Alex,

>Anyway, it is not the time to talk about rebuilding. As I said, the Feds are not prepared. Even though the President today said so, he, and Congress are as responsible as anybody if not more. Not only for cutting funding but by not predicting worst case scenarios.

Based on your very apparent political leanings, I'm not at all surprised that you are castigating the Feds and the president while giving the NOLA Mayor and LA Governor a pass (and even patting them on the back).

Neither you nor I know all the details of just how prepared the city and state were for handling something like this, but based on seeing them in action, I'd have to say that they were completely unprepared to take leadership both before and after this event.

The real story will be told in an examination of their written plans for such a disaster and in their actual performance in following those plans (if they even exist).

The fact is that the President made disaster declarations last Saturday in advance of the storm so FEMA could begin moving supplies into place. The fact that Fed help has to be officially requested by the governor and that the governor is ultimately in charge of directing the deployment of National Guard for law enforcement purposes seems to be lost in much of the discussion.

So, why didn't the governor make sure the guard was there in force (with weapons and ammunition and authority to take action) and why didn't the governor make sure someone got water to the people at the convention center and arrested the thugs? Where was HER plan to use the guard forces under her command (and don't say they were all in Iraq, because it's just not true).

I, along with everyone else, would have loved to see a more coordinated effort there, as seems to be happening in other states affected, and I think it's time that Congress takes up the issue of lines of authority in such situations, to give the President the authority to send in Active Duty military to take over the state and/or city when it's apparent that the local and state authorities cannot or will not act decisively.

There is plenty of blame to go around, so don't be so quick to put all the blame on the feds without knowing all the details of NOLA's and LA's level of planning and preparedness.