Fire FEMA

Here's a story you may not have heard. FEMA asked for firefighters from around the country, highly trained in search & rescue and tactical medicine and capable of living in austere conditions -- firefighters whose valuable skills could help rescue those still trapped in New Orleans. According to reports, at least 700 firefighters responded and went to New Orleans.

However, they didn't start a rescue mission right away. Their "first task was an eight-hour course on sexual harassment and equal opportunity employment procedures." In a society that condemns "discrimination" over incompetence and idiocy, when it was faced with conducting training to avoid potentially being accused of insensitivity, harassment, or racism, versus actually saving lives, FEMA opted for the first. Of course, they were only following the federal regulations brought to us by the EEOC that require strict compliance with all EEOC regulations? How ironic that in times of emergency we often talk about giving up some of our rights, yet the government never offers to give up any of its regulations. Instead of saving lives, approximately 700 firefighters were stuck in a room watching Power Point presentations like these.

That's not the end of the story. It gets worse.

Government, displaying its uncanny ability to put resources to their best and highest use (as it so claimed in Kelo v. New London), told firefighters of their assignment: distributing flyers. "'Our job was to advertise a phone number for FEMA,' said Portage Assistant Fire Chief Bill Lundy ... 'We're trained in tactical medicine,' Lundy said. 'We weren't being used for that. We were being used to hand out flyers.'"

In the understatement of the year, their boss, Portage Fire Chief Tim Sosby, said, "It seemed like an incredible misuse of valuable resources."

The firefighters went home.