National Guard Delay (no approval by WH til Thurs!) Likely to Be Examined

[UpInArms]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_national_guard

WASHINGTON - Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck — a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard on Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday.

California troops just began arriving in Louisiana on Friday, three days after flood waters devastated New Orleans and chaos broke out.

In fact, when New Orleans' levees gave way to deadly flooding on Tuesday, Louisiana's National Guard had received help from troops in only three other states: Ohio, which had nine people in Louisiana then; Oklahoma, 89; and Texas, 625, figures provided by the National Guard show.

<snip>

With many states' Guard units depleted by deployments to Iraq, Katrina's aftermath was almost certain from the beginning to require help from faraway states.

...more...

I am so horrified at the complete ineptitude that there just are no words....

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. This should get investigated since Bush's delay caused people

to die. People who had been rescued a day or two before.

[UpInArms]

7. if you read the article all the way to the bottom - you will learn

this:

In addition to Guard help, the federal government could have activated, but did not, a major air support plan under a pre-existing contract with airlines. The program, called Civilian Reserve Air Fleet, lets the government quickly put private cargo and passenger planes into service.

The CRAF provision has been activated twice, once for the Persian
Gulf War and again for the Iraq war.

So, only for the illegal war did this criminal administration use this provision.

Murderers, the whole lot of them.

[TankLV]

28. While they ordered a "stand down" to the military on 911!

Don't ever forget that!

[leftchick]

33. do suppose any Democrats might bring this little gem up?

God I Hope SO!

[howmad1]

66. Yup, the dems will bring it up,.........

.....the rethuglican congress will "examine it" and the conclusion: move on, nothing to see here. Don't get your hopes up.

[TankLV]

27. Oh no! Can't do that! It's not the "proper time" to do that according to

some disgusting posters here on DU!

[chomskysright]

48. that was not what was said: the post had to do with ...

a pretty complex notion of 'it being suicidal for the Dems to criticize President Bush right now.' It did NOT try to circumvent citizens' outrage which THANK GOD seems to be in place now whileas this was not there re: 2004 election for the most part. It has taken a long long long long long time of extreme persistence on the part of mostly internet people to hammer/ strangle/ mangle/ report on the malfeasant activities of BushCo but this seems finally to be taking place on the news services.

I thought carefully about that post that ran a very long thread yesterday. I asked for the identify (May I ask who you work for) on the lead person and got no response back. I figured it was someone with some standing in the Dem party. dunno and doesn't really matter.

What matters is that THE POPULACE , the citizens, are very angry. What matter is that they finally get the deep disgust this administration has with its citizens.

This is not to get 'the Dems' off the hook. they have a tremendous amount of explaining to do re: voting for the war in Iraq, passing CAFTA, etc.

[Stephanie]

38. Bush was busy! He had photo-ops, and a fundraiser to attend.

___________________________________

Sat Aug-28-05

Bush returns from his Idaho vacation to his Crawford vacation home on Wednesday 8/24 and promptly disappears from view. On Saturday thousands of protestors converge on Crawford.


___________________________________

Sun Aug-28-05

On Sunday, as headlines report "Katrina Packing Wind of Nearly 175 Mph" and New Orleans is ordered to evacuate, Bush finally resurfaces in a taped appearance. He makes brief remarks about Katrina and then discusses Iraq. Transcript: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050828-1.html Later the White House issues one photo of Bush being briefed on Katrina.




___________________________________

Mon Aug-29-05

As the hurricane rages, Bush flies to Arizona for a "Conversation on Medicare." Upon landing, he presents John McCain with a birthday cake. He then flies to San Diego to spend the night at the luxury resort Hotel del Coronado, reportedly attending a fundraiser that night.








___________________________________

Tue Aug-30-05

As floodwaters inundate New Orleans and the Gulf Coast reels from the catastrophe, Bush speaks at a VJ-Day ceremony in San Diego. Afterwards singer Mark Wills presents him with a guitar. He then returns to Crawford for the night.








___________________________________

Wed Aug-31-05

Bush finally returns to Washington. AF1 flies over New Orleans so Bush can view the disaster. Back at the WH he makes his first official statement about the aftermath of Katrina.






___________________________________

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/

[chomskysright]

49. Hey: you forgot that 'kissin the baby' picture where Bush feigned this...

very concerned wrinkled brow look. Or hugging those two very clean looking young women who were Black. He wouldn't hugged nothing much beyond that: babies and very clean attractive young Black women. Don Carleone in some form needs to try and hug up on him and give him the KISS OF DEATH.

[Stephanie]

50. Those are here >

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4596979

[CJCRANE]

2. Contrast with Schiavo -

flying back to Washington with signed papers to try and save Terri Schiavo.

[Gregorian]

29. Yes. Contrast with Shiavo. There is no urgency now. Criminals!

This is criminal negligence. Massive resignations will not occur. They don't care.

They didn't care that we protested their phoney war (all around the planet). Republicans are the party of incompassion and death.

[halobeam]

3. Rate this story up.....

[Cobalt Violet]

4. Nominated. I really starting to believe they just wanted lots of poor to..

die. People still are with out food and water. What else could it be but the outcome repugs wanted all along.

[tabasco]

30. No, I don't think it's intentional.

The Bush administration would have loved to come out of this smelling like roses. But the welfare of the American People is not a big priority for the neocons. It is not intentional, it is simply a matter of priorities.

ENRICHMENT OF THE RULING CORPORATE CLASS IS THE #1 PRIORITY OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

They simply don't care that much about the rest of the Nation.

The people appointed to high positions such as FEMA are based on loyalty to the gangster regime, not merit. This only makes the problems worse when the gangsters actually try to get something done.

[valerief]

46. How do you get mommies to

tell their boys (and now girls) not to bear arms for bad people? How do you get mommies to not get misty-eyed at dead baby stories with the American flag flapping in the background? How do you get daddies to not, ahem, salute to attention every time they hear the word "honor?"

[chomskysright]

52. You are so very wrong: MALEVOLENT NEGLECT: purposeful, agitprop..

photo op.

[Zhade]

60. There's another term for it:

Criminally negligent homicide.

[Cobalt Violet]

75. Your so right. 10,000 counts of criminally negligent homicide.

[rocktivity]

5. It should have been approved LAST Thursday

Category 4 storm + Category 3 levees = EVERYBODY OUT!!!!

What part that did they not understand?

:mad:
rocknation

[Igel]

72. That would have been silly.

The hurricane was predicted to head over NW Florida then; it hadn't even made landfall in Florida yet, I don't think.

Or is it reflex: there's a hurricane headed towards Florida, quick, activate all the national guard units and send them to NOLA?

[tkmorris]

78. Don't be a putz

I'm sure the poster you responded to just got the day wrong. This action certainly SHOULD have been taken by late Saturday, but wasn't.

It has long been common knowledge that a Cat 4 or above hurricane hitting New Orleans is one of the worst natural disaster scenarios imaginable. Believe it or not this scenario was predicted, it was even deemed inevitable unless something was done to shore prevent it. I won't go into those measures here, but it was preventable in the long term and once those prevention measures were deemed to expensive to fund, everyone involved knew the likely outcome for New Orleans. We hoped against hope that Katrina would turn away further from NO but we knew those were long odds. All the relevant models agreed by Saturday that NO was no more than 75 miles from the landfall point. We KNEW. I posted about it on Saturday IIRC.

They have no excuse. Bush knew. He just didn't care.

[HereSince1628]

6. Isn't Northern Command in charge of the US _AND_IRAQ?

Is it possible that this fubar is a consequence of snafus in Homestead?

Besides which, I have to say, that any Governor with any real insight and leadership ready to send a guard unit would simply contact the Gove of the recieving state to get the mission right and then send his guard elements anyway, hoping to get permissions while underway, and if permission didn't come, then at least forgiveness.

I mean what would happen? Texas would block the New Mexico guard from crossing into Louisiana??????

[davsand]

8. I'm sure he was clearing off his desk after his vacation.

You KNOW how it is when you just get back from vacation--stuff piles up while you're gone. I'm sure our "leader" had a lot of very important things to attend to before he worried about "those" people in New Orleans. :sarcasm:

Could that f*&%er's administration be any more incompetent or any more malevolent?


Laura

[BootinUp]

9. Key Para:

Bush had the legal authority to order the National Guard to the disaster area himself, as he did after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks . But the troops four years ago were deployed for national security protection, and presidents of both parties traditionally defer to governors to deploy their own National Guardsmen and request help from other states when it comes to natural disasters.

I think he's toast this time.

[madokie]

11. He better be BURNT TOAST n/t

[BootinUp]

10. please give it 5 stars rating.

[aquart]

12. PAPERWORK????

Are they trying to be funny?

Did they ever hear of FAX?

[NYC Liberal]

24. The United States of America can't move its troops

because its fax machine is broken.

God bless America..or something like that :eyes:

[Erika]

13. Stupid freepers are trying to blame governor for delaying NG

activation. As if she had the power to order other states NG to come to Louisiana.

[Gin]

15. When is this clan of thugs ever going to be held accountable?

This whole damn response thing was orchestrated to coincide with his visit....May they all rot in the hell of their own making.

[maddezmom]

14. paperwork is hard, hard work

:sarcasm:

[valerief]

71. We don't want to waste our beautiful minds on dead bodies

and paperwork.

Like mother, like son.

[fjc]

16. WH delayed so they could look like heroes..

that's my suspicion. I think Rove looks at all things through a political prizm. These guys likely exploited the situation so that the help arrived just as Bush did. Anybody notice that curious little bit of timing?

[bandy]

31. I was struck by that thought yesterday

There I was looking at a split screen. On one side is * hugging victims, on the other is a convoy of trucks. It is so obvious that this was all staged - I can't believe it is so blatant. God help us all get rid of this mob of greedy bastards. Please excuse my language, I don't usually think like this.

[expatriot]

47. Well, it's not working then. "Hero" is not the word I think Americans

would use to describe him.

[Zhade]

61. It BETTER not fucking be!

If this murderous fool comes out looking like a hero through his own carelessness, incompetence, or worse, I'll officially give the fuck up on Americans.

[Duer 157099]

68. What???

"If this murderous fool comes out looking like a hero through his own carelessness, incompetence, or worse, I'll officially give the fuck up on Americans."

...you mean... like with 9/11????

[Zhade]

70. Yeah. Exactly what I mean.

I'm at the point where I no longer care about the welfare of those willing to continue being deceived by these liars.

THAT angers me as much as the liars themselves!

[chomskysright]

56. MALEVOLENT NEGLECT: Planned so martial law could be installed:

There is a research arm to Democratic Underground.com Here is someone
('Eloriel') who is pulling together the pieces. I have been looking at the
matter from a psychologist's perspective and he, obviously from another. This
is really interesting. This is stuff that could be utilized for impeachment,
perhaps. I do not know what all this LIHOP/ MIHOP is but I plan to find out.

REMEMBER: Zimbardo's and Milgram's experiments were in vitro experiments.
Shocking in their conclusions. Essentially the task is this re: these
experiments (give it another name if this sounds too paranoid for you): 'What
are people willing to put up with?' This matter in N.O. is in vivo.


* As a test case or lab experiment for possible/planned future LIHOP/MIHOP
events on the order of 9-11, tho probably radiological and/or
biological/chemical. Always nice to be able to tweak your plans and approaches.

* As an opportunity to blame the victims -- something already institutionalized
as the "corporate culture" of DHS and FEMA (after all, this
administration has been at fault for conditions being worse than they needed to
have been, so a little blaming the victims can help with that):

DNC: Chertoff Blames Refugees and the Dead for Their Fate
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Link: http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/09/chertoff_blames.php

* As an opportunity to further blame the victims for their own deaths, by
letting/causing the crisis to spin out of control so that social unrest and
"lawlessness" reaches fever pitch and they get to:

- declare martial law
- have the rest of us CLAMORING, BEGGING for federal troops to restore order
- send in federal troops (the new Northern Command, or whatever it is)
- blur the distinction between civilian and military law enforcement
- maybe even get that pesky ole Posse Commitatus law discarded, at long last
(the one that prevents military from domestic law enforcement)
- exert federal control via federal troops instead of state and local control
over NG

And probably other things I'm not even thinking about. Please feel free to add
your own.


And of course, the ever popular
* Simple racism and classism -- who cares about the Little People?


So, I believe THE PHOTO OPS were simply opportunistic (or perhaps planned for
anyway, but NOT the main reason for the delay in getting help there).
"Okay, as long as we have to put up now, might as well look like heroes
doing it."

Here are some threads that support my LIHOP/MIHOP theory -- PLEASE add others
that come to your attention. Thank you.

[Zhade]

62. Eloriel's a woman, btw.

I'm thinking LIFOP might be a better term: Letting It Fester On Purpose.

[howmad1]

67. Yeh, rumor has it........

....the Medal of Freedom factory is working overtime to provide for all the incompetent heros in charge. :(

[kansasblue]

17. We should have had that completed as the hurricane approached and

the vehicles could have weathered the storm just on the edge of harms way. Moved them close to the current predicted path of the storm, hold and wait for the storm to pass, then go!.

hell, make me FEMA Director!

[FlaGranny]

34. FEMA actually bragged

BEFORE the storm that they were staged all around the area and would go in as soon as the storm passed.

[Iceburg]

18. WH accepted responsibility for coordination 2 days before Katrina hit..

Two days BEFORE Katrina hit, the state of Louisiana and the whitehouse administration signed a declaration authorizing the feds to coordinate all disaster relief effort.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050828-1.html

<snip>
White House Press Release

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 28, 2005

President Discusses Hurricane Katrina, Congratulates Iraqis on Draft Constitution
Prairie Chapel Ranch
Crawford, Texas


11:31 A.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: This morning I spoke with FEMA Undersecretary Mike Brown and emergency management teams not only at the federal level but at the state level about the -- Hurricane Katrina. I've also spoken to Governor Blanco of Louisiana, Governor Barbour of Mississippi, Governor Bush of Florida, and Governor Riley of Alabama. I want to thank all the folks at the federal level and the state level and the local level who have taken this storm seriously. I appreciate the efforts of the governors to prepare their citizenry for this upcoming storm.

Yesterday, I signed a disaster declaration for the state of Louisiana, and this morning I signed a disaster declaration for the state of Mississippi. These declarations will allow federal agencies to coordinate all disaster relief efforts with state and local officials. We will do everything in our power to help the people in the communities affected by this storm.

Hurricane Katrina is now designated a category five hurricane. We cannot stress enough the danger this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities. I urge all citizens to put their own safety and the safety of their families first by moving to safe ground. Please listen carefully to instructions provided by state and local officials.
</snip>

What a colossal failure of leadership. Three days after accepting this enormous responsibility (1 day after Katrina hit) the president was playing air guitar and eating cake with John McCain while the secretary of state (Condi) was shopping for shoes in NY.
What a colossal failure of leadership.

[chomskysright]

57. No different than the stand-down of the Air Force during 9-11:

same intentions.

People don't realize what we're dealing with her, for the most part...even the educated people on DU.

[Igel]

73. You do actually read what you post, don't you?

"These declarations will allow federal agencies to coordinate all disaster relief efforts with state and local officials."

Does that mean "These declarations remove all disaster relief efforts from the control of state and local officials and place them under the control of federal agencies"?

I have to wonder what the state and federal coordinators for Louisiana were doing with their time Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I've seen general "we'll need help" declarations, but does that mean Nagin and Blanco were free to head off on vacation, with nothing to do? No.

I'm not going to rush to assign blame. There's enough for everybody to get a piece of it.

[supernova]

19. This means they were going to wait for the presidential photo-op

before releasing help no matter what the results of the hurricane were. They were just following the script they wrote before the hurricane, regardless of what the true nature of the disaster was going to turn out to be.

How utterly heartless, :cry:

[meganmonkey]

20. Holy shit - so they can't keep blaming the mayor and the governors

THE DELAY CAME FROM WASHINGTON.

These people are flat-out murderers. They need to be kicked out of office and thrown into a fucking dungeon filled with water and snakes and alligators and dysentary to live out their sick miserable days.

[Zhade]

63. I'll bring the electric eels.

NT!

[Rose Siding]

21. And msnbc says the remaining 2000 could be there til NEXT Sunday!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175611/

It's 125 degrees, 2 miscarriages, collapses (health workers already taken out!) and the children have all developed rashes. The Guard the reporters spoke with didn't even seem to know WHY they weren't proceeding!

This HAS to be STOPPED. *I* could get some of them before next Sunday. OMG!

[Lindsay]

22. This should be the key piece of information,

shouldn't it?

Who was responsible for signing the paperwork in Washington? And what the BLOODY HELL took them so long?

[JustSayNO 2 Sheeples]

23. This whole delay...

is the result of the Bully Boy mentality and attitude in the shrub administration. It seems EVERYBODY in the Federal government is afraid of the fallout from the Whitehouse if they dare take action on their own.

[KennedyGuy]

25. Last night Orielly came up with a culprit..

and naturally it wasn't any republican, but rather the Democrat govornor blanco who "failed to anticipate the peril and activate the national guard before the storm". This is false of course...but when you're a Bush shill, that doesn't appear to matter.

[Igel]

74. Are you saying that Blanco

did activate the NG on Sunday? Or that she didn't have the authority to do so?

Both assertions sound false to me.

[short bus president]

26. Thursday???

But he found the time to do the "paperwork" to bypass the Senate and install Alice Fisher at DOJ on WEDNESDAY!!! Perhaps this preznidunt has his priorities a bit screwed up...

[Stuckinthebush]

32. They had to wait for fucking paperwork!

Heads should roll. Starting at the top.

Damn it all to hell.

[supernova]

35. Paperwork should have been handled before the hurricane

Fuckin' A.

It's not like we didn't know it wasn't going to come. The minute they realized where it was going to hit, that paperwork should have been signed so that troops and relief personnel would be ready to go as soon as the wind died down. No excuse for that kind of delay at all.

[mom cat]

36. Bush needs to be taken out

of the White House, stripped of his protection and dropped in the middle of the toxic stew..The only thing he should be allowed to take is the guitar he was playing while he could have acted. May the shame of this follow him the rest of his life!

We cut the strings of the guitar first.

[Olney Blue]

42. Cutting the guitar strings so he can't play....

a great humanitarian act!

Thanks for making me smile for the first time today. I can't stop crying over the horror.

[mom cat]

55. Maybe we can do some more snipping while we are at it!

I am crying too. Hostile humor is just my protection for now!

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nytemare]

39. So, playing golf and guitar...

I guess everything can't get accomplished at the Western White House.

This should have been done before the storm.

[bloom]

40. ...

:argh:

[leftchick]

41. This needs to get to Jamie McIntyre at CNN

he is on right now blaming the NO police dept.! Said the pentagon had to change plans after so many police left. Does he really believe this horseshit?

[stevietheman]

43. Maybe it will become a race... Resign, Impeach, or Lynch....

which option will win in the removal of this President?

[VPStoltz]

44. Two things...

First: Consolidation of all the agencies under Homeland Security did NOTHING to streamline anything. It was an excuse to focus all funds on "terrorism" so that * would have something to anchor his administration to. Not one "bureaucrat," as The Chimp referred to them as he was looting Gore's win, was let go. There are 170,000 employees in Homeland Security now. So much for smaller government.
Second: I read this morning that a request for NG has to go through no less than 5 agencies to get approved. Rumsfield makes the final decision. These agencies are all over the country. The request bounces from NOLA to Arizona to somewhere else then to the Pentagon. Then if Rummy isn't on a vacation or taking a photo op, he might get around to signing off on it.
And this is government for the people???

[valerief]

45. For the people?

I think "the people" is a euphemism for "the corporation" nowadays. BTW, where is Rummy? Playing footsies with Dickie?

[VPStoltz]

65. Most likely.

[volitionx]

51. BUSH IS A MURDERER.

Yep. A murderer. All neocons are complicit in murder, whether they support Bush, or the Iraq War, or the bogus War On Terror.

They're murderers.

Don't be a "Good German" and let these fascist fucks take our country and the rest of the planet down with them.

[chomskysright]

54. MALEVOLENT NEGLECT:

Its much bigger. MALEVOLENT NEGLECT:

THE CRUEL SOCIETY (Stephen Downes in Canada's phrase).

Repeated after 9-11 when the Air Force 'stood down': why was the AF not in the air? Oh, you mean that 'War Games' practice which was coincidentally on the same day as that which 'confused' what should have taken place?

Chicago Mayor Daley stating back on SUNDAY that Chicago was ready to help out. http://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricane/cst-nws-daley0...

This is planned. It has to do with Rove setting up the chess board and moving a few of the pieces. The pieces that WERE on the board were these: underfund Army Corps of Engineers re: the 3 cities mapped by FEMA to be most at risk: San Francisco; NY; New Orleans. SF has too many activitist; NY also and has already been hit and would doubly irate this time; NO has 30% pop of black people, quite poor, black Dem mayor, Dem governor. Wait for Act of God....waiting....drumming fingers on table.....waiting.

Act of God (I was wondering where he was, says Rove): NOW, sir: send in those Nat'l Guard: its Thursday evening and the orders go out to get the NG in there.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_national_guard

Bush sweeps in like the Savior: kisses the babies; hugs the clean young Black women (as he turns them towards the cameras). A few more troublesome Dems drowned; Louisiana only has about 10 electoral college votes anyway.

Man: let's get back to our vacation.

[goforit]

59. Medical personell would be charged with malevolent neglect.

Yes in this case Bush is fully responsible.

[Massachusetts]

53. Titanic

Bu$hco finally hit the iceberg that will sink the Rethugs and Bu$hco family name for many, many, many, many, many, many years to come!

Stay informed my dear friends and only support those who will REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY AS YOU EXPECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE THE PEOPLE WILL TAKE CARE OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO ARE SUFFERING.........CORPORATE AMERIkA BEWARE...

[Amonester]

64. I wish you can see into the future. If not, I don't know if I can ask:

(all the while) Where is Atta? Where is Bin Forgotten?

These neocon'$ PNAC "operatives" could be "plotting" another one of the "sinking" BFEE's "wished for" New Pearl Harbor (again...), so on which side of the "coin" would THE PEOPLE "fall" once again??

1. Would they go back to "believing" the filthy propagandist$ to 90%??
2. Would They Ask For Their Resignation Once And For All?

I wish I knew the answer and it would be a YES to 2.

[goforit]

58. This is quite frightenning!....An Un-United Country.

[Gloria]

69. See this thread! As of 3:14 PM Wednesday, 8/31, NorthernCommand waiting

for orders!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4610280&mesg_id=4610280

[Igel]

76. More quotes of ineptitude from the article:

'Maj. Gen. Thomas Cutler, who leads the Michigan National Guard, said he anticipated a call for police units and started preparing them, but couldn't go until states in the hurricane zone asked them to come.

'"We could have had people on the road Tuesday," Cutler said. "We have to wait and respond to their need."

'The Michigan National Guard was asked for military police by Mississippi late Tuesday and by Louisiana officials late Wednesday. The state sent 182 MPs to Mississippi on Friday and had 242 headed to Louisiana on Saturday.

'Typically, the authority to use the National Guard in a state role lies with the governor, who tells his or her adjutant general to order individual Guard units to begin duty. Turnaround time varies depending on the number of troops involved, their location and their assigned missions.

'One factor that may have further complicated post-Katrina deployment arose when Louisiana discovered it needed Guardsmen to do more law enforcement duty because a large portion of the New Orleans police force was not functioning, according to Lt. Gen. Steven H. Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon.

'Because the agreement that was already in existence for states to contribute Guard troops to Louisiana did not include a provision on their use in law enforcement, Blum said, Gov. Blanco had to get separate written agreements authorizing Guardsmen to do police-type duty.'

[Pachamama]

77. I'm betting that the Bush Administration & GOP Congress starts trying to

get the Posse Comitatus Act repealed within the next month....

Wanna wager anyone? I've been betting that was on their list a long time ago....Now they will use Hurricane Katrina and the inability to respond (and ofcourse to all the "lawlessness") that they will try to argue that Military troops need to be given the ability to act on US soil for our "security"....

Of course, none of this would necessary if our NATIONAL GUARD was here to do its job instead of being in Iraq...but never fear, the Bush Neo-cons have been eyeballing this opportunity for awhile...and now they will go for it...

Mark my words and bookmark this thread....they want to get rid of that "pesky" Posse Comitatus Act...:eyes:

[rfkrfk]

79. why didn't Blanco just, swear the new folks to be law enforcement?

when they got to La?

[agincourt]

80. I get the impression,

that BushCo and his televangical pigs wanted all the "fornicaters, communists, feminazi and homosexuals" to just die of exposure, alligators or starvation and then weasel the blame onto the local authorities. When the reporters on the scene starting freaking out about the conditions then they had to do something to look concerned. Hence the long delay.

[klyon]

81. everyone was on vacation

no one was home when needed
George was off giving speeches so it would look like a "working vacation"

KL