[msnimje]

I search for this briefing on FR but did not find it. It is a little long but very interesting accounting of how the National Guard did not expect the Police Force in New Orleans to collapse.
He also debunks the "delay" myth.

[Ronzo]

....I think the President has made a tough and courageous decision. He wants to leave the governor in charge of the state, but he wants to make sure that we take decisive action as a nation to give that governor all of the resources and manpower necessary to deal with the complex problems that she has in Louisiana. So to use a simple analogy of a bathtub, I've got my spigot turned on and it's going at full volume, and I'm filling it up as fast as I can. I think what happened just this morning in the Rose Garden is the President turned on a second spigot, which is I think quite helpful and will prove to be the right decision in the long run.

Pres. Bush is much too nice....if I were pres, LA would have been federalized within 48 hours of the huricane. Within two days, it was already completely obvious that they did not even follow their own emergency plans.

[John Lenin]

GEN. BLUM: Yes, and they're not all in New Orleans. Any place where you harbor a group of people that have been damaged by the storm and dislocated from their houses, their lives have been interrupted, and they've lost in many cases everything, or have nothing on them that -- These kind of events bring out the best in people, and in some very limited number of folks brings out the worst in people. The governors have sent a clear message that citizens that have already suffered enough from the ravages of the storm, they will not tolerate lawlessness to make them a victim again. So there's very firm and forceful law enforcement. We have not suspended any laws. In fact they have invoked some emergency powers with curfews and all those type of measures. In some states the order has been given to shoot to kill.

Q: Louisiana --

GEN. BLUM: The governor of Louisiana has given that order. I think the governor of Mississippi did it earlier.

So this is serious business, and that is done to ensure that the lives of innocent people that have suffered this loss are not further traumatized by lawless citizens.

We will put the force in place that is required, as much as necessary for as long as it's needed. That's the easiest way I can put it to you. Now who decides what is necessary? That has to be the legally constituted government and in this case it's the governors of the states and the president of the United States flew down there to show his commitment to each and every one of the Gulf state governors yesterday, and reinforced that he will send them anything and everything within his legal powers to ensure that they are successful in restoring order and restoring normal life and regenerating the future of these great states down in the Gulf Coast.

[fso301]

The NYT says about 200 deserted on Sept 3. I wonder if Gen Blums estimate accounted for them or not? If not, those 200 may well have been the last of the NOPD.

[Lancer_N3502A]

Good brief. I can't wait to see that crack head mayor and Prozac queen governor fry in Congress.

[fso301]

In excess of a 70 percent desertion rate. I cannot think of anything in American history as an equivalent.