Barbara Bush on the flood refugees in Houston:
“So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”
The apple does not fall too far away from the tree.
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September 6th, 2005
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Oliver, not to be a jerk, but with in the greater context of the quote:
“What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality,” she said during a radio interview with the American Public Media program “Marketplace.” “And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”
I think she is saying that the Texan hospitality [I assume people offering homes and supplies] is working out well for them and not the disaster itself. I think it a little unfair to read it as she is saying its cool that the poor got hit by the storm, rather than reading it as the hospitality for those hit by the storm is working out really great. [Since the official response has sucked so.]
Help me out here, phile.
Where in this post are you seeing these “hysterical cries of racism?”
In general, I would like to point out a few uncomfortable facts.
A) the people who died were predominately black.
B) the people who made the decisions that lead to these deaths were white.
Well okay there is Condi but apparently what she decided to do was take in a Broadway play and get in some shoe shopping, so she doesn’t really count. At any rate there is only one of her.
Race is part of this story, you can’t wish it away. If black people died because of the decisions made by a representative government — even one that was only 10% black, you could say it wasn’t a racial problem. But that’s not the government we have. Sorry.
I’m sure she meant well but unfortunately it just does not sound right to me either, even in context. Remember her previous “beautiful mind” statement she made a while ago? It is as if she sees this as evidence as how great everything is going to work out…all for the best, you know?
Is it just me, or do most conservatives engage in this kind of thinking? It is almost as if they believe that nothing bad can happen if they just keep thinking positive thoughts and speaking in positive platitudes. No need for concrete action, just hope for the best!
Positive thinking is great, but empty statements made by wealthy women don’t go very far with me.
Umm, robot, did you even read that quote you just gave us? What do you make of this line: “ What I m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas?”
Because the only way I can read it is “Danger, danger — scary black people expect they will be allowed to stay in Texas after their fifteen minutes of fame is over!”
Couldn’t have that now, could we? I mean what do those New Orleanians think they are, Americans or something?
Don’t misunderstand. I don’t think it is unfair for Oliver [or the liberal blogs at large] to characterize Barbara Bush as an unsympathetic economic elitist. I am just saying the quote as I read it isn’t AS despicable as the select sentence that Oliver [and the liberal blogs] are quoting.
Not that the “they were underprivileged anyway” doesn’t deserve a harsh response, just frame it honestly.
phile,
You don’t think it insane that Congress reconvened on a Sunday night to protect Terry Schievo from having her feeding tube pulled. Funny how Congress will act quickly because it upset everyone to see such a nice, white, middle class, half dead, bulimic girl die. However, it takes them five full days to convene to discuss and pass aid for largest natural disaster in the country’s history. The loss of an entire major city and it takes five days?
I don’t blame them though, since the President took, what, three days to leave his vacation to fly to Washington to do anything about it, the Vice President stayed on vacation and the Secretary of State decided to go on vacation as the city was flooding. It might not have seemed so urgent since the administration obviously wasn’t stressing about it.
Though I agree that it might not be so much about race as it is about class since Mississippi got hit as well and had a similar response and they aren’t mostly black. Though I don’t think its unreasonable to talk about race [as well as wealth] in response to this disaster.
It’s only a matter of time before Oliver Willis will become the Reverend Oliver Willis. Jesse and Al won’t live forever, and someone has to be around when it comes time for them to pass on the torch of the race pimps.
Meanwhile, all these hysterical cries of racism are tantamount to spitting in the face of the countless crackers who have (and continue to) generously given of themselves to help these ravaged victims.
Well, I would ask you to explain what else Oliver was trying to imply, in this blatant example of partially quoting someone, in order to alter the meaning of their words.
robot_nixon says “…just frame it honestly.”
Oliver? Frame something honestly? On this blog? ROTFLMFAO
Maybe so, nixon, but that wouldn’t explain the “they were underprivileged anyway” remark.
Sounds like she’s calling them lucky duckies to me.
Nope, sorry. I don’t buy that. It doesn’t matter that much what her _intent_ was. What she actually said was both tactless and tasteless. “Well they’re poor, so they must never have been treated to such luxuries as a cot on the AstroTurf and a few MRE’s.” Condescending. Perhaps next she’ll offer to let them eat cake.
Wow, van, I don’t know what to say. The mayor of New Orleans had city buses but the US government had squat? The US government had no resources whatsoever that could have been used to prevent this tragedy?
I don’t know if you have heard this one yet but since 9/11 our government has spent $400 billion on disaster preparedness. Aren’t you even the least bit curious where that money might have gone, what it was really spent on? I mean, it was our money really, wasn’t it?
Nagin and Blancos actions in no way excuse the sheer incompetence of the Bush government response. Nice try though.
Hey, van, why not take the advice of your Dear Leader and stop “playing the blame game”?
And, phile, I don’t know what you were reading, but this post has nothing to do with race. It’s about class. Laura Bush wasn’t speaking about race. Nobody claimed she was. She was talking about poor people, whom she obviously detests.
Really?
Where did he flee?
I’m sorry, I guess I don’t understand. Where are you seeing the “hysterical cries of racism”?
The words “race”, “black”, or “white” are nowhere in this post. Maybe you can explain how Oliver implied anything about race.
In addition, maybe you can explain how the meaning of “so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway” was altered.
I’m trying to understand this part:
Where are you getting this “he fled” stuff?
I think Nagin will have plenty to answer for. If I was advising him, I’d suggest a different line of work after the next mayoral election. I just want to know the basis of the charge you’re making.
Quaker
Was he in the superdome with the people he sent there? Was he in the convention center with the people that he sent there? Was he in NO when Katrina hit? Why did he leave after issuing a MANDATORY evacuation order, but before actually evacuating the city?
SadieB
Mayor Nagin is black and he is the most responsible for the dead in his city. He abandoned his people and fled to saftey while leaving city owned buses to be destroyed instead of using them to evacuate his own citizens. Only unreasonable BDS sufferers could come to any other conclusion. Mayor Nagin and the Gov LEFT THEIR OWN PEOPLE, MOSTLY POOR AND DISADVANTEGED to die.
After futher research, it appears that Nagin stayed but sent the rest of his office to baton Rouge. I was wrong.
This makes Nagin’s disaster even worse as he was present, and allowed, through his own inaction, the killings, rapes etc to occur.
Since when is the President responsible for law enforcement in one single city? The mayor failed to do anything to prepare his city for this disaster and failed to do anything about the crime that followed. Thousands have died because of the mayor’s inaction. Blaming Bush will not change Nagin’s responsibility to his city and his people.
Let’s try again, van:
His inaction? Where are you getting this one? What action did he fail to take?
(OK, granted, he could have strapped on his six-shooter and waded in to restore order. I’ll stipulate that he failed to do so.)
But are you reading somewhere that he held back the police? That he told the National Guard to go away?
Or are you MSU again?
The cunt from hell.
“This makes Nagins disaster even worse”
Snort! Man you wingnuts got to learn to back off when you’re wrong! It only makes people look down on you even more when you get the facts wrong but you try to spin it like “well this only proves my point.” Have some respect for yourself.
and it wasnt laura dumbass it was Barbara
What inaction?
How about actually evacuating the city instead of leaving thousands to suffer the storm in awful conditions, which led directly to the criminal behavior observed in his streets and in his “saftey shelters.”
Was the evacuation plan adequate? Was the evacuation plan executed?
I have no idea, and apparently neither do you.
I’ve seen the aerial photos of buses that weren’t used in the evacuation. How many were there, van? Were they part of the city’s evacuation plan? Who was supposed to call them into use? Who was supposed to drive them? Who were the buses supposed to pick up?
I don’t have the answers to these questions and neither do you. In the weeks to come, I suspect we’ll find out. I don’t expect the answers will be flattering to any elected official.
However, I don’t think one can expect that the mayor had at his disposal sufficient manpower to round up the criminal element that would later prey on the poor and infirm of the city.
“Nagin and Blancos actions in no way excuse the sheer incompetence of the Bush government response. Nice try though.”
True, because it is the inactions of Nagin and Blancos that are the issue, without which, no one would be talking about what the Bush Administration did or didn’t do.
“because it is the inactions of Nagin and Blancos that are the issue”
The rightwing blogosphere is spinning that story so hard you can smell the wheels burn. But it’s not taking.
What we are seeing here is ABB, the wingnut version. During the election, a lot of us voted for Kerry even though we weren’t that enthusiastic about him, because our motto was “Anybody but Bush.”
And now when years of federal neglect and mismanagement hit the fan, and we are trying to figure out who is responsible, the Republicans take up the same refrain — Anybody but Bush!
Nagin’s evacuation plan was clearly shortsighted, as it never seriously considered the plight of the poor. Sure enough, most middle class New Orleanians got out safely while the poor suffered behind. Nagin is a lifelong Republican who changed his party affiliation two days before the primary, only to get elected in a Democratic city. He is every bit the DINO that Michael Bloomberg is the RINO. He got no votes from New Orleans’ poor. That said, Nagin was absolutely overwhelmed. The plan did call for sheltering people at the Superdome. And the plan never gave a satsifactory answer to those who could not or would not leave the city. By Wednesday, Nagin had to beg for Federal help because none was arriving. Rescuers were scared off by a handful of armed looters while tens of thousands suffered. Meanwhile, Harry Connick Jr. got in just fine. But all of this is irrelevant. The National Response Plan gave proactive authority to the Federal Department of Homeland Security to handle this crisis and they passed the buck.
‘apple doesnt fall far from the tree…’
I prefer my friend’s German quote on this ‘ the apfel falls not far from the horse.’
I will bet the farm….George will skate on this just like the others. Somehow we will be giving aid and comfort to the enemy by criticizing the weather. ROve is smarter than you or me, so give up…just give into the warm comfort of conservatisim….
Never. Resistance is not futile!
wow that was hard to do quaker.
try page 13, par. 5
http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/plans/EOPSupplement1a.pdf
Brother. Why do we have to interpret every sentence, every nuance, of the first lady twice removed from the White House to make the case that her son failed by a day or two, at most?
I’ve been listening to all of the fallout, almost non-stop, when I’m not at work…and my conclusion is that the lack of appropriate response to this disaster is a failure of government at ALL levels–local, state and federal.
Last night, on FOX’s O’Reilly, Newt Gingrich ripped Bill O’Reilly a new butthole for ranting and raving about the inability of government to do a single thing right. Yes, that’s right….I found myself in the very odd position of cheering for Newt Gingrich.
We all had our initial, very emotionally charged response to this diaster. Now, let’s take a deep breath, and look at the facts when the time is right–in that sense, I agree with Bill Clinton. Let’s hold off on the finger pointing until we take care of the people who have been devastated by this storm.
I think it’s obvious at this point in his term, that George W. Bush depends almost entirely on information he gets from the people that serve him. That’s his nature–not a quality I want in my President. I’d rather have an independent thinker like Clinton in office, that can make quick decisions based on experience and gut instinct. Let’s face it…all Bush had to do was call Nagin and and tell them that the Feds were taking over the entire evacupation operation. Done deal. But that’s not in his nature….he needs to hear all sides before he makes a move.
I’m not giving Bush a free pass on this, iconsolidating FEMA was a huge mistake, IMO…t’s just that we’re doing ourselves a MAJOR disservice if we think that a quicker response by the Feds would have prevented this.
JK
I never wanted a “quicker response,” I wanted a pro-active one. I still don’t see how we spent $400 billion on disaster preparedness since 9/11 only to find out we are not prepared at all. Do you suppose somebody had their hand in the cookie jar, maybe?
Phile?
“I would ask you to explain what else Oliver was trying to imply, in this blatant example of partially quoting someone, in order to alter the meaning of their words.”
Partially quote someone? Okay. Let’ss see the full quote:
What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overhwlemed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle)–this is working very well for them.
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_09_04_atrios_archive.html#112597122217543452
Holy crap. It’s worse. Well, nice try Phile. Then again, what else could we expect from someone so “calenderically impaired”? Idiot.
Very good, van, you found a copy of the emergency plan.
Now:
You had said something about Mr. Nagin’s inaction. Which part of the plan was he supposed to perform that he didn’t?
(The page numbers in the version I see don’t include a page 13. I scanned the whole plan and paid special attention to paragraph 5, wherever it appeared.)
I can see several items in the plan that didn’t happen as they should. But we’re still discussing “inaction” aren’t we?
I think you might be lying about reading that plan quaker.
PDF files have pages
Go to page 13
read the paragraph marked “5″
Here is a quote should that prove too difficult for you.
“5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.”
Now let’s look at Ray Nagin’s Memorial motor pool.
http://junkyardblog.net/archives/week_2005_08_28.html#004752
The evac plan calls for using these particular buses, note in the plan is says school and municipal buses, to move people out of NO. This did not happen. Hence, Nagin’s inaction leads to more dead in his city.
You’re still ducking the question, van.
The plan calls for using the buses. What I don’t see is an assignment of responsibility. Whose call is it to put the buses in play? Is it the mayor’s? The manager of public safety? The superintendent of schools? I don’t see that spelled out in the plan.
I would expect that it’s the mayor’s call to invoke the plan, but I doubt that he carries sole responsibility for executing each facet of the plan. Many aspects of the plan were carried out.
The plan calls for shutting down evacuation routes as a storm draws near. Katrina was upgraded to a category 4 hurricane at 2 a.m., 29 hours before landfall and to a category 5 hurricane at 7 a.m. 24 hours before landfall. The mayor called for mandatory evacuation 21 hours before landfall.
The plan broke down somewhere but neither you nor I know who failed to do his or her job. Please tell me what action you think the mayor was supposed to take that he didn’t.
Otherwise, you’re MSU.
How about putting his citizens on those buses just like the evac plan called for, and getting them the hell out of the way of a cat5 hurricane? Are you really this stupid?
Let me try to explain it a little more clearly.
Cat 5 declared at 7 a.m., 24 hours before landfall.
Mandatory evacuation ordered at 9:30 a.m., 21-1/2 hours before landfall.
The plan says it’s the parish’s responsibility to conduct its own evacuation. Do you know enough about the New Orleans evacuation plan to say whose job it is to call out the buses? I don’t.
The plan also describes when the evacuation is to be halted because driving becomes dangerous. What time did the first gale force winds and bands of rain hit, van? That’s about when the evacuation would end.
The plan requires the parish to provide a shelter of last resort for those who couldn’t be evacuated. That was clearly done.
Now you’ve been yammering for two days straight about Nagin’s “inaction.”
Be specific.
What action was Nagin supposed to take that you think he didn’t? If you’re saying it was his job to pull the trigger on the evacuation plan, I agree. If you’re saying that it was his job to call in the bus drivers and hand them the keys, I’ll ask you to show me.