Our national government is set up to protect state's rights. The president can not take control of a situation such as this without the ok of the state government, which cannot take control without the ok of the local government. The local emergency evacuation plan that NO had worked out, they failed to implement. The state government did not ask for assistance early on, on the contrary, they were not permitting agencies of assistance to even come into the area (a friend was sent down pre-Katrina to go in and do s/r immediately following and the local govt did not allow them in until on Wed - we're talking over 50 s/r people, boats, humvees, dogs, etc volunteers from NM) Until the city and the state asked, the govt, cannot order troops or anything else. Bush is not a dictator and can't just do as he pleases. Yes, the govt response appears to have been slow, but what of the state and local who had to act FIRST and request govt intervention. The blame does not rest on 1 person or agency. First it is the mayor of NO whose evacuation plan was never implemented in the emergency need of evacuation. |