Checking the Legal Precedents, Twice at 
Least: Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia has asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to explore the “legal framework governing a President’s power to use the regular armed forces to restore public order” in situations like the “large-scale, protracted emergency” created by Hurricane Katrina or something other than a natural disaster. Warner, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says Congress will be doing the same. In Warner’s view, the “only entity in the United States that has the personnel, equipment, training, and logistical capacity to lend support to the National Guard and other state entities in an emergency of this scale is the Department of Defense.”
The B-21 Raider stealth bomber was recently flown, for the first time, by an operational pilot as part of its flight test process, the Air Force said June 11. And a top Pentagon official said the move to bring operational testing into the B-21 process earlier than normal shows the…