Residents urge White to send evacuees home

[spindrifter]

By ANNE MARIE KILDAY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 31, 2006, 2:04AM

Katrina fatigue erupted into anger and frustration Wednesday night, as more than 1,700 west Houston residents urged Mayor Bill White to send evacuees home to New Orleans.

One year after the city of Houston welcomed at least 250,000 evacuees, more than 100,000 New Orleans natives still remain. West Houston residents who gathered Wednesday at Grace Presbyterian Church to address increases in violent crime over the past year in their community said evacuees are to blame.

White and Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt had come to the church to discuss details of a new police division on the west side that will add 140 officers to the streets, increase investigative strength, bring gang activity under control and enforce traffic laws.

<snip>

John Kirkendahl, who identified himself as a 61-year old attorney, asked White bluntly: "Where do you stand on stopping the FEMA and the welfare money, in stopping the giveaways?" — to sustained applause and cheers.

<snip>

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4153486.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. Randy Newman's "Rednecks"(warning, possibly OFFENSIVE lyrics)

For those not familiar with his brilliance, understand that Randy Newman started and pursued most of his musical career by writing humorous, often satirically-biting songs rich with social commentary. This is one that seems very apt...(emphasis mine)

Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart ass New York Jew
And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well he may be a fool but he's our fool
If they think they're better than him they're wrong
So I went to the park and I took some paper along
And that's where I made this song

We talk real funny down here
We drink too much and we laugh too loud
We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town
And we're keepin' the niggers down

We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol' boys from Tennessee
And colleges men from LSU
Went in dumb. Come out dumb too
Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And they're keepin' the niggers down

CHORUS
We're rednecks, rednecks
And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
And we're keeping the niggers down

Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free

Yes he's free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage on the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the niggers down

PB

[The Deacon]

2. In Albany, GA

We love OUR Katrina Guests. Guess this is just another example of that fine Texas courtesy we're always hearing about in "The Other Forty-Nine." (Wonder if Mexico would cough up any cash to get Baja Oklahoma back...)

[displacedtexan]

3. I knew that "Houston opens its arms to you" was BS.

All Houston wanted was the money, Honey.

[KamaAina]

4. Oh, for Pete's sake. Most of them want to come home.

Trouble is, they have no place to come home to (that they can afford). After all this time and all the hot air rising from Capitol Hill, the grand total of Louisianians who have received Federal assistance stands at two.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-money27aug27,0,3205734.story?page=2&track=mostviewed-homepage

The first money to reach homeowners under that program arrived Friday . Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco announced that 42 homeowners were expected to get $1.5 million in aid "in the next few weeks."

What a shame. When it counted, Houston really got the job done. I had just about done a complete 180 regarding Houston -- and now wankers like John Kirkendahl have to blow it by acting just like I would have expected them to act before the storm, like Tom DeLay wannabes. :puke:

edit: Tome DeLay? What's that, his autobiography? :-)