The Roger Report for Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - The Roger Hedgecock Show - Talk Radio

The Obama administration is weighing options for sharp new cuts to the U.S. nuclear force, including a reduction of up to 80 percent in the number of deployed weapons, The Associated Press has learned.

When Obama entered the White House in January 2009, the city average price for one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.79, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figures are in nominal dollars: not adjusted for inflation. Five months later in June, unleaded gasoline was $2.26 per gallon, an increase of 26 percent. By December 2011, the price of regular unleaded gas per gallon was $3.28, an 83 percent increase from January 2009.

Oil rose above $101 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as escalating tensions in the Middle East outweighed lingering concerns about Greece's ability to implement austerity measures to resolve its debt crisis.

Benchmark crude was up 80 cents to $101.55 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 17 cents to finish at $100.74 per barrel in New York on Tuesday.

Despite the country's respect for former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, not everyone in the military community was thrilled with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus' Friday announcement that the Navy's new Independence variant littoral combat ship (LCS) will be named for her."The Navy motto is Semper Fortis, Always Courageous," said Mabus during the Friday ceremony with Giffords, who was shot last year during an assassination attempt in Tucson.

The Justice Department's request for additional time has, unfortunately, not been followed by efforts to bridge the significant differences between its legal obligation to Congress and the reality of its stonewalling. The [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee] is determined to know what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and how the Justice Department responded when it was publicly confronted with evidence of reckless conduct after Agent Terry's death. If the Justice Department cannot commit to providing, at a minimum, a detailed description of documents it is withholding, and the legal basis for doing so, then the committee has no other option than to move forward with the contempt process against Attorney General Holder.

The Obama administration wants Iran evicted from SWIFT, an independent financial clearinghouse that is crucial to the country's overseas oil sales. That would leapfrog the current slow-pressure campaign of sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to drop what the U.S. and its allies contend is a drive toward developing and building nuclear weapons. It also perhaps would buy time for the U.S. to persuade Israel not to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran this spring.

Federal officials told ABC News that there is so far no specific intelligence of any threat to Israeli interests in the U.S. They also noted that in cities like New York and Washington, D.C., "the targets are much harder" than in countries like India, Georgia and Thailand, where

Iran has allegedly attacked or attempted to attack in the past two days. But they also added that Iran can be "belligerent."

Dershowitz, 'I wont support Obama if he is with Stalinist Media Matters Bigots'

Media Matters signed a ten-year lease on its office space, ending June 30, 2020. Beginning in 2011, its annual rent was more than $1 million. The organization went on a $362,000 furniture spending spree in 2010: At the end of 2009 it reported owning less than $22,000 in "office furniture and fixtures," but by the end of 2010 that number was above $384,000.