William W. Johnstone by Phoenix Rising

has given seventy-three televised speeches. He will be speaking from the Oval Office shortly, and we are told that the address will be only three minutes long.

    â€œDamn, has that man ever seen a television camera that he wasn’t in love with?” Jake asked. “What did you get?”
    â€œHot wings and potato logs. I was in the grocery store and walked by the deli. It smelled good, so that’s what I got. Hope you approve.”
    â€œOh, yeah, it looks and smells great. Now, if we could just get this idiot to stop going on TV every day.”
    â€œSupposedly he is only going to talk for three minutes. We may as well hear what he has to say,” Karin said.
    â€œWhy? Whatever he says, it is just going to make matters worse.”

    We at World Cable News, along with all other television networks, have been given a transcript of the president’s speech, but were told that we cannot say anything about it prior to his address. I can tell you this, however. It will be, to say the least, a stunning announcement. Afterward, we will discuss the address with our distinguished panel of news analysts.

    â€œThat’s what we need,” Jake said. “Another stunning announcement.” Jake picked up a hot wing, separated it, and began eating.
    The picture on the screen showed the president sitting behind his desk in the oval office. Behind him were two flags, the flag of the United States and a white flag, bearing what had been his campaign logo but had since replaced the flag bearing the presidential seal as the image of the Ohmshidi administration. It was a green circle enclosing wavy blue lines that represented clean water, over which was imposed a stylized green plant.
    â€œI know you aren’t supposed to hate,” Jake said, “but every time I look at that man, I come as close to hating as you can get.”
    â€œRemember,” Karin said, “that’s our commander in chief you are talking about.”
    â€œHow can I forget?” Jake asked with a growl.
    â€œShhh,” Karin said. “He’s about to speak.”
    â€œWhoop-de-doo,” Jake replied.
    Ladies and gentleman, the President of the United States, an off-camera voice said.

    My fellow Americans. For too many years now, we have been dependent upon fossil fuels to meet our energy needs. This dependency has been the cause of nearly every problem we have faced, beginning in the late twentieth, and continuing into this, the twenty-first century. It has poisoned our environment, caused cancer and countless other health problems. It has destroyed our ozone layer, leading us toward irreversible global warming. It has created severe economic problems, and it has been the cause of international hatred and war.
    For the last fifty years, there have been discussions of moving to a green economy with alternative, clean, and renewable energy as our nation’s engine. And while other presidents before me have announced that as their goal, they have all failed.
    I will not fail because I am taking a bold, and admittedly very difficult, step. It is, however, a step that I must take. I am, today, ordering an immediate cessation to all drilling and refining of domestic fossil fuels. In addition, we, as a nation, will no longer import fuels. We will have only that fuel currently extracted, refined, and in our inventory. When that is gone there will be no more. My analysts tell me that with strict rationing of the kind used during World War Two, our fuel supply should last about six months.
    Now, while this may seem like a draconian step to many of you, it is, I believe, a way of spurring our scientists and engineers into committing to a twenty-four-hour-per-day, seven-days-per-week effort to find a sustainable alternative energy program. Will it be hydrogen? Will it be cold fusion? Will it be some scientific breakthrough that we have not yet imagined?
    We of course have no idea as yet what this new source will be,