I have a new site and thought I'd post it here... www.dems4pres.com Basically, it's a "power ranking" of the potential presidential candidates in 2008. It's written from a democratic point of view, but has both dem and rep rankings. Viewers/visitors can comment on individual candidates -- and the rankings will be constantly updated. Not so much at this early point, but as things start to pick up it will be updated every week or two. If you get the chance take a look. And any suggestions on how to get the word out about the site would indeed be helpful. Any other comments are welcome, too. Thanks in advance.
In my opinion most users will hover over the pics right from the beginning. I think that would just be a common instinct for people. You see the pic and you are drawn into it. Make it as easy as possible for people to navigate.
I like your site. I agree with the others - images should be links. However, you have too many ads, in my opinion. Less is more. By this I mean that google always displays the higher paying ads first, so well-placed units with only 1-2 ads in will probably work better than 3 ad units with lots of ads. Placing these in content (but remember to limit it to 3 ad units max) usually helps too. Check google's heatmap.