A Couple of Things I Missed While Moving

It figures. After essentially being off for several days, I'm finally ready to come back to post something substantial, and Blogger is causing me problems in signing in. I finally gave up on Firefox and went all the way back to Netscape 7.2 to get a browser that would let me in. But back to the previously intended post.

You may have seen these, but here are two items that grabbed my attention while I was trying to catch up on what happened while I was otherwise occupied at the end of last week.

• FEMA Blows It Again. Is the press just not compliant enough any more? What else could possibly be the reason for FEMA officials to set up a news briefing that real reporters were unlikely to attend and then fill it up with fake reporters who were really FEMA employees in disguise. Some of the briefing was carried live on cable news channels, who apparently didn't realize that none of their reporters were actually in the room. Those reporters weren't shut out altogether, though. They were allowed to listen in on the briefing by phone, but they weren't allowed to ask any questions.

How could the FEMA officials involved in this have believed they'd be able to get away with it? Clearly, they're deluded. John P. "Pat" Philbin, FEMA's former director of external affairs, said, "I hope readers understand we're working very hard to establish credibility and integrity, and I would hope this does not undermine it." No, how could a fake news conference possibly undermine credibility and integrity?

I wrote that Philbin is FEMA's former director of external affairs because Thursday had already been scheduled as his last day there. He was leaving to head up the public affairs operation at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Unsurprisingly, that position has been withdrawn.

• Higher Education Is the Enemy!! I don't know if I was still punchy from lack of sleep over the weekend, but this story made me start giggling aloud. Family Security Matters, which Sourcewatch identifies as a front organization for the far-right Center for Security Policy, has come up with a list of The Ten Most Dangerous Organizations in America. ThinkProgress, where I saw this story, comes in at number 10. Others on the list include the usual suspects: the ACLU, the Center for American Progess, MoveOn.org, and others. But it's number two that brought on the laughter: Universities and Colleges. That's the second-most dangerous hate organization in the nation. Didn't someone once say, "An ignorant citizenry is essential to a functioning democracy"--or something?

The most dangerous organization in America, of course, would be Media Matters for America, which routinely calls right-wing blowhards on their lies, misstatements, and misrepresentations--because, how can right-wing blowhards prosper if their lies, misstatements, and misrepresentations are exposed?

Interestingly, Family Security Matters includes a couple of conservative organizations on its list: Tony Perkins's Family Research Council (even though the author admits that he "believe[s] in a lot of what the FRC preaches," when they reach too far, they do themselves a "tremendous disservice"; there can't be much that's more dangerous to America than that) and the League of the South. I'm not sure what that says about internecine warfare on the Right.