I Think He Missed Something

I see <a href="http://governor.mt.gov/governor/govbio.asp">Gov. Brian Schweitzer</a> is again on his high horse about how <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/06/10/build/state/50-fire-troops.inc">bad the fire season is going to be</a> and how he wants our National Guard troops back to fight it.<br />n<br />n a. How does he know it's going to be a bad fire season before hand?<br />n b. I wasn't aware of the fact that we had National Guard troops only to fight fires. I mean don't get me wrong the National Guard is under State authority <u>unless</u> it is called into federal service like now so obviously they have a larger purpose in the scheme of things than fighting fires. I must have missed something here cause the Guv thinks they are fire fighting troops.<br />n<br />nI kind of wonder if the Guv might have missed a <a href="http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3840982,00.html">little something recently</a>.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>With fresh snow blanketing mountaintops and unseasonably cool June temperatures around the West, federal forecasters are backing away from previous predictions of a busier-than-normal fire season.<br />n <br />n"Of course we are going to have a fire season, but the large fire danger has moderated and it's not going to be as dire as we first thought," said Larry Van Bussum, national fire weather operations coordinator for the National Weather Service.</blockquote><br />n<br />nSo is the Guv really interested in getting the troops back or is he just trying to make a national name for himself for criticizing the President's policies? I think I know the answer to that one, do you?<br />n<br />n<b>Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past. Willa Cather</b>