Bush tells ‘negroes’ not to spend money on dice games as he parties on like it’s 1929

On eve of Martin Luther King Day,
Bush tells ‘negroes’ not to spend money
on dice games as he parties on like it’s 1929

By Jackson Thoreau

During a "town hall" meeting on Jan. 11 in Washington, D.C., before an audience of many African Americans, Bush made some condescending and stereotypical, if not outright racist, remarks. The comments came a few days before Martin Luther King Day, no less.

In outlining his plan to rob the Social Security trust fund to reward wealthy Wall Street campaign contributors with billions in new fees and investment funds, Bush said that "a personal savings account….will compound over time and grow over time; a personal savings account……can't be used to bet on the lottery, or a dice game, or the track."

So Bush thinks all African Americans – or "negroes," as his kind calls them in private, if not to their faces - waste their money on dice games and the betting tracks, huh?

At another point, Bush made a reference to how blacks should like the change to Social Security since African American males die sooner than other groups and they can pass their accounts to their kids. He also said "the system [of blacks dying sooner] is inherently unfair to a certain group of people. And that needs to be fixed."

But Bush’s fix is not to help provide better education, training and jobs to blacks, or allow more African Americans to have health insurance. His solution to the problem is "personal savings accounts." How out of touch can he be?

A transcript of Bush’s remarks is at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050111/dctu050_1.html

Thanks to Jon Stewart of the Daily Show for highlighting these remarks.

***

Among the many protests and actions during the Bush coronation week highlighted at the site http://counter-inaugural.org/ is a march on Jan. 19, the evening before the coronation, from Dupont Circle to the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, scene of perhaps the most prestigious and hoity-toity of events during the week, the Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball.

Demonstrators from Billionaires for Bush, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane (insanereagan.com) and others will be marching to the hotel and showing the insensitive, moneyed power brokers how out of touch they really are.

Bush is spending at least $50 million on his coronation – more than any other president ever – at a time of an international tragedy like the tsunami, a costly war started on lies that the administration finally had to own up to by stopping their O.J. Simpson-like search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and massive budget cuts of programs that help children and the needy.

Bush is even sticking the taxpayers of Washington, D.C., who voted 9 to 1 against him, with a $12 million bill, the first president to stick it to the local taxpayers for his coronation. The local entity is using Homeland Security funds to pay much of that bill, another complete waste of money.

More details on this action are at http://counter-inaugural.org/lightningbug/web/index.php?action=detail&mode=view&listing=417

Some "mainstream" protest groups like Win Without War are sitting out the inaugural protests, thinking they need to appeal to moderates. These groups are like the wimpy, "moderate" Democrats who tried to stop the formal challenge of Bush’s cheating "victory" in Congress by Conyers, Boxer and others.

This inauguration is the big stage for protest groups. The media is here, wanting to cover this. They aren’t going to cover some small protest of a few hundred people later on. This is it.

What has trying to appeal to moderates ever gotten Bush opponents, except more of Bush?

I plan to show up with some creative signs to these inaugural protests. Some ideas I have for signs include:

"Gross Old Partiers"

"Party On Like It’s 1929"

"Millions for Parties, Pennies for Our Kids"

"Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for the Other Guy – I Think"

If you think of any other good slogans for signs, send ‘em on to the email address at the bottom of this column.

Hope to see you there.

( '? note:
Jackson has been duckdaotsu’s website “onsite columnist” (and a dear friend) for several years, we thank him for each word!

Jackson Thoreau, a Washington, D.C.-area journalist, contributed to Big Bush Lies, published by RiverWood Books and available in bookstores across the country. Thoreau's latest electronic book, The Strange Death of the Woman Who Filed a Rape Lawsuit Against Bush & Other Things the Bush Administration Doesn't Want You to Know, can be read at http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/know.html. He can be reached at jacksonthor@yahoo.com or jacksonthor@juno.com.