Ray's recurring theme

a recurring theme……
INDIANAPOLIS Aug 18, 2006 (AP)— New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday blamed racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city's ability to weather Hurricane Katrina and recover from the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast nearly a year ago.

In remarks to the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, Nagin said the hurricane "exposed the soft underbelly of America as it relates to dealing with race and class."

"And I, to this day, believe that if that would have happened in Orange County, California, if that would have happened in South Beach, Miami, it would have been a different response," Nagin said.

March 18, 2007............. (seven months later)
from today's Times Pic:

The slow pace of New Orleans' post-Katrina recovery is part of a plan to change the city's racial makeup, Mayor Ray Nagin told a national newspaper publishers' group last week.


Ya know, Ray, you ought to see a psychiatrist about your paranoia. You also need to look deep inside your little heart and
see the fool you are making of yourself.

Here's what people
around the area are saying.

Instead of traipsing around the country complaining about the "plot against the blacks", get your ass back to New Orleans
and start being the leader you were ELECTED to be.

Local reaction to this idiot.....

Thanks, Ray. New Orleans has enough problems without your big mouth. Time dot com has an article on you now, dog.

From the 3/22/07 T.P., here's the transcript of what he said

TRANSCRIPT OF MAYOR NAGIN’S SPEECH
Ladies and gentleman, that was quite
an introduction. I’ve been called a lot
of things but I don’t ever remember
anyone calling me the greatest
mayor that ever lived. But thank you
Harry, that was awesome.
Good evening ladies and gentleman. It
is indeed an honor for me to be here
tonight. We flew in today from the
wonderful city of New Orleans. On
behalf of all the citizens of our great
city we want to thank each and every
one of you for everything you have
done to keep the light shinning on the
city of New Orleans and its citizens.
We also want to thank you for taking
our citizens in. In the many cities
across America you’ve been treating
us with such respect and taking
care of our people.
I want to thank the NNPA Foundation
for this tremendous award. I never
thought I would see any press organization
honor me as a newsmaker.
So this is extra special, extra special.
And to the honorees, congratulations
to you. You are also very deserving
of this award.
And you know they always give you
a script, but I never follow it. So I am
going to try to do a little bit of this
script and I promise I won’t take any
more than 10 to 15 minutes of your
time to talk to you a little bit about
my favorite city. But, I just want to
spend just a moment to thank particularly
the African-American newspapers
in New Orleans. We have
three great publications in our city.
You honored one in Data News; We
have the New Orleans Tribune, and
of course we have the Louisiana
Weekly which you are also honoring
one of its founders, C.C. Dejoie, for
82 years in the business.
We have a steep history, a deep history
in African-American publications
and also in African American history
that is unique to many places. You
know I get in trouble a lot for some of
the things I say. I like the Clintons. I
like George Clinton. It wasn’t until I
described my city, y’all know the
story, until everybody in America
started to wake up and say way wait
a minute, what is he doing? What is
he saying? Maybe we should try and
do something different to make sure
that this man does not go any further.
Because they realized that I
wasn’t a person to be controlled. I
was going to speak my mind especially
when I saw our people suffer.
I look in this room and I see the
wonderful Congresswoman Maxine
Waters, and I see all the great work
she has done around the country.
This lady, when we were in the
midst of the election cycle, when
they put the golden boy up, and all
the prognosticators were saying
there’s no way you are going to win
because see they had dispersed all
our people across 44 different
states with one-way tickets out.
They thought they were talking
about a different kind of New Orleans.
They didn’t realize that folk were
awake and they were paying attention
and they weren’t going to let a
plan unfold that changed all the history
of what we have fought for
over many, many years. And Maxine
started to talk around the country.
I remember when we went to
Memphis. She talked to black folks
around the country and tried to
wake them up and say look at
what’s happening. Because ladies
and gentlemen what happened in
New Orleans could happen anywhere.
They are studying this
model, this model of a natural disaster
dispersing a community and
changing the electoral process in
that community.
We need to really understand
what’s going on. When I stood up
and spoke out and they started to
vilify, I knew there was going to be a
reaction. It’s a law of physics. For
every action there’s a reaction. I
knew it was going to happen, but I
didn’t realize how strong it was going
to happen. My Google hits probably
went up a million that week.
And it’s been a heck of a ride ladies
and gentlemen. But, you know,
what? It’s people like you who give
me strength and give the people of
New Orleans strength, and we will
prevail. I believe Almighty God has a
special plan for this moment. It’s
not by accident that Democrats are
controlling Congress right now.
That’s not an accident. One of the
things that propelled us into power
was the Katrina fallout. Republicans
are now sitting back and saying wait
a minute, maybe we should have
done better, but it’s too late. Maxine
and them are in large and in
control. They got them scrambling
on Capitol Hill. And they’re talking
about what they should have done;
and what they’re going to do.
Let me close by saying to you the
tragedy is still not over. Katrina was
one thing. 1,700 people lost their
lives but now in the city of New Orleans
because of the stress in the
wake of broken promises people
are dying every day. The number of
deaths in the city of New Orleans
are up 45 percent compared to
pre-Katrina. People who should
have gotten grants to rebuild their
lives and their homes particularly
senior citizens are still waiting on
their checks. 112,000 people are eligible
and 3,000 have gotten checks.
There’s a health care crisis in city of
New Orleans because they closed
down the Charity Hospital so poor
people and black people can’t go
get health care where they need to.
Our public education system was
taken over by the state and earlier
this year they had children on waiting
lists trying to get into public education.
They have over a billion dollars
worth of obligations that they owe
the city of New Orleans to rebuild
our water system, our sewer system.
The fight is not over.
So as I close I have one wish of
you, I want to ask of you, keep the
message going, tell the story of
about what’s really happening. Relate
it back to what’s going on in
your community. Let’s collectively
come together and build a national
agenda on what we need to do for
our urban cities. We have the
power ladies and gentlemen, the
timing is perfect. We have a black
man running for president. It don’t
get much better than that.
So I’m not going stand up here and
moan and groan about our struggles
in New Orleans. I’m telling you,
New Orleans is coming back. Y’all
come visit us during Essence Fest.
You’re going to have a good time,
and we are going to have some entrepreneurs
in New Orleans that will
be making big bucks because, guess
what, they can’t hold this money
back much longer because its starting
to hurt other folks, and ya’ll
know what I’m talking about, so they
got to let it loose. And in New Orleans
and the Gulf Coast they estimate
they will spend within 60 and
100 billion over the next five to
seven years. If you don’t hear nothing
else I say tonight, buy some dirt
in New Orleans, buy some dirt in
New Orleans. Real estate values
are going to go out the roof and you
need to be a part of that. We have
programs where you can buy adjudicated
and blighted properties for
half their appraised value and you
hire your own appraiser.
I’ve asked the city attorney if I can
participate in this program and
she’s keeps saying no Mr. Mayor.
But let me get out of here. I thank
you and I’m honored, and I accept
this award on behalf of all the citizens
of New Orleans, the ones who
are here with us and the ones who
have passed away. This is our moment
ladies and gentlemen, to take
a tragedy and turn it something
special where we have growth and
opportunity not only along the Gulf
Coast but throughout America. This
is our time and let’s seize the day
and make it happen. God bless you.


Here's a link to the video of the speech.