It's hard to catch little gems like this one when the story appears over a weekend.
I've got this problem. My usual habit of perusing humorous and political websites over the weekend has side effects. My outrage-ometer goes off. Then I shutdown my computer to go dig weeds or do some cleaning until I feel I have control over some dirty or offensive situation in my life. Certainly it feels that as a citizen and voter, I have no ability to scour away the stains! The best I can do is my bit to shine some light on the bug infestations rampant in every corner of the White House. Today's pestilence:
I was skeptical but pleased to see this headline in Think Progress
FEMA official involved in fake press conference resigns
Can it be that someone in the CheneyBushCo administration is going to take responsibility for his actions? That seems so uncharacteristic. Amazingly, for a Bushie, the man apologized for participating in the fake FEMA news conference.
"It was absolutely a bad decision. I regret it happened. Certainly . . . I should have stopped it," said John P. "Pat" Philbin, FEMA's director of external affairs. "I hope readers understand we're working very hard to establish credibility and integrity, and I would hope this does not undermine it."
As usual, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. 'Resigns' is not quite the way I would have phrased the event. The Director of External Affairs at FEMA, John Philbin, was reported to have served his last day on the job Thursday, Oct 25, by the WaPo in yesterday's paper. Why? Philbin has just been offered a new job - communications director at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Just three days after FEMA is outed for a staging a fake press conference, its Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin lands an "amazing opportunity to head the communications shop at ODNI," according to FEMA’s press secretary Aaron Walker (via email to PRNewser). The Washington Post confirmed the news through Vance Vines, Spokeswoman at ODNI.
Obviously, such a genius at disinformation and propaganda should not be wasted. So he's been promoted.
Meanwhile, I wonder if anyone in the administration will still send a sternly worded letter to FEMA officials about changing the press procedures at FEMA to make sure this doesn't happen again.
A commenter on the Think Progress thread named jnjaycpa sums it up nicely.
Professional wrestlers have more credibility than this administration.