Mr. Williams.
We hear a lot on the News about how much Oil the USA Imports,But we never hear about how much we EXPORT! Where is the oil from Alaska going?
Sincerely..
Norman Byers
Cowgill,Mo.

This message concerns Brian's commentary on April 26 Evening News. I could not quite believe my ears as Brian commented on the film on Flight 93 which so moved him last evening. If I heard him right, he said that we are at war because of what happened on 9/11. What he failed to mention is that this is what our present administration wants us to believe. It has been proven that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Yet the President and friends would still like us to believe otherwise, and I was astounded to hear the supposed connection come from Brian Williams. It frightens me when a respected journalist speaks some of the same untruths we have heard for the past four years.

RE: 4/25 Evening News. Gasoline prices for England, France, Germany etc. noted. Nothing new. They've been higher than U.S. for years. It would have been more interesting to include U.S. Then compare all w/prices, including taxes, 6 months and/or 1 year ago...to determine whether other nations' prices had risen (or not) in ratio to U.S. prices.

Mr.Williams ;
I have been meaning to write to you for months to thank you for keeping the focus on the PITIFUL response by FEMA and other federal buraucracies to all those affected by hurricane Katrina. All these months later I cannot believe how poor that response continues to be. I would also like to know how much of the money that was contributed is still being held by The Red Cross. Keep the bureaucrats feet to the fire !

Drilling in the ANWR is not the the problem. A member of the Saudi family stated the supply of oil is not the problem. It is the failure of the petroleum companies to get their refineries damaged by Katrina back online and their failure to invest and build new refineries. They have to be able to get record profits for their investers like Bush, Cheney and their buddies. I see petroleum companies every weekend put commercials on TV harping on what they are doing to find oil and provide fuel for the consumer. Horse hockey, they are ripping off the consumers!

When I was a teenager in the long ago 1970's, when gas prices rose and I had to wait in line at the gas station sometimes at 5 a.m. because there was a scarcity of it, my generation looked to researching and funding solar power for everything from home heating to cars. We bought smaller, more fuel efficient Japanese cars that infuriated, yet eventually motivated American car makes. But when we got older, married, and had carpools of our own to soccer and piano lessons, we developed a behemoth that makes the 60's station wagon look like a Beetle. We're to blame, I hate to say it, for the SUV society, for not pursuing solar and wind aggressively enough, (Bush suggests a hydrogen car?) and electing officials that did the same. Shame on us for leaving our children with the legacy of either Arctic drilling or declaring war on the middle East to get their oil. Guess we didn't read enough history to know that it repeats...

Brian,

It is interesting that President Bush is now asking the Energy and Justice department to investigate possible cheating in the markets! I wonder why he can't de-classify meetings that aides of Vice President Cheney had with Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. when they met in the White House complex to develop a national energy policy back in 2001. Wouldn't this help support his efforts of convincing us that it was done with the American's security in mind.

From January of 1999 to March of 2000 crude went from $10 to $30 dollars per barrel. If you look at the 2000 year you'll find a lot of price volatility. Part of it was because of reformulations in areas of the US that went into 2001 however that accounts for only a small part of the increase. When a business is unregulated it is assumed that the competitive markets will dictate price. Gasoline is a monopoly that all consumers depend on.

I would like to see a comparison between Europe and the US in terms of gasoline price increase "at the pump" over the past few years. That would tells us something about the actual market prices versus the gouging that may be taking place at many levels.

NBC Nightly's coverage of the New Orleans election over the past few days has been first-rate. Thanks! The run-off will be interesting--it looks like Mayor Nagin has an uphill battle. He may have been ahead with 38% of the vote--but those who voted against him had 21 candidates to choose from. So I predict Mitch Landrieu will win.

I now have a new respect for Howard Dean. He said at the DNC meeting in New Orleans on Saturday that President Bush has "cut and run" regarding the Gulf Coast. He's 100% right.

An example: regarding New Orleans' 300-mile levee system, an article in Monday's USA Today says that according to the Army Corps of Engineers, it remains seriously flawed. Its holding together depends on there not being a storm as strong as Katrina.

And an editorial in yesterday's Times-Picayune reports that the Army Corps needs to hurry up and find ways to get crucial levee work done in greater New Orleans as quickly as possible, adding that the Corps in moving at its "usual glacial bureaucratic pace on some key projects."

According to the Corps, it needs Congressional authorization to armor levees and put pumping stations on Lake Ponchartrain. However, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter says they did receive such approval in the emergency appropriations bill passed last fall.

Meanwhile, a depressed Louisiana, her spirit shredded by the slow pace of recovery, burned out on the long wait for promised assistance which still seems a long way from coming, awaits with intense, nauseating anxiety a new hurricane season that is only a little more than a month away. The Corps' "Band-Aid" repairs on her levees mean that Louisiana and her people have been abandoned to further anguish should a new major storm hit. And this time the city of New Orleans will most probably vanish for good. Louisiana is on the brink. She cannot really heal until she knows for sure that she will have a strong, healthy levee system, for a new storm, with the levees as they are, could send her over the edge.

As Commander in Chief, President Bush should immediately sign an executive order mandating that the Corps complete the vital work on the levees. If he really had the "warm spot" in his heart he has mentioned having for Louisiana, he would have had the gumption to do this already. I wonder why he's making another trip to the Gulf Coast later this week--other than pretty photo-ops. I'm sure this will be, as have been past ones, fruitless for the storm-damaged areas. He'll probably just say hi to Mississippi and give Louisiana a pat on the head and attempt to reassure her that everything will be O.K.

For President Bush hasn't done anything really meaningful there, and I doubt that at this late date he really intends to do anything. As Howard Dean says, Bush has cut and run.

My compliments on the Robert Frost piece Monday night. It's so refreshing to come away from the news simply saying to oneself "Wow, I didn't know that."

I know with all the "important" news going on right now, many may not be interested, but I was.

Has there been a story about the FDA and it's recent statements on medical marijuana? It's not so much about the topic as the blatent misinformation, and outright bow to big drug companies. This is a huge story, the FDA and big drug makers. They are almost as close to each other as big drug and big government.

I wish we had a major broadcast network that had the guts to tell it like it is. You guys do your best, and are by far take the most risk in your headlines; A bit further and we will finally have a place to go for real US generated truthful news.

Unfortunately, sponsers don't like being talked about, so and FDA story may make us Joe Citizens buy spots at 6:30.

I'd be interested to know of all the people to comment on the Vatican's Policy on Condoms why Dawn Fratangelo picked Stephen Pope from BC.

He does not reflect Catholic teaching, is supporter of a movement to overthrow the current structure of the Roman Catholic Church, he wants to change the Vatican's teaching on various sexual issues and as a former professor of mine, he is a person who I feel had no place in your article. This is especially true in light of the literally thousands of candidates possible.

He was clearly a bad journalistic choice.

Gas down here, where the cost of living is already the highest of Florida's 67 counties, averages $3.25 a gallon. Cheapest is in Key Largo, near the mainland, about an hour south of Miami. Then it sorta goes down, but not much, as you get to Key West, which is 106 miles.....

Drilling in Anwar and elsewhere on U.S. soil:

Sure, not popular with many but with continued soaring gas prices, what alternatives do we have? To make, manufacture, and market more fuel efficient vehicles may take longer overall then our short term demand for more oil production.

Think about it. To politicize it will only prolong our ability to tap into and use this precious resource.

My husband commutes 80 miles per day for work; I do 40 and my kids share a car to get to school, jobs and activities. Our monthly gasoline bill is half the mortgage and twice the cost of heating the house. I would gladly use alternative fuels if they were available for my particular vehicle. I would consider mass transit but I live in one suburb and work in another. There are few alternatives and it's too far to bike. Therefore, I am watching these daily increases with horror. Something has to be done.

How quickly the U.S. has become marginalized with respect to what is taking place in Iraq. We hear from day to day that one, two, three, four, and sometimes five soldiers are killed on nearly a daily basis, but these are becoming "collateralized" by the extent that greater death is occurring among the Iraqis themselves. What happens when American military has become marginalized to the extent that Iraqi-upon-Iraqi deaths become the daily norm. Seems to me that the soldiers like the American consumer of oil products have become quickly marginalized by the scope of need in respective situations, the incidental American soldier fatality occurring as a result of a car bomb which targets large crowds while large crowds of American consumers are being targeted by commercial interests because these are passive interests, able to be fully fleeced, the consumer totally marginalized. In either respect, it is blatantly obvious that new leadership is apparent. Which is why I am voting straight across the board Democratic. Enough Republican hooliganism!

Mr Williams,
You're from Jersey-why can't they put you in a cameo?
Bill