The civil rights attorney (Norman Siegel) noted that more than 70 percent of the Transport Workers Union’s 33,000 members are “of color.” And while he didn’t believe Bloomberg’s use of the word was in itself racist, Siegel said, “The perception out there is that it is racist. And the reaction has enormous racial overtones.”

The mayor complained that union leaders had “thuggishly turned their backs on New York City and disgraced the noble concept of public service.”

Siegel challenged the mayor to use the dispute over the one word as a “springboard” to focus attention on racial issues in the city…

In a followup to a previous article, the Houston Comical now says Mayor Bill White is asking FEMA to foot the bill for the security needed to investigate the increasing crime in “many of the problem areas [that] fall in southwest Houston, particularly in apartment complexes housing numerous Katrina evacuees“, while simultaneously “not identif[ing] a cause for the rise in crime”, while simultaneously pointing “to increased gang activity and the growth in population from Katrina evacuees“, while simultaneously saying the “uptick in crime is not solely attributable to Hurricane Katrina evacuees.”

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

Syriana, the George Clooney political drama that opened Nov. 23, paints a sympathetic portrait of a young man recruited into a radical Islamic group planning an attack on a U.S. oil firm.

…

“I’ve been called a traitor for questioning the war,” [Clooney] says. “But more people are beginning to look critically at what our government is doing, who we’re fighting. And that’s the most patriotic thing you can do.”

Maybe it only seems bad because of the author’s name.

1. Hurricane Katrina - Bush blamed for slow response that led to lots of murder and mayhem among poor minorities in New Orleans. Nevermind the fact that most of the rumors of mischief were false and forget that the local and state governments completely fell down on the job or that environmentalists had fought the levee system. Nope, it was all Bush’s fault. Oh yeah, and the race issue was moot as well. But what the hell, “Bush doesn’t like black people” has a sentimental ring to it, don’t ya think? Here’s what I think.
2. Papal Transition - A story that had nothing to do with Bush still couldn’t escape the liberals’ ‘blame Bush‘ beat.
3. Iraq - The real story here is that a former dictatorship is quickly evolving into a free democracy, but MSM would rather focus on a liberal lunatic and her nutty protests. The MSM continues to press forward with the idea that Bush lied, while simultaneously ignoring that the very same “lies” were presented repeatedly by liberals in previous years.
4. Supreme Court - Bush gets to pick two SCOTUS nominees. Liberals think the end times are near! Bush could nominated Mother Teresa and Ghandi and liberals would still oppose them as being advocates of “rolling back civil rights”.
5. Oil Prices - This was only a story when prices were rising.
6. London Bombings - While many turned their thoughts to the victims and their families, many liberals were immediately able to assign blame to Bush.
7. Asian Quake - Finally a natural disaster not blamed on Bush. Maybe they just forgot.
8. Terri Schiavo - Bush and his evil vast right wing coalition tried to invade this poor woman’s life and impose their religious beliefs upon her. Nevermind the fact that her desires were not clearly determined when a judge ordered her starved to death. But never fear, at least the emaciated, thirsty corpse will give Democrats some campaign material.
9. CIA Leak - Ah, finally the Valerie Plame non-story makes the top 10. Nevermind that nobody was charged with an illegal leak or the fact that Plame’s status as ‘covert’ is still in question. Nope, this was certainly a top 10 story because… well… MSM says so.
10. Bush’s Struggles - WTF? The things the AP lists in this ridiculous category comprise all the retarded accusations tossed at Bush for the items listed 1 through 9. Are you telling me (a) that the AP couldn’t come up with one more item to round out the top 10 that they had to resort to a “Bush is just bad in general” category or (b) that the AP didn’t blast Bush enough in items 1 through 9 that they had to throw in one more parting shot before concluding the list. Beautiful.

Now, here’s my list of Top News Items that MSM Would Rather Ignore:

1. Sandy Berger - Former National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, pleads guilty to stealing and destroying classified documents relating to the government’s response to terrorism.
2. Saddam Hussein - Goes on trial.
3. Iraq - 70% voter turnout in the new Iraqi democracy.
4. Economic Growth - Almost 4.5 million new jobs since recovery began in mid-2003.
5. Bush - Sworn-in to second term.
6. Libya - Scraps its WMD programs.
7. Afghanistan - Sees 50% turnout for parliamentary elections.
8. No Child Left Behind - A success.
9. Terrorism - In the Middle East, support for terrorism and terrorists is down, support for democracy is up.
10. Democrat Struggles - Including seeing Dems switch parties and losing the fundraising race.

especially those swelled with an influx of Katrina evacuees.

=Most of the spike has come since mid-November…

Fifty-one homicides were reported in November and December - a 70 percent increase from the same period last year, Hurtt said.

“You’re bringing people with different cultures, different backgrounds; they have different lifestyles there in New Orleans than we have in Houston,” said Capt. Dale Brown of the homicide division. “The equilibrium was thrown out of whack, with people competing for jobs, competing for turf, or whatever it is.”

Hurtt said that after talking with state and regional officials, he is “pretty certain that (Louisiana) gang members did relocate here to Houston.”

Update 3: It is interesting that all those folks who rejoiced in the Plame “scandal” are so silent about this story in which a classified program designed to track terrorists was leaked, in detail, to the press. A program which most in the legal community are saying is completely within the government’s legal authority to conduct.

Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust.

Of the 380 bodies from New Orleans that have been formally identified, a disproportionate number are white. New Orleans’ population was 28 percent white, yet 33 percent of the identified victims in the city are white.