Oil companies report record profits for 3Q

Oil companies are reporting record profits for the 3rd quarter. Now think about this for a second - a major natural disaster hits the United States in the form of hurricane Katrina, and the first thing oil companies decide is that they should raise prices immediately, taking advantage of a disaster to line their pockets, knowing that the oil-industry friendly White House won't do anything to stop them. Now I normally don't advocate for government getting involved in regulating business, but if business is going to take advantage of people knowing that they can get away with it, maybe it's time that a few company executives get jailed for price gouging and the government takes steps to ensure that this type of nonsense doesn't happen again. Of course, the Bush White House won't do anything, so maybe we need to start there (it's not like they've displayed extraordinary competence or anything...).