I bet old Abe is rolling in his grave this morning as once again corruption has struck the Land of Lincoln.   It is hard to believe honest Abe is still associated with Illinois as the shameful art of corruption is afoot. A lot has changed since the 1850s, maybe the state should change it’s motto to the “Land of Stinkin’.”

From Fox News:

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested at his North Side home Tuesday morning. His chief of staff John Harris was taken into federal custody as well.

The criminal complaint by the FBI agents said the two had been arrested on federal corruption charges. Each were arrested on two charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.

Blagojevich and Harris will have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court Tuesday. 

The arrest is the latest step in a three-year probe of “pay-to-play politics” in the governor’s administration. A statement by U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said Blagojevich and Harris “allegedly conspired to sell U.S. Senate appointment, engaged in pay-to-play schemes and threatened to withhold state assistance to Tribune Company for Wrigley Field to induce purge of newspaper editorial writers.”

Federal authorities were permitted by a judge to record the governor secretly before the November election after raising concerns that a replacement for President-elect Barack Obama would be tainted. 

Fitzgerald’s office said the 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was taped conspiring to sell or trade Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife. 

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With two governors in a row (Ryan and Blagojevich) arrested and charged with fraud, conspiracy and abuse of power; and the history of Illinois politics and corruption. The fundamental question is: ”How are we supposed to trust anyone from the Illinois political machine?”

Obama keeps saying “trust me.” 

I say, “Yes, Obama I trust you…are a corrupt piece of fly crap, from a corrupt power base in Illinois.”

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Here is a great post from Snowflakes in Hell.  I think it is right on…

What the Chambliss Victory Means

Saxby Chambliss received 49.8% of the vote on November 4th.  His Democratic rival, Jim Martin, received 46.8%, with 3.4% going to the Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley. Last night was the runoff election between Chambliss and Martin, which both sides dumped a lot of resources into, including NRA into helping Chambliss retain his Senate seat.  Chambliss defeated Martin 57.4% to 42.6%.  Between November and now, he increased his lead by 13 percentage points to sail to re-election in a landslide victory.

Aside from preserving a filibuster for Republicans, it will also serve as a warning to Democrats that their victory may be a lot more pyrrhic than they might like to imagine.  Without Obama’s coattails to ride in the midterm election, Democrats might find themselves in serious trouble in 2010 if they overreach.  The Republican Party is down, but not out, and Pelosi, Reid and Obama govern to the left at their peril.  A third effect this will likely have is to decrease the likelihood the Democrats will up the ante in the Coleman/Franken election, since with Chambliss’ victory, it doesn’t matter as much now.

This is a good victory.  A shot across the bow of the Democrats from the people of Georgia.  We are down, but not out.  On to 2010.

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“I did not think I would live long enough to see the day…” Many are saying this about the election of Obama as the first quasi-black (Nigerian, Hawaiian, Indonesian, whatever) POTUS.  However, I am saying it about recent actions by the NY Judicial system.   I was amazed this week when I heard the NY Courts recognized the rights granted to individuals under the Heller decision, and gave back a firearms permit to one of NY States citizens.  In Colaiacovo v. Dormer the State of New York had revoked a mans firearms permit and CHL/CCW permit because his distraught wife had committed suicide.  While it was gravely unfortunate that the mans wife had taken her own life, the pain was exacerbated by the State of New York in revoking the mans right to defend his home and workplace by stripping him of his gun rights. 

This last week the New York Supreme court handed down the decision (citing Heller) that the State of New York can NOT strip a man of his right to defend himself and his home using firearms.  This is a big blow to New York State, and is a “Smack Down” which is long overdue.  Hopefully the breakthroughs provided by Heller will continue to spread.

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Ok… usually the NRA updates have good information … but all I can say about this update from NRA-ILA Site Updates is “No kidding?, Really?, I never would have guessed.”  They forgot to mention that thousands are buying all the ammunition up also.

Election triggers gun sales

As polls and pundits in recent weeks increasingly pointed to the election of Barack Obama as the next president, scores of Utahans flocked to gun stores.

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Here is some great observations from Snowflakes in Hell.  I know this only applies to NY but it could easily be carried nationwide as the slow churning gun control liberals take over in an incremental fashion.

Bad Day for New York Gun Owners

It was a bad election day for New York gun owners.  Tom King says:

I expect to see the following proposed legislation in both houses of state government shortly after the start of the 2009 legislative session Smart Gun, expanded COBIS, Micro Stamping of shell casings, an expanded assault weapons ban, reduction of magazine capacity, mandatory storage/insurance and renewable pistol licenses with very limited concealed carry. It is not a pretty scenario but it is not untenable.

Gun owners in New York State are going to need some help.  One thing I would encourage of New York gun rights activists is that it is possible to work within the Democratic Party.  We have some very anti-gun urban Democrats in Pennsylvania too, but we also have a lot of pro-gun Democrats, who are good on our issue.  Unfortunately, one of them is John Murtha, but on guns, Murtha has been on our side.  Sometimes you have to work with the political circumstances political fortunes stick you with.

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