Merry Xmas From FEMA - Now Get Out.

Don't you just love compassionate conservatism as practised by the Bush administration? Nowhere is it more finely honed than at FEMA.

FEMA will stop paying for hotel rooms for most evacuees of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Dec. 1, officials said Tuesday as the agency pushed victims to find more stable housing.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that 53,000 families remain in hotels - mostly in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi - after losing their homes to the storms that devastated the Gulf Coast this year.

So as soon as they are done with Thanksgiving, 53,000 families are going to have to scramble to find homes in time for Christmas.

And will FEMA be helping them find homes?

There are still too many people living in hotel rooms, and we want to help them get into longer-term homes before the holidays," FEMA Acting Director R. David Paulison said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. "Across the country, there are readily available, longer-term housing solutions for these victims that can give greater privacy and stability than hotel and motel rooms."

"Those affected by these storms should have the opportunity to become self-reliant again and reclaim some normalcy in their lives," Paulison said.

That will be a no, then. Helping people, according to the compassionate conservative playbook, consists of giving them the "opportunity to become self-reliant and reclaim some normalcy in their lives" by kicking them out on the street for Christmas.

Lovely.


PS: Also lovely is the news that the father and uncle of Louisiana State Rep Gary Smith were awarded three no-bid contracts worth $108 million in total. The deal has stirred complaints of a sweetheart deal from rival businesses and prompted a state investigation because they did not have a license to sell new trailer homes until well after the company provided the first ones to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Smith is a Democrat, by the way. Then again, if the votes of Mary Landrieu the Dem Seanator are any indication then Louisiana Democrats are to the right of half the current GOP Senate and House members. Contrary Mary voted for ANWAR drilling, removing detainee's rights to habeas corpus, for persecuting non-profit housing groups that register voters and against the McCain anti-torture amendment - all just in the last month!

And yet the Dems haven't removed the party whip. Come on, Harry, wake up and smell the coffee.