Political DiscussionA place to hold political debates and general discussion. Please remember to always respect the opinions of other members and above all else, be civil.
Yes, I absoloutely believe that these people are looting these items to re-sale. Which would explain them skimming the items for certain ones. I don't knnow if your neck of the woods gets CNN, MSNBC, Foxnews, etc, but flip it over there. They aren't grabbing everything. They're grabbing the designer stuff. They're actually going through the items and getting specific stuff. And, they're going into stores and sorting through stacks of stuff getting certain things. Maybe my eyes are decieving me, but if they don't want to be portrayed negatively, perhaps they shouldn't be so materialistic when rationing. They're stealing items for their personal gain, not for their personal health/survival needs. We also understand that there are some of these people raping and pillaging the victims as well.
I totally understand your point of view, and everyone elses. Like I said, I was just going at it from a different stand point since everyone seemed to be very one sided on this topic. However, I was just thinking how could they possibly re-sell these items? I mean, they cant go to the corner of their block and say "jerseys for 10$" you know? Like, who will they sell to when no one has money? Then if they do decide to go to the shelters to try and re-sell'em, do you think the police officers will blatently let them sell stolen goods infront of them in a shelter?
This topic of conversation can go on for days, and is basically based on everyones opinion. Theres no real right or wrong answer here. I just find it funny how different races have different views. As I stated before the majority of white people i've spoken to seem to think this definetly has nothing to do with race, while the blacks/asians/hispanics i've talked to believe that race may or may not play a role in this situation. Yes, racism works both ways not just whites on blacks, but vice versa and every other combination. Like "Cat" said, she knows what it feels like to be a minority in a certain neighborhood or town. That people look at you as if you had "3 heads on your shoulder". Yes, I think a lot of people go through that reguardless of race everyday. Now let me ask, have any of you felt you were discriminated/harrased by police officers? Which in my opinion is worse, since these guys can put you behind bars for 2-3 yrs, and can really belittle you. I know I have, on numerous occasions with run-ins with police officers. Not that I broke the law, but they would just stop me or pull me over for no reason AT ALL, but to see what im doing (now why would do they do that ). Now, have ANY of you gone through situations like that with police officers?
To Pharoh, why do you believe it was good that they edited out what kanye had to say on the re-runs on the program? IMO, it just made the situation worse as if they didnt want that "idea" to spread. If the KKK can have marches in major cities (they had one in NYC 2-3 yrs ago) in this country. I think Kanye's opinion on the situation should have been showen, un-edited.
I totally understand your point of view, and everyone elses. Like I said, I was just going at it from a different stand point since everyone seemed to be very one sided on this topic. However, I was just thinking how could they possibly re-sell these items? I mean, they cant go to the corner of their block and say "jerseys for 10$" you know? Like, who will they sell to when no one has money? Then if they do decide to go to the shelters to try and re-sell'em, do you think the police officers will blatently let them sell stolen goods infront of them in a shelter?
This topic of conversation can go on for days, and is basically based on everyones opinion. Theres no real right or wrong answer here. I just find it funny how different races have different views. As I stated before the majority of white people i've spoken to seem to think this definetly has nothing to do with race, while the blacks/asians/hispanics i've talked to believe that race may or may not play a role in this situation. Yes, racism works both ways not just whites on blacks, but vice versa and every other combination. Like "Cat" said, she knows what it feels like to be a minority in a certain neighborhood or town. That people look at you as if you had "3 heads on your shoulder". Yes, I think a lot of people go through that reguardless of race everyday. Now let me ask, have any of you felt you were discriminated/harrased by police officers? Which in my opinion is worse, since these guys can put you behind bars for 2-3 yrs, and can really belittle you. I know I have, on numerous occasions with run-ins with police officers. Not that I broke the law, but they would just stop me or pull me over for no reason AT ALL, but to see what im doing (now why would do they do that ). Now, have ANY of you gone through situations like that with police officers?
To Pharoh, why do you believe it was good that they edited out what kanye had to say on the re-runs on the program? IMO, it just made the situation worse as if they didnt want that "idea" to spread. If the KKK can have marches in major cities (they had one in NYC 2-3 yrs ago) in this country. I think Kanye's opinion on the situation should have been showen, un-edited.
Race isn't the issue here. Ask anyone that's not looking for a free handout, or that isn't an activist. There are tons of minorities saying race isn't teh issue here. The problem is that no one was prepared for this type of disaster. The city had poor planning, the government had poor planning, but it's all post haste now. Everyone is scrambling to try and help put the pieces back together. Race doesn't play an issue at all, and if you'll look, lots of NOLA's government is composed of african americans. You say that about the KKK, that's funny to me. They've always had organized protest, and are hated (I don't like or support them, I disagree with what they stand for personally, so I'm not defending them. I'm using one of your points to make one, which is what I'm getting at soon). Let me ask you this though, what would be the reprecussions should someone try to start up a White Entertainment Channel on TV, or radio, etc? Wouldn't go over very well would it? People screaming racism have a double standard, and it's almost to the point of being laughable. Minorities are so quick to play the race card. Kayne West is an ignorant, liberal rap artist. He's part of the problem, he's so quick to chastise the government, yet he doesn't even understand what's going on, or what policy is on these issues. Neither do I, but I can say from everything I've read the government, along with the majority of the citizens of this great, free nation are doing all that is possible within their means to provide assistance, and relief to this disaster.
and to jayfreezy in response to your question to pharoh (because i like getting into other people's business...) i really doubt they cut it out to keep the idea from spreading. i think they cut it out because it was clearly a hijacking of what was supposed to be an unpoliticized attempt to help these people. people in our country are great at taking horrific events and immediately using it as a political tool. i do it myself, so i'm not taking on some innocent front. but i think if we're going to play the blame game, which is perfectly fine to do, we should find better avenues to do it than fund raisers, where the ultimate goal is the same no matter what political party you associate with.
i think kanye was completely out of line - not for what he said, purely on the basis of free speech - but for his choice of when and how to get his message across. it was in poor taste.
George Bush's Great Uncle on his Mothers side Olivious Reynold Whitear 1776-1835 was African American. Olivious married Renee Crown (1822) and birthed James Henry Whitear in 1825.
fema has 2500 employees. California EDD has more than 5 times as many employees. fema's job is to cut checks after the fact. the job of saving people falls on to the local and state fireman and police and highway patrol. for the feds to get involved the states must invite them. the simple truth is that we dont have a national emergency response team. we have federal standards that local teams must reach but when waves come 6 miles inland and the fireman and police have no cars or helicopters cars or radios theres really not much you can do. now as i remember here in sacramento, ca the day after katrina hit on tuesday our police chief and fire chief left on planes to help then on wed a convoy of 18 wheelers left with every extra hand sacramento fire, police and sherrif department could send. it was a quick response its just it was so far away and n.o. is all the way in the back. so the help isnt going to drive thru small towns that need help to go try to deal with people who will shoot at them. and as far as g.w. not caring about blacks or poor well duh blacks didnt elect him why should he care but it didnt have anything to do with this. and the argument of what if this happened in a white town well middle class people know how to swim and wouldnt be stuck in their attics we also understand the value of a savings account vs. jordans. if they had had 500 bucks per house they wouldnt be off so bad
when are people going to realize the president powers can only do so much he isnt God he cant make the flood go away or even know that it was going to happen. stop blaming the only person you see in power and maybe start placing your blame to the corrupt mayor and the cry baby governor. the federal government can not just send large amounts of troops into a state. you wouldnt want the fed gov't taking over a state anyway
the governor(D) of n.o. wasnt even on speaking terms with the mayor(D). the mayor backed a republican in the governor race. so because of stupid in fighting time was wasted and you know they were doing some stupid pulling rank bickering.
this is what i was about to post, here is my original thought though
its not that GWB doesn't care about black people, its that he doesn't care about any people. he don't care about white folks, black folks or anyone else. when the media gets on him he puts on that stupid grin and says "this is what we will do and how" and then turn around and leave in his filthy rich airplane.
BTW kanye was wrong about when he said what he said. and how he said it. he should have said no one. and at a different time. but his songs are cool. i like the gold digger one. lol
). Now, have ANY of you gone through situations like that with police officers?
