Ah, remember those heady days last summer and fall when media leftists and flap-jawed rap stars with a Christ complex were shrieking that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina proved that President Bush hated black people? Remember how that same federal response (arguably influenced by such histrionics) was to dump a lot of “assistance money” to alleviate the victims’ suffering ? without bothering to see if the recipients were indeed victims? Well, per the Associated Press:
FEMA also could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims, the auditors said. Among the items purchased with the cards:
? an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.
? five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.? adult erotica products in Houston and “Girls Gone Wild” videos in Santa Monica, Calif.
? Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio.
? a divorce lawyer‘s services in Houston. …
FEMA paid millions of dollars to more than 1,000 registrants who used names and
Social Security numbers belonging to state and federal prisoners …. FEMA made about $5.3 million in payments to registrants who provided a post office box as their damaged residence, including one who got $2,748 for listing an Alabama post office box as the damaged property.To demonstrate how easy it was to hoodwink FEMA, the GAO told of an individual who used 13 different Social Security numbers ? including the person’s own ? to receive $139,000 in payments on 13 separate registrations for aid. All the payments were sent to a single address.
Likewise, another person used a damaged property address located within the grounds of Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans to request disaster aid. Public records show no record of the registrant ever living in New Orleans.
Instead, records indicate that for the past five years, the registrant lived in West Virginia ? at the address provided to FEMA, the GAO said.
