Actions speak

Employees do the darndest things, don't they? Even homeland security chief Michael Chertoff, he of Hurricane Katrina fame, found the conduct of staffers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be "dumb" and "inappropriate." Of course, we're talking about the phony press conference staged by FEMA earlier this week to discuss the government's response to the Southern California wildfires that destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands to evacuate. At the fake press conference, FEMA employees played the roles of reporters and asked softball-type questions to a top agency official who was, of course, laudatory about the federal government's response. But the outraged comments of Chertoff and some other high officials are simply theater, much as the fake press conference. The Bush administration has no understanding of the role of the press and no respect for its responsibilities as agents of the people of the United States. While they may say they are outraged, all the FEMA workers did was demonstrate what the Bush administration is actually thinking. That's what really makes them angry.