U.S. Customs' Counterfeit Clothing the Naked of Katrina

Barbara Bush, spoke on her visit to victims of hurricane Katrina that "so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them." It is even getting better for those underprivileged people. Filed in the Only in America-dossier, this news article reports that:

Monday afternoon, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced they are donating seized clothing, to victims of the hurricane. About 1.7 million dollars worth of counterfeit clothing, shoes, towels, and toys are being donated to the state. Many of the clothing pieces were confiscated because they violated copyright infringements. Normally they would have been destroyed.

Thomas Winkowski, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, says, "Under statuatory authority during these times of disaster our commissioner has the authority to waive that, in other words we don't have to go back to the trademark and say, can we have that, our commissioner can do that unilatterally during these times of difficulty."

What a sight! Those poor, underprivileged people will be carrying what's left of their home and family in a China-made Luis Vuitton bag, while walking the flooded streets on a pair of five dollar Nikes in a fancy Lacoste shirt. At least the change of getting shot for alleged loothing must be smaller in your counterfeit Armani suit.