In a stunningly crass interview on WWL-AM local radio, Mayor Ray Nagin blasted the pace of federal and state relief efforts with an expletive-laced diatribe.
NAGIN: 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.
WWL: 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 [Lt.] Gen. [Russel] 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.
Meanwhile, the ubiquitous Jesse Jackson claims that racism is a factor in why the poor and sick were left behind. Lou Dobbs at CNN however tried to put the failure to evacuate poor blacks and poor whites in context:
DOBBS: It is also important, because Reverend Jesse Jackson, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP have injected a straightforward and dramatic and perhaps even truthful charge that much of the failure here is because of race.
But we should put in context, it seems to me also, that the city of New Orleans is 70 percent black. Its mayor is black. Its principal power structure is black. And if there is a failure to the black Americans who live in poverty and in the city of New Orleans, those officials have to bear much of the responsibility.
Other less temperate black voices are clearly trying to play the race card and gain political capital from the Katrina crisis:
HILARY SHELTON, NAACP: There have been reports of boatloads of white Americans being transported out of harm's way while African- Americans were still left lingering, trying desperately to find assistance.
Lou Dobbs correctly identifies the reason that many were left behind in an exchange with Rep. Melvin Watt of the Congressional Black Caucus:
DOBBS: Either one is disturbing. What I hear you saying is you don't believe this was an issue of race. Rather, it was a question of socioeconomic condition, i.e. just poor people who simply weren't provided for, nor planned for in an emergency like this.
WATT: That's right. I don't think God visited this hurricane only on black people. He visited it on New Orleans, and the people who were in New Orleans -- black, white, or otherwise -- were victims of it. The ones who were able to get out, whether they were black, white, or otherwise, were not victims, at least not in the short-term way than the ones who remain there are.
Rev Jesse Jackson rants about the role of race but skirts the issue that the power structure and establishment of New Orleans is black. They had primary responsibility for evacuating the poor and infirm. The Democrat Governor of Louisiana has admitted that it was President Bush--not her office nor the Mayor of New Orleans--who urged them to issue a mandatory evacuation.
Further evidence of Mayor Nagin's incompetence comes to light as the Drudge Report asks: "WHY DIDN'T YOU DEPLOY THE BUSES DURING THE MANDATORY EVACUATION, MAYOR?" Will we see a "Blame Nagin" movement? We should.
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