You Might Want to Check Out Your Local FEMA Chief

Atrios reports on a new game: Who's Your FEMA Flunky?

Find Your FEMA Flunky Here!

Here's what the Seattle Times found when they looked at the FEMA chief of the Northwest Region:

Local FEMA chief had little disaster experience

John Pennington, the official in charge of federal disaster response in the Northwest, was a four-term Republican state representative who ran a mom-and-pop coffee company in Cowlitz County when then-Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn helped him get his federal post.

Before he was appointed regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Pennington got a degree from a correspondence school that government investigators later described as a "diploma mill."

Pennington, 38, says he worked for his degree and he is qualified for the FEMA job.

FEMA and the qualifications of its managers have come under fire in recent days as the government's response to Hurricane Katrina has been heavily criticized. Yesterday, FEMA Director Michael Brown was removed as commander of hurricane-relief efforts in Louisiana and ordered back to Washington, D.C.

If you have an "acting" regional director, you're in luck -- the Bush Administration hasn't had a chance to appoint a hack from the Bush-Cheney campaign to that office yet.