O'Reilly: Many Katrina Survivors "Drug Addicted"

[buzzsaw_23]

The Dead Heart


O'Reilly: Many Katrina Survivors "Drug-Addicted"
Meanwhile Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has been attempting to downplay the government's failure in helping residents of New Orleans evacuate ahead of the hurricane by claiming that many of those who stayed in the city were addicted to drugs or suffered severe emotional problems. "Many, many, many of the poor in New Orleans are in that condition," O'Reilly said. "They weren't going to leave no matter what you did. They were drug-addicted. They weren't going to get turned off from their source. They were thugs, whatever.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/16/1222245

[tsuki]

1. The mayor admitted this. He claimed that many breaking

into hospitals and pharmacies were probably trying to take the edge off their "Jones."

[buzzsaw_23]

2. Any signs of

Rush? Okay ,okay cheap shot. I usually stay away from the gossipy side of GD. I should be sorry. But....

[tsuki]

7. No, just his maid. eom

[AnnInLa]

3. Yeah, I heard Nagin say that, and while it's probably true,

that a small portion of the remaining population is addicted and was breaking into pharmacies, etc...that's true of any big city, not just New Orleans, and to attempt to characterize the "left behind" as mostly junkies is beneath contempt. Anyone who listens to that creep has a small, small, hateful heart.

[tsuki]

5. Yes, Nagin said their were always some boneheads in the crowd.

Although, he did say that the amount of drugs in NOLA has always concerned, even frightened, him.

Just tell O'Reilly that there are no falafels in NOLA and keep him away from my favorite city.

[Mr_Spock]

4. Did O'Pervert say that as he passes the crack pipe to Rush as he

grabbed Rush's ass.

These RW freaks are not even worth me wasting my spit on.

[Skip Intro]

8. Oh now, its different when rich white hypocrites do it.

Come on, why do you hate America?

[Skip Intro]

6. So let 'em die? Or get 'em Rush's lawyer?

Taking the statement seriously for a second, where is he going with that?

That it was ok for the bush regime to once again preside over mass deaths of Americans, because they were "drug-addicted?"

We can't all pop a loofa, bill, and buy our way into and out of addictive excess, bill, you twisted fuck.

[FreedomAngel82]

9. What proof do they have??

[Skip Intro]

11. Its on fox - they wouldn't say it if it wasn't true.

:sarcasm:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

10. My sister

is in the last stages of alcoholism. I took her to detox just Wednesday and she has ended up in the hospital with life threatening electrolyte imbalance.

When she detoxed WITH librium and valium she had the dt's and hallucinated.

I would think that there must have been literally thousands of folks in the Superdome and Convention Center detoxing from alcohol. And I'm not even factoring in heroin and crack simply because I don't have personal understanding of what coming off that must be like.

Add to that the heat, thirst, hunger, fear, filth... these people will all go to heaven because they have been to hell.

I know we wouldn't expect even a properly run shelter to provide alcohol and drugs, and I do wonder how these things are dealt with in such large numbers?

[BayCityProgressive]

12. who cares??

Does being a drug addict make you less than human!?!?!?!? The way I look at this....this is the perfect time to helpt hese people. then again i am an ACLU card carrying, evil tax and spend, Bleeding heart liberal that just throws money at problems.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

19. Oh my

you really didn't follow me. Sorry I was not clear.

I am just saying that this was one more element of pain that many in America underestimated. It isn't something you (or I didn't) think about immediately when you think about shelter operations.

I am not sure where you get the concept that being a drug addict makes you less than human from my post. Wow. I was saying just the opposite.

And I agree that now this is a perfect time to help these folks. I was aksing whether there is anything in place to make it so.

And who cares?

Well, actually. I do.

[Skip Intro]

14. Why do you assume the poor were all under the spell of chem addiction?

I'm sure you don't mean to perpetrate some rw-borne stereotype, but why assume that the vast majority of those too poor to leave were hobbled by drugs, when in fact it seems clear to me they were more restrained by poverty - a failure not of their own, it seems to me, but that of a cold and uncaring regime under which the live.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

20. I assume

there was chemical addiction because in a crowd of that size there HAS to be chemical addiction! Sheer percentage. Numbers.

Do you know how many people you see every are alcoholics? The number is HUGE.

Why do you assume that I assume that they were hobbled by drugs because they are poor? Did I say that? Did I say "oh, those people are poor, they must be on drugs."

Get real!

Don't you realize that drug and alcohol addiction affect people in all walks of life, all socioeconomic levels, all genders? It is an equal opportunity scourge.

And if there were 30,000 people in that place a lot of them were in agony. And needed special help. And my question was, how is that handled? Is it even considered? And I ask not rhetorically but because I don't know.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

22. CORRECTION

PARDON MY TYPO IN POST ABOVE

it should read "Do you know how many people you see every day are alcoholics?"

[Bluebear]

16. Sorry about your sister, grannie

I'm sure it must be very hard on you.

Personally, I would think that withdrawal issues would be a smart part of shelter planning. Of course the compassionate conservatives would say "boo hoo hoo, no sympathy".... but I would call for at least some quantities of xanax or ativan to be on hand. Those would be good drugs to have for ANYBODY at the shelter experiencing anxieties!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

24. Yes, I agree

that there has to be some sort of mechanism in place for withdrawal AND anxiety.

I'm very curious as to what it might be. It is something I personally never really thought about. We think of water, mres, etc.

But I am sure the Red Cross has protocol in this area, I guess I'm surprised no one on here who read the question appears to have any experience with the shelter procedures. But then again, if they DID they probably would be working at one and not reading DU. So that was a dumb thing to write!

[wellstone dem]

27. I'm so sorry about your sister

this is a devastating disease, and it touches so many.

[understandinglife]

13. Including Bush ........ though he may not survive if we all do our job.

Peace.

[alarcojon]

15. Ahh, another compassionate conservative line

O'Shithead can kiss my ass!

[MadisonProgressive]

17. I guess it takes one to know one...

:puke:

[killbotfactory]

18. therefor they dount count as real people

asshole

[KitchenWitch]

21. And his esteemed collegue Rush Limbaugh is drug addicted

Did he deserve to lose everything....

[JanMichael]

23. When I read or hear "drug addict" or "alcoholic" I immediately think

"Republican."

Every single person that I have ever met that does, or did, cocaine..bar none...was a Republican.

Interesting what our perceptions are, eh.

Stephanie

[TallahasseeGrannie]

25. My experience is different

I think "alcoholic" I think Republican. My parents were Republicans in South Carolina. They weren't really political, but I think they felt the Republicans gave the best cocktail parties. My dad was an alcoholic.

Now, cocaine? Never seen it done by a Republican! Always done at very left-leaning groups of folks, which is really the only kind of even I frequent. Same with marijuana.

Then I haven't been to too many Republican parties lately.

Culture is endlessly fascinating.

[KharmaTrain]

26. This Is Almost Dumber Than Flooding The U.N.

OK, Fallafel-brain. Drug addicts need their fixes, they're gonna be the first to get out or go where the drugs are. Those would be some of the first people out of town...getting to a place where they'll find drugs rather than jonsing in the Superdome. But then this comes from the mentality that sits on high with their martinis and condemns "drug abuse".

The problem here wasn't drug addiction, it's poverty addiction...the use of cheap, minority labor and the maintaining of the lower class to exploit for their labor...or whatever consumer power they have. These are the most vulnerable people whose only "crime" is to have been poor, black and in New Orleans. Takes a real bully to pick on the defenseless. Yep, O'Reilly's a man's man. <coughbullshitcough>

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. They will keep inventing lies and pushing them.

At a certain point, you have to confront people that believe these lies and say "You believe that, sucker?"

Too much time spent refuting them and not enough spent mocking them. Some more detailed and devious lies of course do need to be refuted in detail.

[Toots]

29. New Orleans was the 47th largest city in America

But also one of the poorest so is it any surprize there were drug addicts there? I am pretty sure that a good percentage of people who wouldn't even go to the superdome had a reason. For a city with a million and a half people to have a few hundred criminals who tried to take advantage of the disaster should come as no surprize to anyone especially the Federal Government that has been doing studies and practice runs for years about this very issue. The local government was obviously going to be overwhelmed by such a large storm but no advance preparations seem to have been put into place almost to the point of seeming deliberate.