October 28, 2007 10:02 PM
Countdown: FEMA Faker Has Been Foiled
(or write your own caption)
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On Monday's Countdown Keith Olbermann talks with Huffington Post contributor, Lawrence O'Donnell, about the phony FEMA presser last week and the news that one of the perpetrators of that hoax, Pat Philbin, was amazingly denied a scheduled promotion working for the Director of National Intelligence -- which is unheard of in the Bush doctrine of preemptive stupidity.
Olbermann: "...We're told that a high ranking member of the Bush administration reviewed someone's record, found him lacking and then severed ties with him. An event some have long prophesied as the first horseman of the apocalypse."
Nicely done as always, Keith - although you did let your "Yankee apologist" side slip there at the end.
Paid reporters, planted reporters, fake reporters
taking orders
Let me help you understanda
Rubber stamped media propaganda
Mislead the people, mislead the sheeple
-Wackiavelli
The Stockdale Paradox: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
The Conservative Corollary to the Stockdale Paradox: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to ignore the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
While they will promote stupidity and failure that results in death and destruction, media failure can not be tolerated.
Image management is everything, indeed the only thing that our "leaders" (Repug AND Dem) have left.
It matters not that the image is bad, it only matters that you not get caught faking the message.
At least not right away.
If you were going to fire those responsible, wouldn't the Speaker of the House be President?
They only had to sacrifice a PR poof.
Had Chertoff or Brownie's replacement fielded questions at the "press" conference, there would now be nothing but stonewalling.
And maybe the firing of a PR poof.
They wanted to paint a smiley face on FEMA's reponse to the Cali fires to head off the kinds of attacks they got after Katrina. They got caught. The outrage should continue, and someone should find out why the head of FEMA let this happen. Did he not know?
It's his department. He knew. And probably approved this stupidity.
Keith..."honest republican"...wtf is that?I've never heard of such a thing.The Red Sox gloating kinda took away from the weight of this report in my opinion.
Flummoxed indeed!
"Phibber" Philbin, the Phabulous Phaker of PhEMA, has phinally been phoiled.
Don't worry....he'll show up somewhere with a nice fat paycheck. He'll just be out of the public's view.
jimbo92107 @ 8:
did a heckoph a job
Pat Philbin's (could we even make this name up?) next stop? A six figure salary from Halliburton or Blackwater.
Hey bloggers, if you're headed out west, look up the head of FEMA at a real press conference---if any are being held---and ask him what he knew about this press conference before it happened.
Put him on record. He was bound to have known. The shadow of Brownie is all over this.
Snowball @ 11:
As a media perception consultant. I could see that.
I'm sure it has been mentioned in previous threads, but I doubt they made the decision to do this on their own. This only could have happened in an agency where dishonesty was not only tolerated, it was the norm.
As punishment for his agency's fake press conference, Chertoff and his personal assistant were forced to mount to large pieces of evidence found in the raid on Senator Craig's home.
The wildfires of SoCal are the first very publicly visible regional emergency since Katrina. You can bet the higher-ups were not only watching how FEMA was handlng the PR angle, but were pulling the strings. The fake presser might not rise to the horror of Abu Ghraib, but none of the real order-givers are going to go down for it just the same.
Olbermann is one funny dude. He tells it like it is. The bosses are trying to switch him back to sports because they can't allow his kind of honesty to continue.
The thugs are in charge and they don't want any decent people calling them on their thug acts.
(write your own caption)
40 degrees down and 230 to go towards a tandem 'rectal head-stuffing' ritual.
(it's a republican salute of sorts)
"In the first act of honor and accountability, Chertoff and another FEMA dude bow just before the committed Hari Kari in front of the press gaggle."
f the righties and their quest for instant gratification. Trying to get through "today's sale" with the fake presser
And the issue with just sticking to the point in the report was ? ......... *sigh* missed opportunity there, meh to the red socks .......
In the wise words of Larry Craig "I'm not gay.. I've never been gay!"
As it turns out, the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. The force of gravity still applies on planet Earth. And for at least this one day, a minimal standard of punishment for ethical wrongdoing applies to the Bush administration.
For the details, see:
"FEMA PR Fraud Philbin Loses Promotion at DNI."
Severed Hell! He is probably being groomed for a Freedom Medal - or something
No doubt they're just freeing up this guys time so he can become the new Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for post-war Iran.
Why the hell are they firing the little guy in this matter. This is not going away because they fire this ass hole that was told to do this.
The man will be stashed in a back room someplace, with full honor pay and go on to the next criminal activity they plan.
Bush needs to FIRE that ugly murdering ass FEMA director and while he is at it, get his ignorant ass out of the white house and take Cheney, Condi and all the rest of the criminals with him.
Why did this guy get fired, exactly? I mean, I know what he did wrong, but why did they fire him?
They've done everything wrong, and they've done it in the most corrupt manner. Why is this the specific instance where they're going to fire someone?
I think these FEMA guys reasonably believed that it was no big deal. They were probably not compleat idiots and assumed nobody would notice the difference. Especially the Fox news audience.
How much tax payers money was invested (charged) (ripped off) in this production by FEMA.
And don't we pay Dana Perino to lie to us ?
This is how cynical I've become....how to you know this wasn't staged knowing they'd get caught, thereby discrediting yet another "government bureaocracy", you know those things republicans hate so much? Yes, I'm afraid that's how paranoid and distrustful I've become. The GOP would like to privatize FEMA, just like everything else, so why not make them look bad. A PR guy is a rather small price to pay. Just wondering. It's the very audacity of this staged press conference that makes me question. I'm convinced that nothing is beneath the Bush administration, including staging a press conference knowing they'd get caught to make a government organization look bad. In the meantime, doesn't the republican governator look just great?!?! Just a reminder, the republicans are desperate at this point. There is no dirty trick they would consider off limits if it meant keeping them in power, and that includes staging a press conference and sacrificing a few underlings.
Sack Skeletor...
If a partisan douchebag as big and inflated as Chertoff is saying this, you know it's gotta be bad:
Also, is the bit about unambiguously clear Anglo Saxon prose a reference to Beowolf?
Caption:
Is there a brown-noser in the house? We need to send out another report.
It’s his department. He knew. And probably approved this stupidity.
I was thinking the same thing - Skeletor didn't count on the whole thing blowing up in his face like that.
The bottom line is, there is no "getting over" FEMA's failure in their response during Hurricane Katrina. No matter how they respond positively anywhere else, it's going to always stink like shyt in comparison to Katrina, because there is no "getting over" willful disregard of human beings, and let's not kid ourselves, the goverment's responses are looking more and more like they were based on race, as opposed to mere incompetence.
th'rev @ 7:
An honest republican is a rare breed; A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Medals of Freedom for everyone at FEMA!!
FEMA = Federal Excuses & Mixups Administration
And yet, the press continues to take these clowns at their word.
StCyrlyMe @ 26:
BushCo ain't firing nobody...Dick "Shotgun" Cheney does all the hiring and firing...and those two fucktards should be tried for treason...the entire admistration should be tried for treason!
The Political Junkie @ 34:
Of course it was based on race...look at this administrations(and the GOP's) track record with black folks...Bushy has not met with one prominent African-American leader since he stole the presidency, at least not that I remember anyway...he thinks that by hiring Powell and Rice that will make everything hunky-dory...riiiight...And I think that Bushy don't give a damn about ANYONE that ain't A) Republican B) Rich C) White D) Bible thumpin fascist neo-con pigdogs! Not necesarily in that order!!!
Bob Beaverpelt @ 5:
...or would she also be fired?
I find this hard to believe. Next, Republicans will claim that the earth is round and revolves around the sun. Those wacky guys...
What's the problem? We have a fake president, fake vice-pres, fake congress, fake scotus, why not a fake FEMA too....
Marc @ 2:
By George, I think you've got it!!!!
so why is anyone surprised to see a fake press conference from the current administration. did everyone forget bush's fake press thing with the troops via satellite?
I thought that fake press conferences were the status quo as well. Likewise fake interviews and prepackaged press releases and packaged "news videos" that are propaganda.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Fake_FEMA_news_conference_director_gets_10...
Apparently the guy lost a promotion. Aww... too bad.
DaveTheAngryRhodeIslander @ 41:
I'm thinkin not...the sun revolves around THEM, remember? For they are truly the bright spot in the universe...
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