Thank You, Kanye
****Warning: Fans of George W. Bush may want to skip this post************
I like a man who speaks his mind. And rapper Kanye West is certainly one of those men. First he called on the hip-hop community to stop the gay-bashing and homophobia, and now this!
I didn't watch NBC's Concert for Hurricane Release last night, but I saw a clip of Kanye's uncensored comments on CNN this morning. He and Mike Myers were delivering some comments about Katrina's devastation when he went off-script and said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Mike Myers just turned to him in shock, and then the camera cut away to Chris Tucker. If you watched the special on the West Coast, you wouldn't have seen the incident, because NBC cut it out when they re-broadcast it. The Washington Post has more from the transcript, and there's a link to the video at Boing Boing.
I know that many of my Republican friends will say that this is not true, that George Bush is the best thing that ever happened to America, that everything in the country is perfect and wonderful and that it isn't Bush's fault that aid didn't get to the hurricane victims sooner. I don't buy it. Why wasn't Bush in the area the next day? Why did he just do a quick fly-over in Air Force One? Why did it take him so long to tour the region? Why did he say that no one could have predicted this devastation, when a FEMA report from several years ago said that the most likely catastrophes to befall America would be an earthquake in San Francisco, a hurricane in New Orleans, and a terrorist attack in New York? Why did he cut money to the Army Corps of Engineers? Why are so many of our National Guardsmen in Iraq, instead of protecting our nation, as they are supposed to? How can the richest nation on earth let people die in the streets like dogs? This opinion article from the New York Times asks all the right questions.
I am appalled, and I'm glad that people like Kanye West are speaking out, in their own blunt way. Even Jesse Jackson, when pushed by Larry King, said that if George Bush did care about black people, "he doesn't show it." Perhaps this disaster will finally show Bush for the incompetent, pandering non-leader he truly is. And I don't want to hear any more about how well he handled 9/11. A leader should not keep pointing to how well he did four years ago. He needs to keep leading, not vacationing at his "ranch." This is a time for action.
I like a man who speaks his mind. And rapper Kanye West is certainly one of those men. First he called on the hip-hop community to stop the gay-bashing and homophobia, and now this!
I didn't watch NBC's Concert for Hurricane Release last night, but I saw a clip of Kanye's uncensored comments on CNN this morning. He and Mike Myers were delivering some comments about Katrina's devastation when he went off-script and said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Mike Myers just turned to him in shock, and then the camera cut away to Chris Tucker. If you watched the special on the West Coast, you wouldn't have seen the incident, because NBC cut it out when they re-broadcast it. The Washington Post has more from the transcript, and there's a link to the video at Boing Boing.
I know that many of my Republican friends will say that this is not true, that George Bush is the best thing that ever happened to America, that everything in the country is perfect and wonderful and that it isn't Bush's fault that aid didn't get to the hurricane victims sooner. I don't buy it. Why wasn't Bush in the area the next day? Why did he just do a quick fly-over in Air Force One? Why did it take him so long to tour the region? Why did he say that no one could have predicted this devastation, when a FEMA report from several years ago said that the most likely catastrophes to befall America would be an earthquake in San Francisco, a hurricane in New Orleans, and a terrorist attack in New York? Why did he cut money to the Army Corps of Engineers? Why are so many of our National Guardsmen in Iraq, instead of protecting our nation, as they are supposed to? How can the richest nation on earth let people die in the streets like dogs? This opinion article from the New York Times asks all the right questions.
I am appalled, and I'm glad that people like Kanye West are speaking out, in their own blunt way. Even Jesse Jackson, when pushed by Larry King, said that if George Bush did care about black people, "he doesn't show it." Perhaps this disaster will finally show Bush for the incompetent, pandering non-leader he truly is. And I don't want to hear any more about how well he handled 9/11. A leader should not keep pointing to how well he did four years ago. He needs to keep leading, not vacationing at his "ranch." This is a time for action.
posted by Astera @ 2:13 PM
6 Comments:
At 4:43 PM,
Anonymous said…
You go girl!!!
At 2:05 PM,
Anonymous said…
Maybe George W. Bush caused Hurricane Katrina? Why do Bush-Haters blame the president for everything that goes wrong in the world? Does such hatred for one man blind some people from the reality?
Who is really responsible for the problems in New Orleans? The local government! The city government and mayor, followed by the state government and governor are responsible for disaster preparedness. Why? Federalism! It is the history of government since the founding of this country. The United States government is decentralized with definitive divisions of power and jurisdictions.
The best example of this in action is the 9-11 attack on New York City. Who was the central figure dealing directly with the disaster? Mayor Giuliani, with his Police Chief and Fire Chief. Later that day Governor Pataki met with Giuliani to request federal aid.
George W. Bush needs to work within the confines of the government bureaucracy as any other elected official. Constitutionally he can not make a unilateral order regarding a state unless granted by the governor. Do not blame Bush! Blame the bureaucracy that caused the escalation of this problem. Why make a political issue out of this great tragedy? Do you really think that George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people?
The race card played by Kanye West shows complete ignorance. Why even validate statements made by a rap-artist? Does Kanye West even know how government works? He is a racist for even bring in the race card! This is a case were poor people regardless of race were left behind because they did not own transportation to evacuate the area. Why are these black people poor? They are uneducated. Why are they uneducated? They listen to rap artists who glorify being uneducated. Even one of Kanye West’s albums is titled, The College Dropout.
Remove race and politics from this tragedy. This is a complete failure by New Orleans to create a disaster preparedness plan for the city. The lesson should be: FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL.
What else do you want to blame on Bush? I can not comprehend the unjustified hatred for George W. Bush, or understand why the Michael Moore Cult followers continually create Bush conspiracies.
At 12:13 PM,
Anonymous said…
So was the Gov. of Louisianna (White female) racist also? Why or why not? Just because she is a democrat does not excuse her from being racist. How about the Red Cross?...are they racist also? They didn't show up for over 5 days as well. There were lots of problems in New Orleans...but this race garbage is ridiculous....and it's turning people off.
At 5:15 PM,
Astera said…
I knew I would get a lot of flack for my posts. Please keep in mind that I don't think Bush is solely to blame. There is plenty of blame to go around. A few points:
1. I am not blaming Bush for everything that goes wrong. However, I do not think that he has shown leadership through this crisis, and I think that he has made a number of bad decisions that have hampered relief efforts. For instance, I think cutting funding to FEMA and folding into Homeland Security was a mistake. You may argue that it's the state's responsibility to protect its citizens, but the federal government has an obligation, as well. And when the state applies for federal money to strenghten the levees and the federal government denies them money or gives them a paltry amount, what is the state to do? Once the disaster happened, FEMA should have been on the scene immediately, once a state of emergency was declared, and that did not happen.
2. Do I really think Bush doesn't care about black people? No. That is a bit of a misstatement. I think that Bush doesn't care about poor people, and many of them are black or Latino or other minorities. Why do I think Bush doesn't care about poor people? Because he constantly cuts funds to social programs meant to assist the poor. I agree with you that many minorities are poor because they are uneducated, but to say that they are uneducated because they listen to rap music is insulting. Yes, there are problems within a community where education is not highly valued, I don't think that's overwhelmingly the case here. Say someone is born poor. His parents are poor. He grows up in a poor community. He goes to poor schools with inept teachers and no textbooks. Well, the federal government is partly to blame for that!
3. You say that FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL. I agree with you. So, when FEMA knew three years ago that the levees were likely to fail, why didn't they do something about that? Because Bush had cut their funding and taken away much of their power to focus on the "war on terror." Let's see...hurricanes happen every year. Terrorist attacks on our country don't, thank God. It's wrong for Bush to say that no one could have predicted the levees would fail. Someone did predict it. He and FEMA just didn't do anything about it. Maybe the state and local governments weren't so great at planning, either, but Bush must share some of the blame.
At 5:36 PM,
Astera said…
The governor of Lousiana is not racist because she's there trying to help, unlike other illustrious members of our (federal) government.
I did not say thank you to Kanye West because I agreed with everything he said. I applauded him for speaking his mind.
You're right...it's not just about race. It's the haves versus the have-nots. And I feel that George Bush does not care about the have-nots. Lots of the have-nots are minorities. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that George Bush does not care about poor people.
At 2:43 PM,
Anonymous said…
obviously, some of the previous posters who claim the "race card" was pulled have never watched thousands of people of their own race die because they had no other choice. the signs are there. people just need to quit turning the other way and putting the blame on "the race card."
we're barely 50 years out of the civil rights movement, people. let's not pretend there's really "equality for all."
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