Molly Ivins: The bottom line is they're PLAYING THE RACE CARD

[Bluebear]

....The bottom line is they're playing the race card. As many of you have noted, it IS a racial issue that poor people suffer most in any natural or economic disaster. Because Katrina hit the Deep South, a great many of the poor people affected are black, especially in New Orleans -- both hit hardest and majority black to begin with.

I'm not sure what to say about a cable news station that plays a "loop" of black looters over and over -- about 20 seconds of actual footage, replayed for four minutes, while the voiceover dwells on the looting problem. Obviously, there are some looters in New Orleans and elsewhere, and equally obviously, there are lots of people who were without food or water for days.

The exhausted and desperate black mayor of New Orleans begged for help in an interview late last week. "They're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here," Mayor Ray Nagin said, talking about the feds. "It's politics, man, and they are playing games. ... They're out there spinning for the cameras. ... I don't want to see anybody do any more goddamned press conferences. ... Excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed. ...

The mayor was in tears. I heard two nice, white American "ladies" deploring this interview. "Well! He should remember there might be children listening!" Children still without food and water. What happens to people when they talk about race? Of course, most of us don't actually talk about race any more, we refer to it only indirectly, we talk "those people."

Watch carefully, listen carefully -- minority groups have always been blamed after natural disasters....

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv

[goclark]

1. They are slime, wish they could "wade in the water" for 5 days

[blondeatlast]

2. As long as we have the "others," we don't need to use the word

the RW have come to despise: AMERICANS.

Substitute Americans for "they" and "them" in the following and see the tone change completely:

It's "their" fault they leave near the ocean, in a city that engineered a wonderful tool to allow them to live below sea-level safely, it's their fault they didn't leave.

[Melissa G]

9. Yep, It's only ' Muricans that are white that count for the BFEE

...all 'others' are expendable and in NOLA's case the 'others' were actually undesirable.
Worst F&*&$%#@$ Administration Ever!!!:grr:

[qanda]

3. She is exactly right!

[Bluebear]

4. Molly is always right :)

[ninkasi]

5. Another excellent Molly Ivins article

Remember, too, that before the first selection, she tried to warn the people about Bush. Of course race has everything to do with the irresponsible lack of action on the part of FEMA in helping the victims of Katrina. The poor are always considered not worthy of the same effort that would have been used if this had been a white, affluent group.

One thing strikes me, though, and it's another point to show how race has played a factor. We know Republicans hate minorities. I believe that the Bush administration was taken by surprise when the majority of the country expressed deep rage at abandoning one of our most beloved cities.

Because he doesn't care about minorities, he doesn't understand why anybody else does. I also think that if the victims had been poor but white, he would have acted the same way if he thought he could get away with it. He wouldn't want to take a chance there.

Katrina, with all the death and horror it brought, should cause a lot of soul searching in this country. Each of us needs to examine why so many blacks live in poverty, and why so few others care enough to make sure this changes. Katrina has also striped away the facade of Bush as the leader who will keep the country safe. How can a man who loses a fight with a pretzel, and can't stay upright on a Segway, possibly hope to save anything but his own personal wealth?

[Generic Other]

6. I liked this sentence especially!!

"At the time, Brownie was deputy director of the agency under Joe Allbaugh -- because he was Joe Allbaugh's college roommate, you see, and Allbaugh was Bush's campaign manager in 2000, you see, which made both of them qualified to manage disasters."

[IndyOp]

7. Yup. The racism is pouring out -

For decades they decried having to be 'politically correct' - their racism building up like puss in a wound. Finally, this event has lanced their collective boil and the puss is spewing everywhere.

The most amazing, freakish part of this is how boldly they proclaim that they are not racists, while spewing their racist rants.

They aren't racist, Kanye West is!

--------

P.S. The following is included because I need to type it 'aloud' -

Hatred never ceases by hatred
But by love alone is healed
This is an ancient and eternal law.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. She's right, but I believe it's more than that. I believe that the neocons

want to grab more power and use the murderous treatment of the hurricane victims to incite "civil disturbances" in the affected areas and around the country. This would then be used as a "justification" to declare ever-wider martial law and suspend what's left of the Constitution. Oh, they wouldn't CALL it martial law - I'm betting on something Orwellian like "Operation Safe America."

Please don't dismiss this as nutcase tinfoilhattery. There is a long back-story and masses of documentation that this has been a goal of theirs for years, and the only question was what man-made or natural disaster they would use to launch this next step in the abolition of American democracy.

There is more in this post. The links and threads mentioned in it have still more.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1765780&mesg_id=1766896

This is real. Bush blackmailed Blanco with delayed federal aid to try to grab civil power from her. But I believe that the backers of this plan will do what they can to incite violent protests and hype/fabricate propaganda to make people believe that the protesters, like the "looters™," are frightening enemies. Then turning to Pentagon-directed martial law - military dictatorship in fact if not in name - will be painted as the only way to safety. Just as the Iraq war was painted that way before. All lies, but if enough of the media get behind it and people believe, the worst could happen.

Oh yes, the race card is being played and it is going to be hyped to generate as much "civil disturbance" in protest as possible - then the neocons will make their long-planned move to martial law and claim it is for protection.

Please read the post I linked to and the back information linked to in that in turn. There is massive documentation of their long-term plans for martial law, most of which have already been set into place. They were waiting for the excuse, and I believe this is what they will use: the murderous mistreatment of poor black Americans in the hurricane aftermath, with focus on the "looters™" and any other violence around the country that they can hype, incite, or fabricate...then portrayal of a violent racial menace. Once again, they want to people so terrified of a fabricated "dangerous enemy" that they will surrender their civil rights for imagined "protection."

John Dean calls the neocon goal "constitutional dictatorship" and said it was quite possible after another hit - he envisioned it as a terrorist attack - in 2002. That link and more in the linked post above.