Do white people care?

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton tell us that white people in New Orleans wouldn't have been treated this way. Kanye West tells us that Bush hates black people. Michael Moore smugly sneers at us who believe it wasn't about race.

One of the black singers on the hurricane relief celebrity laden fundraiser on TV last night tells us to turn to God, "the slaves and the slavemasters."

The only problem with all these assessments is that no one told President Bush or the American people who happen to be white, that we are suppose to not care.

If the left want to focus on all that went wrong in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, than what went right, then fine. But don't pretend it had anything to do with race.

Bush has done and continues to do more than anyone in history to help disaster victims. White America (as well as middle class blacks and other races, of course) opened up their wallets, their hearts, their time, and their homes to the victims. It didn't matter that they were black, it only mattered that they were humans in need.

If white America seeks to "enslave" black America so much then why did they give so much?

There will always be racists in this world. But the reaction to this tragedy has proven to me once and for all that most people in America are caring people who give what they can to those in need.

So Jackson and Sharpton and all the other camera hounds can play the race card all they want, but the truth is there for all to see. Maybe this is the turning point. Maybe this will prove to the black community once and for all that Democrats have used them for too long for political purposes. Maybe they will see that it is Bush who appointed blacks to the highest positions in the government, because he didn't see their color, only their character. It is the Republicans who see that telling universities to give blacks "extra points' on entry exams is insulting to blacks. They don't need extra points, just opportunity.

Maybe they will see which political party truly respects them.

Maybe change is on the way.

Pictures.

These are the most fascinating pictures I have yet to see from a guy who lived and worked in New Orleans and took pictures throught the whole thing. He has pics of the looters and the water rising. It's easy to click though too. His journal at the bottom is an incredible read as well.

It's a Must See.

via Boing Boing.

Being a Mom.

An e-mail came through our Cotillion from one our Moms that had just ended a frustrating day with a trip to the emergency room, asking if she can retire from being a mom. Her 3 yr old reminded her though:

"Mommy, you're not a girl. You're a mommy." That is sooooo what happens, isn't it?'

I e-mailed the following back and another Cotillion member asked me to blog it. Who am I too refuse a request like that?????

"Such wisdom from a 3 yr old!! That is something our moms never tell us. When WE become moms, the girl in us is whisked away!

To answer your question. No. You cannot retire, you cannot quit, you cannot take a vacation from it, hell, you can't even take a coffee break from it! But, in the end, believe it or not, it is ALL worth it and more. Because in the end what we really did was live a life of love.

Right now it just LOOKS like choas and mayhem, but it's just love dressed up as life."

via The Steel Deal.

Katrina e-mail scammer.

Sortapundit replys. Heh.

Satan speaks.

In a rare interview Satan speaks in the aftermath of Katrina:

"Satan specifically cites the immediate and turbulent race baiting in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

"My approach would have been to just perpetuate the hopeless nature of it all," he says. "More images of desolation, more subtle implications of 'is this what your loving God wants?' Etc. etc. But no, between Randall Robinson, Harry Reid, Jesse Jackson, and my apprentice, Hillary, they've practically driven the people into the church house to pray that none of these people come to power."

Heh.

Good News.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Friday he believes that within two years, there'll be no further need for U.S. forces there.

Let's hope and pray this happens. 2 yrs is not that long. Then we can finally stop the bickering about the war. That would be nice.

Oh, the filthy rich!

I heard on the local news station this morning about dozens of displaced families from New Orleans staying at a local Motel 8 that were about to be evicted for not paying their bill. This was despite receiving a letter from the Red Cross telling the motel that it would be reimbursed.

It seems a Houstonian heard this and went directly to the motel and wrote a check for $44,000 to pay for another month for the families.

Good God! You just have to hate those greedy rich people!! They deserve to be in the 36% income tax bracket!!!! They deserve to have any money they inherit, or leave to inherit, taxed TWICE!

Then there are these kind of rich people.

Funny and Sweet.

Trying to find a lighter side here, I stumbled upon this true story from a New Orleans man who did NOT want to evacuate:

"Michael O'Donoghue, a denizen of New Orleans' Lower Garden District, claimed the harrowing distinction of being evacuated, escaping, returning home and facing evacuation again.

O'Donoghue, 64, likened his four-day Superdome stay to imprisonment.

"Tuesday, I made a couple of breaks but they brought me back," he said. "I finally escaped Thursday."

His house is livable, O'Donoghue insisted, and "once you put yourself in the hands of the government, you could end up in Utah."

UTAH!!!??? GOD FORBID!!!!!.....Heh.

A sweet story:

"A problem-solver from Baton Rouge, La., came up with a nifty solution Wednesday to the classic animal problem: people who won't evacuate New Orleans without their pets vs. rescuers who won't take pets.

Carlos Padial rented a bus after he learned that a friend's daughter, Robin Schaffer, 43, was car-less in New Orleans with her two cats. Padial won the governor's permission to enter the city and take out a busload of pets and their owners. Schaffer promoted the opportunity far and wide. A local radio station got wind of it.

When Padial arrived, he hung banners on the bus: "Pet Loving People." The bus filled and Padial was off like Noah."

Where is this story?

I was beginning to think I was the only one asking this question. But it seems Hugh Hewitt even went to the source to ask it:

"The Fox News Channel's Major Garrett made another appearance on the program this evening, following up on his blockbuster story yesterday. Among other things, Garrett got confirmation from the head of the Red cross --on camera-- of the Louisiana State Department of Homeland Security's blocking of the delivery of relief supplies to the Superdome and the Convention Center. In addition, Garrett received confirmation from senior Salvation Army officials in Washington, D.C. that the Salvation Army's efforts at supplying the evacuees were also repeatedly blocked. Radioblogger will have the transcript up later, but the key takeaway was when I asked Garrett if characterizing Louisian's preparation for the storm as "abysmal" was accurate and he confirmed that indeed it was. Read the whole thing.

I also asked Garrett why no other network is on this story. He can't offer an answer for that, even though he points out that this isn't a hard story to get, and Fox News needn't be credited. All CNN has to do (or MSNBC or CBS) is call the Red Cross and get a camera over there.

Of course that would interfere with the "blame Bush" conclusion being pushed by Jacked-up Jack Cafferty and Campbell Brown etc."

I had a commenter here who kept saying that the news he was reading claimed that the Red Cross had been kept out by FEMA. It seems that some news sources saw "Department of Homeland Security" in the part that said "Lousiana Dept. of Homeland Security" and assumed it was the federal branch and part of FEMA and got the story wrong.

Why is this important? Why is it important to understand why people didn't get water when they needed it? It's important so people can't write irresponsible things like THIS.

*I want to add that nothing has EVER convinced me of msm bias than this story. For days we were subjected to the trembling anger of Tim Russert, Keith Olbermann, Shepard Smith, and dozens of editorials about the hurricane victims lacking food and water for DAYS! How could this happen in America?? We were asked over and over. We finally get an answer to that question and Tim, Keith, and Shep are nowhere to be found. When they thought it was Bush's fault it was the lead, but when it is proven it was not, they don't even mention it. Since Tuesday when the story broke, I have looked and looked and could not find one mention of it in any msm news other than the one who broke the story, Fox News.

If this story is a lie or a spin, then THAT should be the story. But there is NO excuse for ignoring this story. NONE. Except for the glaring explanation, which is the media bias.

Real or Parody?

It took me a few minutes of reading this before I realized it was parody since it so closely resembles so many far left sites.

It is parody, right?

Americans know It isn't about race.

I just saw a quick clip on TV of Howard Dean saying that what happened in New Orleans had everything to do with race and class. I have been looking for the quote, but I can't find it. Update: I found the quote here.

“We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not,”

Considering that the vast majority of those who "survived" were black and poor, I think that Dean may be losing what is left of his mind.

Last night Bill O'Reilly had a black columnist from a black national newspaper on and she stated that the policies of Bush prove he is racist. Bill ask her for one example of this and she came up with nothing. She just started in on the hurricane.

If this is going to be a talking point on the Democrat side, take some advice from me. It will backfire on you. You are not going to convince America that Bush doesn't care about black people (as Kanye West tells us) when he is doing more to help the victims of hurricane Katrina (who are mostly black) than anyone could. Let's look at what he has done.

Victims were set up in shelters across the country with beds, food, drinks, and medical care. Everything from phones, job fairs, help with forms to fill out for unemployment, WIC, ect.. were given. Schools were opened for the children, school supplies given, and now $2000 check cards for everyone to get started. And this list is just a partial list. Bush signed off 10 billion just to begin helping.

Does this sound like a man who doesn't like black people? (we won't even go into his appointment for cabinet-level positions)

Americans are not stupid. Howard Dean can spin this any way he wishes, but people can clearly see on their TV's that Bush is doing EVERYTHING possible to help these people. And you know he isn't doing it because he figures they voted for him. We all know that 90% didn't. So this isn't about votes, it's about caring.

Despite the onslaught of criticism on Bush for the last week from the msm, a recent CNN/Gallup Poll shows that only 13% thought the Katrina aftermath was Bush's fault.

Democrats will do well not to tow this line. Dean is wrong. And you all know it. Race had NOTHING to do with this tragedy.

The American people know this.

A terrible force of nature and the terrible nature of man.

Here are some questions I asked myself regarding the aftermath of hurricane Katrina and maybe you did too:


"What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to speed away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Superdome?
Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them?

The Intellectual Activist asks these questions and answers them.

It's a must read folks.

This is great news.

HOUSTON -- The number of hurricane evacuees staying at Houston shelters fell from 25,800 to just over 8,000 as people are finding relatives to stay with or alternative housing, relief officials said Wednesday. via Star Telegram
I was a bit worried that people would be just sitting there in shock and then what? I wondered, did this many people have no one to turn to? No family, no friends? It is wonderful to know that they are finding loved ones to stay with. Once someone is living with a more nurturing environment, then they can start to rebuild their lives.

One reason might be Continental Airlines has set up stations at each of the shelters, and Houston's largest airline is offering free tickets to any shelter resident seeking to relocate to one of 48 states. If one had family far away and no money, it was all but impossible to get there. SBC had set up phone lines in the Astrodome so people could call their relatives and friends, It does my heart good to see so many companies doing so much for these people. Houston also opened two empty schools today to accomodate the children at the Astrodome and sent school buses there today to pick them up for their first day of school here.

Nice.

Interesting Timing.

UN Chief Annan accepts responsiblity for the food for oil scandal. Yep. This would be the time I would expect him to announce this. Just when the U.S. is focused on a huge tragedy. The sad thing is that he will be probably get away with it and not be forced to resign.

Some Answers.

I listened to the news tonight and it doesn't look good for the local government in Louisiana. The first glaring mistake was when Gov. Blanco refused to give federal authority for the disaster to President Bush when he asked for it. This tied the hands of many agencies, including FEMA, who had to wait for permission from Gov. Blanco to act and she was clearly overwhelmed.

It seems the Red Cross WAS there with supplies of food and water for the people at the Superdome and Convention Center and the highways , but the Louisiana Dept. of Homeland Security told them they COULD NOT give relief supplies out for fear of it creating a magnet for thousands of others to come to the Superdome or Convention Center.

It was a bureacratic nightmare.

I want to add that I get no satisfaction that those on the hard left, who were screaming that it was all Bush's fault that the people got no water and food, were wrong. The people still suffered and placing blame won't change that.

But now we know who to be mad at...the Louisana Dept. of Homeland Security. The federal government is not allowed to take control if it is not given by the State. If we want that to be different we better decide that now before the next disaster.

Update: More here.

Check out this week at The Cotillion!!!!!!

Well, no wonder they couldn't respond!

American Hostage Rescued!

Roy Hallums, a hostage in Iraq since November, was rescued by our boys!

Good news! Hat tip to MisterPundit

Map.

Ralph sent me this very interesting map of New Orleans that explains the past floods and how the city was built. Basically everything you would want to know in a geographic sense. You can download a larger version too.