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Threaded Responses [ bottom ]
 | noah [email] said at 1:25 AM 09-03-2005:
Sorry, I just scrolled down and saw Ed already posted this, but it is still worth the repost. |
 | ed [email] said at 6:14 AM 09-03-2005:
Shoot, this can't be posted enough. No need for apologies! |
 | shelly [email] said at 1:33 AM 09-03-2005:
WWL Radio interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray ;
This is a rush transcript and may not be in its final
format.
RAY NAGIN, MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: I told him 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
out-manned 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. When 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.
And they don't have a clue what's going on down here.
They flew down here one time two days after the
doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters,
all kind of goddamn -- excuse my French everybody in
America, but I am pissed.
GARLAND ROBINETTE, WWL CORRESPONDENT: Did you say to
the president of the United States, "I need the
military in here"?
NAGIN: I said, "I need everything."
Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president
some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude
down here that can get some stuff done, and his name
is General Honore.
And he came off the doggone chopper and he started
cussing and people started moving. And he's getting
some stuff done.
They ought to give that guy -- if they don't want to
give it to me, give him full authority to get the job
done, and we can save some people.
ROBINETTE: What do you need right now to get control
of this situation?
NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I
need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- 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 here.
I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a
national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound busline
in the country and get their asses moving to New
Orleans."
That's -- 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. The
poor people in Plaquemines Parish. They're air-vacing
people over here in New Orleans. We don't have
anything and we're sharing with our brothers in
Plaquemines Parish.
It's awful down here, man.
ROBINETTE: Do you believe that the president is seeing
this, holding a news conference on it but can't do
anything until Kathleen Blanco requested him to do it?
And do you know whether or not she has made that
request?
NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. But I will
tell you this: 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 and
they're dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.
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.
You know what really upsets me, Garland? We told
everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal
issue. We said, "Please, please take care of this. We
don't care what you do. Figure it out."
ROBINETTE: Who'd you say that to?
NAGIN: Everybody: the governor, Homeland Security,
FEMA. You name it, we said it.
And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping
Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water
board people -- Marcia St. Martin (ph) -- stayed there
and endangered their lives.
And what happened when that pumping station went down,
the water started flowing again in the city and it
starting getting to levels that probably killed more
people. In addition to that, we had water flowing
through the pipes in the city. That's a power station
over there. So there's no water flowing anywhere on
the east bank of Orleans Parish. So our critical water
supply was destroyed because of lack of
action.
ROBINETTE: Why couldn't they drop the 3,000-pound
sandbags or the containers that they were talking
about earlier? Was it an engineering feat that just
couldn't be done?
NAGIN: They said it was some pulleys that they had to
manufacture. But, you know, in a state of emergency,
man, you are creative, you figure out ways to get
stuff done.
Then they told me that they went overnight and they
built 17 concrete structures and they had the pulleys
on them and they were going to drop them.
I flew over that thing yesterday and it's in the same
shape that it was after the storm hit. There is
nothing happening. And they're feeding the public a
line of bull and they're spinning, and people are
dying down here.
ROBINETTE: If some of the public called and they're
right, that
there's a law that the president, that the federal
government can't do anything without local or state
requests, would you request martial law?
NAGIN: I've already called for martial law in the city
of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.
ROBINETTE: Did the governor do that, too?
NAGIN: I don't know. I don't think so.
But we called for martial law when we realized that
the looting was getting out of control. And we
redirected all of our police officers back to
patrolling the streets. They were dead-tired from
saving people but they worked all night because we
thought this thing was going to blow wide open last
night. And so we redirected all of our resources and
we hold it under check.
I'm not sure if we can do that another night with the
current resources.
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 knuckle heads out there and they are
taking advantage of this lawless -- 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.
And one of the things people -- 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 that reason why
they were breaking in hospitals and drug stores.
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 can only
target certain sections of the city and form a
perimeter around them and hope to God that we're not
overrun.
ROBINETTE: Well, you and I must be in the minority.
Because apparently there's a section of our citizenry
out there that thinks because of a law that says the
federal government can't come in unless requested by
the proper people, that everything that's going on to
this point has been done as good as it can possibly
be.
NAGIN: Really?
ROBINETTE: I know you don't feel that way.
NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it
go through a formal process to request?
You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in
there? Did they ask us to go in there?
What is more important?
And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a
whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in
so much trouble it ain't even funny. You probably
won't even want to deal with me after this interview
is over.
ROBINETTE: You and I will be in the funny place
together.
NAGIN: But 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.
And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know
whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know
whether it's the president's problem, but somebody
need to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two
of them, and figure this out right now.
ROBINETTE: What can we do here?
NAGIN: Keep talking about it.
ROBINETTE: We'll do that. What else can we do?
NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls
to their congressmen, to the president, to the
governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to
do something.
This is ridiculous.
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.
ROBINETTE: I'll say it right now, you're the only
politician that's called and called for arms like
this. And if -- whatever it takes, the governor,
president -- whatever law precedent it takes, whatever
it takes, I bet that the people listening to you are
on your side.
NAGIN: Well, I hope so, Garland. I am just -- I'm at
the point now where it don't matter. People are dying.
They don't have homes. They don't have jobs. The city
of New Orleans will never be the same in this time.
[long pause; sounds of weeping]
ROBINETTE: We're both pretty speechless here.
NAGIN: Yeah, I don't know what to say.
I got to go.
ROBINETTE: OK. Keep in touch. Keep in touch. |
 | milky [email] said at 11:15 AM 09-08-2005:
Best speech from an elected official since the year 2000 began. |
trice said at 9:17 PM 10-11-2005:
Thank you for keeping this interview on your site. There is one in more entirety on www.discourse.net . It was very important to me that I find this to hear again.I figured the nation didn't hear the full phone call, was hearing snippets rather than the real deal when the national news was broadcast on WWL. I heard this as it happened, lived through the actual storm and am now finally able to see what the rest of you were told, saw, etc. Like most of us in the metropolitan New Orleans, New Orleans and Gulf Coast area, I am trying to figure out what is next in living through the aftermath. This conversation between Mayor Nagin and Garland Robinette was and is truth. It was such a rush to hear the truth spoken, that as horrifying as it was at that point, once these things were said and said in the manner of the people and not political fodder, a sliver of hope began to creep in now and then. Who knows now what will happen, the way it's all been portrayed is nuts and it's all criticized and splintered into pieces of reality and utter obvious ( to us) lies, people are worn out with caring and paying attention and trying to be helpful and seem to be on to the next thing ( earthquake in Pakistan, anyone?). If you are reading this then you understand one has to seek out truth in news in America, but this situation has shown me just how much, how deep one must dig. The lack of compassion and snarkiness and picking apart of the stupidest crap amazed me when I started looking around the internet - I'll bet you a dime to a dollar that a good bit of reality will be filed under some "official" urban myth site. Probably already has, but you know, I'm not looking for it, I'm just tired trying to keep it together and deal with the sadness, stress, loss, and severe changes. Thanks again. |
Thoth said at 9:40 PM 10-11-2005:
I have this in mp3 format. Nagin gets pissed. | |
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