Asked South Africans to help re Bassier sisters and shrub's fake photo op

[HamdenRice]

I registered and posted on the forum of South Africa's leading progressive newspaper, the Mail & Guardian, asking for help identifying the Bassier sisters, who appear to be South Africans from Durban.

You can read my post at the Mail & Guardian, here:

http://forum.mg.co.za/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=general

Click on the post titled, "Amer'n needs SA'n help: Bush fraud-Katrina relief" by HamofUSA.

I can't wait to see what if anything this turns up.

BTW, that forum is not as uniformly progressive as DU, so don't be shocked by some of the things you might read in other posts.

[ecoflame]

1. Why do you think

they're S. African?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. There have been some other threads looking into their identity.

[ecoflame]

4. Why?

Because it was staged? Why - specifically - is it important to know their country of origin if it's other than U.S.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. Because people have an interest in exposing the staged photo op with

planted "victims" if that's in fact what it was. Those threads supposedly identify one or both gals as being from S.A. but went to college in Mississippi. Whether they were actually living in Biloxi was not clear to me but it appears that they may have been from Gautier, about 17-20 miles away.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. This is a no brainer

Just think about it for a minute. :eyes:

[HamdenRice]

3. In the long thread, they've been indentified as being from Durban ...

a port city on the east coast of South Africa. This would also explain why people had so much difficulty identifying the accent -- which some thought was Australian.

I haven't heard the audio, but it sounds like they are from the large "Coloured" community of Durban which has a pretty exotic regional accent, even by South African standards.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Really hope it pays off. Great idea, by the way.

He needs to be shown as the horrific fraud he is.

Bringing in two plants to act out a "skit," rather than spontaneously reaching out to real American hurricane victems allows him to control them, and not be surprised by someone wanting to tell him what she thinks of his behavior as President in public.

It's so similar to the bogus things they've run on tv advancing his pending programs which were actually paid for by the U.S. taxpayers, and propaganda, not news.

[ecoflame]

8. I heard one of them (the taller of the two) talking

about her son not having school clothes or something. The accent I just thought was typical of the Mississippi South.

I'm out West; we have NO accent. Christ, a friend from Arkansas asked me if I was tarred and as I stared blankly at her - she continued, saying: 'You've been working outside all day, aren't ya tarred.' oh fuck! Tired...Tire-ddtt. Ty...ty....NOT tar...

[HamdenRice]

10. LOL -- no accent?

I'm from Queens, NY (originally Brooklyn) and to my ears, we have no accent whatsoever! "You guys" as Californians seem to like to say, have accents.

One funny accent story I heard was some Australian threatening her unruly kid to put him over her "nay". WTF? Then we realized she was going to spank him over her knee.

[ecoflame]

12. Not California

Pacific Northwest - West -

Oregon, Washington, Idaho (Utah, Nevada, Montana)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

28. I heard Hamden, that us kids from Queens have the least accented

speech in the country..except for Fran Drescher of course. ;-)

[DBoon]

29. In Texas, they don't allow marine radiotelephone use on aircraft

I swear the flight attendant said, "no sailor phone use allowed during the flight".

And in Boston, they use fish to open doors. I worked on a project there and they issued me an "access cod" to get in the building

[JimT]

7. get a grip on reality

Without a doubt it was a staged photo-op, BUT you seriously need to stop take a breath and THINK your ridiculous theory through. Why the hell would they purposely choose S. Africans? (Please, don't really try to come up with an answer.) If it was so craftily and perfectly planned as your delusion leads you to believe, I think they could have found someone that appears more "local."

Your efforts would be better put to use doing something useful. These type of paranoid (frankly, crazy ass)ideas only do a disservice to those of us trying to survive the incompetence of the Bush regime. This a-hole needs to answer for the lack of proper response and planning but fantastical ranting only gives them ammunition to discount our side.

[HamdenRice]

9. You are the one who is delusional because you're seeing and hearing things

Where did I or anyone else say they deliberately chose South Africans? Why are you making up a fake conspiracy theory when none has been alleged?

Are you seeing and hearing and reading things that don't exist? If so, then you fit the definition of delusional.

What most posters are saying is simply that these women were not American victims of the hurricane disaster. This shows that he was afraid to talk to any real American victims of the hurricane. If he had, he would have heard an earful of criticism, and we know that shrub cannot tolerate criticism.

Instead, his "advance men" scouring the devasted area for people who would not ask hard questions or make critical comments, basically found some clueless exchange students or tourists, who had suffered exactly nothing in the hurricane, who happened to wander into a photo op. It is documenting yet another lie, each of which, in fact, needs to be documented to present the real character of the administration.

The European press is reporting that the entire trip was fake. This is important to most people, but apparently not to you.

BTW enjoy your brief stay at DU.

[elehhhhna]

11. Good job, Hamden.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. A 'brief stay'?

That DUer has been here longer than you or me.

So far, your research shows that, if you have the right Bronwynne Bassier, she's been in the USA for over 4 years. She was a student. Why do you assume she's "clueless", "suffered exactly nothing" (when she specifically says she has, and comes from a town that was hit by the hurricane) and claim the whole meeting was a "lie"?

Yet it seems important to you that Bassier was born in South Africa. So what?

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. and has only 110 posts

Sorry, but I am with Hamden on this one.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. And so what?

"Do not draw negative attention to the fact that someone is new, has a low post count, or recently became a member of Democratic Underground. Do not insinuate that because someone is new, they are a troll or disruptor." From The Rules. But I'm sure neither of you meant anything negative, did you?

[KoKo]

16. Keep going on this Hamden....That photo op was fake...and my

gut was telling me something was fishy about those two girls. We all know that Bush would talk to folks who hadn't bathed or eaten in days because he worries about "contamination." The Secret Service tests his food, he has to have "people like him" around him wherever he goes.

I wondered when I saw that Photo Op where were all the Others who had lost houses...why were those two the only ones he could hug and even kiss on the head. Because they were clean...they had showered...they were "approved."

Keep at it... There's something there...

[txindy]

19. You really wonder why he would pick foreigners? ANY foreigners?

People who would not say a word against him on the air for fear of ending up either deported or in Gitmo like so many other foreigners? He deliberately chose two women 'of color' who didn't even live within 15 miles of the staged photo-op. Then made absolutely certain to turn them towards the cameras. So much for local reactions from his trusted base of American citizens. He didn't dare let any of THEM speak on camera.

What a complete coward and utter failure as a human being.



Gee, that was a tough one to figure out. :eyes:

[DBoon]

32. Being thin, cute, and young were also criteria

gotta get someone good looking for a photo op.

Subliminal message: the fat, ugly, and old deserve to die

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. It is most definitely useful to expose bush for the liar he is

It is not at all paranoid.

You are the one not helping the cause by criticizing efforts to prove bush's incompetence and dishonesty.

[yankeedem]

13. They ARE victims

http://www.tribstar.com/articles/2005/09/04/news/top_stories/top03.txt

"Their apartment complex was ruined, and Gautier, located 15 miles east of Biloxi, had no power, sewage, water or food. "

Can we just stop the conspiracy theories? Gautier wasn't spared.
What happened? These two were in the area, and may have got some help before their photo-op. But is their story untrue? There is NO evidence of that. Noone was flown in to be Bush's "victims".

If you want to investigate, investigate that the aid tables and trucks that were present during the visit disappeared when he left the area.

[ultraist]

15. That article doesn't tell us whether or not the sisters' home was damaged

Yes, they are hurricane victims, but their home may have been spared. Something smells here. That photo op was a set up.

It would be interesting to see if they are "illegal aliens." Not that I care, but many of bush's redneck supporters certainly would---a staged photo op with "illegal aliens" would not gain any points for the pResident with his base.

[yankeedem]

18. There is no evidence of this

and does it matter if their house was destroyed or not? Why?

I don't like the tone of much of this thread. The OP asks if they were Americans, and wonders why Bush didn't speak to "real Americans". You ask if they are illegal aliens.

Does it really matter? Were these ladies hand picked to speak to the president? Yes, probably. Did they suffer? Yes, definately.

Was there some requirement that Bush pick a white person to speak to? Or an American black person?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. Yet doesn't it eat your craw

when you know that ** is pointing out houses to them, as if this is their neighborhood, in a city that they don't even live in? This was Biloxi and they live in Gautier, some 17 miles away.

[KoKo]

17. Where did they shower and eat? Five days and they looked fresh as

daisy's. Did the Bushies bring their own showers and clothes? Maybe some deoderant?

[yankeedem]

20. Probably

Makes them no less victims than anyone else.

[Roy]

33. Is this the right link?

I didn't see a reference to these women there?

[yankeedem]

34. It's the right link

My point is that Gautier suffered also- some here imply that these people weren't victims.

[donsu]

23. thank you for doing this - smirk & girls seemed like they knew each

other

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. I'm having problems finding the thread. Do you have a direct link? Thanks!

[Judi Lynn]

27. It's time the posters who have been happy to jump in and offer opinions

realized there has been a very lengthy thread working here yesterday, last night, which contained posts of people doing searches on the names of these two people.

They traced one to Durban, South Africa, who has been a student in Gainesville, Florida, and at a university in South Florida, who belongs to an international students organization.

I can't remember what was discussed concerning the other one who also has been traced.

It's so much better to wait until you really have the impression you understand what is being discussed before you wade in there and start handing out insults.

On edit: I'm addressing a couple of posters who took it upon themselves to try to slur the O.P. and others who also have been following this group endeavor.

[Catherine Vincent]

30. I think that's why Bush is returning to NOLA on Monday.

He'll need to find more "real" victims to pose with.

[HamdenRice]

35. Why shrub's hug fest with South Africans bothers me ...

First of all, for the critics on this thread, I am not "doing research" about the two sisters shrub met with. Others are doing the research, and I just posted here to let them know of another resource, now that we know they are South African -- namely, the Mail & Guardian forum. You really should look at those long threads to get a sense of the issues they are raising.

But because you ask, let me explain why I agree with the work they are doing on this issue. Muriel asks why I think the sisters are clueless. You need to look at the long thread. There is something very fishy here, because in most of the TV coverage there is no audio. A couple of people who have heard the audio have posted their impressions, and the conversation makes no sense -- as though these women didn't even seem to know what was going on: they ask bush about their families (?!?) and say they have come from a different town to go shopping. It's just their bizarre conversation that makes it seem as though they don't even know why bush is talking to them. It's like they wandered into a photo op with the president, but are not what the photo op tries to make them out to be. They are well dressed, clean and have bottled water -- the exact opposite of the reality of most black Louisianians and Mississippians. I apologize if I said they are not victims, but given what is going on in NO and the area of Mississippi bush was touring, they are clearly not typical victims. I haven't heard the audio, but the descriptions of it are quite strange. From what I've read, they don't mention that they have lost their homes or belongings -- they say they are in town to buy clothes -- yet they are presented as emblematic hurricane victims in an area where there has been total devastation, and people have lost everything.

Second, no one -- no one -- has mentioned anything remotely approximating a conspiracy theory. Why is anyone, like yankeedem, bring this up? But you know how every politician creates a photo op with "regular folks": "advance men" or screeners look around, semi-interview people and prep them to talk to The Man. Given bush's security, you can't really believe that he just walked along and found these women. The issue isn't that there is a conspiracy, but that the screeners chose bizarre representatives of the hurricane community, and presented them as typical. My assumption is that, like seemingly everyone else in New Orleans, Louisiana, Mississippi and the country, most people are seething with anger over the administration's appalling response, and would give an earful to the president.

I was home Friday and I saw most of the bush performance that day from the ludicrous pretend-briefing bush received from the governors of Alabama (!?!) and Mississippi, over a fake map, as though bush were hearing what had happened for the first time, in which the governors said the federal government was doing a superb job! It was laughably and obviously fake, as was the rest of bush's day there. Just as he did not meet with the mayor of NO or the governor of LA in earshot of microphones, because presumably they would have reamed him a new one. This meeting with the South African sisters seems part of that entirely fake day.

Lastly, I admit I find very insulting, as a Black American, that bush went to Louisiana and Mississippi -- the heart of the historic "Black Belt" of the south, the highest concentration of ethnic African Americans in the country -- and he could not find a single ethnic African American to talk to? I have nothing against his talking to immigrants in the region who have been affected -- Latins, Caribbeans, even South Africans -- but given all that's being said about the bias in the response to New Orleans, and bush's already poor record with African Americans, shouldn't he have met at least one real black American hurricane victim, rather than meeting South African immigrants and then trying to pass them off as American citizens? These women were presented in order to counter the widespread perception that bush does not care about poor African Americans whose lives have been devasted by the storm and the slow federal response. That was the purpose of the photo op.

Now it turns out they are not African Americans. Bush could not find any in the Black Belt of Mississippi -- or at least none he felt safe talking to.

I think showing how fake bush's trip to the affected area is important because it counters what is essentially bogus propoganda -- the bush administration's prefered means of dealing with all kinds of problems, no matter how serious, foreign or domestic.

[moof]

36. HamdenRice speaks for moof