New Orleans mayor outraged at feds
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lets all of his frustration out in an interview with WWL Radio. To hear the 12-minute audio (cover your ears if profanity offends you) go to this CNN link
The Washington Post has a shorter, edited version.
posted by xoff @ 11:02 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
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What's so pathetic about the Bush administration and the Democrats' mutual failure to define and lead is that none of them can see what is needed: A program of relief as comprehensive as The Marshall Plan and leadership as effective and visionary as FDR.
The damage is that complete but it seems that all our relevant models are back with the Greatest Generation while the current crop of leaders either mouth empty talk radio slogans or are afraid of being labeled as critics.
The Federal Government, long under attack by the Right as the source of all domestic evil, is, in fact, the only entity that has - - and shpould be directing - - the resources needed to rebuild the economies of several states, many cities and towns, and the lives of a million displaced and shattered families.
That's why we have a government.
A response and vision that is anything less will perpetuate this continuing disgrace - - an abomination made worse by FEMA Director Brown's criticism of the victims.
Compasionate conservatism? I think not.
And somehow you can still manage to engage in a partisan rant.
Let's start local and work our way out. Even then this disaster doesn't leave room to blame the mayor or governor. I wouldn’t even blame Clinton for vetoing levy funding.
As for your knee-jerk reaction… they don't need a "Marshall Plan." The city is nearly empty. The citizens need to relocate and build new lives. They need to receive prompt payment from the insurance companies and they need to move on. There is nothing to go back to. I am even fine with some small federal stipend to go with the insurance payments. Just as long as they move out and on.
We also need to evacuate the people who were left in harms way. City officials had two days to bus the poor (people who had no means of escape) out of the city. Those are the people who remain in New Orleans. They must be relocated too.
The city is gone. The barrier islands that once provided natural protection against storms have been washed away leaving the area formerly known as New Orleans in permanent jeopardy even with a cat 2 or 3 storm.
True vision would recognize that. FDR would have colluded with Huey Long and made a fortune rebuilding the city and awaiting the next disaster and the next big pay-off.
Enlightened Liberalism – obviously not.
Payment from insurance companies? You think these people had insurance? What planet do you live on? And how nice that you'd even be OK with a small stipend for these people who had little and now have nothing. Very nice.
And I love the way people on the sidelines are always telling people who are suffering they need to move on. So easy, this sloganeering.
Property owners in Biloxi and New Orleans had insurance – what planet are you on?
The people who you want to bring the Marshall Plan to are gone – they have left. The few that remain are being evacuated. There is almost nothing for them to come back to. Do you expect people to live in tent cities while their homes are rebuilt? This is not going to be like Homestead.
The extent of the damage is far worse and the time it will take to rebuild is well beyond the victims ability to maintain temporary lives waiting for a “Marshall Plan” to put it back together.
Of course they will need assistance – they need to build new lives.
It's probably a losing proposition to debate "xout", an anonymouse poster (that's what the former Capital Times editor Miles McMillan called the cowards whose unsigned letters he refused to print), but on the point about Katrina and the uninsured:
Reuters reported today, quoting FEMA and others, that an estimated 60% of New Orleans homeowners did not have flood insurance. That number is higher than in previous hurricane flooding in earlier storms. So the devastation accompanying Katrina is broad measured several ways.
So, the Feds will provide the traditional bailout. In fact the percentages are smaller than one would expect. If the number is accurate, it only serves to underscores my point. Even fewer people will come back to take the chance again. They will be building new lives elsewhere.
If New Orleans can come back to life at all, it will be more of a tourism city with far fewer residents and that is probably a good thing. The geography wasn’t safe enough to support a residential metropolis in the first place.
I still don’t see how a “Marshall Plan” helps anything for New Orleans. It needs to be rebuilt in some way or another but not like it was.
As for my anonymity –look around the blogosphere. Just about everyone has some kind of handle. How that makes me a coward? If you knew my name, what good would it do you anyway? Pick one out of the phonebook, it means about the same thing.
For all you know, you have passed me a dozen times in your life and you did not know it and you didn’t care. It is actually rather senseless.
Apparently, you and the Capital Times liked it better in the old days when you could spout off for all of us to read without any proper forum for our response. Too bad, it’s a new era.
Maybe some day that forum for responses will even apply to Sykes.
Spinning out a rationale for hiding behind a screen name doesn't change the fact that you are afraid of showing us your true self.
Some old saw about having the courage of your convictions comes to mind. You do lack a certain amount of backbond by hiding in the in the shadows of the internet, and your convictions appropriately carry less weight.
Each time you post, you xout the credibility you crave. I think I'm moving on.
(Xed-out below my spelling mistakes in the previous post. Sorry.)
Spinning out a rationale for hiding behind a screen name doesn't change the fact you are afraid of showing us your true self.
Some old saw about having the courage of your convictions comes to mind.
You do lack a certain amount of backbone by hiding in the shadows of the internet, and your convictions appropriately carry less weight.
Each time you post, you xout the credibility you crave. I think I am moving on.
Yes, by all means – move on.
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