Your tax dollars at work...

[Moooooo]

From Times Online:

MANY PEOPLE think conservatives, especially the American kind, are a mean-spirited, selfish bunch of misanthropists, irredeemably opposed to public spending on anything other than tanks and prisons.

They should talk to Abby, bartender at the Baby Dolls Strip Club in Houston. A week after Hurricane Katrina had relocated thousands of New Orleans residents to Houston, Fema, the much-maligned federal agency responsible for dealing with the crisis, decided it would be a good idea to hand out debit cards with a value of $2,000 to the displaced to buy necessities.

There were virtually no restrictions on the use of the cards and so the definition of “necessities” acquired some latitude. Louis Vuitton did a roaring trade in handbags in the Houston area and a good deal was dropped, as it were, at some of the city’s finest adult entertainment establishments.

Interviewed by a reporter for the local TV station, Abby over at Baby Dolls said she had seen many clients using their debit cards. She had nothing but praise for this exercise in government largesse. “A lot of customers have been coming in from Louisiana and they’ve been real happy about the $1.75 beers and they’re really nice.” It was only fair, she added that they should get a little publicly funded help. “You lost your whole house, then, why not?” she said. “You might want some beer in a strip club. There are a lot of guys out there that like to do that.”

Indeed. It may not be the kind of relief that most Republicans were thinking of when they voted through $50 billion in spending on the devastated region, but I can’t think of a more compassionate conservatism than one that pays for a Budweiser and a lap dance with somebody else’s money.

The article is a little biased, but I didnt post it to take a shot at Republicans.  I posted it because I was astonished that people were using these debit cards for beer and lap dances.

[TheresNoMoney]

Yeah, I heard about this a few days ago. They probably should've put restrictions on those debit cards, but maybe that would've really slowed the process down.

[Speed of Sound]

LOL i think its pretty funny

[ATFFL]

I thought BRTD was in Minnesota.

Seriously, I like the idea of letting people decide what they need than just handing out what you think they need, but the open eded card idea was not good.

[A18]

Just further evidence that this kind of charity should be privatized.

[Jake]

I big reason they gave this idea up quickly.

[dazzleman]

there's a reason why some people are perpetually poor....

[Erc]

But if you limit the purchases, what's to prevent the money they would have spent on food & necessities anyway from being used on lap dances?


Speaking of lap dances...why hasn't BRTD showed up here yet?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The real scandal is that they only handed these out in Texas.

[J. J.]

The real scandal is that they only handed these out in Texas.

You right, the GOP should given some BRTD so he could the lap dances too. 

[opebo]

Yeah, I heard about this a few days ago. They probably should've put restrictions on those debit cards, but maybe that would've really slowed the process down.

Why?  All spending is good, and why should we judge what an individual uses his social insurance payments for?

there's a reason why some people are perpetually poor....

$2,000 is nothing.

$2,000 per month would have been a more reasonable outlay.

[angus]

From Times Online:

...a good deal was dropped, as it were, at some of the city’s finest adult entertainment establishments.

... I was astonished that people were using these debit cards for beer and lap dances.

"You might be a redneck if ..."   

Hey, Boudreaux, ah got me a two-thousand dollar mastercard. Ain't got no house any more but I still know how to git tore down and have a good time.  Yeee haa.

Well, Thibodeaux, ah don't know, what about yer old lady?

Aw, she's back in n'awlins, she ain't gonna know, c'mon.  Let's go git liquor'd up and git some pussy. 




pretty funny post, nick.  I don't mean to be insensitive, and I know you don't either, but some things are just too damned funny.  thanks for the laugh. 

[Moooooo]

From Times Online:

...a good deal was dropped, as it were, at some of the city’s finest adult entertainment establishments.

... I was astonished that people were using these debit cards for beer and lap dances.

"You might be a redneck if ..."   

Hey, Boudreaux, ah got me a two-thousand dollar mastercard. Ain't got no house any more but I still know how to git tore down and have a good time.  Yeee haa.

Well, Thibodeaux, ah don't know, what about yer old lady?

Aw, she's back in n'awlins, she ain't gonna know, c'mon.  Let's go git liquor'd up and git some pussy. 




pretty funny post, nick.  I don't mean to be insensitive, and I know you don't either, but some things are just too damned funny.  thanks for the laugh. 

rofl. 

[angus]

well, it may be more of an inside thing.  see, there are all these posters all over Columbus that say stuff like "You might be a Redneck if your liquorstore knows you by your first name."  They're at bars and package stores and clubs all over town.  Mostly they're references to drinking, whoring, and smoking.  anyway, that's really the first thing I thought of when I read the post.  Really funny story though, and I'm glad you posted it.

Nevertheless, the whole situation deserves a good rant.  Of course Republicans are greedy, amoral, capitalist pigs who only do things like this to get votes.  Yeah, right.  Sure, some are, but then so are some Democrats.  The defining characteristic of the GOP is, was, and always has been Nationalism.  Who's more "liberal" or "conservative" or "compassionate" or "progressive" or whatever your adjective-of-the-month is, changes over time.  But nationalism, wrapping oneself up in God and the Flag, has remained constant since its first national convention in Pittsburgh in 1856.

That said, there's lots of partisan bickering on the part of both major parties.  And now you've managed to blame each other for the weather?!?!  that's f ucking unreal.  Ah, well, you might as well argue with each other over the weather, seems to give partisan Republicans and partisan Democrats some perverse pleasure to blame anything and everything on the "other side" 

anyway, sure, this whole credit card flap has the potential to embarass the republicans.  (they're stereotype is supposed to be conservatism, by the way, but a two hundred billion dollar war followed by a two hundred billion dollar pledge to rebuild a city that's in a very bad place to begin with certainly blows that stereotype, doesn't it?)  But put yourself in the shoes of some staffer under great pressure to make a decision in a hurry.  They are meant to provide relief.  Checks?  No banks standing.  And anyway many of these people have no accounts.  Cash?  Yeah, right, drive a truck full of hundred dollar bills down the interstates in the lower Mississippi River Valley.  Bad idea.  the mastercard, at least on paper, might have sounded like a good idea.  Sure, they didn't really think it through.  And anyway, have since stopped issuing them.  And, for sure, any program is subject to fraud and abuse, but it doesn't mean we don't try.  And what the hell??  So some wealth is redistributed from rich oil tycoons to some undergraduate liberal arts major bimbo trying to pay rent by dancing topless.  It's really not the end of the world.  She'll be poor again in a few weeks, and the oil tycoon will be rich again soon enough.  Don't worry.

Have we become so stale that Republicans can't have a good laugh at the mistakes of their leaders?  Or that Democrats can't recognize a good thought when they see it, even when it doesn't work out as planned?  Sometimes (and I'll just have a Clayton Williams moment here) you just have to sit back and appreciate things as they really are.  In this case, it's an unfortunate, but very funny, unintended consequence of a plan thought up by folks trying to do the right thing.