If dogs could speak...
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Looking presidentialIt's tough to be President these days. It's hard work, very hard work, lots and lots of hard, hard, hard work. After the Katrina debacle, Bush wanted to be seen as a hands-on, in-charge leader, so he scheduled a trip to San Antonio on Friday afternoon to show that he was personally overseeing the federal government's preparations for hurricane Rita. Nothing like a disaster to recover from another disaster. Plus in his mind Rita was probably lovelier than Katrina, who sounds too much like a Russian communist ballerina. Or a James Bond spy. In either case, not enough family values.
But minutes before he was due to depart Washington D.C., the White House cancelled the stop in San Antonio and redirected the trip straight to Colorado Springs where the President could monitor the hurricane from headquarters of the Northern Command. From inside safe bunkers he could watch for enemy missiles as well as listen to the wind howling. The official explanation was that the search-and-rescue team in San Antonio was packing up to move closer to where the hurricane would strike, and he didn't want to get in their way. Unofficially, aides acknowledged that the real reason was that on Friday it was too sunny in San Antonio. It was difficult to show television viewers that the President was dealing with an approaching hurricane when the background was so bright and sunny. God forbid, some people might again think that he was on vacation while a city was drowning. This time, he'll be the storm chaser president.
It's been a tough few weeks for the President. First there was Katrina. Then ten days ago while he was listening to speeches at the United Nations in New York, a nosy photographer with a powerful zoom lens caught him writing a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "I think I may need a bathroom break. Is it possible...?" And he forgot to say Please.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 6:12 AM 6 comments
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Happy holidaysI was at Costco two weeks ago, and they already had large displays of Christmas lights and gift wrapping paper, right next to the back-to-school stuff. Oh how I hated those blinking lights in the middle of the store. I know that merchants have been moving the Christmas sale season earlier and earlier, and Costco being at the top of the capitalist food chain, is no exception. Despite that, Christmas used to start at Thanksgiving, then at Halloween, but I'd never seen it start at the beginning of September until now.
At this rate, pretty soon Christmas will be a year-round holiday. I don't know if I can handle that many jingle bells and fruit cakes. But just in case, Merry Christmas and Hannukah, Happy New Year, and a Great Kwanzaa to all of you. And enjoy Labor Day 2006.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 6:20 AM 3 comments
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
It's all downhill from hereYesterday was one of the most depressing days I've had in a while. I had to be at work early so I left the house at 6:15 am. It was still pitch dark outside, and there was a cold and damp wind blowing. On the highway the construction crews were late in picking up the cones, so I arrived 15 minutes late despite leaving 15 minutes early. Then in the afternoon as I was coming back from a late lunch, it began pouring -- it's been so long since our last rain that I started believing that water came only in plastic bottles. And the rain was accompanied by fierce thunder and lightning. Just like that, in the middle of September, and in the middle of California. With that weather, I thought I might as well move to Idaho or New Jersey.
I got home late, grabbed an apple and was going to wash it at the kitchen sink. When I turned on the faucet, it started hissing, then began to spit out bursts of dirty water interrupted by jets of rust particles. A kind of liquid snap-crackle-pop. It went on like that for several minutes. Apparently water pressure was lost earlier in the day, and the line was filled with air, and it took a while to purge it all out. I had to go through the house and let every faucet flow for a good five minutes, even the toilet tanks, before the water cleared.
I checked the calendar again, and sure enough it was only Tuesday. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the rest of the week.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 11:32 PM 1 comments
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Law enforcement, part IINeighbor disputes can be ugly at times but seldom do they get as vile as in this case. In Nakano Ward in Tokyo, Japan, a man in his 50s has been boiling his own feces and leftover food in his garden and dumping the smelly brew into a hole he dug in the backyard. The trouble started two and a half years ago when neighbors complained that he was making too much noise in his home, and he retaliated by quietly launching his new waste recycling project. When interviewed on television, the man said that he did not feel that he was bothering anyone, and did not have to justify what he was doing in his own home.
To fight the stench, his neighbors have had to keep their windows closed through summer and winter, and some of them even installed double doors inside their houses. When that didn't work, they spread deodorizing powder and antiseptic chemicals around the man's house, but to no avail. Local businesses are also suffering. A small general store went bankrupt last year because customers stopped coming. A seafood store might go next. This is unconfirmed, but apparently only the McDonald's nearby is thriving.
Last month, area residents signed a petition with a thousand signatures and submitted it to police and the city government. However, officials say that there is nothing they can do because smell is highly subjective and there is no evidence of bodily harm. They explain that it is difficult to legally prove that the stores were driven out of business because of the foul odor, and city ordinances against air pollution apply only to businesses and factories, not individuals. Just as there are no laws against booby-grabbing, there are no laws against sh.t-cooking either.
In case any of my neighbors are reading this, I want to say here that I love them all. Turn on the leaf blower at 5 am, crank up the stereo all you want, but just don't start any fertilizing please.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 6:02 AM 5 comments
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Law enforcement, part IAn off-duty police officer was arrested for grabbing the breast of a woman on a street in Aichi, Japan in early September. The officer was on his way home around 11:30 pm after drinking several glasses of beer following his work shift. As he bicycled past the woman, he reached out and fondled her breast, according to local police. A university student who was passing by in a car chased him down and overpowered him, and handed him over to other police.
Since Japan is generally a peaceful and harmonious society, they apparently don't have anti-booby-grabbing laws. After much research, they have decided to charge the rogue cop with a prefecture ordinance banning people from creating a nuisance. Sheesh, that's what I get over here for playing music too loud or letting the dog bark at night.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 6:55 AM 3 comments
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Party!Strange things are happening in San Francisco. A few weeks ago it was an ostrich roaming free on the Golden Gate Bridge. Today, a refrigerated beer truck burned on the Bay Bridge.
The truck caught fire shortly after 1 p.m. on the eastbound section which occupies the lower deck of the bridge. Apparently a tire blew out, and the scraping of the metal rim against the roadway sparked a fire which engulfed the entire truck. The driver was able to escape the rig unharmed along with his Chihuahua dog. The bridge was shut completely down for almost an hour, and traffic did not return to normal until 6 p.m.. Before bridge workers could tow the truck away, they first had to unload 10 kegs and "tons and tons of bottles" of Coors beer, according to a highway patrol spokesman.
We have a big bonfire, an ostrich, a chihuahua and lots of beer. Does anyone know a good barbeque recipe?
- posted by Woofwoof @ 9:30 PM 3 comments
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Damn touristMonday evening rush-hour traffic is always terrible in San Francisco, but it was extra bad two weeks ago. First a car had a flat on the Golden Gate Bridge, then a trailer truck overturned. If that wasn't enough, around 4:50 pm a big ostrich was running loose on the bridge. Yes, an ostrich.
The six-foot-tall bird was being transported in a van on the way to a farm when she slammed her butt against the back window and broke it, and somehow managed to squeeze through the small opening and jumped out. She staggered into the southbound lanes and zigzagged between cars slowing down to pay toll. Ever-present bridge tourists were happily snapping pictures. Traffic came to a standstill. A bridge police officer went out to investigate and found himself looking up at a bird taller than he was. Highway patrol police, not trained in ostrich chasing, eventually managed to herd the bird off the bridge into a tow-truck garage and calm her down. Helpful bridge workers patched up the broken window of the van with rope and wood before placing the ostrich back inside. The entire adventure lasted over ten minutes.
You may be asking, why did the ostrich cross the bridge? Ronald Love and Bibiana Goodrich, the bird owners, explained that they had just rescued her from ostrich burger death a few hours earlier. They bought her for $300 and were taking her back to their farm 70 miles north of San Francisco when the city fun started. Maybe she really was a stupid ingrate bird, or maybe she just wanted to stop and ask for directions. One thing for sure, if they had gotten a skinny-butt male bird, none of that would have happened.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 5:57 AM 3 comments
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Senior bling-blingJapanese phone company AU has just introduced three phone models targeted at senior citizens. The phones offer a simple design with fewer functions, large keys and large display characters on the screen -- in fact, one model eliminates the screen entirely for simplicity. Two of the phones come with bult-in one-touch cameras to take pictures of the grandkids. Click on the picture to the left to make the phones even larger.
I think that's a clever idea since senior citizens form a very large and important market segment in Japan. And the phones don't look half-bad, even if they bear a striking resemblance to some older phones about ten years ago. The only thing that seems to be missing is a permanently blinking left-turn light. And I'm going to hell for writing that.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 6:12 AM 5 comments
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
An acquired tasteI don't understand. Why is it that when a politician says something, people rush out and do just the opposite. And this is not only an American phenomenon, but it seems to happen in Japan as well. You'll remember this story about Japanese ex-prime minister Yoshiro Mori complaining about his successor Junichiro Koizumi who invited him over for an evening meeting and then served only canned beer and an expensive French cheese called Mimolette. Except that Mori thought it was bad cheese because it was bone-dry and hard to chew. It just goes to show that French cheese is just like French wine -- sometimes you can't tell the good from the bad.
The cheese incident somehow made it to the papers and television and became big news. Cheese experts are coming out of their cellars to defend Mimolette, saying that the cheese is supposed to taste bone-dry. The harder it gets, the more flavorful it is, and older cheeses are exquisite and command a very high price. Now the scorned cheese is suddenly enjoying brisk sales at Japanese gourmet food and department stores, with demand three times stronger than usual. Some more aged varieties have even sold out.
I'm thinking to invite Mori over for beer next week. I have some hard cheese wedges in the fridge that I would like to sell at a high price. They are teeth-rattlingly hard and certainly well aged, some more moldy green than others.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 5:59 AM 3 comments
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
I see dead people"It's devastating. It's got to be doubly devastating on the ground."
- President Bush, on Air Force One flying 2,500 feet over New Orleans on Aug 31.
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
- Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown while touring Mississippi on Sept 1.
Bald-faced lies
Sept 5 editorial of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans:
An open letter to the President
Dear Mr. President:
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."
Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.
Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.
Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."
Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."
That's unbelievable.
There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.
No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.
Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.
When you do, we will be the first to applaud.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 6:12 AM 5 comments
Monday, September 05, 2005
The world on saleIn case you haven't noticed (don't worry, most people have not), there is a World Fair going on. It opened on March 25 and will run for six full months. Except that it is in Nagoya, in Aichi prefecture in Japan, and it's designed to be more like bringing the world to the Japanese than bringing the world to a fair which happens to be in Japan. I am not sure if that distinction makes sense to you, but trust me, a lot of deep thinking went into it. To illustrate, I'm offering this picture to the left taken at the American Pavilion (click on it to enlarge). Now that's scary, Japanese kids trying to look American by wearing red and blue cowboy hats. With stars. Something hard to describe is lost when you take something entirely foreign and try to Japanize it. Almost as unthinkable as when I microwave my sushi.
And because it is sponsored by business heavyweights (this Expo is being brought to you by Toyota, maker of fine vehicles for the world), it has a strong commercial flavor, which translates to lots of stores selling lots of international trinkets and knickknacks -- "international" in this case probably means that they were made in China. But, since the fair is ending in a few weeks, the souvenirs are now being sold at significant discount, sometimes more than half off. The Chinese are selling five sets of chopsticks at 1,000 yen, one third of original price, and flower vases at 70% off. The Indians are marking 5,000 yen bracelets down to 2,900 yen. The Nepalese are practically giving away souvenir shirts at only 1,000 yen.
But you have to hurry. The fair closes on September 25, and these shop owners are determined to clear their inventories. They don't want to ship this crap back to the home countries, because the natives probably won't recognize it as their own. Seriously, how much do you think people in Texas would pay for red and blue cowboy hats? Even with those big stars.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 5:01 AM 8 comments
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Sept 1 interview of FEMA Director Michael Brown by Ted Koppel on Nightline:KOPPEL: (About the discrepancy between FEMA's estimate of the number of people at the Convention Center and the Mayor's estimate) One of you was wrong. It's either 5,000 or 15,000. Do you know?
BROWN: Actually I have sent General Honore of the First Army to find out exactly the truth of what's down there, because we first learned of the Convention Center - we being the federal government - today, and he says the number is around 25,000.
KOPPEL: OK, so it sounds as though the Mayor who said 15,000 to 25,000 was closer in touch. I've heard you say in the course of this evening in a number of interviews, you just found out about it today. Don't you guys watch television, don't you listen to the radio? Our reporters have been reporting about it for more than just today.
BROWN: We learned about it, factually today that's what existed.. We've been so focused on doing rescue and life-saving.missions and evacuating people from the Superdome that when we first learned about it, of course, my first gut instinct was, get somebody in there, get me truth on the ground, let me know, because if it’s true we’ve got to help those people
KOPPEL: You’ve got chaos and anarchy breaking out in a number of different places in New Orleans. It would seem to me that the first thing you need to do is to get some good solid combat troops like the 82nd Airborne or the 101st in there. These are guys who are ready to move immediately. Instead you’re sending National Guardsmen in there and it’s taking time. You don’t have time.
BROWN: We don't have time. And General Honore and the First Army, division are here at my disposal, and we are absolutely doing that. We are ramping that up, and there will soon be 30,000 armed National Guard troops in there to restore order, to take control of the facility and allow us to do our job.
KOPPEL: Mr. Brown, you know, forgive me because I can't imagine what it must be like to have the burden on my shoulders that you have on yours right now. But here we are, essentially five days after the storm hit, and you are talking about what's going to happen in the next couple of days. You guys do war games. You have gamed out what is going to happen, in recent months, after a Force 3 or a Force 5 or a Force 5 hurricane. To say, as the president did, well, we didn't know the dam was going to break or didn't know the levees were going to break is factually true. Of course you didn't know it, but you could have assumed it. You could have made preparations for what would happen in the event that. You knew that it was going to be a Force 5 storm that was going to hit in that region. Why didn't you?
BROWN: Ted, we had people pre-positioned to move in immediately. And what happened which was unusual in this disaster, was two things. First and foremost was that the disaster continued long after hurricane Katrina had moved on. And when the levee did break. we were already moving in and had to move back out. And then I think the other thing that really caught me by surprise was the fact that there were so many people, and I am not laying blame, that either chose not to evacuate or could not evacuate.
And as we began to do the evacuation from the Superdome, all of a sudden literally thousands of other people started showing up in other places. And we were not prepared for that, we were surprised by that. And so what we've done is we've ramped up the rescue efforts to get those people. There are helicopters flying tonight to take care of the people on the bridges that we have found. And there are additional supplies coming into the Convention Center and into the Superdome. And we have brought in every available resource to make sure that we take care of those people
And I just want to say to the American public, that they do need to understand exactly how catastrophic this disaster is. And they do need to know, that we are going to have every available resource to do everything that we can. We are going to take care of these victims, we are going to make it right. We are going to make certain, we are going to make absolutely certain that the devastation that has been reaped upon these people is taken care of, and that we get their lives back in order.
KOPPEL: Mr. Brown, some of these people are dead. They’re beyond your help. Some of these people have died because they needed insulin and they couldn’t get it. Some of the people died because they were in hospitals and they couldn’t get the assistance that they needed. You say you were surprised by the fact that so many people didn’t make it out. It’s no surprise to anyone that you had at least 100,000 people in the city of New Orleans who are dirt poor. Who don’t have cars, who don’t have access to public transportation, who don’t have any way of getting out of the city simply because somebody says, “You know, there’s a Force 5 storm coming, you ought to get out.” If you didn’t have the buses there to get them out, why should it be a surprise to you that they stayed?
BROWN: Well, Ted, you know, we’re, I’m not going to sit here and second-guess why or when evacuation orders were given or why or why not the city didn’t have buses available. You know, that’s just not the thing that we need to do right now. Frankly, if they, if they had, if they had put buses there…
KOPPEL: Not the city, not the city. I’m not asking you, I’m not asking you, Mr. Brown, why the city didn’t have buses available, I’m asking you why you didn’t have National Guards in there with trucks to get them out of there. Why you didn’t have people with flatbed trailers if that’s what you needed. Why you didn’t, you know, simply get Greyhound buses from as many surrounding states as you could lay your hands on to get those people out of there, why you haven’t done it to this day?
BROWN: Ted, we are doing all of that. We are moving all of those things in there. And what people need to understand is, that when you are doing these life-saving, life-sustaining kind of operations, that if I move rescue workers into harm's way, and they become victims themselves, it just makes the problem doubly worse.
So yes, we move in when it's safe to move in. We move in when we can do that. We work closely with the state government. The federal government did not come in here and tell this Governor how and what to do. We came here and said, what do you want us to do, we will help you. We are now taking upon ourselves to do things that we think need to be done, and we will continue to do that, because that's our job.
KOPPEL: Your state counterpart, Terry Ebbert, the head of of emergency operations in Louisiana, said, this is a national emergency, this is a national disgrace. FEMA, he said, has been there, three days, and yet there is no command or control. We sent massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans.
BROWN: Ted, you know, with all due respect to him, we have convoys, we are feeding people. The people in the Convention Center are being fed. The people on the bridges are being fed...
KOPPEL: With all due respect, sir, the people in the Convention Center.are not being fed. Our reporters...
BROWN: That is true. The people at the Superdome, I am sorry, you are absolutely correct. We are giving the supplies to the Convention Center, now, but the people at the Superdome have been fed. That supply chain has been working, and that has been moving along Those evacuations have been continuous.
KOPPEL: But the people in New Orleans were told to go to the Convention Center. They went there in the belief that supplies would be waiting for them when they got there.
BROWN: Well, I don't know who made that promise to them, Ted, but our job is to get those supplies in there once we realize that the federal government was going to be asked to do that. And that's what we are doing.
KOPPEL: All right, Mr. Brown. Again, you know, forgive me for beating up on you there, but you're the only guy from the federal government these days that's coming out to take your medicine, so I thank you for doing that. And I really hope you are going to be able to help those people, because you still have, trust me, you have got, thousands of people at the Convention Center tonight, who need your help desperately.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 7:02 AM 2 comments
Saturday, September 03, 2005
"A national disgrace"- Terry Ebbert, New Orleans Homeland Security Director
Transcript of a Sept 1 interview of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin by correspondent Garland Robinette of radio station WWL-AM:
NAGIN: You call the governor, and you tell him to delegate the powers that they have to the mayor of New Orleans, and we'll get this damn thing fixed. It's politics, man, and they are playing games. They are spinning. They are out there spinning it for the cameras.
WWL: We are on the verge of anarchy. Can't they understand that, if nothing else, they'll be hurt politically?
NAGIN: I don't know what they are doing. Air conditioning must be good, because I haven't had any in five days. I mean, maybe it is some smoke coming out of the air conditioning units that is clogging some folks,... their vision. I keep hearing that it's coming. This is coming, that is coming, and my answer to that today is, BS. Where is the beef? There is no beef in this city. There is no beef anywhere in Southeast Louisiana, and these goddamn ships that are coming, I don't see them.
WWL: What did you say to the President, and what did he say to you?
NAGIN: 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 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.
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.
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 General [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.
WWL: 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 bus line 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. It's awful down here, man.
WWL: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until [Louisiana Gov.] 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."
WWL: 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 it, Pumping Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... 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.
WWL: 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.
WWL: 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.
WWL: 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 knuckleheads 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 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 can only target certain sections of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we're not overrun.
WWL: 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?
WWL: 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.
WWL: You and I will be in the funny place together.
NAGIN: But we authorized eight billion dollars 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 needs to get their asses on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out. Right now.
WWL: What can we do here?
NAGIN: Keep talking about it.
WWL: We'll do that. What else can we do?
NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls to their congressmen...
WWL: E-mails.
NAGIN: ... 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 let's do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.
WWL: 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 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. And it's time.
(Long pause. Cries)
WWL: We're both pretty speechless here.
NAGIN: Yeah, I don't know what to say. I got to go.
WWL: OK. Keep in touch. Keep in touch.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 7:19 AM 3 comments
