I listen to ClarkCasts, do you?

Appearantly, lots of you listen to what ex-General Wesley Clark has to say once a week. According to Hotline:

And now his podcast is right now the most popular political podcast in the nation.

The third installment of Clark's audiotaped thoughts ranks ahead of Sean Hannity . It's more listened-to than Sen. Barack Obama's audio doodlings. Than ex-Sen. John Edwards's podcast, too.

My advice to Wes: do more interviews and chats, and less scripted speeches. The first ClarkCast was terrible in that you could hear Clark pause at the wrong points and hear the page turning. Speak from the heart extemporainously and then you can edit it down or do more takes later.

I will sum up by quoting Hotline again:

Too many people handicapping the Dem field aren't paying attention to Ret. Gen. Wes Clark. The guy has a monster travel schedule on behalf of other Dems. He's still the to-go talking head for Democratic national security events. He's doing the party's national radio address this Saturday.

This man has a big following, even if the insider's poll says it all Hillary. And Clark's stock will raise even among them if all his people get elected-- he has at least one house and one senate candidate that are Clarkies.

no double standards

Here is something I agree with the right wing blogosphere on: our dislike of Rep. Cynthia McKinney (oh and I hate her dad too). Hotline On Call reported that she assaulted a Capitol Police officer because he didn't recognize her as she bypassed the metal detectors (as Members of Congress are allowed to do when they wear their member pin).

The officer called out "Ma'am, Ma'am," in an attempt to stop her.

When the officer caught up to McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm.

McKinney pulled her arm away, swung around, cell phone in hand, and punched the officer square in the chest, according to the witness.

This is the same woman who sides with Hamas over Israel, who is more extreme left than Noam Chompsky, who blamed her 2002 primary defeat on Republicans in an overwhelmingly democratic district with overwhelmingly democratic turnout. (the margin of victory was greater than all the GOP voters who voted in the democratic primary) McKinney is what is wrong with the far out left. Most of the liberals are no where near as crazy and bad as she is, but they need to condem her.

VA SEN- Allen needs, er, stimulation

DSCC has a clip of Sen. George Allen saying he wishes he was born in Iowa. Hotline notes that "He was born in California although his parents, er, created him, in Sioux City."

DSCC has a great line "Looks like Senator Allen is not only bored with the Senate, he's also bored with the entire Commonwealth of Virginia."

VA SEN-let's get it on!

All signs point to a preemptive war buildup in the Old Dominion State. The Democrats have fielded not one but two serious candidates. One, the self-funder and friend of ex-Gov. Warner Harris Miller. The other, netroots favorite and ex-Reagan Sec. of Navy James Webb.

On the other side, intellectual lightweight but strategy smart Senator George Allen. After defeating Chuck Robb six years ago by about 225K votes, the former Governor and son of famed Redskins coach by the same name is one more football analogy away from pissing his pants.

His chief of staff is Dick Wadhams, who engineered the paid bloggers for Thune as well as the rest of the nasty mudslinging victory over ex-Minority Leader Tom Daschle. Before that, he saved Sen. Allard's butt in Colorado with similarly nasty tactics.

Turdblossom II has now "taken a leave of absence" to run Allen's reelection campaign. We have to punish bad behavior and end Wadhams' winning streak before he gets the keys to a national campaign.

This is just one more sign that George Allen is taking Webb and Miller very, very seriously. I can't wait to see the negative ads, they should be out by this summer.

body count

every day, if you listen/read/watch the news, you learn about another pile of dead, tortured Iraqis found in and around Bagdad. They are being killed by ethnicity and Baghdad in 2006 is quickly becoming like Yugoslavia 1991-92. Sunnis are the new Croats. Or Serbs or whatever. I am not taking sides on this one.

This is the very definition of a civil war. I don't want to hear any more euphemisms: "high-level sectarian violence" or "ethnic strife" or "freedom's birthing pains" etc.

It is ludicris not to see that Iraq is going down the toliet in a hurry and the US miliary is powerless (either politically or practically) to stop it.

Kontinuing Kanab Knews

Now business-owners from out of town are worried about Kanab's "full quivver of children" resolution. Victor and Pat Sandonato of the New York/New Jersey Area (Connecticut, New York's other suburb) bought a western supply store in Kanab, the hottest property in town. Lee Benson, the twin brother of Federal District Court Judge Dee Benson, is the author of the Deeret News follow-up. Although I don't think too highly of Judge Benson's brother's reporting normally, I enjoyed this article.

"Eighty percent of this business is international," he says. "That's what we thrive on."
He looks outside his office window at the empty parking lot that is typical in March and hopes it isn't a preview of months to come.
"Yes, I am worried," he says. "I just bought the place, and suddenly I have controversy."

Although Victor loves the environs of Kanab, he wonders why the Mayor and the city council had to thrust their views on the public. "It reminds me of that old Christmas movie, 'Miracle on 34th Street,' " he says, "where they want to put down Santa Claus. And the people tell them, 'Maybe you don't believe in Santa Claus, but don't go there. It's not a good idea.'" So I guess gay people are like Santa Claus, both possibly make-believe? But I digress (before I go on, notice that all Lee did was drive down to this store and interview this one couple).

Victor and Pat hopes the whole thing will just blow over, since this was a astroturf uprising. "[W]e haven't heard anybody local say they're all gung-ho about what's going on. A lot of people think it's silly. We haven't had any impression at all that the town is bigoted." Those big folks up at the Sutherland Institute up in Salt Lake City really know Kanab values.

Certainly Victor and Pat will welcome in gays who have money, "We welcome all people from all walks of life." He just won't admit that he believes homosexuality to be a "life-style choice." Look, retiring to Palm Springs is a life-style choice, not whom you love.