FEMA wants to be punished.

It’s not that it can’t do a good job, it just likes to be caught making mistakes so it can be spanked. People used to be afraid of FEMA. They thought that it would be used to declare martial law and take over the country. Then Hurricane Katrina happened. Lots of people died. Many of them didn’t have to. That was FEMA’s fault. FEMA was publicly berated, called names and beaten.

But here’s the thing.

FEMA liked it.

And now that things have calmed down from the disaster in New Orleans, FEMA found itself craving that attention. How can FEMA get that paddling again?

So FEMA holds a fake press conference about the job it is doing with the fires in California. It allows reporters to listen in on what appears to be a real press conference, but they can’t ask questions. The questions are being asked by FEMA staffers. They are not probing questions. The reporters know that these are not real reporters.

The reporters don’t like this. They get on the wires, and soon the news has spread about how FEMA is once again screwing up. FEMA is called out and spanked with a leather belt.

And FEMA is happy once again.