A Natural Gas Future

The Natural Gas Man – Philip Klein, The American Spectator
As T. Boone Pickens says here, “wind is not going to move an 18-wheeler.” Natural gas transportation is proven technology and can be used to get the U.S. off Mideast oil. As skeptics of a domestic energy policy say, “Someone is going to buy the oil from the Saudis,” but if America isn’t buying oil, the price will collapse and funding for terrorism and radical petro-regimes along with it. Pickens is targeting a first phase of changing 18-wheeler trucks over to natural gas. I would throw bus fleets into the same category and put them on fuel cell power with United Technologies fuel cells that are already proven tech. The fuel cells can be powered with natural gas and make buses whisper quiet. Imagine emission-free whisper quiet buses in a city rather than the roaring diesel exhaust spewing monsters of today. Pickens’ plan starts to falter on the massive subsidies he’s asking the government to make. Given time and continued abundance of natural gas, truckers and the average driver will likely make the move away from the volatile gasoline market and into a more stable transportation fuel like natural gas or natural gas for fuel cells. – Dick Young

Obama To Louisiana: Drop Dead – Jeff Crouere, Human Events
Domestic sources of petroleum, exploited by offshore drilling, are essential to America’s pursuit of energy independence. Any transitional phase will rely heavily on the few remaining domestic sources of petroleum. An offshore oil drilling moratorium that could end the offshore oil industry for good is simply ludicrous. The Obama administration is playing politics with the BP spill and should start acting like a group of adults and remember that there are many thousands of American jobs at stake, not to mention the price of gasoline that affects all Americans. – Timothy Jones

Not Obama Is Not Enough – Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
Republicans can help their electoral cause in November by explaining exactly how their immigration policy will work. A process of allowing skilled labor, and even unskilled labor into the country legally, while at the same time implementing a zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration will win the votes of both business owners and American job seekers. Tying immigration to the unemployment rate would be an innovative step that I haven’t heard from anyone in the political sphere. – Timothy Jones

Rising Speculation About Bombing Iran’s Nukes – Michael Barone, National Review
There has been a massive amount of chatter regarding a potential bombing of Iran by Israel in the news lately. Where is all the hype coming from. Who is orchestrating the PR blitz centered on why an Israeli attack of Iran wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all? My assumption would be that the Obama administration is starting to run out of ideas for resetting relations with Iran and thinks letting Israel take a whack at their nuclear facilities could be a success. And if not, a failure can be placed squarely on the shoulders of Israel, a country that the current administration already seems willing to part ways with on major issues. America should be trying to help the very decent Iranian middle class to overthrow the radical regime in place in the country using the techniques employed during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. – Dick Young

Election Wins Can Stop Lame-Duck Threat – Phil Kerpen, National Review
The threat of dastardly lame-duck session coming from Democrats who will seek to use their final hour of overwhelming power to push the radical agenda of their president is clear. Democrats have indicated the lame-duck session may be used to pass a VAT tax, and other radical progressive agenda items. In the article Phil Kerpen outlines that the election of 5 new senators could be used to help stem the damage of a lame duck session. These and other races will be paramount in the 2010 election season. – Timothy Jones

House to Try Top Democrat – Brody Mullins and Devlin Barrett, The Wall Street Journal
Charlie Rangel has been accused by a House ethics committee of breaking the law more than once. The allegations of course have not been proven. However, the cloud of ethics violations surrounding Rangel for some time now has already forced him to give up his gavel as head of the Ways and Means committee. Now Rangel may be forced from office as an ethics trial unfolds. I doubt many of his colleagues will want to stand next to Charlie for photo ops in the coming months before the November elections. Look for Rangel to be eating lunch alone in the Capitol cafeteria. – Dick Young

Jobless Numbers Are Worse Than You Think – Paul Godek, The Wall Street Journal
Unemployment numbers, like the inflation numbers, are not very good measures of actual economic reality in the United States. You’ll hear unemployment estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but these numbers don’t account for the number of people that have simply given up looking for work. – Dick Young

Liberal Tax Revolt – Review & Outlook, The Wall Street Journal
Finally some Democrats seem to be getting the picture that if they allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, they will be kindly asked by their constituents to find jobs in the private sector come November. Americans, unlike most Democrats in Congress, seem to understand that if taxes are raised on the rich, that will also hit their employers. Most people of rational thinking realize that if their employer must pay more taxes to the government, he will have fewer dollars to spend on employees, meaning jobs will be cut. Democrats of the far left seem to be aiming to simply replace private sector employment altogether with public sector jobs and “green jobs” for their union friends. If that is the case, it’s no wonder they seem to care so little about taxing the rich so hard that they must cut employee numbers. – Timothy Jones