Not only did interbureaucratic red-tape prevent “nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes” from partaking in extinguishing the numerous brush fires this past week, but FEMA actually staged a press conference earlier this week — passing it off as if it was the real deal.
FEMA employees acted as if they were members of the press, asking questions to the director as if they were independent news organizations, all while being video taped and televised live on cable networks.
The real members of the press were dialed in via teleconference and were not allowed to ask questions.
It’s a good thing the federal government doesn’t manage roads and highways… I can only imagine the traffic jams and mismanagement that would transpire.
See also: Land Socialism: Playing With Fire and The Rich and the Fires
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What surprised me were the denunciations of this by the Home Security department – brutal attacks really – as if this practice were utterly unknown otherwise in Bush’s impeccable bureaucracy. Must be some internal struggle going on.
I think the Department of Fatherland Security is so touchy, not because of what FEMA did, but because they did it so badly and transparently that they got caught. It was amateur hour.
One of the essential elements of today’s theater of fear and imminent danger (of which the Department of Fatherland Security is the writer, producer and director all rolled into one) is gritty realism. FEMA apparently doesn’t understand that.
At least they could have had the decency to invite some embedded reporters!
I’m only grateful that apparently FEMA is as incompetent at running a scam like this as it is in accomplishing its purported mission.
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