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Ray Nagin: Cashing In On Communism



Oct 20, 2009 7 Comments ›› American Infidel

chocolate-city-nagin

HAVANA (Reuters) – New Orleans hopes to cash in on an improvement in U.S.-Cuba relations by getting direct charter flights between New Orleans and Havana, the U.S. city’s mayor said in Havana on Tuesday.

“We see a huge opportunity if President (Barack) Obama continues to go in the direction he’s headed,” Ray Nagin said in an interview with Reuters.

“The first thing is to get the license from the U.S., then everything else falls into line,” he added, saying word on the fate of the license could come as early as January.

Nagin was heading a delegation of New Orleans officials in Cuba to talk with the government about topics ranging from hurricane preparation to commercial opportunities, including flights.

Cuba and New Orleans, about 700 miles apart, once had close economic ties as goods sailed across the Gulf of Mexico, but most of that was halted by the U.S. trade embargo imposed 47 years ago to undermine the Cuban government.

Under Obama, the United States and Cuba have taken small steps toward ending hostilities that date back to the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power and turned Cuba to communism.

Obama has eased the embargo by allowed Cuban-Americans to travel freely to Cuba, and bills are pending in the U.S. Congress that would end a general ban on Americans visiting the island just 90 miles from Florida.

If the ban is lifted, New Orleans would benefit by having flights to and from Havana and an increase in tourist traffic, Nagin said.

Charter flights are currently allowed between the two countries, but not direct commercial flights.

STORM PREPARATION

Nagin said his delegation had spent much time learning from Cubans how they prepare for big storms.

The island is the frequent target of hurricanes, but has few storm-related deaths.

New Orleans is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,500 dead and caused more than $80 billion in damage when it slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005.

Nagin said Cuba’s success arose from its ability to mobilize people and get them out of harm’s way. Storm evacuations are mandatory in Cuba but not in the United States.

New Orleans officials believe Cuba needs to do more planning for a Katrina-like storm of disastrous proportions, Nagin said.

“We’re trying to get them to think about the ultimate catastrophe, where 80 percent of Havana is damaged and they have no communications, no electricity and law enforcement agencies are overwhelmed,” he said.

Thinking in those terms has been “a difficult mental shift” for the Cubans, Nagin said. “They’ll tell you, ‘We’re prepared for everything,’” he said.


  • Infidoll

    This douchebag is still around? Nagin wants to learn lessons from Cuba? Why doesn’t he ask the citizens of New Orleans who successfully evaded the hurricane by realizing, “Shit, we live in a hurricane-prone area that is below sea level…we should be prepared…” and had their shit together beforehand rather than sitting around wondering if a storm hitting would delay their welfare checks.

    All he needs to do is go to this guy’s site (http://www.theplacewithnoname.com/blogs/klessons/index.html) who completely analyzed Katrina and talks about why you need to have your shit together and who stresses that LAZY people don’t prosper. Heartless? No, it’s only heartless to expect a nation to pick you up when you refuse to care for yourself…Oh wait, yeah…that communism thing – where lazy people DO prosper.

    Anyway, that site was a great read. Too bad Nagin won’t read it…and will be kissing the ass of communism until another storm hits and turns his chocolate city to chocolate sauce.

    • Bobby E

      If the rest of our state could have had any say, he would have been long gone. But … in the meantime, I refuse to venture to that city for any reason whatsoever. As far as I’m concerned, they are third-world.

    • Citizen K

      First there are many misconceptions about New Orleans being below sea level. It is pretty much only the portions developed AFTER WWII which are below sea level.

      Federalie intervention in the form of MRGO (locals call it Mr. Go) or Mississippi River Gulf Outlet destroyed the cypress swamps that were a buffer against storms.

      FYI, it is a FACT that Hurricane Betsy in the 60′s flooded New Orleans East just like Katrina at the exact same level. I have seen the flood marks preserved at Air Products and Chemicals there (it was just a few months old when Betsy hit) right next to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Center. Because the Federalies caused the cypress swamps to die from saltwater intrusion, the lake above had much more water pushed into it than Betsy and that is where the flooding came from.

      A bit of economic history is in order to see how Cuba has fit in with Louisiana pre-Fidel. Louisiana was THE trading port with all of Central & South America as well as the Caribbean. Cuba’s large nickel ore reserves were shipped to New Orleans for processing and refining (think stainless steel). Cuba imported a LOT of rice which mostly came from Louisana and in particulary SW Louisiana and the No. 1 rice port in the U.S., Lake Charles. New Orleans, being the port of choice for 1/3 of the U.S. shipped all sorts of goods to Cuba.

      So when Cuba went down and the U.S. cut off ties with it, there was a shitpile of money lost first by nationalization and second by trade embargo. Most of that money was from New Orleans.

      While I certainly side with the trade embargo, and have seen the demise of Nagin after Blank Zero (then governor) screwed New Orleans just to get Nagin (yes she did that I was at Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness and saw it happen with my own two eyes and heard it with my own two ears.) Nagin knows it and anyone who REALLY knows anything about Louisiana during that time could tell you.

      What really killed New Orleans? Pure and simple it was Federalie sponsored Welfare and public housing. If the same circumstances had occurred in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Detroit or even Washington DC, with an inept governor or other head as in Blanco (pronounced Blank Zero) I predict a far worse outcome than New Orleans. It made certain people dependent on the government, in the name of equality. When a bitch pitches a hissy fit because a mayor supported her opponent (Nagin supported Jindal the first time he ran). Yes this is what happened Nagin was hung out on a limb he had no control over anything due division of government (such as the school buses) and was even chastised by Blank Zero for trying to force an evacuation of the city before Katrina.

  • GRIZZ

    What the fuck is he wearing? Is that a real picture?
    If it is,he needs to be yanked of his pony,and have his ass kicked.Fuckin punk commie dictator wannabe.
    How many millions do you think this trash has stolen from the taxpayers?

    • jerr

      That was nagin in the Mardi Gras parade the year after katrina. Yes, it’s a real picture, and in nagin’s mind, the reality was that he was the hero General, riding in on the white horse to save the day after the storm. In everyone else’s reality, he and his corrupt administration were to blame for not issueing the evacuation order, infighting between the city and state governments, and refusing to fill out the basic paperwork that FEMA is required by law to operate from. All the while, he stood around bitching that the evil boosh should get off his ass and do something.

      Did his people purposely refuse to work withing the FEMA procedures required by law so that people would suffer while the media blamed it on the President? I think so.

      And he was reelected?!?! Liberalism is a mental disorder!

  • settlesdown

    What a disrespect to the uniform. Who taught him how to wear that beret? Does this qualify as stolen valor?

  • aboutTObegin

    we call that a PX RANGER ….MFin wannabe communist fu*k!!! thanks for showing that pic, he is now on the list!

    -aTb