Mayor of Hattiesburg says 'FEMA? Who is FEMA?'

[Wheezy]

on CNN phone call.

CNN: have you been assisted by FEMA?

Mayor: FEMA? Who is FEMA?

(silence)

CNN: Oh boy.
(pause)

Federal...

Mayor: I was being facetious.

(he then said there were truckloads of water sitting outside the city, and FEMA won't give permission for them to come in)


Then later, mayor says, What did you call them again? FEMA?

[skooooo]

1. omg...

[Rainscents]

2. I heard that too!!! WOW!!!

My jaw droped! :wow:

[RevCheesehead]

3. It sure shut up the anchor for a second.

"Oh, boy." One of those golden moments you wish never had to happen.

[Zen Democrat]

4. Then said FEMA is sitting on thousands of lbs. of food and water

and won't release it to the community because they don't have authorization from somebody else at FEMA. Lord, what a disgrace.

[skooooo]

5. damn hope someone's got an audio of that to put up!

stream it someone!

[kenny blankenship]

6. Question: Did Bush attempt to extort a declaration of martial law from MS?

Is the hold up on relief efforts in Mississippi the fault of the Republican Governor, because he hasn't bent over and invited a Federal declaration of martial law in his state?

That's what the Fascists are saying about Louisiana and Bush's failure to deliver help there: she didn't bend over far enough, fast enough and so they waited (withheld aid) until the crisis erupted as a national scandal.

[Carni]

7. Did you catch the anchor's comment?

He said something like "Oh I understand believe me" when the guy said he was being facetious and sighed.

Imagine what these news people know that ISN'T making it to the airwaves?

[Wheezy]

8. I couldn't tell

what was said--thanks!

[Wheezy]

9. Mayor Nagin is up next!

[undeterred]

10. The whole damn world is watching this

For better or worse- now they know how hollow the American presumption of superiority is now because they've seen it on television.

We can't even cut through our own bureaucracy to save our own people.

This whole thing is absurd.

[wellstone dem]

11. That was amazing

I was out scraping paint off the garage with cnn on the radio, Fortunately, I wasn't on the top of the ladder.

"What's that?" OMG. So are they going to say all the mayor's are incompetent.

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. FEMA has been militarized

and instead of helping people, they are doing everything they can to get in the way.

They sure did a good job of closing of access to the disaster area though. And Bush's first worlds about the Superdome was that 'the Superdome has been secured'. That is all they care about. Securing property and denying access. They could care less about people dying.