When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans, it destroyed half the city’s voting precincts and scattered 300,000 of the city’s residents, most of them black, across the country. With citywide elections still scheduled in February and March for 20 key public offices—including mayor, criminal sheriff, civil sheriff and all city council members—restoring the city’s democratic capability might seem an… return to article
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Reader Comments (13)Page 1 of 1 pagesWith friends like FEMA, who needs Jim Crow?
Good one, Benjamin.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 18, 2005 at 12:29 AM Just came across your site on the net and I had to respond. Benjamin Greenberg’s article goes to the heart of what is wrong with our country and my city, New Orleans. If residents of New Orleans cannot take the personal responsibilty to educate themselves on election issues then why do we want those people determining the future of this city. I happen to be one of those “white district” residents and am considering running for the city council of New Orleans because of the pathetic leadership that we have had to endure for decades.
It is not an issue of race as Mr. Greenberg puts it, but an issue of desire. Those of us who want to work and bring our city back are doing just that. Black and white residents together are here working. There are not many residents here holding out their hand demanding that the government take care of them. Those days I pray have been washed out with the flood waters. If you want to vote in the citywide election, then figure out a way to get your ballot casted. Voting is a right that carries with it a huge responsibility and the responsibility to vote is not one of the government or interest groups but one of the INDIVIDUAL. Maybe we can finally get leaders elected who do not have fleets of buses bringing robots to the poles every election while telling them who to vote for. The black population in New Orleans has been used for decades by the black leaders themselves who want to keep the city poor and stupid. Hopefully Katrina WILL make an new New Orleans and personal responsibility will be the foundation for which it is built
G. Waguespack
Posted by Wolfew on Nov 18, 2005 at 10:46 AM If residents of New Orleans cannot take the personal responsibilty to educate themselves on election issues then why do we want those people determining the future of this city.
Because they live there, and most of the people you hope to represent do not.
I happen to be one of those “white district” residents and am considering running for the city council of New Orleans because of the pathetic leadership that we have had to endure for decades.
What you mean “we”, Kemo Sabe?
Voting is a right that carries with it a huge responsibility and the responsibility to vote is not one of the government or interest groups but one of the INDIVIDUAL. Maybe we can finally get leaders elected who do not have fleets of buses bringing robots to the poles every election while telling them who to vote for. The black population in New Orleans has been used for decades by the black leaders themselves who want to keep the city poor and stupid.
Well, actually, voting is a social responsibility, whereby the group of people with the greatest number of votes gets to periodically re-establish the people who govern them, as duly constituted in a government, another social organization. One of the social responsibilities of this government is to provide the electorate with a system of education, another social organization, dedicated to the cultural reproduction and economic information of its beneficiaries, many of whom are indeed “robots”, or workers. In fact, most of them are workers, who receive substandard education, wages, housing, and virtually no medical care to speak of, from their more affluent employers, who happen to be over-educated, over-paid, over-insured and effectively absent from the community from which they select their labor force. Perhaps if they returned from their sylvan sanctuaries among the suburbs to live among the people they despise and subsequently exploit, they might learn to appreciate them accordingly, and quite possibly elevate an asshole such as yourself to the City Council.
Posted by Major Major on Nov 18, 2005 at 6:55 PM I wasn’t going to respond upon reading your post however I am concerned about you tripping and taking that huge plunge when you decide to climb down off of the ivory tower(please watch your step). The theoretical diatribe you presented is a great lesson for a high school civics class. However what you do not understand is that we(that would be the “we” who actually are living in New Orleans) may be the only ones who remain in the city. I’d like to know what crystal ball you are viewing which tells you which residents are going to come back to the city and which ones are not.
As far as the residents who “receive” substandard education, wages..., well shame on the political powers running this city and shame on the residents for continuously voting these jokers in. It is obvious that you have some problem with demanding responsible behavior from individuals. We(there’s that darn “we” again) had better hope that returning residents of New Orleans reject the “give me” mentality and adopt a proactive “get it done” mentality or this city will wither on the vine.
Oh and by the way, I have been called a lot of things in my life, but never a quad pound sign. I appreciate the compliment.
Posted by Wolfew on Nov 19, 2005 at 1:41 PM Hee Hee, this one bites, Major.
Actually Rabbit can’t say as he had any problem with Wolfew’s position. Rabbit had a slightly different view but for once would have to defer to the local knowledge. Being a Rabbit from OZ and all.
It is hard to get over the feeling that the whole thing has been used, if not even set up, to displace the large proportion of poor and black from New Orleans, to the benefit of investment in the medium term. Rabbit sees no way to equate such as Wolfew as being in any way connected to such forces and from thence is led consider his words from their own perspective and they sound like an admirable way forward.
Is it Wolfew’s intention to build a New Orleans which does take a humane and intelligent approach to supporting those who will always be around? Those who are for whatever reasons rendered unable to support themselves either temporarily or permanently?
The question is basically, is this a socialist or fascist plan? Rabbit uses these terms only as poles of reference. To which pole do we tend? Both can speak as you have, Mr Wolfew.
Posted by Rabbit on Nov 22, 2005 at 6:16 PM The intended profanity was censored by the management and replaced with less offensive placeholders. The compliment was entirely unintended.
Your proactive “get it done” mentality appears to rely upon the goodwill of an administration which rewards the affluent and ignores everyone else. Socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the rest of us. The problem with all of us pulling together “to get the job done” is that most of us are pulling harder than you are. Sitting there on the buckboard with the reins in one hand and a megaphone in the other one, it’s easy to forget that you’re getting a free ride and a free lunch from the people pulling your weight.
Posted by Major Major on Dec 25, 2005 at 4:46 PM It’s funny that all of sudden liberals claim we have these voting problems in certain states. In this story they bring mention Ohio and the disenfranchisement in that state. After 2000, anytime liberals did a story about voting problems, Florida was always mentioned. Now, after the last election Ohio is mentioned, like Ohio has all of these voting problems.
There wasn’t any problems in Ohio in 2000. I didn’t hear any problems with Ohio in 1996 or 1992, but now Ohio has all of these “so called” disenfranchisement problems with voting.
Here is the best conspiracy theory from Ohio that I like:
** Some black people had to wait 11 hours in line to vote **
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that this story is bogus. Think it about it ... 11 hours in line ... Have you figured it out yet? OK, I’ll tell you the secret
What are the hours that you can vote?? usually from 6am to 7pm, which is 13 hours. So if someone actually waited 11 hours, then that person would of had to be in line at 8am and that also means that no body voted after that voter. Which means that no voters showed up after 8am. That totally ridiculous ... you would have to be a complete idiot to believe someone waited that long to vote.
Even if the polling place closed at midnight, then the person waiting in line for 11 hours would of had to be in line at 1pm ... and that would mean that nobody showed up at that polling place after 1pm.
Why wasn’t there any news cameras filming the long lines? There isn’t even any home video of it. If someone waited that long, reporters would of been all over it right then. What is funny is that the day after, you heard about people waiting 1-2 hours in line. Then a week later, you heard of people waiting 3-4 hours. Then a few weeks later it went to 5 hours, then you heard about people waiting 7-8 hours ... and now the story is that some black voters had to wait 11 hours in line to vote ... (where was that person on Nov. 3).
Also, like in this story, they always throw in a sentence saying that white voters only waited 15 minutes to vote ... in and out. I talked with white friends that I know in Ohio and some of them had to wait over an hour to vote.
Another good one is that some voters pressed the electronic screen for Kerry and it told them they voted for Bush. lol ... lol
One thing that I noticed about liberals over the years is this: liberals always have an excuse ... liberals always blame others. And liberals always think they are right, never wrong ... never.
Like Michael Savage says ... “LIBERALISM is a MENTAL DISORDER”
Posted by tina1 on Dec 26, 2005 at 12:44 AM The State Board of Elections, in a Republican administration, allocated an insufficient number of voting machines in Democratic precincts, even as they knew that the Democrats conducted an all-out campaign to register as many minorities as possible prior to the election. Meanwhile, the Republicans rallied their own rural registrants with a gay-marraige referendum designed to drum up the fundamentalist vote. (The queers are coming! The queers are coming!) Fortunately for them, they had the foresight to reserve an adequate amount of machines for their homophobic brethren.
The only obvious mental disorder is your own.
Posted by Major Major on Dec 26, 2005 at 1:41 AM The fact is this ... nobody waited 11 hours in line to vote in Ohio, not 8 hours either, nor 5 hours, nor 3 hours. The longest anyone waited in line in Ohio was about 1 1/2 hours. These were the reports the night of the election and the day after. Now a year later, the waiting time has increased to 11 hours.
My brothers wife waited 1 hour to vote in a very nice area of Sarasota called Lakewood Ranch. She voted in the morning and when my brother voted around 5pm, he waited 45 minutes.
Maybe if you liberals quit with the blame game and conspiracy theories and came up with ideas ... then maybe, just maybe, you might win.
It’s 2006 and some liberals are still back in 2000 talking about chads.
Here is another fact: Kerry lost and so did Gore. Get over it and move on.
PS - You also might want to layoff the Kool-Aid.
Posted by tina1 on Dec 26, 2005 at 2:01 AM Wolfew,
Great comments. My parents moved to New Orleans and bought a Po-Boy shop in the French Quarter when I was in 9th grade .. this was in 1979. They owned the Po-Boy shop for about 7 years and left New Orleans in 1987 to retire in Florida. Point being ... is that I’m familiar with the politics of N.O. and Louisiana, (which is very shady).
Our family is from the North, Ohio to be exact and we couldn’t believe how shady and crooked the politicians are in N.O. and Louisiana. The whole state is one scam after another. Look at the former Democratic Governor, Edwin Edwards and his son ... they are both serving 10 years in Federal Prison.
One thing most people don’t realize and the media failed to mention during Hurricane Katrina is this: N.O. and the State have been run by Democrats for years.
New Orleans hasn’t had a Republican Mayor in over 100 years. That’s 100+ years with (0) GOP Mayor ... none .. zero .. nada.
Louisiana has only had (3) Republican Governors since 1877 ... that’s 128 years with only (3) GOP Governors.
Louisiana didn’t have a Republican Sentator in modern times until 2004. Yes, the first ever GOP Senator in Louisiana wasn’t until 2004.
So basically New Orleans and the State of Louisiana has been completely controlled by Democrats for over 100 years.
Did you see the media acted like it’s Bush’s fault that N.O. has so many poor black people. The media acted like the “Ninth Ward” was created by Bush.
Too funny ... a state and city that has been completely controlled by Democrats for over 100 years .... and it’s Bush’s fault.
This is more proof that “LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER”
Posted by tina1 on Dec 26, 2005 at 3:03 AM A simple Google search will provide you with links to thousands of articles which describe exactly how the Republicans stole the election in Ohio, just as they stole the election in Florida in 2000. Since you appear to be pathologically pre-disposed to ignore them, I’ll spell it out for you: they disenfranchised the minority vote. Even Christopher Hitchens, the formerly left-wing poster boy of the neocons, admits it.
Incidentally, you seem to be the one who’s obsessed with blaming the liberals for your own mental disabilities. You would be better advised to follow your own advice.
I’ll say it again, Waguespack: it’s socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the rest of us. You’re getting a free ride and a free lunch from the people pulling your weight.
Posted by Major Major on Dec 26, 2005 at 2:19 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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