Posted on 10/04/2005 6:18:11 PM PDT by ryan71
A majority of the nation's governors say they're not on board with President Bush's suggestion the active-duty military take the lead role in providing disaster relief, a new poll says.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
As they should.
Hopefully people will realize just how horribly the LA Governor reacted to the disaster....
But those same Governors will be the same ones who complain the next time they need the military and they don't appear magically to rescue citizens. Immediately.
I'm with the governors on this one. Why should the rest of the country have this forced on them because Louisiana can't get it's act together? Four hurricanes hit FL last year and our disaster relief was fine without the U.S. military having to run things.
It already has accomplished that goal. I saw a liberal reporter struggling with this story today. She didn't know which direction to try to spin it.
I love the sound of liberals chasing their own tails. They want the President to be first responder and dog catcher, then they scream he'll overreach his authority. W's past-master at rope a dope.
Hear or read the presser this A.M. and look at the date and time this is posted... there was not near enough time for an "opinion" to be formed!
GWB mentioned that as a Governor , he resented the Feds telling him what to do with the Texas Rangers.
He was specifically speaking to natural disasters and the H5 V1 (or whatever the call letters are) "Bird Flu" and how to isolate areas of the country or the world!
It's called "Quarantine"!!
Now that we have seen the response of the " locals" vis a vis State and Fed .. he is scared to contemplate that idiocy without the military... and quite obviously so am I!!
Ray Nagin, Michael Bloomberg, Gavin Newsome
or Mumbles Menino in charge of a pandemic flu scares me b.rd sh..less!
Whew, at least the Governors get it.
This, and Bush's last trial balloon (Military quarantine enforcement) are some of the scariest suggestions I've seen in a long time, and I watch a lot of "black helicopter" movies.
Nothing would turn Americans against our own troops quicker than making them quarantine cops.
And nothing would divert our troops from their primary role more than would taking care of people too dumb to get out of harms way.
If the state can't handle it they call out the guard and when the guard can't handle it the state calls the president, and THEN and only THEN do the federal troops come in.
That's the way it has to be.
Texas proved it wasn't a procedural problem, just a problem of execution in Louisiana.
I'm grateful that the Governors understand enough to respect the breach this would cause in the Constitution.
No that is not the case. Just look at governor Perry of Texas or Jeb Bush of Florida. I for one don't want my state government authority by a knee-jerk response to mistakenly placed blame by a corrupt MSM and crocodile tears shed by a corrupt mayor. There are lots of supposedly highly educated fools, especially in the MSM that should be applying for refunds on faulty educations because they don't know about U.S. government rules nor civil law.
I agree, the President knows what his powers are, and he is just reminding the states what their responsibilities are.
He wanted all the Governors to come out and say it is the responsibility of the Governor to handle the immediate aftermath of such a disaster.
It will prove Blanco was the weak link in the response, not the President.
Certainly, the president asking for authority as a first responder is the logical conclusing of having the president be criticized for failing as a first responder.And just as certainly a governor worth his/her salt would reject the idea.
Well then, Bush should make it perfectly clear to the American people what he had offered - and the response.
And the next time some idiot governor like Bianco runs away and hides from a disaster, they can know clearly who to blame.
It's critically important that emergency response, especially natural disasters and illness outbreaks be coordinated at the locan and state levels first. These are the people that know the area, the local culture and the residents best. The military needs to be resource available to state and local officials. With Katrina, the problems arose because the Governor of LA and the Mayor of NO were incompetent. The military was available, but they couldn't do things without being told what needs to be done and what is needed where. The state and municipal authorities are responsible for providing that information.
For example, if there was a disaster in your city, who would know more about what is needed: the mayor of your city and the governor, or the military brass at the Pentagon? Who should make the decisions about what supplies are needed and where to put them? Who should know where evacuees need to be sent? Who should know what areas are a priority for rescue operations? THe answer is no the U.S. army.
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