Who is in charge of the National Guard?

[toey]

[corkhead]

1. Pat Robertson eom

[ohio_liberal]

7. LOL

Jesus' General. :)

[ohio_liberal]

2. Lt. Gen. Steven Blum is chief of the National Guard Bureau

edited to add link:

http://www.ngb.army.mil/

[toey]

3. thanks

[ohio_liberal]

6. It's a federal agency, if that helps to clarify

The federal agency which allocates missions and resources for the federal mission of the National Guard of the several states and territories.

[maine_raptor]

4. Governor of the State

unless the Prez "federalizes" them.

Like Ike did during the Little Rock School crisis of '56.

Like JFK did during the Freedom Marches of the early 60's.

Like LBJ did during the "Long Hot Summers" of the late 60's

Like GHWB did during the "Rodney King" riots in LA.

and

Unlike GWB DIDN'T do during Hurricane Katrina.

[toey]

8. i thought the governor refused to federalize them in NO

[maine_raptor]

9. PRESIDENT does the federalizing, not the Gov.

He can do it WITHOUT the Governor's premission, IE Ike or JFK.

[toey]

10. well he WAS on vacation

:sarcasm:

[jody]

5. Each state governor until a guard unit is called to active duty by

president.

[lindisfarne]

11. I could be wrong, but I think Blanco is only in charge of the LA Nat'l Gua

Honore is in charge of the rest of the National Guard. (and maybe Blanco turned over control of the LA troops to him - although she did refuse to federalize control of the situation, so maybe she didn't).

[AnnInLa]

12. I think you're right

I believe each state's governor is in charge of its own state's part of the Nat'l Guard. All 50 states' individual guard units combine together to make up the Nat'l Guard. The governor of LA can call out the LA portion of the Guard, but has no control over other states' units or over the USA Nat'l Guard. When Blanco called for help, the Gov of NM, Richardson wanted to respond immediately, but couldn't get the OK from WASHINGTON. He was very frustrated, and there were many news reports documenting this. I have had freeper types tell me that Blanco didn't call out the Nat'l Guard, so it was all her fault, etc, etc. But, she did call out the LA Natl Guard, and in her requests, then begging, then demanding...she did want bush to send in the rest of the Nat'l Guard troops, to be called up from different states, hopefully from near-by. He could have done this immediately, but waited until it was too late.

[Nikki Stone 1]

13. So, was it Blum who stalled the paperwork for 5 days?

Blanco requested the troops before the hurricane and Richardson agreed to send his troops BEFORE the hurricane. THe paperwork was sent over the weekend. So why did it take til THURSDAY?

(And don't tell me it was the Postal Service.)

[lindisfarne]

14. There's a BBC interview on this; transcript is at link below

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4710084

Bush didn't sign off until Thursday. Northern Command had
things ready to go before the hurricane hit.

Video of BBC interview:
http://leftandrightfight.com/SeanKellyVid.html 

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. In addition, at the beginning of the storm

when things started to get bad in New Orleans, Mayor Nagin tried to call Bush directly, three different times, but Bush refused to take his calls. Hard to get Federal Assistance when no one is home, I suppose?