Kanye West: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” (click for the video)

Kanye West at the NBC Concert for Hurricane Katrina Relief

Fuller transcript from Tracy and Eric: Kanye West at the NBC Concert for Hurricane Katrina Relief:

Mike Meyers reads off prompter … switches to black singer, Kanye West:

“I hate the way they portray us in the media.

“If you see a black family it says they are looting if you see a white family it says they are looking for food.

“And you know that it’s been 5 days because most of the people are black and even for me to complain … I would be a hypocrite because I would turn away from the TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before giving a donation and so right now I’m calling my business manager what is the biggest amount I can give.

“And just to imagine if I was down there, those are my people down there. So anybody out there who wants to help with the set up, the way that America is set up to help … The poor, the black people, the less well off as slow as possible. I mean, Red Cross is doing everything they can.

“We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war now fighting another way and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.”

(Mike Meyers tries to get back on prompter, reads from script and then camera cuts back to Kanye. He pauses before

Kanye West: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

Then camera abruptly switches to another black actor

The look on Mike Meyers face at the end is priceless. I didn’t even know who Kanye was until he made the cover of Time last week. It’s tough to see and hear him talk since he’s so broken up emotionally.

trigem: I’m so going to catch flak.. hah!

CNN 9/2/05

One New Orleans police sergeant compared the situation to Somalia and said officers were outnumbered and outgunned by gangs in trucks.

“It’s a war zone, and they’re not treating it like one,” he said, referring to the federal government.

The officer hitched a ride to Baton Rouge Friday morning, after working 60 hours straight in the flooded city. He has not decided whether he will return.

He broke down in tears when he described the deaths of his fellow officers, saying many had drowned doing their jobs. Other officers have turned in their badges as the situation continues to deteriorate.

In one incident, the sergeant said gunmen fired rifles and AK-47s at the helicopters flying overhead.

He said he saw bodies riddled with bullet holes, and the top of one man’s head completely shot off.

Lt. Gen Steven Blum of the National Guard said that as many as 2,600 National Guard troops were expected to arrive in Louisiana Friday to join the nearly 2,000 who went in Thursday.

The scale and suffering of the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina has enthralled me via cable tv and the web. I’ll start at channel 60 with MSNBC, then go downwards through the channels to FOX and CNN. What concerns me the most is that there’s so much suffering going on at a local level, but the federal government doesn’t seem to be responding fast enough. The sites I regularly check are:

CNN and The New York Times for general news coverage

Daily Kos for his political take and comments from the blogosphere

Interdictor for his local blog as crisis manager at a New Orleans ISP

Crooks and Liars for video skewerings of how this disaster has been managed

I only hope if a large earthquake hits California that there will be a better response. I think the toughest part of the hurricane is that the flooding from the broken levees will take a long time to control. In the meantime, New Orleans has become a festering swamp.

CNN 9/2/20

Terry Ebbert, New Orleans’ homeland security chief, told WWL-TV that he thinks FEMA’s response to the disaster has been an “embarrassment.” Walter Maestri, the emergency management director in suburban Jefferson Parish, said FEMA and other federal agencies are not delivering help nearly as fast as it is needed.

Yet, back in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CNN Thursday that he believes he thinks FEMA and other federal agencies have done a “magnificent job” under difficult circumstances to deal with the unprecedented disaster, citing their “courage” and “ingenuity.”

Insisting that aid is coming as fast as possible, Chertoff said, “You can’t fly helicopters in a hurricane. You can’t drive trucks in a hurricane.”

I just don’t believe this last quote from Chertoff. Hurricane Katrina hit on Monday! Tens of thousands of people have been waiting at the New Orleans Convention Center and the Superdome since then with very little help. The video I see of the people there shows such suffering and despair. Where’s the food, water and other supplies for these people so that they can survive and maintain some decency? I pray there’s a lot more relief for them today.

From the New York Times:

President Bush alluded to the energy situation today during a appearance in El Mirage, Ariz., where he was speaking on Medicare.

“You just got to understand that the situation we got ourselves into, dependency on foreign sources of oil, took a while to get there, and it’s going to take a while to become less dependent,” Mr. Bush said.

As a small business owner, it doesn’t help when tax laws are passed where my accountant asks if I’m going to be buying a vehicle anytime soon that’s over 6,000 pounds! Granted, there’s a tax break for hybrid cars, but the Section 179 deduction that allows a large deduction for vehicles over 6,000 pounds really doesn’t help with the dependence on foreign oil.