Only nine months after his second nomination to President, Hurricane Katrina and Flooding in New Orleans 
Can't you just imagine what it would have been like if this happened on Clintons watch while getting a BJ in the oval office?
Posted on 09/05/2005 10:19:31 AM PDT by axes_of_weezles
That is a massive response.
It takes a week to start to deliver MREs?
MRE's, water and Baby Formula were being delivered on the coast on TUEASDAY of last week.
You ought to go to the Northcom Website and see what the military is authorized to do, prior to whining about the timeliness of military response.
The National Guard and Active forces can do squat until tasked by civilian agencies, not Bush, not Dod.
You should be asking the simpering clods in charge of LA those questions.
So Bush can't get Brown, Chertoff, and Rumsfeld on a phone call, and tell Brown to ask Chertoff to ask Rumsfeld for assitance?
If you click on the link you will see that this was issued on Sept 4th. That is only 5 days after the flooding started. If I remember correctly a week is seven days.
Only nine months after his second nomination to President, Hurricane Katrina and Flooding in New Orleans
Can't you just imagine what it would have been like if this happened on Clintons watch while getting a BJ in the oval office?
One of my best friends is one of the C17 pilots He called his wife yesterday to tell her that the effort is absolutely MASSIVE and to not believe the trash that is being reported by the MSM and even FOX. Geraldo is extermely myopic!
I stand corrected. But it is still too slow.
My recollection of events is that on 9/11, Bush fled Floriday for Barksdale AFB, LA, and then went on to tour Offut AFB in Omaha before returning to Washington late in the evening.
He did essentially nothing while NYC coped with the first day of the disaster.
“Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
The PCA does not apply to the U.S. Coast Guard in peacetime or to the National Guard in Title 32 or State Active Duty status. The substantive prohibitions of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) were extended to all the services with the enactment of Title 10 USC, Section 375. As required by Title 10 USC, Section 375 the secretary of defense issued Department of Defense Directive 5525.5, which precludes members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps from direct participation in a search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity unless participation in such activity by such member is otherwise authorized by law.
The PCA generally prohibits U.S. military personnel from direct participation in law enforcement activities. Some of those law enforcement activities would include interdicting vehicles, vessels, and aircraft; conducting surveillance, searches, pursuit and seizures; or making arrests on behalf of civilian law enforcement authorities. Prohibiting direct military involvement in law enforcement is in keeping with long-standing U.S. law and policy limiting the military’s role in domestic affairs.
The United States Congress has enacted a number of exceptions to the PCA that allow the military, in certain situations, to assist civilian law enforcement agencies in enforcing the laws of the U.S. The most common example is counterdrug assistance (Title 10 USC, Sections 371-381). Other examples include:
* The Insurrection Act (Title 10 USC, Sections 331-335). This act allows the president to use U.S. military personnel at the request of a state legislature or governor to suppress insurrections. It also allows the president to use federal troops to enforce federal laws when rebellion against the authority of the U.S. makes it impracticable to enforce the laws of the U.S.
* Assistance in the case of crimes involving nuclear materials (Title 18 USC, Section 831). This statute permits DoD personnel to assist the Justice Department in enforcing prohibitions regarding nuclear materials, when the attorney general and the secretary of defense jointly determine that an “emergency situation” exists that poses a serious threat to U.S. interests and is beyond the capability of civilian law enforcement agencies.
* Emergency situations involving chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction (Title 10 USC, Section 382). When the attorney general and the secretary of defense jointly determine that an “emergency situation” exists that poses a serious threat to U.S. interests and is beyond the capability of civilian law enforcement agencies. DoD personnel may assist the Justice Department in enforcing prohibitions regarding biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction.
Military support to civilian law enforcement is carried out in strict compliance with the Constitution and U.S. laws and under the direction of the president and secretary of defense.
""Heavy Lifters of Last Resort"
U.S. Northern Command is the "heavy lifter of last resort." If and when local communities and federal agencies need additional support -- in the form of equipment, expertise, manpower, plans, organization, communications, and training -- the men and women in uniform are prepared and ready to lend a helping hand.
U.S. Northern Command provides defense support of civil authorities in accordance with U.S. laws and as directed by the President or Secretary of Defense. Military assistance is always in support of a lead federal agency, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Military civil support includes domestic disaster relief operations that occur during fires, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. Support also includes counter-drug operations and consequence management assistance, such as would occur after a terrorist event employing a weapon of mass destruction.
Generally, an emergency must exceed the management capabilities of local, state and federal agencies before U.S. Northern Command becomes involved. In providing civil support, the command operates through subordinate Joint Task Forces. The military is the last to arrive, the first to leave, and will always respond in support of the lead federal agency.
However, the military has a unique ability to transport large numbers of people and amounts of material, to set up a command and control structure, to move through rugged and swampy terrain, and to provide water, food, shelter, sanitation and the bare necessities of life for 10s of thousands of people living out in the open. They also have the supply chain, logistics ability, and warehoused resources to do so for a considerable while.
Since both the civilian and military branches of the US government report to Bush, he can certainly sort out the niceties of getting one to ask the other for assistance.
Bush doesn't need to wait to be asked by the Mayor, the Governor, nor any other official. He's the President, and Presidents have the ability to cut through the bureaucratic bullshit if they want to.
They do if they want to be impeached.
The Dod has to be asked by the impacted state and local authorities.
Have you been awake and read the threads, or are you glued to your TV set in New Jersey.
The military cannot act without the locals calling them in.
Bush cannot takeover until the locals allow the Feds to take over.
This is on the local's heads, not Bush.
In case you missed it Read This (CLICK HERE)
And that is exactly what they are supposed to do.
The first response is supposed to come from the local, then the state, then Federal WHEN IT IS ASKED FOR.
I'm sure no one in Washington thought of it this way until now. It's a blessing we have you to figure it all out. Your post is being forwarded to the President, Chertoff et al., without further delay so they can have the benefit of your obvious expertise.
And what the H*ll do you think he did?
The New Orleans evacuation plan was to have the sick and infirm AS A LAST RESORT go to the Super Dome with at least 5 days supply of food, and if you don't think they had food just look at all the litter and wonder what created it.
The Federal Government had no idea that when the Super Dome was filled to capacity people took it upon themselves to go to the Convention Center.
It wasn't until Major Nagin got on TV and made this statement; "The governments not doing anything for us. They need to get off their a** up there and do something".
That's how he asked for help. I am sure you have seen the picture of all the school busses that he could have got into motion and got more people out but instead he sat on his A** and let them submerse in the water.
It might do you well to learn how our country is set up. Our President CANNOT do whatever he wants to.
"So Bush can't get Brown, Chertoff, and Rumsfeld on a phone call, and tell Brown to ask Chertoff to ask Rumsfeld for assitance?"
No. The state and local authorities must ask by way of declairing a state of Emergency.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.