I know you hate to have your facts disputed, but in this case, you are wrong.
Nothing prevents the President from declaring a National Emergency and sending U.S. Military members into the street of America. Nothing prevents it, except intelligence and integrity. Something every President, including Bush, has shown for decades. Not only can the President of the United States declare a Nationl Emergency, under that emergency, can nationalize every business in the country. Under the authority of a National Emergency, the President has almost unlimted power. It is one of the reasons that position is the most important in the world. It is NOT a popularity contest, and should not be treated as an Idol contest.
Having said that, pending activation of a National Emergency, the U.S. Military is forbidden to sending armed troops off of their bases/posts. It is called the Posse Comitatus Act, signed into law in 1897. The Posse Comitatus Act was passed to remove the Army from civilian law enforcement and to return it to its role of defending the borders of the United States, based on fears developed when the military guarded election booths. Of course, should the President declare a National Emergency, the military will be on a street corner near you. Perfectly legal, the way the system was designed to work! Oh, contrary to the television show NCIS, U.S. Military Police are prohibited from investigating crimes against the militay off base/post. They can assist local police, but have zero authority. Without written agreement with the local police, they aren't even allowed to carry weapons in their holsters.
As far as life being too precious to fund the military, those who defend millions of Americans from terrorist, the very terror who have a primary goal to cut YOUR head off, after gang raping you and your grandmother, that is pollyanna trying to exit in a real world. Have you forgot the photos on the net where they did exactly that on the streets of Lebanon? They don't how nice you feel or anti-military you are. The military is the reason you get to sit in your house and be a member of the LP. Without it, you would be in the water fields planting rice and bamboo. Had the Japanese succeed, after Pearl Harbor, do you believe that they would not have destroyed the American way of life and implemented your? Visualize the Japan before 1941, without rebuilding from the the U.S. That would be your way of life, if you had your way!
Should the military be outside our borders, destroying facists and terrorist? Naw, they should stay inside our borders and let millions die. Your life is too precious. Those hundreds of thousands that were butchered by Sadam were a waste of resources. I would agree with you that those dumb jews in the concentration camps deserved to die; why should Americans be wasting their resources. I also agree with you that those in Darfor and Gahna deserve to have their heads chopped off, and be skinned alive. After all, it is the U.S. Military that leads the world into all those areas, we can prove it by the number of graves of those who died hiring themselves out to other countries. What a waste of resources. Your life is too precious. No matter how many need to suffer.
By the way, you are wrong about the Reserves also. The purpose of Reserves are to support the U.S. Military; providing manpower when required. How do you think they become a member of the Reserves? You first become part of the military, then when your enlistment is up, you serve the remainder of your required military time in the Reserves. The Reserves defend nothing, they just practice being as the best they can. They, as the Reserves will NEVER do anything other then that! They will NEVER defend America as Reservist. Maybe, some day as members of the U.S. Military, but never as members of the Reserve.
Are you confused on the difference between the National Guard and the U.S. Reserves? Probably so!
Sorry, facts are facts and the truth is more important then misconception.