12 hours ago
Friday, September 02, 2005
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is mad as hell and he isn't going to take it anymore. In an interview on radio station WWL (linked by CNN), Nagin is at his wit's end and understandably so. His city is submerged under water, oil, and raw sewage. His people are starving, dying, and rioting. But it also seems that the mayor has had one too many hurricanes--and I'm not talking about Katrina. Or perhaps he is just tired of the beat down. Who is to blame? Nagin isn't sure, but it's either the governor or President Bush.
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Agreed. Mayor Nagin (sounds like naggin' ?) would be more helpful if he were to make speeches urging calm and coming down severely on the looting and brutality. This might make people feel better and encourage calm. Isn't that what leadership means? Some mayor.
Has he got anything to say about the 200+ buses that he could have used to evacuate people but did not?
Related thoughts at:
http://paragraphfarmer.blogspot.com/2005/09/recrimination-redux.html
I´m afraid he does not make a lot of sense. The short version would be: "Somebody do something! Who is in charge here anyway?"
would be more helpful if he were to make speeches urging calm and coming down severely on the looting and brutality. This might make people feel better and encourage calm. Isn't that what leadership means?
Well, do they have electricity in New Orleans yet?
He's trying to deflect blame from himself and salvage his political career. It might work.
Why is noone looking hard at the State for its obvious lack of control? Why does the blame line go direct to the Federal level? Grrrr.....
Nagin is pretty hush-hush about telling residents to seek refuge in the convention center, and when the news media came into New Orleans and went on about the "neglected" people of the New Orleans Convention Center, nobody made note that Nagin never mentioned that he was sending people there and not the Superdome?
Nagin is looking for somebody else to take responsibility for a city he needs to look out for.
Another one on that Nagin tirade is that Senator Landrieu and her partisan tears on this morning's "This Week". She says if anybody criticizs the city of New Orleans, she'll (and did add a "literally") punch them. She also added a similar punch comment about President Bush.
I think Nagin has sparked a new tactless streak in politics (unless it's just Louisiana).
Bush clearly underachieved in this situation. But this Mayor has nothing to brag about. He was in a daze for days, too; perhaps he took a hit on the noggin.
It's commonly accepted that LA is one of the--if not THE---most corrupt state in the Union. It's not PC perhaps but the mayor was elected because he was black and he was able to spread the money around to various outstretched hands. He simply was not up to the job of dealing with this crises any better than the weak govenor. As with most major metro areas, the basic apparatus of rescue and survival was present at the city and state level---health department, transportation, police, fire, etc. All it called for was energetic leaderhip backed up by Federal money, supplies and organization. Instead, this poor (unfortunate) state is sadled with a corrupt system that was virtually paralyzed. Perhaps, as a result of this crises, the people of Louisiana will get more effective government. If they believe the lie that the Feds let them down, then maybe they have the government that they deserve.
I saw the starving and dying but missed the rioting - you may an exclusive there. With what would Nagin have come down hard on the looting, brutality and "food finding"? His entire police force was involved in *gasp* life saving! *Tenderheart*, don't try to sugarcoat your blatant racism with that "non-PC" predicate...I agree with most of what you say except for the, "because he was black", BS. What whites ran for the office? And if so, how often do you see a majority of whites vote for a black or vice versa ANYWHERE in America? No doubt, LA is corrupt to the core but, come on, they simply don't bother to hide it. That's all. Until John Paul II named Thomas Moore in 2000, the Patron Saint for politicians was St. Bucks. God is still the Almighty Dollar, and you ALL know this is true, so don't even try it!
I've no love for Nagin, but I think it's rather cowardly and nitpicking quibbling to take offense to the manner in which he responded to the awareness that his people were dying. Drowning by the thousands as he spoke. You good people have obviously better methods. New Orleans awaits you. What cynically heartless people we've become!
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