LA Times Gone Wild: 'Wrong to Blame Katrina Victims for Spending Irresponsibly'

Los Angeles Times/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

by Mark Finkelstein

June 17, 2006

What do you call someone who rips off the American taxpayer by spending Katrina relief funds on champagne, 'Girls Gone Wild' videos or gambling sprees? Why, a 'victim', of course. At least, you do if you're the editorial writer of the Los Angeles Times.

The sub-headline in the editorial in today's LA Times reads like a parody of liberal paternalism: "It's Wrong to Blame Victims for Spending Irresponsibly." No, that's not a misprint.

While acknowledging that the 16% of improper expenditures 'is indeed high', the Times doesn't want us to get all worked up about it: "some misuse of the FEMA-issued debit cards is hardly shocking."

Concludes the Times:

"It's easy, and necessary, to criticize FEMA's across-the-board incompetence in responding to the largest displacement of Americans since the Civil War. But obsessing about the spending habits of refugees comes perilously close to blaming the victim."

Got it? Blame the government agency giving away the money - not the cheats who rip off the system and the taxpayer. This is big-government liberal paternalism laid bare.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

LA Times/NewsBusters ping to Today show list.

[maggief]

"Let them touch those things for once."

[kb2614]

The LA Times is right. Those refugees have a constitutional right to visit strip clubs on taxpayers dime. As Thomas Jefferson said "All men have the absolute right to demand SEX, DRUGS, & ROCK N' ROLL and have the Federal Government pay for it.". (sarcasm off)

;-)

[RightOnline]

Words fail.

[goldstategop]

Blame it on society shtick. Liberals make us feel guilty for insisting people take charge of their own lives. I guess we can't really expect Katrina victims to rise above their circumstances. If they indulge in bad habits, they need understanding. No tough love from liberals; that's being mean-spirited.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[kjo]

Do the people who write these "editorials" have a brain in their head?

Is it any wonder that real people have a total disconnect with the likes of big liberal newspapers, big network news, CNN, NPR and PBS?

They MUST live in a world different from ours.

[Elsie]

Blame the government agency giving away the our money - not the cheats who rip off the system and the taxpayer.

our...

Our...

OUR!

OUR!!!!!

[marvlus]

You would think that a paper that is steadily eroding its subscribption base would start writing it's editorial pages more responsibly.

[Elsie]

As Thomas Jefferson said "All men have the absolute right to demand SEX, DRUGS, & ROCK N' ROLL and have the Federal Government you saps pay for it.".

[Candor7]

I heard on the radio that one of these FEMA aid recipients used his funds to obtain a sex change.Now that is a capital investment in the reconstruction of New Orleans infrastructure.

Did the reconstruction of Dikes get changed in newly drafted FEMA guidelines as the reconstruction of Dykes? We will never know in the flurry of paper being shredded, but look for more transvestite street walkers during Mardi Gras in the future!

What a bunch of podunk morons!

[mewzilla]

The soft bigotry of low expectations...

[mewzilla]

Next time they should give out cards that track purchases and disallow cash payouts. And fingerprint recipients. If folks don't want to comply, they can forgo the aid.

[knarf]

Let Them Just TOUCH These Things, For Once."

Well darlin' ... didja' let 'em?

Woodja' let ME?

[atomicpossum]

obsessing about the spending habits of refugees comes perilously close to blaming the victim."

In this case, LAT, we're the victims.

[MindBender26]

It is also incredibly racist. It's as if the writer is saying "Da Poor Black Folks Can't Know How To Spend Da Money Widout Da White Man To Show Him."

100 years ago that was called "White Man's Burden", the racist idea that whites had to think for "their" blacks.

Today it's called liberalism.

[Kakaze]

I see, the gov't is expected to act "morally" and take care of those who are displaced and in distress.

Reciprocating behavior, by those displaced however; is not required. those idividuals that are affected apparently are given carte blanche to run wild.

A real newspaper, hell a real citizen, would expect those who receive aid to be at least as morally resaponsible with the money GIFTED to them by other citizens, as the gov't was in distributing that wealth.

Afterall they didn't steal from the gov't ........they stole from us.

[mkjessup]

"Let Them Just TOUCH These Things, For Once."

Who IS that person? Really? I have no idea.

I suspect that the L.A. Slimes, already on the slippery slope and possibly headed for the auction block, is blatantly revealing that the leftist inmates (are there any other kind at the Slimes?) have taken over the asylum with this insane editorial.

The next topic on the editorial agenda will HAVE to be the public beseeching of famed (har har) attorney former Senator John Edwards to file a class action suit on behalf of all those victims of Fentanyl-laced heroin who are dropping like flies all over the place, after all: if you can't trust your heroin pusher, who CAN you trust, huh?

If the New York Times is the east coast equivalent of the old Soviet "Pravda", SURELY (I know, don't call you surely) the L.A. Times is "TASS".

The last gasps from dinosaurs.

[LiberationIT]

The subtle racism of the left.