Here We Go

by digby

When I wrote about the Duelling PageantsI never imagined that it would come to pass so literally. The cable nets are hammering Ray Nagin for his foot in mouth comment that it took New York five years to rebuild a hole in the ground so a reporter from NY ought to cut New Orleans some slack. Typical Nagin nonsense.

But it has provoked a case of the vapors among certain excitable folks that seems just a tad out of place considering the horrors that both cities underwent. Most officials of Louisiana and New York have respnded in measured tones like this:

The chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency created to oversee the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site and downtown Manhattan, said that tremendous progress has been made in lower Manhattan, with the Freedom Tower, a transportation hub and a memorial to the nearly 3,000 attack victims under construction.

“We understand how difficult rebuilding a city after such destruction can be,” chairman Kevin Rampe said in a statement.

The guy who seems to be stoking the story is none other than Rep. Peter King (R-Asshole), who went on radio and TV and went nuts on Nagin today. This is, the same Peter King who commented during the Katrina crisis:

“The main problem in obstructing the relief operation – it’s almost like a Mogadishu-like gang situation that’s prevailing in New Orleans,” Rep. Peter King told WABC Radio’s John Gambling.

“It’s hard to get federal troops in to bring about order when the local police have broken down,” he added. “I just think the situation would have gone a lot better if there were a Rudy Giuliani down there – someone who could have set a firm tone from day one.”

King has always had a little problem with New Orleans and I think we can guess why. This was, you’ll recall, the prevailing view of many critics like King during the crisis last year. The “problem” was all the lawlessness. Mogadishu in America. The natives were running wild. This was later shown to be simply the fevered rumormongering you tend to find in crises where communication is down. But King and the rest of the hankie wringers naturally assumed the mob was taking over despite the fact that there were cameras all over the city and no one captured the crazed marauding beasts doing anything other than liesurely looting a local Wal Mart. Their bedwetting fearmongering did more to delay the response than any other single reason.

King isn’t alone today in his disdain for Ray Nagin and his constituents. Here are some nice comments from the CBS web site on its story about the Nagin comment:

Give me a break Nagin. More Kill Whitie, Poor Black People Garb! Hate to break it to you people, but the era of MLK is over. You have your equal rights. The only racism going on here today is that of Affirmitive action, and you cries over “racial profiling.” You have more liberties that the 30 year old white male today and Ray Nagin is another black trying to use the poor race card to get his 15 minutes of fame. Do the job you are hired to do Ray and rebuild the city which you have been given the funds already to build. But then again, maybe you are doing your job, maybe this kind of rhetoric is your base.

Nice.
Posted by ttennison at 03:38 PM : Aug 25, 2006
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I was in NO & Gulf Coast in Sept & Oct as a volunteer trying to help make a difference in some small way; a lot of us that came in from all over the country did more for NO than their mayor ever will, because we were doing it to serve others; the only thing Nagin serves is himself.
I was there and heard a press conference he gave to a large group of contractors. His words were “this is our time”; that and other things he said meant they were going to cash in for a lifetime. He accused a lot of “outside” contractors of being carpetbaggers; the biggest carpetbagger in Louisiana is sitting in the Mayors office.
And I saw parking lots full of school buses and city bises, sitting parked with water up to the windows; totally destryed and useless that could have been used to evacuate “his chololate city” before the worst hit.
Nagin is a first class jerk and I still can’t believe he scraped enough absentee voters to put him back in office

Posted by kancan71 at 03:32 PM : Aug 25, 2006
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Nagin is one the the biggest idiots of our time, not too mention a racist as well.
Posted by z3pr at 03:31 PM : Aug 25, 2006
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It’s time for the citizens of NO to face the truth and stop blaming the government for the life they chose to live and where they chose to live it. Grow up and accept responsibility for your own life. It should be pointed out to Nagin that New Yorkers were on their way work or at work when the unthinkable event occured. After the attack New Yorkers dug themselves out from underneath the distruction and strangers helped strangers. On the other hand the people of New Orleans were sitting at home on the front porch waiting for someone to tell them what to do. After Katrina every one sat on their butts and grew angry that no one is helping us. BooHoo!
You cant compare NO to NY and you sure as heck cant compare Rudy to Nagin.
Posted by Terrys1955 at 03:29 PM : Aug 25, 2006
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Being from Florida I’m very familiar with hurricanes. Hurricanes do not just happen spur of the moment. Comparison to ground zero is absurd. Maybe if there was less whining and these folks got their lazy behinds off their waterlogged couch things would be better. But that’s a lot to expect from the kind of people who would vote for Nagin. You got what you deserved. Maybe if we’re lucky a couple more canes will head your way and NO can become a great scuba diving spot. “See the ruins”.

Check ou the story yourself and you’ll see that these kind of comments are, by far, the majority.

Here’s a typical one from Free Republic:

I gave much more than I could really afford to give. It looks like it all went into someone’s pocket. There was a tremendous amount of money given to the red cross and other charities by people just like me. The residents of N O sucked up the “FREE” money like there was no tomorrow but they will not go to work and rebuild their own city. They are having to import Hispanics to get any work done and then they bitch about the change in population. I think the property should go to those who are willing to work to clean up the mess. If you won’t work to restore you own property then you should not get one dime from the government or private charities. One thing is for certain, they will not get another penny out of my pocket!

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The guy is a typcal “Jessie-Al” con artist…we can outsmart these white boys. New (old) New Orleans has garnered more money out of this tragedy than all the other affected states tgether…they still want to milk it for all it’s worth…All the Incometents.. Mayor, Governor, Senators, Congressman..all together now…”It’s Bush’s fault”…and the Democrats will play this up in the November elections…but it may backfire when they do…Us white boys know what is going on…. and will react accodrdingly,. Jake

If anyone is stil wondering why we have had trouble creating a decent safety net in this country, you need look not further. The benefits always seem to go to the “wrong people.”

Rove is hoping to tap into these primitive feelings to shore up his base and mitigate the perception of Republican incompetence in dealing with the most catastrophic American natural disaster in our lifetimes. So far, the news media seems more than willing to help him.

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