I have headlines from "The Onion" on my "My Yahoo!" headlines page. I had to double-check and make sure I hadn't clicked on one of them when I saw this story.
DENVER - Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.
"If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses — because that goes straight to the bottom line — then I hope I can help the country in some way," Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.
Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.
In the aftermath of the hurricane, critics complained about Brown's lack of formal emergency management experience and e-mails that later surfaced showed him as out of touch with the extent of the devastation.
The lawyer admits that while he was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency mistakes were made in the response to Katrina. He also said he had been planning to quit before the hurricane hit.
"Hurricane Katrina showed how bad disasters can be, and there's an incredible need for individuals and businesses to understand how important preparedness is," he said.
Coming next week, Ann Coulter starts a "Sensitivity Training" firm, Rush Limbaugh gets into "Methods of a Happy Marriage", Michele Malkin on "Ethnic Relations" and Donald Rumsfeld on "Effective Communication with the Media". Karl Rove could do "How to Make Friends" and George Bush could lead us in "Honesty and Openess in Government".
The jokes just write themselves nowadays.