FEMA rotten from top to bottom

As FEMA's "Brownie" has been shown to be a resume-padding, oft-fired knuckleknob, the spotlight is turning toward other FEMA officials. And it's shaping up to be a tale of cronyism run amok. Remember, FEMA stands for Federal Emergency Management Agency, and they're the people charged with aiding us in the case of disasters, natural or man-made.

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 asserts that he "worked" for his degree.