Why Governor Blanco needed Bush's approval for the NM NG...

[jmowreader]

to help in her state.

The National Guard is a governor's private army, standing ready to deploy as ordered by the governor. However, a governor can only deploy his or her troops to areas under his or her authority--and a governor's authority ends at the state line.

If a governor wants to deploy his or her National Guard troops to help in another state, a request has to go from the governor to the chief of the National Guard Bureau to federalize the troops. After the troops are federalized, the commander in chief of the military (right now, that's Shrub) has to issue a deployment order allowing the troops to travel to the receiving state.

Normally, once the deployment order is issued the troops will be attached to the receiving state's National Guard and will come under the control of the state Adjutant General (the four-star general who runs that state's National Guard; this guy is like the Chief of Staff of the Army at the state level) and the governor. So attached, the governor can use these troops as if they were organic to the state's National Guard.

Unless the troops are federalized, they can't leave their state on official business, and once they're federalized they're under the command of the pResident.

Bush's Guernica is a different story. In wartime, a state's National Guard can be federalized specifically to fight in the war, and once removed from the war, preparations for the war or recovery from it they can't be used by the federal government for any other purpose. IOW, if Bush decided to send the Missouri National Guard, currently on duty in Iraq (I'm assuming the Missouri National Guard is in Iraq; if they aren't just fill in the name of any state but Louisiana), to Baton Rouge to assist with the relief effort, he couldn't UNLESS the governor of Missouri specifically donated his troops to the relief effort. If he wanted to be a grade-A asshole, he could come up and tell Bush, "you're not getting them; if my troops aren't in Iraq they need to be in Missouri because I need them myself." 'Course, Shrub would just leave them in Iraq.

[rocktivity]

1. But Bush had no business trying to take NG control away from Blanco

Normally, once the deployment order is issued the troops will be attached to the receiving state's National Guard and will come under the control of the state Adjutant General...the governor.

And ABNORMALLY, the commander in chief of the military (right now, that's Shrub) tries to blackmail the governor into giving up her military powers in order to get the aid she needs!

:mad:
rocknation

[jmowreader]

2. Welcome to Bush Bizarro World

In Bush Bizarro World, America is a dictatorship and Russia a democracy.

In Bush Bizarro World, America's dictator screams "state's rights, state's rights" until a state actually attempts to exercise its rights (assisted suicide, medicinal marijuana, National Guard troops) and then he rushes in to exert federal power.

In Bush Bizarro World, when the dictator gets off his private 747 carrying his dog, the smartest one is the dog.