All the talk of FEMA this week in the news with regards to the post-Hurricane Katrina nightmare makes an X-Files fan think of the role the organization plays in the many conspiracy theories forwarded by the characters in that show.

In the X-files film, "Fight The Future," Dr. Kurtzweil, played by Martin Landau, says to Agent Mulder, "...Are you familiar with FEMA? What the Federal Emergency Management Agency's real power is? FEMA allows the White House to suspend constitutional government upon declaration of a national emergency. To create a non-elected government. Think about that." He goes on to describe FEMA's "broad, sweeping power."

At the time of the movie's release, FEMA was concerned enough about what the fictional accounting of it would do to its reputaton that it issued a correction/rebuttal press release regarding its powers.

It needn't have bothered.

Because after watching FEMA in (non) action for the past few days on the Gulf Coast, we know FEMA is less like it appears in the X-Files "Fight The Future" and more like a "Three Stooges" film.

Conspiracy theorists, rest easy. This agency couldn't find its posterior with a map and a flashlight.

TES