Okay kids, gather ’round:

zitadawn: Shouldn’t you be doing something a little nearer to your intellectual level? Maybe a return to avril levigne’s website discussing lip gloss, britney and boyz? You did mention your awesome tits in another thread; post a pic of your pair and let me decide their level of awesome-ness.

Dale McClitdick: ah, the nabob of narrowmindedness. Good luck in the police academy. I’m sure the good burghers of Moose Jaw will be sleeping safer once you become a cop. Quesodick.

Mr. Good: Embarrassed? Me? Not by a long shot. Delete, censor, disagree with my comments. I don’t really care. I did enjoy your Las Vegas last summer, but obviously we won’t see eye to eye on New Orleans. Good luck.

Wow, you continue to surprise me.

You have no idea who I am or why I am, and clearly you don’t really care. I’ll lose no sleep over that.

You speak of my intellectual level, yet in the same response you request a picture of my boobs so you can judge their awesome-ness. Oh yeah.

I spoke about my boobs in another thread of an entirely different atmosphere. I am not a one sided person. I can not be angry and opinionated and brooding all the time and for you to think that I am not somehow entitles you to questioning my intellect, well Vegas Vic, it reveals more about you than it does about me.

I did not attack you personally in anyway. I expressed my dismay with your opinion, I recognized what I wrote was pure emotion and I voiced that my view and yours were due to our own individual perspectives.

So what the fuck do you have to be so defensive about?

Perhaps I actually struck a chord and forced you to think beyond what is so clearly comfortable to you. That you are right, you are superior, and everyone who does something you deem inappropriate should be attacked physically or mentally or intellectually.

That point of view, your demeanor, your plan of attack.

Good luck with that.

Because you have not upset me nor have you insulted me. I know who I am, and I don’t know who you think you are assuming for one second you do.

All you’ve managed to do is make me pity you.

Even over this impersonal resource you come off so very very angry. That is not a nice place to be in.

And seriously Avril, lip gloss, etc. Really? Were you that desperate to affect me? Because you actually made me laugh.

I’m 22, have had the same job as a veterinary assistant for 8 years, purchased my own home through hard work and strict saving with no help from anyone else, and have never once talked about lip gloss.
I prefer Blistex actually, and I’m pretty sure the label says something about raising my intellectual level to that of a journalist.

Peace be with you Vegas Vic.

This broke my heart.. This is the point of having a freedom to express oneself.. in a free government.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuQv4eAsvGE&feature=related

there is one thing that I noticed that was absolutely deplorable.. the need to chain the fences to the gates to the homes to the housing projects.. homes that are in good condition and have peoples clothing, still on the hanger, their belonging which are being kept from them.. then take a look at the homes of the *upper class* homes that are completely destroyed, which appear to be open to go into. These people have the right to go home.. not to have their homes ripped apart.. its a sin. It just seems to be people exploiting the less fortunate..

Dale……. Please don’t insinuate I am a liar. Can you please post once without calling people names?

I’m a recovering alcoholic, sober for nine years, so when I call people “bums” it is a term of endearment, not derision. We all call each other that. It keeps it real.

Have a nice Day………Robert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXJLzS4__BM&feature=related

Also, as a side note. You state in your little diatribe that this is barely a story in the US. Thats fine. I just watched a video where a bunch of Americans couldn’t name a country that began with U…including the United States, so perhaps such things are more of a reflection of a failing public school system than anything else.

And put away your tired grand standing about how tough the jobs of the police are, and how they are the thin veil that keeps our morally weakened society one step away from anarchy and bum rape. I served my time in the military, i have two officers in my family, and once my business is rolling am going to join myself, so yes…being an officer is a shitty job. But it is also a job that requires the highest moral standards, as well as self control and professionalism. The police, like the government, are an arm of the people. Those people outside the gates had the right - the RIGHT - to speak at that city council meeting. Denying them that basic right is as bad as Matt says. Why? Because the police are there to stop crime, to enforce the law - not deny citizens their right in a free country. Simply put, those gates should not have been shut - perhaps when all of the seats in the city council chambers were full then the gates could be closed - but there were empty seats. More after some people had been arrested. And with the pepper spray, and random tasering, we see how things really are in New Orleans. And just because you have a few friends that live in the city, but the nice side, does not mean shit, really. I have friends who grew up in some of the wealthiest areas in India, only feet away from grinding poverty, and it took them years to realize it was there. Without a seeking mind, if your friends are ignorant twats in other words, then it does not matter one fuck stick if your friends live in the same city. Or if you have travelled there. I sure as hell bet you didn’t go off to see how the other side lives, so keep your logical falacies to a minimum before you discredit your argument too much further.

Robert R: Simply stating that you help bums at the shelter shows how little you understand what you are doing, if you are, in truth, even doing it.

I don’t like to think of Matt’s site as an echo chamber, so opposing views are always welcome (i have in fact been on the opposing side a number of times, prime example one being the taser incident in the airport), but both of your comments lack any internal logic, and seem to be mostly unfiltered ranting. And this is not the only subject that this has occured.

So those morons who chose to “storm the gates” got what they deserved.

I

Wow I find that opinion just as disturbing as the whole situation.

They got what they deserved? Seriously the hair on the back of my neck just stood up.

I don’t even know what to say, which rarely happens. I’m just so deeply appalled with your point of view. At this point I shouldn’t be surprised anymore with the blatant indifference of others but you’ve taken me by surprise with that one.

I understand the video above is just a portion of the story in its entirety. I realize that I do not know about each and every aspect of this situation. But what I do know is what I saw. And I’m damn sure the pepper spray, the tasers, the tackling, the shouting, the pulling on the gate, the protesting was not some elaborate prank.

You say police officers are intended to uphold the peace. I agree, and I am grateful for those people who are willing to do the job because I am not.

But from my perspective I saw no emphasis on peace from the armed officers who deployed their weapons. What would they have done if they had no tasers? They do have guns as an option. Sure one could say that would never happen, a gun would never be used so rashly and heedlessly by a police officer assigned to crowd control. But there was a time not long ago when I thought the same things about tasers.

It’s all emotion and theory what I’m saying and I don’t care. But do you have any causes you would protest Vegas Vic? I do. And so do you in this forum. Who’s to say your behaviour would not be deemed “moronic” by the officers assigned to watching over you? What then do you deserve?

It’s all about perspective.

With regards to videos and police abuses, this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and to downplay its severity because you feel only one side of it is shown is ridiculous. Care to comment on what happened at the Petraeus hearing? Or, for that matter, that couple that were hauled out of a crowd on the 4th because they were wearing home made shirts with BUSH on them in red circles with lines through his name? No charges; just held and released. They’ve taken legal action, of course, and so they should. These are but a handful of examples.

I didn’t cherry pick a video; I posted a video that was posted on YouTube. If you have other video evidence, provide it. Had it not been for “cherry picked” video, what happened recently at Vancouver Airport would never have come to light, so I fail to see how it’s irrelevant.

The fact that you are attempting to make this a debate about my views on all police officers is about as telling as the fact that you claim to be a journalist but don’t have the balls to say where it is that you work.

By Vancouver’s ‘Indian’ population, I was referring to individuals that come from ‘India’. If you were thinking I was referring to First Nations Peoples, you were mistaken.

As for Vancouver’s Lower Eastside being the poorest neighbourhood in the country, one in which I actually live, and you deriding me about knowing nothing about New Orleans, a place that you have only visited, your remarks are, at best, embarrassing.

What I am very familiar with is the Constitution, and have watched the degradation of its application closely over the last seven years. What took place at, and outside, that meeting should anger Americans in general for no other reason than the abuse of Constitutional rights.

But let’s back up to the basics first. Before anything is discussed, I recommend you read Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine’, focusing on the portion of it that deals with the rise of disaster capitalism. In the aftermath of Katrina, the poor of New Orleans have taken a backseat to an overwhelmingly ambitious development lobby that has money to throw around. In the wake of the disaster came opportunity for those that have no real concern for the people of that city as a whole, only the profit that they can make by securing property and development deals. It is, in fact, a global trend in those areas that have been impacted by disasters.

The last article that you linked included the following…

“But the target of 3,343 public housing units in New Orleans is a flashpoint because it represents a drop of about one-third from the 5,100 units occupied before Hurricane Katrina in 2005.”

Lastly, I am appalled at generalizations regarding the poor. “Look at her big screen”, “these non-working freeloaders”. What if the women that you’re using as an example has medical reasons for unemployment? In truth, there could be a virtual cornucopia of reasons. But let’s not let that detract from the assumption that poor people, especially those that need assistance, are freeloaders. You have friends in New Orleans remember, but all of them are “to their credit” not residents of public housing.

I have no idea if you have ever been faced with living in poverty. I have, so I can, in fact, comment on it from my “couch in Vancouver”. Do not let my current profession or success lead you to make assumptions regarding my past, nor my understanding of what it’s like to require assistance. Because I have required it, and seen the system from the inside in all of its demoralizing grandeur.

As for not understanding the realities of a multi-cultural city, I live in one in which the Asian population is greater than that of the Caucasian population. There is also a vast Indian population as well, all of it playing a part in making this city what it is, and has been for well over a century. Vancouver is known for its vast diversities, and is, for the most part, open to them. But that does not mean that racial tensions do not exist here, or that they are not exhibited.

All of that said, if you are a journalist, please divulge whom it is that you work for if you wouldn’t mind. I would assume that an actual journalist would be aware that Truthout is an aggregate website that largely syndicates articles from a multitude of different sources with, on occasion, the rare article penned by one of its own, not unlike Common Dreams. That being the case, given your previous comment regarding Bill Quigley’s integrity, I would assume that you work for an outlet of far greater reputation and significance. Given your tone, I’m going to guess that it’s probably conservatively based, which would be why you like to throw around the term “balanced” amongst other nonsense. That’s just a guess, mind you.

As a journalist, would you consider Robert Fisk to be balanced? Because compared to you, he is easily one of the most respected journalists on the planet. For that matter, what about Greg Palast or Jim Lobe?

As for poverty-rights activists being in attendance, are you suggesting that they had no right to be there? And if you think their inclusion “pathetic” because they showed up to voice their concerns regarding something that they believe is unjust, does that not, by comparison, make the march on Washington, for example, a joke? How about any number of civil rights marches that took place in the south that attracted thousands from the north?

The reality, whether you like it or not, is that as activists, those individuals had every right to be there to lend their support and voices. I’ll not deny that, at times, certain individuals can go too far, but so do the authorities. And let’s not forget that they locked that gate before it was grabbed and pulled at by those outside. After the council meeting was cleared of those that were complaining that people outside weren’t being let in, and that there was space to accommodate them, why was the issue turned into one that forced the public into a corner? Why was it one that was dealt with by tasers and pepper spray rather than one dealt with through the allowance of the people to voice their grievances without restriction? Ultimately, that is the question that should be answered. That, in essence, was the entire point of this entry.

Read Vegas? “Truthout propagandists”? Ya, I’ll get right on that.

“Those people got what they deserved”. Tasered, pepper-sprayed. Awesome even-sidedness there in abuse, hey Bob?

I’m sorry, Matthew, but what you are attempting to communicate is not getting through.
Perhaps if you drop the sarcasm and say what you mean to say to me, I would better understand you.
Are you somehow thinking that I approve of the violence on display? Are you calling me a racist?
When I said “Good read”, I was talking about the article linked by Vegas Vic. Why do you purposely attribute violent racist motives to my innocuos praise to someone elses post?

“Those people got what they deserved”. Tasered, pepper-sprayed. Awesome even-sidedness there in abuse, hey Bob?

Good read Vegas. I suspected that most of the people screaming at the gates were from “Out of Town”, protesters; not citizens. But I didn’t want to “Speculate”.

It’s sad that so much half truth is now zipped around the Globe without any oversight.
The information that hundreds of low cost housing units are going unused should be made available. So, thanks for that.

A great even-sided news story.

And to add to that. If the insurancies had not screwed so many out of the money that they were rightfully entitled to, then you wouldnt have people living in homeless shelters, abandoned building or on the streets. Another example of the Big Corporations picking on the so called “lesser man”.. Those people dont have the means to hire a attorny, who will charge the hell out of the client, to sue the insurance companies.

Its a double edge sword. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave.. Or in some situations Land of the Dollar and Home of the ones who sacrifice all, and get kicked out of their shelter.

Thats BS as far as I am concerned.

Yeah, I can’t stand the Insurance companies either; but why are you blaming me!!??? :)
I just said the Federal Government doesn’t owe you a House!

Be Well, Bob

“Give me your tired, your poor…”

I had to google it to see where it came from. I knew it was related to the Statue of Liberty. It turns out to be a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus engraved on a plaque mounted inside the Statue of Liberty called The New Colossus.

I don’t know if this seemed off-topic, but anyway…

But there should be no such word as Racism..

We are all humans.. and come from the Human Race, we are broken down into Ethnic groups.

Nice to show just one side of a difficult story, Matt. As a journalist, I am required to report from all angles. As a quick start, here’s a link to an impartial account of what happened:

http://www.wdsu.com/news/14898611/detail.html

Unlike you and the lemmings, I actually am familiar with this public housing situation in NOLA, and actually followed the events in question last month on television and the internet video feed.

Apparently you and the Truthout propagandist aren’t familiar with fire codes. There were no unoccupied seats in the city council chambers. So those morons who chose to “storm the gates” got what they deserved.

As far as the veiled charges of racism, the city council voted unanimously to raze (which was the plan for the four housing projects long before Katrina, by the way) and rebuild. That unanimous vote included those council members of the African American variety, by the way.

You are juxtaposing the catastrophe of Katrina, (and primarily the federal failures) with a local government entity trying to rebuild and revitalize a city.

I

YAY I am a lemming, well anyways.. There was no veil over my statement.. It was plan out there. If that area had been a different neighborhood, with a different wealth, I can guarentee you that they would have been allowed to come into that meeting regardless of full or not, and the video shows it to be NOT full, but I digress, then that outbreak would not have happened.. simple. There would have lawyers and anything money could buy to see that proposal cast aside.

And frankly, even if there were African Americans on that council, it wasnt their homes that was called to question.. it was the people who were outside that assembly who had the right to have their voices heard. And whats your excuse to the people who were inside and were beat upon, tazered, pepper sprayed etc? easy to pass along a issue as long as it doesnt effect you.

Its a double edge sword. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave.. Or in some situations Land of the Dollar and Home of the ones who sacrifice all, and get kicked out of their shelter.

Thats BS as far as I am concerned.