Via a slightly-jealous reader (guess who), this has to be one of the more notable moments in spoofing history:
Masquerading as Rene Oswin, an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Bichlbaum followed Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to the lectern Monday morning at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner.
In a speech to attendees of the Gulf Coast Reconstruction and Hurricane Preparedness Summit, he laid out grandiose plans for HUD to reverse course.
[…] “Everything is going to change about the way we work, and the change is going to start here today in New Orleans,” the man said during his speech.
[…] In his speech, Bichlbaum said the department’s mission was to ensure affordable housing is available for those who need it.
“This year, in New Orleans, I’m ashamed to say we have failed,” he said.
To change that, HUD would reverse its plans to demolish 5,000 units “of perfectly good public housing,” with housing in the city in tight supply, he said.
Former occupants have been “begging to move back in,” he said. “We’re going to help them to do that.”
The government’s practice had been to tear down public housing where it could, because such projects were thought to cause crime and unemployment, he said.
But crime rates in the city are at a record high and there is no evidence that people in the projects are more likely to be unemployed, he said.
The man added that it also would be essential to create conditions for prosperity.
Toward that end, he said, Wal-Mart would withdraw its stores from near low-income housing and “help nurture local businesses to replace them.”
This reminds me of a hare-brained plot some, uh, friends of mine hatched in college to sneak onto the main campus of Focus on the Family and mark the main building facing the highway with a giant pink triangle and the words ‘This is a Hate-Free Zone,” which was a popular dorm poster at the time. Of course the amusement would come when they angrily denied it. Going back to the story:
In Washington, HUD spokeswoman Donna White called the hoax “sick.”
“This announcement is totally false; it’s totally bogus,” said Donna White in Washington.
[…]Jackson, White said, had never planned to address the meeting. “I don’t even want to refer to it as a joke,” White said. “At this point, it’s not funny.”
Odds are good that at this point most Louisianians like the fake government a lot better than the real government.
DougJ
Only slightly jealous? Seriously, though, I think these guys are heros. The only thing standing between this country and the gaping abyss of quasi-fascism is gonzo satire. I truly believe this. It is the only way to draw the necessary distinction between how the government operates and how a sane government might operate.
John S.
John Stewart. Stephen Colbert. Their time has come.
John S.
Right you are.
srv
I feel I must do my part and come clean. I’m trying to get ahold of Barbara Walters right now so she can be my liason with the LA County prosecuters office.
Yes, I am the killer OJ has been hunting for all this time. I hope the world is ready for the truth.
Tsulagi
You need to see the humor as a way to get through this retarded administration. Even if often it is black humor.
But in a limited way I might miss the retardocons. Just a little bit. They all see themselves as virile patriot warriors doing battle with the evildoers. They’re like a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon show fighting for American freedom fries for all. All fantasy, no substance.
The cartoon warriors can be funny as hell occasionally: Harriet Miers; Eagle eye warrior Cheney mistaking a 6’ friend for a two-pound quail; Bush speaking; etc. But bad thing is this cartoon show is on 24/7 and it’s gotten REALLY tiring. Time to change the channel and cancel the show. No reruns either.
RSA
I do think that the best part of the hoax was the government’s official response.
Fake government officials: Here are some important and feasible things the government will do to help you in your time of need.
Real government officials: That’s sick!
cd6
How dare these scoundrels give Americans false hope!!
Doec
They are corrupt. They counted the corpses for the money they would get. They don’t have a government and expect the federal government to take care of them. This is a prject for them. A new way to steal money from the federal government. Bush is a nice father for them, but soon he’s gone and so is the money.
Doec
Thieves have their cake but can’t eat it.
DougJ
Perfect summary.
yet another jeff
Gonzo satire is the best course of action for sure. It’s simple cause and effect…the going is weird so it is past time for the weird to go pro.
Absolutely brilliant work.
Andrew
Do you think that the fake government would spend $1.2 billion on anti-drug advertising that doesn’t work?
Mac Buckets
When he started making committments for Walmart and oil companies, that should’ve given it all away. The media are getting more and more naive every day.
Punchy
Focus on the Family has a campus?
Tim F.
You have no idea. Yours truly even attended a guided tour as part of a course on politics and the religious right.
John S.
Getting?
Recently, they gave the president a pass when he falsely claimed that nobody in his administration tied Iraq to 9/11, and they obsessed for weeks over a guy who didn’t kill Jon Benet.
I don’t know how much more naive they can get.
Pb
And in the meantime, of course, no other important news took place. Nothing up my sleeve… Presto! I just made your civil liberties disappear!
Mr.Ortiz
This guy’s got my vote for fake president.
Antonio Manetti
“This guy’s got my vote for fake president.”
Not another one!
Antonio
Punchy
Well, you’re in luck. John Karr is, no longer the nom de jour, is about to be replaced with….POOF!….ERNESTO!!
Even though it’s barely a tropical storm…even though it’s scheduled to pass thru the Everglades….and lemmie repeat, it’s not even a hurricane….CNN will have some idiot out there with a mic, showing all of America what rain and 30 mph wind looks like.
For the next 10 hours. Then, they’ll “interview” wet residents, demanding horror stories about how their car was scratched or their plastic flamingoes blew away.
Then, they’ll interview the clean-up crew. Then, Jeb Bush….
John S.
You don’t have to tell me.
I’m “bracing” for it right now.
chopper
not nearly as good a spoof prank as the DOW chemical hoax…
demimondian
Hey, Ernesto is the best deal that the media can ask for — it’s a roller coaster to Katrina’s chain reaction roll-over debacle. It looks scary, and it’ll be impressive, but, really, porvided nobody drives into any of the Palm Beach County drainage ditches, nobody will get hurt.
tzs
The only hope I have is that multitude gonzo spoofers manage to oppose the idiocy/sliminess of this government against the idiocy/puerility of our dear media in one great collision.
Checks and balances, guys, checks and balances.
Bruce Moomaw
Magnificent! Best political hoax since that state senator’s aide tricked the 1963 Texas state legislature into passing a resolution commending the Boston Strangler for his efforts in the field of population control.
Zifnab
Hahahaha. This is one of those stunts the involves packing as many people as possible into a Volkswagon Beetle on the drive over right?
College is awesome.