FEMA gave away hurricane victims' supplies

This story is couple weeks old, but it has to be shoved right back onto the frontburner until there's some answers (seeing how the Bush cult likes to portray themselves as big answer people and all).

It's been revealed that FEMA gave away some $85,000,000 worth of household goods that were intended for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. FEMA held the items - which included necessities like kitchen items, sleeping goods, clothes, and cleaning supplies - in warehouses for 2 years until FEMA gave away the items to various agencies that had nothing to do with hurricane recovery. While a small portion of it went to independent nonprofit agencies like food banks, most of it went straight to other government agencies.

FEMA's excuse? They said it was costing too much to store the items, and another agency wanted the warehouses demolished. Um, well? Then why didn't FEMA, like, give the items to hurricane victims, which is what they were supposed to do in the first place?

The problem has got to be much deeper than it appears. A lot of the items were donations from private parties. But following FEMA's giveaway, they wound up in the hands of other government agencies. And who knows where they went from there?

With the amount of corruption in the government, the items were probably looted by high-ranking officials. And I bet FEMA knew this was going on, because government corruption today is so rampant.

As I write this, there's probably some undersecretary at some Cabinet department who's eating filet mignon off plates that were supposed to go to hurricane survivors. I'm not exaggerating. It's hard to see what use some government agencies would have with some of these supplies, so somebody's obviously skimming the items for personal use.

The Border Patrol, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Postal Service were first in line to receive the items. Organizations like the Department of Homeland Suckyurity also got some items. I doubt the Postal Service has much use for bed sheets and dinner forks, or that the Border Patrol has much use for clothing and toilet bowl cleaner, so I'm wagering that some Bush patronage appointee is taking the supplies home.

All this while the government keeps jawing about how much it's done for the hurricane victims?

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/11/fema.giveaway)