This will be a short but important post. Some of you may know the excellent work that Cliff Schecter has done around the blogosphere, both at The Agonist, at Huffington Post, and other places. Some of you may have seen him take down and destroy right wing talking heads over the past few years on cable “news” channels.

And some of you know the fantastic work he has done researching and bringing to light the Real McCain.

Clammyc is doing some original work here -- reporting on and interviewing candidates in the state and local races. Listen in! - promoted cho

It may come as a surprise to some, but Colorado’s 4th District was recently ranked by the Washington Post as a top 10 House race to watch, despite Marilyn Musgrave holding onto the seat for the past three elections. However, to those who know Betsy Markey, this is not really a surprise at all, especially when you consider that Musgrave’s vote total in 2006 (46%) was the lowest winning percentage in the entire country.

And you can hear Betsy LIVE today at 11AM Eastern/8AM Pacific talking to thereisnospoon and me on our BlogTalkRadio show.

Over the past 2 months, there have been a number of diaries written about Heather Ryan, the Navy Vet mom-turned Congressional Candidate who Senator Mitch McConnell had fired from her job on MLK day for the horrific crime of her and her 12-year old daughter daring to ask McConnell a question about the Iraq War during a campaign fund raising stop in Paducah, KY.

She is running against incumbent Ed Whitfield, whose most impressive list of missed votes would put the rest of Congress to shame (over 250 since 1997), and when he has bothered to show up and vote, he has voted with the republican party close to 90% of the time in the current Congressional term.

And you can listen to Heather talk to us LIVE on BlogTalkRadio today at 4PM Eastern/1PM Pacific by clicking on this link.

I live in New Jersey’s 5th District, home of one of the worst Congressional members, Scott Garrett. As I said in a diary a couple of weeks ago:

I live in New Jersey’s 5th district - my Congressman is Scott Garrett. He is one of the most odious members of Congress. When you see bills that pass the House with a vote of 390-35, he is one of the 35. Consistently. He has around an 85% voting record with George W. Bush.

For those of you who missed Downtowner’s diary last night on what is happening in Dennis Hastert’s old district, it is a good run down of what Daily Kos member, progressive, patriot, military veteran and Democratic Congressional candidate John Laesch is up against.

The other night, I posted a diary about a series of interviews that thereisnospoon and I will be doing on our BlogTalkRadio show with various Democratic Congressional candidates.

from Clammyc's email

If you are around TONIGHT (Wednesday, January 23), please join us for another installment of Don't Hijack My Thread! at 8PM Eastern/5PM Pacific. The link to tonight's show is: Don't Hijack-My-Thread

This week's topics are as follows:

• Union endorsements: the culinaries, the united farm workers. Do they matter and what effect do they have?
• The democratic debate. Good, bad, or just ugly?
• The markets come tumbling down. What does it mean?
• McCain or Romney? Who will win, and who's more dangerous?
• Bush's state of the union: what will he say, will it matter, and what will he try to do with his "legacy" year?

from Clammyc's email

If you are around TONIGHT (Wednesday, January 16), please join us for another installment of Don't Hijack My Thread! at 8PM Eastern/5PM Pacific. David Dayen (dday) will be co-hosting again as I am in Calgary.....The link to tonight's show is: Don't Hijack-My-Thread

This week's topics are as follows:

• Iraq - the de-Baathification law and "benchmarks"
• Revisiting what "really happened" with the Strait of Hormuz
• White House emails - what is going on here?????
• GOP and "Dems for Mitt"
• Dean at the DNC - what's next?
• Complete media meltdown and abrogation of any sense of responsible reporting (other than Brokaw).

Welcome to ePluribus Radio with Political Nexus...

"Don't Hijack My Thread" is an interactive discussion on today's hot political topics with a progressive slant. Join "rapid fire" hosts Adam Lambert (clammyc) and David Atkins (thereisnospoon) every Wednesday night [8 PM Eastern - 5PM Pacific] as they take your calls and opinions!

Highlights from previous shows can be found on Don't Hijack My Thread.