Shakedown Artist Criticizes Help

Yahoo News: Jesse Jackson hits out at Bush, suggests race behind New Orleans' plight---

BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson fired off a fierce attack on President George W. Bush over Hurricane Katrina and claimed black people were being locked out of top relief roles.

"Civil rights leader"? More like "shadown artist" and hatemonger.

Jackson raised the sensitive issue of race, simmering below the surface in New Orleans, even before the hurricane tragedy, pointing out that many of those trapped in the city by the storm were poor and black.

"There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people, and black people ... we seem to adjust more easily to black pain."

Jackson spoke after leading a bus convoy into New Orleans to rescue 450 students trapped at Xavier University, and said he had been shocked by scenes of pain among refugees trying to flee the city.

"We reach out today for our president to lead from the ground, not the air," Jackson said, as Bush toured hurricane hit areas by foot and by helicopter after admitting government relief efforts so far were "not acceptable."

Jackson said 120,000 people in New Orleans make less than 8,000 dollars a year. "They are poor people, black people for the most part without private transportation, many of them are old and sick."

And he also criticized the role given to former presidents George Bush senior and Bill Clinton as coordinators for a fund raising effort following the Katrina tragedy, similar to their role as tsunami fund raisers.

"Why are there no African Americans in that circle?" Jackson asked.

"How can blacks be left out of the leadership and trapped into the suffering?"

Hmmm, I thought Bill Clinton was considered "the first black president"?

And besides that, the mayor of New Orleans and a majority of the city administrators are black, from what I have heard. Why doesn't Jesse demand to know why they haven't done more for their people?

And why doesn't Jesse Jackson, instead of shooting his mouth off and talking nonsense, get to work helping the people of New Orleans? Shouldn't he be raising money and getting crews down there?