Furthermore, the federal government may not intervene until asked by the governor.
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Exactly the president of the US may not invade Louisiana or any other state. Now I guess Bush could have Federalized the LA National Guard like Ike did with the AR national guard for desegregating Little Rock Central, but he had to give the LA authorities a day or so to act.
Had he federalized them the first day he would have been rightly accused of grandstanding. And the Louisiana and New Orleans officials know the territory. They know or should know where to allocate the troops and what neighborhood is what. Some out of state FEMA manager does not know this.
FEMA ought to have had in hand a plan prepared by local officials. Apparently there were none.
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0905/01edwitt.html
bttt
Damned if you don't, damned if you do. People were going to die no matter what. And President Bush was going to get the blame no matter what. As Hopper said in "Bug's Life", The first rule of leadership is "Everything is your fault."