The Black Caucus and New Orleans

Now that the Congressional Black Caucus has convinced Cynthia McKinney to apologize, can they spare a moment for the fate of the Crescent City?
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With the New Orleans mayoral election just days away, race is once again center stage in the discussion, with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton just having led a march demanding satellite voting facilities for the evacuees. Which leads me, a white part-time New Orleanian, to ask: now that the Congressional Black Caucus has convinced Cynthia McKinney to apologize, can they spare a moment for the fate of the Crescent City?

Today's Times-Picayune quotes a Corps of Engineers spokesman saying the levee on the east side of town, where the largely black professional suburb of New Orleans East was inundated, will not be armored in time for the start of hurricane season--because Congress has not yet authorized the funds. I got no answer last week when I asked for the name of one national Democratic leader who has made the fate of New Orleans a keynote of the party's stance. Now I ask: where's the black caucus when the city is being abandoned by Congress? With friends like these, New Orleans really does need the French.

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