Just got back from New Orleans

[Bert 1,128]

I'd be interested in getting an update from Alimony Tony

 

 

Two guys that work for our company lived in the 9th ward it would be interesting to compare their stories.

[MDC 7,413]

I would not suggest not helping those in need....on the contrary...I'm all for it. My post was directed to MDC's remark "I think it's amazing that we gave $1 million a pop to the WTC widows - basically a pet rock to make the rest of us feel better after the attack - without any complaints, but people beetch about Katina refugees spending some of their $2K cards on booze and strippers after losing everything they own. I'm personally a lot more galled by the former than the latter..."

 

Many differing opinions here but I align with the thought that if you spend $$ given to you to buy food & clothing on liquor, lottery & cigs.........than you are not really IN NEED OF THE $$ IN THE FIRST PLACE.

 

I align with the thought that if you ARE OFFERED A JOB to you to buy food & clothing & help get you back on your feet(especially a cash job that you pay no taxes on).........than you are not really IN NEED OF THE $$ IN THE FIRST PLACE.

 

We wasted 100's of millions of dollars on "Charity" for people who did not deserve it that could have gone to those that do. Not everyone who received assistance took undu advantage of it & for them I am sorry & truly wish them the best.

 

The area they lived in had a reputation....a bad one........a reputation that for the most part they lived up to after the hurricane

 

I guess my point is there's no way to account for where every cent goes and someone is always going to game the system, but IMO that's no reason to argue against support for a group of people who largely need it and put the money to good use. $2K is almost nothing for a family that lost everything. I also think the stories of Katrina refugees blowing their cash on cigs and booze are overblown and reveal a bias in the media. That's why I brought up the 9/11 widows. I haven't heard one story about where they spent their $1 million a pop. Do you think any of that money went toward cigs and booze? If so, why no outrage over that?

 

I think the way they handled financial support after Katrina could've been done a lot better - cards that can only be used to purchase food and essentials, for example. But I also think $2K apiece is pitiful for a family that just lost its home.

[heavy-set 39]

ur full of poop, I google mapped the 9th ward and everything is just peachy

[Bert 1,128]

I also think the stories of Katrina refugees blowing their cash on cigs and booze are overblown and reveal a bias in the media.

 

I absolutely could not disagree more. It is real easy for you to say things like this sitting in your Ivory tower in Philly. Why don't you come down to Houston and see first hand these animals that you, Jackson,Sharpton and Jackson-Lee are defending and want the government to continue to support.

 

Fact #1 murder rate in Houston had gone down 5 years in a row Katrina evacuees show up murder rate goes through the roof.

 

Fact #2 most of the refugees in Houston, almost two years later still, do not have jobs.

 

There are many people in and around New Orleans that lost every thing, I know several of them personally, that went back to work and are rebuilding their lives. Most of them have had to take extra jobs and take on large amounts of debt. These are the people the government should be helping not the drug dealing, stealing, raping, murdering, lazy, welfare sucking scum living in government paid for apartments. That is my point.

 

It sounds MLCKAA went down and was helping the people that need to be helped, god bless him, he is a better man than me because all I did was write checks.

 

MDC my point comes from seeing both side of this first hand. I had dinner last month with the two guys I mentioned previously. They shared stories about what they are having to do to get back to some sense of normalcy and it is sad to hear about what they are dealing with. I can't imagine having to explain to a 5 year old girl where all of her friends went. But then I get to come back to Houston, and the increased crime created by the others, and the focking media is kind enough to put Sheila Jackson-Lee on the TV so she can tell me how the free loading focks "deserve" more government assistance. Bullsh!t.

[MDC 7,413]

I absolutely could not disagree more. It is real easy for you to say things like this sitting in your Ivory tower in Philly. Why don't you come down to Houston and see first hand these animals that you, Jackson,Sharpton and Jackson-Lee are defending and want the government to continue to support.

 

Fact #1 murder rate in Houston had gone down 5 years in a row Katrina evacuees show up murder rate goes through the roof.

 

Fact #2 most of the refugees in Houston, almost two years later still, do not have jobs.

 

There are many people in and around New Orleans that lost every thing, I know several of them personally, that went back to work and are rebuilding their lives. Most of them have had to take extra jobs and take on large amounts of debt. These are the people the government should be helping not the drug dealing, stealing, raping, murdering, lazy, welfare sucking scum living in government paid for apartments. That is my point.

 

It sounds MLCKAA went down and was helping the people that need to be helped, god bless him, he is a better man than me because all I did was write checks.

 

MDC my point comes from seeing both side of this first hand. I had dinner last month with the two guys I mentioned previously. They shared stories about what they are having to do to get back to some sense of normalcy and it is sad to hear about what they are dealing with. I can't imagine having to explain to a 5 year old girl where all of her friends went. But then I get to come back to Houston, and the increased crime created by the others, and the focking media is kind enough to put Sheila Jackson-Lee on the TV so she can tell me how the free loading focks "deserve" more government assistance. Bullsh!t.

 

So what's the alternative? No money for any of the refugees because some of them aren't putting it to good use? I already said that FEMA or whoever could've done a much better job of distributing funds or limiting what refugees could buy with them (food and necessities). I'm fine with that. I just don't understand all the focking whining about a handful of people who are gaming the system.

 

And I had a Katrina refugee living in my apartment for six months, so you can take your "ivory tower" crap and stick it up your indignant lily white ass.

[Bert 1,128]

So what's the alternative? No money for any of the refugees because some of them aren't putting it to good use? I already said that FEMA or whoever could've done a much better job of distributing funds or limiting what refugees could buy with them (food and necessities). I'm fine with that. I just don't understand all the focking whining about a handful of people who are gaming the system.

 

And I had a Katrina refugee living in my apartment for six months, so you can take your "ivory tower" crap and stick it up your indignant lily white ass.

 

 

Look you little worm letting the girl you were focking and going to move to NO for live with you does not make her a refugee. You're starting to act like Boz/Bozo. A good start would be people like you realizing that damn near 100,000 people is not a hand full.

[Toro 1]

After the storm, a quarter-million evacuees were brought to Houston, welcomed by Mayor Bill White, who threw open the Astrodome. Even before the storm, many were desperately poor, unemployed and on welfare or food stamps.

 

Many had been holding out hope that they would be home in New Orleans by now, but the city's rebuilding has been painfully slow, and about 100,000 are still here. They have settled in more or less permanently, some still on food stamps.

 

About 12,000 families are still getting federal aid for housing, the city said. Of that group, about 5,500 heads of households are unemployed, not counting those who are elderly and disabled, city officials said.

 

Houston's economy is hot because of the booming oil and gas industry. City officials say there are 2 million job openings, 59,000 of which require only a high school education. Houston's unemployment rate is 3.8 percent, versus 4.5 percent nationally.

 

...

 

The government already is offering considerable help. FEMA-paid housing has been extended to 2009 and federal officials will move an evacuee closer to a job. Thirty hours of work a week earns an evacuee free child care.

 

The city Community Settlement Task Force Network has spent $1.9 million since October offering resume help, free interview-appropriate clothes, job fairs, financial workshops, free food for children, computer classes, even hurricane-preparedness workshops. The money comes from $550 million in federal social-services grants that Congress authorized for all Katrina evacuees.

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1842062/posts

[MDC 7,413]

Look you little worm letting the girl you were focking and going to move to NO for live with you does not make her a refugee. You're starting to act like Boz/Bozo. A good start would be people like you realizing that damn near 100,000 people is not a hand full.

 

Whatever. I tried to be civil but you start giving me crap about my "ivory tower" so the truth is, you're just a bigot. Based on nothing but a handful of reports and your notoriously accurate anecdotal evidence, you've decided that most of the Katrina refugees are rapists, murderers and thieves who blew their money on cigs and booze and it pixxes you off that they received a whopping $2K apiece, but I hear no similar complaints from folks like you about the 9/11 widows, who received a ton more money and presumably wasted some of it on non-necessities. What really pisses you off is that one group of folks are white and middle class like yourself, and therefore can be trusted with a whopping gov't handout, and the other group are black and poor, so in your universe they naturally blew their money on crack and strippers.

 

HTH

[Toro 1]

At least 16% ($9.6 million) of the cash cards handed out by FEMA to recipients of the hurricane were used for bogus purposes--everything from buying trashy videos and expensive liquor to funding vacations in the Bahamas.

...

The notion of "blaming the victim" has potential merit only if one is blaming a victim for the actual event that made him or her the victim--which is why we don't blame New Orleanders for getting hit by a hurricane. What we can--and most definitely should--blame anyone for (Katrina victim or not) is thievery and deception. Suffering through a hurricane does not entitle anyone to take money given in good faith and use it for smut, booze and massages in the tropics.

 

http://standingupfornothing.blogspot.com/2...m-heck-yes.html

 

[MDC 7,413]

At least 16% ($9.6 million) of the cash cards handed out by FEMA to recipients of the hurricane were used for bogus purposes--everything from buying trashy videos and expensive liquor to funding vacations in the Bahamas.

 

I figured it'd be much higher than that, since the overwhelming majority of Katrina refugees are lazy and milking the system. Sounds like most of them did the right thing with that cash. I wonder what percentage of the money handed out for 9/11 widows was used for bogus purposes? Too bad we'll never know since the media doesn't care.

[Toro 1]

I figured it'd be much higher than that, since the overwhelming majority of Katrina refugees are lazy and milking the system. Sounds like most of them did the right thing with that cash. I wonder what percentage of the money handed out for 9/11 widows was used for bogus purposes? Too bad we'll never know since the media doesn't care.

 

Instead of discussing the subject at hand, you simply dismiss abuse of the system by pointing out additional abuse of the system. Two wrongs don't make a right. If you want to complain about the 9/11 widows, I'll be right behind you because I don't think those people deserved any gov't money other than basic assistance after the event. But to sit there and excuse blatant and ongoing abuse of the system because of other blatant abuses of the system is intellectually dishonest.

 

Person A: "hey, he is getting away with murder"

MDC: "Well, OJ got away with it."

Person A: "Oh, well, I guess it's OK then."

[MDC 7,413]

Instead of discussing the subject at hand, you simply dismiss abuse of the system by pointing out additional abuse of the system. Two wrongs don't make a right. If you want to complain about the 9/11 widows, I'll be right behind you because I don't think those people deserved any gov't money other than basic assistance after the event. But to sit there and excuse blatant and ongoing abuse of the system because of other blatant abuses of the system is intellectually dishonest.

 

Person A: "hey, he is getting away with murder"

MDC: "Well, OJ got away with it."

Person A: "Oh, well, I guess it's OK then."

 

I'm not dismissing abuse of the system - I already said the aid should have been handled better, probably with cards that limit what that money could have been spent on. I'm just pointing out that 1) abuse was not nearly as widespread as some of you are implying, as indicated by your link, and 2) I don't recall any of the people complaining about this relatively low-dollar abuse also beetching about the mammoth gov't handouts post-9/11, so I suspect it has more to do with the class and race of the refugees.

 

Typical right-wing class warfare: Get the middle classes pissed at the lower classes to distract from the elite who are really focking them. There is more whining on this board about a few thousands spent on booze and cigs than billions wasted in Iraq reconstruction. The media's got you brainwashed pretty good.

[Bert 1,128]

Whatever. I tried to be civil but you start giving me crap about my "ivory tower" so the truth is, you're just a bigot. Based on nothing but a handful of reports and your notoriously accurate anecdotal evidence, you've decided that most of the Katrina refugees are rapists, murderers and thieves who blew their money on cigs and booze and it pixxes you off that they received a whopping $2K apiece, but I hear no similar complaints from folks like you about the 9/11 widows, who received a ton more money and presumably wasted some of it on non-necessities. What really pisses you off is that one group of folks are white and middle class like yourself, and therefore can be trusted with a whopping gov't handout, and the other group are black and poor, so in your universe they naturally blew their money on crack and strippers.

 

HTH

 

Whatever is about right. I'm sorry I shouldn't have said "Ivory Tower" I should have said "sitting thousands of mile away from a situation you know nothing about except what you hear on the news and having never lived with or worked with any of the people in question except the one girl I use to have relations with yet I will tell you what is really going on down there."

 

I don't live with or work with the victims from 9/11 for me to make comments about how they spent the money donated to them based on media reports would put me in the same ivory tower situation as you.

 

It's funny how everything has to be racial with you. I guess that's always the fall back position. I disagree with your assessment of the situation so I must be racist. I better tell my co workers from the 9th ward I'm a bigot, a racist and hate them because they are black. Damn, they're going to be pissed and it's prolly going to fock up the golf in December.

 

Have a good day. No point discussing this now that you've gone to the race card.

 

ETA: Another apology to MDC. I was wrong that "handful" you speak of are not lazy they are pretty active. Link

[Toro 1]

I'm not dismissing abuse of the system - I already said the aid should have been handled better, probably with cards that limit what that money could have been spent on. I'm just pointing out that 1) abuse was not nearly as widespread as some of you are implying, as indicated by your link, and 2) I don't recall any of the people complaining about this relatively low-dollar abuse also beetching about the mammoth gov't handouts post-9/11, so I suspect it has more to do with the class and race of the refugees.

 

Typical right-wing class warfare: Get the middle classes pissed at the lower classes to distract from the elite who are really focking them. There is more whining on this board about a few thousands spent on booze and cigs than billions wasted in Iraq reconstruction. The media's got you brainwashed pretty good.

 

I don't think most people are complaining about the FEMA cards. Those cards were actually a good idea (poor implementation) because it gave families immediate money without the strings - and 84% of them used it properly.

 

That being said, the time is up. FEMA and gov't aid should stop now for those that are able to work. Period. It's been almost 2 years. You can say "you don't know what it's like to lose everything" all you want to, but I know that within two years, I could at least be living in an apartment and supporting myself.

 

See how I stayed on the point instead of bringing up unrelated subjects. 

[MDC 7,413]

No point discussing this now that you've gone to the race card.

 

There was no point in discussing it because you had your mind made up from the beginning.

 

I don't think most people are complaining about the FEMA cards. Those cards were actually a good idea (poor implementation) because it gave families immediate money without the strings - and 84% of them used it properly.

 

That being said, the time is up. FEMA and gov't aid should stop now for those that are able to work. Period. It's been almost 2 years. You can say "you don't know what it's like to lose everything" all you want to, but I know that within two years, I could at least be living in an apartment and supporting myself.

 

See how I stayed on the point instead of bringing up unrelated subjects. 

 

Originally you guys were complaining about FEMA refugees who blew their whopping $2K jackpot on booze and cigs. If you're arguing they should be cut off now, two years later, you're not going to get much argument from me.