A Eulogy for King, a Scolding for Bush

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-coretta8feb08,0,7796896.story?track=tottext

From the Los Angeles Times
A Eulogy for King, a Scolding for Bush
The funeral for the civil rights leader becomes a platform for criticizing the president's policies.
By Richard Fausset and Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writers

February 8, 2006

LITHONIA, Ga. — A day of eulogizing Coretta Scott King turned into a rare, in-person rebuke of President Bush, with a succession of civil rights and political leaders assailing White House policies as evidence that the dream of social and racial equality pursued by King and her slain husband was far from reality.

Bush and his wife, Laura, sat on stage as more than 10,000 cheered suggestions from several speakers that the 1960s civil rights movement led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — and fostered by his widow since his assassination — remains alive and that its goals have not been fully realized. They cited the debates in Washington over the war in Iraq, the recovery from Hurricane Katrina and government eavesdropping.<snip>

But it also included pointed political commentary, much of it aimed at Bush. The president and his wife watched as the sanctuary at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta filled with raucous cheers for their White House predecessors, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton — a reminder that five years into his term, Bush and the Republican Party have not found the acceptance across black America that GOP strategists had hoped.

"This commemorative ceremony this morning and this afternoon is not only to acknowledge the great contributions of Coretta and Martin, but to remind us that the struggle for equal rights is not over," former Democratic President Carter said to applause. "We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, those who were most devastated by Katrina, to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans."<snip>

[rodeodance]

1. "a rare, in-person rebuke of President Bush" lovely

[rodeodance]

2. "We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana,"--

"We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, those who were most devastated by Katrina, to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans."

[TabulaRasa]

3. Can anybody believe

Bush got up and clapped when Carter said the bit about Katrina? Is he insane? I guess it was a better political move than sitting in his chair and squirming, but the man has such audacity, I can't even believe it sometimes.