Kirk defends his war time record in Iraq and Aghanistan

Dear Friend:

The negative campaign being waged against my 21 years of service in the United States Navy Reserve turned from dirty to ridiculous. Yesterday, WFLD allowed a partisan surrogate for Alexi Giannoulias to make ludicrous accusations without challenge or correction.

According to Giannoulias’ surrogate State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), I should “apologize to all the veterans especially the veterans during the Vietnam era because that’s when he supposedly served.” I was 13 years old when the Vietnam Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973.

Rep. Chapa LaVia was on a roll. She also said “allegations are starting to come out where he falsified that he served in Iraq and Afghanistan too.” I served over Iraq as part of Operation Northern Watch in 2000 and twice served in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Watch the clip below:

These are just two of many misleading assertions now emanating from Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign. At this point, it’s hard to take what he or his representatives say seriously.

Our state and this nation face serious issues: high unemployment, a soaring federal debt and the tragedy in the Gulf. After Broadway Bank’s collapse and massive losses in the Illinois Bright Start college savings program, Treasurer Giannoulias and his campaign surrogates will tell you anything to change the subject.

In the end, we will win this election because our ideas are better. We want a brighter future for Illinois families based on lower taxes, less spending, clean government and private sector job growth. We also want a brighter future for America with a strong national defense and unwavering support for democratic allies like Israel. And the people of Illinois do too.

I want to thank you all – especially my fellow veterans – for standing with me. Working together, we will return this Senate seat to its rightful owners – the people of Illinois.

Very truly yours,

Mark Kirk

Member of Congress

Reporting on a Halliburton abuse case -- local Orland Park lawyer heads defense

I'm in Peoria reporting on the Bush administration's prosecution of a former Halliburton-KBR contractor who is accused of inflating a contract in exchange for a bribe taking place in the Peoria Federal Court room of Judge Joe Billy McDade. The judge and J. Scott Arthur, the attorney for the defendant Jeff Mazon, got into an argument over how far Arthur could go in defending Mazon, excluding a discussion about the merits of the Iraq War, other instances of corruption related to Halliburton and KBR contracts in Iraq and more. You can read the first report at the Southwest News-Herald newspaper online at www.SWNewsHerald.com or at my Middle East writing sites including the Arab American Writers Group Syndication at www.ArabWritersGroup.com.

Arthur is from Orland Park. Mazon is from Country Club Hills.

Since I will be doing remotes often on Mornings with Ray Hanania, this week is a test to see how we can work out some kinks in the direct internet link connection from Peoria to the station iN berkeley at WJJG 1530 AM Radio.

This morning's topic includes the Halliburton case, but focuses mainly on the current economic crisis in America and the opinions of listeners on how they feel about the $700 billion bailout package and what they think needs to be done.

Call the station at 708-493-1530 or listen to the program online at www.RadioChicagoland.com. There is a link to the online stream feed at the upper righthand corner of the web page.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Radio show live from Peoria where Halliburton trial is continuing

I'm in Peoria reporting on the Bush administration's prosecution of a former Halliburton-KBR contractor who is accused of inflating a contract in exchange for a bribe taking place in the Peoria Federal Court room of Judge Joe Billy McDade. The judge and J. Scott Arthur, the attorney for the defendant Jeff Mazon, got into an argument over how far Arthur could go in defending Mazon, excluding a discussion about the merits of the Iraq War, other instances of corruption related to Halliburton and KBR contracts in Iraq and more. You can read the first report at the Southwest News-Herald newspaper online at www.SWNewsHerald.com or at my Middle East writing sites including the Arab American Writers Group Syndication at www.ArabWritersGroup.com.

Since I will be doing remotes often on Mornings with Ray Hanania, this week is a test to see how we can work out some kinks in the direct internet link connection from Peoria to the station iN berkeley at WJJG 1530 AM Radio.

This morning's topic includes the Halliburton case, but focuses mainly on the current economic crisis in America and the opinions of listeners on how they feel about the $700 billion bailout package and what they think needs to be done.

Call the station at 708-493-1530 or listen to the program online at www.RadioChicagoland.com. There is a link to the online stream feed at the upper righthand corner of the web page.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

News bits and more

The best headline so far on the Rev. Jesse Jackson broken record faux pas is in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Would the real Jesse Jackson please sit down? And be quiet?" by writer Bob Ray Sanders. (I love those Texan names!)

Catch my column on the elder Jackson's history of outrageous conduct (and more) on the HuffingtonPost at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ray-hanania/

John McCain is blasting Barack OBama saying the Illinois Senator doesn't have the foreign policy experience to be the president. That's one reason why Obama is now fist-bumping his way through a trip covering Iraq and Afghanistan, the Middle East and Europe.

But the real question is this: McCain says he has the foreign policy experience. If that is the case, then why didn't he use it instead of being a shill for President George W. Bush and okay almost every stupid foreign policy decision the president made? What's worse, a guy who tries to the right thing but doesn't have all the experience, or one who has the experience but never uses it like McCain.

One reason why Obama is doing so well is that his running mate is John McCain, a wishy-washy, lackluster, try-to-make-every-happy kind of politician. TAKE A REAL STAND MACCAIN. If there were someone else running against Obama ... someone who was centrist and a leader, , Obama might be vilnerable. Someone like Congressman Bob Murtha, the first Vietnam Veteran to be elected to serve in the House and who, unlike McCain, took on the Bush administration's war lies.

Chicago Ald. Mike Zalewski has proposed increasing the fine for vehicles with tinted windows from $25 to $250. The darkened widnows are a danger to the safety of police officers and it is amazing how many cars have their front passenger and front windshields tinted in Chicago ... A car with only the back half windows tinter doesn't look as "cool" but it would be far safer for police.

The law should be enforced as strictly across the state -- but that might cause some discomfort for some politicians who love driving in limousines with full tinted windows.

Here's more information on the Oak Lawn Children's Museum: http://www.cmoaklawn.org/

It's a great place to visit now. It's going to be even greater when it moves into it's new, two-story facilities later this year.

Here's a story I did on the museum recently.

Bush way off base on Iraq war rhetoric

President Bush lives in his own little world of lies and distortions. How else do you explain a man so detached from reality?

15 Months ago, he told us today, al-Qaeda was increasing its strength and today we have them on the defensive.

Really? 60 Months ago, al-Qaeda didn't exist in Iraq. Bush brought them there.

Bush says the "Surge" is bringing Iraq closer to Democracy, but the reality the only thing the Surge is doing is allowing his Republican Party which got us into this unwinnable war, PR spin so they can prevent further losses in November.

Yes, the Republican Party is taking a beating. And while the Democrats have not been able to extricate this nation from the god-forsaken war in Iraq, they still are less guilty than the Republicans who bought all of Bush's lies and allowed Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to push us into a conflict we never should have entered.

Today's press conference by Bush sounded much like the "We Have Prevailed" speech he gave months after illegally invading Iraq on March 19, 2003, falsely claiming "major combat operations are over."

If fighting this war is the only way to get out ot his war, then the American people, especially those who are blindly gung-ho supporting this wild expedition, should allow their sons and daughters to be DRAFTED into the military so we will have enough soldiers to fight the war.

But just as President Bush dodged active duty military service during the height of the Vietnam War, his Republican fanatic supporters want their own children to dodge active duty military service to fight this war. That's the hypocrisy in this conflict. The people screaming the loudest to fight this war are the ones who are refusing to send their own sons and daughters to fight it, relying on the soldiers who enlisted during the peacetime military era, hoping to off-set economic woes, and those gung-hoe and misguided Americans who enlisted in the military having swallowed whole all of Bush's outright lies.

15 months from now, we'll be in the same mud, mired in conflict, with an American death toll that is steadily climing and with no real hope of EVER bringing Western-style Democracy to Iraq.

And, 15 months from now, the real criminal, Osama Bin Laden, who orchestrated Sept. 11, 2001 which Bush used to justify this unjustified war in Iraq, is still loose in Afghanistan, protected in part by the Pakistani dictatorship we call an ally, the Government of Pervez Musharref.

What a mess!

Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com