In June, the Texas Blue published a multi-part series featuring stories from veterans about their experiences at war and at home, recognized medical experts on the impact of war, and family members of wounded combat veterans.

This week, General Wesley Clark joined us on Who's Blue to discuss those issues, his political activism through WesPAC and VoteVets.org, and what he views as a dangerous foreign policy precedent being set by the Bush administration in regards to Iran and the Middle East.

You can listen to the interview here. I provide a sample below via transcript, with huge thanks to Reg NYC for the transcription help.

(Cross-posted from The Texas Blue)

Mikal Watts got things off to a rousing start by matching Cornyn's first quarter money totals dollar for dollar, to the tune of $3.8 million. The Chron has it that Watts wants to start off with a level playing field, which he and Cornyn now have.

A couple of months ago at The Texas Blue, we started kicking around ideas for large-scale series that we could run to focus discourse around issues of importance. One issue we felt was deserving of extended discussion was the challenges facing veterans when they return to the US from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We're covering veterans issues all throughout the month of June, and one of our first feature items is an episode of Who's Blue that features Congressman Bob Filner, who represents California's 51st District and is chair of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

I include a partial transcript of the interview below.

On this week's episode of Who's Blue, we are joined by Dennis Kucinich, Congressman from Ohio's Tenth District. Kucinich is currently seeking the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2008 race for President of the United States. We discuss his early political career, his proposal to create a Department of Peace, and how the Congressman intends to win the presidential primary.

Listen to the interview here. You can also subscribe to Who's Blue at this iTunes-friendly feed.

Who's Blue is the weekly interview podcast from The Texas Blue.

This week's episode of Who's Blue features a conversation with Paul Begala, former counselor to President Bill Clinton and current political analyst for CNN. We discuss the culture of "gotcha" politics, damage control, how he got the Clinton job, and why he is a Democrat. Begala offers insight on many issues concerning Democrats today and illustrates how the Democratic Party can always effectively make its case.

You can subscribe to Who's Blue at this iTunes-friendly feed, or you can download and play directly from The Texas Blue.

Cross-posted from The Texas Blue

John McCain's campaign has been running a rough road. Media coverage has been steadily souring since he made the same supposed verbal gaffe Obama did a few weeks ago, and these days, for some reason I can't seem to quantify, everyone feels like it looks hopeless for him in 2008. I'm telling you now though -- crowning Giuliani (or Romney, or anyone) as the presumptive McCain killer before anyone has really spent any money against anyone else is folly. McCain will be the Republican nominee, and if it isn't him, he's going to have to screw up far more spectacularly than he has now.

Cross-posted from The Texas Blue

I come from a union family, so it has been a source of disappointment for me to observe the decline in union membership that's been underway for some time. There's a new bill up for consideration in the House which makes it easier for workers to unionize, and it is meeting expected resistance from business interests.

Cross-posted from The Texas Blue

Frank Luntz's verbal sorcery cannot be trusted. On Sunday, the Washington Post ran an op/ed by Luntz about what's wrong with Republicans and why they seem to be terrible at politics lately. He points to all of the actual reasons -- the war, the budget, the wedge politics -- but he prescribes more of the same behavior for Republicans, asserting that it is what Americans want. I, surprisingly enough, disagree.