal government.  Congress has known about this possibility for decades. 

There's lots of blame to go around here, and I think it should be assigned in this order:

1. People who could have left but didn't because they were too arrogant.

2. The Mayor of New Orleans who on August 27th publically predicted the flood walls would collapse, then did nothing to help the poor/disabled/elderly evacuate, but managed to get his butt to Baton Rouge.

3. The governor of Louisiana who started this whole thing off looking like a deer in the headlights and never got any better.

4. The Louisiana congressional delegation which spent billions of our tax dollars on pork projects while things that could have saved people's lives took a back seat.

It should be noted that Mississippi is doing comparatively well compared to Louisiana.  This is in part because they didn't have the massive flooding, but mostly because they have a governor who showed some leadership.  Mississippi took a harder hit from the storm than Louisiana because of its path, and within hours Mississippi National Guard units were rebuilding roads and bridges.

While the mayor of New Orleans was playing the race card, people in Mississippi were rolling truckloads of food and water to the disaster zone.

To borrow a line from Cool Hand Luke:

What we have here is...  a failure of leadership.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To leave the federal government's woefully inadequate response off of your impressively numbered list of people to blame, suggests either a blind allegiance to the president, or a concession that Americans should not expect much from this federal government. Thankfully, you are in a very small minority. Even the announcers at the Fox News Channel, hardly known for being antagonistic to the Bush administration, were skeptical, with Chris Wallace deriding Michael Chertoff's admission that he was unaware of thousands of victims at the convention center until Thursday.

We expect more from our government, and eventually we will get it. If it means voting every single one of them out, they can't say they weren't warned.

[westguy]

I believe the governor of Louisiana declared a state of emergency and asked for help from the federal government days before the storm. But of course Rove is trying to make her into the bad guy even though she did all that she could and was supposed to do. The federal government did not get involved until disaster was imminent. Mississippi did better because they did not have to move 2+ million people out of harms way. Gulfport and New Orleans are no comparison. It should never have been left to the state to do it alone for so long.

[editor]

To leave the federal government's woefully inadequate response off of your impressively numbered list of people to blame, suggests either a blind allegiance to the president, or a concession that Americans should not expect much from this federal government. 

Actually, what it suggests is that I had to get ready and go out the door.

I believe the feds should accept some of the blame, especially FEMA. But not for what they're being criticized for my most people.

I think FEMA should have three massive warehouse complexes -- one in the east, one in the midwest, and one in the west -- that are stuffed with rescue supplies, non-perishable foods and water.

I don't know a lot about FEMA, but my impression over the years is that it talks a lot about planning for disasters and does what it can to help communities and cities and states plan for disaster, but does little disaster planning of its own. Maybe that's its mandate -- to help communities help themselves. I don't know.

[nmainguy]

Editor:

On your list of 4 things to blame why did you leave off the Federal Government? Just curious. As far as Bush goes, he performed in true form. 9.11: He flys west from Florida- not north to Washington. Katrina: He flys west from Crawford to attend a fund-raiser in San Diego-not east to breaking levees and drowning people in NO. His FEMA Director's last job was as the head of the American Arabian Horse Association. Incompetence from the top down-and often rewarded.

Here's a great quote from Bob Herbert in today's NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/opinion/05herbert.html

Like a boy being prepped for a second crack at a failed exam, Mr. Bush has been meeting with his handlers to see what steps can be taken to minimize the political fallout from this latest demonstration of his ineptitude. But this is not about politics. It's about competence. And when the president is so obviously clueless about matters so obviously important, it means that the rest of us, like the people left stranded in New Orleans, are in deep, deep trouble.

[RedScare]

Actually, what it suggests is that I had to get ready and go out the door.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll take that response.

You are right in some respects about FEMA. Others are correct about mobilizing National Guard troops. What many others are saying however, is that this type of response is inadequate. There should be warehouses, as you suggested, where all of these immediately critical supplies are warehoused. It does not make sense for each locality to warehouse their own supplies. It would be wasteful and expensive.

There also needs to be a plan for either mobilizing troops ahead of the storm or bringing active duty troops in. FEMA tells states and cities not to expect them until 72 to 96 hours after the event. As we are seeing, this is causing literally hundreds to thousands of casualties. There needs to be troops on the ground immediately to keep the peace, distribute food and water, and effect rescues.

Communications in a disaster are paramount. Even today, the different agencies cannot talk on each other's frequencies. It is absurd that, in 2005, this issue has not been addressed by anyone.

I do not think this is a racial issue. I think this is an issue of low priorities. Since 2001, FEMA has concentrated on terrorist planning and events overseas. Given the number of natural disasters we experience, this is poor prioritizing. This is also an issue of selfishness. The US used to take care of its own. Now, it is more of an "every man for himself" mentality. This callous disregard for our fellow citizens will cost us dearly in the long run.

I have no answers for how to change this mentality. Maybe Katrina will do it.

[midtown 4.2]

It's easy for everyone to say "let's mobilize the troops or FEMA" to a staging point ahead of time, but I feel that would be rather impractical.

1) The weather forecasters have a hard enough time predicting where the storm will go. Where will you be moving the troops to, if you don't even know where the storm is going?

2) If the storm takes a jog, you could actually be "mobilizing" a bunch of people and supplies right into the path of the storm.

3) How many troops do you move? How often?

4) Do you mobilize for every storm that targets the mainland? Should the authorities have mobilized troops for Katrina's first landfall in Florida? Where's the cutoff point to mobilize or not to mobilize.

For these reasions, I feel the current system is better . . . NOT the best . . . but better than mobilizing ahead of the storm.

Local authorities are already on site, so are the state authorities. Lets say that a storm was targeting Texas, do we mobilize for Port Arthur, Galveston, Corpus, or Brownsville? Wait a second . . . we already have resources on hand at each of those locations . . . the LOCAL authorities. If the local authorities are overwhelmed, then it's up to the state to step in and help, if the state is overwhelmed, then it's up to the feds to step in and help. I believe this is what happened in NOLA.

I'm not sure that I'm making my case correctly . . . like Editor, I gotta run.

[editor]

Editor:

On your list of 4 things to blame why did you leave off the Federal Government?

Already answered.

[Heights2Bastrop]

If the local authorities are overwhelmed, then it's up to the state to step in and help, if the state is overwhelmed, then it's up to the feds to step in and help.

then it's up to the feds to step in and help

and help

"Help is the key word there. Everyone seems to assume the Feds are supposed to do it all. But their job is to help.

[arche_757]

The only people who can decided who to blame are those who were there. End of story - how can someone in Wisconsin even fathom what or how bad hurricanes are - much less the socio-economic situation that is part of New Orleans problems.

[sevfiv]

Poor Bush, he's dammed if he does & dammed if he doesn't!

He was critisized for not visiting the affected areas soon enough, and when he does show up, his critics call it a "photo-op" and critisize him once again.

i believe that is called the "too little too late" syndrome...

[nmainguy]

Editor:

On your list of 4 things to blame why did you leave off the Federal Government? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"Already answered"? Because you had to go out the door. Pretty lame, editor. Pretty lame.

[InnerLoopOnly]

He gave an answer, and if you ever read any of editor's posts you would know he is not a blind follower of any party line.

[editor]

He gave an answer, and if you ever read any of editor's posts you would know he is not a blind follower of any party line.

Yeah. I'm a great big smear acorss the political map.

[westguy]

"Help is the key word there. Everyone seems to assume the Feds are supposed to do it all. But their job is to help.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Apparently they weren't really doing that at all. I don't know if anyone else watched Meet the Press yesterday, but the president of Jefferson Parish talked about how FEMA refused trucks of water from Wal-Mart, tankers of fuel, and cut the communication lines of local authorities who were trying to help in the crisis. For some reason, it is allright to slam these local agencies.

[Willy1]

There sure is a lot of finger pointing going on surrounding who is a fault for the Katrina disaster.

Just to point out a few things that haven't been mentioned - at least not that I read, so sorry if I'm repeating someone else.

1. Everyone is acting like there should have been some massive Federal relief on the ground in NOLA the day Katrina hit and cleared NOLA. But, have we already forgotten that it was all over the news for the first 24 hours or so, that NOLA had been sparred from the direct hit and doomsday scenario that many weather professionals had been predicting? The levees didn't fail during the storm. They started failing on Tuesday - the day after Katrina hit. That has to be part of the reason for a delay in response. People started being rescued from roof tops on Wednesday, the day after the flooding started.

2. The people who were being rescued slowed down a lot of the response to their needs when they started looting guns and shooting at rescue helicopters. That resulted in a hesitation for rescuers to go in to NOLA for fear of their own safety and added to the impression that help wasn't there when it needed to be.

3. Some of the people who "need to be rescued" simply are refusing to leave - even now. I saw on the news earlier today one of the national guard boats insisting that a family of about 12 people get in the boat and be evacuated. They refused to get in the boat even when they were informed they wouldn't have food, clean water, electricity or maybe even another chance to get out for over a month.

Everyone is so quick to blame the government, or Bush. Others are quick to pull out the race card and start throwing that around. I'm so sick of hearing how this is a race issue. IT IS NOT! I'm the first to admit that our government has it's faults. But, the people left in NOLA when the storm hit were simply the victims of not having the money/means to leave. If anyone should be blamed for them being stranded there it is the local and state govt., not the federal govt. Them staying in NOLA had nothing to do with the color of their skin other than the fact that NOLA is 70% black and 30% below poverty-level income. Those are the people who were still there when the storm hit. And, when you see the media labeling black people as "looters" and white people as "looking" that is not the federal governemnt at work, or Bush's fault... That is the media!!!!

And, I agree with whoever said that the race issue goes both ways. I have encountered just as many racists who were black as I have white or hispanic racists. Prejudice knows no color. Does the race issue still exists - sure it does but it's not like it was in 1950. These days it's not just white people who are the oppressive racist... racism has evolved into a situational thing. If a black man is trying to join a historically all-white country club he's going to have some problems. If a rich white man's Benz breaks down in South Central LA and he has to walk 1 mile to get help - he's going to have some problems. It's all a matter of who you are and where you are and whether or not it's a bad time to be you in that situation. Last week, it just happened to be a really bad time to be a poor person who couldn't afford to leave New Orleans.

[editor]

I saw one woman on NBC News who was being rescued in a dump truck. The rest of her family was rescued days earlier by helicopter, but she was too fat and they couldn't take her.

That's it -- no more pie for me.