PRESIDENT ENDS VACATION TWO DAYS EARLY!!!

[mburbank]

See, now I'm really worried. This can't be about the hurricane. It can't be about 72 dollar a barell oil. It can't be about 1.1 million more people in poverty, or the floundering constitution in Iraq. Something really serious must be going down. I mean, to cut two days off a five week vacation... I'm thinking the rapture must be coming.

[kellychaos]

Sixy-something percent of the Louisiana National Guard is in Iraq serving our country's best interests :/

[mburbank]

They should take a French vacation like the Presidink. They deserve it!

[GAsux]

No offense, but just for semantics sake I believe the figures are the other way around. If I'm not mistaken, roughly 60% of LA's gaurd is HOME, while some 40% is deployed. The other states in the area have similiar numbers and none have more than 50% of their manpower deployed to Iraq.

Not that it makes a difference, but just wanted to add that. I'll dig for the numbers.

[kellychaos]

Although you're closer in percentages, the fact remains that only about half the number left in-state are allowed, by procedure, to serve in active hurricane relief while the remainder of those in-state are left on stand-by. This leaves roughly a third each to tour in Iraq, actively serve in hurrican relief and on stand-by.

LINK (http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/082905Katrina_National_Guard.php)