The following appeared this morning on northshorejournal.org:

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq - An Iraqi man saved the lives of four U.S. Soldiers and eight civilians when he intercepted a suicide bomber during a Concerned Citizens meeting in the town of al-Arafia Aug. 18.

The incident occurred while Soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, were talking with members of the al-Arafia Concerned Citizens, a volunteer community group, at a member's house.

"I was about 12 feet away when the bomber came around the corner," said Staff Sgt. Sean Kane, of Los Altos, Calif., acting platoon sergeant of Troop B, 3-1 Cav. "I was about to engage when he jumped in front of us and intercepted the bomber as he ran toward us. As he pushed him away, the bomb went off."

The citizen's actions saved the lives of four U.S. Soldiers and eight civilians.

Kane felt the loss personally because he had met and interacted with his rescuer many times before the incident. "He was high-spirited and really believed what the group (Concerned Citizens) was doing," Kane said. "I have no doubt the bomber was trying to kill American Soldiers. It was very calculated the way the bomber tried to do it. If he hadn't intercepted him, there is no telling how bad it could have been."

Kane believes the citizen is a hero. "He could have run behind us or away from us, but he made the decision to sacrifice himself to protect everyone. Having talked with his father, I was told that even if he would have known the outcome before hand, he wouldn't have acted differently."

Later that night, the Concerned Citizens group contacted the local National Police director, Lt. Col. Samir, with the location of the al-Qaeda cell believed to be responsible for the attack. The National Police immediately conducted a raid that resulted in four arrests.

         Read the entire article at northshorejournal.org, and a follow-up article at hotair.com.

   Two observations come to mind. First, this is a story that you will not see or hear in the mainstream media. Anything positive that occurs in Iraq, most especially a story about the willingness of an Iraqi citizen to give his life to save those of Americans and his countrymen, does not get reported by the television networks or the Associated (with terrorists) Press. Reporting positive news out of Iraq does not fit the media's agenda. Like Congressional Democrats, the mainstream media is invested in America's defeat in Iraq.

   Secondly, Democrat congressmen and senators, as well as Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, have called for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. The likes of John Murtha (D-PA), Harry Reid (D-NV), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Barack Obama (D-IL), and others have proclaimed that we have lost the war and American soldiers are in Iraq as either targets or to commit atrocities against Iraq's citizens. But with recent reports of stories like the above and the steadily increasing cooperation of Iraqi citizens to help root out al-Qaeda operatives, how in good conscience can anyone advocate a surrender/cut-and-run strategy as the Democrats have proposed? Democrats are trying desperately to convince the American public that all is lost in Iraq and we no longer have any business being there. Their purpose in doing so? No other reason than purely political gain in an election season.

   The suggestion that America abandon Iraqis who are willing to give their lives not only to protect Americans but to make their own country safer is beyond the pale. The suggestion that American troops are in Iraq committing atrocities against Iraqis when there are Iraqis willing to give their own lives on behalf of those same Americans, is nothing short of treasonous. The demand that America immediately withdraw from Iraq when there exists overwhelming evidence -- including the admissions of Hillary Clinton -- that our strategy is working and conditions are improving in Iraq is subversive. It is also the perfect illustration of a statement made last week by a member of the House of Representatives Democrat leadership, Rep. James Cliburne (D-SC), that good news out of Iraq is bad news for Democrats. The depths to which Democrats will sink in their grab for increased political power is shameful.

   May God bless the family of that Iraqi hero and may he rest in peace.

   In recent weeks, this country, through a voyeuristic media, has been entranced with the stories of Hollywood starlets running amok and finding themselves in deep legal trouble. Hundreds of hours of videotape, live coverage, talk radio discussions, and newspaper editorials have chronicled the problems of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richey, and Britney Spears. One after another, these icons of teen girls everywhere have seemed to try one-upsmanship over the others as their conduct went from irresponsible, to stupid, to crazy, to criminal. In Ms. Spears' case, her misconduct involved her children; to many, those children were the victims of obvious and blatant abuse and neglect. Today, Nicole Richey, weeks away from delivering her child, was sentenced to jail for her repeated operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs.

   But, if the media coverage is any indication, we as a nation couldn't get enough of the story. America has always had a fascination with our entertainment elite, and never more so as when one of them gets cross-wise with the law. This isn't a new phenomenon; in 1921, the nation was riveted with the rape/murder trial of Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle, a very popular silent movie star and a member of Hollywood's Keystone Cops. More radio and newspaper coverage was devoted to this story than any in American history to that time, with the exception of World War I coverage. Clearly, when a media star gets in trouble, America can't get enough of it. It is engrained in our culture -- we prop these people up and can't wait to watch 'em fall.

   I don't question the fact -- or even why for that matter -- America reacts to it the way we do as a society. My issue is why these young, highly immature, and vulnerable young ladies were ever and continue to be heroes to our kids. Millions upon millions of dollars have been spent by 8 to 16 year-old girls for records, pictures, posters, videos, and every form of merchandise that these "stars" could put their names on. Every adolescent girl in America wants to be like Britney, Lindsay, etc. They are role models to our young teens.

   That is the problem. Who will take responsibility for a generation of girls growing up with role models like these Hollywood losers? Who allowed teenage girls across the country to make them role models in the first place by purchasing concert and movie tickets, CD's, posters and the like?There is only one reasonable answer: irresponsible parents who are afraid to monitor what their kids are doing. The same type of irresponsible parents who are responsible for Britney, Paris, Lindsay, and Nicole to go completely out of control, destroy their careers, and wind up with criminal records. That is the real tragedy here; parents afraid to control their kids, whether it be the parents of the "stars" or the parents of the kids who made them role models and "stars." Not a shred of difference. One is not a symptom of the other; rather, it is the same disease.

The Value of Talk Radio

   News/talk radio stations like KTOK are licensed to serve the people of the country, not the government. That is a distinction that must be recognized and accepted. No better illustration of that principle occured on June 28, 2007, in the United States Senate in its attempt to enact comprehensive immigration reform. The bill under consideration by the Senate was hastily drawn in what amounted to a back-room deal between a handful of Senators who had clear self-interests in the passage of the bill. There were no hearings on the proposed legislation, no public input, no economic studies performed by any government agencies, and, in short, there were none of the usual procedures to which proposed legislation is subjected. In fact, at the time of the vote on this date to allow the final vote for passage of the bill, the final form of the legislation had not even been printed. Senators were being forced by the majority leader to enact a complex bill without having read the final version.

   However, some details of the legislation became known to the public. Among the most controversial measures was the immediate legalization of between 12 and 20 million illegal aliens, persons who entered this country without authorization and contrary to the laws of the United States. From the moment of the bill's enactment into law, every individual who could show that he or she had resided in the U.S., legally or illegally, since before January, 2007, was given blanket amnesty to remain here, regardless of any criminal activity in which he or she had engaged, and regardless of whether that individual was already subject to deportation by law.

   That single provision became the focal point of outrage by the U.S. citizenry. The thought of permitting individuals who entered this country with no regard for our laws or sovereignty to achieve legal status and remain here was simply not acceptable to the public. To many, it was inconceivable that our government would grant legal status to anyone who illegally crossed our border, when the government itself did next to nothing to enforce our borders and prevent illegal immigration.

   So how did the citizens of this country express their outrage? In fact, how did the country ever come to find out about the provision that raised the ire of the populace? The answer is the same: talk radio. Hundreds of radio stations across the country, including KTOK, carried programming which served to enlighten listeners to the provisions of the immigration reform bill. Talk show hosts spent hundreds of hours interviewing U.S. Senators and other persons advocating either for or against the bill. The listening public heard the information and came to its own conclusion about the propriety of the legislation.

   As it turned out, the overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens objected strenuously to the proposed legislation. Poll after poll of the populace indicated that 80% of more of the country did not want this legislation to pass the Senate. Further, a substantial number of our fellow citizens expressed their displeasure by calling, e-mailing, and faxing their Congressional representatives. The Senate telephone switchboard couldn't handle the volume of calls being placed to Senators by their constituents. Talk show hosts encouraged listeners to communicate with their Senators and even provided telephone numbers to Congressional offices. Granted, the majority of those talk show hosts were decidedly against the legislation for a variety of reasons and openly campaigned against the bill. But the important point is that talk radio became the catalyst for the public to become involved in the legislative process.

   In short, the system worked. Whether for or against the proposed legislation, one must admit that when the citizens became involved, the government listened and responded. In the early stages of the proposed legislation mere weeks ago, passage of the "reform" bill was a foregone conclusion. Senators in favor of the bill, as well as the President of the U.S., talked in terms of when the bill would pass. However, when talk radio began to inform the public of the contents of the bill, and subsequently encouraged the listeners to make their feelings known to the Senate, enactment began to look less and less likely. Finally, on June 28, the proponents of the bill in the Senate failed to even muster a majority of the 99 Senators who voted on whether to continue the process of enacting the legislation. Eighteen Senators who had voted on Tuesday, June 26, to continue the process, switched their votes two days later after they heard from their constituents. Those Senators told the Senate leadership that they no longer wanted to enact the legislation to which the citizenry so vociferously objected.

   Thank you KTOK and every other talk radio station in the U.S. Again, whether you were for or against the proposed immigration reform bill, it is undeniable that we listeners got every side of the story from hosts and guests on the various talk shows. We decided as a populace that this bill was not in our interest and must be rejected. Without talk radio, it is certain that we would never have received the knowledge required to reach an intelligent decision on the merits of the bill, nor the ability to transmit our support for the bill's passage or defeat to our elected representatives. Thousands of us called those talk shows and expressed our opinions publicly. We influenced the outcome of the legislation through the facilitation of talk radio.

   Never, since the revival of talk radio in the early '90's, has the importance of radio been so clearly or dramatically illustrated. That is the value of this medium and why so many of us continue to listen to and support KTOK.