Sorry I've been missing in action for the past week. I've been meaning to sit down and write about how the hosting switch went, give an update on how 'pedal' is doing, just talk about how my week has been going... but... this morning, I went for a very nice walk around the neighborhood, it's a beautiful day outside, the sky is clear, people are out walking their dogs, the sun is shining.

While walking I put on my ipod to listen to the Al Fraken show, which is being covered this week by Sam Seder from the Majority Report.

And I actually cut my walk short this morning, I still got in a good twenty minutes, but this morning's podcast left me... I'm not even sure what word best describes it. Please read what I'm about to write... and please leave a comment, or write an email, and it doesn't have to be, "yeah, that sucks"... it could be encouraging, an uplifting comment would actually be nice right now. But don't say nothing... it just makes me feel more hopeless.


What is this all about? Well, someone apparently had a crisis of conscious and decided to leak, to the AP, over six days of transcripts and video of the days leading up to and directly after Katrina (or Carina if your Laura Bush), one particularly damaging video is a direct conference line on Sunday (19 hours before the hurricane hit the coast) between FEMA, the National Weather service and Bush at his ranch while on vacation.

In the video everyone at FEMA and the National Weather service is telling Bush about their worries over the levees, about the disaster within a disaster for the Superdome, etc... in this video conference Bush doesn't ask a single question. Not one.

Of course it was only four days later when Bush said in an interview that "no one could have anticipated the breach of the levees...". Now anyone that actually gave the situation two seconds of thought, knew that Bush was lying through his teeth in that ABC interview, but now there is video proof for those who wanted to believe their president was/is there to protect them, to look out for their better interest, to guide this country and it's government in an inspiring direction.

So how should I feel? Should I be upset over this particular lie? Or should I focus on a pattern of incompetence? Bush has told us, "no one could have imagined terrorist would fly planes into the Twin Towers", "no one could have anticipated the breach of the levees", "no one could have imagined we wouldn't be greeted as liberators", "I have the right to illegally spy on every day Americans with telling anyone", "America doesn't torture", on and on and on. In every case, time would tell, the opposite was true.

So maybe focusing on the pattern isn't the right concern either. How about why is Bush president... what personal ambitions moved him to become president? If it's not to represent the people... if it's not to protect the people or our interest... if it's not to be a force for good... than why?

I think the answer is obvious: look at Exxon, reporting the largest profits for any company in the world. Look at the pharmaceutical industry with their $180 billion slush fund from the medicaid bill. Look at the mining industry who is making huge profits at the expense of their workers' safety. Look at the food industry, now that congress has said it will crush any state pushing for higher safety standards for food. Look at the energy companies who are forcing states to allow for more carbon monoxide emissions to enter the atmosphere because of a federal regulation roll-back. Look at the sale of our port security to UAE, despite the report that Al Qaeda in 2002 had infiltrated the UAE government. I could go on all day.

But I think the real question is, the one that matters the most, the one that is hardest to answer, the question that can't be answered with "money", is this: what is it going to take before we say enough is enough? That's the one I can never understand...