The Insane Ruler to the Rescue

Of the oil companies. It speaks volumes about Bush's intentions that the most significant response from the White House has been to release oil from the strategeric reserve. Gotta help them oil companies.

If I may be so bold, I'd like to point out that Bush has been completely inept in his response to the hurricane damage. When he knew it was going to be bad, which we did at least two days before, he could have put tens of thousands of National Guard troops on the ready. He did not. They're in Iraq.

When it hit, he could have watched CNN to follow the damage as it happened. At that point he could have mobilized equipment and supplies to get everything moving towards where they would be needed in just a few hours. He did nothing.

By Tuesday, New Orleans was in a state of anarchy that resembled Baghdad after the fall of Saddam. Looting and plundering and not a single American National Guards person in sight. It seems to me that Bush likes to sit back and watch scenes of heh heh heh anarchy which he could have prevented, if he cared.

How much damage has to happen to our poor country before we have paid enough? Since September 11, 2001, it has been obvious to tens of millions of us that this guy has not our best interest at heart. He waited three days before speaking about this disaster. That was almost forgivable at the time of the tsunami, at least that was half way around the world. Louisiana is next door to Texas! Where he was on vacation!

Why do we pay so dearly for this? What have we done? I voted for Kerry. I have none of this blood on my hands. I knew we would end up as a third world country with Bush at the helm. Castro responds with more compassion and intelligence to disaster in his nation. At least he seems to care.

Where is the outrage? Why has Bush sat on his hands when he could send enough resources to keep the peace, commandeer the staples people need and ration them.

Instead, Bush let the looting happen and now there are countless thousands of new illegal guns on the streets of New Orleans. And there is not yet order. Three days later, when enough time has passed for him to easily send in 100,000 troops to do cleanup. But our rapid response team is in Iraq, getting blown up so that we have political control of an oil producing country.

Well, Bush at least uses the National Guard to help out the oil companies.

Thank You, Peter

Rest in peace, Peter.

I also want to thank you for helping me get done smoking cigarettes.

When Peter announced that he had lung cancer, for some reason his news resonated deeper in me than another random celebrity with lung cancer. I respect Peter and was truly moved by his story and confession about relapsing in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

I decided for sure that I was done. I also have a baby on the way, which is my prime motivation. So with inspiration and motivation, I smoked my last cigarette on the Friday before Memorial Day, this year. I have not smoked a single puff since.

The news of Peter's death has, understandably, hit me pretty hard, since I thought of Peter as my inspiration for quitting. I think the best thing I can do now for his memory is to stay smoke free for the rest of my life.

Whether I relapse at any point or not, I must say that I am quickly becoming one of those ex-smokers who are the worst kind of non-smoker. I can smell a cigarette in the car next to me on the street, even when my windows are up - yuck! I smell them when someone is around the corner downtown a block away. I half jokingly say that I support a public spaces amoking ban. Maybe that's less than half a joke.

Either way, in the end, I no longer smoke and I have Peter to at least partially thank. I thought that smart people could avoid lung cancer by being smarter than it, or something. Obviously that is not the case.

Rest in peace, Peter. Bless your soul. You have earned moksha.

-Paul