Is it true that shortly after Hurrican Katrina, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was seen buying thousands of dollars worth of shoes in an upscale Manhattan shoe store; and that the Secretary was accosted by an angry customer for doing so?
Origins: The rumor about Dr. Condoleeza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State, going on a shoe-shopping spree while on vacation in New York immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast has appeared on some gossip sites and was reported by the New York Daily News:
Yesterday, Rice went shopping at Ferragamo on Fifth Ave. According to the Web site www.Gawker.com, the 50-year-old bought several thousand dollars' worth of shoes at the pricey leather-goods boutique.
A fellow shopper shouted, How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless! — presumably referring to Louisiana and Mississippi.
The woman expressing her First Amendment rights was promptly removed from the store. A Ferragamo store manager confirmed to us that Rice did shop there yesterday, but refused to answer questions about whether the protester was removed, and whether by his own security or the Secret Service.
We don't know how much truth there is to this rumor, but it has undoubtedly spread because it expresses a fiddling while Rome burns frustration many Americans have felt at the federal government's slow response in providing aid to victims of the disastrous damage and flooding in New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina.
As many other readers have pointed out, although one might direct criticism towards government officials such as the President of the United States, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response for failing to coordinate adequate response to large-scale emergencies within the U.S., such efforts are largely outside the purview of the Secretary of State. Dr. Rice's primary duties are advising the President in the determination and execution of U.S. foreign policy, conducting negotiations with foreign representatives, and providing instructions to U.S. ministers and consuls abroad, little of which directly bears on coordinating disaster relief within the U.S.
The implication embedded with this rumor is that if Dr. Rice had only been shopping for sensible shoes (instead of expensive leather ones), that would have been acceptable — a point that indicates there's perhaps more political subtext to this piece, especially since the purported outraged comments came from a fellow shopper.
Last updated: 2 September 2005
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/katrina/politics/rice.asp
Firefighters Associatio: Giuliani - Urban Legend.
See link.
Evil...........
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Romans 12:9 never said rich were evil
I never said the rich were evil. I said there are many who dont care about the working class and yet you defend them. As an example, I just read a news article earlier this week that Dr. Phil pays his transcriptionists $7.00 to $8.00 an hour!!!!!!!!! Have you ever seen Dr. Phil's house in LA? I have passed it a few times..OMG!!!! Let me tell ya, the guy can afford to pay his transcriptionists better than that. If it wasnt for Oprah, he would still be working in Texas and not a celebrity but does it even make him realize, hey, I got a stroke of good luck thanks to Oprah, maybe I should take care of my staff better. Obviously he is one of the rich who does not get it. Sure there are some who care and give back, as they realize how lucky they are and there but for the grace of God go I. I have seen personally some rich give back greatly, some volunteering at jobs every one else would be paid for, giving to charities and so much more. The good ones realize they must give back, cause that is just the way it should be in a moral caring upright society. The others, they cant get enough money. Their religion is money. The more millions they have, they are worrying about how to make millions more.
Yes, the brain is evil.
I don't know what else you could call it. Just the fact that Bush relies on a man with Rove's kind of history says all there is to say about this administration - the addition of the rest of the Nixon-era chickenhawks is icing on that sh**cake. It's creepy beyond belief how some Bush supporters actually applaud that kind of dirty business and call it political saavy. Let's call it what it really is - just plain amoral and reprehensible sociopathic behavior.
The notion of evil
Sometimes evil comes in many forms - not always neatly packaged in the guise of someone of middle-eastern descent. Sometimes evil is found in people who refuse to find alternative solutions to the human conflict other than killing....
Because I feel war/killing needs to be a last resort does not mean I do not not stand up for myself or my family. It also does not mean I am pro-terrorist. This is a childish, ignorant notion that I see the right perpetuating repeatedly. Not that the left is perfect, by any means!
You religious right wingers, rednecks who were undereducated and/or raised by a long line of redneckers will never get it so I won't even address you as your perception of reality is hopelessly distorted.
However, I will say that, anyone who makes under 250 grand a year and who votes for the republican tick is a fool.
This next presidential term will all be about taxes now that Georgie has sold out the country to foreign lands to pay for his war and cover his tax cuts to the wealthy, and someone's taxes are going to be raised and if you vote republican and earn less than 250 grand, it will be YOURS.
Funding under republicans will also be cut to social services and that means more crime, and if your town is like mine, police and fire departments are laying off due to budget cuts - hey, what an oxymoron, cutting police forces while fighting terrorism.
Republicans are not for the people whatever you say. They pander to the religious right and those high school drop out rednecks for the votes. Abortion is and always will happen as it has since the beginning of time and I don't think you will ever stop it from happening. You can try to romanticize reproduction all you want but in this world, as we watch babies starving, dying from curable disease and, even raped, it just doesn't hold water.
Republicans are as evil as greed is evil.
Your arguments are weak as always.
Evil is arming Saddam and backing a war against
an enemy (in this case Khomeini's new Islamic regime) without understanding what you are doing or giving a rip about the consequences. Evil is turning around when you have no more use for the spent puppet because he went all rogue on you, assumed his own power and had the gall to defy you by controlling his own resources and proceeding to launch into impotent attempt to weaken his standing and power and bring him down, as though you are the king of the universe. Having failed that, evil is building a case for war based on lies (with the exception of the WMDs you had supplied him with 2 decades earlier), flaunting international protocol, lying to your own citizens and waging an imperial war because you do not have a clue how to solve your own problems without carnage and bloodshed. Evil is propping up a reviled, fascist apartheid state whose occupation of an entire indigenous people has been the root of the rise of the terrorism you so vehemently condemn. Evil is not being big enough to recognize your own weaknesses, take responsibility for your own screw-ups, turn a page and try other more peaceful and productive approaches to the mess you have created. Evil is manipulating your own citizens into believing your lies and propaganda for decades on end, claiming the moral high ground and turning a blind eye to the death, destruction, pain, suffering and humanitarian crises in a region you seek to control that has never and will never belong to you.
Oh, please read this, Evil Clinton and WMDs, what?..........sm
NAFTA was built upon a 1989 trade agreement between the United States and Canada that eliminated or reduced many tariffs between the two countries. NAFTA called for immediately eliminating duties on half of all U.S. goods shipped to Mexico and gradually phasing out other tariffs over a period of about 14 years. Restrictions were to be removed from many categories, including motor vehicles and automotive parts, computers, textiles, and agriculture. The treaty also protected intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights, and trademarks) and outlined the removal of restrictions on investment among the three countries. Provisions regarding worker and environmental protection were added later as a result of supplemental agreements signed in 1993.
In 1989 Gearge H.W. Bush was president, right???
The Congress of the United States narrowly approved NAFTA in November 1993, during the term of President Bill Clinton.
The most innovative yet controversial aspects of NAFTA are its environmental provisions, which are included in the agreement itself as well as in a separate Supplementary Agreement on the Environment. These provisions make NAFTA the most environmentally conscious trade agreement ever negotiated. The Supplementary Agreement established a Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC), composed of senior environmental officials from each North American country. All three countries are prohibited from relaxing their environmental regulations in order to attract additional investment, and both citizens and governments are permitted to file complaints with the commission if they believe that a country is not enforcing
Is that not a good thing? Was it perfect, no, we wanted to open free trade four our countries; unfortunately, the GREEDY CEOs took advantage by moving production facilities overseas. The same GREEDY guys with the Golden parachutes that have flourished over the past two terms (and yes, even before that, but banking deregulation had so much more to do with this).
As for the WMDs, we brought in NATO, we went in with bipartisan group, we search with a multi-national group, and found none. Okay, you can hyposthesize all you want about HIDING THEM in other countries, anyone get any proof of this at all over the past eight years????? They are not too easy to hide, by the way, and Iraq has many enemies. I think that was the biggest RED HERRING in history to get over there, give Halliburton Billions in contracts without bids, and preserve our oil interests. There are horrible dictators in other countries, N. Korea has been threatening, taunting, and postulating, even testing weapons,,,,are we going there next for more trillions????
George Bush = Epitome of Evil
You people voted in the decider, the dumbest, most self-serving president in history and you DARE cast stones at President Obama who hasn't even had a CHANCE yet.
Second Bush's IQ score is reported to be higher than Obama's. Might help to understand why he refuses to let his school grades out - he failed his classes.
I do not have evil thoughts. Satan exists whether you choose to
believe he does. Finally, the woman who prayed before she voted is not like me. She allowed herself to be deceived.
You know, it is not Unle Sam who is evil, I still love this country with my whole heart....sm
But the government has been looking the other way while the Wall Street Prirates and Mirauders were raping and pilaging everything they could find and having a grand old time doing it. We have a gorgeous country with so many assets, I have traveled all 50 states and the pure majesty in all areas is really humbling, and I thank God I was born in this country. We are all going to have to help each other out, pay attention to what our elected officials are doing, learn how to raise a giant stink when they are not listening to their constituents and home-base, have patience to think things through clearly...as so many of our leaders do not. Hey, anyone ready to storm the Bastille with pitchforks and torches????? Perhaps we should get out the guillotine on the W.H front lawn as a reminder of what happens when arrogance runs rough-shod over the "common" people who cannot even eat moldy bread, let alone "cake!" Off my soapbox now, hard day!
Yeah, we know JTBB. Bush=evil. O=saint.
nm
Do you honestly believe that a evil tyrant like Sadam Hussein would NOT have WMDs?
He used chemical warefare on the Kurds in the 1980s. They exist. They were well hidden and are probably now well hidden just across the border into Iraq or Syria. Stop kidding yourselves!
Evil constant attacks on Palin are about to bring the biggest backlash
I believe you may have cost yourselves the election with the horrendous extent this was taken to.
Stop you evil propaganda, you're just lowering yourself to all those hypocritical evangelicals!
It's obvious your mind is already made up, so please do not force yours on us who do not agree with you one bit. If you're trying to make the rest of us swing in your direction by writing this litany of pettyness and sillyness, you're wrong. John McCain is passé...gone, okay? If I hear him talk about his military service and his tortures one more time, I'm going to puke! This is 2008, the war in Vietnam is long over and the U.S. had to get out. The Russians were in Aghanistan for ten years and had to get out with millions of their soldiers dead. This is an unwinnable war, why smarty pants can't you understand that? And Palin....oh please! She's a controller freak, she'll be running McCain if he's elected! We don't want neither one of them and you will see why come November 4th. We will not put up with four more years of aq Bush.......he's screwed up the country so bad in every way possible! Now everyone hates americans thanks to your current president. He's a Clint Eastwood in disguise. The axis of evil is America, and not the countries Bush loves to denigrade. So stop your propaganda against Barack, he's a breath of fresh air which we all long for. Biden did a lot more than McCain did in Congress. We don't need a novice from Alaska that's for sure. I'm Canadian and up here, it's democrat all the way. I suppose Palin can see the Yukon from her bedroom now? Bush will go down as the worst President the U.S. has ever had. No wonder you're all so scared and nervous about terrorists....he dared them and challendged and now they hate his guts. Let's get Barack in there and start negotiating, communicating and get the world on you side once again, like it used to be. So don't give me your crap about Barack or Joe. Bet you don't even know where Khandahar is! So stop your propaganda and keep your hateful thoughts to yourself!
Monique
good-evil, white cowboy hat black cowboy hat
Wouldnt it be great if the world was black-white, good-evil..Gee, life would be so simple. The good guys could wear the white cowboy hat, the bad guys the black one. I ache for simpler times, like...maybe the 1990s, when we werent the biggest terrorist country on the earth with the number one terrorist sitting in the White House and the world still respected America.
Voting for the lesser of 2 evils is still voting for evil. sm
The 2 main choices are horrible. They only offer a continuation of the status quo. Nothing on bringing the troops home (now not 5 years from now), no sound monetary policy, reinstating our civil liberties, etc. Third party candidates have better platforms. People should be voting principles over party, or you deserve whatever you get.
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