Jehovah Might Blow You Ovah!

Julian Sanchez | January 16, 2006

So, it was just a little amusing when the nuttiest elements of the religious right declared that God had sent us fetus-shaped hurricanes to convey His displeasure with all our abortions and hedonism and intercourse during menstruation. But it's plain freaky to see an actual elected official like Ray Nagin declare that hurricanes are evidence that God is mad at the U.S. in general over Iraq and the black community in particular for not "taking care" of each other. Should we just forget about those silly levees and offer some livestock in sacrifice?

Comments

|1.16.06 @ 7:57PM|#

You missed the best part:

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1137439449238130.xml&storylist=louisiana


"We ask black people ... It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans � the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," Nagin said Monday. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

Didn't they say something like that about Montgomery, AL? And aren't the people who said this pilloried today?

|1.16.06 @ 8:08PM|#

Was Nagin this idiotic before the hurricane, or did it flip his lid, so to speak?

|1.16.06 @ 8:15PM|#

Jehovah might blow you ovah, but he do NOT spit into the wind!

The Wind...

|1.16.06 @ 8:20PM|#

Or am I so sane that I just blew your mind?

|1.16.06 @ 8:28PM|#

RAY Nagin didn't used to be quite as crazy. He actually appeared to be the most sane candidate during the last election. He did once talk about people leaving the city in groves however.

|1.16.06 @ 8:31PM|#

invoking the fear of god has been a cheap ploy since politics was born. It shouldnt be so surprising.

(spartacus)
Julius Caesar: Rome is the mob.
Marcus Licinius Crassus: No! Rome is an eternal thought in the mind of God.
Julius Caesar: I'd no idea you'd grown religious.
Marcus Licinius Crassus: [laughs] It doesn't matter. If there were no gods at all I'd still revere them.

i dont know if it says as much about religion as it does politicians, and their willingness to say anything to either coddle, rebuke, or spur their constituency when they feel the need.

I kind of like Nagin. I've always loved new orleans. He's certainly a child of the place. I think what he says matters more for people there than it does us.

I think reading the article in context maybe makes his comment seem somewhat less absurd

"A day earlier, gunfire had erupted at a traditional second-line walking parade to commemorate King's birthday. Three people were wounded in the shooting in broad daylight amid a throng of mostly black spectators, but police at the scene said there were no immediate suspects or even witnesses."

the guy was trying to speak to the religious element in the black communities down there to try and use the momentum of katrina that has made them more active to get them to address more than just emergency help - to try and get them more involved in the endemic cultural problems of social chaos in new orleans.

If you've never spent much time there, you will never understand the level of poverty and violence that prevails in some areas. But if you've been through the wards...alone even!... you might better understand a mayor trying to inspire people with the fear of god as a tool to make people more aware of their own social failings.

I think he might have been trying to send a message of 'we aint gonna be able to use this as an excuse to let things slip futher into mayhem - this is our chance to start over and try and do it right.' If casting the issue in terms of Sodom and Gomorrah is laughworthy to us (it is), it may nevertheless be for him a way of getting through to the local people there than talking about federal spending on infrastructure.

one of the first times i was in New Orleans, i was walking back to downtown from the fairgrounds, from jazz fest, when a car screeched in front of me and opened its door and a voice shouted 'get in!'. I looked inside, and it's a little old hatian nun. I'm like, 'huh?' I'm buzzed and sunburned, carrying a beer and was just taking my time strolling around looking at the decaying houses. She says, 'turn around'. I look around. there's 5 guys following me about a block away. I get in the car. She explains that she saw me 5 blocks earlier and saw another guy with bad rep pick up and start tailing me. She said i would have never made it halfway through the area. She drives me to my hotel. I tried to offer her some money. she wasnt having it. So we went across the street to the Acme oyster house and she had oyster stew while i knocked back a dozen backed with some bourbon. I think people should try to keep in mind that everyting about New Orleans has always been half crazy, and what we think is normal may not always apply to that region. Especially just bullshit talk.

JG

|1.16.06 @ 8:54PM|#

http://www.nolafugees.com/archive/issue%202/chocolatecity.html

|1.16.06 @ 8:58PM|#

GILMORE,
If we want to wax nostalgic about NO, I recall one of my early visits there when I was sitting just opposite the oyster-shucker at Felix's. I had already ordered everything deep-fried as I had not yet developed the taste for raw. While I was waiting, in walks an overweight person made up and in revealing theatrical garb. I think it was a performer from a nearby transvestite show. Anyway, he/she was obviously a favorite of the shucker. I was fascinated at how the shucker was able to find the most humongous oysters one could imagine to satiate this person. I have never since seen oysters so big.

Then, not far from Felix's, I would come forward as the volunteer at the 501 Club on Bourbon Street to give a champagne bubble bath or lick the whipped cream off the sensitive regions of the main attraction. She was 90 percent silicone 50 years ago, but an everlasting, sturdy beauty.
Could I get a amen?

Danny Haszard|1.16.06 @ 9:11PM|#

'Bend over jehovah' http://www.dannyhaszard.com/bendover3.jpg -Danny Haszard

|1.16.06 @ 9:14PM|#

I got the impression he's saying that The wrath of God is evident not the hurricane, but in the Babel-like exodus after the storm.

|1.16.06 @ 9:16PM|#

Ruthless:

my half-crazy comment was being generous. :)

JG

|1.16.06 @ 10:00PM|#

perhaps god abominates NO because He hates shrimp?

|1.16.06 @ 10:12PM|#

Sex during menstruation? Ewwww... besides the obvious ick factor, I don't think that most females would be in any condition for intercourse when her insides are cramping up like crazy. My ex-girlfriend wouldn't even let me touch her when she was having her "female days." Come on guys, show a little consideration. You two can make up for lost time later.

|1.16.06 @ 10:33PM|#

I know and accept that part of the purpose of this board it to peel the curtain back on silly, pointless, hypocritical or bizarre behavior in our public and elected officials.

I usually enjoy the fray...but I think some folks are reaching and looking to spear anyone they can for anything these days.

This thread, however, is a disappointment. After reading the article, Nagin is hardly in the same vein (or league) as...oh,I don't know...Pat Robertson?

So you have a Mayor of an admittedly weird city known for colorful language, music and political figures speaking somewhat euphemistically about God and why his city had gone through recent events.

Then to further the colorful angle, he chooses some decidedly odd but harmless words to make some fellow African Americans feel better while celebrating the birthday of perhaps the most important black individual in the 20th century - who was incidentally assassinated by a white bigot.

What does this site do? Mean-spirited ridicule of statements taken out of context.

Julian, you're usually much better than this. Did you actually read the article? The guy actually was saying some pretty insightful things.

Yeah, yeah...rank on him for being a liberal all you want. But he makes a good point excoriating his same fellow African Americans for not doing enough about black on black violence. Sounds pretty sane to me.

|1.16.06 @ 10:48PM|#

Julian,

Forget the animals, the storm goddess, Tiamat, demands human flesh!
Bring the sacrificial virgin, New Orleans must be saved from the caprices of the immortal wind!

Blah! RAY Nagin just needs to shut his mouth. "Choclate city," WTF!
Better tell my lily-white sister she needs to get out before the learned elder, Ray Nagin, force her into the stocks for her whiteness flaunting the blackness of the Crescent City...idiot.

|1.16.06 @ 10:55PM|#

madpad,

I'm still not forgiving him for his numerous occasions of dropping the ball to help NOLA.

First, even years before Katrina hit, he specifically was not going to follow the FEMA plan of sending school buses for the poor residents, and so was planning on sending info DVD's on getting the "community" to help everyone get out of town.

Second, again, HE DID NOT FOLLOW THE FEMA PLAN! The image of all those stranded buses next to the Superdome is prime evidence of his failure in Katrina in which he fialed ALL of NOLA.

Third, he does not calm the situation, but goes out of his way to spread almost every rumor that he can get his hands on.

And then now we are to be criticized for overlooking his glwoing comments to the same residents he F***ed over?!!!!? Screw that, Nagin is a moron and deserves every speck of abuse coming his way for all the hurt he cause NOLA.

|1.16.06 @ 11:10PM|#

madpad,

Hypothetical situation: Imagine the mayor of Salt Lake City - Ross Anderson - giving this speech after an earthquake shakes the area to the ground:

>> "We ask white people ... It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild Salt Lake City � the one that should be a lilywhite Salt Lake City," Ross Anderson said Monday. "This city will be a majority European American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have Salt Lake City no other way. It wouldn't be Salt Lake City."

Would your immediate reaction be to ridicule, or would you say that he was just using some colorful language to a group of 'some fellow white people' that was merely taken out of context?

|1.16.06 @ 11:11PM|#

Frank A.,

From the looks of it, FEMA didn't follow the FEMA plan either.

Listen, I know Nagin's an idiot. I'm not protesting that. I'm disagreeing with what I feel is a mis-characterization of some of his statements. I'm also disagreeing that they rank as something worth discussing on this board (Well, maybe the 'Chocolate City' thing is.)

But what do I know. I thought the recent thread suggesting an obvious mis-captioning of photo of an artillary shell by the NYT was in fact (heavy music please) a liberal MSM conspiracy, was about as stupid as it gets.

265 posts (and counting) suggest I'm alone on that one.

|1.16.06 @ 11:13PM|#

RAY Nagin

Oops.

|1.16.06 @ 11:17PM|#

A virgin in New Orleans? Good luck, buddy.

|1.16.06 @ 11:19PM|#

DA,

Salt Lake City - Largely white and run by tight-assed teetotalers. Religious,extremist polygamists (the only newsworthy items to come out of Utah) are not colorful.

New Orleans - Largely black and run by colorful drunks.

A little perspective is called for and (by myself, anyway) allowed.

|1.16.06 @ 11:36PM|#

madpad,

Sorry, I didn't hear Nagin say, "Let New Orleans be populated with colorful drunks, and not tight-assed teetotalers". That's a tad different.

An elected official publicly stated his wish for a city to be majority (perhaps if not completely) of a certain race. Indeed it is right on par with Pat Robertson, but political correctness will prevent it from being the topic of columnists and late night talk-show hosts.

|1.16.06 @ 11:47PM|#

GILMORE actually raised an interesting point to remember -- a lot of these "crazy-talking politicians" may in fact be simply speaking the language of the consituents they know best.

On another topic (and what an opportunity for a thread jack!):

Sex during menstruation?

Although I am far from an expert, I've heard that for some women, increased sensitivity during menstruation can sometimes be a good thing, sex-wise. But a lot of men, probably most, are squeamish about it. So are lots of women. Plus, one woman's "mmmm" is another woman's "youch!" You can't generalize about women and their sex-thingies nearly as much as you'd expect. It's one of the ways they are designed to confuse us.

|1.16.06 @ 11:55PM|#

I'll try to be delicate (I know, I know, why bother), but let's just say that the women I've known find some sexual activity during menstruation to be pleasurable, but not "sex," per se. That is, let your fingers do the walking, gentlemen. And if you know anything about the female anatomy, you know you won't have to encounter much menstruation to do the job right. I've even been told a good orgasm can help with the cramps. Good luck getting her in the mood for one if she's got cramps, though.

|1.17.06 @ 12:06AM|#

Hmmmm... Mayhap you're right. I'll keep that in mind.

As for Ray; Yeah sure, whatever, Mr. Mayor. Put the blame on someone who doesn't exist and maybe--just maybe--the voters won't throw your gorram ass out of office next Election Day!

What a fucking piece of work.

|1.17.06 @ 12:15AM|#

DA,

Listen, I'm have some sympathy to your point of view. But let's look at some other facts. Have you ever been to New Orleans? It is (was?) largely black.

After the hurricane, most of the most black areas were hit the hardest. Houses are gone along with that very population of blacks, many of whom can trace their lineage in that city back some 2 or 3 centuries.

In context, I can forgive Mr. Nagin - on Martin Luther King's birthday - giving some (arguably clumsy) words of comfort to fellow folks of color who frankly don't know what to make of anything that may await them in the near future. Their friends are gone. Their history and legacy (such as it is) is in tatters.

Why is it I can see that and you can't? Racism is a reality and race is the lense through which they - and you, and the rest of us - are looking at this.

I don't see Nagin's words as a threat nor do I see them as racist in the same way you do. Racial, certainly. But not racist. I see it as words of comfort to fellow African Americans in a terrible lurch. Not some militant call to some hideous ideology of hatred.

His words are plainly speaking to a particular audience trying to find it's footing under uncertain circumstances.

So chill out, will ya?

|1.17.06 @ 12:16AM|#

And keep the lights out.

Jadagul|1.17.06 @ 12:20AM|#

I don't see Nagin as doing the same thing as Pat Robertson, because I think Robertson at least half-believes most of what he says. Nagin, on the other hand, is just being a politician; and he's having trouble holding on to the black vote in New Orleans because they feel he's sold out to the rich white businesspeople. Now, if only residents could vote in the next mayoral election, that probably wouldn't matter, but it seems they're planning on finding a way that all the Houson-dwelling evacuees can vote in New Orleans elections, so Nagin wants to find a way to hold on to that vote.

Incidentally, I'm told that with the number of inner-city New Orleanians who've moved to Houston, Texas is no longer a safe Republican state. Don't know if that's true, but it seems plausible.

|1.17.06 @ 12:37AM|#

I don't see Nagin as doing the same thing as Pat Robertson, because I think Robertson at least half-believes most of what he says. Nagin, on the other hand, is just being a politician...

After reading James Randi'The Faith Healers, which devoted a chapter to Robertson's past antics, I'm convinced that Pat doesn't really believe his own fire and brimstone rhetoric anymore than I do. He's just a very successful con-man who's been able to convince a bunch of ignorant, reactionary people that he speaks for God and can "heal" non-specific individuals. In return, the rubes generously send their contributions to his "ministry." For instance. I've got a pretty good feeling that his recent rant about Sharon was basically to play to the "Left Behind" crowd who thinks that Israel needs to be held by the Chosen People for Judgement Day and not those "Satan-worshipin' Moose-lims." I bet old Pat got quite a bit in the old collection plate that week, regardless of the perceived up roar.

Since there is no difference between a snake-oil salesman and a politician, Nagin is just doing the same thing: play the religion card and hope the dupes will overlook the fact that you helped let their city drown when they stop at the polls.

So, yes, I would say that Pat and Ray are cut from the same cloth.

|1.17.06 @ 12:39AM|#

madpad,

A better speech on MLK Day would be to call for uniting all of New Orleans residents - white, black, whatever - to help rebuild the city. Put age-old racial differences behind them, and help each other, hand and hand, to physically and mentally get things back in order. Something along the lines of... 'New Orleans was a city that welcomes everyone, and will welcome again'. A city SO desperate for residents and commerce to re-enter the area, it would've been wiser to reach out to all people.

Instead, what does Nagin do? Call for a "Chocolate New Orleans" because that's what God intended. Nice welcome wagon. Is this an MLK message?

Tornadoes rip through Midwest towns that have family heritages dating back since the 1700s and 1800s. Using your quote: "Their friends are gone. Their history and legacy (such as it is) is in tatters."

If that town's mayor were to call for a Vanilla White [enter town here], he'd be the media villian. No one would give him a pass saying that he was offering "words of comfort to fellow Euro-Americans in a terrible lurch". They'd crucify him and force him to publicly apologize.

And while I'm being wordy, I'm "chilled out". ;)

|1.17.06 @ 12:42AM|#

Chocolate New Orleans? It sounds like something on the dessert menu at a Cajun/Creole restaurant.

|1.17.06 @ 12:46AM|#

> "Nagin, on the other hand, is just being a politician; and he's having trouble holding on to the black vote in New Orleans because they feel he's sold out to the rich white businesspeople."

While this is a decent point, the media (and many others, of course) would not give a "pass" to a white politican who was just having trouble holding on to the old white, conservative vote, and was grasping for straws. In the eyes of the columnists and talking heads, this excuse wouldn't fly.

|1.17.06 @ 1:02AM|#

You know, you really have to pick. Was Katrina a) divine punishment or b) a storm that caused disproportionate damage because of negligence at all levels of government?

Why on earth would a government official pick "a"...Oh.

Jim Murphy|1.17.06 @ 3:13AM|#

Geez....there's so much to cover. Let's start with:

Salt Lake City - Largely white and run by tight-assed teetotalers. Religious,extremist polygamists (the only newsworthy items to come out of Utah) are not colorful.

As a native of the SLC (and a non-Mormon native at that) I can assure you that while you are correct that it is white and run by tight-assed teetotalers, that there's a lot of colorful and newsworthy items. There are so many kooks, and resulting kooky news stories, in Utah that you could have an entire CNN-like network devoted to the Beehive State.....

Sex during menstruation? Ewwww... besides the obvious ick factor, I don't think that most females would be in any condition for intercourse when her insides are cramping up like crazy. My ex-girlfriend wouldn't even let me touch her when she was having her "female days." Come on guys, show a little consideration. You two can make up for lost time later.

My ex-wife and numerous past girlfriends have all suggested that sex during menstruation is good at *relieving* cramps....

And Nagin is downright nuts....incompetent, and downright nuts. The last time I remember an elected politician using "colorful language for a certain audience that was taken out of context" it was Trent Lott at Strom Thurmond's birthday bash. Whether or not he actually believes his drivel, or whether he's just politicking is irrelevent IMO. He's well on his way to becoming the Marion Barry of the Bayou (and I mean the original incarnation of Barry as the "incompetent mayor", not as a crack addict)...

|1.17.06 @ 3:29AM|#

"levies", "levees."

Proper spelling is so, you know, "fascist", or something.

|1.17.06 @ 6:27AM|#

DA, On this particular point I'm afraid I'm not in the mood to judge Nagin as severely as you are...though your criticisms of him are sound and not without merit.

Jim, thank you for taking my post with the degree of humor it was intended. I'm sure there are plenty of colorful folks in Utah. I was merely going for effect.

|1.17.06 @ 6:31AM|#

I think there should be more diversity in the rebuilt New Orleans -- there should be plenty of room for hot asian teens covered with chocolate syrup, definitely.

|1.17.06 @ 7:47AM|#

>besides the obvious ick factor, I don't think that most females would be in any condition for intercourse when her insides are cramping up like crazy. My ex-girlfriend wouldn't even let me touch her when she was having her "female days." Come on guys, show a little consideration. You two can make up for lost time later.<<br /> Well this doesnt square at all with my experience. In my reasonably comprehensive experience, women are notably more horny when they are on their moons! A sad quirk of nature.
Rather enjoy, do it on a towel and get showered....no problems.

|1.17.06 @ 7:55AM|#

...and forget the Bible as a what to do and what not to do guide, having read it divinely sanctioned, cannibalism, slavery, war crimes and intolerance. Not eating calf�s cooked in mothers milk (what�s that about), a flat earth standing on pillars (this got Galileo in the doggy do with the Church), a problem with crustaceans...in all very dodgy science and more than dodgy ethics, eye brow raising 10 commandments...there are better places to go for wisdom and practical advise.

One good use for the bible, but only if it�s a nice big one. When she�s on her moons and wants to be done especially good-n-proper, put a bible under her bum, under a towel�improves the approach angle and is much firmer than a pillow, it also makes the �Oh my god� thing so much more apt.

Warren|1.17.06 @ 8:18AM|#

"Nobody is to stone anybody until I blow this whistle. Even, and I want to make
this absolutely clear, even if they do say Jehovah....Aaaahhh!"

|1.17.06 @ 9:09AM|#

Doug Fletcher's vision of a Chocolate City is one we can all get behind.

Now that man is a uniter, not a divider!

|1.17.06 @ 9:42AM|#

The "Chocolate New Orleans" comment was ludicrous enough, but CNN has reported what must be one of the most feeble backtracks in American political history. Nagin figured he could diffuse the controversy over his comments by saying "How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about."

Um, works for me.

I agree with Akira MacKenzie that Chocolate New Orleans sound like a regional dessert.

In related news, Alaska's Governor Frank H. Murkowski today endorsed marijuana decriminalization efforts, saying, "Alaska will be baked at the end of the day."

|1.17.06 @ 9:46AM|#

I think I am going to join in Madpad POV. Yeah, this guy may be a little wierd.... but we are talking about new orleans here. He is an easy target regarding the divine retribution issues. But that isn't what all he has to say.
If what I read is true, and the mayor went on to make some very good points about black culture, in particular, black on black violence. What I got out of it was that he was asking black folks to look at themselves regarding the issue of black on black violence....kind of like Bill Cosby. I thought, too, that his comments, were racial but not racsist.
I think that message is one his constinuencey needs to hear though it is not the most politically correct.

|1.17.06 @ 10:21AM|#

Look, New Orleans is, and has been for a long time, a majority black city.

There is a great deal of talk about using eminent domain and restrictions on building to prevent the repopulation of certain areas of the city. And, lo and behold, because of history, these same areas also happen to have high black populations. There is fear that the end result of this will be to significantly reduce the black population. Some people, including a pretty large number of the people Nagin was addressing, fear that there is a desire among the political leadership to use the rebuilding effort to bring about an ethnic cleansing of the city, and make it a white city, as was done so often in other major eminent domain exercises like Urban Renewal and the urban elements of the Interstate Highway System.

No, I do not have a problem with Ray Nagin reassuring his constituents that the government does not intend to turn this black city into a white city. Put the grievance industry shtick on hold, fellas, and think about the meaning of the man's words - not just what language they kinda sorty remind you of, if only somebody in a drastically different situation was saying something superficially similar.

|1.17.06 @ 11:33AM|#

For once, I'm with joe. While I agree that Nagin is a moron and might have actually lost his mind at some point since Katrina hit, I can't accept that saying, "this is a black city" is offensive the way saying, "this is a white city" is. I'm white, and I'm not offended by the first. I think if I were black, I'd be offended by the second.

|1.17.06 @ 11:36AM|#

How come they're not calling out for all the coeds gone wild to come on home to Nawlins?

Captain Holly|1.17.06 @ 11:38AM|#

Hypothetical situation: Imagine the mayor of Salt Lake City - Ross Anderson - giving this speech after an earthquake shakes the area to the ground:

"We ask white people ... It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild Salt Lake City � the one that should be a lilywhite Salt Lake City," Ross Anderson said Monday. "This city will be a majority European American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have Salt Lake City no other way. It wouldn't be Salt Lake City."

Uh, Mayor "Rocky" Anderson has already said something similar when he opined last year that there were "too many Mormons" on the City Council.

I don't remember if he threatened the voters with earthquakes, though.

Captain Holly|1.17.06 @ 11:42AM|#

As a native of the SLC (and a non-Mormon native at that) I can assure you that while you are correct that it is white and run by tight-assed teetotalers, that there's a lot of colorful and newsworthy items. There are so many kooks, and resulting kooky news stories, in Utah that you could have an entire CNN-like network devoted to the Beehive State.....

I'm not sure which SLC you're thinking of, but the one I know well and work in is run by a former ACLU attorney who has publicly proclaimed his affinity for bar-hopping.

However, I will agree he is good for a news story every week.

|1.17.06 @ 12:02PM|#

My family is from New Orleans over 100 years. Rebuilt their houses countless times in that span. Sure blacks have always made up a large majority of the population in New Orleans. However over the past 30-40 years the welfare state has encouraged more births which has swelled the population numbers. A swelling of a population that is sucking on the government tit is not what most cities aim for.

Nagin wants his corals aka housing projects to be rebuilt regardless of the cost and facts of the matter regarding re-flooding. Its his vote farms! Thats why I couldn't understand why so many blacks were trapped after the storm. All the local democratic pols have their databases of names and addresses where they go pick up their crop of votes each election cycle. If the pols knew they couldn't get to the damn voting booth what made them think they could escape the storm? They sure know right where to go pick up everyone when its time to cash in that vote.

I hear on the radio and news about no housing for the blacks to come back to. Well guess what there are no houses for the white people either. They act as if the whites whose homes are 100% gone are back up and running like no storm ever hit. No one is focusing on these people because they are working to get it back. Those that never had to work for it to begin with do not understand this concept. Thus they are left doing what they did to get what they had before the storm, sticking their hand out, its all they know.

Should we all be forced to finance moving people back to the same place we originally financed for those very same people? And then rebuild what we already built and gave to them to begin with. Only to have them continue to not care for themselves.

If you didn't own anything before the storm and were a ward of the state and feds dependant on them for your very existance day in and day out does it really matter where you live? Should you even have a say in where you live if someone else is paying for it? For most of those in the projects this amounts to nothing more than a change of address for their guberment checks and entitlements. We the tax payers will end up footing the same bill no matter where these people end up. My vote is for setting them up in places that are lacking in the racial diversity area. Seeing how they seem to know the most about race relations :)

As much as I love New Orleans and Louisiana if they were to elect Nagin again after all this what does that say about the people in the majority? I for one do not think even a majority black populace will elect Nagin again but hey this is LA and you can never count a good crook out.


Ask your doctor if its right for you!

|1.17.06 @ 12:19PM|#

Joe -"Put the grievance industry shtick on hold, fellas, and think about the meaning of the man's words - not just what language they kinda sorty remind you of, if only somebody in a drastically different situation was saying something superficially similar."

You have got to be fucking kidding me saying this. Think about the meaning of his words? While I admit he did a half ass attempt to sound like MLK (what doesn't he do half ass though) for someone to say think of the meaning of the words as if that is gonna make it all better is crazy.

While I truly hate William Bill "the Hypocrit" Bennett, when he spoke based strickly on statistics this past year about crime and the black birth rate he was dragged over the coals by every chocolate freedom fighter that could get their hands on him.

However, if we focused on the meaning of what he said and the facts of the matter we would see that what he was saying was not a personal opinion but rather a simple math calculation based on the numbers which are put forth as fact by the government.

Maybe if he had said something like. If all the chocolate babies were aborted the crime rate would go down it would have been more accepted for its meaning.

The more of those so called Tolerant, Colorblind people that bring up issues of color at every turn even when discussing a known fact and accuse others of racism the more racists you will have. Consider it like Congress passing laws, what do you instantly have? More criminals of course. Thus if the race baiters can make up the rules as they go and only have them apply to others never to themselves we are all forever doomed to be racist. Hell to even challenge the assertion that your a racist makes you more racist it seems.

Ask your doctor if its right for you!

|1.17.06 @ 12:28PM|#

Ah, blood to blood
Ah, players to ladies
The last percentage count was eighty
You don't need the bullet when you got the ballot
Are you up for the downstroke, CC?
Chocolate city
Are you with me out there?

Jadagul|1.17.06 @ 4:38PM|#

Joe's also right-not that it necessarily excuses Nagin for saying something pretty dumb. A lot of the poorer, low-lying areas are being returned to floodplain status (because they're low-lying, not because they're poor, but the rich people all prefer to live somewhere that doesn't flood every four months). The poorer, low-lying areas are inhabited primarily by blacks, so a lot of the black leadership, who are generally simmering with hostility towards the richer and whiter parts of town, see this as a move to get rid of the black population. The political class is trying to find a way to pacify them while still getting those areas to become flood plains and anti-flood buffers.

|1.17.06 @ 4:39PM|#

Incidentally, I'm told that with the number of inner-city New Orleanians who've moved to Houston, Texas is no longer a safe Republican state. Don't know if that's true, but it seems plausible

Actually, the major cities in Texas are majority Democrat already. It's the surrounding counties and suburbs that feed the Republican machine.

Jadagul|1.18.06 @ 2:35AM|#

But supposedly the influx is enough to make Houston liberal enough to outweigh the surrounding counties and suburbs, potentially, so that Texas as a whole isn't safe.

It matters whow much they win by in Houston, you know.

|1.18.06 @ 9:26AM|#

I don't know if that's true, Jadagul, but I know it contains a great deal of what Atrios refers to as "truthiness."

Remember Bob Dornan? When Tom Delay loses his seat, how long will it take Rush Limbaugh to blame it on the dusky hordes, invading Texas and oppressing God's people?