Anyone who thinks the delay in aid WASN'T prompted by views on poverty...

[FormerRepublican]

...by BushCo is a fool.

I'll give you a prime example of how this plays out in the party. I used to have a very high paying job in the tech sector. I got hit hard when the economy went bust, but I was still working for far less money. Then I became disabled (after I'd just gone back to work after being unemployed for a year). I had no savings left, and I was faced with the prospect of applying for Social Security Disability, which has quite an extensive wait time before you can receive any payments.

I called my US Senator's office to express my opinion (last I checked, that was still my right as a constituent) about the need for assistance for the Disabled during the application process, and an aide in my US Senator's office told me in the course of that conversation that she would press the button to have me executed because I was disabled and a drain on society. I'd said 'what are you going to do next, execute people who need help?' and she said 'I'd press the button.' No sympathy, no understanding, just an expression that I was what was wrong with the country and she was willing to press the button to have me executed.

This was my US Senator's office! To put this in perspective, I'm white, in my 40s, and 5 years ago I was making $100,000 per year. Now I'm forced to rely on SS Disability. I've paid HUGE amounts into Social Security, AND into taxes. To have my US Senator's office tell me I should be executed is horrifying, but it fits perfectly with current Republican philosophy.

So when I see the slow response to poor people in New Orleans, I just nod my head and say 'uh huh - that's what I experienced'. It's disgraceful, but it's endemic in the Republican Party. Instead of having a war on poverty, they have declared war on the impoverished, and they're more than happy to have us all die. No joke. I wouldn't have believed how horrible they were if I hadn't experienced it myself.

I was taking a nap this afternoon because I haven't been sleeping since Katrina, and I heard a group of young men gathered outside my apartment window who were very angry about the Katrina response by the feds. The comments were along the lines of (poor people) 'Like me?' They just kept repeating that over and over again, more and more angrily and more and more outraged. The message is getting across to people that the government is content to let poor people die. When I went to the grocery store today, it was easy to see that people were shaken. It was just that odd feeling you get when people's mood is darker than it was before.

BushCo is sitting on a powder keg of their own making.

[Mr Rabble]

1. I agree. Its not racism, I dont think. Its classism.

Population control from the bottom up.

[applegrove]

5. No - it is his neocon agenda and the fact the 9/11 didn't "pay off" in

fear anymore. So they took a crisis - and let it get worse - and now they have fear of anarchy in red states. Just what the doctor ordered.

[Eloriel]

8. It's both and more. And IMO it's very difficult to put a dividing line

between the two in situations like this.

But I think there's way more than that to it:

ATTN DU RESEARCHERS -- LIHOP/MIHOP evidence stacking up
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4588088&mesg_id=4588088

[blossomstar]

2. very nice post... thank you!

[NYC]

3. Thank you for telling us that.

I have to wonder how a senator's aide gets to say such a thing. I guess it comes under the heading of honesty, and you are better off knowing how they honestly feel before you cast your vote. Obnoxious.

About the dark mood, I'm glad to hear it. If people are not in a dark mood over the federal government's handling of Katrina, it means they haven't heard what is going on. People should be shaken. This government "of the people" doesn't give a damn about the people.

[Lifelong Protester]

4. Jeez, what a horrible thing to say to you...

and you are right about it being all about classism.

And I continue to be puzzled at how the repubs have gotten poor people to join their party and vote republican.
Yep, it's all about keeping a party in power that'll keep boys from kissing each other in public.

[wli]

6. Time to press the button for the rich, perhaps? n/t

[Hippo_Tron]

7. I don't think that it was necesarilly intentional, BUT...

The fact that they were poor people made it much easier for Bushco to not give a shit one way or the other.

Bush also isn't a details man. He probably just told Michael Chertoff "Okay, yea do something about this hurricane thingy" and that was that. Had it been wealthy campaign contributors stranded at the convention center, someone would've told Bush to tell Chertoff to get those people out at "any cost".

Basically I don't think that they intentionally left them stranded there, but Bush certainly wasn't up all night with his advisors trying to come up with any plan that they could to get those people out of there ASAP. Again, I'm not a huge fan of Bill Clinton, but I guarantee you that he wouldn't have slept until he had a feasible plan on his desk to rescue those people.

[windbreeze]

9. Sorry, I respectfully disagree...

Those people were left there on purpose...look at the facts...
The hurricane gave plenty of warning...nothing was done to get the people out, who had no way to go themselves...every boat that could navigate the Mississippi, bus, 18 wheeler, airplane, and train should have been commandeered to execute evacuation...
The funds were cut, for the levees, even after the possible damage from a direct hit had been studied and reported on, years ago..
Who do all of his policies target? The elderly, the minorities, the poor..
Bush was in bed asleep at 11:30 pm the night of 9/11...so don't think he lost any sleep over this disaster(wonder how quickly Fla would have received help?)...and he has refused all international help being offered, saying we will take care of our own problems..HOW does he intend to do that..people are struggling to make ends meet all over this country as it is..and now the price of gas is beyond reason, which makes it harder for most of us..
In my book, this constitutes criminal negligence resulting in a form of homicide/genocide..period...
There IS no excuse good enough..NONE...and there is NO excuse for it taking 4 days for help to arrive...
And for the OP...I gotta tell you, I most likely would have made a personal visit just to see the face of the woman who told me she would press the button...and had her repeat her sentiments, in front of witnesses, then I'de have probably punched her in that smart mouth...most likely would have gotten arrested, but by god, it would have been worth a trip to the klink...I'm not a violent person...but I would make an exception in her case...
windbreeze

[Hippo_Tron]

11. Okay, I think that we agree more than we realize

I think that you could very much make a case for criminal negligence in this situation. The fact is that the whole hurricane response was a complete and total failure and that is largely because the Bush administration didn't give a shit whether they would be able to properly respond to a situation or not.

Basically here's how I feel. Bush didn't intentionally leave 20,000 people to die for the hell of it. He left 20,000 people to die because it's more important to him that the national guard secures the oil in Iraq than save those 20,000 people.

[Skittles]

10. I've been tough on you in the past, FormerRepublican

but you have shown me you did learn a lesson, alas in the worst way possible. It has given you incredible insight and I thank you for your honesty

[meow2u3]

12. Who was that "senator" who said you should be executed?

I think that bitch ought to be shot on sight--and the system should not prosecute! :grr::grr::grr:
That nazi shouldn't be on the loose!