JUST WHO BOUGHT $800 LOUIS VUITTON BAGS WITH FEMA DEBIT CARDS?

I am really sick of hearing right-wing radio talk show yahoos throwing out, without citation, the information that FEMA debit cards distributed to help victims of Hurricane Katrina have been used to purchase items by Louis Vuitton and other luxury brands. In every case they sound gleeful and the clear implication of their context and disdainful tone is, "See -- THOSE PEOPLE (almost always a tipoff of racist intent) are wasting taxpayer money again. They're shiftless and either won't manage their money so as to take responsibility for themselves or they're just too ignorant to try." It brings to mind immediately the sly suggestions that the Rush Limbaughs of the world often make that all black people wearing Air Jordans bought them with welfare money or they've ripped somebody off.

The reason they don't back up the debit card charge is that the truth ruins their storyline:

The source told me that the two women who had made purchases with the card each bought a signature monogrammed Louis Vuitton handbag in the $800 range.

"They didn't look destitute by any stretch. You would never have said, 'They must be one of the evacuees.'"

Clearly, some of the debit cards got into the hands not of poor people, but someone a bit more affluent. Even the conservative New York Daily News called them "profiteering ghouls."