It's election season, so Doug Guetzloe is making up stories again

It's election season, and a perfect time for a reality check: just because someone posts something on the internet does not mean it is true. 

Exhibit A: Doug Guetzloe's repeated claims about supporters of Lawson Lamar being charged with ethical violations. He, both individually and through his "Ax the Tax" group, has been sending out mailers, making robocalls, and writing too many Facebook posts to count, with a wild assortment of false accusations.

Facts are pesky things to people like Guetzloe, so I thought I'd just share some information as a reminder to question what you read and demand evidence of his claims.

Shady intimidation tactics by campaign manager for Jeff Ashton's State Attorney campaign

The race for the Ninth Circuit (Orange and Osceola County) State Attorney took an unfortunate turn this week, with the already heated political rhetoric boiling over into actual threats. 

Current State Attorney Lawson Lamar is facing a challenge from Jeff Ashton. Both candidates are registered Democrats, and no one else is on the ballot, so under Florida law, all Orange and Osceola County voters can participate in this election, no matter what their party registration is. 

The unusual open primary has introduced some interesting dynamics to the race. Because the Democrats have very few contested primaries on the ballot, Republican turnout is expected to be higher, and both Lamar and Ashton are seeking Republican votes. 

Lamar, as a military veteran, former Orange County Sheriff, and current State Attorney with a long history of involvement in the Central Florida community, has easily won Republican votes in past elections. 

Ashton seems to be finding trouble attracting similar support from Central Florida Republicans, and some of his campaign's allies are not helping matters. 

More failure from the stimulus: Energy Dept. loses $500K worth of equipment

That's our money (and our children's, and grandchildren's, and great-grandchildren's...) they're spending:

The Heritage Foundation reported earlier today on their blog, The Foundry, that $500,000 worth of equipment purchased as part of the "green energy" grants under Obama's stimulus program have gone missing.

Being a Congressman has its perks - ask John Mica!

Congress is awesome! Why do
 you think I stayed for 20 years?

Getting elected to Congress brings a lot of really cool perks. Besides having people address you as Representative and getting to shape the future of our country, there's the salary, excellent health insurance, multi-million dollar international vacations...

Wait, what? Multi-million dollar international vacations?

Sandy Adams on Greta: "Washington as Usual Has Got to Stop."

Freshman Congresswoman Sandy Adams was on Fox News Channel's "On The Record" with Greta Van Susteren last night regarding her calls for a Congressional investigation into a multi-million dollar conference held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership at a resort near Walt Disney World in Orlando:

More on Fast & Furious

I just wanted to share a few links from this week regarding the latest news on the Fast and Furious scandal...

A quick note on "executive privilege" [UDPATED]

 ***Please scroll to bottom for important update***

Drudge headline today (hat tip: @TheHenry)

There's going to be a lot written about the Fast and Furious hearing today debating whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt regarding failure to turn over materials requested by subpoena, but I wanted to make a quick point about a comment Rep. Darrell Issa made about the failure to turn over a privilege log.

Attorney General George Costanza

Attorney General Eric Holder may have no clue what's going on in his Justice Department, but the situation is crystal clear to Florida's Republican Congressional Representatives (see my post yesterday with Representative Sandy Adams grilling Holder).

Here's a clever little video put together by Representative Dennis Ross' office:

Fast and Furious: I don't want resignations, I want handcuffs

The more I learn about Fast and Furious, the angrier I get. Recent congressional testimony by Attorney General Eric Holder and his subordinates is making it clear that the entire AG's office is infected with epidemic-level incompetence, stupidity, corruption, or a combination of the three.

Free advice for Eric Holder: your goal should be to appear incompetent, because the alternative (liar) makes prison a solid possibility.Thu Dec 08 18:11:39 via EchofonSarah Rumpf
rumpfshaker

White House freaks out over a 30 second car commercial

Remember this great Ford ad I posted earlier this month?

YouTube | Ford Drive One: "Press Conference: Chris" Commercial

"Chris," the Ford truck owner who appears in the ad is a real person, and just spoke his mind on the day that they filmed that ad.

Well, according to a link I found at RedState, Ford has pulled the ad after pressure from the White House:

Facts are fun, aren't they?

One of the popular liberal responses to the High Speed Train of Embarrassment known as Anthony Weiner that I'm seeing involves pointing fingers at Republicans like Mark Foley or David Vitter who also had scandalous personal escapades.

Well, I'll take your Foley and Vitter and raise you a Barney Frank and Eric Massa. A RedState diarist named Jake Walker who I follow on Twitter (@Jake_W) has nicely donated a large chunk of time detailing the complete and utter failure of Former Speaker of the House (heh, I still love seeing that) and current Democratic Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi to fulfill her promise to "drain the swamp." Yeah...most transparent administration in history, yada yada yada...

Anyway, Walker noticed a tweet from ABC News White House Correspondent Jake Tapper commenting on Pelosi's belated call for Weiner to resign:

BUT it is true that this is the first time @NancyPelosi has called for a House Democrat to resign.Sat Jun 11 22:55:39 via TweetDeckJake Tapper
jaketapper

Wow. My congratulations to Anthony Weiner for making history! [rolleyes]

Noting that the "Democratic Party does have a habit of circling the wagons around their own" whenever there's a hint of scandal, Walker decided to do some research of all the Democrat scandals during Pelosi's time at the head of her party:

So, to refresh our memories, I have compiled a list of scandals that have occurred within her party under her leadership. Though it’s probably fairer to her than she deserves, I have limited this list to scandals occurring or continuing solely during her term as Democratic House Leader, meaning no Barney Frank prostitution ring or Dan Rostenkowski. Furthermore, this list is limited to House members only during that period, meaning no Chris Dodd. I’m also not including Anthony Weiner because his case is fresh in our memory. I cannot claim that this list is authoritative – these are Democrats we’re talking about after all, meaning there’s always more scandals waiting to be uncovered. 

 Here's the article. Enjoy.

The Scandal-Ridden Tenure of Nancy Pelosi as Democratic House Leader: A Primer | RedState