Get your copy of our weekly print products at any of these convenient locations.
State Debate: Check out oilman Pickens' energy proposals
A 7/18 roundup of editorials in state papers
Check out oilman Pickens' energy proposals, says the Beloit Daily News.
Some readers may have seen the TV ads aired by legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens. Here are the key numbers he points out. In 1970 America imported 24 percent of its oil; today it's about 70 percent and growing. The U.S. sends about $700 billion to foreign suppliers every year, more than four times the annual cost of the Iraq war. Over the next 10 years that's expected to balloon to $10 trillion total, the largest transfer of wealth in human history.
Pickens puts it bluntly: We can't drill our way out of this problem.
His Web site -- pickensplan.com -- urges the nation to embark on a crusade to convert to such things as wind power and cars fueled by natural gas.
The politicians of both parties have proven, year after year, their contemptible commitment to doing nothing. The incumbents are useless and ought to be thrown out with the trash. Better to toss out a few good ones, by the way, than keep any of the bad ones. Translation: America desperately needs term limits.
Pickens has shown more leadership overnight than America's do-nothing politicians have shown in years. John F. Kennedy called America to greatness, with the task of putting a man on the moon in one short decade. Would it not be equally daring to call Americans to break the bonds of oil -- particularly, foreign oil -- in 10 years?
Lighten up over Obama cover, says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Seemingly everyone involved in the presidential race labeled as tasteless The New Yorker cover that features Barack Obama in Islamic dress fist-bumping wife Michelle, in Afro and carrying an AK-47, near a portrait of Osama bin Laden.
If ever there was a moment in this campaign when the politicos demonstrated that they were out of touch, this was it.
We'll spell it out: The New Yorker cover satirizes all those nasty falsehoods and insidious stereotypes that this campaign's wackos have been trying to make stick to both Obama and his wife. In other words, this cover says that the folks doing this are six beers and that plastic webbing short of a six-pack.
The campaign was not amused. Pundits are now writing about whether the candidate has a sense of humor and whether humor is out of bounds with an African-American candidate while McCain's age is still fair game. We fully expect Obama to react with a stand-up routine to prove everyone wrong.
On FISA, Feingold again exudes real patriotism, says the Oshkosh Northwestern.
We should be as concerned as U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold about whether our government may be, or will be, listening to our communications without our knowledge or even our courts' consent.
In another ode to the Constitution, Feingold urged his fellow senators to approve a key amendment on a bill proffering changes to the powers government has to collect and monitor its own citizens' communications. But earlier this month, the Senate approved sweeping changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. Both John McCain and Barack Obama supported the legislation. The president signed the bill into law July 10.
Once again, Wisconsin is reminded of what it means for a politician to be a true maverick.
Now, says Feingold, it appears the phone companies are "off the hook" for giving the government immediate access to our phone calls.
In a recent TV interview with MSNBC, Feingold labeled the FISA revisions a "black mark" in American history.
