It's a mad, mad, mad, mad hurricane

Three people who helped themselves to a carload of booze after Katrina hit have been handed fifteen years in prison by a judge who wanted recently-passed looting laws to "send a message" of zero tolerance.

Two subcontractors found guilty of bribing goverment officials for falsifying records on work they hadn't done in the cleanup effort were given a sentence of one year and a fine.

Now, using a state of emergency to fill your trunk with hooch is a bad thing. But I didn't realize it was fifteen times worse than using a state of emergency to defraud the government and taxpayers. So remember kids, if you're thinking of turning to a life of crime, always go white-collar.

At least now we have some insight into why there's been no action taken against contractors in Iraq who've stolen billions of dollars. If someone raided the bar at Harrah's over Baghdad, on the other hand....