National Guard Headed to New Orleans.... wait, say what? Waiter... I didnt order a second serving of this dish...

Thats right, its not a new news format that brings you up-to-the-minute facts from the scene of ten months ago, its really a new headline!
See Here
Here
and Here


While not actually a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, it sets a bad precedent.

Desensitizing American citizens, even unintentionally, to the precense of armed, uniformed, military personell on our streets is something that, once its happened, we will never be able to undo.
This is a short road, to a bad end and we as a nation have already dusted our feet in the dirt of it far too much in the last two decades. This is one more step we dont need to take. One more example that does not need to be set by one city, for the rest of the cities.

According to the yahoo article I linked the Big Easy has 1,375 officers, compared with about 1,750 before Katrina, and they had a pre-Katrina population of 465,000 has rebounded to about half that size.
Six years ago Albuquerque New Mexico had a population of 448,607 - As one of the fastest growing cities in the United States I suspect it has at least caught up to, if not passed, New Orleans pre-Katrina population - It is easily a greater population that New Orleans current population. Last I heard the Albuquerque Police Department had around 1100 officers - A significant shortage over what they feel they need to successfully police the city. (A city, I might add, which has prompted LAPD SWAT veterans to comment they are glad they dont have to work in it.)
However, the National Guard has not, ever, been called to patrol the streets in lieu of the police.

New Orleans does not need the National Guard - If Ray Nagin is such an ineffective leader that he cant get the city police to rally to his call and crack down on crime, then Ray nagin needs to grow a pair instead of looking to his mommy... pardon, Govenor Blanco, to bail him out.