One Thing You Can Say about Jim Cooper Is That Crises Really Don't Effect How He Votes

So, Jim Cooper voted against tax relief for a Gulf Coast that has been suffering for much longer than the banking and finance industry because he thinks those cuts should be matched by cuts elsewhere. That's typical Blue Dog logic. Now if he opposes it because somehow it only really helps big business and does little to help displaced and burdened ordinary people, then he would be acting remarkably. A little populism once and a while might loosen Cooper up.

But my guess is that the Tennessee Democrat would much rather see the bail out work for the principle good of bankers and only the trickle-down good of ordinary people. And so, his seeming unconventional vote looks more like empty symbolism and callous indifference to the victims of not just one natural disaster, but multiple natural disasters. There's nothing really progressive about his taxation logic.

It Gives Me Gas

Given that Nashville's gas supply has been cut in the past 24 hours to 15% of our normal supply, I would seriously like to know how drilling more wells in the Gulf of Mexico would have prevented our primary transportation system from potentially grinding to a halt? Our pipeline comes from the gulf refineries that were knocked out by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, so how would multiplying our oil rigs have brought us more gas? The doomsday scenario here is that if vital links at the refineries and along pipeline are neutralized, increasing the amount of oil to those links is futile for us. So, how can we justify "drill, baby, drill," when there are no guarantees that more oil will get to us and when it assures that our dependence on petrol will continue? The only people who will win with "drill, baby, drill" in a fuel crisis are the oil companies, who will turn pretty profits even while others are suffering.

Oily Complexion

Facing South wants to know if you see the irony between the Ike-flooded Texas wetlands contiminated with spilled oil and House approval today of more offshore oil drilling.

Cavalcade of Capitalists: Walgreens Requires Ike Victims to Work

A Houston Walgreens manager required two employees suffering catastrophic home damage--one's ceiling had caved in and the other's car was blocked in by a large tree across the driveway--to stay on schedule for work. I guess Walgreens overworks storm survivors in a bid to buck for that 2.9-million-electric-customers-without-electricity-who-may-still-need-Slim-Jims niche. Or they're just heartless bastards dedicated to the market greed.

What Would Daron Hall Do?

Galveston Sheriff leaves 1,000 inmates in county jail during Ike instead of evacuating them. The jail sits in a part of Galveston that flooded up to 7 feet, and it was running on a skeleton crew.

Caught between Uncle Sam and Ike: Immigrants Continue to Be Forced to Make Sophie's Choice

At the end of August, I pointed out that increased ICE raids, including the largest workplace raid ever just before Gustav hit, were dampening immigrant will to flee in advance of hurricanes even with federal and state assurances. I argued that immigrants are being unnecessarily forced into making Sophie's Choice.

Facing South continues to keep up with this problem, and cites the CSM:

The Christian Science Monitor reports that increased immigration raids this past year are a key reason that many undocumented may choose to stay in the storm zone during Hurricane Ike.

According to the CS Monitor:

As up to a million Texans flee the wind and rain of hurricane Ike, the federal government has imposed a “hurricane amnesty” for the state’s estimated 1.6 million unauthorized immigrants. That means no ID checks at shelters, no border patrol checkpoints, no Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents scouring the highways, says Dan Martinez, spokesman for the Austin-based Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)....

But with the intensification of crackdowns and raids in recent years, evacuation may prove a tough sell to some Hispanics in the storm’s path.

CSM also reports that local official along the Texas coast are making no efforts to contact in languages other than English or to assure immigrant communities that they will not be targeted for raids should they flee Ike's path.