Out of all the ideas for reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and to use alternative energy, I find the most promise from T. Boone Pickens' plan. Part of the reason I am so intrigued by his ideas are because they aren't politically motivated. Pickens is eighty years old and is a billionaire, so he doesn't have any financial aspirations from this - by the time his plan is implemented, he'll probably be long gone. He isn't trying to attack "Big Oil" but simply find us an alternate method to reduce our dependence, which is a good thing. I highly recommend checking out his plan. You'll see the commercials soon enough if you haven't already.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich explained the recent crime problems in Chicago:

"Violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control. I'm offering resources of the state to the city to work in a constructive way with Mayor Daley to do everything we can possibly do to help stop this violence."

Chicago has laws in place for gun control. Not surprisingly, the laws aren't working. So naturally, to reduce the crime, tougher laws have been put in place. The criminals will no doubt give up crime because they don't want to break the law. Gun control works - if you obey the laws in the first place.

In terms of strategic importance, Iraq is vastly more significant than Afghanistan – both for its keystone location in the heart of the Middle East and its enormous oil reserves. Why, then, do liberals say Iraq’s fate isn’t our concern, while simultaneously insisting we can’t afford to lose in Afghanistan ?

Yes, the terrorists who attacked us trained at Afghan bases – which is why we struck the Taliban before going after Saddam, destroying those vast al Qaeda facilities long ago. A total withdrawal from Iraq could enable terrorists to reconstitute their bases in that far more strategic location. John McCain is right that it’s no either/or proposition – success in Afghanistan requires securing, not abandoning Iraq , and we can’t afford to lose either country. Success breeds success and failure breeds failure, so the two struggles are inevitably interconnected.