On a cold night in December 1773, some three years after passage of the Tea Act by the British Parliament, colonists were fed up with the British crown’s haughty disregard of their rights as Englishmen, and they dumped 342 chests of the iconic British beverage into Boston Harbor, becoming icons themselves. The protesters (estimates range from as few as 30 to as many as 130) refused finally to be placated by repeated promises of change and reform and, rather than wait for legislative response, they exercised the Lockean right of “self-defense” and boldly resisted the alienation of their God-given liberty.

As the House of Representatives rushes to pass the version of a healthcare bill passed in December by the Senate, particular emphasis is being paid by Americans to key provisions in the measure. One of the most controversial elements, and one of most importance to many voters, is whether the bill under consideration will permit federal dollars to fund abortions.

Nothing gives this writer purer pleasure than to report on the multitude of states’ rights initiatives being passed by state legislatures across our great Republic. As happy as such news makes me, it must in equal measure drive the journalists at the establishment’s “newspaper of record” — the New York Times — crazy.

Not satisfied with placing banks, insurance companies, and the car industry under the control of the federal government, President Obama has turned his sights on the American West.

As Debra Medina sat with her husband in their hometown campaign office in Wharton, Texas, watching the numbers come in, she knew that she was not going to be the next governor of the Lone Star state. In fact, the statewide support demonstrated for Mrs. Medina (18 percent) was not enough to force a run-off with incumbent Rick Perry.

Tomorrow Republicans in the Lone Star State will go to the polls to select their party’s representative in the gubernatorial contest to be decided on November 2. All three of the principal candidates — incumbent Governor Rick Perry, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Debra Medina — have staked their claim to the conservative base of the GOP.

In an effort to drag health care reform back onto the legislative stage, on February 22 President Barack Obama released a blueprint of his version of a comprehensive overhaul of the American health care system. The announcement was designed to set the scene for the pantomime show set for Thursday when C-SPAN will televise a confab between Obama and Republicans in Congress.

Debra Medina is a student of history and during a 20-minute interview with her, she mentioned the Federalist Papers more times than in some college history courses I’ve taken.

As South Carolina State Representative Mike Pitts walked into the Greenwood (South Carolina) Chamber of Commerce annual Legislative Breakfast Friday morning, he knew what the local small business leaders gathered there were most anxious to hear about. Anybody listening to the radio or reading the paper had heard reports that Representative Pitts wanted to outlaw paper money in South Carolina. That sort of dust up is better than donuts at drawing at a crowd at the Chamber.

Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona stopped by the John Birch Society booth at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in Washington, D.C. last week and spoke with The New American’s William F. Jasper. Mr. Hayworth recently announced his candidacy for Senator from Arizona and will challenge 23-year incumbent, John McCain, in the upcoming primary.