It's a lie wrapped within a truth. As I said in an earlier post, this is a particularly dishonest and repulsive sophistry on the part of the reporter.
No doubt the Governor of New Mexico called Blanco on Sunday and offered NG assistance, and no doubt Blanco "accepted" the offer. The problem is that her acceptance is meaningless without an understanding and acknowledgement of the laws and regulations which govern the implementation of ANY such agreement, between ANY two state governors.
The Governor of New Mexico commands the New Mexico National Guard, unless they are federalized, and only within New Mexico. The Governor of Louisiana commands the Louisiana National Guard unless they are federalized, and only within Louisiana. Neither can deploy NG troops to another state until, let's all say it together now, they are federalized.
Until Blanco officially requested the federalization necessary to deploy NG troops from one state to another, which she did not do until Thursday, they can't legally deploy. That is the so-called "red tape" the disingenuous AP reporter was trying to lay at the feet of the feds. The truth is, that "red tape" is simply the law, and the feds and the governors of the other states were holding it out for her and urging her to cut it so they could go into action.
This is mind-numbing incompetence and criminal negligence on the part of the Louisiana governor, and probably other state and local officials. I am no fan of the federal government; they are demonstrating their own incompetence and negligence on other matters, most notably our dangerously vulnerable uncontrolled borders. This debacle, however, is NOT the fault of the feds, but of the corrupt Louisiana political establishment and state government.
" This debacle, however, is NOT the fault of the feds, but of the corrupt Louisiana political establishment and state government."
Indeed!
Thanks for the clarification.
Liberals lie like rugs and have NO shame.
Let's assume that Governor Blanco was for one reason or another unable to act and coordinate the request for New Mexico NG federalization with NM Governor. Meanwhile, anyone watching CNN early wednesday saw people dehydrating on the streets of New Orleans and city descending into chaos. The White House was surely aware of what was happening. Couldn't the White House have a fricking telephone call with the governors down in Louisiana, New Mexico etc. and agree with them to federalize the necessary NG units and send them their way?
If it turns out that the bumbling idiots at state and federal levels couldn't have the fricking paperwork put in order IMMEDIATELY, and this was the reason for the delay in troop deployment, well, I don't know what to say.
I'm not necessarily interested in whose 'fault' the situation was, I'm only commenting on the evident inablity of the government to get even the simplest things done in a common sense manner.
The hard part about handling natural disasters should be logistics and similar things not the inability of the top-level decision makers to push the god-d*mn button on time!