9/12    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/site/newsweek
        "Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with
        disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by
        people who agree with him. ... When Hurricane Katrina struck, it
        appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth:
        that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the
        Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and
        that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope,
        couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all
        other authority."
        \_ link:tinyurl.com/cly9r [nyt] .  Yes, but in addition to that:
           "But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Ms. Blanco
           would have resisted surrendering control, as Bush administration
           officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty
           combat forces before law and order had been re-established...
           'Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of
           the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the
           female governor of another party the command and control of her
           forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that
           she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that
           lawlessness was the inevitable result?' asked one senior
           administration official, who spoke anonymously because the talks
           were confidential."
           \_ He didn't have to do anything pre-emptively.  They put in the
              request for federal help BEFORE the storm hit.
              \_ LA requested federal help, but the governor did not
                 relinquish control over the National Guard (and still hasn't,
                 last I checked), which Bush & co. believed "would have been
                 required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and
                 order had been re-established".  If you read carefully, it
                 would have been clear that the "pre-emptively" referred to
                 taking control of the National Guard.
           \_ Politics are more important than anything!
              \_ Apparently, since Blanco *still* would not relinquish of the
                 National Guard!
                 \_ And yet Bush & Co. didn't have the imagination to
                    federalize them without her permission ala the Kennedys.
                    All of that excutive power of the President and he can't
                    figure out how to use it.
                    \_ Yah.  I hate Bush but he should be declared King!