But you do make a good point. I think its about uneducated people. Look at people that come here from Africa, with far less then what we have to grow up in, they come over here and far suppass us in Education. All we do is blame government and each other. I can tell you speak well from reading the way you type, your doing well educating yourself, Why are you educating yourself ? GED ? I hope you get off of welfare. What cruise ship were you on ?

So, President Eisenhower gets to send federal troops where he wants and President Bush doesn’t? What law changed in between?

I was setting up and running the emergency community computer center here in Cleveland where we helped refugees file FEMA requests and locate lost family members. How about you?

B’shalom,

Jeff Hess

The federalization of the National Guard in those cases seems justified under the Insurrection Act. The White House considered it in this case, but concluded that both that the looting in N.O. did not constitute insurrection and that claiming it was would set a dangerous precedent.

Get real. Your bogus analogy isn’t even close in a historical context. Sending troops into Little Rock to enforce Congressional civil rights legislation(and lest we forget, by a Republican president) and offering hurricane assistance via the National Guard have no symmetry.

Blanco declined the offer. End of story.

Should all Americans on vacation in other parts of the country have cancelled their vacation in the wake of the hurricane? Maybe it hasn’t occured to you but Presidents can’t really vacation like the rest of us. The job travels with them.

By the way, what were you doing in the wake of the hurricane?

OK — to preface, I am a regular reader of think progress.org, and most people consider me a liberal, primarily because I think Bush is incompetent and has been a leader who acts solely for political gain. That being said. If he were acting for future political benefit, wouldn’t he OVERPAY the large African American population of New Orleans to rebuild? Seems to me this is an easy way to gain quick political points. If the Republicans could gain any inroads at all in the African American voting bloc, they stand a huge chance of winning in 2006 and beyond. Not adhering to Davis-Bacon is political suicide for them.

Federal troops can go where ever the President sends them. The case of 101st Airborne and Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas is perhaps a good case in point. I don’t think Governor Orval Faubus called President Dwight Eisenhower and asked for those troops. Do you?

President Bush rode his mountain bike, cut cake, strummed his guitar and continued his record-breaking vacation while his fellow Americans died in the wake of Hurrican Katrina. A leader would have acted. President Bush didn’t.

B’shalom,

Jeff

ABC News producers probably didn’t hear what they expected when they sent Dean Reynolds to the Houston Astrodome’s parking lot to get reaction to President Bush’s speech from black evacuees from New Orleans:
http://newsbusters.org/node/1201

…and a story from a commenter…
When my hometown in the Dakotas was destroyed by a flood and subsequent flood related fire in 1997, virtually everyone in the town evacuated themselves to shelter in virtually no time at all. No one waited for a government sponsored bus to come by and pick them up. If they were poor and did not have a functioning car, they walked/ waded the ten or so miles to get beyond the flood line and higher ground, carrying what they though they needed through water that still contained ice floes.

Sucking on that Federal Government Teat will kill you everytime…

I do not fault Bush. After all, he appointed the head of Homeland Security, and if you read the mission statement of that august group, in the first paragraph you will note tfhat in addition to acts of terror, they are also responsible for Acts of Nature that cause major problems…

If you excuse just about everything that the feds did not do promptly, you still have to ask: where the hell was the leader of the country when he ought to have been if not present at least on national tv…just what is a leader’s role in such disasters? If not sure, ask Rudy, also in GOP…he knew what his role was in 9/11 and was present.

As the Wasington Post recently reported:

“The 1931 Davis-Bacon Act was passed, in part, by segregationists hoping to stem the tide of blacks into the cities, but since then the law has been cherished by labor unions — and despised by many Republicans.”

Not to mention the National Black Chamber of Commerce.

On balance, Davis-Bacon benefits organized labor to the detriment of non-union labor. While folks may disagree over whether that’s a good thing, we should not pretend that the non-union workforce that is de facto shut out by D-B is a bunch of white guys. Rather, it remains (as was the case in ‘31) a predominantly poor minority population. Imposing D-B here would not result in the employment of those poor minorities; rather, it would encourage the hiring of union labor that is, on balance, wealthier and whiter. It’s been a problem from the building of the Hoover Dam through attempts to hire public housing residents for urban renewal projects. It’s a big enough problem that whole programs have been developed simply to try to reduce these bad effects on the employment of poor minorities in our major cities.

Take a look at http://thinkprogress.org/ for some good coverage of what’s really happening behind the clean shaven facade of white guys running wild with our money.

How can we can change this gross injustice to include a wider fund for wider purpose. So many problems, so few leaders . . . so little integrity . . . Is everyone on the payroll of big pharma or some other special interest. Even Teachers in California have become a special interest in disguise. What’s wrong with modifying tenure requirements, no one else has job security.

And after.

Mayor Nagin’s call to return to New Orlens flies against all good judgement with 911 numbers not working and hurricane Rita entering the Gulf.

Four years and billions of dollars later we now have to ask, was any of that time and money spent wisely?

Is anyone ever totally prepared for catastrophe? Pose that question to anyone regarding their personal life? Cancer? Stroke? Car accident? Unemployment? Theft?

It’s fascinating that so many people hold the government responsible for their protection and are inadequately prepared themselves.

The bottomline is that there are limits to how far government can protect and assist.

The President did not put strumming a guitar BEFORE his duties.

It takes an A-hole liberal to make something out of the President keeping an appointment. Do you think those events are really for the Pres. to get HIS jollies? More like a gracious chore.

IN ADDITION to fulfilling his disaster obligation…..of

getting the troops, supplies, and money to LA….only to have it held up by Blanco.

Bush would have had to predetermine that Nagin and Blanco were inept fools BEFORE the storm, to do any better. He did not predetermine that about the other states, nor did anyone realize that about NO and LA until we all saw differently.

Had he, there would have been an even worse “racist” outcry from liberal opportunists.

The four years refers to the time since 11 September 2001 when our nation realized that we needed to be ready for massive destruction. Four years and billions of dollars later we now have to ask, was any of that time and money spent wisely?

B’shalom,

Jeff

Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, 18 USC 1385, is part of Federal law but not in the Constitution. It applies only to Army (and later Air Force) personnel serving as law enforcement officers. It does not in any way hinder or prohibit U.S. troops from providing all other forms of aid and assistance to U.S. citizens as directed by the proper Federal authorities.

B’shalom,

Jeff

Really???

Bush was only in office 9 months before 9/11. Prior to that he was governor of Texas and hardly responsible for national security. So 3 years plus of your timeframe was Clinton’s watch.

He’s had 4 long years to prepare the government for any kind of attack that might be coming from BinLaden and his pals. We’ve been told to expect mushroom clouds in major U.S. cities. We’ve been told to expect biological attacks. We’ve been told to have our own emergency plans ready in case of an attack…duct tape our windows if I remember correctly…and shrub has been given billions of dollars to prepare the feds for any catastrophe that might be coming….and this is the best we get when an emergency occurs? Questions need to be asked about where all that money went…questions need to be asked why an incompetent person like Brown was put in charge…questions need to be asked why the prez was strumming his guitar while people were drowning.

A co-worker of mine lost his wife and son in a car accident while she was picking him up from lacrosse practice.

One could argue that those deaths are more “tragic” than even dying in Iraq.

115 Americans die each day in car accidents.

For the mathematically challenged that is 42,000 per year.

But this tragedy is very hard to blame on Bush.

You’re right on that. It was debunked in Bush’s favor. As this WaPo article dated 9/3 points out Blanco blew it. She even admits as much in this article.

It looks like there is a grassroots effort starting to have her impeached.