FEMA removes 9/11 coloring book for children from website

The controversial coloring book "A Scary Thing Happened" was removed from FEMA's website last week. The coloring book featured a plane heading toward New York's twin towers.

Now, from the same guys that brought you the Katrina rescue effort..... comes the 9/11 coloring book.

Joking? Sadly, no.

Ever get the feeling that that Ron Paul guy might've been on to something? Paul, the libertarian-like congressman from Texas, isn't a big believer in government. He thinks for the most part the government screws things up.

Just this week, he could point to the Air Force One photo op idea and now there's this latest gem from FEMA.

Scary

A children's coloring book called "A Scary Thing Happened" which shows a drawing of the Twin Towers ablaze with an airplane heading for them was removed from its website last week.

The idea behind the downloadable book was to help children cope with disasters, says the organization responsible for it. So on page 12, there are three images of the burning twin towers for children to color.

Heckuva

It's not as though the new FEMA team came up with the idea just this year. You might guess. It was put up on the site under Mike Brown's watch -- 2003.

And the organization that developed it -- Minnesota's Freeborn County Crisis Response Team -- still believes in it.

"I stand firm that it was a very well thought-out and useful resource for kids," Olmsted told FOXNews.com. "But it's obviously being misinterpreted by a lot of people."

Maybe that's because coloring and 9/11 might not be a good mix for children.

Removed

"The coloring book, which was put online in 2003, was removed last week and FEMA is currently reviewing all Web content designed and posted by the previous administration," a FEMA spokesman said in a statement.

Makes no difference to Olmsted.

"I'm gong to be putting together to FEMA a letter detailing the many ways that this book has been used," Olmsted told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, adding that she'll be including a letter she has on file from FEMA praising the book.

If that letter came from Brownie, she might just want to move on...

Blogosphere

Not everyone agrees with the decision to pull it down.

The conservative PowerLine blog sees this as a troubling trend.

"It isn't hard to see where this is going. It started with the television networks imposing de facto censorship on all footage of the September 11 attacks. The pace of revisionism is accelerating as Obama's executive branch reviews everything produced by "the previous administration." Eventually the only public legacy of the September 11 attacks will be photos of American soldiers brutalizing detainees."

But a blogger on the conservative Lew Rockwell website says the government is too "obsessed" with 9/11.

"Is it that they want to keep the "fear" factor ever-present in the sheeple's minds? After people complained, FEMA removed the coloring book from its site. Too bad we can't remove FEMA from our sight."

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