It's a lie!

Don't let anyone tell you that there aren't enough Guardsmen or equipment to do State duty because of the War in Iraq. The equipment issued to Guard units is based on the Federal mission. If they can use it in a State status, bonus. Just how many fire engines do you thin there in the guard? There are some but a lot of it is State issued equipment or located at remote training sites.
California is one of the places most Emergency Planners go to learn how to do emergency preparedness planning and operations. The school at San Louis Obispo is the best. They spend several days work shopping the roles of all the players in an emergency and then have a big CPX where it is all put into action. I swear they are the best.
California has a system where Guardsmen can go on State Active Duty in small stages or full time.They are used to reinforce the civlian agencies. back to the fire engines and dump trucks. I will bet that the State of California has more fire engines and dump trucks than the entire Guard.
I am fully confident that California can and will respond to this emergency the best they can. The Guard there will do their best and in the long run they will recover.
As for the President going there to visit, I have never found that a visitor hurts anything we were doing and in fact the soldiers, firemen, paramedics and policemen will appreciate that he cared enough to come there. The Lt Governor of California is an idiot and needs to sit down and shut up.