holy shit this is freaking me out. It might be that i'm half in the bag at my desk right now, but it really seems terrifying. Naomi Klein is the guest and they're going over how fucked up the reconstruction of NOLA is going to be and how much the more the poor are getting screwed over than anyone has realized. Wow. change my weekend post from "moving" to "drinking and crying".


mp3 here

Can you summarize a few of Naomi's basic talking points? I think she's exceptionally valuable as a critic, but I suspect her level of access has dropped off dramatically with certain/all parts of government. Her whole premise is to trash whatever she's covering, which makes her a less than attractive person to do business with.

In other words, I think she's worth paying attention to, but don't go jumping off rooftops.

well, her commentary isn't really thescary part, although her talking points (they're only letting the whiter, touristy sections allowed back in the city -or were anyway-, Bush suspending prevailing wages for local workers, etc…) seem pretty valid, if not that surprising. It’s the correspondent Jeremy Scahill (sp?), who has been down there through most of the bullshit and uncovered that Blackwater security forces have indeed been contracted by FEMA and deputized by the Governor’s office a week or two ago, that has been really scaring the shit out of me.

Does she mention that these areas also are on the higher land and also took on less damage?

pfft, of course not.

yeah, actually she did

if you owned your own successful business, i'm sure you wouldn't be scared, and would welcome Blackwater's security.

I can't listen at work.

But if she did mention that, what is the problem? Doesn't it make sense, especially considering that the 9th Ward, besides being the most heavily flooded, is still having problems with the pumping stations? Also, anyone who has wandered around the French Quarter at night knows that it ain't all tea and crumpets.

No, then I’d expect your successful ass to pay for it, not use my tax money to pay former navy seals $350+ a day to fucking SHOOT BLACK PEOPLE while were still people that needed to be rescued and bodies to be recovered, not to mention the whole reconstruction effort.

and Fu, she explains it better than I do. I can't really take the time to type it out right now but i'll get to it later. Like I said, I've taken what she says with a grain of salt. it's the other shit i'm hearing...

yes, there are people that need to be rescued, but there are also plenty of criminals in the way of that rescue that must be dealt with first.

you can continue to play the race card if you'd like.

It may not control the behavior of folks Dalen, but to leave the race card out of this hand is also just as short-sighted as making the entire argument about race.

No sweat. I'm really bored at work.

No, the criminals should probably be dealt with before the people that are drowning. Save lives or a soggy DVD player? The people huddled in the convention center should've been dealt with first.


As far as the race card, the Associated Press pretty much already proved that race is very much an issue when determining looters. and they aren't holding automatic weapons.

Wait, backup. Those were two cutlines from two photographers from two different news agencies.

fair, but then there are different mercs from different agencies shooting at the looters.

aww, the poor looters, and their rights.

you, and many others, would like us all to believe that those poor looters weren't a threat at all, and none of them had weapons. sorry, but you're wrong.

if they're in the way of a rescue mission, and they're a threat, which many of them are, they get dealt with accordingly. sounds harsh, but hey, life isn't fucking pretty all the time.

my point was that they're not entirely capable of deciding who the looters are. and what were they looting that can justify them getting shot? space stations? nuclear secrets? were they stealing american flags?

and they weren't exactly in the way of the recue mission. the weren't looting the lobby of the convention center. there weren't evacuees hiding out in stero stores were there?

sure, not looting, but stealing, raping, and things of that nature were going on at the convention center. those aren't easy things to deal with, and in a hostile environment with that many people, you've got to be forceful. you can't candy ass around and say "no sir, don't do that please".