Kanye West is stupid

(H/T: Alamo Nation)
George's post is so good that I'm just going to copy it here.

Pointing this one out for you folks where a black American (and liberal) from the Orlando Sentinel takes aim at Kayne West and the 'Blame Bush' movement which looks increasingly like it's being created solely to try and cover Ray Nagin and Governor Blanco. From Porter:

Kanye West is way off base.

During an NBC network fund-raiser Friday to help Hurricane Katrina victims, West, a hip-hop artist, let loose with an incredibly destructive diatribe. Among other crass comments, West said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Is West so full of himself that he didn't understand he was asked to participate in the telethon to pump up contributions, not turn off prospective donors?

West certainly was not the only one to throw down the race card. Some other blacks also accused the federal government of neglecting New Orleans because it has a black majority and rampant poverty.

The racial friction is unwarranted and counterproductive.

I'm no fan of President George W. Bush, but here's a fact that can't be denied: He was not slow to prepare for last week's disaster.

Bush declared a state of emergency for Louisiana on Aug. 27. That was two days before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. The declaration started the process to assemble federal resources.

The racial criticisms made by West and others are an insult to the heroics of U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Air Force rescuers I watched on the television news. These guys have been descending on cables from helicopters and carrying New Orleans residents out of flooded neighborhoods. The rescues started on Aug. 29, the same day the hurricane hit.

(snip)

And here's an interesting thing that I noticed in those rescues. All of the men I saw come down from the helicopters were white. The majority of the people plucked from the rooftops were black. Yet those white rescuers didn't seem to care what the victims looked like. The rescuers were energetic and compassionate. In one incident, a white Coastguardsman and a black guy stranded on a rooftop embraced as though they were brothers. Tears filled my eyes. That scene made me extremely proud to be an American.

Having to wait five minutes for help in New Orleans must have been excruciating. But it's impossible to ignore practical considerations. Mounting the aid mission for New Orleans was a little more complicated than throwing three suitcases into the back seat of a sports-utility vehicle and putting the pedal to the metal.

That's not the way the military works. The military's main role is to fight wars, not provide disaster assistance. Changing from the war-fighting mode to a civilian-humanitarian mission takes time to assemble the proper supplies and equipment. What would have been said if the military rushed in with the wrong equipment or inadequate supplies?

The nightmare conditions at the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center, where tens of thousands fled for help, wasn't the fault of the military or President Bush. That blame belongs squarely on the shoulders of New Orleans officials.

Porter seems to understand where the crux of the problem started: Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco not following the Southenr Louisiana disaster evacuation plan in a state that was preparing an emergency relief DVD which was going to tell people "Hey, you are on your own." While Nagin railed on the radio and was practically a no-show until he let tourists cut in line for bus trips out of New Orleans, school buses that should've been utilized to evacuate the poor and elderly (per their own evac plan) sat in a lot, flooded... their motor oil leaking out into the water as they sat idle. Wow. And Nagin seems to understand that the scrutiny is going to fall on his shoulders and on Blanco's - he's already trying to sell her down the river.

Thank you all for reading, and God Bless the USA!

--George 'Trey' Berryman III