Video surfaces of Obama in 2007 suggesting racism slowed aid to post-Katrina

[ChiefsandO'sfan]

It's the Obama speech on race you probably haven't heard.

In June 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama told a mostly black audience of ministers that the country's leaders "don't care about" New Orleans residents, suggesting the city was neglected in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina because of institutional racism, according to a an unedited video uncovered by The Daily Caller.

In the address, delivered during the upswing of the Democratic presidential primary season, candidate Obama specifically criticizes in outspoken terms the decision not to waive a federal law known as the Stafford Act that requires communities hit by disasters to match 10 percent of federal aid.

“When 9/11 happened in New York City, they waived the Stafford Act. … And that was the right thing to do,” he tells the crowd at Hampton University in Virginia. “When Hurricane Andrew struck in Florida, people said, 'Look at this devastation. We don't expect you to come up with your own money. Here, here's the money to rebuild. We're not going wait for you to scratch it together, because you're part of the American family.' "

Obama, echoing rapper Kanye West's infamous anti-Bush remarks a couple years earlier, then argues that New Orleans was treated differently, suggesting the reason was that the city is mostly black.

"What's happening down in New Orleans? Where's your dollar? Where's your Stafford Act money?" Obama says. "Makes no sense. ... Tells me that somehow the people down in New Orleans they don't care about as much."

The Obama campaign didn't response to FoxNews.com's request for comment Tuesday night about the Daily Caller report and the video, but the Associated Press reported that Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt dismissed the criticism as "a transparent attempt to change the subject" at a time when Mitt Romney is down in the polls.

Media organizations covered the speech at the time, but the Daily Caller said the video it obtained showed parts of the speech that had never been publicized. It posted what it said was the complete speech on the website.

By January 2007, nearly a year and a half after Hurricane Katrina hit, the federal government had committed $110 billion to relief efforts in areas hit by Katrina through a variety of programs, including Community Development Block Grants, funding for the Corps of Engineers and Small Business Administration loans, according to a report that May by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic and Statistics Administration.

But at the time of Obama's speech, there were still concerns about federal response to the disaster under the Stafford Act, which governs relief efforts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was unwilling to waive the law’s 10 percent local match provision for aid, like it did after the Sept. 11 attacks and other hurricanes.

“One reason cited for FEMA’s reluctance to waive the 10 percent match in New Orleans is concern about corruption,” the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies said in a 2008 report on the relief efforts.

That report also noted that then-Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco was pushing in early 2007 for a federal law eliminating the 10 percent match. The House passed the bill, but it stalled in the Senate and President Bush had threatened to veto it.

The complete video of Obama’s 2007 speech, surfacing barely a month before the presidential election and the night before Obama’s first debate with Romney, could complicate Obama’s efforts to avoid a politically risky debate over race that partly ensnared him during the 2008 race. Four years ago, his fiery pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a political liability over videos that showed Wright making controversial statements.

Obama, after initially defending him, eventually was forced to condemn Wright publicly, and the controversy prompted Obama to deliver his much-heralded 2008 address on race in Philadelphia.

Wright reportedly attended the 2007 speech, and in the video obtained by the Daily Caller, Obama is heard calling Wright "my pastor, the guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me. He's a friend and a great leader. Not just in Chicago, but all across the country."

The Daily Caller also highlighted a segment in which Obama questions federal priorities in transportation spending.

"We need additional federal public transportation dollars flowing to the highest-need communities. We don’t need to build more highways out in the suburbs. If we have people in the cities right now who want to work but have no way to get into those jobs, we've got to help connect them to the jobs that exist,” Obama said. “We should be investing in minority-owned businesses, in our neighborhoods, so people don’t have to travel from miles away.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...#ixzz28DAqpUMX

[RaiderH8r]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

and what does that have to do with the location of storm debris elsewhere?

and you should.

It's remarkable that nobody else on the gulf coast had a problem dealing with storm debris. Certainly not to the extent it seems to have befuddled the people and civic leaders of New Orleans. Why?

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

So the truth in his unprovable statement is in another unprovable statement?

Just stop dude. If someone tried to enable my failure as much as you are trying to do so for the people of NO I'd be offended and mad as hell.

I helped clean up in the flood in Cedar Rapids, I've seen what communities of people that have work ethics and a brain can do for themselves.
Those people would be flat embarrassed to be caught standing around expecting someone else to do their work for them like the people in NO did.

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

If you're arguing that the government's response to Katrina wasn't inadequate, you're welcome to that opinion but you're going to be in the extreme minority there. Obama was right in that video, debris from the hurricane was still lining street corners for years.

At the very least, surely you can admit it's reasonable to believe it was grossly inadequate. And if that's the case, as it clearly is for the overwhelming majority of people, it's similarly understandable that the African American community (among many other communities) would widely believe it's because the people of inner city New Orleans didn't warrant a higher priority from the government.

So let me get this straight...years after the event the city left debris on the side of the road? That should tell you about the level of intelligence of the people of LA. I don't find any of it inadequate, but I also understand the logistics of executing a massive project with a limited amount of resources and a quick timetable. And no I don't see it that way. These people are responsibile for themselves and either too stupid to know that or are to lazy to act on it....neither one is a good quality.

But just so you know...I tarped roofs in the Katrina zone...so I saw some of this stuff first hand.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Just stop dude. If someone tried to enable my failure as much as you are trying to do so for the people of NO I'd be offended and mad as hell.

I helped clean up in the flood in Cedar Rapids, I've seen what communities of people that have work ethics and a brain can do for themselves.
Those people would be flat embarrassed to be caught standing around expecting someone else to do their work for them like the people in NO did.

I don't know this to be true and therefore I won't accept it as true. Prove to me that it's true other than some dude said so and then I will consider it. However, where it stands I find it unlikely.

I love how you keep throwing your volunteer stuff out and would like to remind you that I lived in Joplin when that tornado went through and know what a community can do. It has no bearing on what happened in New Orleans 6 years ago.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by RaiderH8r

It's remarkable that nobody else on the gulf coast had a problem dealing with storm debris. Certainly not to the extent it seems to have befuddled the people and civic leaders of New Orleans. Why?

I'm sure that the only factor was that New Orleans was an entire city filled with lazy people. Yep that makes sense.

[LOCOChief]

Well well as it out Fox is reporting on the Five right now that Stafford was actually waived 10 days prior to Katrina and Obama actually, wait for it, wait for it, he voted against it being waved 1 of 14 to vote agiainst it being waived.

[LOCOChief]

AWESOME

[RNR]

Barry is so fake is disgusting. He puts on a slang accent saying bidness, special shout out and where's your dollar. This embarrassment plays the race card every chance he gets. When he is in another environment he is very well spoken. The fact he pulls this act would offend me if I was a black man. He praises Reverend Wright and threw him in front of the bus. He is a shitbag and a horrible person. Anyone who can vote for this colossal failure based on his record is stunning, to vote for him knowing he is a phony two faced shitbag on top of it is beyond amazing. Romney is a very unattractive option, yet when comparing the two I will never understand how anyone could choose Barry~

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by patteeu

OK, well sorry to see you go. You've been a good poster and even though you make some ridiculous arguments from time to time, I think you're a pretty sharp guy. One of the things I liked about you most is that you were willing to take the time to type out some pretty deep analysis. A lot of times it was retarded, but it was at least thoughtful. Take care and enjoy your time in the loyal opposition during the Romney dawn.

Make the signature bet with me, pat.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Donger

I see. It wouldn't put you out too much after such a declaration to expand upon it further, would it? Bullet point items would suffice.

It really would. I'm not interested.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Chief Faithful

This is a case of perception becoming reality. The African American community has a feeling of lesser treatment because they have been continously lied to by its own leaders and leaders of the liberal establishment. I believe the motive behind the lies is to keep people feeling dependent and isolated so they can be controlled.

In reality the response was in no way late, inept or underwhelming. The cause is well documented, help was stranded on the boarder not allowed in the state by the inept political driven response of the Governor of Louisiana. Just look at Mississippi, the hardest hit, response was immediate because the Govenor immedately declared his state a disaster area and succeeded control over to the Feds. The Govenor of Louisiana refused to declare a state disaster and succeed control to the Feds, which prevented, by law, Fema entering the state and setting up command and control. It eventually required the President to over-ride the law to get action because the Governor never cooperated with the Feds.

But, we don't get the facts reported instead we get this idealogically motivated attack that does nothing except divide the country. Now we see Obama continuing the divide by implying the slow response was in some way racially motivated. We all know why Obama does this because it is a pattern he repeats over and over, he works to divide people to secure his base and motivate the vote.

The African American community has a feeling of lesser treatment because (a.) they are often legitimately treated worse, and (b.) they are typically less educated, less healthy, less protected, and less successful compared to the rest of society. This stuff isn't far from the black community's collective minds, and they serve as deep wounds in the African American psyche.

Hannity won't tell you this, but Obama's speech in the OP was actually about African American self-empowerment in light of these foibles in the community. Tucker Carlson simply cut out the parts nearly all of us would agree with, isolated the few parts we see in the OP, and interspersed it with Hannity's fat face telling us what we're watching is incendiary! and race-baiting!.

[stonedstooge]

Hope he uses that type of dialect tonight in the debate since it doesn't matter

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Very well said. Its sad that more of the Black leadership in this country doesnt try and get the truth out to people. They would rather just pander and race bait over and over again wich is ultimately counterproductive.

Obama has actually been the one figure the black community loves that sells them messages of self-empowerment. There's a reason Jesse Jackson was quoted saying he wanted to cut Obama's nuts off.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by RaiderH8r

It could also suggest that then Governor Kathleen Blanco and NO mayor Nagin were woefully inept and not up to the task. For example, Blanco refused to file the requisite paperwork to allow the federal government to use the resources they had at hand. Mayor Nagin flat disappeared. Dis-a-ppeared for days only to turn up in Houston doing something entirely unrelated to helping his city. Are they racist as well or do you only save that bullshit for people who don't share your worldview?

It could suggest it, and it does, yes. The government response on all three levels was shit.

I didn't accuse anybody of being racist, by the way.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by RaiderH8r

You are ****ing kidding, right? The Federal gov't has a role in trash removal in the city of New Orleans?

New Orleans, Hell, Louisiana as a state, has tolerated and turned a blind eye to a stunning amount of political corruption since its inception. That corruption has resulted in civic leaders woefully unqualified to serve. Most of the time that manifests itself in back room kick backs, graft, nepotism, and incompetence but the city can manage because people still visit. However, that all comes to a head when the shit hits the fan and the ****ing police take to looting and walking off the job. It hits the fan when those civic leaders flat panic in the face of their duty and shit the bed. Nawleans' lax attitude bordering on outright acceptance of political corruption bit them in the ass. The fact that they can't pick up their own ****ing trash is just a shining example of a sickening degree of dependency. Should the Feds also wipe their asses for them and change their diapers?

I'm not sure what argument you think I'm making.