Here's what I thought you'd like to hear about today:

1. Yodeller in Chief Responds to Kerry
2. Rumsfeld and the Press
3. Run, Cindy Run!
4. Cartoon Outrage

Yodeller in Chief Responds to Kerry

At Friday's White House Press Briefing, Scott McClellan was asked about John Kerry's call for a fillibuster over the Alito nomination. This is priceless political theater. Listen to the clip.

Play clip.

Rumsfeld and the Press

Last week Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference primarily to review the status of a number of changes that have taken place in the last few years to improve the combat readiness of the defense forces. To get an idea of what has been going on in the Pentagon and across the military, listen to his introduction.

Play clip.

His remarks were relatively short and general in nature. For specifics, he opened the floor to questions from the press. He is a master at these exchanges. Listen to some of the testy bits that I pulled from the entire 30 minute show. I found the audio on my podcast player, since I subscribe to the Pentagon Channel podcast. Most of the shows are press releases from the Pentagon, but ocassionally there are pieces like this one, which I think of as pure political theater. Listen to these exchanges between the press corp and Rumsfeld. It's not really a contest, more of a slaughter.

Play clips.

Run Cindy, Run!

Cindy Sheehan has announced her threat to run for Senate against Diane Feinstein unless the latter votes against cloture in the Alito Senate confirmation process. Can you imagine this person running? Listen to this clip of Cindy speaking to a fellow lefty in Venezuela last week.

Cartoon Outrage

The decision of a Danish newspaper to publish political cartoons that include images of Mohammed has sparked an outrage in the Muslim world, one not apparently ready to laugh at their prophet. David Bernstein thought that the problem wasn't so much one of religious fanaticism, or a lack of Democracy, but rather a lack of liberalism. Here's what he said in the Volokh Conspiracy:

Given that newspapers, bloggers, t.v. stations, etc. in all Western countries have now published or shown the offending Mohammed illustrations, and given that the public in many Muslim countries doesn't seem to distinguish between what individuals do and their countries (given that the state apparently has an obligation to censor "blasphemy"), it strikes me that the boycott should spread to all Western goods and technology. Here's a comment ... from the Washington Post:

"I am not willing to buy any product from a country that has insulted my prophet, my religion and my dignity as a Muslim," said Leila Faleh, 42, a hospital administrator shopping at the store. "I would rather go back to drinking milk from a cow and eating dates."

Yes, go back to drinking milk from a cow, and eating dates. Go back to a 35 year life-span, to a world without antibiotics and anesthesia, to a world where human slaves are bought and sold, and lfe is cheap. Do without your cars, refrigerators, television, and cell phones. But please, don't enjoy the fruits of Western liberalism and then violently reject the freedom that not only accompanies it, but that was a necessary precondition to it. The Middle East is in desperate need not of democracy, but liberalism.

Excellent point, David. These moonbats need to be confronted with a million images of Mohammed, from every rooftop and side street of the world. I have no respect for a civilization that values images above life, and honors suicide bombers and their families. And now we hear that the U.S. State Department is apologizing. Appeasers. Those of you listening to this podcast on your iPods or Windows Media Players with image support, that's a picture of the prophet on your iPod now. If you're on a subway right now, show off your picture. We must become an army of heretics.

That's it for now podcatchers.