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No Live Shows This Week !
2007-08-17 15:29:00
Hi Folks,J.R. here, There won't be any LIVE shows this week, duty calls at work. Please visit the podcast player on the left to listen to the archived shows. I will try to record at least two new shows this week which will appear in the player.Thanks for you patience and understanding during this time.New shows will be forthcoming and I'll be back LIVE as soon as I possibly can.God Bless you all and God bless America !Thanks,J.R.
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General Praises Exonerated Haditha Marine
2007-08-11 14:57:00
After agreeing with the Investigating Officer's recommendation that all charges against Sharratt, a veteran of the bloody battle of Fallujah in 2004 and the insurgent ambush in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, be dismissed, Mattis assured Sharratt that he could reflect with satisfaction over his service in Iraq. "You have served as a Mari ne infantryman in Iraq where our nation is fighting a shadowy enemy who hides among the innocent people, does not comply with any aspect of the law of war, and routinely targets and intentionally draws fire toward civilians," Mattis wrote in his decision. "Operational, moral and legal imperatives demand that we Marines stay true to our own standards and maintain compliance with the law of war in this morally bruising environment," he said. "With the dismissal of these charges, you may fairly conclude that you did your best to live up to the standards ... In the face of life or death decisions made by you in a matter of seconds in combat." In recommending ...
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Charges Against Haditha Marine Cpl Sharratt Dismissed !
2007-08-11 14:28:00
In a 7:00 am meeting yesterday morning with defense attorneys and prosecutors, LtGen James Mattis ordered that all charges be dismissed against LCpl Justin Sharratt.Gen Mattis' order for a dismissal follows the recommendation of the investigating officer in LCpl Sharratt's Article 32. A similar decision is expected in the case of a second Mari ne , charged with dereliction of duty, Capt. Randy W. Stone.LCpl Sharratt had been charged with murder for his actions against the enemy in Haditha , Iraq.On November 19, 2006, the Marines of Kilo Co., 3/1, were caught in a complex ambush in Haditha. At the end of the day's action, one Marine was dead and eleven wounded.The next day, insurgents (using techniques from the jihadist handbook) made a videotape of the aftermath and accused the Marines of wanton murder.The insurgents' evidence was used as the basis for a cover story in Time magazine. Seizing on the opportunity to erode support for the war, Congressman John Murtha went on a media of...
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Support For Bin Laden and Suicide Bombings Waning Among Muslims
2007-08-03 15:12:00
The 2007 Pew Global Attitudes survey, released July 24, reports a substantial decrease in Muslim support of suicide bombings and Osama bin Laden."The marked decline in the acceptance of suicide bombing is one of several findings that suggest a possible broader rejection of extremist tactics among many in the Muslim world," said the report, according to a July 24 Reuters article. The numbers are remarkable. Support for bombings and terror tactics has dropped in seven of eight countries where data were available, according to AP.In Lebanon, Muslims who believe suicide bombings are justified some or all of the time plummeted from 79 percent in 2002 to 34 percent.In Pakistan, the percentage dropped from 41 percent in 2004 to 9 percent. Among Jordanian Muslims, 56 percent had confidence in Osama bin Laden as a world leader in 2003; the number has dropped to 20 percent. Incredibly, none of the major television networks mentioned this survey during the July 24 evening newscasts. So why ...
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Talk Show America Listed in Top 100 Conservative Websites for 2007 !
2007-08-02 15:03:00
Top 100 Conservative Political Websites of 2007The most popular 100 conservative political websites and blogs for 2007 are listed here. Read who made the list and who surprisingly didn't.Now for the interesting findings. There were some big disappointments. The Republican National Committee barely made the list at 405,641. Scrappleface, which most of us remember as one of the early popular political satire sites, also barely made the list at 433,108. The following sites didn't even make the list: Hugh Hewitt - 5,633,009Federalist Society - 1,245,004Christian Coalition - 1,002,811America n Conservative Union - 950,055Independent Women's Forum - 930,362Ifeminists.com - 828,382And here is the list. Drudge Report - 951 Fox News - 599 Wall Street Journal - 1,043 New York Post - 1,778 WorldNetDaily - 4,605 NewsMax - 5,334 Boston Herald - 6,684 Free Republic - 7,114 Town Hall - 7,915 U.S. News and World Report - 8,694 National Review Online - 10,502 Politico - 11,359 Lew Rockwell - 13,17...
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Petraeus Working to Keep Iraq Assessment Apolitical
2007-08-02 13:47:00
The top U.S. commander in Iraq today acknowledged high expectations for a September assessment of the situation in Iraq and said he would work to keep politics out of the process. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus , commander of Multinational Force Iraq, spoke to Diane Sawyer on ABC's "Good Morning America" program from his headquarters in Baghdad. He said that every time he gets a question about the assessment, "I feel another rock going into the rucksack, which is reasonably heavy at this point." Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker will offer a comprehensive assessment of the status of Iraq during testimony before Congress in September. The general said it will be the ground truth. "We will be trying, frankly, to stay apolitical in this whole endeavor," he said. By then, Petraeus and other military commanders may have offered recommendations through the chain of command to the president. "We will also offer our views of various implications of ways ahead that may be und...
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Surge Putting Pressure on Terrorists
2007-08-02 13:46:00
Operations in Iraq are putting pressure on insurgents, keeping them off balance and eliminating their safe havens, a senior spokesman there said today. "We have established a degree of tactical momentum ... and will continue to build on that momentum," Navy Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, deputy spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said during an in-country media roundtable this morning. "We continue to pressure former sanctuaries in the Baghdad belts -- around Ramadi and in and around Baqubah -- denying (al Qaeda in Iraq) freedom of movement and disrupting extremist secret cells while increasing the confidence of the local citizens in the coalition and Iraqi security force." Already this year, coalition forces have seized or destroyed more weapons caches than in all of 2006, Fox said. Just last week, coalition and Iraqi security forces seized more than 120 caches, he added. Tips are coming in from Iraqi citizens in record numbers. In June, 23,000 tips were called in to coalition and Iraq...
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Troops Nab 48 Terrorists, Kill One, in Iraq
2007-07-30 15:40:00
Combined Iraq i and U.S. forces captured 48 suspected terrorists, killed one insurgent and seized weapons and bombs in Iraq over the past three days, military officials said. During an operation today in Tarmiyah, troops detained 10 suspected terrorists. The detainees have alleged ties to an al Qaeda in Iraq leader known for coordinating car-bomb attacks in Baghdad. Coalition forces netted six suspected terrorists in coordinated raids in Samarra today. During one operation, troops detained five individuals who allegedly are associated with al Qaeda leaders in central Iraq responsible for helping foreign terrorists move into the country. In a separate operation there, coalition forces detained one suspected terrorist who officials said is a close associate of al Qaeda leaders in Baghdad. During raids targeting key al Qaeda in Iraq leaders in Mosul this morning, coalition forces nabbed three suspected terrorists. One is believed to be the al Qaeda in Iraq administrative emir for Mosul,...
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Airports Warned of 'Dry Run' Attacks
2007-07-30 15:33:00
Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20 by the Transportation Security Administration to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law enforcement agencies.The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern."Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that look like improvised explosive device components."A federal official familiar with the document confirmed the authenticity of the NBC posting but declined to be identified by name because it has not ...
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NO LIVE SHOWS THIS WEEK
2007-07-24 15:12:00
Hi Folks,J.R. here, There won't be any LIVE shows this week, duty calls at work. Please visit the podcast player on the left to listen to the archived shows. I will try to record at least two new shows this week which will appear in the player.Thanks for you patience and understanding during this time.New shows will be forthcoming and I'll be back LIVE as soon as I possibly can.God Bless you all and God bless America !Thanks,J.R.
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Plame's Lawsuit Dismissed
2007-07-20 14:35:00
A federal judge dismissed former CIA operative Valerie Plame 's lawsuit against members of the Bush administration Thursday, eliminating one of the last courtroom remnants of the leak scandal. U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove, former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Plame's attorneys had said the lawsuit would be an uphill battle. Public officials are normally immune from such lawsuits filed in connection with their jobs. "This just dragged on the character assassination that had gone on for years," said Alex Bourelly, one of Libby's lawyers. "To have the case dismissed is a big relief." Plame's attorneys said they were reading the opinion and had no immediate comment. While Bates did not address the con...
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Haditha Witness's Surpressed Testimony: AK 47s at White Taxi
2007-07-19 15:16:00
A former Marine from Kilo Company wounded at Haditha , Iraq on the day of the alleged massacre told Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigators he saw Kalashnikov assault rifles propped against a white taxicab next to the bodies of five Iraqi men killed when the fighting started. His report contradicts prosecution contentions that the Iraqis were innocent civilians.Joshua Cash Karlen, 23, from Westminster, Colorado, said Monday that he is positive he saw the weapons while he was being evacuated from the battlefield. The following spring Karlen says he reported his observations to NCIS investigators while being interrogated by two special agents."They grilled me over why I was there, why I was driving through the cordon and what I saw," Karlen said. "I was in there for about four hours."Karlen says he repeatedly told the two agents what he witnessed at the ambush site."The area was cordoned off when we drove by," Karlen said in a telephone interview from his home. "I was hit by...
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Troops See Progress, Grow Weary of Negative Reports on War
2007-07-17 19:02:00
Troops on the ground in Iraq are not as much tired of the war as they are of those who are not in the fight saying that no progress has been made, a top commander in the region said today. The troops there see progress every day, said British Army Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, deputy commander of Multinational Force Iraq and senior British representative in Iraq, speaking to Pentagon reporters via satellite. "They see the water going to people who didn't have it before. They see electricity coming on line. They see stability to the networks. They see all the stuff that no one really portrays," Lamb said. "While it's so clear to them that we're making progress, it's not reflected by those who are not in the fight, but [who] are sitting back and making judgment." Overall, Lamb called the day-to-day work there by coalition forces "hard pounding," and said that extraordinary things are being accomplished by ordinary people. "You should be enormously proud of what I see your Marines, your Ai...
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EnviroMental Nut Jobs Suggest Extinguishing Humans to Save Planet
2007-07-16 17:35:00
From Newsweek:The Second Coming may be the most widely anticipated apocalypse ever, but Environmentalists have their own eschatology-a vision of a world not consumed by holy fire but returned to ecological balance by the removal of the most disruptive species in history. That, of course, would be us. There's even a group trying to bring it about, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, whose Web site calls on people to stop having children altogether. And now the journalist Alan Weisman has produced "The World Without Us," which conjures up a future something like ... well, like the area around Chernobyl-just forests that have begun reclaiming fields and towns, home to birds, deer, wild boar and moose. Weisman's intriguing thought experiment is to ask what would happen if the rest of the Earth was similarly evacuated-not by a nuclear holocaust or natural disaster, but by whisking people off in spaceships, or killing them with a virus that spares the rest of the biosphere. In a ma...
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North Korea Shuts Down Nuke Reactor
2007-07-16 15:45:00
According to Reuters:North Korea has told the United States it has shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, the U.S. State Department said on Saturday."We welcome this development and look forward to the verification and monitoring of this shutdown by the International Atomic Energy Agency team that has arrived in North Korea ," said spokesman Sean McCormack.UPDATE:IAEA Confirms North Korea Has Shut Reactor U.N. inspectors have verified that North Korea shut down its nuclear reactor, the watchdog agency's chief said Monday, the first on-the-ground achievement toward scaling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions since the international standoff began in late 2002. The main U.S. envoy on the issue, meanwhile, said that the United States is looking to build on momentum and will start deliberations on removing North Korea from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states. North Korea pledged in an international accord in February to shut the reactor at Yongbyon and dismantle its nuclear program...
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Bush/Cheney Favor Military Action on Iran ?
2007-07-16 15:12:00
According to Iran Focus, The Guardian is reporting that:The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."The White House claims that Iran, whose influence in the Middle East has increased significantly over the last six years, is intent on building a nuclear weapon and is arming insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.The vice-president, Dick Cheney , has long favoured upping the threat of military action against Iran. He is being resisted by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates.Last year Mr Bush cam...
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More Time Needed to Assess Effectiveness of Iraq Surge
2007-07-11 16:06:00
More time is needed to gauge the effectiveness of the ongoing military offensive against insurgents in and around Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq , the top U.S. general there said. "I can think of few commanders in history who wouldn't have wanted more troops, more time or more unity among their partners. However, if I could only have one (item) at this point in Iraq, it would be more time," Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said during a question-and-answer session published in the New York Post today. Petraeus is overseeing several ongoing operations that are part of an overall offensive against insurgents in Iraq called Operation Phantom Thunder, which began June 15, once all of the surge troops were in place. President Bush directed a deployment of about 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq earlier this year as a surge of forces to assist the Iraqi government in confronting the insurgency. By July 15, the general and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan ...
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Troops Detain 19 Suspects, Seize Weapons in Iraq
2007-07-11 16:04:00
Iraqi and coalition forces detained 19 suspects and captured weapons caches during recent operations in Iraq. Tips from two Iraqi residents near Dhour, south of Baghdad, helped coalition forces nab seven suspects yesterday, including an al Qaeda network leader, military officials said. The first tipster called soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division's 89th Cavalry Regiment and alerted them to a weapons cache. Soldiers responded, located the buried weapons, and had been digging up the cache for five minutes when they received another phone call. The second caller claimed he had the 2nd Brigade Combat Team's top high-value target and would deliver him to coalition custody. This tipster arranged a meeting place to hand the detainee over to Army Capt. Adam Sawyer, the Troop C commander.Soldiers hastily re-buried the cache and departed for the meeting place, where they took custody of the high-value detainee and two other suspects. During the exchange, some of the soldiers observed the ...
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Officials Warn of 'Premature Conclusions' About Iraq Surge
2007-07-11 15:59:00
Defense officials do not want Americans to jump to "premature conclusions" about the troop surge in Iraq , a Pentagon spokesman said today. The last of 21,500 combat troops ordered into Baghdad and other hot spots for surge operations arrived in Iraq just three weeks ago. "It is important to give our commanders in the field the opportunity that we said we were going to provide," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters today. The Bush administration will deliver an initial report to Congress by July 15 on progress of 18 benchmarks specified in legislation granting funding for the war effort. The emergency supplemental legislation Congress passed in April called for the July 15 interim report on the surge by. Another report is due by Sept. 15. Whitman said the department is focused on the September report. "It's focused on the operations that have been put in place that execute the strategy that was planned and agreed upon with an expectation that we would be in a better place...
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Poll: Younger Voters Turning Against Abortion
2007-07-11 15:52:00
Younger voters, especially women, are embracing a pro-life position in surprising numbers and in sharp contrast to attitudes that held sway 15 years ago, according to a new study.The study by Overbrook Research, a public consulting firm in Illinois, examines public opinion data from Missouri. With proportions of blacks, Catholics and union members in line with national averages, the state is viewed as "highly representative of the American electorate," the study says.Over 30,000 survey interviews were conducted in the state between 1992 and 2006. Participants were asked: "On the debate over abortion policy, do you consider yourself to be pro-life, pro-choice or somewhere in between?" Those who gave a definitive answer were then asked how strongly they held their view. Results in 1992 were largely in step with what study authors Christopher Blunt and Fred Steeper call the "self-interest hypothesis." Women and men under 30 were the most ardently "pro-choice" (39 percent) and the least...
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Iran Building Tunnel Near Nuclear Site
2007-07-11 15:48:00
Commercial satellite imagery shows Iran is building a new tunnel complex inside a mountain near a major nuclear site — a possible attempt to protect sensitive uranium enrichment activity from aerial attack, nuclear analysts said Monday.The pictures taken on June 11 were obtained from DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite imagery firm, by the Institute for Science and International Security, whose president is David Albright, a physicist and former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq."The construction activity is taking place in the closest mountainous area to the Natanz site, strongly suggesting that the site is affiliated with Natanz,” said a written analysis by Mr. Albright and a colleague, Paul Brannan. The researchers said the construction is new and was not evident in images taken in January by DigitalGlobe.Tunnel entrances are not visible in the satellite photos, but two roads under construction can clearly be seen going up the mountain, with one appearing to lead into...
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Give 'Surge' a Chance
2007-07-11 15:08:00
Recently Peter Hegseth of Vets for Freedom wrote an interesting opinion piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. In it he states concern over the current debates going on in Congress by Democrats and Rinos. He fears that those in Congress will paint the picture that the "surge" is a failure and that the American Public will buy into that falsehood.So, in the article he outlines four falsehhoods that are being portrayed by some in Congress:Falsehood No. 1:The "surge" is already a failure. Fact: The surge is just beginning. All of the brigades Gen. Petraeus requested have only been in place since mid-June and already there are promising indicators. Since January, sectarian murders are substantially down, arms caches are being found at three times the rate of last year and young Sunnis and Shiites are joining the Iraqi security forces in record numbers. Falsehood No. 2:Gen. Petraeus believes the military has done all it can do in Iraq. Fact: Sen. Reid often quotes Gen. Petraeu...
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6th Circuit Court Reverses ACLU Terror Surveillance Ruling
2007-07-07 00:48:00
"We are pleased with the Court 's decision today, which confirms that plaintiffs in this case cannot seek to expose sensitive details about the classified and important Terror ist Surveillance Program. The Terrorist Surveillance Program was a vital intelligence program that helped detect and prevent terrorist attacks. It was always subject to rigorous oversight and review. Any electronic surveillance that was being conducted pursuant to the TSP is now being conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court."The ACLU Registers it's Protest: ACLU: Wiretap Suit Is Not Over"We are deeply disappointed by today's decision that insulates the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance activities from judicial review and deprives Americans of any ability to challenge the illegal surveillance of their telephone calls and e-mails. As a result of today's decision, the Bush administration has been left free to violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillan...
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Soldier Uses Head To Fight Terror
2007-07-06 17:02:00
CAMP STRIKER, Iraq - "I'm one of those guys who believe in leading from the front."His face is boyish and unassuming, and bears not a trace of the bullet that could've cost him his life. Staff Sgt. Kyle Keenan, a native of Newark, Ohio, and a scout section leader with the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) from Fort Drum, N.Y., is a lucky man.An Iraqi terrorist shot him at point-blank range with a pistol, and he shrugged it off and fired back.Keenan said his platoon, from Troop C, 1-89, responded to a tip from Iraqi citizens in abu Hillan, and air assaulted into the sparsely populated area to apprehend two leaders of a local terrorist group. The tip indicated the time and location the leaders would be having tea."While we were still in the air, we saw two men running away from the target house in track suits - one green, one grayish. The one in green ran north, the other went south, and my section went after the gu...
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Moore Lies About Healthcare
2007-07-06 15:26:00
The New York Daily News has a piece by Sally Pipes that challenges Michael Moore 's "Sicko" movie assertions:In "Sicko," Michael Moore uses a clip of my appearance earlier this year on "The O'Reilly Factor" to introduce a segment on the glories of Canadian health care.I am a new American, but I grew up and worked for many years in Canada. And I know the health care system of my native country much more intimately than does Moore. There's a good reason why my former countrymen with the money to do so either use the services of a booming industry of illegal private clinics, or come to America to take advantage of the health care that Moore denounces. Government-run health care in Canada inevitably resolves into a dehumanizing system of triage, where the weak and the elderly are hastened to their fates by actuarial calculation. Having fought the Canadian health care bureaucracy on behalf of my ailing mother just two years ago - she was too old, and too sick, to merit the highest qual...
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