Looting or Jubilee?

CNN has been hitting the looting theme so hard in their Katrina coverage, I actually wrote to ask if the psyops folks they got busted for employing back in 2000 were still around. Needless to say, they won't answer. But what's it all about?

Well, first, we have to define looting. Evidently, the mainstream media defines in this way: The taking of items, whether necessary to sustain life or not, without payment in a disaster torn area. Oh yeah...and looters are black.

You think I'm exaggerating, don't you, you optimistic reader, you. Sorry. A poster named "Human" over at Rigorous Intuition made this incredible find. Two pics on yahoo.

First:




And the caption:

Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/photos_ts_afp/050830071810_shxwaoma_photo1

Now the second pic:



And the second caption:

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/480/ladm10208301530

Some editor somewhere is going to get a letter, so I can't guarantee that these images will stay in this location captioned in this way for long. But you, clever reader, have spotted the telling differences in these photos and captions, haven't you?

I'm afraid this goes beyond racism, as most issues in our country often do. But racism plays a part, make no mistake.

What are they playing at as we await 10,000 national guard to arrive and keep order by any means necessary? I think it is this: the death toll is known to be high and that it will be higher. Their best chance at limiting the backlash at the obvious lack of preparation, not to mention the possible preventive measures on the levees that have been pleaded for for years, is to dehumanize the victims. And, since most Americans are white and that pic of white people wading in water is one of the few I've seen (unless the white people had a Weather Channel or CNN jacket on) the task is easier. You see, black people are looters.

And I saw on CNN the same footage rolled over and over again of black people coming out of a grocery store. Would I be hauling my white ass to that grocery store if I were in their shoes? You bet your Home Depot stock, sugar. And I'll tell you what else. I might grab a Rolex on the way, if I had a mind to. Seeing as how no one thought it important to prevent the destruction of my entire city/family/life, I'd call it a downpayment on my future. Especially since Fema went around recently asking for their money BACK from victims of the last hurricane.

But now we learn that police have officially been..no...let me print the official story:

NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission Wednesday night and return to the streets of the beleagured city to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9063708/

But it doesn't end with some blatant racism and the protection of property that will likely never be recovered anyway in stores already written off. Nope. You see, what the theme really is, with all these looters "causing chaos" (gee, I thought it was the hurricane and flooding that did that) is that we need someone to come in and bust some heads during times of unrest.

Oh, and my friends, we are headed for some unrest. This attempt to dehumanize the victims will not work. First off, too many are still alive, as are their relatives,despite the best efforts of the Army Corp of Engineers to keep that water flowing into New Orleans. Secondly, the middle classes are going to get hit by the gas gouging fairly soon. In Atlanta, gas is up to 5 bucks a gallon at the moment. Welcome to what is about to become the new standard for discussing economic "ripple effects." Hey that "just in time" delivery system didn't turn out to be so clever after all, did it?

And I think that this anger may actually end up heading in the right direction. Soon, some wealthier pissed off Americans are going to print the picture of Bush laughing it up, eating birthday cake and playing the guitar with the date of the photo in big letters: August 30, 2005.