How can I miss you if you don’t go away

Ely - Listeners are sad to hear that Bill O’Reilly is hanging up his headphones to devote all his attention to his Fox Television show and his web site.

To be honest, so am I.

I wasn’t expecting the former Inside Edition host to be such a good, solid radio host. I was expecting strident, partisan, boring radio.

You know, Sean Hannity radio.

But I was thoroughly surprised that O’Reilly’s “Radio Factor” was indeed, fair and balanced. Much more to the middle than Fox News, though light years to the right still of the Mainstream Media.

In fact, I think he comes across much better on radio than he does on TV. But, the money is in TV.

Who can blame someone for wanting to follow the money?

Still, I’ll miss him in the morning.

We have an interesting line-up here on the radio.

Dennis Miller has thoroughly surprised me with the exceptional quality of his show. He’s not afraid to show his conservatism but doesn’t lecture. He genuinely appears to have a good time with his daily three hours along with his liberal sidekick Sal. Together you get what I think is the most fun and entertaining talk show on the air today.

Lou Dobbs is, well, Lou Dobbs. That is not a bad thing. His “independent nation” continues to be frustrated by the strident partisanship of the Republicans and Democrats. The show filled with exceptional content highlighted by Dobbs’ ongoing frustration with the total disregard by both parties of constitutional and humanitarian propriety.

Bruce Williams is, well, Bruce Williams. He continues to be the logical Uncle on the radio. These days, though, Bruce isn’t just dispensing consumer advice, he’s also discussing political viewpoints, and not all the expected ones, either.

Former Rock Jock Joey Reynolds has what is perhaps the most fun show I’ve heard on the air for a very long time. I view his late night program from New York City as much less a show than a party. It’s truly fun listening.

Then there’s Hannity.

I’m sorry, but the strident partisanship of his show really annoys me.

His show has one basic position. All Republicans are right, and all Democrats are the devil.

That is wrong.

There are good Democrats (see Marcy Kaptur), and there ARE bad Republicans (See Duke Cunningham).

Unfortunately, Mr. Hannity doesn’t see it that way. That’s his right. But it isn’t right.

Our esteemed publisher, while very conservative, has a well developed sense of right and wrong. He calls out both parties equally when they screw up, which these days is most of the time.

Hannity isn’t a very good host or a very good entertainer. But I put up with him.

Wow.

The state’s in really deep trouble.

The sad part is, no one is very clear as to how bad the situation really is.

Our local school discrict is already planning to cut administration staff by 40%. And they are assured that isn’t going to be anywhere near enough.

They are anticipating a million dollar shortfall.

One of the ways that the district could raise more money is the same way that the city and White Pine County could become healthier is to broaden the economic base with the construction of the two “clean coal” power plants and the accompanying light industry that the plants would attract.

Instead, Harry Reid is trying to get the Great Basin National Park reclassified as a Class I Environmental park. That would shut down most industry in this county.

...and destroy what’s left of the state’s budget.

Funny, I always thought it would be California that would go bankrupt first. Now it may be neck and neck between Cali and Nevada.

Thanks Harry. Go back to Searchlight.

The latest from my Indian correspondent Sunaina is that Pakistan is apparently only paying lip service to working with India on the attacks. Here are excerpt from her dispatches on the subject.

“Pakistan has arrested chief of the militant outfit Jaish e Mohamed, Masood Azhar. US secretary of state calls this a positive step. However Pakistan will not hand over Azhar to India and there is also no talk of executing him. He has only been placed under house arrest. The JEM was founded in 1994. This is the group that was responsible for the terror attack at the Indian Parliament on Dec 13 2001.”

“India on Tuesday raised the Mumbai terror attack at the United Nations and demanded that the world body ban Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front organization of Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT) blamed for the carnage, and other such organisations and impose effective sanctions against them. Stressing that India has been target of terrorist attacks sponsored from across the border for the last two decades, India asserted that when terrorist groups are used to serve the political interest of States, a deadly combination emerges and a terror machine is created.”

“Pakistan Defence Minister has confirmed the arrest of LeT commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of Mumbai attacks. However Pakistan refuses to hand over the commander, stating that he will be tried in Pakistan, under the country's laws.”

More and more, it sure looks like Pakistan isn’t India’s friend. Nor is Pakistan our friend. I wonder if they have anyone else in Pakistan that we need to be watching out for....

Wyatt Cox