New Orleans mayor: What kind of request for aid do they need?

The mayor of New Orleans, who certainly has nothing to lose, talks about the proposition that the federal government needed some sort of formal request from local officials before sending aid:

MAYOR NAGIN: We can only target certain sections of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we're not overrun.

WWL RADIO: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because 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?

WWL: 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 the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-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.

And more: CNN posts directly conflicting versions of what is going on in New Orleans. The FEMA guy says "I have no reports of bodies," then a reporter counting the number of bodies he's seen. Und so weiter.