The Sport of Executive Privilige

I don't really want to hope that Michael Vick receives a severe punishment for his misdeeds. After all he did not kill innocent children or destroy villages faraway from Washington. He didn't lie to congress or rip-off American taxpayers to the tune of several billion dollars (a day!). He didn't have secret plans to enrich his family and friends with great treasures of oil revenues while at the same time making his country even more dependent upon his Saudi friends services. But the real problem is that it is all the same thing. It all boils down to "Executive Privilege". If you are rich enough or powerful enough - then the laws of the nation don't apply to you. Then you live in a different world. You can do whatever you "need" to do.

Bridge Collapse

Not the first time this has happened. This is a bridge that had been identified as "deficient" in 1990. There are some 40,000 other locations identified as "deficienct" in American infrastructure. Meanwhile our roadbuilding continues and it all is based on accomodation of more and more automobilles. America has no serious light rail service available with the exception of a few highly-populated regions. We will not convert overnight to a light rail service but we can begin. Minneapolis would be a good place to start. Not to replalce highways with light rail but to begin providing that alternative for our people. We don't have to begin there but it would be not only appropriate but also symbolic. Let's face it, most of America's problems are automobille-related. Without our dependence on middle-eastern oil, our endless-seeming communutes, our high accident toll, pollution, sprawl, congestion and so on.