Captain's Quarters -

Maybe songs about values-free anger, sex, and cynicism, just create more values-free anger, sex, and cynicism. Ya think?

These people are all so...irrelevant.

But a great post for today, 9/10. Because this is the kind of stuff we were probably all thinking about on this day 6 years ago.

Captain,

Thank you for watching, so I don't have to. When did these "entertainers" become news?

Tell Kanye that it is probably true! They are just as tired of him as Bush and the rest of America! Poor Kanye, I do feel sorry for him....I mean come on, he makes millions of dollars monthly rapping about how his life is so hard and how everyone hates him ("Stronger"), Boost Mobile didn't work out for him and Fat Joe, and Polo doesn't want to sponsor him b/c he is black of course (but NOT b/c they DON"T sponsor anyone!!).

Come on Kanye, get over yourself. Your little ignorant comments are far worse than anything George W. Bush, MTV, and 50 Cent combined could come up with!!

Hey Kanye, why don't you get "Stronger" and think of others and America first, and then maybe people would like you again.

Racism? How about ageism? I'm still waiting for MTV to resume catering to anyone of legal drinking age, a practice they've not done since 1997 at the latest.

I'm soooo glad I didn't waste any of my valuable time watching these deranged, self-absorbed losers last night. Yeah, that's right. They're all losers! You may have become famous had have lots of money, but it just goes to show it can never buy you class.

Who ARE these people?

Kanye..who?

I am relieved every time I see one of those lists of the "top CDs" that I have never heard of any of them.

Very few of the MTV crowd qualifies as role models IMHO! Money does not equal brains! Those losers should stick to 'entertaining' those who enjoy their brand of entertainment and stop whining!

Like in the Microsoft Tech Support Joke, Kanye is absolutely right per se, without saying a word about the real problem, or its solution.

Important safety tip to the programming geniuses at MTV:

"When you lie down with the dogs, you get up with fleas."

It's not that MTV hates black people (though they may or may not), but rather that MTV hates Kanye West. and most likely its not because Kanye is black but rather because Kanye is Kanye.
Anyone who would have a temper tantrum and cry racism for not winning the best music video award, has some serious entitelment issues and doens't deserve to win.

On a positive note, if that means that we see fewer Kanye West videos I'm all for it.

It would be a whole lot better if you could quote Kanye West accurately. He never said George Bush hates black people. But hey who cares about details when you have an agenda to set right?

What Kanye West actually said was "George Bush doesn't care about black people". This is an incredibly different statement when taken into account the events at the time. Katrina hit and the feeling was that because New Orleans was primary black (and from a political perspective Democrat), it was not a priority for George Bush or his administration. And if you look at the delayed response and the disproportionate amount of time by Bush in Florida for Francis in 04 or even Biloxi, Miss for Katrina vs New Orleans, it's an indication of where people like West were coming from. Oh and West was by no means the only person in the black community expressing this notion. In fact aside from Condi Rice it's pretty hard to find any black leaders that approved of how Bush handled Katrina.

Kanye who?

I thought Kenya was a country in Africa.

Dwight,
What you'll see in time, and can see now if you look at actual data and not follow Bush bashing news reports is that more resources were poured into New orleans than any other rescue operation ever in American history. Despite the notion that nothing was being done (which was being peddled by a media out to zing Bush)rescue workers were out on day one resucing people. The idea that noone was in the area for a week was and is simply not true at all. This is not to say that everything went hunky dory, but if you're dealing with an entirely flooded city as well as a cat 5 hurricane you can thrown plenty of resources at it and until the issue is stablized it will seem as if nothings been accomplished. But the fact that resources were overwhelmed doesn't mean that it wasn't also the largest rescue effort of the past century.When you're dealing with the biggest natural disaster in maybe a century and a hundred thousand people being displaced, a flooded city, rescue workers having to break into thousands of rooftops to rescue drowning people, to suggest that everyone was sitting on their hands is factually in error,(see for example http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/05/katrina_what_the_media_missed.html) and in fact Kanye's little tirade bordered on libelous.
What rescue efforts did Kanye do? Is the assumption that bush said "Ah screw it, those are black people. Let em die" and just sat on his hands? That's at odds with the fact that the largest rescure effort in the last century was alraedy underway and thousands of people were being rescued. And in that complex situation Kanye has to make a statement that Bush doesn't care for black people. That's someone who sees the world through the prism of racism, and not objective reality, and further he uses a charity where he's supposed to be raising money to go off on an anti Bush rant. So he's rude and uncouth to boot.
And then when he gets passed over for best video, his first reaction is again racial. Not wishing the winners congrats not even entertaining the notion that some other video might simply have gotten more votes. No, Kanye has to,like he always does, bring out the racial card and blame MTV's racial animus for his loss (as if no black artist ever won a best video award). What a crybaby.
And now he's taking his ball and going home, because he didn't get the award, that apparently MTV owes him because after all, noone could possibly have made a video as sublime as his.
Waaah, Kanye is going to cry.
Do artists even take the MTV awards seriously? It's not like its even a grammy. MTV music awards are stuff like Best Kiss in a Video. MTV music awards gave best heavy metal awards to Jethro Tull over Metallica. They're a joke. Still, it doesn't stop kanye from invoking racism.
again, he seems to have serious entitlement issues.

Dwight,
Read that article I cited by Lou Dolinar that goes through what actually happened on the ground from day one. Why does BUsh get all the blame from black leaders? Was noone on the ground who had any responsibility whatsoever? Hurricanes are local affaris, involving local municipalities. NO president no matter how hands on will do anything but delegate to other govt agencies to get the job done. And some did well and some did badly.But you cannot say that there wasn't a lack of effort, unless all you do is watch Cable news.
For example, if you read the article it mentions that from day one, rescue efforst were underway and there were countless helicopters flying back and forth rescuing people 24 hours a day. How many news reports even showed a single helicopter? I saw tons of reporst from Shep Smith sitting at the exact same spot, saying he was able to drive a single news truck in there why wasn't everyone being rescued, yet I didn't see any embedded reporters riding on helicopters while people are being rescued.Its' like all the new agencies found the dry spot where they coudl set up a camera and waited. And then complained that it was taking too long. Meanwhile a whole other story was going on under their noses.
FEMA was a joke, but again is that Bush's fault. Is taht even FEMA's fault? They certainly weren't ideal, but if they're overwhelmed by the largest natural disaster of the century maybe that's not so much incompetence as the fact that they're dealing with THE LARGEST NATURAL DISASTER IN THE LAST CENTURY.Why, if Bush gets credit for all the bad that occured, doesn't he also get credit for the 50,000 people rescued by helicopter in the first 3 days, or the fact that various agencies were able to handle a displaced population from an entire city and deal with ways to house them and get them out of the situation. Do you realize the logistical nightmare that entails? Add on top of that flooded roads, no power, little communications etc etc etc. Give me a break, Im awfully tired of the anti bush crowd suggesting that somehow the LARGEST NATURAL DISASTER IN THE LAST CENTURY could be dealt with like it was a cakewalk and be used to slam Bush politically, or be used to make some racial point that republicans dont like black people.

Well we're dealing with both facts and perception. The fact is that the Captain blatantly misquoted Kanye West. Kanye was expressing a perception that people had which was that George Bush did not care about black people. This was one of the most horrific natural disasters ever. Mistakes were made at every level, and even across political parties. And I'm sure the same could be said about whatever successes there were. However, Bush did little or nothing to change the perception that he was slow to react and disconnected from the suffering. Instead of appearing on top of the situation, he instead chose to cut birthday cake with McCain, strum a guitar with some country singer, and stay at his ranch. When he finally did make his way on the scene he was shown flying around above. Contrast that with his being at ground zero with a bullhorn, or personally handing out ice during the Florida hurricane. And when he was on the ground it was in Biloxi with Trent Lott, not New Orleans. Sometimes perception is reality.

DwightKSchrute,

Good job on NOT reading the well written response and articles posted to you.

I guess plugging your ears and following the Bush Bash bus is easier than dealing with actaul facts.

Pity.