See? I knew all black people were up to no good. Thank you media for backing me up on this one.

Actually, in the interest of fairness, all this does is show the contrasting reporting of two different agencies. It can be assumed that the AP is describing all such activities by any party "looting", while the AFP is calling the same thing "finding", regardless of race. If these were both from the same source, it would be blatent racism. As it is, all it shows is that the AFP is using more compasionate language.

Nope - the AP reported a white dude as a "shopper" while leaving through a broken pane of glass.

No they don't. They refer to the bag as a "shopping bag". This is also what I would call it. They could have used "plastic bag", but this alone does not make them racist. I hate racism too, but you are reaching a little bit to find it.

it would have been grammatically incorrect to say "looting bag".

Regardless, this little side-by-side is all over the intarwebs this morning, so I wouldn't be surprised to see an explainatory statment from the AP by the day's end.

Why didn't they say, "A young man looks through his shopping bag after looting..."

I can concede the point that it is two different reporting agencies, so I hope things will equalize. But this brings up a huge point: almost all of the evacuation plans relied on personal transportation to get out of the floods. New Orleans is over 65% African American, with a median income around $12,000. Nothing like lassie fare survival.

To New Orleans credit, they did send around buses to pick people up, but the 9th Ward (one of the hardest hit) has about a 3-5 mile walk to the Superdome. We could walk it, but could your grandma? Or a mom with kids who can't afford a car?

In either case, this whole thing will turn into a right-wing perpetual motion machine fueled by the "personal responsibility" meme and the looting. All the while forgetting that the Bush administration greatly defunded the Corps of Engineers - which would have increased the protection of the citizens of New Orleans.

I have an idea to stop those looters with a shopping cart full of Nike's or a big screen tv...just have a couple of hot wires and a few gators inside the store itself.

Don't forget the National Guard... coulda used more of THEM around to help... Lazy asses, over there sitting around in Iraq, not doing their job.

Actually, addendum... It's too bad the states wanted to deplete the military of active duty members back years ago, and shore up their "national guard" so that they could get more state money and less retirement pay and more state jobs and therefore totally fuck our military. Too bad about that... but oh wait, the people making those decisions don't care about that, really... because it's not like they are having problems.

sure, blame high death totals on Bush defunding the Army Corps of Engineers.....nevermind the giant, destructive, and deadly NATURAL DISASTER.

I'm not wholly blaming this on the President - acts of God or nature are just that. But - BUT - it isn't like this scenario hasn't been thought of before, or was unexpected. To shore up the levees would have cost only approx. $140 million. Actions have consequences - and defunding programs which would have increased the strength of those levees have real-world results. No matter how much you want to attribute this to the disaster.

Much like following the August PDB Bin Laden determined to strike in US might have altered t he events surrounding September 11th. But we will never know, because things like invading Iraq and systematically defunding key sections of our government is classic Bushism.

3x, its not as if grubby (and many, many others) are hindsight is 20-20ing this issue -- state and local officals are on record stating that they were in trouble due to the lack of funding for levee construction back in '03 and '04.

"On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.""

It doesn't get more frustrating that that.

Aside from blaming God for Intelligently Designing the hurricanes, I think the real people to blame are HUMANITY. Why do people live in coastal, sinking, already-below-sealevel cities, in a region of frequent hurricane seasons? It's like living on the mouth of a smoking volcano, or putting the front door of your house right next to a big pit full of spikes and alligators.

New Orleans has lasted for generations without incident...but it will take years to rebuild. Let's hope that the next generation can enjoy the Quarter and all that comes with partying in The Big Easy.

It is a nightmare down there...out of control...and you can blame bush and the government for not sending the guard in right away--It was a tough town before Katrina...now chaos is in charge, not fema.

at least JW got the point.

So following that line of logic -- instead of designing(read as: preparing) buildings in places such as Tokyo and Los Angeles for the inevitable earthquakes, its easier to just shake our heads and consider everyone living there a dead man walking?

Humanity takes risks every day in the hopes of advancing civilization. Nature is, and will continue to be a threat, but that doesn't mean willful indifference to pleas for preventative maintenance should be swept under the rug.

Look, there is X amount of money to address the pleas of the people. The government's job is to distribute those funds to the most immediately pressing need (which is always subjective - and will always be opposed by the other party). It is impossible to plan for all eventualities.

My point is that to blame one administration for the problem is ludacris (not the rapper). why didn't clinton's administration take care of the levies? why not bush sr, or reagan, or carter, or ford, or nixon? it isn't like somebody woke up January 21st, 2001 (or June 8, 2004) and said, "oh no, the levees are weak". This has been an issue as long as the levies have been around - which by my 10 second search was before the Civil War.

Most of the above is debateable. But, what irks me even more is that both sides are complaining that the other side is going to use this disaster as propaganda. HOLY F***, ARE YOU LISTENING TO YOURSELVES!?!?!

i can't believe i am arguing about politics. i freaking hate politics for this very reason. somebody punch me in the throat.

Dude - the Corps of Engineers asked for $34 million to shore up the levees - after FEMA in 2001 deeming a hurricane hitting NOLA as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country." Then in June 2005, the Corps' budget is cut by $71 million. You are right that the government has a finite amount of resources, but givaways to the rich like the repeal of the estate tax and the two tax cuts to the upper class not to mention the most expensive war in modern history (Iraq (and Roll)), then you have an bad situation.

That's not even mentioning that the last two heads of FEMA had absolutely zero disaster management backgrounds.

This isn't propaganda - real fucking decisions of where money goes based on an ideology of strangling government and giving tax breaks to his cronies have consequences.

I don't understand why you can't both feel a sense of sorrow at the deaths but also see that - while nature is nature - decisions like cutting the Corps's budget and stacking FEMA with political stooges don't have real consequences.

Regardless, there is a leadership vacuum right now, and there isn't anyone to fill it. Bush hasn't stepped up to the plate. There is a reason why they are starting to call NOLA, "Lake George."

Oh - and Clinton did do something about FEMA - he cleaned it up and made it a well respected agency. Look what's happened in five-year's time.

I think it's time we all step back for a moment and relax. Sit down tonight and watch NBC's charity concert, with a guest appearance by Leonardo DiCaprio. I think we can all agree he's a cutie. After you've settled down and/or get punched in the throat, have a moment of silence for the countless victems and donate some money. Then maybe we can resume talking about how we should've better prepared for the storm. Just like we could've better prepared for the last hurricane/earthquake/mudslide/fire that happens to the same areas year after year which we should somehow constantly be completely ready for but never are.

I was being slightly sarcastic, up there, with the "living by a croc infessted swamp" type attitude. The fact is that we as a species are flawed. Terribly, terribly flawed, in the brain logic department.

Yes, if everyone could live in a land devoid of danger, they probably would. Living in a place where natural disasters are more likely is the price you pay for living in some of the most beautiful places on earth.

But that's not the biggest flaw. The biggest flaw of the human mind is the one that decides that hurting someone- for any reason- is an option. I don't know if there's a way to prepare for the kinds of crazy shit people do when they find themselves in a dire situation apparently free of punishment.

From The Onion:

"White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters

NEW ORLEANS—Throughout the Gulf Coast, Caucasian suburbanites attempting to gather food and drink in the shattered wreckage of shopping districts have reported seeing African­Americans "looting snacks and beer from damaged businesses." "I was in the abandoned Wal-Mart gathering an air mattress so I could float out the potato chips, beef jerky, and Budweiser I'd managed to find," said white survivor Lars Wrightson, who had carefully selected foodstuffs whose salt and alcohol content provide protection against contamination. "Then I look up, and I see a whole family of [African-Americans] going straight for the booze. Hell, you could see they had already looted a fortune in diapers." Radio stations still in operation are advising store owners and white people in the affected areas to locate firearms in sporting-goods stores in order to protect themselves against marauding blacks looting gun shops."

Listen, this may well be the views of two different reporters but it boils down to the fact that the black man is nothing more than a looter. Which is abolute rubbish. America has gone to the pigs and this Act of God has highlighted it well. It may all be hypothetical now but it would make sense to me that more could have been done for the people in New Orleans BLACK or white!