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Jim Cooper, habitual deficit hawk who is always whining about earmarks, pork barrel projects and government spending, is upset because Congress isn’t funding the construction of a new Nashiville federal courthouse. He is forming a "Congressional Courthouse Caucus" to address this massive injustice.
Let’s just recap:
First House vote on stimulus bill, which included funding for the Nashville courthouse: Jim Cooper voted against.
Second House vote on the stimulus bill (after conference), which cut funding for the Nashville courthouse: Jim Cooper voted for.
Cooper’s lack of consistency is exceeded only by his tin ear for constituent services. From Jeff Woods at Nashville Scene:
That’ll teach ‘em, Jim. You just shake your fist over the unfairness of it all, and all those mean old pols up there in Congress will see the error of their ways and give us the money for our courthouse. Maybe you should also form the Congressional Leaky Dam Caucus to come up with the cash to fix Center Hill Dam, another "pork-barrel project" you refused to vote for. Oh wait, Sen. Lamar Alexander took care of that one for us. Remind us again, congressman, why are you in Washington?
Mike Byrd at the Enclave:
Mr. Cooper seems more committed to the his Blue Dog coalition than he does to those whom he is supposed to represent in Middle Tennessee.
Maybe one day we can all acknowledge that when people say "fiscal conservative," what they really mean is "shakedown artist waiting for the right moment."
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ZED!
OT but according to Raw Story Obama is siding with the Bush administration in trying to block challenges to the wiretapping program.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/….._0406.html
Morning Jane(:>)) Jim Cooper is just another self serving BlueDog who has never had the peoples best interest as his guiding principle of his office.
DIGG is Open Pups!!
“shakedown artist waiting for the right moment.”
Not to quibble too much, but ya really think this guy has risen to the level of an “artist”?
Maybe a wannabe….
sent it to Emptywheel about 90 minutes ago – looking foward to hearing her (and other legal eagle)take on it
That can be said for about 95% of Congress.
How sadly TRUE! WE do have some good members in Congress/Senate but I am hard pressed to mane them. /s
wait. cooper voted against funding the courthouse; when that passed the house, he voted for cutting it? and now he wants the money for it? True?
i mean, this is kinda unbelievable.
Jane, please forgive the o/t question but not sure when a post might address the subject:
Has anyone heard anything on corp. media about the reich wing leanings of the guy who killed the three policemen? They’ve talked about dog urine leading up to the dispute…….oooooooh, bright shiny (yellow) object. There’s more and more info coming through on the lefty blogs but thus far, total silence on the potentially real cause so far as I’ve heard on TV.
Gonna need a sleek facility to handle the increase in bankruptcy, child welfare and eviction hearings
mass murders.
Read Dickens for the model. “Are there no poorhouses……….?”
Richard Poplawski
firedogs,
use Spotlight function
when the screen opens, click on “All” then mosey over right to “Regional”, then type in “TN” and finally, hit “Update” and voila!
in Jane’s “Congr. Courthouse Caucus” link above, the local reporter doesn’t even mention how the distinguished gentleman was against it before he was for it – let’s let ‘em know, shall we ?
In the 18th Century a revolution was fought because the people had no representation in the decisions that affected their daily lives. Today there is the myth that Congress and the government serves the interests of the people. That fantasy is beginning to fade daily.
No matter what is said, Jim Cooper is a “loyal” Democrat in good standing with the Washington and Democratic establishments.
Ta. What I’ve seen in print media has come out of the Pittsburgh PG but nada on TV unless I’ve missed it.
Is this a case of logic dysfunction or early onset dementia
It’s becoming more and more clear everyday that Obama has chosen the path of Clinton in moving toward protecting establishment interests at the expense of the people. I expect he will abandon his promise for EFCA anyday now.
right now, Page One at Big Orange
ps – did you know David Niewert has just published a book on the subject ?: The Eliminationists
1. What exactly makes this guy a Democrat?
2. I have no doubt that EFCA is dead in the water. Obama is too worried about the banksters to care about working class union members.
Thom Hartmann just said the same thing on his radio show.
Was just heading back this way with that linky…..Waldman nailed the topic hard. Will check out the Niewert ref. – thanks.
Maybe one day we can all acknowledge that when people say “fiscal conservative,” what they really mean is “shakedown artist waiting for the right moment.”…Jane Hamsher
The Banksters and their regulatory tools like Giethner unloading the public treasury in a Rico operation to give welfare to the wall street casinos at the cost of a safety net for those destroyed by the speculation of the housing bubble and securitizing of it (CDS).
Just a smaller scale in Cooper’s case…same drill. Conservative Cackle.
I did see something ever so briefly covered on CNN a day or two ago. The main stream media will never cover the back ground story as it just might point to all the hate mongers on the right who are espousing violence! They may couch it in Veiled statements but it is hate and violence non the less.
Slightly OT: Hedges is up with another sugar-coated assessment:
http://www.truthdig.com/report…..ome_serfs/
hedges is such a pollyanna. /s
I live in Nashville and in all fairness to Cooper the new Federal courthouse has been in the planning stages for a long time. The one we have right now is no longer up to the task. However, I really wanted to post this bit of irony about the courthouse, from the Memory Hole:
“Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) tacked an amendment to the spending bill last week naming the courthouse in honor of Senate Majority Leader and Nashville-native Bill Frist.”
Hilarious. The most egregious example of Cooper loving earmarks before he hated them is here, when he slipped a $3.17 earmark into the transportation bill to build a parking garage at a private Church of Christ-affiliated University. The garage was for a new arena the school was building, and the argument was that because the arena would host community events, it was appropriate to use taxpayer money this way.