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New Orleans Mayor No Giuliani
Washington Times ^ | 9/2/05

Posted on 09/02/2005 7:43:23 AM PDT by areafiftyone

The leadership skills of New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin have been put to the ultimate test this week, a test some critics say he is failing as his storm-ravaged city descends into chaos, violence, looting and despair.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune's Web site has become a clearinghouse for residents of the Crescent City to communicate with their neighbors, and many are taking the opportunity to express frustration with their mayor. "Where are you?" one person asked on the Web site. "Be a man and take care of your people."

Another person said he liked Mr. Nagin but wondered, "Where is command central? Can we get some sort of plan, any plan, other than busing the refugees from dome to dome?"

Mr. Nagin, a former cable TV executive, was elected three years ago at the age of 45 after promising to reverse the city's reputation for corruption. Now, he finds himself saying things about his city that he never could have dreamed possible.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: giuliani; katrina; leadership; mayor; nagini; neworleans
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To: areafiftyone

"many are taking the opportunity to express frustration with their mayor. "Where are you?" one person asked on the Web site. "Be a man and take care of your people."
Another person said he liked Mr. Nagin but wondered, "Where is command central?"

"New Orleans Mayor No Giuliani"

EXACTLY!!

This mayor and governor are incompetent! They're expecting and depending on the federal gov't to do EVERYTHING for them, including the work they should be doing themselves.

WHERE are you Mayor? I haven't seen you working in your shirtsleeves helping your people. Where is your command central?? Get out of Baton Rouge and get down to New Orleans.


21 posted on 09/02/2005 8:00:42 AM PDT by nuconvert (No More Axis of Evil by Christmas ! TLR) [there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: ex-snook

Bush has to
1]Put someone in charge to take over

Ah Mayor, you're there. Maybbe YOU could set up a command and control center. It worked very well for Rudy on 9/11. If I remember correctly he had it done within hours.


22 posted on 09/02/2005 8:01:22 AM PDT by Cat loving Texan
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To: areafiftyone

Nagin should be removed from office immediately. I've never seen such a poor job of leadership. I never once saw him in a video giving aid and comfort to his constituent's. I never saw him in a news clip showing forceful leadership.

All I ever heard of him was "We in a world of sh*t. Its George Bush's fault" Give me a stinkin' break.


23 posted on 09/02/2005 8:01:47 AM PDT by oyez
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To: dfwgator
Let this picture be seared, seared into your memory.

"We need 500 buses, man!"
Mayor Ray Nagin

What he should be saying is that the execution of the city's evacuation plan was an abject failure and he bears primary responsibility for that failure. Man.

24 posted on 09/02/2005 8:06:25 AM PDT by siunevada
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To: Hammerhead

the twin towers was a cake walk compared to this.

As a New Yorker, I've got two words for you -- unfortunately, I can't say them here.


25 posted on 09/02/2005 8:06:54 AM PDT by FCVMCT
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To: Cat loving Texan
You're right, the Mayor can't cut it now what?

Action needed. Put somebody [Rudy?] in charge, reporting directly to the President.

26 posted on 09/02/2005 8:08:51 AM PDT by ex-snook (Protectionism is Patriotism in both war and trade.)
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To: Lunatic Fringe
"It's really difficult because my opinion of the looting is it started with people running out of food..."

And tv sets.

27 posted on 09/02/2005 8:12:12 AM PDT by Cobra64
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To: pepsionice
Every single bus in that town should have been moving residents out of the region up to two hours prior to the storm.

The residents didn't want to go. They were ordered out and they didn't leave. To much of an inconvenience or whatever reason. I agree that the busses should have been moved to high ground. So they could be using them now.

28 posted on 09/02/2005 8:12:22 AM PDT by kjam22
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To: Cat loving Texan
Bush has to 1]Put someone in charge to take over

An astute politician as president would have publically asked Hillary Clinton to go there and personally take charge. :)

29 posted on 09/02/2005 8:14:04 AM PDT by kjam22
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To: dfwgator

Holy shi'ite Batman! There's got to be at least a hundred unused busses. The NO mayor is dumber than a rock not to have utilized that transportation resource for evac.


30 posted on 09/02/2005 8:16:00 AM PDT by Cobra64
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To: kjam22
The residents didn't want to go. They were ordered out and they didn't leave.

Had they employed NG with rifles pointed at them, they wouldn't have had a choice.

31 posted on 09/02/2005 8:18:02 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Hammerhead
the twin towers was a cake walk compared to this.

That may be, but the principle remains the same. Immediately after the towers came down, Guliani was right in the middle of things. I remember seeing video of him walking down the street, pointing out what needed to be done, giving orders, leading from the front.

Political Grandstanding? To be sure. But, it also provided what people in dire straits needed - a leader. When a strong leader grabs the flag, jumps in front, and says 'Follow Me', people tend to fall in line behind him (or her).

Contrast this with the emotional handwringing of LA governor (advocating prayer to help? Nice thought, but troops would be better). And, the corruption and dithering of NO's mayor and police force, and you arrive in the situation that we're in today.

I can't imagine that no one thought to mobilze water to relief points, given days of warning. No one thought to mobilize buses before the storm hit. Incredible.

32 posted on 09/02/2005 8:18:04 AM PDT by wbill
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To: ex-snook

ex-snook, I agree... " Bush has to 1]Put someone in charge to take over..."

Bush needs to push back from his desk, lift his body up from his chair, get on a jet and go directly to the area of the problem and lead from there. If his starched-shirt, clean-suited FEMA syncophants in Washington can't follow then they should be fired.

It was quite obvious that the idiot mayor was incompetent and the governor of LA was just as bad. After day one, FEMA should have moved their operations into or extremely near the troubles.

This hands-off management of Bush is not playing out very well with the biased media. I don't consider Bush to be the cause of the problems. It was clearly the idiots who stayed behind in the city, the weak mayor, the governor, and now in the later days FEMA's lack of direct bypass around the mayor and the governor.

After the incompetence of the mayor and governor was apparent, it became the federal government's problem to step into this disaster, which now has national ramfications. On day two or three, there should have been vigorous direct management by the federal government.

I think Brown (FEMA) is covering for a host of errors (by the locals mostly) and I hope he gets a chance to explain where these terrible errors occurred.

Hoppy


33 posted on 09/02/2005 8:18:06 AM PDT by Hop A Long Cassidy
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To: dfwgator
Had they employed NG with rifles pointed at them, they wouldn't have had a choice

Point taken, but then the threads here at FR would be reading 'Government forces Innocent Citizens from homes at gunpoint'. Sometimes there are no winners. :-(

34 posted on 09/02/2005 8:20:55 AM PDT by wbill
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To: Hammerhead

that's silly. There were days and days to prepare for this. In NY, it was a surprise attack. There could have been anarchy that day, but instead there was order. Strong leaders create order. Weak-kneed losers like this NO mayor create chaos. This is an un-precidented challenge, but his dude is clearly not up to it.


35 posted on 09/02/2005 8:23:13 AM PDT by ilgipper
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To: wbill

There's the bad choice and the "worse" choice.


36 posted on 09/02/2005 8:23:24 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

Exactly. I tend to take the opinion that, unless there's a reason you can't obey a mandatory evac (medical, family care/job responsibilities, not enough time, etc) then you're resposible for your situation. You pays your money and you takes your chances.


37 posted on 09/02/2005 8:27:47 AM PDT by wbill
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To: areafiftyone
Mr. Nagin, a former cable TV executive

Translation: Front man for a set aside monopoloy.

38 posted on 09/02/2005 8:29:42 AM PDT by Stentor
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To: oyez
All I ever heard of him was "We in a world of sh*t. Its George Bush's fault" Give me a stinkin' break.
If he could point to one thing he's done I might cut him some slack. Couldn't he at least have ordered up 50 rental trucks from Baton Rouge and filled them up with water and cans of soup? Maybe some portapotties? They could have been there Tuesday AM and then continued back and forth til the feds could arrive. Arrgh! :-(
39 posted on 09/02/2005 8:30:44 AM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: Tunehead54
For all I can tell Nagan crawled in to a closet with 2 quarts of Bourbon.
40 posted on 09/02/2005 8:35:56 AM PDT by oyez
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