At FEMA, Even The Pathetic Is Funny

One thing FEMA deserves credit for now is that at least they are trying to do something about the wildfires. This is completely different from two years ago when they failed miserably at helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Now they want to look like they care, though not actually to go all the way. Perhaps during the next disaster they will start telling the truth, instead of holding fake news conferences.

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California.

The agency _ much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago _ arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency's deputy director.

The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous.

"I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee.

The situation is so sad and pathetic, but I just have to laugh. Due to the incompetence of the Bush Administration, the once effective and dependable agency is a shell of its former self. Although the news conference was an outrageous maneuver on their part, does it really even matter? What is FEMA going to do anyway? They are following the lead of the delusional President, so why not let the mentally unstable federal agency pat itself on the back for a job-not-done?

Honestly, I can't wait for January 2009. Not only will the nation breathe a collective sigh of relief, I'll have to see comedy writers actually work for a living, because the shit we see now just types itself.

Fox Fans The Flames Of Fear

Local and national news channels have been doing a good job of covering the heart breaking stories of people that have lost their homes and in a few cases their lives from the massive fires in Southern California. Fox News is busy stoking the fears of their brainwashed audience instead. Even though most of the TV crowd loves this "if it bleeds (or burns), it leads" but they still do a decent job of reporting and not opining their politics. Fox News on the other hand...doesn't give a shit.

From RawStory:

Fox & Friends, the conservative cable channel, was panned Wednesday for breathlessly reporting a sketchy, four-year-old FBI memo as if it offered new information linking America's enemies in the "Global War on Terror" with a plot to burn down southern California.

The morning team was back at it Thursday, as anchor Alisyn Camerota introduced a segment on the fires that again mischaracterized and over-inflated warnings from a 2003 interview with an al Qaeda detainee.

Camerota said Fox's fear-mongering was "based on some information the FBI sent to local law enforcement in California and other Western states ... that there was a plot afoot to set three or four different" fires. Left unsaid by the Fox news-reader was that the FBI warning was sent more than four years ago, described a potential plot that made no mention of California, could not be proven accurate and did not raise alarms from forest-fire officials at the time. (Such caveats all were included in an Associated Press report on the warning at the time.)

Seriously, how do they get away with this crap? Do they care about their integrity, even just a little bit?

Bush Can Call The Fires A Disaster, But Can He Take Responsibility?

George Bush rarely takes responsibility for the myriad messes he makes, so why would anything be different when 1,500 homes and hundreds of thousands of acres goes up in smoke. Bush is traveling to the Golden State tomorrow to "survey" the damage, probably even landing the plane this time. But why does he have a part in this? Well it all comes down to his adherence to ideology that it is better to drown the government in a bathtub, or a sea of flames. When you do not have a government that can serve the people, bad things inevitably occur.

From The Huffington Post:

The Government Accountability Office, Congress's nonpartisan auditor, issued stark warnings earlier this year on shortcomings in the administration's plans to fight fires.

In a June report, the GAO report faulted the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, and other agencies for failing to accomplish the "fundamental step" of planning out what assets and resources were needed to prepare for approaching fire seasons. Meanwhile, disaster response problems that have become all too familiar in recent years were also identified: administration officials placing resources where they were politically expedient, and using poorly performing contractors to accomplish critical national tasks.

The Orange County Register today appeared to show how these warnings manifested. The paper faulted federal planners for erecting red tape that prevented the use of more DC-10 airplanes to drop flame retardant on areas that were on fire.

"It would be nice to have more such planes available, don't you think?" an editorial in the paper asked. "If the federal government had had its way, even this one almost certainly wouldn't be flying this week....One can understand a certain amount of caution from the Forest Service, but this is bureaucratic overkill."

The pertinent government agencies were staffed by Bush's friends and friends of friends. Naturally people with no experience with what they are charged to oversee do not plan out what needs to be done in an emergency. Therefore, when the brush started burning, no one was able to help local authorities deal with a major calamity. This is the same thing that happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

So while the PR aspect will be handled better this time by the White House Press Secretary, the institutional problems remain. No matter what Bush says on television tomorrow from Southern California, nothing will be changed. And when the next disaster comes along, expect the same dismal results.

Glenn Beck: Heartless And Irrelevant

Since the moment CNN foolishly put Glenn Beck on the air, the crap coming out of his mouth has offended millions of people. Yet CNN continues to broadcast his show despite terrible ratings and ridiculous behavior. He is quickly becoming their own fatheaded Ann Coulter. She'll say anything to sell her books and he will do the same to get people to watch his sad excuse for a television show. Yesterday he turned his venom towards the hundreds (if not thousands by the time its over) that have lost their homes due to brush fires raging in Southern California.

From Media Matters:

On the October 22 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, host Glenn Beck stated, "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today." Beck continued: "There are a few people that hate America. But I don't think the Democrats are those. I think there are those posing as Democrats that are like that." Beck's comment came as forest fires ravaged parts of Southern California, leaving one person dead, four firefighters wounded, and forcing about 1,500 people from their homes, according to The New York Times.

Beck's comment immediately followed his statement that "we're all one America" and "just because I disagree with you doesn't mean you hate America, and I love America. We all love America. We just disagree on how we should function." Beck had been distinguishing his views from those of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who, according to the Financial Times, "has urged Republican presidential candidates to capture the political centre ground ahead of next year's election by focusing on healthcare reform and education." Beck criticized Schwarzenegger's proposed strategy as "not the way to win on any front" and offered the following clarification: "When I say on the air, and I've said it a lot lately, that we need to come together, and we need to get back into the center, we're being pushed on to the edges -- I want you to understand, that is not on policies. I don't mean that we come in the center on policies. We come to the center on principles."

Not only is he a freakish maniac, he's a hypocrite as well. Even though he said it on his radio show CNN is still responsible for him being on their network. Coming to the center would be a huge change in our political climate and to some degree, that is what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to do. Beck trashes Arnold for his efforts and heartlessly goes after people that supposedly voted for him just because they happen to live in CA and their homes are being burned....therefore they hate America.

WTF is that?!? Seriously, does this man have even a hint of a conscience? I know what those people are going through. Two years ago I watched my mom's house threatened by the Chatsworth fire but miraculously the winds were light when the flames got to the area. If the conditions were what they are now, there would be no home. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone that has been affected by these fires....and I want to demand that CNN pull Beck off the air.