Your Tax Dollars in Action
by Jeff Davis
Remember the hurricane-related FEMA scandals of 2005, when it turned out that the head of the emergency agency on which millions of peoples’ lives might depend was a Bush political crony whose sole previous qualification for such a post was judging Arabian horse shows? A man so incompetent that even Dubya couldn’t gloss over his ineptitude and give him a presidential medal of freedom. Well, it looks like Mike Brown wasn’t the only dithering idiot at FEMA. A recent news article detailed some of the shenanigans the agency has gotten into over the past year.
According to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, FEMA seems to have been taken over in a coup d’etat by the cast of Sesame Street, or possibly a deranged cruise ship entertainment director. An article in the Sun Sentinel reports “At the Pinitos Learning Center in Boca Raton, disaster workers, dressed as Windy Biggie and Sunny, teach 30 preschoolers a song about how the wind is good, even during a hurricane…This is FEMA tax money at work. It’s also paying for Hurricane Bingo, puppet shows, ’salsa for seniors,’ and yoga on the beach.”
I’m sure the yoga does wonders for tired Federal bureaucrats.
The Sun-Sentinel goes on to say that “Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded Florida $22.6 million for ‘crisis counseling’ for victims of hurricanes Wilma and Katrina. Florida’s program, called Project H.O.P.E. — Helping Our People in Emergencies — is still in operation with about 450 workers across the state who spend much of their time leading games and performing shows for groups of residents — regardless of whether they’re in crisis or even experienced the storms, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has found. The program, funded by FEMA but run by Florida’s Department of Children & Families, is supposed to identify victims and help them recover from the psychological aftermath of the storms by providing emotional support and referrals for food, clothes and services.”
Four hundred and fifty salaried Federal employees with full benefits and medical insurance (the kind of worker benefits that have been taken away from most Americans in the private sector) are spending millions of dollars dancing in front of kiddies and old people dressed up as chickens or Mother Nature or whatever. The Federal government will give them puppet shows and yoga, but not jobs or adequate flood-proofing in their neighborhoods. We can spend twenty-two million dollars on this kind of silliness, but not to repair and shore up the New Orleans levees.
But wait! There’s more! “The job is stressful, Project H.O.P.E. officials say. Counselors regularly attend stress management sessions that have included collecting shells on the beach, ’silly string and art therapy,’ and ‘the toilet paper game.’…This fun game has the team throwing toilet paper in an orderly fashion while additional rolls are constantly introduced,’ says a Project H.O.P.E. report.’ ” according to the Sun Sentinel.
You can’t make this stuff up. We’re paying adults to behave like kindergarten children even though we’re stuck in Iraq, we’re nine trillion dollars in debt, we have a dangerous moron in the White House and a federal government too corrupt and/or incompetent to build up levees. So instead, they have “Mr. Happy Sunshine” try to cheer up people after their homes get washed away. Just Wonderful.