Ok I gotta rant...Jamie Mcintyre of cnn is making the NG

[steve2470]

situation sound like the mayor and gov. of LA are to blame. Plenty of national guard troops in la, ms, al, and fl, and that they are in a support role. Most Ng's are at home. So...conclusion is: mayor and gov. fucked up.....is this bullshit ?

[FloridaPat]

1. I liked the comment that the NG isn't suppose to do law enforcement,

just help out. Well, what are they doing then in Iraq? Yes, they made everything sound like it was fine. Lots of people left.

Then were are they?

[orpupilofnature57]

4. Why is the NG always sent to riot's then?

[FloridaPat]

9. The police are already there and things have gotten out of control.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. My son was patrolling the streets in LA during the riots , he

was in the Calif NG, 17 y/o at the time.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. First of all it's Shrubs fault, second there isn't a plenty of anything!

[kenny blankenship]

10. No kidding. just a little earlier Brown heard from the Mayor

that he was sure there were still people out there who need emergency asssistance--trapped in attics, on roofs etc.

Today was the Big Game, and half the team was sick at home or otherwise absent.

[Rex]

3. Repukes are for states rights

unless it is a federal matter, then they hammer the crap outta whoever is in their way.

[Gloria]

5. I agree, just posted this rundown of the whole conversation on another

thread....the tone of the conversation definitely changed to "gung ho"

He (Brown) just went into an old Jamie McIntire report by saying
that many of LA's guard were in Iraq, but the Pentagon says they have enough. The report had the FEMA guy saying they were going to block up the levees and you know that didn't happen. Supposedly, they have 31,000 from the LA, MS, AL and another state.

Brown's face at the end of his intro was a grumpy "I'm not buying it" sort of look.

After the piece, they had McIntire on live and Brown said it seems like they have enough people.....Referred to the blogs, etc. and the politically charged nature of the Guard issue...McIntire says they are...stressing the military is in a "support" role...but locals may be so overwhelmed that the military have to do more....Need coordination.

"inevitable lack of coordination" and Brown smiles "we all know that happens" (sic)(something in that vein)

[kenny blankenship]

6. He also seemed to make it sound extraordinary that the NG

would be called in. WTF? Like they're doing some amazingly unusual favor by accomodating the local authorities with troop allocation/activation that they're only now getting around to doing.

The Guard is always sent in to disaster areas and this is a historically massive disaster area. This is one of its traditional roles--invading foreign countries is not one of the roles for the guard described by the Constitution. Also he failed to mention how much more of the Guard's important equipment is in Iraq than even its personnel.

[rodeodance]

8. I understood him to say that the military will be in support role--to do

things they can do to assist the nat guard.

[kbm8795]

11. Mcintyre needs to shut UP

This is not the time for him to pull this kind of wingnut nonsense. My impression is that the mayor and the governor have both been tireless in trying to meet this crisis, while the Republicans have urged prayer and gone off to play another round of golf.

No state has the resources to cope with this kind of disaster. Yes, there are likely mistakes that were made in organizing a fast evacuation, yet overall, 80% of the inhabitants DID leave on warning.
THAT is to the credit of the Mayor and the Governor, who were on television IMMEDIATELY offering advice and helping map out routes to leave the city.

On the other hand, I've seen little coming from a partisan wingnut federal government which, by the way, last year proposed slashing levee upgrade funds for New Orleans AND has resisted movement on the growing problem of coastal erosion.

Tell Jamie to do a little research. Or at least call the President, if he's allowed to interrupt him during another barbecue on the fake ranch.