This is how you do it.

[Red Harvest]

I like the initial reports of this Lt. General who is taking charge of the operations in New Orleans. Relief Leadership Arrives

from CNN

"He came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving," Nagin said in an interview Thursday night with a local radio station.

The three-star general directed the deployment of an estimated 1,000 National Guard troops from a New Orleans street corner Friday, making it clear that it was a humanitarian relief operation. Getting food and water to the people at the city's convention center was a difficult process, Honore said

and

He ordered all he encountered to point their weapons down, said CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr, who was with the general. Honore repeatedly went up to military vehicles, National Guardsmen standing sentry and even to New Orleans police officers, telling them to please point their weapons down and reminding them that they were not in Iraq.

This is what I expected to see by Wednesday. Glad to see somebody getting the job done. I've been surprised by the relative paucity of forces in the city until the past 24 hours. No wonder there was no security. No one to direct, few forces on hand.

[Strike For The South]

[Kagemusha]

Now you guys have a crisis time organisator in the ground there.I sincerely hope he can manage things there.

[Azi Tohak]

Sick 'em scooter!

Good for the Lt. General! Nice to see some action.

Azi

[Red Harvest]

He seems to be doing excellent work, people are getting moved, people are getting fed, people are getting water.

Despite folks complaining about those who failed to evacuate (blaming them for their plight) from what I've seen until about Thursday the response effort couldn't have moved out even 10,000 folks after the storm. Completely inadequate considering there was still some land access to the city.

[Kagemusha]

Red thats nice to hear. I hoped that a military leader would put some sense in that chaos because he is used to working in that kind of enviroment,where he doesnt exactly know whats happening everywhere.

[Aenlic]

Apparently, Lt. General Honore has been trying to direct things with a dead battery in his cell phone, since late yesterday. No one thought to bring more batteries to a city without electricity.

From CNN this morning, in an interview with the Louisiana governor:

"The stench of the dead on the streets is significant...The General in charge has a cell phone with a dead battery for communication. This is not the kind of communications the US military is used to. This is why this is taking so long. There is no infrastructure." --Louisiana Gov, Saturday morning, CNN.

[Kagemusha]

What the hell? where are the satellite phones?

[Aenlic]

That's what I'd like to know. And I'm sure the general would like to know as well.

The fallout from this is going to go on for years. I expect Congress will be able to keep themselves happily amused for years holding hearings and passing the blame about like a badminton shuttlecock, with it amazingly landing on no one.

[Kagemusha]

That's what I'd like to know. And I'm sure the general would like to know as well.

The fallout from this is going to go on for years. I expect Congress will be able to keep themselves happily amused for years holding hearings and passing the blame about like a badminton shuttlecock, with it amazingly landing on no one.

That is simply unbelivable.I thought the whole of US military was equipped with them.

[Fabolous]

I was very pleased with this mans work. He is doing an excellent job.
The US military uses satellite phones from my expirence. That is strange. May be the Lou. gov was misinformed?

[Aenlic]

I don't think it's the general's fault at all. I suppose it's possible that the governor was misinformed.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the problem is actually a matter of the paradigm. The military expects a need to setup and coordinate its own infrastructure in the field, during war, in a foreign country. They are very good at it. But this is a modern U.S. city we're talking about here. I think it could very likely be that certain assumptions about "the way things are or should be" here inside the U.S. got in the way of assessing the reality of the situation, a sort of institutional cognitive dissonance.

[Xiahou]

It sounds like this general has basically had to short-circuit the governor's authority over the national guard, as a state's governor is normally supposed to be in charge over the guard- not a Pentagon general. How common is this?

[Husar]

It sounds like this general has basically had to short-circuit the governor's authority over the national guard, as a state's governor is normally supposed to be in charge over the guard- not a Pentagon general. How common is this?

Who cares as long as he can do a good job? I´d rather have someone do a good job he is not supposed to do than someone else failing completely.

[Red Harvest]

It sounds like this general has basically had to short-circuit the governor's authority over the national guard, as a state's governor is normally supposed to be in charge over the guard- not a Pentagon general. How common is this?

From day 1 or 0 or -1 or -2 it had not made sense to have this be a state run operation anyway. Trying to assemble a few Guard troops for command by the Governor in a crisis like this? The numbers aren't even there to do it, even with "perfect" performance. Come on, that's a recipe for disaster, I don't care what state you are talking about. You need someone forward in charge, and yes, I do feel it takes military authority to do this on the ground.

[sharrukin]

The state of Louisiana is in a state of devastation as is mississippi. They are facing damaged bridges, power outages, and motorists stranded along highways due to gas shortages. Without power the gas stations are useless, hospitals are seriously hampered, and transport without fuel is a joke.

They have 750,000+ state residents who are spread over 10 or more other states and pouring into distant refugee centers. This doesn't include the city of New Orleans itself. The governor wouldn't have the resources or the authority, to deal with this if everything was working perfectly fine, much less in the current situation. She would be irresponsible in trying to retain command of the guard under such conditions. There needs to be an overall command and no state governor can provide that.

[Red Harvest]

The state of Louisiana is in a state of devastation as is mississippi. They are facing damaged bridges, power outages, and motorists stranded along highways due to gas shortages. Without power the gas stations are useless, hospitals are seriously hampered, and transport without fuel is a joke.

They have 750,000+ state residents who are spread over 10 or more other states and pouring into distant refugee centers. This doesn't include the city of New Orleans itself. The governor wouldn't have the resources or the authority, to deal with this if everything was working perfectly fine, much less in the current situation. She would be irresponsible in trying to retain command of the guard under such conditions. There needs to be an overall command and no state governor can provide that.

Yep, that's what I've been saying from the start. Texas is struggling just with the people that have come here already. Texans want to help, everyone I know is trying to do something. Most of us are stuck waiting for when we can be put to use.

I still don't believe much of the nation has any idea of the scale of this.