The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 05/08/2005 - 05/15/2005

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Terri Schiavo Family Wants Info on Ashes

The family of a severely brain-damaged woman who died after her feeding tube was removed in March said Friday they still have not been told where her remains will be laid to rest.

Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings, who waged a lengthy court battle over her end-of-life wishes, said on Fox's "Hannity & Colmes" show that her husband is keeping her remains from them.

"They were supposed to tell us, and we still have not heard from ... Michael Schiavo where Terri's been laid," said Terri Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler. "Our family expected this. Michael has disobeyed court orders throughout the ordeal and continues to do so today."

Michael Schiavo is under court order to notify the Schindlers of his plans for a memorial service. He has had his wife cremated and has said her ashes would be buried at a family plot in Pennsylvania.

George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, did not immediately return a call Friday night seeking comment.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Cheers for 'freedom fighter' Bush in former Soviet republic...

Georgians burst police lines to welcome Bush
By Paul Sims, Evening Standard
10 May 2005
Surging crowds broke through police lines in Georgia at a square where President Bush was expected to speak today.

Thousands of people poured on to Freedom Square despite strict security, with barricades smashed to the ground.

Georgia's US-educated president, Mikhail Saakashvili, said as many as 150,000 people had gathered to hear Mr Bush.

Many Georgians hope his visit will increase pressure on Russia to withdraw the Soviet-era military bases it still maintains on Georgian territory and end its backing for two separatist regions.

Group Urges Ethics Probe of Sen. Clinton

A self-described "public interest group that fights government corruption" has filed an ethics complaint with a Senate panel, asking it to investigate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (search) for her role in an alleged attempt to defraud the Federal Election Commission (search) and the U.S. Senate.

Judicial Watch (search) has a history of monitoring the New York senator and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and its latest allegation is that Clinton is responsible for omitting from her fund-raising report to the FEC a $1.9 million contribution that funded an August 2000 fund-raiser for her Senate campaign called "Hollywood Tribute to William Jefferson Clinton."

The fund-raiser has landed Clinton's campaign finance director, David Rosen (search), in criminal trouble. Rosen goes on trial Tuesday in a California federal court on charges that he deliberately filed the false report with the FEC that undervalued the cost of the star-studded event. Judicial Watch alleges that Clinton knew of the contribution as well as Rosen and failed to report the true value of the expenditures, despite repeated demands.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton (search) argued that Clinton closely monitored the Hollywood fund-raiser and knew its actual cost was much greater than the $400,000 tab reported in campaign financial filings.

"They're false and she knows them to be false," Fitton said.

Judge Blocks Ex-Prober From Giving Oil-for-Food Docs to Congress

A federal judge blocked a former investigator from giving Congress documents from the probe into the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal Monday, granting the United Nations a victory in its effort to keep material from the investigation from making its way into U.S. lawmakers' hands.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in Washington issued the temporary restraining order after the United Nations filed a petition to block congressional subpoenas for Robert Parton (search). The ex-FBI agent quit the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee in April, reportedly because he believed it ignored evidence critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The court order freezes the legal issues, giving the two sides a 10-day window to attempt to resolve the matter.

Last Wednesday, Parton handed over documents relating to the investigation after he was issued a subpoena the previous week by the House International Relations Committee. The day after Parton turned over the documents, a second panel � the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations � also issued a subpoena.

On Friday, committee chairman Paul Volcker (search) asked Congress to return records Parton handed over and appealed to lawmakers not to subpoena information or testimony. Volcker said the integrity of the probe into the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program was at stake and lives may be in jeopardy if details of the investigation are leaked.

"We went to court today to restrict Robert Parton from disseminating the documents he stole from the IIC," Michael Holtzman, a spokesman for the committee, told FOX News.

U.S. Forces Attack Terrorists for a Third Day in Northern Iraq

U.S. forces backed by helicopter gunships and warplanes swept through a large area of western Iraq near the Syrian border for a third day Tuesday, raiding desert outposts and safe houses belonging to insurgents, the U.S. military said.

In Baghdad, two car bombs exploded during morning rush hour Tuesday, killing as many as seven and wounding 19, including three American soldiers, officials said. As many as 100 militants have been killed since Operation Matador, one of the largest American military offensive in Iraq in six months, began Saturday night in the border town of Qaim, 200 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.
At least three U.S. Marines have been killed in the offensive, which was hunting for followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, said U.S. officials.

A fourth U.S. Marine died Monday, but it was not immediately clear if that happened during the offensive, the military said.

A Los Angeles Times reporter embedded with the offensive said 20 U.S. troops also were wounded, but the U.S. military could not immediately confirm that.

On Tuesday, fighting was reported in Obeidi, 185 miles west of Baghdad, and the two nearby towns of Rommana and Karabilah, an Associated Press reporter in the region said. He said large numbers of Qaim residents were fleeing the area.

On Monday night, insurgents attempted to launch a counterattack 5 miles from U.S. Camp Gannon in Qaim, said U.S. Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool. They attacked a Marine convoy with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs and two suicide car bombers, Pool said in a statement.

One bomb damaged an armored Humvee, and a suicide car bomber was destroyed by a Marine tank, but no Marines were killed and 10 insurgents surrendered, Pool said.

The offensive by more than 1,000 Marines, sailors and soldiers included helicopter gunships, fighter jets, tanks and light armored vehicles. U.S. officials described the area as a known smuggling route and a haven for foreign fighters involved in Iraq's insurgency.

Marines Track Down, Kill 23 Afghan Terrorists

U.S. Marines tracked down a band of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan and sparked a battle that left about 23 rebels and two American troops dead, the U.S. military said Monday, in the latest sign of a revived Taliban-led insurgency.

The military said warplanes also joined the five-hour clash with about 25 insurgents on Sunday evening in Laghman, a province of an eastern opium-producing region where U.S. forces have regularly fought with militants. Acting on intelligence about the rebels' whereabouts, U.S. Marines "located the insurgents and an engagement ensued," a brief statement from the U.S. military said. "Two U.S. Marines were killed."
A second statement said "two insurgents were confirmed killed and another 21 suspected dead."

Militants opposed to the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai have made good on threats to step up their three-year-old insurgency, carrying out assaults and bombings that have killed dozens of Afghan and U.S. troops and government officials in recent weeks.

However, they have suffered heavy casualties in clashes where American warplanes have caught them in large groups on open ground.

The Marines died days after the bloodiest fighting in Afghanistan in nine months, when U.S. and Afghan forces including American warplanes clashed with large groups of insurgents in two southern provinces.

Sixty-four rebels, nine Afghan soldiers and an Afghan policeman were reported killed, while six American troops were among the wounded.

American commanders insist they are wearing the insurgents down and persuading villagers along the Pakistani border to stop sheltering them.

Iraq Offensive Near Syria Kills Over 100 Terrorists

American troops backed by helicopters and war planes launched a major offensive against followers of Iraq's most wanted insurgent, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in a desert area near the Syrian border, and as many as 100 militants were killed, U.S. officials said Monday.
Marines, sailors and soldiers from Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, were conducting the offensive in an area north of the Euphrates River, in the al-Jazirah Desert, a known smuggling route and sanctuary for foreign insurgents, the U.S. military said.

The brief statement did not specify when the operation began, how many troops were involved, or whether there had been any American casualties. But U.S. military spokesmen later said the offensive started on Saturday and that it had killed as many as 100 militants. The military also reported that two U.S. Marines were killed in the area on Sunday and one on Monday.

A senior U.S. military official said the operation is targeting a group of al-Zarqawi followers believed to be operating in the area. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Prop 200 Screening Out Illegal Voters

Stricter immigration laws now on the books in Arizona that require elections officials to check for proof of citizenship have uncovered thousands of new registrants who don't qualify to vote.

According to the Arizona Daily Star, state election officials credit the citizenship requirement contained in Proposition 200, the illegal-immigration initiative passed last November, for screening out the illegal voters.

In Arizona's Prima County alone, elections officials have rejected 59 percent of all applicants in the last two weeks - or 423 of the 712 new registrants.

"We rejected none during the same period last year," when six times as many people were registering because of the presidential election, said Registrar of Voters Chris Roads. "There was nothing in the law that required a rejection" last year, he explained.

Most voter registration forms rejected by Prima County since April 20, when officials started keeping track, were submitted by new voters who provided no valid proof of citizenship whatsoever, Roads said.

Despite the fact that it's illegal for non-citizens to vote, the rejections had Arizona Democrats up in arms.

Paul Eckerstrom, chairman of the Prima County Democratic Party, complained that forcing Arizona voters to prove their citizenship is "anti-American and anti-democracy."

"It's just another obstacle for voters to deal with," Eckerstrom griped. "The whole idea behind this thing is to suppress voter turnout."

He said Proposition 200's "real intent" was to make it difficult for voters - especially those inclined to vote Democratic - to cast a ballot.

Poll Finds Huge Support for DeLay

An Internet poll sponsored by NewsMax.com reveals widespread support from online users for embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.


The major media and Democratic Party have launched an all-out attack on DeLay over alleged ethics violations and conflicts of interest, and some have called for his resignation as Majority Leader.

And several media pundits have even suggested that support for DeLay among core Republican voters is eroding.

But the NewsMax poll, a non-scientific survey of more than 60,000 respondents, shows that an overwhelming margin of Republican-leaning NewsMax.com voters (92%) say DeLay should stand his ground and not resign.

And by a similar margin, respondents said they believe DeLay has been unfairly targeted by the media.

While a majority of NewsMax readers believe that ethics allegations should be investigated, they don't believe the charges so far warrant DeLay's resignation. Still, most believe that DeLay's woes are due to unfair media coverage against him because he is a conservative Republican.

NewsMax will provide the results of this poll to major media, and share them with every major radio talk show host in America.

Here are the NewsMax.com poll results:

1) Should Tom DeLay resign as House Majority Leader?
Yes: 8%
No: 92%

2) Do you believe media coverage of Tom DeLay has been fair?
Yes: 7%
No: 93%

3) Do you believe the House ethics committee should investigate these allegations?
Yes: 56%
No: 46%

4) Do you believe Tom DeLay is being targeted by Democrats because he is a conservative Republican?
Yes: 93%
No: 7%

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Media Refuses to Report April Budget Surplus

If an important event occurs, and nobody reports it, did it happen?

Whether it's liberal bias or utter incompetence, Americans should, once again, be VERY concerned with the choices being made by our nation's press editors on a daily basis. Here's another extraordinary example.

On Monday, May 2nd, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that, due to a greater than expected influx of tax receipts around April 15, a projected monthly deficit actually became a surplus.

In fact, this influx was so large that the Treasury is going to actually buy-down or retire $42 billion worth of net debt in the second quarter. This would represent the first time that this has occurred since the second quarter of 2001.

As a result, government officials are reducing their deficit numbers for fiscal 2005 and into the future. Furthermore, as reported this morning by the Washington Post:

But in the short term, many forecasters said the budget deficit appears to have crested.

"I think it has turned the corner," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, the credit rating agency. "My guess is 2004 will have been the worst year."

Now, one would think that the deficit being lower than expected, and the possibility that 2004 would be our worst shortfall during this cycle, would be front-page news, correct?

Yet, a Google-search indicates that no major media outlet picked this story up from Reuters on Monday. Not one.

From what I could find, other than Reuters, this story was promptly reported by MarketWatch and Web Pro News.

As for the Washington Post, although waiting three days, they did finally report this information to its readership -- in their section "E".

However, where was the rest of the media on this story? Isn't this news? It certainly was when Clinton was in office.

I guess that the only budget event that is newsworthy when a Republican is in the White House is when the deficit is growing...definitely not when it's shrinking!

How appalling.