Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Judge: Taxpayers must continue funding Katrina evacuees' hotel rooms

At the risk of being called an insensitive bastard (note to self: care about insults), I find the judge's ruling pretty despicable. Full story here, excerpt follows:
A federal judge ruled Monday that a program that is putting tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees up in hotels must be extended until Feb. 7 — a month beyond the cutoff date set by FEMA.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval said victims must be given more time in hotels because FEMA cannot guarantee that all applications for other aid, such as rent assistance or trailers, will be processed by the agency's Jan. 7 deadline.
My main problem with the ruling is that a court seems to be imposing a deadline, and what appears to be an arbitrarily one at that, on how long the taxpayers are expected to foot the bill. Was this judicial activism? I don't know, since I admittedly don't have the transcripts of the ruling. However, my initial reaction is that the ruling likely was judicial activism. The judge's words (ones that I could find, anyway):

"It is unimaginable what anxiety and misery these erratic and bizarre vacillations by FEMA have caused the victims, all of whom, for at least one point in time, had the very real fear of being without shelter for Christmas."

This fear, anxiety, and misery are legal grounds for forced aid? I mean, why stop at Katrina victims? Why not compel taxpayers to fund hotel rooms for other homeless people? Hey, we might be on to something here!

Also, here's a politically incorrect and intemperate thought:

By and large, these hotel-dwelling evacuees are people who lived a parasitic lifestyle in the Big Easy, and they have just exported their "gimme" entitlement mindset to other parts of the country. They will continue to suckle off the bosom of the taxpayers until they are compelled to get out there and (gasp!) fend for themselves. Rest assured, the ACLU and other "activists" will work diligently (isn't that "work diligently" ironic when compared to what the parasites are avoiding?) to make sure that the workophobes won't have to lift a finger or burn a calorie doing work. The ACLU can add a slogan: "We work hard, so you don't ever have to!"

For the Katrina evacuees (especially the subsidized former hotel-dwellers) who have dusted themselves off, started a new life and career or job in another town: you are to be saluted for your perseverance. Unfortunately, here's guessing that there are scant few of you, however.