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Before starting a conference call with bloggers that is in progress, the Thompson campaign said it was expecting a "big, big, conservative endorsement" tomorrow.

You may (or not) remember the headline back in October. Apparently someone had put the State of Michigan up for sale on EBay – in response to the budget debacle. That someone was me. After about a four day stretch of non stop blogging about what was going on in regard to the crisis, I decided it was time to have a little fun. Little did I know what that “fun” would cost me personally? My husband works for the State of Michigan. When he returned to work on Monday, he received a call from his district supervisor essentially telling...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has brought its concerns about the detention of a well-known blogger to the Saudi Arabian government at "a relatively senior level," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday. McCormack, speaking at his regular midday briefing, said the message delivered "was pretty clear." "The U.S. stands for freedom of expression," he said. "It is an important element of any thriving society. It's a cornerstone of any democratic society. Wherever people are seeking to express themselves, via the Internet or via other areas, whether in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the world, we stand with that...

Rudy Giuliani's once solid lead among Republicans nationwide has vanished, and John McCain -- whose campaign was regarded as dead in the water this summer -- is back on top with the GOP leaders. McCain has 22 percent support among Republicans, followed by Giuliani at 20 percent and Mike Huckabee at 17 percent. Mitt Romney follows at 12 percent with Fred Thompson at 19 percent. The survey was conducted Dec. 19-30 and has a 5 percent margin of error.

Michael Mukasey has decided to open a criminal investigation into the destruction of videotaped interrogations conducted by the CIA that included waterboarding. John Durham, the federal prosecutor for Connecticut, will head the probe. It raises the stakes for everyone involved in the destruction of the tapes, which the CIA denied ever having and kept from the 9/11 Commission: The Justice Department opened a full criminal investigation Wednesday into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, putting the politically charged probe in the hands of a mob-busting public corruption prosecutor with a reputation as being independent. Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced that...

The assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was only minutes old and details remained sketchy when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign issued a condemnation of terrorism writ large. "Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere -- whether in New York, London, Tel-Aviv or Rawalpindi -- is an enemy of freedom," said Giuliani. " We must redouble our efforts to win the Terrorists' War on Us." That it was the first statement that arrived in The Fix email inbox is not surprising as his campaign strategy is closely linked to many voters' belief that...

For years, we've been pointing out how ridiculous it is for professional sports leagues to try to claim ownership of game data. Facts cannot be covered by copyright -- and neither can your own description of the events on the field. However, many of the leagues still wanted to claim that you couldn't report the facts of the game without paying a license. Trying to show how ridiculous this claim was, I asked where it ended, saying: "If I'm at the game, and I use my mobile phone to report what I see, is that considered 'rebroadcasting' the game? What...

<p>NEW SCHOOL President and former US Sen. Bob Kerrey just couldn't help himself from applauding Barack Obama after endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton in Iowa yesterday - until he gave a left-handed compliment that almost sounded like it was cooked up in Clinton's headquarters.</p>

Interesting comments both pro and con, some of the most adoring coming from Americans and Canadians. We hope you get your nuclear power plant!

It contains more than 55,000 pages … It is so complex that even those who wrote it don’t fully understand it. The “it” is the federal tax code, and more and more Americans are demanding that the time has come to abolish the IRS in favor of a “Fair Tax” system. The Fair Tax system would eliminate the IRS and replace every current federal tax—personal income tax, business income tax, the death tax, the investment tax and Social Security/FICA taxes included with a simple, Fair Tax. In other words, you would keep 100 percent of your paycheck and then pay...

In the tradition of my list of the top places to find melanistic squirrels in 2006, here’s a list of the top locations to see black deer in 2007. 1. Texas Hill Country, Central Texas. It has been said that the eastern edge of Texas’ Edwards Plateau region and adjacent areas of the Blackland Prairie region are the epicenter of the world’s population of melanistic white-tailed deer, for reasons not well understood by zoologists. In going over the scientific literature, Dr. John T. Baccus and John C. Posey of Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos have been unable to...

Ahmadinejad's Blog Attracts Critics November 26, 2007 The Guardian Robert Tait in Tehran -excerpt- Far from being a repository of fawning admiration, Ahmadinejad's blog has attracted criticism as scathing as that voiced by his known adversaries. Somewhat gleefully, the reformist newspaper Etemad reported yesterday that some respondents were venting their spleen with little regard for pleasantries. One writer - calling himself Sadegh Al Ebrahim - sarcastically congratulated Ahmadinejad on his success in creating new jobs through last summer's decision to ration petrol. "In our city before rationing there were two petrol stations, of which one was always shut. But now,...

Tuesday/Wednesday, November 13/14 - about 4 a.m. Sources inside and outside Iran. A series of explosions rocked the Parchin Military Site (where missiles, including "cruise" type missiles, are manufactured) at Varamin south of Tehran. The Shahab 3, 4 and more recently Shahab 5 solid fuel missiles at the site are hidden in old salt mines in the mountain face in the area, further excavated and furbished for development and manufacture. The main purpose of this Ministry of Defense site, established by the late Shah's father - Reza Shah Kabir - in the early 1900's and taken over by the IRGC,...

The Republican/Conservative blog RedState is up for a WebLog award, specifically "Best of the Top 250 Blogs." Until very recently, RedState was walking away with this award.And then this happened. The huge liberal site DailyKos starting pimping a Democrat blog, Balloon Juice. In just the last hour, Balloon Juice has caught up. So, I have come to shamelessly and blatantly pimp RedState on Free Republic. Vote Early. Vote often (you can vote every 24 hours). Thank you and good night.

Please stop by and vist the unofficial NJ Blog for Mitt Romney: http://mittromneyfornj.blogspot.com/. Created by Alan Moretti. NJ could be in play for Romney, if Rudy is vulnerable after four or five straight losses coming into 2/5 in NJ.

Minutemen Vs. The Race - La Raza "A national Hispanic civil rights organization said Saturday it will not hold its 2009 annual convention in Kansas City because an opponent of illegal immigration was appointed to the city's park board. The National Council of La Raza said its board of directors voted unanimously to pull the conference after being unable to reach an agreement with Mayor Mark Funkhouser over his appointment in June of Frances Semler, a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps." -Source... http://takeastandagainstliberals.blogspot.com/

Here's a great online op-ed laying out why Fred Thompson will win the nomination. Basically, Fred Thompson's federalist principles are connecting with evangelicals and the more conservative people in the Republican party. My favorite part: While James Dobson has had some snarky things to say about Senator Thompson, I really see his federalist stance as an attraction to evangelical voters. Even though Fred has said he wouldn't support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, there are still evangelical leaders supporting him (Gary Bauer and Richard Land, to name a few). Evangelical Christians understand having a life philosophy that affects (in...

I know for a fact that Hezbollah is building defenses and fortifications from which they can launch attacks in the south (where I was two days ago), in the Bekaa Valley, and in Al Dahiyeh (the Hezbollah security square in Beirut, which we covertly entered and moved through twice during our photo-reconnaissance a few days ago). ... he houses are being rebuilt – as they were — with secret interconnecting corridors linking the houses together in a link-by-link network of fighting positions. There are tunnels running beneath the houses linking them with other buildings and adjacent neighborhoods, as well as...

For one with a long history of conservative Republican political participation…and mine goes back to the 1952 presidential campaing of Robert Taft…the rally Saturday afternoon at the Hyatt-Regency hotel celebrating Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) could not have been a greater shock. Taft, son of the 27th president, was constitutionally (and this word is used advisably) unable to demagogue. His message of hoped-for return to the policies of the past did not contain many personal incentives. In place of entitlements he advocated work, instead of farm subsidies he emphasized the free market. He accepted Social Security and few other accoutrements of...

San Diego (1-1) at Green Bay (2-0) - 1:00 PM (Sheridan's Line - San Diego by 4½) I just don't know about San Diego this year. They didn't play very well against the Bears in Week One, although they got the win. Then they were humiliated by New England in Week Two (on SNF to boot). QB Philip Rivers did not look impressive in either game, and RB LaDainian Tomlinson has a total of just 68 rushing yards. Of course, you could say that both games were against good defensive teams, but that's also true this week against Green Bay....