Reuters and AFP photos
"President" Bush, flanked by action-movie star -- er, Repugnican California Governor (I'm still not used to it...) Arnold Schwarzenegger, came to fire-ravaged California on Thursday to "inspire" us. As if we Californians didn't already have enough problems...
Hope keeps on springing
After the members of the Bush regime stole the presidential election of 2000, did nothing to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (yes, "President" Bush had been warned about 9/11 the month before it happened, but he was on vacation at the ranch at the time and couldn't be bothered), started the bogus Vietraq War in 2003, and just allowed almost 2,000 Americans*, most of them black and most of them in Louisiana, to die in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 -- and in general have acted like the viruses that they are, turning the once-great United States of America into a (war) machine that no longer supports a majority middle class but that instead makes the tiny minority who already are filthy rich even filthier richer and the rest of us poorer -- Americans lately have been giddy that the Bush regime actually appears to maybe actually have been doing its fucking job where the recent Southern California wildfires are concerned.
It's hilarious -- the Bush regime has been so utterly fucking derelict of its duties to all but the richest of Americans that when it actually kind of does something, anything for us commoners, the members of the Bush regime expect gold fucking medals for doing their fucking jobs. The entire tone of this Associated Press news story -- headlined "Bush Touts Federal Response to Wildfires" -- clearly indicates that Emperor Bush expects us commoners to grovel at his feet for actually acting, for once, in our best interests. You know, for doing his job, the job for which he never initially was elected (and thus for which he never legitimately was "re"-elected) but which is his responsibility to do anyway, since he is the current occupant of the White House.
Of course, it was us Californians who have really handled our wildfires. Yes, we've had a lot of help from generous folks from out of state, but we Californians have known for some time now -- at least since Hurricane Katrina -- that as long as the Bush regime is in control, we're pretty much on our own where natural disasters are concerned, and so we've been prepared to have to act without any help from the Bush regime, which is too busy stealing billions and billions of our tax dollars via the Vietraq War and its bullshit "war on terror" that are making us Americans much more likely, not less likely, to be the targets of terrorist attacks in the future, which is exactly what the members of the Bush regime and their supporters want: perpetual war, because perpetual war is a fabulous fucking distraction that allows the rich to continue to steal every fucking penny from us commoners (and to do such things as to spy on us, too, just in case we might actually decide to get off our overfed asses and revolt against our plutocratic overlords).
Of course, with the recent California wildfires the members of the Bush regime just couldn't pass up the opportunity to continue to treat us common Americans with the complete and utter contempt that they have shown us since they stole the presidential election of 2000 (if the American democracy was born in 1776, it died in December 2000, when the five members of the U.S. Supreme Court who had been appointed by Repugnican presidents, not the American people, put George W. Fucking Bush into the White House). Reports Reuters:
The main U.S. disaster-response agency apologized [yesterday] for having its employees pose as reporters in a news briefing on California's wildfires that no journalists attended.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, still struggling to restore its image after the bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, issued the apology after The Washington Post published details of the Tuesday briefing.
"We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment," FEMA deputy administrator Harvey Johnson, who conducted the briefing, said in a statement. "Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many questions we have received."
No actual reporter attended the hastily called news conference in person, although some camera crews arrived late to film incidental shots, officials said.
A spokeswoman for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has authority over FEMA, called the incident "inexcusable and offensive to the secretary."
"We have made it clear that stunts such as this will not be tolerated or repeated," spokeswoman Laura Keehner said. She said the department was considering reprimands.
The White House said: "It was just a bad way to handle it." The Bush administration has faced criticism previously over accusations it masked public relations efforts as journalism.
FEMA had called the briefing with about 15 minutes notice as federal officials headed for Southern California to oversee firefighting and rescue efforts. Reporters were also given a phone number to listen in but could not ask questions.
But with no reporters attending and a FEMA video feed being carried live by some television networks, FEMA press employees posed questions for Johnson that included: "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?"
Johnson replied that he was "very happy with FEMA's response so far," according to [yesterday's] Post account, which FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker confirmed.
Johnson also told the briefing that the agency had the benefit of "good leadership" and other factors, "none of which were present at Katrina." Chertoff was head of the Homeland Security Department during Katrina.
FEMA's administrator during Katrina, Michael Brown, resigned amid widespread criticism over his handling of the disaster, despite U.S. President George W. Bush's initial declaration that he was doing a "heck of a job."
E-mails between Brown and his colleagues over the course of the storm revealed a preoccupation with his media image. "I am a fashion god," he wrote.
FEMA is reviewing its press procedures and will make changes to ensure they are "straightforward and transparent," Johnson said [yesterday].
Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said the White House did not condone FEMA's action and would not engage in such practices.
But in 2004 the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, accused the administration of "covert propaganda" in distributing video packages about federal health programs that looked like independent news reports.
Conservative pundit Armstrong Williams lost a syndication deal for his column in 2005 and apologized after a disclosure that he accepted $240,000 from the Bush administration to promote education legislation in his commentaries.
U.S. defense officials that year also confirmed that U.S. troops wrote articles that were planted in Iraqi newspapers in exchange for money.
It isn't just the members of the Bush regime who have nothing but contempt for the American people. It's all of the stupid white men who are in positions of power within the Repugnican Party, including every candidate for the 2008 Repugnican presidential nomination, every single one of which is a stupid white man.
If Americans are appallingly stupid enough to put another stupid white man into the White House -- or to just allow the Repugnican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court "justices" install yet another stupid white man into the White House when the American voters voted for the Democratic presidential candidate instead -- then they fucking deserve whatever they'll get under another four to eight years of rule by a stupid white man.
*Actually, if you add those who are still missing but not confirmed dead, more than 2,500 Americans died in the aftermath of Katrina.
12:00:18 PM 
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