Katrina Entitlement

[nelson]

Report: $1.4 Billion Went to Fraudulent Aid for Katrina Victims (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199348,00.html)

The next time Bush and Cheney get together with Halliburton to create a natural disaster, maybe they'll send it toward poor, oppressed minorities on the East Coast. Because a liberal Democrat friend of mine wants some new motorcycle parts, Redskins season tickets, and a trip to Hawaii.

[Teiwaz]

It must be bloody hard to check every claim exhaustively if you also want to get money to people who do deserve it quickly. There will always be fraud when that happens, and the people who committed fraud need to be prosecuted, unless they can show it was unintentional, and that the money has been repaid. I can see how you might get rent assistance, and have an accomodation bill paid directly, and not have intended that to happen. A lot of it looks pretty blatant though, and those debit cards look like one of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" kinda things. Jese, you try to help people in a disaster and they go buy football tickets and porn? What kind of person does that?

["shazbat"]

The media to their credit has been very vocal about those that are caught and the various agencies are actively prosecuting offenders.
I've been to New Orleans and seen the devastation and it is criminal that some have sought to take advantage of the situation.

[Sonrisa]

It seems that in our world and society that to get help to people who genuinely need it and deserve it, you have to put up with a certain percentage of graft and corruption -- because evidently it is human nature, or it would not occur so often.

Then we are stuck with the problem of whether to withhold from the truly deserving, some of who would die, or go ahead and pay off the freeloaders. This happens everywhere in the world all the time. It certainly does say much for our species.

I hope they find them all and nail them, fine and imprison them, but doubt it will happen. No color TV or weight-lifting in prison either. Just sit on a concrete bench and think about what they did for years..

Sonrisa

P.S. Sounds a lot like the welfare system doesn't it?

[The G]

Just WHO was in change of this mess ??? I think it was the other side :)

[The_Man]

A friend of mine just sent me this :eek:
http://www.binarybit.com/Portals/TheLastOutpost/Video/WMV/satire/orleansbattle.wmv

[nelson]

LOL The_Man that cracks me up.

After Katrina the whole country mobilized to help New Orleans and other affected areas. It was probably the largest outpouring of charity in our nation's history.

Many communities pulled together. Gulfport, MS is not nearly as wealthy as New Orleans - and Gulfport did not get the publicity nor nearly the financial assistance that citizens of New Orleans and its suburbs received. But I didn't hear about any gunfights or social unrest in Gulfport.

Why did New Orleans fall apart? I mean, how could this city that aspires to the very ideals espoused by the democrat party - multiculturalism over excellence, government programs to "help the poor," and devout liberalism - how could they fail where other, more conservative communities did not? I think it's because a large proportion of the people in New Orleans are helpless. I think they've been taught to be helpless, they are expected to be helpless, everyday they are indoctrinated with the vision of helplessness. I think citizens of New Orleans are encouraged to depend on their government instead of themselves, therefore when a NATURAL disaster occurs, naturally they look to the government to take care of them. I think Katrina opened a window through which we can all see the failure of new democrat (liberal) ideals.

Others will say it was a government debacle. They'll point to hundreds of news stories from new democrat (liberal) publications saying the same thing. But we all know what really happened. After generations of being taught to rely on the government, citizens of New Orleans were suddenly forced to fend for themselves. Of course they failed - doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that nobody seems to have learned any lessons - even today those people are still looking to the government to take care of them, and many of us are still buying the new democrat (liberal) media take... that this was a government failure.

[BABY HUEY]

LOL The_Man that cracks me up.

After Katrina the whole country mobilized to help New Orleans and other affected areas. It was probably the largest outpouring of charity in our nation's history.

Many communities pulled together. Gulfport, MS is not nearly as wealthy as New Orleans - and Gulfport did not get the publicity nor nearly the financial assistance that citizens of New Orleans and its suburbs received. But I didn't hear about any gunfights or social unrest in Gulfport.

Why did New Orleans fall apart? I mean, how could this city that aspires to the very ideals espoused by the democrat party - multiculturalism over excellence, government programs to "help the poor," and devout liberalism - how could they fail where other, more conservative communities did not? I think it's because a large proportion of the people in New Orleans are helpless. I think they've been taught to be helpless, they are expected to be helpless, everyday they are indoctrinated with the vision of helplessness. I think citizens of New Orleans are encouraged to depend on their government instead of themselves, therefore when a NATURAL disaster occurs, naturally they look to the government to take care of them. I think Katrina opened a window through which we can all see the failure of new democrat (liberal) ideals.

Others will say it was a government debacle. They'll point to hundreds of news stories from new democrat (liberal) publications saying the same thing. But we all know what really happened. After generations of being taught to rely on the government, citizens of New Orleans were suddenly forced to fend for themselves. Of course they failed - doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that nobody seems to have learned any lessons - even today those people are still looking to the government to take care of them, and many of us are still buying the new democrat (liberal) media take... that this was a government failure.

The government failure in the case of Katrina happened long before the hurricane. The local government used the money for the levy system for the party and the parties. Anyone who has a lick of intelligence would know that a single levy system is not sufficient to protect the citizens of the city, yet for years the money was diverted to support Marti Gras and the political parties in power. If you live in an area that is below sea level, it is incumbent upon you to seek housing that will not be below water in the event of a breach of the levy. It is also incumbent on you to insure that there are backup systems to the levy system to support the front line of defense in the event of a failure. New Orleans did none of this. If there had been a secondary levy system there would have been no problems in New Orleans. The hurricane did not hit New Orleans directly, the rising waters in lake Ponchetrane due to the surge of water in front of the hurricane breached the single levy system. And there was no backup system, even though New Orleans has been in existance since when? And New Orleans has been threatened by the possibilities of hurricanes since the first person moved onto the ground in that area.

Look at the situation, who did what for whom, or to whom. Read the news, who failed to evacuate the city, and why? Didn't they understand that a hurricane was coming? I thought that the National Weather System made it abundently clear that a BIG hurricane was enroute, a level 5 hurricane. How many operational busses were flooded in the bus lot in New Orleans, why weren't they used before the hurricane. Why didn't the residents evacuate? What did the Governor of the state do or not do? What about Mayor Ray Nagan, what did he do or not do. Why didn't the city have a disaster plan? Money had been provided by the Federal Government on several occasions to facilitate the preparation of a disaster plan, what happened to that money, who did what?

Why is it that the only thing that we hear about is the Federal Government under President Bush? Doesn't anyone else bear responsibility for their lack of preparation for the disaster? Didn't President Bush call the Governor of the state of Louisiana on Saturday before the Hurricane hit on Monday to see if their evacuation plans were taking place? I would have sworn that President Bush was on the news on the Saturday before the hurricane impact checking to see if the people of Louisiana were prepared for the hurricane and that the State Services were preparing to support the area. Just who is responsible, the government on the ground in the state, or the Federal Government?

The Federal Government didn't step in in 1983 when Hurricane Alecia hit Houston. I didn't get thousands of dollars for the reconstruction of my home and to get me back to normal, I got a single payment for $500 from my insurance, yet, I lost several thousand dollars. Why didn't the government support me? We are becoming an entitlement society, and something has to be done to correct that!

[The_Man]

We are becoming an entitlement society, and something has to be done to correct that!

Everything that you pointed out is true and can't be disputed.....

The quoted statement is true, but it has always been difficult to take something back once people become accustomed to it. The political powers (both major party's) know that serving the special interest groups got them elected and keeps them in power. You are 100% correct something needs to be done!

[gtrman66]

Having lived in NO for several years... I can attest to the statements above as fact. I am so glad to live outside of NO now.