Nagin Interview and Transcript
I've thought about this several times, and had before this interview, but it just reminded me again. Reflecting on all these things - there are all these promises of so many thousands of National Guardsmen, 'x' amount from the Army, a 'shoot to kill' policy on looters, moving tens of thousands of people via bus from the Convention Centre or Superdome, telethons and concerts to raise money...I keep thinking one thing, where are the food and water drops? People could maybe put up with the heat a bit longer, not be so desperate simply to survive, wait a while to be moved... if they had some food or water.
The Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, let loose in this radio interview. He's pissed off at everyone who's promising action or assistance but isn't delivering, and he says so in no uncertain terms. If the site goes down for exceeding bandwidth before you get a chance to hear it, first check here, otherwise I can host it so you can listen to it.
This is the Interview Transcript.
This is the mp3 file of the interview (3.3mb - 14min)
CNN also has a story now, I think on this same interview.
When asked what Nagin had said when he had a chance to speak to George Bush:
I basically told him we had an incredible, uh, crisis here and that his flying over in air force one does not do it justice and 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, when you pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and there standing in there in water up to their freakin neck 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 goddamned, excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed.
[...]
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.
Update: Okay, I'm not sure now if it was a radio or tv interview. The CNN link has a video you can watch (but I can't on the mac).
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 9/03/2005 02:37:00 am || ||
