Al Gore on Saturday Night Live last night was great - funny - and also had a very real message. The last six years did not have to be one debacle after another. As events become history, we humans can easily think it was just going to happen that way and human effort could not have prevented it. In truth, our security agencies - FBI in particular - had to work at being stupid in order for the 9/11 attackers to succeed. The agencies were not lacking any information nor were they lacking any legal tools to stop the attacks.

The debacle of New Orleans, the catastrophic war in Iraq, the immense federal debt, and now the beginnings of inflation and high interest rates - are all direct results of poor thinking and decisions plus a good dollop of corruption. Al Gore reminds us that it did not have to be.

Oh - and if you now believe that the NSA has only databased our complete phone-calling records and not taped our conversations then I have a bridge to sell you. And if you think the feds knowing every person you have talked with for 5 years is not an invasion of your privacy, then you would have been cheering on Hitler in 1936 Germany. After all, he promised to protect them from the other threatening countries of Europe. Just as Bush has protected us from an Iraqi invasion. I actually have college-educated friends who say it is better to fight them there than here.