Transcriber note: I was working from the MP3 file hosted by my friends at WFMU-FM. The CNN and NY Times versions that I've seen elsewhere on-line omit the first two minutes or so of this audio file, which itself is an excerpt of the whole interview. Apologies to all in getting names and other items wrong... I did the best I could to capture the natural cadence (minus the "ahs" and "ums"), as that cadence and rhetorical style is an important part of the message. If anyone can point me to a more complete version of the interview, I'll be happy to update this file accordingly. - SKM

WWL-AM INTRO:Probably one of the most powerful messages that a political figure, but not in a political figure way, was displayed yesterday afternoon around 4:45 central standard time here, on our radio broadcasting center, with, united between Entercom and also Clear Channel. The Garland Robinette show was on, and he had a chance to catch, or actually, Ray Nagin called live from New Orleans, in the battle zone, and the second half of the interview is just compelling, and our very own Jeff Choupree [sp?] is going to cue that up, and get it ready for us --

NAGIN:... to give me executive powers, to authorize me to dictate and to manage military resources down here and I'll fix this for you. You call him right now, and you call the governor, and you tell them 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're playing games, and they're spinning. They're out there spinning for the cameras.

ROBINETTE:But can't they just, if nothing else, look at 25% of their energy coming from the state is not flowing through the pipelines, we're on the verge of anarchy, can't they understand that they're, if nothing else they're going to be hurt politically?

NAGIN: I don't know what they're doing. I mean the air conditioning must be good, 'cause I haven't had any in five days, and maybe it's 'cause, maybe there's some, some smoke coming out of the air conditioning units that's clogging some folks', you know, their vision.

ROBINETTE: Have you talked with the President?

NAGIN: I've talked directly with the President --

ROBINETTE: What is he saying?

NAGIN: -- I've talked to the head of the Homeland Security, I've talked to everybody under the sun. I've been out there, man, I flew these helicopters, been in the crowds, talking to people, crying, don't know where their, where their relatives are. I've done it all, man, and I tell you, man, Garland, I keep hearing that it's coming. This is coming, that is coming, and my -- My answer to that today is BS. Where is the beef. Because ther eis no beef in this city, there's no beef anywhere in southeast Louisiana, and these goddamn ships that are coming, I don't see them.

ROBINETTE: What did you say to the President of the United States, and what did he say to you?

NAGIN: I told him that basically 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, when 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.

ROBINETTE: 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 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.

ROBINETTE: 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, you know, public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of 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. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish, they're air-evac-ing people over here in New Orleans. We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish. We -- It's awful down here, man.

ROBINETTE: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until 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. There are -- 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, up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak.

And you know what really upsets me, Garland? We talked -- 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."

ROBINETTE: Who'd you say that to?

NAGIN: Everybody. Governor, you know, Homeland Security, FEMA. You name it, we said it.

And, you know, they allowed that pumping station next to it, Pumping Station 6, to go under water. Our sewage and water board people, Marcia St. Martin [sp?], 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.

ROBINETTE: 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, you, you are creative, you figure out ways to get stuff done. And they told me that they went overnight, and they built 17, 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.

ROBINETTE: If -- 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 re- I've already called for martial law in the city of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.

ROBINETTE: 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 dirt, 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 held 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 you've got, 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 found, they've probably found guns. So what you're seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wreaking havoc. And we don't have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city and, and form a perimeter around them, and hope to God that we're not overrun.

ROBINETTE: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because there, 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?

ROBINETTE: 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 Iraq, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? Did - what happened - 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.

ROBINETTE: Well, you and I will be in the funny place together.

NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-spl-quick. After 9-11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-sp-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 ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.

ROBINETTE: What can we do here?

NAGIN: Keep talking about it.

ROBINETTE: We'll do that. What else can we do?

NAGIN: Organize people to write letters, make calls to their congressmen,

ROBINETTE: 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.

ROBINETTE: 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 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 in this time.

ROBINETTE: We're both pretty speechless here. Yeah, I don't know what to say.

NAGIN: I got to go.

ROBINETTE: OK. Keep us -- keep in touch.