Comments on: Un-American http://www.polimom.com/2006/02/13/un-american/ I used to be in the middle, but they keep moving the line! Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:31:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Polimom http://www.polimom.com/2006/02/13/un-american/#comment-755 Mon, 13 Feb 2006 23:24:00 +0000 http://www.polimom.com/2006/02/13/un-american/#comment-755 Ray - I agree that it's hard to believe nearly a million folks did that. I further agree that in desperate circumstances, people do desperate things. OTOH, people were claiming to be hurricane victims all over the Gulf Coast area in the 2 or 3 months immediately following the storms, but then turned out to be vultures taking advantage of the situation. Perhaps they, too, were in desperate straights... but my sympathies were - and <I>are</I> - with the storm (and failed levee) victims, not opportunists. It makes me doubly mad when I consider the parsimony and apathy being demonstrated by the government, who continue to sanctimoniously hold up the "lot of money" that's been allocated already. Yes, there's been a lot of money... but to whom has it gone? Ray - I agree that it’s hard to believe nearly a million folks did that. I further agree that in desperate circumstances, people do desperate things.

OTOH, people were claiming to be hurricane victims all over the Gulf Coast area in the 2 or 3 months immediately following the storms, but then turned out to be vultures taking advantage of the situation.

Perhaps they, too, were in desperate straights… but my sympathies were - and are - with the storm (and failed levee) victims, not opportunists.

It makes me doubly mad when I consider the parsimony and apathy being demonstrated by the government, who continue to sanctimoniously hold up the “lot of money” that’s been allocated already. Yes, there’s been a lot of money… but to whom has it gone?

]]> by: Ray in Austin http://www.polimom.com/2006/02/13/un-american/#comment-754 Mon, 13 Feb 2006 22:20:00 +0000 http://www.polimom.com/2006/02/13/un-american/#comment-754 I don't believe that 900,000 people intended to defraud the government. That's ludicrous. I spent many many hours at the shelter trying to help people use that peice-of-shit FEMA web site, and if it's chock full of duplicate and invalid social security numbers, the fault lies with the completely fucked-up system design. That web site was an atrocity, and its database is likely a toxic waste dump from a data integrity standpoint. After everything those people had to go through to get into the system at all...hell, if I was an evacuee and FEMA's software fucked up and issued me TWO $2000 debit cards instead of one....when I'm close to homeless and need to feed my kids? I'm not gonna ask questions, I'm gonna use the second card. I'm going to take this audit as evidence of massive incompetence on the part of FEMA planners, not evidence of fraud on the part of almost a million evacuees. Because I know what I saw. I don’t believe that 900,000 people intended to defraud the government. That’s ludicrous. I spent many many hours at the shelter trying to help people use that peice-of-shit FEMA web site, and if it’s chock full of duplicate and invalid social security numbers, the fault lies with the completely fucked-up system design.

That web site was an atrocity, and its database is likely a toxic waste dump from a data integrity standpoint.

After everything those people had to go through to get into the system at all…hell, if I was an evacuee and FEMA’s software fucked up and issued me TWO $2000 debit cards instead of one….when I’m close to homeless and need to feed my kids? I’m not gonna ask questions, I’m gonna use the second card.

I’m going to take this audit as evidence of massive incompetence on the part of FEMA planners, not evidence of fraud on the part of almost a million evacuees. Because I know what I saw.

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