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Thoughts from my USO tour to IraqI've just returned from a trip to Iraq after an initial stop in Kuwait with actor Marshall Teague, who you know from films like ''The Rock,'' ''Armageddon,'' and TV programs like, ''Babylon 5,'' ''Sliders,'' and of course ''Walker, Texas Ranger.'' We went to visit and encourage service members as part of a United Service Organization (USO) tour. I'll share some of the inspiring moments in next Monday's article (and maybe a photo or two)! As in past years, I left the region more inspired by our troops than I believe they were by me....

Two blonde gals. I think ones name is Karen Marsh...worked on the Kerry campaign. The other was that platinum short haired blonde with the snarkly grin. I couldn't believe my eyes or my ears. Anyone see this?

ANY lingering doubts that David Letterman detests Bill O'Reilly will be laid to rest tonight, when the gap-toothed funnyman has the conservative Fox News powerhouse on his CBS "Late Show" and machine-guns him with insults. In a tape previewed by Page Six, things go downhill fast as O'Reilly sits down and jokingly presents the liberal-leaning host with a plastic sword to do battle and holds up a plastic shield to defend himself. An irritated Letterman cracks, "Oh, that's nice, that's cute, you come out with toys . . . Am I right about one thing: You guys over there at...

Did anyone catch BOR last night? He has a new weekly segment highlighting a TV icon. Last night he had James Arness - Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke. Mr. Arness is 83 years old. He is a very humble man, from what I saw of the mini-interview. I also found out that he was in WW II, wounded at Anzio, and spent 18 months in recuperation. That was one of my favorite westerns growing up. When I was a little kid, it would confuse the hell out of me when Bruce Dern kept on showing up in different episodes. I was...

EXCERPT: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)BRIAN ROHRBOUGH, FATHER: I am saddened and shaken by the shooting at an Amish school today and last week's school murders. When my son Dan was murdered on the sidewalk at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999, I hoped that would be the last school shooting.Since that day, I tried to answer the question why did this happen? This country is in a moral free fall. For over two generations, the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum, expelling God from the school and from the government, replacing Him with evolution, where the strong...

The prosecutor who vigorously pursued the case against conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has been accused of going easy on a wealthy Democrat accused of sex crimes with kids. Billionaire Palm Beach financier Jeffrey Epstein, 53, was indicted last month on a charge of felony solicitation of prostitution. But Palm Beach County Police Chief Michael Reiter wanted Epstein to be charged with the more serious crime of sexual activity with minors. Florida State Attorney Barry Krischer of Palm Beach County rejected that call – even though police believe Epstein regularly brought girls as young as 14 to his mansion for...

Sec. of State Condi Rice just appeared on the Bill "O' Reilly Factor" show.

On the O'Reilly Factor, Maj. Bob Bevelacqua compared the Israel to the Nazis for their so-called lack of comprimise. He said that Israel going out of Lebanon and Gaza was like "The Nazis going out of Moscow" and proceeded to say that Israel needed to be more willing to comprimise.

A quick question for Keith Olbermann: is it working? To get the attention of Bill O'Reilly, FOX News and anyone else who will listen, you've tried every stunt known to mankind. Yet despite all of those often- desperate ploys, the only thing you're beating is poker on CNBC. Is it time for a new target? Perhaps, but with all of the mainstream media attention your latest stunt is generating, we doubt you'll soon change. If only this course of action could lead to big ratings, however! What Olby does prove is that serving as a liberal media darling certainly doesn't...

by Mark Finkelstein July 25, 2006 - 09:42 Bill O'Reilly's down to his last strike. As noted here, on his radio and TV shows yesterday, Bill propounded the theory that the big-city newspapers have tread lightly in the current Middle East conflict for fear of alienating their liberal Jewish readers. As Bill put it, liberal Jews "are all the papers have left" when it comes to significant market niches. While Bill singled out the NY Times as the paper most loath to offend its liberal Jewish readers, he also mentioned the Boston Globe by name on his radio show. As...

by Mark Finkelstein July 25, 2006 - 07:01 Back to the drawing board for Bill O'Reilly. As noted here, on his radio and TV shows yesterday, BOR propounded the theory that the big-city newspapers have tread lightly in the current Middle East conflict for fear of alienating their liberal Jewish readers. As Bill put it, liberal Jews "are all the papers have left" when it comes to significant market niches. BOR particularly singled out the New York Times as a paper that hesitant to take any positions that could be construed as contrary to Israel's interests. As of this morning's...

For several days, your Radio Equalizer has been intrigued by a conversation that took place between Bill O'Reilly and syndicated radio talker Laura Ingraham on July 18th's O'Reilly Factor. When asked whether so- called "smear websites" serve to intimidate the opposition by bullying them right off the 'net, Ingraham took issue with O'Reilly, maintaining that a strong backbone is needed to enter the political fray. Today, however, a redesigned hate site truly seems to bolster O'Reilly's case. More on that in a moment.

In his July 6 weekly newspaper column, Fox News talkmeister Bill O'Reilly wrote about "Superman and the Culture War." He pointed out, as I did last week, that in the movie "Superman Returns," the Perry White character asks about Superman, "Does he still stand for truth, justice and all that stuff?" O'Reilly asks right back, "And all that stuff?" The original line from the 1950s TV show was "truth, justice and the American way," and O'Reilly explains how the studio, Warner Bros., didn't "want to tee off any foreign viewers with pro-U.S. sentiment," so it excised "the American way." Turns...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is coming to the defense of his radio competitor Rush Limbaugh, claiming authorities in Palm Beach County, Fla., are "out to get" the conservative talk-show host, and are maliciously targeting him for prosecution. "He is an American," O'Reilly said of Limbaugh last night on "The O'Reilly Factor," "and I believe powerful people in his home county are trying unjustly to harm him." On Monday, Limbaugh was held up for more than three hours at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities found a bottle of Viagra pills in his possession prescribed...

Last Tuesday, Bill O'Reilly was indignant -- as were we all -- over the loss of our two soldiers who were captured and brutally murdered by terrorists in Iraq. So incensed was he that on his Tuesday show he called for stricter and stronger action against these thugs in Iraq. Etc., etc. On Thursday, the Chicago Tribune published a guest commentary by Don Wycliff, associate vice president for news and information for Notre Dame University. Wycliff also teaches "media criticism" for the University, or so his bio line reads. Wycliff took O'Reilly to task for his "intellectual dishonesty" with his...

Despite negative criticism, political jabs, disturbing threats and a recent internet posting stating that he's star-struck and on a world tour, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones candidly discussed-for the first time in the York area......the aftermath of the "epic" Dover intelligent-design trial....... Jones said he was pleased to be at the York County Colonial Courthouse Wednesday on an invitation from the Herbert B. Cohen American Inn of Court meeting where he spoke to about 60 York attorneys and judges........ Jones said. "There are continuing attacks. I think judges and lawyers need to speak out...I've taken some incoming fire." A...

by Mark Finkelstein June 14, 2006 Has Katie Couric's departure had a salubrious effect on Matt Lauer? Freed his inner moderate? The jury's still out. And to be sure, in his interview of Bill O'Reilly this morning Lauer managed to take shots at Ann Coulter and the Iraq security situation. Still, when an MSM host suggests that releasing prisoners from Guantanamo could result, of all things, in an 'international Willie Horton,' it does make you sit up and take notice. Meanwhile, BOR himself, fresh from his visit to Guantanamo, energetically made the case for the current system of detaining enemy...

Rumors of torture, prisoner abuse, and secret interrogation rooms — What really goes on at Gitmo? Military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay speak out for the first time in an exclusive interview, and what they say will shock you.

by Mark Finkelstein May 30, 2006 There are surely Bill O'Reilly experts out there who have carefully charted the history of his pronouncements on the Iraq war. But as a casual observer, it seemed to me that in this evening's Talking Points, O'Reilly struck an altogether more negative tone on Iraq, with implications for future US foreign policy. Here's what he had to say: "The chaos in Afghanistan and Iraq will never end, because there will always be people who hate Americans. And we are an occupying force in those countries. The very important question is how do we as...

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: Two Duke lacrosse players have been arrested and charged with rape among other violent crimes. They are free on $400,000 bail. As you may know, the students attended a party where a stripper hired by the lacrosse team said she was raped. With us now civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton. Is this a racial issue? REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: I think that there are certainly a lot of racial factors. Whether it is directly in the case, we'll see, because some reports said that there was racial language used. But I think that when...