Bush offers a strange "deal" to New Orleans (Today's Speech)

[katinmn]

I tuned in late to Bush's speech today but zeroed in on this part:

I think he was responding to a reporter's question about funding and clean-up of New Orleans and other areas devastated by Katrina, which displaced and dispersed about a million people all over the country. Bush said: (paraphrasing):

The federal government will remove debris from private property IF the mayors will sign over ownership of the property to the federal government.

This sounds like a bribe. People are homeless and desperate. I wonder what Mayor Nagin will say. I wonder what Bush and his cronies have planned for that property.

[CottonBear]

1. The Mayor can't do that and no property owner in his right mind would.

Strange. :(

[katinmn]

4. I had a hard time believing my ears but a friend taped it and

played it to me over the phone twice and I took notes.

He truly does not care for people.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

9. Is there a link for this speech?

[CottonBear]

17. What channel or station were you listening to? n/t

[katty]

20. That's what FEMA does-masters at the buyout-search the Facts

[Missy M]

2. How can the mayors sign over ownership of property if it is owned....

by private citizens. Did he mean property owned by cities, towns and counties? Did he say why they would have to do that?

[htuttle]

5. I guess they could condemn the property, then hand it over

But as you say, "WHY?" What does Bush plan on doing with the land? Does the king want to expand his land holdings or something?

You know, isn't the Federal government supposed to be in the business of helping Americans? Didn't we already pay taxes? WTF kind of feudal deal is this?

This is the sort of move that revolutions are made from...There's no better way to piss someone off than to take their land.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I keep saying it, they are seeding the road to

revolution...

[hardrainfallin]

8. Yeah, ask the Indians whose land you currently occupy. nt

[faithnotgreed]

11. you got that right....

[htuttle]

12. I have

And yes, they are.

[hardrainfallin]

14. I know. I am one.

would you like to see my own personal broken treaty?

I'd love to show it to you, but all I have left is the hardcopy b/c the gov is apparently purging these docs from the BLM web data base. hmmmm.

Not worth the worthless paper it was written on in the first place, but sheesh...for the record and all that, you know?

[fob]

15. *cough* Native Americans*cough*

note: subtle correction proffered for greater accuracy, not for pc bullshit

:toast:

[hardrainfallin]

18. you're telling me, as an indian, how I'm supposed to self-identify?

If you want to be REALLY precise about it then say

Native Turtle Islander

"America" has gone so far downhill, I personally consider it an INSULT to be called a "Native American".

I must honestly say I don't have a single relative or friend in Indian country who calls him/herself a "Native American".

edited for typo

[fob]

19. That's why I added the disclaimer. It wasn't "America" until the white

man came to town, but I don't know what the native peoples called the land. Perhaps I should go with indigenous peoples from now on?

[hardrainfallin]

24. Oh I dunno, the term Indian is almost like the N word in the

black community. I probably know as many Indians who would throw a hissy fit if a white person used the word Indian, but among Indians the term is Indian (in internet lingo NDN is OK).

Personally, I think, as a collective term, indigenous peoples is best, in canada, they say "first nations people" and I think that's a good option, too.

If you know the person's tribal affiliation, then it's best to use that.

[fob]

26. Thanks for the lesson. I do try and use tribal affiliation but in this

case the subject was much broader than a single tribe name could cover.

[hardrainfallin]

29. no problem. Personally, I'd rather see this country get its shit

together for the first time in 500 years so that NO ONE has to be disgusted/ashamed/insulted or whatever for being called any kind of "American" ...

[fob]

31. Hear, hear to that!

I don't want to be an Amerikkkan like bush* wants, native or otherwise.

[expatriate]

21. Sorry, lots of us are no longer accepting the

PC term "Native American". I won't. The hell with that.

It's a ridiculous term anyway - does this mean other people born in America aren't "natives" of their native land?

Call me an Indian, thanks. Eastern Cherokee, descended from the ones who refused to go on the Trail of Tears.

I don't know a single Indian who still wants to be called a Native American.

[fob]

25. Did you read far enough to see my disclaimer? I specifically

said it was NOT as a pc term, merely for greater (not complete or end-all) accuracy.

No offense meant. I also followed up with a further explanation before your post to clarify. If you've taken Indian and wrested back from the hands of racists and haters and are making it your own, I support you 100%.

Friends?

[hardrainfallin]

28. at least we're consistent, eh? ;)

what I find more upsetting is the fact that DU STILL (at least as of a few days ago) has disgusting Indian mascots as avatars on its board.... no, I'm not going to bother to check to see if they've been removed since last time I complained about it....someone else go look, someone else go complain...

[expatriate]

32. But of course!

I have no problem with you at all, and I understand your motivations. No worries.

[Missy M]

13. I wouldn't put it past the authors of the bush plan condemning....

property filled with debris through no fault of the owners. Of course many of these properties are probably owned by the poor or middle class. The Federal government does its damnedest to make the lives of Americans as miserable as possible. Come to think of it so does the state governments. They will in turn sell the property to large corporations so we can have more Walmarts or environment polluting business. The Federal government is totally out of hand and has to be brought back to where they belong.

[yy4me]

3. This sounds like extortion!

I did not hear the press conference, how could this be true? Anyone got this anywhere?

[Pithy Cherub]

7. That is out and out usury, coercion, extortion and bribery!

Those are on the law books as illegal! x( A faux pResident uttered those words! :nuke:

[htuttle]

10. Link to transcript

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050922.html

Another area of cost, for example, is debris removal. See, we know what our obligations are. We just, by the way, cut through a lot of red tape to allow for federal debris removal from private property if the mayors were to sign a form basically designating parts of their city to be cleared by -- private property to be cleared by the federal government.

Well, it's not quite as blatant as your paraphrase, but I still wonder what this form is about. Why does the mayor have to sign this? What special permissions would the mayor be giving the feds they wouldn't already have?

For instancee, I'd be willing to bet they mean that the feds will hire HALLIBURTON to come in and clear the debris.

This just smells bad...I know they got some sort of angle on it -- they always do.

[highplainsdem]

23. That really might just refer to red tape, and possibly legal liability.

I remember a news story weeks ago showing the NG clearing roads somewhere along the Gulf Coast (think this was Mississippi, not LA), which emphasized that they couldn't do anything about the debris on private property, and in many cases there was no way to contact the owners of that property.

And yes, I'm sure the federal contracts will go to Bush supporters. That's been the case all along. But I don't think Bush's wording there is particularly ominous.

Think of all the areas where debris is spread over a huge swath of private property, with the owners scattered all over the country. You could wait to clean it up till all of them are contacted, but if some can't be contacted for months (or if the owner's died and there's a dispute about who inherits), you have debris sitting there that could easily become airborne again in another storm.

[sandnsea]

27. Debris removal contracts already given

Four corporations from CA, FL & MN. The forms are probably just some sort of legal liability form though, I don't think there's any sort of signing property over like the OP intepreted.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=1374

[katinmn]

33. Aggh! I think it's been edited. I need to get a copy of the tape

I just went to the WH site and pulled it up to post.

Damn it.

[Raiden]

16. What?!

That IS a very ominous statement. :wtf:

[katty]

22. Check FEMA's history-that's FEMA talkin'-not surprised

[NNN0LHI]

30. Is the "debris" Bush is talking about dead bodies by any chance? n/t