REAL TALK

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is about as candid as I've ever heard a public official. This is from a radio interview he did on Thursday night.
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Some choice quotes:

On Looters: "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."

On the State and Federal Gov't Response: "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 ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.

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 do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country."

Pardon my French, but that is fucking REAL TALK. Compare this to FEMA's head Michael Brown, who clearly has his and his entire agency's head up their collective asses.

On question for Nagin though: why weren't the poorest and most dispossessed of your population evacuated when you had a chance?

More real talk:

From Wonkette: "The President's schedule today includes one "briefing on Hurricane Damage," one "walking tour of Biloxi, Mississippi Hurricane Damaged Neighborhoods" and three "aerial tours" before he makes an appearance at the New Orleans International Airport.

Even the Harry Connick, Jr. made it to the Superdome, and he's a fucking pussy."

From the Washington Post: "While hundreds of thousands of people have been dislocated by Hurricane Katrina, the images that have filled the television screens have been mainly of black Americans -- grieving, suffering, in some cases looting and desperately trying to leave New Orleans. Along with the intimate tales of family drama and survival being played out Thursday, there was no escaping that race had become a subtext to the unfolding drama of the hurricane's aftermath.

"To me," said Bernadette Washington, "it just seems like black people are marked. We have so many troubles and problems."

And last but not least...this speaks for itself (and we don't even really like the Democrats):
GOP home page
Democrats home page

Gee, it's great that the #1 action item for the GOP is to get John Roberts confirmed. I won't say that the current disaster is the GOP's fault - there will almost surely be much bi-partisan blame to go around - but the way the GOP leadership has handled it so far is unfathomably bad. And I thought Louisiana was a red state.

--O.W.