Talk-radio’s George Noory, host of the nationally syndicated nighttime show
“Coast to Coast AM”, told WND he is willing to accept a draft to run for president in 2016.
“Am I running?” Noory asked rhetorically. “I have no plans to run. But enough people have come forward to say, ‘With your vast support, with your knowledge of affairs domestically and internationally, this may be the best time for you to make a run for the White House.’”
Noory told WND he intends to remain the principal host of “Coast to Coast AM,” honoring through 2020 his current contract with Premier Radio Networks, a subsidiary of IheartMedia, formerly Clear Channel Communications.
But he acknowledges he has heard the appeals of listeners urging him to run.
“There is a tremendous need in this country to bring government back to the people,” Noory said. “People are fed up. They have had enough.”
It’s a lot like Howard Beale in the movie “Network,” Noory explained, when the character urged people to open their windows and shout into the streets that they were “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”
“Trust in government has gone out the window,” he stressed. “We really need to get back to where government is there to serve the people.”
Noory acknowledged that he has never run for political office, but he believes that this year he may make an impact running for president as a Democrat.
“The Democratic Party is in disarray,” he said.
Eliminate income tax
Noory told WND his platform would be fiscally conservative but “socially aware,” running left-of-center on issues that have dominated America’s “cultural wars” in recent years.
“American is overtaxed,” he insisted. “I endorse the Fair Tax. I think we should go to a ‘use tax,’ like a sales tax.”
Noory would eliminate the income tax and abolish the IRS.
“We should have no income tax taken out of our payroll checks, or even reported to the government,” he said. “But we also need to have heart for those less well-off economically. If people don’t make enough money, we should give them vouchers to upgrade their standard of living.”
He also expressed sympathy for the homeless.
“We have to do a better job for the homeless in this country,” he stressed. “It’s deplorable that people who don’t have the ability to get a home or to live comfortably are forced to live in cardboard boxes on the streets in this country. It’s unacceptable to me.”
When it came to the issue of drugs, Noory is in favor of decriminalization.
“The war on drugs is not working and we need to get rid of the black market in drugs that we have today in this country,” he said.
“I’m in favor of a new policy to decriminalize drugs in this country, not because I am in favor of using drugs, but as a way of reducing crime and breaking the back of cartels,” he stressed. “I would set up special clinics to help people on drugs, rather than putting them in jail. If we decriminalized drugs, there would be no need for them to rob someone for drug money because drugs would be available to them and accessible.”
Staying out of marriage debate
Noory is also not inclined to wade into the debate over same-sex marriage.
“Who cares what people do behind closed doors?” he asked. “Who cares if people are legally married or not? We’ve got to stop trying to hurt people. We have to start helping people.”
Noory, a military veteran who spent nine years in the Navy, favors the United States having a strong, technologically sophisticated military.
“I believe we need to have the greatest military in the world available for the protection of the people in this country,” he said. “We should not be aggressors. There’s no reason to be in Afghanistan and Iraq 14 years after the tragedy of 9/11. We don’t need that.”
Noory favors working through the United Nations, rather than having the United States making unilateral military decisions in foreign affairs.
“Working through the United Nations, we need to do something where oppression is done away with,” he said.
“But not every country on this planet can be a democracy,” he distinguished. “It’s obvious, we saw what happened in Iraq where Saddam Hussein, who’s not a Boy Scout by any means, at least kept the lid on that country. We need to understand that. You cannot have a democracy in every country. It just doesn’t work.”
Secure the border
Noory also believes securing the border with Mexico should be an important policy objective for the next president.
“I’ve talked to a number of Border Patrol, and they just need help,” he said. “I’m talking about illegal immigration, not legal immigration. I would increase our Border Patrol presence, but I would not build a wall. I would put in some technological systems for protection, systematically across the border.
“There’s a criminal element in this country, and we just don’t need any more criminals; we have too many of our own,” he noted.
On international relations, Noory would reestablish a strong alliance with Israel.
I’m Christian Middle Eastern, and we need to get back to being the best friend of Israel,” he said, referring to his Lebanese heritage. “We have abandoned Israel, and we need to get back into helping them, protecting them, and making the Jewish state safe and secure.
“We have done a deplorable job of befriending Israel.”
But Noory said he also understands the plight of the Palestinians.
“We also need to find a homeland for the Palestinian people somewhere where they have the opportunity to grow and prosper, because there’s nothing more frustrating than poor Palestinian little kids who have no hope,” he said. “When you don’t give these people hope and the opportunity to have a nice place to build a home and family, they’re going to become terrorists. That’s what’s happening in too many places across this world.”
He also acknowledged jobs and the economy will be important issues in 2016.
“We need to get manufacturing back into this country,” he said. “Service related jobs are not enough.”
‘Best people for the job’
But he plans to draw inspiration from across the political spectrum.
“I would have Democrats, Libertarians and Republicans in my Cabinet,” he said. “I want the best people for the job, because that’s good management.”
WND asked Noory how he could be a serious candidate for president when “Coast to Coast AM” has been known for its emphasis on UFOs, ancient Egypt and the supernatural.
“I believe 2016 will be the beginning of a new age, an age of enlightenment,” Noory answered. “The current crop of political candidates looks out of touch, saying nothing new or genuine. By 2016, people are going to be saying, ‘We cannot continue down the path we have been going as it will lead us only back to the familiar dead end we now see in Congress and the White House.’”
Noory stressed how much he has learned from his radio experience, which has put him in touch with millions of Americans of all types for decades.
“I’ve been a radio and television news person since I was 19 years old,” he said. “I’m 62 years old now. But the advantage is that I have studied, investigated and reported over those years on nearly every major story, from wars and recessions to grass-roots local issues.”
WND staff reporter Jerome Corsi is a frequent guest in Noory’s first hour, covering a wide range of topics from international economics and the prospects for emerging from the current global recession, to foreign policy and Iran’s push for nuclear weapons.
“To be on ‘Coast to Coast,’ you have to be willing to stay awake in the middle of the night,” Corsi told WND. “But in return you get a great audience of millions of listeners all across the nation.
“It’s not unusual when I’m on the show that we take a half hour or more of questions,” Corsi said. “The audience is surprisingly well informed and the questions are generally so good that an hour on ‘Coast to Coast’ tends to pass like five minutes.”
“Coast to Coast AM” has the largest nighttime radio audience in the United States, reaching an estimated 3 to 5 million Americans seven days a week.
Since Jan. 1, 2003, when Noory took over hosting “Coast to Coast AM” from Art Bell, the show has increasingly introduced political and economic topics.
Noory told WND he does not have any current affiliation with any political party.
Noory was born in Detroit in 1950 and is the son of Middle Eastern Christian parents.
He grew up in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, and currently broadcasts from in Los Angeles and St. Louis, the two cities in which he now resides.
He was a broadcast major at the University of Detroit and has won three Emmy Awards in his 38-year broadcast career.
Noory first hosted a late-night radio program on KTRS 550 in St. Louis, where he went by the nickname “The Nighthawk.” His top-notch ratings caught the eye and ear of Premiere Radio Networks, the syndicator of “Coast to Coast AM,” heard on nearly 615 radio stations across North America., on XM satellite and worldwide on the Internet.
Federal Income Tax Brackets (Tax Year 1914)
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