John Edwards, Barbara Boxer, Kanye West on Bush Policy, Katrina Victims

Here are three heartfelt sentiments about Bush Administration action and inaction in responding to the needs to the New Orleans victims of Hurricane Katrina and the broken levees....These passionate thoughts are representative of likely millions posted in the blogosphere this morning.

From entertainer Kanye West at a benefit performance last night: " I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food.' And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black....

We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!....George Bush doesn't care about black people!" Read West's entire remarks here.

Brief excerpts from Senator John Edwards, 2004 Democratic candiate for Vice President, writing this morning at leading liberal community blog TPMCafe, "During the campaign of 2004, I spoke often of the two Americas: the America of the privileged and the wealthy, and the America of those who lived from paycheck to paycheck.

Today....we see the suffering of families who lived from paycheck to paycheck and who followed the advice of officials and went to shelters at the Civic Center or the Superdome or stayed home to protect their possessions .... these are our brothers and sisters, and we have to remember this not just for them, but for us....

The people most devastated have always lived on a razor blade, afraid of any setback, any illness, any job loss that could disrupt the fragile balance they achieved paycheck to paycheck. They didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave....

Commentators on television have expressed surprise, saying they think that most people didn't know there was such poverty in America. Thirty-seven million Americans live in poverty, most of them are the working poor, but it is clear that they have been invisible.

Thirteen million children -- nearly one in every five -- lives in poverty. Close to 25 percent of all African Americans live in poverty. Twenty-three percent of the population in New Orleans lives in poverty.... Poverty exists everywhere in America....It doesn't have to be this way. We can begin embracing policies that offer opportunity, reward responsibility, and assume the dignity of each American." Read this extraordinary piece here. (To my ear, it's reminiscent of Martin Luther King, Jr.)

And from US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) writing to President Bush yesterday, September 2, 2005, "I write today to voice my profound concern over the state of our Nation’s National Guard.

The disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast of the United States has highlighted what many experts have been warning all along –that sending tens of thousands of our National Guard forces overseas to fulfill military manpower needs could jeopardize the safety and security of the people of the United States in the event of a major national disaster or terrorist attack. Tragically, we have seen those warnings materialize into painful reality this week.....

.I must constantly worry about the prospect of catastrophes: from potentially devastating earthquakes, mudslides, and forest fires, to the threat of terrorist attack on one of our several major metropolises. In the event of one or more of these occurrences, we would be dependent upon the rapid and overwhelming deployment of the National Guard as a vital resource in our emergency response.

Thus, we need our National Guard at home in California, not overseas in Iraq or elsewhere. "Read the entirety of Senator Boxer's letter here at her Senate Office website.