Bush denies racial discrimination cause of NOLA disaster.

[Gogi]

http://www.chicagotribune.com

[ananda]

1. I wonder what planet he lives on.

I saw a lot of racism and classism.

In fact, the whole problem is predicated on racism and classism, even from the day that funds were cut that could have shored up the levees.

Sue

[KittyWampus]

2. right, and there is no 'Southern Strategy'

[AirAmFan]

3. His own "zero tolerance for looters" statement set the tone for the racist

FEMA supervisors who arbitrarily barred volunteeres and supplies from entering the city;
bus drivers who refused to enter the city to pick up survivors;
suburban Gretna sheriffs who fired over the heads of pedestrians trying to cross a Mississippi bridge;
wealthy Audobon residents who hired mercenaries with M16s; etc

Thus, thanks to Dubya's stereotyping of brave disaster survivors as "looters", the only way starving, thirsty, and injured hurricane and flood victims could get what they needed to live was through "looting" hotels, groceries, and drugstores. Racism has a way of providing self-fulfilling prophecies.

The very first federal response, on Friday afternoon after levee floodwalls broke on Tuesday, was to send in 500 heavily armed MPs who found only thousands of families struggling -- and dozens dying -- without clean water, food, or sanitation.

Dubya's own racial stereotyping thus proved FATAL to a number of people who managed to survive hurricane winds and floodwaters. Like many racists, Dubya refuses to believe he IS ONE. But he needs to ask himself whether he'd have responded the same way had a flood devasted Palm Beach County instead of Orleans County.

The best list of URLs I've seen, documenting the racist realities Dubya is ignoring, is in a Georgia DUer's LTTE, posted at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2084296 .

[applegrove]

4. Scapegoats that help you connect to your base are chosen for

whatever way and in whatever manner the WH can connect to their base. If racism is part of the base .. or fear of crime..then that's the way she blows: Irresponsible black people & lawlessness are the scapegoats.

This president is not a problem solver. They keep all the problems open that suit them. Racism, classicism, lack of transparency in voting, fear of terrorists (nobody in the WH ever tried to heal the fear of 9/11 - they just harnessed it). And on and on.


If the base Bush & the Rovbots were trying to connect to were afraid of Christmas tinsel - Christmas tinsel would be the thing the Rovbots played up.

It isn't about the poor in New Orleans. It is about shoring up support for that 38% who were still behind Bush in the polls. And playing to the particular fears of those 38% + percent.

People of New Orleans were just objects to blame. To enable a bonding moment with the base.

[hedgehog]

5. Racism and Classism are at the bottom of the disaster

but they didn't start last week. I'm hoping Katrina does for this century what Emmett Till (God rest his soul) did for the last.