Spinning, spinning...

[msgadget]

...by 8:30 a.m. Bush had left from Andrews Air Force Base for his second trip to the disaster zone. It was better than his first on Friday. He didn't offer any untenable defenses of the federal response and he didn't say anything too off key like he did last time when he vowed to rebuild Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott's home and fondly recalled his partying days in New Orleans. Bush visited victims of Katrina at a shelter near Baton Rouge, where he was joined by T.D. Jakes, the charismatic African-American religious broadcaster. The President met with emergency managers in Baton Rouge and in Mississippi as well.

Still, his visit studiously avoided the hardest-hit areas of Katrina and the itinerary all but guaranteed that he'd be met with friendly audiences. The displaced persons he met at the Bethany World Church were well cared for and for the most part grateful for their surroundings. In Poplarville, Mississippi, Bush toured a middle class neighborhood where the damage seemed minimal. Homes were intact, although many pine trees were felled. But most seemed to have hit lawns and carports rather than causing real structural damage to homes. Bush joked with Alabama Power workers who were helping to restore power to the comfortable neighborhood, which led Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to inform the crew that he had "married an Alabama girl." The whole tone still seemed out of step with the utter destruction along the Mississippi coast and the carnage in New Orleans. Until Bush plunges headfirst into New Orleans worst-hit neighborhoods he's going to have a hard time correcting the impression that he just doesn't get it.

Much of Bush's presidency has been built around keeping him away from unfriendly audiences. His campaign rallies were carefully screened and so are his policy events where he chews the fat about issues like Social Security. But that instinct surely can't be serving him well at a time when the country feels like a collective primal scream over seeing their countrymen left suffering.

[bliss_eternal]

1. I was just coming to this forum to ask why * was w/TD Jakes?

Is Jakes drinking Kool Aid, too?

:shrug:

[msgadget]

2. I saw him on Larry King,

and it spurred me to look up the news accounts.

Here's a quote from an Irish paper:

Mr. Bush was flanked as he spoke by Mayor Kip Holden of Baton Rouge and T. D. Jakes, a conservative African-American television evangelist with a megachurch in Dallas who has been courted by the White House as a partner in reaching out to the black vote.

"I want to thank my friend T. D. Jakes for rallying the armies of compassion to help somebody like the mayor," Mr. Bush said.

http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10003145.shtml

He also speaks to his close realtionship with the WH about 5 minutes into the link from here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4715465


I have to say it, I didn't see missionaries on tv or in either of the 'domes until after the president caught hell and then got himself a little better organized. Most likely some were working outside the media spotlight, as is their tendency...

[bliss_eternal]

3. I almost liked Jakes once...

Glad I didn't make that mistake. I am more than a little displeased that he is allowing himself, and his congregation to be used by the goon and his bots.

Need someone remind these people, Christianity does not look like what we saw on CNN this week...

I'll never have a speck of respect for Jakes.

Edited to add--come ON, Man! He's just created a perfect public relations nightmare, and you(Jakes) is going to step in to show the world, he doesn't hate black people?!!?

:wtf:

:mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: