"You Don't Need the Bullet When You Got the Ballot. Are You Up for the Downstroke, CC?"
So in a chocolate city, would you support Ike Turner as the Secretary of the Treasury?
OK folks, seems Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans found the start of 2006 to be a little less exciting than the end of his 2005. So in a speech given on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Nagin predicted a post-Hurricane Katrina would be a "chocolate city at the end of the day." For the slow learners, that would mean a predominantly black population. He also stated his belief the devastating hurricane was god's will. Nagin has since been the butt of jokes from comics and political pundits alike. New Orleans and Louisiana tourism officials have also gone into heavy damage control as now is probably the least opportune time for a negative perception of a town dependent on tourist dollars.
Wordy enough paragraph for you?
Now I'm not going to ardently defend Nagin here. I spent a couple of weeks in Louisiana just after Katrina hit and while FEMA f--ked up on an astronomical scale, Mayor Ray didn't do his town any favors. That said....
New Orleans was before the storm, and most likely will continue to be after the storm, predominantly African-American. Mayor Ray Nagin is an African-American. He was speaking on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a holiday established to celebrate the life of an African-American. Mayor Nagin was speaking to a group of...wait for it...African-Americans.
Like I said, I'm not wholly defending Mayor Nagin. The statement speaks, on some level, to racial separatism, an idea most would and should find abhorrent and which Dr. King dedicated his life to fighting against. However, I'm not going to condemn a man who is trying to lift the spirits of people who in the last few months have seen their entire lives turned upside-down.
It would be my hope Mayor Nagin's comment doesn't hinder efforts to get Louisiana the federal funding it needs to get back on its feet. There has been much doubt cast, by Republicans by the way, on Mayor Nagin (a Democrat) and Governor Kathleen Blanco (also a Democrat) as to their ability to properly handle the large numbers of dollars being asked for. The GOP being the GOP the integrity of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco has been called into question repeatedly as well.
So there you are. Hadn't planned on writing about this. Truthfully I hadn't even heard about what Nagin said until Brook told me about it. My ultimate take would be the quote was little more than a mishap. We didn't burn down Trent Lott when he waxed nostalgic for the days of the Strom Thurmond platform. Thurmond's platform, of course, running on a bedrock of real racism, making Lott's praise of it much more inflammatory than anything Nagin had to say. No, friends, this was a mis-step by Mayor Nagin and in a time of widespread GOP corruption, spin doctors are looking for any Democrat to throw some mud at.
Oooh...now I'm pissed. I had to do....FUCK!
OK, you kids have a good day. I'm going to take a sedative.
OK folks, seems Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans found the start of 2006 to be a little less exciting than the end of his 2005. So in a speech given on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Nagin predicted a post-Hurricane Katrina would be a "chocolate city at the end of the day." For the slow learners, that would mean a predominantly black population. He also stated his belief the devastating hurricane was god's will. Nagin has since been the butt of jokes from comics and political pundits alike. New Orleans and Louisiana tourism officials have also gone into heavy damage control as now is probably the least opportune time for a negative perception of a town dependent on tourist dollars.
Wordy enough paragraph for you?
Now I'm not going to ardently defend Nagin here. I spent a couple of weeks in Louisiana just after Katrina hit and while FEMA f--ked up on an astronomical scale, Mayor Ray didn't do his town any favors. That said....
New Orleans was before the storm, and most likely will continue to be after the storm, predominantly African-American. Mayor Ray Nagin is an African-American. He was speaking on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a holiday established to celebrate the life of an African-American. Mayor Nagin was speaking to a group of...wait for it...African-Americans.
Like I said, I'm not wholly defending Mayor Nagin. The statement speaks, on some level, to racial separatism, an idea most would and should find abhorrent and which Dr. King dedicated his life to fighting against. However, I'm not going to condemn a man who is trying to lift the spirits of people who in the last few months have seen their entire lives turned upside-down.
It would be my hope Mayor Nagin's comment doesn't hinder efforts to get Louisiana the federal funding it needs to get back on its feet. There has been much doubt cast, by Republicans by the way, on Mayor Nagin (a Democrat) and Governor Kathleen Blanco (also a Democrat) as to their ability to properly handle the large numbers of dollars being asked for. The GOP being the GOP the integrity of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco has been called into question repeatedly as well.
So there you are. Hadn't planned on writing about this. Truthfully I hadn't even heard about what Nagin said until Brook told me about it. My ultimate take would be the quote was little more than a mishap. We didn't burn down Trent Lott when he waxed nostalgic for the days of the Strom Thurmond platform. Thurmond's platform, of course, running on a bedrock of real racism, making Lott's praise of it much more inflammatory than anything Nagin had to say. No, friends, this was a mis-step by Mayor Nagin and in a time of widespread GOP corruption, spin doctors are looking for any Democrat to throw some mud at.
Oooh...now I'm pissed. I had to do....FUCK!
OK, you kids have a good day. I'm going to take a sedative.
posted by The Crazy Leftist at 7:53 AM
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