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Here is some food for the pirahna... what do we think about the Governor of Louisiana's order for her soldiers to shoot to kill in New Orleans?

*Leans back taking a handfull of chocolates*

I'm not going to pretend that I'm comfortable with it. I don't like the idea of turning New Orleans into an effective war zone. Right now it's conjuring images of the race riots of the 60s and machine guns placed around Capitol Hill. (And riots are exactly what lethal force could manage to spur in a city where the remaining population is already on edge.) I don't even want to think about what could happen in the event of a mistaken shooting of an innocent, which is a very real possibility.

On the other hand, I recognize the need to restore some semblance of order in that city. Given that we've had reports of people shooting at aid workers, the situation in New Orleans is clearly deteriorating. My consul, if I were in a position to give it, would have been to wait on the 'shoot to kill' orders until we were certain that less aggressive couldn't do the job.

*Walks in and grabs a glass of whiskey*

D'ya mind?
*sits. Legs crossed*
Wasn't it known in advance that the storm was intense and headed our way? Wasn't it known that there were thousands with no means to evacuate?
And to add my two paranoid bits: What about the first shooter? One man on a rooftop with a rifle stops the American military from aiding tens of thousands of our own people? Is that right or have I missed something?

And, if there's any justice in this world, heads will roll for it.

*furiously stubs out a cigarette before lighting another* This problem wasn't the result of some ingrained flaw in the American system though. The woeful lack of response can be traced to a much more immediate source.

This administration and its allies have been hostile to the idea of using government to serve the pubic from day one. They've denigrated the federal system as being a problem rather than a solution to problems. Given that, is it any wonder that when we needed the federal government to step up it wasn't there?

Since its integration into the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's usefulness as a natural disaster response agency has been in decline. It doesn't help that the head of that agency was utterly unqualified to hold such a position.

The U.S.S. Bataan, which has six operating rooms, hospital beds, and the capacity to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been floating in the Gulf Coast since last Monday. The fact that it wasn't ordered in to aid New Orleans is in and of itself a massive failure.

And I'm not even going to touch on cuts in levee maintenance funding.

This isn't the kind of systemic problem that we're trying to address here; this is a failure of the neo-conservative ideology. The best way to prevent this in the future is to unseat a dangerous, anti-government ideology from the American political scene.

I think that the damage is too severe too. I think the system needs to be hauled out of the water and placed in dry dock for repairs. I don't think that we can achieve that with our current captain though.

The Supreme Court has ever been impotent in actually controlling the government, they strike down a state law, yet have proven incapable of stopping federal legislature effecctively. With the current consolidation of power under the Executive office, the Supreme Court will continue to dwindle in power, until they are no more than an advisory body, or a body for controlling states.
This isn't a recent trend.

And Franklin D. Roosevelt walked all over their condemnations of his New Deal.
They struck down most of the Patriot Act, yet still the laws and proceedures it created remain.
The Supreme Court is currently inconsequential, on a federal level, let the President appoint an entirely new series of justices, so long as the court lacks power, it will only serve for PR. rolleyes