Anyone who thinks they have all the Answers before they've even heard the Question - is Dangerously Deluded! Real Truth Requires Vigilance, Perseverance and Courage, regardless of Party and who wields Power. Left, Right, Center, Corporations, Government, Unions, Criminals or the Indifferent.
Many people aren't familiar with this story, but I am, and it's frankly horrific.
Five Years ago during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina White residents of the Algiers are decided to defend themselves by going hunting for Negros. Unfortunately the people they shot, wounding many and killing a few, weren't looters, they were their neighbors.
And they say there's no "Racism" in America any more. That Lynchings - the specific crime that gave birth to the NAACP - are the thing of the past? Apparently not.
Some of the gunmen prowling Algiers Point were out to wage a race war, says one woman whose uncle and two cousins joined the cause. A former New Orleanian, this source spoke to me anonymously because she fears her relatives could be prosecuted for their crimes. "My uncle was very excited that it was a free-for-all--white against black--that he could participate in," says the woman. "For him, the opportunity to hunt black people was a joy."
"They didn't want any of the 'ghetto niggers' coming over" from the east side of the river, she says, adding that her relatives viewed African-Americans who wandered into Algiers Point as "fair game." One of her cousins, a young man in his 20s, sent an e-mail to her and several other family members describing his adventures with the militia. He had attached a photo in which he posed next to an African-American man who'd been fatally shot. The tone of the e-mail, she says, was "gleeful"--her cousin was happy that "they were shooting niggers."
Gleeful? Yes, gleeful. Giddy even, at the idea of "Open Nigger Season". For years, the Bush years, this story has just languished, not addressed and not responded to - but now all of that has changed.
A former New Orleans resident was charged Thursday with federal hate crimes for his alleged role in a racially motivated shooting of three black men in the days after Hurricane Katrina.
Roland J. Bourgeois Jr., 47, is accused of plotting to defend his Algiers Point neighborhood "from outsiders" including African-Americans, constructing barricades on public streets and using racial epithets to describe black people, according to the five-count indictment.
At one point, Bourgeois allegedly said, "Anything coming up this street darker than a paper bag is getting shot."
The indictment charges Bourgeois with doing just that when three black males walked through the neighborhood toward a makeshift Coast Guard evacuation center on Sept. 1. Bourgeois fired a shotgun at the trio, felling Donnell Herrington and wounding Herrington's two companions near the corner of Pelican Avenue and Vallette Street, according to the indictment.
Later, Bourgeois plucked Herrington's bloodied baseball cap from the ground and proudly displayed it to others, boasting that he "got one" and had shot a "looter, " according to a witness.
Justice delayed still will not bring those who lost their lives during this dark time back to their loved ones, but it may give others some pause.
At least it may until Faux News channel and Megyn Kelly get ahold of this and attempt, a usual, to try and spin it into "Obama favoring Black's against White's defending themselves from invasion..."
And I'm sure the Tea Party will be backing this move by the Justice Department the very second they pull their head out of Andrew Breitbart and Kenneth Gladney's Butt Crack.
Just like this fellow who went out of his way to express his "Appreciation" to the NAACP for pointing out that some, a few, in the Tea Party just might be a tad bigotted (Warning: Not even close to Safe For Work)
Caller: You want to kill our babies? Fuck you Niggers! The street will run red with your blood!
One guess what News Station this guys probably listens too? Think they've bothered to mention that Black people have Guns too?
In his final press conference today, Soon-to-be-former President Bush indignantly defended the Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina - yet again displaying a total cluelessness that is both astounding and appauling.
Bush: You know, people said that the federal response was slow. Don’t tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed.
What President Without-A-Brain doesn't seem to realize is that those 30,000 people then spent the next seven days trapped in the Superdome without Food or Water!.
– National Guard troops did not arrive in the area until two full days after the levees were breached.
This of course, just as it did in Iraq - helped lead to widespread looter by both the hungry and the greedy.
Most people were just trying to survive.
– Bush did not leave his vacation home or assemble a task force until Wednesday, two days after the hurricane made landfall and the levees were breached.
Just like when he was told "Bin Laden Determined to Strike inside the U.S", when Katrina hit - Bush was too busy clearing brush on his Horse-less Ranch, to bother doing what he claims was his "Number one" duty: Protect the nation. Eventually he did do something, he went to have some Cake with John McCain.
And when he was done with that... he went to play some guitar.
Meanwhile New Orleans looked like THIS:
– By Thursday, three days after landfall, FEMA had yet to set up a command and control center.
– FEMA Director Michael Brown said he had not heard about the more than 3,000 evacuees stranded in the convention center until Thursday. Many evacuees had been there since Tuesday morning.
It's really odd that it took him that long, since one of those evacuees - was a member of FEMA. Marty Bahamonde, who was sending Brown text messages from his Blackberry from inside the Superdown.
Seattle Times: On Aug. 31, Bahamonde e-mailed Brown to tell him that thousands of evacuees were gathering in the streets with no food or water and that "estimates are many will die within hours." "Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical," Bahamonde wrote. "The sooner we can get the medical patients out, the sooner we can get them out."
No response came from Brown.
In his defense, Brown actually did relay this message up the line to Michael Chertoff and to the Whitehouse with a request for more resources and support. They gave him BUPKIS!
Back to Thinkprogress.
– On Friday morning, Bush praised Brown: “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” He also said he was “satisfied with the response.”
Yeah, right!
– FEMA did not finalize its request for evacuation buses until Sunday, six days after Katrina hit. The buses “trickled into New Orleans, with only a dozen or so arriving the first day,” noted the Wall Street Journal.
This is what happened to more than 3000 of the people that the Coast Guard "Saved".
And this...
And this...
Nice job, Bushee!
Besides the fact that Bush was Personally WARNED that this could happen prior to landfall, and that FEMA has done a simulation called Hurrican Pam which predicted the complete distruction of the city, his response to this issue, even after all this time, with so much evidence to the contrary, is just mind-bogglingly assholish!. Yes, the Coast Guard did a great job - but they were the ONLY ONES DOING THEIR JOB!!
Everything else fell apart. The cities resource were strapped, all the buses they had were destroyed in the storm. The Police cars were swamped didn't have boats, and the Bushies were more interested in making a Democratic Governor Suck IT than allowing her to use her own National Guard to help.
NEW YORK Former FEMA director Michael Brown says politics were a factor in decisions over whether to take federal control of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Brown, in a lecture in New York, says some in the White House suggested only Louisiana should be federalized because it was run by a Democrat, Governor Kathleen Blanco. He says he recommended that all affected areas be federalized. That would have put the federal government in charge of all agencies responding to the disaster.
Brown says someone at the White House said Blanco's "a white, female Democratic governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it." He didn't identify the person.
In his defense Bush suggests that the question of "doing more" somehow means he should have landed Air Force One in the middle of a disaster area. He then goes on to point of how ridiculous that idea would have been since his presence would have "drawn resources" away from the problem.
Let me just speak directly to Mr. Bush in all seriousness for a second:
Hey Shithead, the resources WEREN'T EVEN THERE TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEMS - bringing in AF1 and it's ontourage of vehicles, back up planes and whatever would have helped. Doing anything would have helped. They could have used that shit to get people out of city - or to bring them Food and Water.
Nitwit.
Sorry, President NITWIT, to you.
This man - this so-called "President" - is and was a National Disgrace!! He stranded Americans - on American soil. ABONDONED THEM TO SUFFER AND DIE for a week, and he now says "Don't Tell me the Federal Response was SLOW!!"
We've come a long way in the last century, in the last few years - but every once in a while an event so tragic takes place that makes you recall - we still have a long way to go.
This report on Vigilante Gangs of Gunmen in the streets of New Orleans is a chilling reminded that "Good Fences really Don't Make Good Neighbors".
It's one thing to be willing to protect your home, it's another thing to shoot, wound and kill innocent people who just happen to be trying to get back to *their own* home, and it's even worse when don't care to pay attention to the difference - simply because they "Look suspicious" to you.
Not all male blacks, are criminals, some are fathers, all are sons. They don't deserve to be "hunted like pheasants".
Last Night on Dan Abrams, the program after Olbermann, Rep Jack Kingston went on the air and managed to repeat the Patriotrism Smears against Obama which have been circulating the internet, and then proclaims that it's not an attack, it's just a "little banter".
On MSNBC’s Live With Dan Abrams last night, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) said it was okay to "question" Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) patriotism because he doesn’t regularly wear an American flag lapel pin. Kingston claimed that "everybody" in politics "wears them."
The funny thing about this, besides the smug little "I've just discovered Kryptonite" smile on Kingston's face, is the fact that while he's attacking Obama for not wearing a flag lapel pin - he himself isn't wearing a flag lapel pin!
There's just a bunch of things that Kingston gets completely wrong in this beside his own hypocracy about the pin that Abrams doesn't catch him on.
Kingston: His reason for not wearing the pin is convoluted.
Obama: "You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin," Obama said. "Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.
"Instead," he said, "I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism."
"You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. And you show your patriotism by being true to your values and ideals. And that’s what we have to lead with, our values and ideals," Obama said.
This isn't "convoluted" - Obama is taking a stand against false patriotism - which is exactly what Kingston in presenting.
Kingston also flat out lies:
"Obama won't say the Pledge of Allegiance"
Except for the fact that the picture in question that has been shown around the net, which even my mother receiving a copy from a co-worker who claimed it was "scary", isn't of the pledge of allegiance, it was a picture taken during the national anthem, and there's really isn't a requirement for people to have their hand over their heart during the national anthem.
The photograph was taken on September 16, 2007, at Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry festivities in Iowa, an important ritual for Democratic presidential hopefuls. Contrary to the e-mails attacking Obama for disrespecting the flag, the candidates were not reciting the pledge of allegiance. They were standing for the national anthem.
It's an option, but it's not a requirment.
Plus there are pictures of Obama singing the national anthem and he does have his hand over his heart.
kingston says that Michelle Obama should come out and explain that she doesn't hate America, but then again why should she do that since she made it perfectly clear exactly what she was proud of in the first place - all you need to do is pay complete attention.
"What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud."
Kingston: It's just banter, but it works. Apparently it's like scratching fingernails on the chalkboard to the leftists to say "Barack Hussein Obama".
Well it's not like that to me for two reasons because I've known the name "Hussein" mostly in reference to King Hussein of Jordon our long-time ally in the middle east. Second there is the fact that his name is actually Barack Hussein Obama Jr., Kingston is using that hame to attack his Kenyan father not our current democratic front-runner.
So what do we have so far? Obama will say the Pledge of Allegiance, no one, has provided evidene to the contrary. He sometimes wears a flag lapel-pin when he feels like it (just like Kingston and for that matter - John McCain), he will put his hand over his heart during the National Anthem, his wife was proud that for the first time "people were being unified around some basic common issues", and there's nothing wrong with having "Hussein" as your middle name.
But that isn't all the right-wing is coming after Obama for - not by a long shot.
Real Time w/ Bill Marr featuring David Frum, Jack kingston & Matt Taiibe
Frum attacks Obama over the idea of meeting with not just our friend but our enemies.
He's been drinking his own bath-water, he thinks he will apply that "Obama Magic" to meeting our enemies.
Well it's not like John Kennedy met with Krushchev, or Nixon went to China or Reagan talked to Gorbachev. It's not like any of those efforts helped turn some of those "enemies" into friends.
Except that they did, eventually.
Barack is offering a genuine different approch to governing, which does include reaching out across the isle - or across the ocean - but also means defying meaningless convention - like flag-pins, and refusing to Talk to people as if having a conversation is itself some kind of concession.
Frankly, there isn't a single thing here the Kingston gets right - not one. He claims that Obama has "never accomplished anything" in the Senate or attempted to "reach across the isle" - except of course for the Ethics Bill and the Lugar-Obama Bill to fight weapons proliferation and the... oh, you get the picture. He's yet again playing the Fear Card, the only one in the Republican Deck. But it appears that Kingston and his fellow cohorts in terror such as Bill Cunningham, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are going to have to put forth these smears - without the aid of John McCain.
In Ohio yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appropriately apologized after right-wing talk radio host Bill Cunningham opened his campaign rally by pejoratively referring to Sen. Barack Obama’s middle name Hussein while calling him "a hack." "I did not know about these remarks, but I take responsibility for them. I repudiate them," McCain told reporters.
McCain’s repudiation stung Cunningham, who bellowed against the senator on his show later in the day. Cunningham claimed McCain "threw me under the bus for the national media" and then said that he would now "throw" his "support behind Hillary Clinton."
Right-wing radio host Mark Levin, who also blogs for National Review, called McCain a "loser" for distancing himself from Cunningham’s caustic comments. Listen to it:
Because he won’t stoop to their low rhetorical level, right-wing radio is now telling McCain that he can "say good-bye to any hope of winning over the conservative base." Apparently McCain doesn’t have enough hate for "hate radio."
So much for the post New York Time Lobbying Story after-glow.... McCain's honeymoon with the Radical Reich-wing seems to be over already.
If Barack does become the Democratic nominee, we will see many more of these attacks - but if John McCain continues to repudiate them we just might actually see something else. We just might see these types of cheap smear and phony patriotism reduced to the dustbin of history where they belong.
Patriotism isn't about symbols, it's about action! It's not about whether you put your hand over your heart, it's about whether you'll take a bullet for your buddy - whether you put your hand over their wounds to staunch the bleeding, whether you'll help take that bullet OUT of him by making sure HE HAS HEALTHCARE TOO - it's about whether you'll fight for you're fellow American - your fellow man - not just who you'll fight against.
We have to remember that Kingston and Frum are part of the party that distributed purple-heart band-aids in order to denegrate the service of a man who won the Silver Star and the Bronze Star.
These are the people who let an entire American City Drown, then Rot with neglect.
I Got Yer FLAG RIGHT HERE, Kingston!
And where were Bush and McCain while this was going on? Obviously doing their patriotic duty... by having a party. (Can you tell who has a flag-pin and who doesn't in this photo?)
These people don't have the slightest clue what Real Patriotism is.
But Barack does.
"You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. And you show your patriotism by being true to your values and ideals."
Patriotism is being true to your values and ideals, it's not doing your best to copy the tactics of the Khmer Rouge with Waterboarding and wearing a flag-pin while you do it.
Of Course they're going to come after Obama on these kinds of issues, because they think it's a "winner" for them, but it's not. This is all that the right-wing can try to do against him - and so I say - Bring It On - Beeyotches
It's been two long years since a massive Category 5 Hurricane slammed into the Gulf Coast after sliding over Florida causing devastation in Alabama, Mississisppi and Lousiana that had not been seen in over 40 years.
We are now two years past that event, but we can never afford to get past it's ramifications and lingering impact.
Sometimes words are simply not enough.
From Crooks and Liars - President Bush being Warned that Katrina could "overtop" the Levee's: WMP Video-MOV Video
The photograph was taken on September 16, 2007, at Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry festivities in Iowa, an important ritual for Democratic presidential hopefuls. Contrary to the e-mails attacking Obama for disrespecting the flag, the candidates were not reciting the pledge of allegiance. They were standing for the national anthem. 
We have to remember that Kingston and Frum are part of the party that distributed purple-heart band-aids in order to denegrate the service of a man who won the Silver Star and the Bronze Star.
