WTF - FEMA has online Tsunami Game for Kids - Win the Prize

[RamboLiberal]

A tsunami has just hit FEMA Beach and has rearranged a few things. Please put the 9 objects back where they belong to see the cyber-prize!

http://www.fema.gov/kids/games/tsunami/

[name not needed]

1. That is awful

I think someone there needs to get a fucking clue.

[wolfgirl]

2. This is our govt at work...

I guess the tsunami wasn't that big a deal...so why not make it a big ol' freaking game.

[Connie_Corleone]

3. WTF??

I wouldn't believe it if I didn't just see it.

That's truly tasteless.

[NC_Nurse]

4. Jeebus!

Even if this was a joke...it would be a REALLY BAD joke.

Has * ordered lobotomies for all federal employees or what?

[Richard D]

5. There is a contact address on that page.

I did send them a letter. This page might have been up for a long time, well before the Asian tsunami. The should remove it though.

[noamnety]

6. I looked at the file properties

It looks like it was made back in October.

I would have pulled it, personally, but at least they didn't look at the situation and think "hey, that would make a great game!"

I would like to know what we paid for that, who authorized it, and why our tax dollars earmarked for emergency relief are being used for preschool games.

[mcscajun]

7. That's old...been there since before the big tsunami hit South Asia

It's tasteless, true...but it's part of an educational module.

It was ripped apart in a thread here, around the end of December.

[Skinner]

8. OMFG

That is unbelievable.

[cmf]

9. It looks like you can't even get to it from the main page

It's old and they probably disconnected the link as soon as the tsunami happened.

[underpants]

10. That is horrible but I did it and still didn't get to see the"cyber prize"

:shrug:

[Sirveri]

14. it's a dancing frog, says way to go under it.

[greyXstar]

11. It doesn't matter how old it is, it's beyond disgusting!

:puke:

[Danmel]

12. That is SERIOUSLY fucked up

Seriously fucked up!

[wryter2000]

13. Didn't you listen to Condi?

The tsunami was a great opportunity.

[uppityperson]

15. It doesn't work, neither does "tsunami warning" game

I just tried and it doesn't work, neither does the tsunami warning game from the kids homepage. They need to change their picture of a tsunami from a curling ocean wave to a rolling wave to make it more realistic, if they want to teach people and save lives.

[DUBYASCREWEDUS]

16. WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY

Well, when the Secretary of State designate begins her address by stating that the "Tsunami gave us a wonderful opportunity..." what do you expect?

[gatorboy]

17. I couldn't open the page.

Looks like someone took that down quick!

[njdemocrat106]

18. That's pretty bad

Not only tasteless, but just plain lame.

[Brooklyn Michael]

19. Holy Flurking Schnit!

Apparently someone came to their senses and took this down......but WOW! That's just mind-bogglingly tasteless....

[slutticus]

20. They took it down.

The link no longer works.

[BlackScorpionSociety]

21. It made the MSM too

FEMA Pulls Tsunami Game From Web Site

[UL_Approved]

22. Oops

This looks like one that hit the books for debunk of the day.

Did DU have anything to do with breaking this, or did it come from AP?

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. Interesting that this is a reasonable question

Whether or not DU had anything to do with it this time, there's no question but the the MSM is surely watching us. Shall we be flattered at this sign of being taken seriously in some sense?

Another recent example was Ted Koppel's big piece of "documentation":
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x294367

Here a couple of sentences picked out of a single post from DU was taken -- without citing the source -- to demonstrate the views on "the internet" about the election "glitches." Naturally, he chose an excerpt with inflammatory words like "Stalinesque" but did not include the part about the actual evidence. As journalism sourcing goes, it's like choosing two sentences from a letter to the editor from a single newspaper with very relaxed letter selection criteria and holding this selected excerpt up as the indicator of the official position of all newspapers. Worse than sloppy, sleazy.

But they are watching. I think they see us as a threat to their domination.
:evilgrin:

[Bucky]

24. Well, "threat" might be an exaggeration, but definitely we're "strange"

Perhaps the media sees blogs as an exotic "other", the unfiltered voice of the hoi polloi that most bigtime reporters look down on. There's a tendency among smart and successful people to look down on the "masses"--even DU has a few jerks who insist on using that freeper word, sheeple, whenever the society disagrees with them.

It's not a big surprise then that big media will take pains to create the impression that internet users are flaky. After all, disregard for the "authority" and reliability of major news outlets is a pretty consistent theme here at DU and at other discussion boards. It only makes sense that they would want to marginalize an information venue that mostly criticizes their work.

But "threat" I don't know about. Big media's relationship to internet news and info sites is about the same as the relationship a French chef has with McDonald's. They don't like our fare, but we're not exactly stealing their customers either. I don't see them exactly quivering in their boots or coming out and attacking us directly. They just give us the same "idiot treatment" that they use on anyone who doesn't buy their air time.

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. I think we ARE a threat

(I originally wrote most of what is below in another thread, but it fits here too.)

I believe we are moving along the process described by Gandhi in the quote which has been posted here so much recently because of its relevance and positive outlook:

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

DU and the internet-based political activism it represents were in the ignore phase for some time because neither the administration nor their MSM allies perceived us as a threat. Besides, why give such an obscure group free publicity?

They do watch fundraising, though, and they had to pay attention to the potential power of internet-based activism when they saw what happened for Dean and later for Kerry. So they began moving into the next stage, ridicule. We weren't invisible anymore, and some disquieting possibilities had begun to dawn on the groups we oppose.

Now I believe we are just beginning to move into the third stage, the fight. It was costly for ABC to have Koppel spend so much air time on how the concerns "on the internet" that the election was tainted should be disregarded. He chose a tiny quote out of a single post from a single site (DU) because of its inflammatory language, like "Stalinesque" and other references that would sound extreme to many Americans. This recent incident on NightLine is discussed here and includes a link to Koppel's quote from the DU post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x294367

Koppel's point in that NightLine show was to show on the eve of the Recoronation that the assertion "on the internet" that the election was stolen is silly conspiracy theorizing, not to be taken seriously, compared to the trustworthy professional journalism of the major networks. Both the MSM and the administration want this new source of dissent and alternative news silenced because we are developing towards being a credible threat to their dominance. It's all in the trends and they are clear.

I believe that the fight against internet-based activism will intensify. The Conyers committee report and the challenge to the Ohio vote on Jan 6 would not have happened without our community, a huge accomplishment in just two months. We can raise money and we can investigate facts and we can speak loudly enough to make things happen. Unlike the MSM, our numbers of viewers are growing. We're not just a joking matter any more.

For this reason, I also believe that we -- the internet-based progressive community -- need to act proactively to protect our freedom on the internet and also to get the truth out to more people, including those who would listen to what we say but do not use the internet. I also believe that the future of this country may well depend on how successful we are.

[obiwan]

25. Note the FEMA Surf Shack.

Now that King George has reascended the throne, an appropriate saying might be "serf's up."

[rpannier]

26. They have removed it...

I guess common sense and decency prevailed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. The requested file was not found on WWW.FEMA.GOV.

As a result of FEMA's redesigned website some of the file names may have changed. We recommend that you attempt to change the file name extension to .shtm (ex: http://www.fema.gov/help/index.htm becomes http://www.fema.gov/help/index.shtm )

If you are unable to find the document you want, try searching for it or check the master index.