Thomas Paine's The Commonsense April 1775: The British are fighting American colonists in Concord and Lexington, and the siege of the British in Boston commences shortly thereafter.

January 1776: Despite these military conflicts, the large majority of the colonists favored reconciliation with Britain and had no truck with wild-eyed revolutionaries.

July 1776: The Continental Congress - with the landslide support of those same colonists - adopted the Declaration, told King George to take a hike, and the war was on.

What happened in between? What created this incredible realignment of public opinion in six short months?

Reader issue #714 (Editor's note: What follows are excerpts from the 76-page federal criminal complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris. Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday. The full document is available here.)

 

The Basics

a. Defendant Rod Blagojevich and at times defendant John Harris, together with others, obtained and attempted to obtain financial benefits for Rod Blagojevich, members of the Blagojevich family, and third parties including Friends of Blagojevich, in exchange for appointments to state boards and commissions, state employment, state contracts, and access to state funds;

Rod BlagojevichIf last week's Chicago Tribune blockbuster story is accurate, then Governor Rod Blagojevich's ultimate inner circle was successfully penetrated by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

The Tribune cited unidentified sources to claim that big-time lobbyist John Wyma's cooperation allowed federal investigators to make "covert tape recordings" of Blagojevich. The governor and his chief of staff were arrested Tuesday.

You just can't get more "inside" than Wyma.

Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity: conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions - both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009.
DOWNLOAD THE FEDERAL COMPLAINT BY CLICKING HERE


Rich Miller's ongoing coverage can be found HERE.

Congressman Ron Paul declined to participate in the recent bailout hearing for the big three automakers. In this Fox News phone interview, Neil Cavuto claims that when it comes to these type of finance driven hearings, Congressman Paul "walks the walk". Why didn't Ron Paul show up to Thursday's hearing?

Where does the GOP go from here?(Editor's note: Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Christian Alliance and a Republican National Committee member, sent the following e-mail to Iowa Republicans in the wake of the November election. This, and two replies, are reprinted here with permission.)

 

Dear Fellow Republicans:

Election Year 2008 is now history. I am sure that you have had time to reflect on the results, what went right, what went wrong, and where do we go as a party from here. At a first glance, the results were discouraging. But let's put all the facts in perspective:

"Black Friday," traditionally known as such as a ledger reference for retailers making profits on pre-Christmas sales the day after Thanksgiving, has now acquired another meaning as well: "black" as in death. At a Valley Stream, New York, Wal-Mart, "a temporary Wal-Mart worker died after a throng of unruly shoppers broke down the doors and trampled him moments after the store opened early Friday, police said." (Associated Press, November 29.)

There are times when a concrete, real-world event can serve as a focus, a highlight in microcosm, of the greater cultural milieu in which it is embedded, and this tragic occurrence -- as well as some of the "explanations" being offered in the wake of it -- is a textbook example.

District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra argues that special treatment is being given to the high-profile defendants by the judge and asks for his recusal.

There is a federal lawsuit against former Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. It claims the President elect is not a natural born citizen of the United States, and therefore is ineligible to run for, or be the president under the U.S. Constitution. A University of Toledo law graduate is responsible for filing this lawsuit. FOX Toledo's Kristi Leigh reports. (October 2008)

 

Millions of Americans have voted for Barack Obama to "fix" our economy and are breathlessly awaiting his inauguration so that he can implement his plans to "get America back to work." Are those voters ever in for a surprise.

  In a November 22 radio address, Obama stated that "we are facing an economic crisis of historical proportions" (true enough) and that "we must do more to put our people back to work and get our economy moving again."

 How does our new president-to-be intend to achieve this result? Obama declared that "I have already directed my economic team to come up with an Economic Recovery Plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011," and that "we'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms, solar panels, fuel-efficient cars, and alternative energy technologies ... "

 This, I submit, is the worst kind of economic claptrap, and is easily demonstrable as such.

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