By DEROY MURDOCK, Scripps Howard News Service

Ronald Reagan started on radio, and to radio he returns. America's 40th president will share his conservative and free-market ideas on 60 stations from coast to coast. And not a second too soon.

NEW YORK -- In olden days, Americans needed just 13 and a half months to erect the Empire State Building, four and a half years to build Hoover Dam, and six years, four months to install the Transcontinental Railroad.

Rather than do something productive to increase fuel supplies, Congress wastes time hunting bogeymen and fabricating distractions. Lately they have excoriated Big Oil for the cardinal sin of "under-investing" in alternative energy.

Look what your petrodollars helped finance:

-- "The cause of the discord: The Jews conspired against Islam and its people."

-- "In these verses is a call for jihad, which is the pinnacle of Islam. . . Only through force and victory over the enemies is there security and repose."

Pentagon officials evidently trust military inductees with felony rap sheets more than they do law-abiding gay GIs. The Defense Department has granted "moral waivers" to criminal convicts. Simultaneously, it uses the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy to jettison gays in uniform, usually for merely disclosing their sexuality.

Sen. Barack Obama finally captured the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday. For this, he deserves two cheers from Americans from coast to coast.

Hot on the heels of its $307 billion farm-subsidy orgy, Congress barely caught its breath before plunging back into another multibillion-dollar spend-a-thon. The next targets of its affection are mortgage holders, soon to be seduced with other people's money.

While Americans focus on the interminable Clinton-Obama celebrity death match, Senator John McCain is using clear-headed, compellingly crafted speeches to propose surprisingly bold, free-market ideas. With one huge exception, the Arizona Republican advocates more limited, open government as his Democratic rivals promise tax hikes and an even busier state.

On Monday, Americans finally will start working for themselves rather than for their government masters. This milestone arrives two days later than in 2007, clearly proving that the era of big government is back with a vengeance.

NEW ORLEANS --

"Slowly."

That's how locals here describe how the Crescent City is recovering from August 2005's Hurricane Katrina. While it has many miles to go, however, New Orleans noticeably has advanced since I visited a year ago. It has improved vastly since November 2005, when I witnessed how badly The Storm had socked this Southern belle.