United Liberty

Will the Democrats fight amongst themselves this close to the inauguration? I expect that we will continue to hear less on this story - and more of the Rick Warren daytime TV drama.

CHICAGO (AFP) — The corruption-tainted governor of Illinois was expected to appoint a replacement Tuesday to the senate seat of president-elect Barack Obama, a source close to the governor told AFP.

A defiant Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell the seat to the highest bidder, was expected to name former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, 71, to the seat, the source said on condition of anonymity.

From Campaign for Liberty

Apparently, a family in Ohio was operating a co-op where they were reaping a healthy storage of food and supplies. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a permit it seems and on Dec. 1st, the government came knocking on their door.

“The Stowers, parents of eight children (including one son [in-law] serving in Iraq), have been accused of violating retail food establishment licensure laws.”

Not to continue perpetuating the indignation of the two party system - but Georgia is back to being a solid red state. I would be the last person to put credit in Chambliss’ hands, considering this is Georgia we are talking about. Thank Sarah Palin or Mike Duncan for saving the day maybe, but the sheer lack of Obama’s star power didn’t get out to vote - even if he had asked them to in person it may not have helped.

The Republican party is alive and well with the American people.

The reality is that Democrats still have an uphill battle turning out the vote for mid-term, off-years and special elections.

The movie stars and pop culture icons don’t come out to play for Congressmen.

2010 is ripe for a Republican surge.

I just about spit my coffee up when I read this yesterday, but apparently some people are calling on David Paterson to replace Hillary Clinton - with Bill.

While I seriously doubt that is going to happen - even the CNN article agrees that Bill would likely not be interested in becoming a Jr. Senator - I was a bit tickled by the prospect of seeing “Teflon Bill” heading to the Senate.

That whole “change” thing really was just good branding huh?

This morning Clinton said that he had no real interest in the seat.

From the history books:

The AP reports that Sen. Martinez from Florida has decided not to run in 2010 for re-election. This leaves a big opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to go head to head for an open seat in a huge swing state. Look for positioning by FL politicians in the next few months for this one - we might even see a few carpetbaggers.

AP Article

Looks like Tom McClintock is headed to Capitol Hill.

From the San Jose Examiner:

McClintock is 1,576 votes ahead of Brown out of 367,510 votes counted, according to the secretary of state’s office. Those figures will be updated and finalized as counties certify their votes by Tuesday’s deadline, but McClintock’s lead appears insurmountable.

McClintock held a news conference at his campaign headquarters in a Sacramento
suburb on Monday to claim victory in the 4th Congressional District contest.

From CNN Money:

The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures.

The NBER said that the deterioration in the labor market throughout 2008 was one key reason why it decided to state that the recession began last year.

So some major economic think tanks are recognizing that we are indeed in a recession - when many of us knew it was coming in mid-2007, or earlier - thanks to people like Ron Paul and Peter Schiff.