The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the Federal Emergency Management Agency aka FEMA. They get the award for the following.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California.

The agency — much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago — arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency's deputy director.

The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous.

"I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was not appropriate that the questions were posed by agency staffers instead of reporters. FEMA was responsible for the "error in judgment," she said, adding that the White House did not know about it beforehand and did not condone it.

"FEMA has issued an apology, saying that they had an error in judgment when they were attempting to get out a lot of information to reporters, who were asking for answers to a variety of questions in regard to the wildfires in California," Perino said. "It's not something I would have condoned. And they — I'm sure — will not do it again."

She said the agency was just trying to provide information to the public, through the press, because there were so many questions.

Incredibly dumb. Dr. Steven Taylor sums things up very well.

Ok, who in their right mind thought a) that this was a good idea, and b) that they wouldn’t get caught?

*****

Gee whiz, have they never heard of a press release? How about an opening statement at the press conference? And, of course, there is always the real reporters who have been known to ask questions at times like this.

And, here’s a lovely parting thought: if there ever is a massive terrorist attack on the US, these clowns are supposed to be on the front lines dealing with its effects.

If Dr. Taylor, one of the most articulate bloggers out there, calls FEMA clowns, TFM has no other choice. The Federal Emergency Management Agency aka FEMA is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Also blogging on this news- Michelle Malkin, James Joyner at Outside the Beltway,
Linked to- Adam, Big Dog, Blue Star, Bright & Early, Church and State, Conservative Thoughts, Jo, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove, Populist, Right Voices, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, Samantha Burns, Stop the ACLU, Third World County, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl,