When I first applied for the Rock the Vote Rock the Trail project, a task was to create some form of visual media that conveyed the topic we believed was the single most important for the new incoming President to address January 2009. My topic was global warming.

If you've heard Vice President Al Gore speak then you know how hurricanes and global warming link so easily to the failed Bush Administration's policy of denial when it comes to issues his friends in the oil industry don't want to acknowledge.

Today we suffer those consequences.

With Gustav gaining speed and power and headed for the fragile city of New Orleans, many of us can just shake our heads and pray. I arrived back in Oklahoma post-DNC to the news that we were quickly becoming a host city for evacuees for those Mayor Ray Nagin told to run for their lives.

As I was leaving for an early flight out of OKC for RNC08 in St. Paul, MN I checked the news once more to see how evacuations were going. That was when I read the heartbreaking interviews with residents who can't afford to evacuate. Whether cost of hotels, gas money to flee, or don't have cars to begin with, many NOLA residents are staying behind as we all brace for the worst.

In 2005 I was in California with no cable TV at the time, but watched online videos of Anderson Cooper's grilling of Gov. Kathleen Blanco on CNN, the meltdown by Geraldo Rivera on FoxNews as he held crying babies in the Superdome. With a tear stained face I felt the powerlessness we all felt.

That soon gave way to the anger many still feel when I see a big Hummer with a tiny housewife rolling down the highway or hear House Republicans demand that we "Drill Here! Drill NOW!"

Even oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens says we can't drill our way out of our oil problems, but that doesn't stop them from demanding it.

As my video above quotes, Al Gore shows us a direct correlation between global warming and the kinds of hurricanes that now come every year instead of every five or ten.

The Down with Tyranny blog tells of the conservative preacher James Dobson of Focus on the Family who, at one time had a link on his website that asked his flock to pray for rain so powerful on the night Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic Convention that it would prevent anyone from seeing it. What does Gustav mean then, they ask.

"First, McCain was thinking he could turn the coming disaster in his favor by using it as an excuse for Bush to not show up at the Convention, because, after all, Bush has always been so concerned about victims of hurricanes. Last time there was a big one, in fact, he and a certain Arizona senator were so busy eating birthday cake that they didn't bother doing anything at all while the residents of New Orleans were drowning. . . instead McCain will go down to the Gulf Coast and try to capitalize on the problems while getting in the way-- seriously in the way-- on rescue operations. He's really a disgusting excuse for a human being. He did the same thing when there was flooding in Iowa. Does McCain think natural disasters are sent solely to provide him with opportunities for campaign backdrops?"

Reminiscent of Anderson Cooper's "politicians patting themselves on the back" comment.

I don't know what to say other than that it is clear to me that the GOP doesn't have the interest in helping people unless its trickle down help. Its obvious to me, but its one of those things that seems to be missed on people who believe that Barack Obama is the Antichrist terrorist that email chains claim he is.

God protect NOLA and the Gulf Cost. I hope people have the wisdom to recognize the McCain photo-op for what it is. I hope that Obama says he is happy to go down there and check on people but refuse cameras to come along because he won't play politics with people's lives in the aftermath of a disaster.... I hope...