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Click the top segment on the list of skinny ones underneath the big thing on the very top to hear last night’s show with Michael Yon. Okay, , I just checked it, you can click the arrow on the fat thing at the very top too. That’ll work. And no, I didn’t talk like this when I was interviewing him, so it’s not all dumb-ass and non-informative and , don’t sweat it. Don’t forget, I did just win “Most Eloquent Host” on the BTR Conservative Awards, so it’s not like I’m gonna be all, you know, in…whatever……

Showtime as always is 8 PM Pacific, 11 PM Eastern. It’s live so please do call with whatever you’ve got to ask Mike. The buttons have been fixed, just please click on the one below. Chat room opens 15 minutes prior to show.

Michael Yon, what can I say, he’s now a legend of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first of us indies to be given a full profile in the New York Times, Mike has been there longer than any of us, seen and done it all, at times to his great personal joy and satisfaction, and at times to his great personal horror, as Mike has been on the spot, camera in hand, when some of the most unspeakable of Al Qaeda’s atrocities were uncovered, often exclusively bringing the truth of such horrors to the world. The MSM didn’t seem to be as interested in bringing you the truths about our enemies as Mike did, and still does. You know the drill, they were driven by a political agenda and not as much interested in bringing you the truth about any of the war as much as bringing you whatever they could dig up, or even just make up, to sway your opinion against the war, the Republicans, and too often enough, our troops in harms way. A true independent, unbeholden to any MSM master with a political agenda, and unbeholden to any such agenda of his own, Mike is there and does exactly what the a reporter is supposed to do: give us the unvarnished truth, call them as he sees them, dig deep and dive headlong into danger, whatever it takes to find that real story. Hell, it’s only history, lives and national security at stake whenever a reporter starts to bang those keys. He knows full well he’s going to affect all of the above by affecting the power behind the throne: public opinion. Is it really so important for him to get it right, to tell the truth? ( see the dictionary for “rhetorical question” if that sentence leaves you confused in any way.)

And if you’re new to Mike’s site, or just haven’t made it there in a while, you’ll see that Mike has also developed into one of the very best photojournalists in the world. The shots are just stunning. It’s been like watching that rookie draft pick no one thought too much about end up as the key player in the starting line-up; his talent with that camera has developed mightily and now just soars. You’ll remember this classic, even from his earliest days in Iraq:

So we’re very excited to have him live on the air tonight, ready to answer you questions. We’ll get the lowdown on why he’s now in Afghanistan, and what is the situation on the ground, the situation that is going to dictate the next key moves on the front lines of the Long War, the Global War on Terror.

For once, I’m proud to reprint something from the New York Times, from their aforementioned story on Michael:

“Michael Yon was not a journalist, and he wasn’t sure what a blogger was. He had been in uniform but not in combat, and he wanted to keep it that way. He went to Iraq thinking he would stay for a month, and maybe find a way to write about the war after he got home.

Instead, he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist, according to the United States military. He has been shot at, buffeted by explosions and seen more people maimed — fighters and civilians, adults and children — than he can count.

He insists that he still does not really know the rules of journalism, but says he has recently, grudgingly, accepted that he has become a journalist.

His detailed, mostly admiring accounts of front-line soldiers’ daily work have won him a loyal following, especially among service members and journalists and bloggers who follow the war. One of his photographs showing an American soldier cradling an Iraqi girl injured in a car bombing (the girl later died) appeared on Time magazine’s Web site and was later voted one of top images of the year by visitors.

Mr. Yon, however, does not work for any organization; no news outlet pays him for the hundreds of dispatches and photos he has produced. He publishes his work on his own Web site, michaelyon-online.com (some will appear again in a book set for release in April), and he also posts submissions from military people serving in Iraq. He says contributions from his readers have paid most of his costs, though he declines to say how much they have given.

“His work has a remarkable, chin-out, unvarnished intimacy,” said Jackie Lyden, a National Public Radio reporter who has worked in Iraq. “He isn’t a guarded, diplomatically toned reporter; he can be very frank, and he questions his own assumptions.”

The Internet has fostered such citizen journalism, shaking up ideas about where news comes from, but few have taken on the expense and danger of working in a war zone. Mr. Yon’s daily expenses are small, but he has paid tens of thousands of dollars for computers, cameras, phones and body armor.

He went to Iraq believing that the mainstream news media were bungling the story, and he still often criticizes the media’s pessimism.

Here’s a more official, sorta stuffier bio provided by “Danger Girl”:

Michael Yon is a popular journalist, milblogger, and author whose first self-published autobiography is entitled Danger Close. An engrossing personal memoir, first published in 2001, Yon’s autobiography spans from his early, almost idyllic childhood in Florida to just after he completed his Special Forces training.He was one of the youngest soldiers ever to pass the grueling Green Beret selection process. Danger Close unflinchingly honest, raw at times, and filled with promise and portend of his career as an explorer and writer.
Today, Michael Yon is an accomplished war photographer who combines detailed,intimate storytelling and poignant, insightful eloquent essays with evocative war photos. His dispatches are a powerful record of the war, most often on the ground from the fighting man’s point of view. His most popular, evocative, riveting & heart stopping, dispatch is “Gates of Fire”

Michael delivers the good, the bad and ugly. When failed American leadership was driving Iraq into chaos and civil war, nobody told the story earlier or better than Michael Yon. The top brass was so mad that twice the U.S. military denied him access to Iraq.

A photograph he shot at the scene of a car bombing in Mosul received international media attention, resulting in his appearance on Fox News, CBS’s Early Morning, and ABC’s Good Morning America, as well as many radio programs. The photo was printed on the front page of more than fifty major U.S. daily newspapers, including the Washington Post, USA Today, the New York Post, and the Washington Times, and was Time magazine’s Viewers’ Choice photo of the year.

Michael Yon’s work has been featured in magazines and newspapers around the globe, from the New York Times to the London Sunday Times, and from the Weekly Standard to Jane’s Defense Weekly. His Web journal, located at www.michaelyon-online.com, has been featured on major news Web sites, including Time Online, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC News, CNN, and CBS and attracted the attention of Bruce Willis and Gary Sinise.