Homeland Response (by Matt Singer)

With Louisiana recovering from Hurrican Katrina, oil prices are rising. And this event is only proving too clearly that Bush's leadership has failed again.

For the past 6 months, Montana's Governor Brian Schweitzer has been publicly questioning the dispatch of state National Guard troops across the planet to fight wars. It turned out that this year, Montana could tackle its fires without as much Guard assistanc, but Louisiana is facing some serious problems as a result of a lack of equipment.

Amazingly, a couple years ago, this simply wasn't a partisan issue. Gary Hart and the Heritage Foundation agreed that the proper role of the National Guard, with members all over the nation, is to respond to local emergencies and be a first line of defense at home. But this Administration sent the Guard to Iraq and has left local Guard leadership in Louisiana so nervous that they are speaking out against Pentagon policy, not exactly a common occurence in chain-of-command situations.

Clearly, the Bush Administration's policies have failed us again, with a clearly human cost to their incompetence.

(My apologies for my lack of posting yesterday. I got quite busy and lacked internet access for most of the day. I promise it will get better.)

--Matt Singer

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