Kerfuffles

How Are We Racists? Let Us Count the Ways.

Barack Obama has successfully used the race card handed down from friends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to inhibit all criticism of him. Late night comics and the mainstream press have largely cooperated with him because no one wants to be labeled a RACIST. During this presidential campaign almost any criticism of candidate Obama brings up charges of racism, even against his opposition’s VP candidate, whose main role in past presidential campaigns has been to attack the opposing Presidential candidate. So…, I thought I would document a few of the criticisms of Obama that I’ve encountered that have resulted in scurrilous and unfounded charges of RACISM.

In 1990, my state and cradle of the Confederacy, Virginia, was the first in the nation to elect an African American as governor. I supported and voted for his Republican opponent, however I have no memory of gratuitous charges of racism against myself or other whites who criticised or did not support Douglas Wilder. Was that because Douglas Wilder was a native Virginian and a gentleman who did not pal around with the likes of the Reverends Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? If not, why the difference now in 2008, where every utterance of criticism of Barack Obama is translated into a racist slur by his campaign and supporters? Perhaps we are seeing the implementation of the teachings of Obama’s mentors and allies, William Ayers, Saul Alinsky, and A.C.O.R.N.

• Barack Obama himself started playing the race card against John McCain by responding to a McCain ad knocking him as a world celebrity, after his celebrated trips to court European non-voters. For that criticism of himself, Barack Obama accused John McCain’s campaign of race-baiting. During the North Carolina primary Barack Obama told voters that John McCain would “play on our fears” and “exploit our differences.” By June, Obama was accusing any and all Republicans running against him for saying: “He’s young and inexperienced, and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?” The fact that NO Republican uttered those words mattered not at all to Obama.
• United States Congressman Barney Frank says you are a RACIST if you believe that people with lousy credit should NOT receive taxpayer-guaranteed mortgages. “BOSTON (AP) - Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that Republican criticism of Democrats over the nation’s housing crisis is a veiled attack on the poor that’s racially motivated. ” Representative Barney Frank Cries Rascism!
• When Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin brought up Democrat Barack Obama’s relationship with 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers who wished he had bombed more after the September 11th attacks, the Associated Press (as in Mainstream Media) labeled her attack as RACISM. What she pointed out to the voters was that Obama is “someone who sees America as ‘imperfect enough’ to work with a former domestic terrorist who targeted his own country,” and that Obama “pals around with terrorists.” The AP’s Douglass Daniel headlined “Palin’s Words Have Racist Tinge,” as he explained that although Ayers is white, terrorists today are people of color, hence logic follows that Governor Palin is a RACIST.
• Whoopie Goldberg on “The View” while speaking to John McCain, implied that he was a RACIST because he believes in strictly interpreting the United States Constitution. She accused him of trying to make her a slave, as after all, enslavement of black people is what the Constitution is all about, according to Whoppie.
• “Elitist” is now a racist slur, according to Obama supporters. When Hillary Clinton supporter, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, endorsed John McCain for President, she said she rejected Barack Obama as “I feel like he is an elitist.” The Obama Campaign and Obama supporters promptly labeled Ms. Rothschild as a RACIST, as they claim that “elitist” is another one of those code words that means “uppity” that means you must be very careful of criticizing Barack Obama, as you too could be called a RACIST. That is … unless you are yourself an anointed one awaiting “The One.” See “Latte Liberal - A Racist Epithet?”
• For the first time in history at a Presidential Candidates debate, almost everything that one candidate (John McCain) said to or about his opposing candidate (Obama) has been labeled a racist slur by Obama supporters. From comments at the Wall Street Journal Online we find that John McCain’s saying that Obama knows little about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is actually code for “You ignorant Black boy–you don’t know anything!” Here’s another one - “That one!”It too was a racist slur by McCain, according to the Obama campaign. Listen and hear the unforgivable racism: John McCain Is A Racist Because He said ‘That one … and Me.’ OMG - It’s almost as racist as saying Obama’s middle name, bequeathed him by his own parents.
• A prominent Obama supporter charges that Governor Palin’s use of the terms “Hockey Mom” and “Joe Sixpack” are code words for white people, hence McCain’s VP candidate choice is engaging in racism, of course. The Obamamania media has added some additional words that are used by RACISTS as code to mean white people: “Wal-mart moms, soccer moms, NASCAR dads and small town America.” We await word from the RACIST police to know if “hard-working” and “main street” are also code words hiding RACIST thoughts.”
• The cable news network MSNBC and its star reporter Keith Olbermann have called anyone and everyone, including Republican members of Congress, as “RACISTS” if they dare mention the activities of ACORN and Obama, or even politically criticize Barack Obama for almost anything.
• Believe it or not, there are not only RACIST code words, there are RACIST code colors too. According to Obama supporters at “Democratic Underground,” when a candidate goes abroad in the land giving political speeches, the wearing of white garments is a “code” message meant to incite RACISTS to violence. American clergy can still wear white robes before their congregations without being called out as RACISTS, but that is bound to change as soon as President Obama accomplishes his “transcendence” of the racial divide. As all Americans begin to strive for non-offensiveness to those of sensitive sensibilities, white apparal is expected to promptly go out of fashion.
• Yesterday, civil rights leader, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, condemned Senator John McCain for “sowing the seeds of hatred and division” and accused McCain of inciting potential violence for criticizing Obama. Lewis then connected John McCain to segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace, and to the 1963 church bombing which killed four little black girls, even though John McCain was in service to his nation at the time, wearing the uniform of the United States Navy. (Washington Post, 12 October 2008)
• Democrat Congressman John Murtha called his entire home base of western Pennsylvania a bunch of RACISTS because they are not supporting Barack Obama: “There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a RACIST area.” These same RACISTS have elected Congressman Murtha to the United States Congress seventeen times! (Western Pennsylvanians are Racists)

Today, there is only one solution, to NOT being labeled a Racist. We must all support Barack Obama, put an “Obama & Biden” bumper sticker on our cars, and VOTE for Obama. Then, just maybe, we can be saved from being condemned as RACISTS. If we do not do that, then we are RACISTs and when the Obamaniacs come into power, we will be hauled off to “Re-education Camps” taught by Weatherman turned college professor Bill Ayers. There we WILL learn the proper “Non Racist and Unoffensive” language of the Obama Regime.

Anyone know why Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans is parading on horseback at the Mardi Gras celebration wearing the uniform of an American five star general? I must have missed something in his resume.

It’s “Time for Swine**” Saturday at “The Boar’s Head Blog”.

The New York Times Loves Swine** Too. Then there’s “The Best Little Pot-bellied Pig House in Texas”.

**Main Entry: swine; Pronunciation: ’swIn; Function: noun, n. pl. swine:

1. Any of various stout-bodied short-legged mammals (family Suidae) with a thick bristly skin and a long mobile snout; especially : a domesticated member of a species (Sus scrofa) that occurs wild in the Old World.
2. Any of various omnivorous, even-toed ungulates of the family Suidae, including pigs, hogs, and boars, having a stout body with thick skin, a short neck, and a movable snout.

And Carnivorous Cannibals
Hurricannibalism! A great new word. Who would have ever thunk that the demonstrably “well-fed” citizens of New Orleans would have resorted to cannibalism during the third day of hurricane deprivation? Author Randall Robinson, the former head of TransAfrica, thunk it, as he said someone told him about it. “It is reported that black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive .. This is what we have come to. This defining watershed moment in America’s racial history.” He later retracted the statement, but he never revealed who told him the lie. One has to wonder about the successful, well-to-do black Americans, such as Robinson and Jesse Jackson, who would even think that other black Americans who happened to be poor, would engage in such unmentionable behavior after just a few days of hunger.

Now, taking his cue from “The Washington Post,” Don Surber is calling Louisiana’s congressional delegation — looters! for demanding a quarter-trillion dollars on top of, as the Post points out, $60+ billion already in appropriations.

When the great Mississippi River rampaged the levees built to hold her back, she inundated thousands of farms, hundreds of towns and killed perhaps a thousand people, leaving homeless almost a million of those surviving along its banks all the way down to the delta and New Orleans.

In the days that followed, racial tensions rose between the mostly poor African American victims and the Southern whites of the Mississippi Delta. When relief supplies finally reached the area, they were distributed on the basis of race, leaving many of the suffering blacks with nothing. Black men were rounded up and forced to work rebuilding levees and when a white policeman killed an African American for refusing to work a double shift, a prominent politician told a meeting of blacks, “That foolish policeman is not the murderer. The murderer is …”

George W. Bush! The cause of the storm was the result of global warming. The federal government could not help because there were too many military troops overseas.

NO! He did NOT say that. The Fatal Flood of Spring 1927 was one of America’s greatest natural disasters, but it was not caused by George Bush who was not yet even born, nor global warming which had not yet been discovered. World War I was long over and there were few if any troops abroad, so that had no effect on relief efforts. So what was the cause of the disaster? Could it have been nature?

What has changed along along the Mississippi Delta since the great flood that changed the course of history for America? It is now seventy-eight years later and almost four generations of Americans have come into being. Did we learn much during those seven plus decades? Robert R. Moton, Chairman of President Herbert Hoover’s Colored Advisory Commission, wrote reports regarding conditions among the flood victims after the disaster.

December 12, 1927: The Mississippi flood in its relationship to human life affected the Negro chiefly. A number of the counties along the Mississippi River and in the Delta district of Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas had more than 75% of Negro population. The problem faced was that of dealing with Negro life as we found it there. Not only was there congestion, but we found a class of people who were lacking in schools, who were living in homes scarcely worthy of the name, who existed in unhealthy conditions under an economic status unsound and unfair. It was impossible for such a people to develop a reserve sufficient to deal with an emergency so great as the flood because they were practically helpless, without initiative and with little self-control and self-reliance.

Katrina Posts by Kerfuffles

The Great Flood of 1927 introduced the rest of America to the music of the Delta region, known as Delta blues. More than thirty songs were written and recorded by the blues musicians about the Mighty Flood. This one is from John Lee Hooper, 1959.

A photographer named Alvaro has posted his outstanding photographic diary from five days in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana with Hurricane Katrina. There are, as of 9:30 am, one hundred comments, mostly thanking him for sharing this history. However the very first comment is from Henri, of Belgium, thankfully followed by one more gracious.

How a great nation can’t help hurricane victims ? Black people are good boys to be killed in Iraq for petrol but no to be helped.
Shame on you Bush !
That’s murder … I hate you.
Henri, Brussels, Belgium (Europe)
deles, 9/10/05

I’ve looked through your slideshow several times now. I’m amazed. You captured the events with such feeling and clarity. I’ve shared it with many people the same way it was shared with me and they are all amazed.
I wish you the best of luck in recovering from this disaster and in all things photographic and journalism. Stunning!
Heidi in North Dakota
Heidi, 9/10/05

Five Days With Katrina, (Alvaro’s Photo Diary)

CNN polls are showing that the American people do not blame their president for the horrible tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans due to a predicted natural disaster. It’s a Pundit writes that only 13% blame George Bush for the hurricane. New Orleans should have been the most prepared city in America to deal with a category five hurricane. It had a number of recent experiences that could have been as bad as Katrina and they had drills which revealed the necessary precautions to survive the onslaught of both natural disasters and terrorist hits. However, the leaders of the city of New Orleans and state of Louisiana did not take the warnings to heart.

As of January of this year, 2005, federal and local officials were studying the area to prepare for an almost certain hit, either environmental or terrorist: Katrina Was Predicted.

The were detailed plans written by the local governments and already in place to evacuate more than a million people, including the 300,000 projected to need transportation.

Local, state and federal officials held a hurricane drill in 2005, in which simulated flooding trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise studied the evacuation of more than one million residents, and gave a time frame of 72 hours to complete the evacuation.

Last hurricane season Ivan threatened New Orleans. An evacuation was ordered but those without transportation means, mostly the poor, were unable to get out. The hurricane changed course and New Orleans was saved. Both the governor and the mayor of New Orleans acknowledged the failure to evacuate, yet they took no corrective actions.

In 1998, when threatened by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the New Orleans Superdome and rampant theft and vandalism broke out due to inadequate security. Again, the government officials did not learn their lesson.

From The Wall Street Journal of today there is this on the editorial page: The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his emergency operations center.

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people.

Check out Michelle Malkin’s blogging about FEMA Follies. Linked at WizBang’s Carnival of Trackbacks.

Just one day after Hurrican Katrina struck New Orleans the NOPD (New Orleans Police Department) was hard at word defending merchants from the looters looters from the merchants, (captured on film). When uniformed police officers so flagrantly flaunt the law, little respect can be expected of the citizenry. Although other cops truly tried to perform their duties in the most horrendous of cirumstances, those police who violated their powers, authority and responsibilties to maintain order, should be most severely punished.

Linked at basil’s blog Lunch and WizBang’s Carnival of Trackbacks.

Mayor Ray “Frickin” Nagin to Washington: “We had all the busses ready to go. FEMA never responded with drivers!” (image from IHillary)

Wesly Pruden - The Washington Times: The vultures of the venomous left are attacking on two fronts, first that the president didn’t do what the incompetent mayor of New Orleans and the pouty governor of Louisiana should have done, and didn’t, in the early hours after Katrina loosed the deluge on the city that care and good judgment forgot. Ray Nagin, the mayor, ordered a “mandatory” evacuation a day late, but kept the city’s 2,000 school buses parked and locked in neat rows when there was still time to take the refugees to higher ground. The bright-yellow buses sit ruined now in four feet of dirty water. Then the governor, Kathleen Blanco, resisted early pleas to declare martial law, and her dithering opened the way for looters, rapists and killers to make New Orleans an unholy hell. Gov. Haley Barbour did not hesitate in neighboring Mississippi, and looters, rapists and killers have not turned the streets of Gulfport and Biloxi into killing fields.

“Katrina Preparation” from National Review On-line: The story of buses has become the seminal tale of dereliction in New Orleans. Though the city owned hundreds of buses, it failed to use them to move its most vulnerable citizens — vulnerable either because of poverty or physical infirmity — out of the bowl-shaped city to safe higher ground. Initially it seemed as if the city that knew the levees protecting it would one day break just didn’t have a plan to move so many people to safety. But it turns out that emergency-preparedness officials in New Orleans did have a plan, and they did think to use buses to evacuate the city before a major hurricane. They just decided not to fully implement it as Plan A. The plan was developed as a hurricane Georges lesson learned. This appeared in an article that appeared in November 2004 in the Natural Hazards Observer:

Residents who did not have personal transportation were unable to evacuate even if they wanted to. Approximately 120,000 residents (51,000 housing units x 2.4 persons/unit) do not have cars. A proposal made after the evacuation for Hurricane Georges to use public transit buses to assist in their evacuation out of the city was not implemented for Ivan. If Ivan had struck New Orleans directly it is estimated that 40-60,000 residents of the area would have perished.

So the question after dodging the Georges bullet seemed to be, “Do we figure out a way to use buses or do we allow 50,000 people to die for the crime of not having a car?” They chose Plan B.

New Orleans had a distinctive charm which tourists remember well. However, according to The New York Times, the Big Easy was quite a dangerous town. Drug addiction was rampant and was the biggest contributor to the violence. The Times was mentioning fans of Anne Rice wanting to visit the places she made famous in her novels and they warned: “Two neighborhoods predominate in Rice’s work: the French Quarter and the Garden District. Bear in mind that you need to be careful strolling through the French Quarter, even during the day; at night, cemetery visits or walks, which may have special appeal for Rice readers, can be particularly dangerous.” That was in the good times. When the almost Biblical deluge came and drugs were no longer available the addicts became unglued. Most of the violent crimes committed during the hurricane disaster were by street thugs seeking their drugs, not the ordinary people of New Orleans. It was devastating to hear the media report on the unbelievable crimes being committed upon the suffering victims and their rescuers.

Now I am somewhat heartened to learn that apparently, many of the stories of horrid behavior, are now proven to have been misreported. Michelle Malkin has “Debunking Some Katrina Myths” at her blog. For example, the children who had their throats slit, the rapes, and the corpses in the Superdome were made up and passed on to the reporters as misinformation. The biggest lie of all was said to involve cannibalism. It was spread by civil-rights activist Randall Robinson which he has since retracted. Ditto, apparently, for the story about the police shooting a teenager after running him down with their car. It is to be expected that in great upheavals and twenty-four hour news coverage, there were bound to be some stories based upon hysterical rumors.

Other good news for all of America and the world’s gasoline consumers is that almost all of the refineries in the Delta area are undamaged and will be continuing their output.

Now the media seems bent on convincing the American people that President George Bush was derelict in his duty because he was not in New Orleans delivering bottled water and MREs to the hurricane victims. In fact, if George Bush had violated the Constitution and the sovereignty of Louisiana, the press would be attacking him for that now instead. More good news is that most Americans understand that the hurricane was a natural disaster, and although there were many failures to prepare properly, beginning with individuals, no one person is responsible for its massive destruction. Linked at Wizbang Blog where Paul reminds us that “Bush declared a state of emergency before the storm even hit and he personally lobbied local officials to call for a mandatory evacuation. He was not the one behind the curve on this one.“