Dumb and Dumberer--FEMA strikes again
FEMA has proven that its previously disastrous track record repairing New Orleans after Katrina was no accident. They have now added Wag-the-Dog deceptiveness to their grab bag of multiple shades of incompetence. To "aid in getting information out" about the Southern California wildfires FEMA scheduled a short notice (15 minutes) emergency press conference in which Vice Admiral Harvey Johnson, FEMA's Deputy Director was interviewed by reporters. Sounds responsive?
Unfortunately the press conference was staged. All of the questions (which were softball anyway) came from FEMA staff pretending to be reporters. The genuine reporters were given an 800 number to call in and listen.
It reminds me of Orson Wells's infamous War of the Worlds broadcast.
It's nice to know that FEMA employees know enough about technology to fake a conference call, but the whole process appears to be lacking any sense of ethical grounding, reaching a new low of perfidy, even for the Bush administration, hitherto noted for taking 1st prize in the morality limbo Olympics.
The White House chastised the FEMA employees and the chief of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, also verbally scolded them.
I probably would have sent them to jail or at least lined up the ringleaders including the Admiral of all Vices Johnson who clearly should have known better and had them conduct a real press conference in which the idiots could publicly take the blame and apologize to the public.
Responsible confession is more soothing to the soul than faceless accusations followed by minimal or no meaningful punitive action.
Posted on October 28, 2007