MyDD :: Breaux spins hay into gold...

Breaux spins hay into gold...

by Parker, Sun Sep 11, 2005 at 05:31:06 AM EST

Breaux and his DLC/NDN cronies make a play to take over NOLA reparations.

Former U.S. Sen. John Breaux, along with other former Louisiana congressional members, engineers, urban planners and economic developers, are banding together to examine Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Breaux said Saturday.

The Hurricane Katrina Commission will focus on how New Orleans should be rebuilt, not whether it should be rebuilt, he said. "Just as the commission formed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center never sought to recommend whether the twin towers should be rebuilt."

...

But Breaux said despite what could have been done before Katrina hit to protect New Orleans from the massive flood waters that blanketed the city when its levees failed, neither he nor the national commission he is working to form will be part of "the blame game."

"This is not the time or forum," he said, to blame local, state or federal officials. "Blame does not save lives, feed families or compensate for loss."

He praised city officials for working with Gov. Blanco and the National Guard to evacuate the thousands who were evacuated before the storm and continue to be evacuated and said that each day, the situation is improving.

...

Breaux rejected the idea that food, water and supplies were slow to reach those stranded at the Superdome and Convention Center because of racial motivations.

"Mayor Ray Nagin is an African American, almost the entire New Orleans City Council is made up of African-Americans. To suggest that these African-American leaders would shortchange their own citizens is a suggestion that is absolutely without merit." [No fingers pointed here!!]

Breaux said areas surrounding New Orleans with a higher percentage of white were just as slow to receive supplies.

Breaux is the co-founder along with LIEberman and Rosenberg of NDN... an organization which accepts donations by Republican bigwigs like Koch Industries.

Moments after Katrina hit...Breaux went on air calling saying that it was reprehensible for Democrats to make political hay

M. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this, though. Let's flip this around for a moment. This is kind of turning in, I'm seeing shreds of this on the web and on the blogs of this being the allegation is that Democrats are using this as a political issue. What to you say to that?

BREAUX: I've heard the racial implications. I would categorically reject that. Our good Mayor Ray Nagin is African- American and almost all the city council is African-American. The sheriff is African-American. The areas south of New Orleans, Plaquemine and St. Bernard Parishes are predominantly white and the rescue efforts down there were certainly no faster. If anything, they were slower down there.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm talking also, though, about Democrats using this to make political hay with elections upcoming. In that own way, that's reprehensible too, isn't it?

BREAUX: That is totally reprehensible. There will be time to find out what went right and what went wrong. But I think it's not the time to start talking about political implications. I'm a Democrat. I would heartedly reject that. People are trying as hard as they can to get what is done, being done accomplished right away. Should it have been done sooner? Absolutely, no question about it. But there will be a lot of time for soul searching later on.

Democrats can not get ahead not because we don't go to church as much as Republicans, or that we believe in the right for women to make their own medical descions or that we are against an immoral war... Democrats can not get ahead because we have to many backstabbing Republicans in Democratic clothing weaking the party from inside... you know who you are.

This is why no one is covering the security issue... because it would actual "hurt" the Republicans....can't bite the hand that feeds you.

what Mayor Nagin said on race today

While Nagin has previously said he didn't think the slow response was related to the demographic of the overwhelmingly poor, African-American crowd that needed rescuing, his thinking has evolved.

"Definitely class, and the more I think about it, definitely race played into this," he said. "How do you treat people that just want to walk across the bridge and get out, and they're turned away, because you can't come to a certain parish? How do resources get stacked up outside the city of New Orleans and they don't make their way in? How do you not bring one piece of ice?

"If it's race, fine, let's call a spade a spade, a diamond a diamond. We can never let this happen again. Even if you hate black people and you are in a leadership position, this did not help anybody."

No demographic is safe, with FEMA eviscerated by privatization and transfer of responsibilities to an untested and unprepared DHS. That's what it looks to me. nonetheless, it seems obvious that issues of class and race affected the response -- why wouldn't they?

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More Than 'GOP Light'--Racism, Pure And Simple (3.00 / 1)

I'm going to be blunt. Denial has always been a central part of racism. And what John Breaux is spouting is racism. It's what Eduardo Bonilla-Silva calls "Racism without Racists" in his book Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. It uses the language of equality to justify an objectively discriminatory status quo.

The role of denial is crucial here. One of the key phrases used by color-blind racists is "equal opportunity, not equal results." This phrase is often used to argue against affirmative action in college admissions, for example. But, when it comes to giving black kids equal opportunity in their K-12 eductions, before getting to the issue of college admissions, the phrase just magically disappears. Because everyone under the sun knows that inner-city minorities don't get an equal education. Even if we buy the claim that racism is not the initial cause of that inequality, the failure to remedy that inequality cannot be excused as anything but racist.

The "blame game" frame is another example of racism without racists. Conservatives are always blaming poor people for their poverty--especially poor blacks. It's easy to do, because poor blacks can't talk back. They can't get on talk radio, they can't get on Fox News, they can't even get on CNN. They are totally cut out of the national dialogue. And what Katrina did was to force us to look at those who had been excluded from American politics, excluded from the conversation about themselves.

It only becomes the "blame game" when the tables are turned, and someone, anyone starts asking about how conservatives might be responsible for the consequences of their actions. Again, "fairness" (don't point fingers!) is strategically deployed to protect a massively unfair status quo--and those responsible for it.

In reading Breaux's statements, we see the "blame game" meme stretched to the breaking point:

"This is not the time or forum," he said, to blame local, state or federal officials. "Blame does not save lives, feed families or compensate for loss."

Now, look at that last statement, and compare it with the purpose of the commission: "to examine Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath." Now, does that purpose "save lives, feed families or compensate for loss"?

No, of course not. The purpose of such a commission has nothing to do with saving lives, feeding families or compensating for loss. The purpose is--or should be--prospective, to avoid future catastrophes, not to deal with the present one. And identifying responsibility goes to the very core of this purpose. If you're not going to identify who was responsible for what, then your commission is, by definition a coverup, not an investigation.

And what do you call a commission headed by white guys to coverup the causes of the death of blacks? How do you not call that racist?

by Paul Rosenberg on Sun Sep 11, 2005 at 12:56:16 PM EST

Re: More Than 'GOP Light'--Racism, Pure And Simple (3.00 / 1)

This is what I was trying to say yesterday.

But you have made the point more elegantly... Breaux will use Nagin's race to neutralise the racism inherent in the Katrina disaster. However, I still believe that the backlash Bush recieved is because people are not AS racist as this administration.

We are ineffectual as a party because our leadership in besotted with the GOP

I have been screaming for days to use the security card... which UNITES everyone. Even the most redneck redstater can see that. This was racist but all someone like Pat Buchanan has do is go on the air and rant and rave about looting, rape and welfare checks in the same sentence...and people go back to their old frames.

Security was the key here and Security Dems refused to use it...

Besides telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, die, the GOP has done a fine job of getting gov't out of our lives.

by Parker on Sun Sep 11, 2005 at 01:47:49 PM EST
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