Yeah Ray was fucking pissed.

[Eric]

My mom was there, black man turning purple y'all.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrin ... index.html

[Eric]

And that's what I'm talking about, Ray is a good fucking dude, and he might get blasted for speaking out like that, but fuck, like I said in my update post, you have all these fucking useless ass politicans that are just trying to be seen and it's fucking ridiculous that these people we elected don't give a shit. My fuckin mom went to the governer's mansion and she's just useless! "We'll have a National Day of Prayer." WTF. She should have said EXACTLY what you just heard Ray say. It fuckin boils my blood when you're from there, and you think about it, and you think about the half ass help for your fellow natives who were left behind, and couldn't get out, and aren't getting help.

[Kupek]

I read about that interview in several places, and I felt for the guy. I'd be enormously frustrated and pissed off too.

[Kupek]

Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

I'm very impressed with this man. He has a level of candor in that interview I've never seen with an elected official currently in office.

[Nev]

It's admirable. I honestly hope his political career doesn't suffer for it.

[Lox]

Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

I'm very impressed with this man. He has a level of candor in that interview I've never seen with an elected official currently in office.

Yeah, I like when people actually speak their minds whether I disagree or not. Just be honest. It's better than playing the political game. (For the record, I'm not saying a disagree with Ray. )

[Zeus]

It's admirable. I honestly hope his political career doesn't suffer for it.

Of course it will. You can't actually have "decency" or an "opinion", otherwise you can't be as desirable a politician as possible since some will disagree with you. You have to be as non-offensive as you can, kinda like every sitcom out there. Although he was right and had every reason to lash out at the useless politicians, that doesn't make his actions right from a political point of view, only from a decent human being point of view. And we all know those are mutually exclusive things.

[Nev]

Sorry for those who don' t like political discussions, but I just am constantly reminded of a Douglas Adams quote these days - "Anyone who is capable of getting themself elected President should be on no accounts allowed to do the job."

EDIT: This isn't meant as a Bush shot; in context, the quote refers to the Galactic President, but it's meant as applicable to any elected official. I don't think it's always true...but sometimes...

[Torgo]

Heard part of the interview on CNN. I'd love to have a mayor like that.

[SineSwiper]

Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

Yeah, I heard him say that on CNN, and I thought, "Goddamn, I like this guy already!"

[Ishamael]

I finally got a chance to hear the comments (was in Vegas) and I can't say that I blame the guy too much. Givne the pathetic level of the response and the fact that most of the citizens were poor and Black, you're going to get comments like Kanye West's. So yeah maybe Kanye was out of bounds when he made his comment, but it doesn't mean there isn't something seriously fucked up here.

Maybe it's racism. Maybe it's plain on incompetence (this is a government beauracracy). My best guess - it's not totally one or the other, but a mixture of both.

[Nev]

I doubt it's racism. For all that I believe this administration has numerous and manifest flaws, Bush has a number of minorities in his cabinet, in positions of very visible power. I'm a little offended that Jesse Jackson is trying to play the race card yet again - NOT EVERYTHING BAD that happens to black people is the result of white people acting racist...

My guess is it's just more incredible incompetence...

[Tortolia]

The race card is the modern equivalent of crying wolf.

[Eric]

I find it more amazing that white people think the calling race card is never justified.

[Nev]

I think it's plenty justified a lot of the time. But I'm *guessing* it's not in this case - I could be wrong. For all Bush's many many many many many many flaws, if he is racist, he's hidden it well. As for other federal agencies, I couldn't tell you, but I haven't seen evidence of it.

Trust me, Eric, I can only imagine how hard it must be to grow up black in America...*especially* in the South, where there are a lot of people that are just still racist fuckers. I mean even here in L.A. which is one of the most multiracial cities in the U.S., there was a basketball player at my high school that got pulled over and racially profiled while driving through Bel-Air (which, for anyone who's forgotten "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", is a very affluent and mostly white neighborhood.) A lot of white people have no idea how hard it is to be a member of a racially persecuted minority. I'm just getting a taste of it talking to some of the Latinos in my 'hood, in which Caucasian is likely a minority...many of them really don't like white people...and I've never even had to think about institutionalized persecution, from goverment or other similar agencies.

I'm all for zero tolerance of racism, when it really is racism. The problem is that I think consistently crying "discrimination" ultimately hurts the case for the true racial equality, because then people are less likely to take the real cases seriously.

If anyone in the federal government really has shirked their responsibilities in this disaster due to racism, well, I don't believe in God much, but you know what, let Him have mercy on their souls anyway. That would be truly miserable and fucked-up, and the persons guilty of it would most likely need their teeth knocked out with blunt metal objects, in my opinion. But I haven't seen evidence of it, and I won't make that accusation without seeing it.

[SineSwiper]

Classism is a helluva lot bigger problem than racism, and most racism just spawns from classism that pairs up with commonalities of their race. (Like, most blacks are poor, and poor people resort to crime, therefore blacks are the scourge of the earth.)

Bush isn't a racist, but he's a classist to the max. Bush doesn't mind black people, but Bush doesn't care about poor people. West was only slightly off on that point.

I find it more amazing that white people think the calling race card is never justified.

And here I'm reminded of that Mind of Mencia episode where the traditional "beaner" stereotype is blaming racism for not getting a "yob" at a bank, and Mencia points out that he's not getting a "yob" because "job" isn't spelled with a y.

The point is that it's almost fashionable for minorities to blame "whitey" for just about anything, even though there's perfectly good explainations otherwise. This creates a bad stereotype for minorities, which promotes REAL racism, and that gets unnoticed because minorities are crying wolf too many times.

[Nev]

Bush isn't a racist, but he's a classist to the max. Bush doesn't mind black people, but Bush doesn't care about poor people. West was only slightly off on that point.

That's what my mom thinks, too...

[Lox]

I find it more amazing that white people think the calling race card is never justified.

I'm sure it is in certain situations but I hear it thrown around so much in situations where it is obviously not warranted and I find myself assuming it's one of the latter more often than the former.

In the situations where is it warranted, I am as disgusted by it as anybody, but the "boy who cried wolf" behavior definitely damages it's impact nowadays, you know?

[Ishamael]

Lots of good comments. Yes, racism is a trump card that is too often played in situations where it doesn't exist (or at the least, is far from the primary factor) . Bottom line is that it's impossible to know for certain and we can only guess based on past behaviours and superimposing them over the current situation. Thus you can't necessarily say it's not racism, but that's far different from proving that it is. Thus throwing that card out there diminishes its value.

Again the government's pathetic response to this is probably due to many factors including incompetence, lack of sympathy for people who decided to stay, the lack of governmental connections these people have(see classicism).

[SineSwiper]

Heh, even Jon Stewart ripped on the Governor and Nagin for not having answers. Nagin couldn't seem to answer the bus question, and it look like Russert was having a field day on him. Didn't sound nearly as bad as Brown, though.