President Bush yesterday announced that the presidential directive that has impeded oil exploration and development offshore and in ANWR is no more. He has taken action that clears the way for Congress to do the same. I am very grateful, and I know that many readers are equally grateful.

In response to this move, Nancy Pelosi has predictably stated that it means nothing. She complains that it will not do anything to lower gas prices today. What she failed to announce in her great wisdom is anything that actually will lower gas prices today. Why did she not declare the real solution that will reduce the price of gasoline in an instant? Because nothing any of us can do will have that effect.

President Bush’s announcement appeared to have a temporary, but noticeable, effect on the futures price of crude oil, which dropped about $8 at the time of his announcement. That fact suggests that if Congress acts to remove the remaining barriers to domestic exploration and production, crude oil futures prices might drop a bit more. Think what those prices might do if more domestic oil actually hits the market.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama and a lot of other socialists preach continually that increased domestic production is a long way off, and they preach loudly that this action will not reduce gasoline prices right away. When asked what will have a better impact, they inevitably say that the solution is the development of alternative energy sources. When they make these pronouncements, they imply the “development of alternative energy sources” equals “lower gasoline prices at the pump.” This is real poppycock, or maybe even a more aromatic substance than that.

Research in alternative energy sources is likely ten years from achieving any of the goals for which it is hyped. Even T. Boone Pickens who has all the money anybody could want says that his program of research and development of alternative energy sources will take about ten years. Moreover, there is no guarantee that all the research and development anybody, including T. Boone, has in mind will produce anything that even remotely provides the efficiency of energy production from petroleum. Maybe it will, and maybe it won’t. We can hope, but nobody can promise. Hmm. It will also take about ten years to bring domestic production from new fields online. When domestic crude enters the pipelines, we will have a source of energy that actually works. It is efficient. It is reliable. We don’t have to devise new technology along with the new sources. Therefore, if we start all the options at the same time, it is highly probable that ten years from now, the USA could be energy independent using petroleum. In addition, a great deal more will be known about alternative sources, which will put us far along the road to energy independence when the petroleum reserves are depleted.

We must push Congress to remove the remaining barriers to oil exploration and production offshore, in ANWR, in the shale reserves – everywhere. The USA must not be held hostage to environmental paranoia. Oil production today is vastly different from oil production during the West Texas Black Gold rush days. A new well is not permitted to “gush” these days. And a productive well has a footprint that doesn’t bother either caribou or dolphins. There is no reason the choke American productivity and limit the freedom of American life over the false notion that producing oil is bad for the world.

Congress has some really strange ideas. Or maybe they have changed since yesterday. Last I knew, they were all traveling back and forth in airplanes between Washington, DC and their home states. They are all driving cars, or riding in cars driven by others. They have heat and light and air conditioning in their homes. To my knowledge, none of them is riding a bike to work and using window ventilation coupled with funeral parlor fans for personal cooling during the DC summers. Members of Congress happily use all the oil products they think they need. It is time for them to get real and get out of the way of domestic oil production.

Our Congress looks more and more like a socialist government. In the world of socialism, the “people” are all treated alike. They all get food, healthcare and gasoline at the expense of the government, if they get it at all. Each one of the “people” gets in line for his “fair share” of whatever there is – bread, medicine, gasoline. However, outside the class of all “people” is the class of “government leaders.” That class is special. It gets in line for nothing and has all the possessions and privileges that are simply not available to the “people” because there isn’t enough to go around. It is time for us to tell the class of “government leaders” (read that “Members of Congress) to back away from the trough.

Members of Congress need and use the energy output of petroleum products. The rest of the country wants the same privilege. Tell your congressman to remove the barriers to domestic oil exploration and production now.

In a New York Times article, “Unlike Others, US Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech,”[1] Adam Liptak hints that it might be time for the US to re-evaluate our first amendment rights. He discusses a case in Canada in which Muslims took issue with opinions of Islam expressed in a magazine. This case arose after the magazine published a “mocking and biting” article which argued “that the rise of Islam threatened Western values.” Two members of the Canadian Islamic Congress took the matter to the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal where their complaint that it violated provincial laws against hate speech is currently being reviewed.

It might be a good time to look at the First Amendment to the Constitution again. What does it say? Why is it there? What ever made us think we needed this amendment anyway?

The First Amendment reads as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

When the Constitution was written in 1787, the delegates to the convention believed that the concept of the document included the right of citizens to engage in debate over issues. Such debate had enabled and empowered the Revolution and it continued to be important to citizens of all the states in the new country. However, as the proposed Constitution circulated among the states for ratification, many states expressed deep apprehension over the absence of specific protection for speech. There was such a ground swell of concern over this issue and several others that ratification of the Constitution was only achieved by virtue of an agreement that the first Congress would quickly provide protection for speech as part of a group of amendments popularly referred to as the Bill of Rights. Wise leaders rightly discerned that rights not specifically protected might well disappear in the muddle of history. The First Amendment provided that Congress could not pass any law abridging freedom of speech.

Currently, one of the most visible expressions of our right to free speech is talk radio. Around the country, AM radio stations offer many opportunities for people to talk about all sorts of things. The writers of the Constitution would be proud if they could see this phenomenon in action. Benjamin Franklin fervently advocated for mail service in this nation in order to achieve precisely what talk radio does so well. Franklin wanted the citizens to be able to talk with each other about their concerns and to communicate with the various officials and representatives they had elected to their government. He would have been ecstatic if he even imagined that one day private citizens would have the opportunity to speak to huge audiences using the power of talk radio.

I hear that there are people in Congress who don’t like talk radio. They think that people might have too much freedom of speech unless someone “reins in” talk radio. We must not let Congress institute restrictions on our freedom of speech by making rules for talk radio. As it exists today, talk radio owes nothing to anybody. No political force runs it, no political force limits it. We, the people, talk about everything, and sometimes we even talk about Congress. We need that freedom, and it is our Constitutional right. We, the people, must tell Congress to forget writing any laws that restrict our right to free speech. Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, James Madison, and George Washington are watching. We must stand strong and tell Congress our message: Don’t even think of trying to restrict our freedom of speech.