August 31, 2005


Thanks be to the Preznit

Hear the wind. Hear the Wind Blow. See the Preznit. See the Preznit Blow. Regularly.

Now that the pre-initial-earliest assesments of the damage from Katrina are starting to come in, it's looking like one fact is undeniable. Mississippi and Louisiana sure would like to have some of their own National Guard folks at home to help with recovery. Instead, their troops are over in Baghdad helping to establish the First Irani Gulf Client State on behalf of Tehran.

And their neighbors are waiting for other states whose Guard and Reserve units can spare supplies, personnel and equipment to send them south to help the residents of the hard-hit states cope with their losses.

With thousands of their citizen-soldiers away fighting in Iraq, states hit hard by Hurricane Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and security missions yesterday -- calling up Army bands and water-purification teams, among other units, and requesting help from distant states and the active-duty military.

As the devastation threatened to overwhelm state resources, federal authorities called on the Pentagon to mobilize active-duty aircraft, ships and troops and set up an unprecedented task force to coordinate a wider military response, said officials from the Northern Command, which oversees homeland defense.
...
More than 6,000 Guard members were mobilized in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida when the storm struck on Monday, with the number rising to 8,000 yesterday and hundreds more expected to be called to active duty, National Guard officials said yesterday.

"Missing the personnel is the big thing in this particular event. We need our people," said Lt. Andy Thaggard, a spokesman for the Mississippi National Guard, which has a brigade of more than 4,000 troops in central Iraq. Louisiana also has about 3,000 Guard troops in Baghdad.

Mississippi has about 40 percent of its Guard force deployed or preparing to deploy and has called up all remaining Guard units for hurricane relief, Thaggard said. Those include the Army band based in Jackson, Miss. "They are mustering transportation to move them south," he said. Soldiers who have lost their homes are exempt, he said.

I wonder if Guard and Reserve personnel in Iraq who lost their homes get to come home to take care of their families?
Recruiting and retention problems are worsening the strain on Guard forces in hurricane-ravaged states. Alabama's Army National Guard has a strength of 11,000 troops -- or 78 percent of the authorized number. "We're just losing too many out the back door," Arnold said.
"Just losing too many"...but hey, remember Bunnypants had his vacation. At some point he'll probably fly over the devastation in a helicopter and then get on the TeeVee and mouth some carefully chosen, focus-grouped platitudes about "sacrifice", "freedom", "community", "hard work", and other things he hasn't a clue about.

So, when do Jenna and Not-Jenna join the Guard to head on down to help direct traffic, and party with the victims of Katrina? Oh, never? Gee, I'm shocked.

posted by Jo Fish on 08.31.05 at 08:45 AM





Comments:

I doubt if even free drinks would lure the twins down there. They can afford to buy their own booze.

They'll swing through to party in NO when it's not so icky any more.

Jeff

posted by: Jeff Huber on 08.31.05 at 10:54 AM [permalink]



You know, we still just have to go through the photo ops for this preznit who "cut short his vacation to oversee" the hurricane disaster relief effort. Let's just cut through the crap and get the work done, we don't need his preznit'n energy- and supplies-diverting blathering. A real manager would just do it, not have us follow his steps one-by-one from Crawford to his flyover of Mississippi and Lousiana and then to DC. He wouldn't know pain if he stubbed his toe. How about Habitat for Humanity?

posted by: Nina on 08.31.05 at 04:15 PM [permalink]



"At some point he'll probably fly over the devastation in a helicopter and then get on the TeeVee and mouth some carefully chosen, focus-grouped platitudes about "sacrifice", "freedom", "community", "hard work", and other things he hasn't a clue about."
Not eve close. Flew over in AIR FORCE ONE.
Ye gods!!

posted by: navosho on 08.31.05 at 07:09 PM [permalink]



lying slacker. hear what he had to say? Handed it all off after sniveling about the heroics and hard work ahead... Well, we all know he can clear brush. Can't do anything else right.

posted by: MMichaelAK on 08.31.05 at 08:03 PM [permalink]






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