The EYE hopes that the Democrats do not let George W. Bush get away with what will go down as the most atrocious response to a national disaster by any president in history. No one knows Bush’s disastrous ineptitude and disregard better than New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, and here is how he cut loose in an interview last Thursday with WWL-AM. Pardon some of the fresh language – this was a righteously angry and desperate man.
Mayor Ray Nagin:
I told (Bush) we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we’re outmanned in just about every respect.
You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in
attics, man, old ladies. You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and
you look down there and they’re standing in there in water up to their
freaking necks.
I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. You know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of here.
I’m like, “You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every
doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.”
They’re thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can’t emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.
I’ve got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It’s bursting at the seams. It’s awful down here, man.
You know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying.
We’re getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart, from people
saying, “I’ve been in my attic. I can’t take it anymore. The water is up to
my neck. I don’t think I can hold out.” And that’s happening as we speak.
They’re feeding the public a line of bull and they’re spinning, and people are dying down here.
And I am telling you right now: They’re showing all these reports of people
looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they are doing that, but people
are desperate and they’re trying to find food and water, the majority of
them.
Now you got some knuckleheads out there, and they are taking advantage of
this situation where, you know, we can’t really control it, and they’re doing some awful, awful things. But that’s a small majority of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive.
Nobody’s talked about this. Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me, and that’s why we were having the escalation in murders. People don’t want to talk about this, but I’m going to talk about it.
You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for a
fix, and that’s the reason why they were breaking in hospitals and drugstores. They’re looking for something to take the edge off of their jones, if you will.
And right now, they don’t have anything to take the edge off. And they’ve
probably found guns. So what you’re seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts,
drug addicts, that are wrecking havoc. And we don’t have the manpower to
adequately deal with it.
We authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.
Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming
through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere
around the world, everybody’s eyes light up – you mean to tell me that a
place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and
thousands more that are dying every day, that we can’t figure out a way to
authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.
You know, I’m not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly.
I don’t want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences. Put a
moratorium on press conferences. Don’t do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with
us when there are military trucks and troops that we can’t even count.
Don’t tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They’re not here. It’s too
doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let’s fix the
biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.
