Another FEMA Resumé Disaster

FEMA seems to have a very high density of hacks in leadership roles, and I suppose that is appropriate for a faith-based presidency. The president proved how strong is his faith in his God, when he put people in charge at the nation's emergency response agency who were/are completely unqualified for the task. In Bush's America, such faith is the ready (if somewhat unsatisfactory) substitute for facts, reason, preparedness, competence, and accountability.

Or perhaps all he proved is how little he believes in the role of government.

Given how Mr Bush has staffed FEMA, we all should be praying a whole lot more, and voting Republican a whole lot less.

From The New Republic:

2: John Pennington
Director, Region Ten, Federal Emergency Management Agency

The Pacific Northwest is a catastrophe-prone area-- from tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in Washington and Oregon to wildfires in Idaho and oil pipeline ruptures in Alaska. That's why former Washington Representative Jennifer Dunn knew that fema needed "a natural" to head its disaster response efforts in the region. And that's exactly what Dunn said she found in 38-year-old John Pennington. Pennington would have to be a natural, given his utter lack of disaster-relief experience.

A former state representative who ran a coffee business with his wife in rural Washington, Pennington served as Cowlitz County co-chairman of the Bush campaign in 2000. Dunn, who had been the Bush campaign's state chairperson, approached Pennington about the fema post, to which he was appointed in 2001.

Alas, in the wake of former fema Director Michael Brown's resignation, Pennington's disaster of a resumé has come under increasing scrutiny.

Last month, The Seattle Times reported that, just before he was appointed to his fema post, Pennington received his bachelor's degree from an unaccredited California correspondence school that federal investigators later described as a "diploma mill." Pennington's defenders have responded to questions about his qualifications by arguing that he has surrounded himself with competent staff.

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