Free candy! (Please take one.)

"It's the law!!!"

Wasn't that what the Democrats kept screeching during 2012? Apparently they were just trolling us:

Clarence Thomas: "This country isn't perfect, but it’s perfectible"

Photo: @JusticeWillett

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke last night at a dinner during the Federalist Society's annual conference in Washington, D.C., and attendee David Lat has a great write-up at the Above the Law blog:

Justice Scalia: "A lot of stuff that’s stupid is not unconstitutional"

For my fellow Federalist Society members and legal scholars, here's a treat: a very long and detailed interview with United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in New York Magazine.

In Conversation: Antonin Scalia

Scalia is at his intellectually witty best in the interview, covering a wide variety of political, legal, religious, and cultural topics. 

Some highlights:

Most. Optimistic. Local. News. Station. EVER.

Apparently Central Florida didn't get being the center of a media circus out of its system during the Casey Anthony trial, because here we are again with George Zimmerman.

[Note: I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the trial because 1) I haven't been following it closely enough to feel informed, 2) I'm pretty sure the internet isn't suffering from a lack of people offering commentary; and 3) there's approximately eleventy bazillion things I'd rather write about.]

Anyway! From what I've seen on social media the past few days, the trial has been quite...entertaining. (A witness testified she could hear grass? Huh? Yeah, I'm OK not watching every minute of this.) And then WFTV tweeted this:

Oops. Maybe Verizon should have revised their privacy policies. [UPDATED]

Another week, another invasion of privacy and violation of rights for regular citizens. It's becoming quite an alarming routine from the Obama administration, isn't it? 

The latest "Are You Kidding Me?!" story is how the NSA has been collecting records from tens of millions of Verizon wireless customers in the U.S. under a top-secret court order, including "the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls." 

Image by Ben Howe

To the Creep Who Threatened Me on Facebook Last Night

I knew when I started blogging about politics a few years ago that I would likely ruffle some feathers from time to time. That's fine. Politics ain't beanbag, or however the saying goes.

I've had angry comments left by grammatically-challenged trolls, been threatened with lawsuits a few times, and actually had to defend myself against several complaints  filed against me with the Florida Bar and Florida Division of Elections (all of which were found to be without merit and dismissed entirely, with no finding of any wrongdoing on my part). That was some annoying paperwork and took a few months to clear up, but not too bad.

Then, yesterday, I got a message on Facebook from someone unhappy with an old blog post of mine. Someone who thought it was OK to threaten me. 

Why it's a big deal that the White House Counsel knew about the IRS audit findings

2013's best new carnival ride, the Obama White House Scandalpalooza, continues to spit out new shocking headlines on a daily basis, and I wanted to put a spotlight on one detail regarding the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS. 

The administration admitted yesterday that the Office of the White House Counsel was informed about the findings of the IRS audit weeks ago - including specifically informing Kathryn Ruemmler, the Senior White House Counsel and the head of the office. 

President Obama somehow knew nothing about the whole mess until he saw it in the press with the rest of us little people. 

Why is this a big deal? 

Because attorneys have a ethical duty to keep their clients informed. 

Sarah vs. ObamaCare

I've never been a "blog-every-story-every-day" blogger. It's easier to tweet the stories of the day (follow me @rumpfshaker if you aren't already) and occasionally write some longer commentary when I have time and schedule the post to go live the next day. 

I don't often get to break stories. 

But apparently I do today....or, at least, I get to break the story of my little role in a much bigger story.

Karen Castor Dentel's inadequate response to ethics complaint filed against her

Karen Castor Dentel: Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Yesterday, I wrote a post detailing complaints filed against state representative candidate Karen Castor Dentel with the Florida Elections Commission and the Florida Commission on Ethics.

WFTV 9 covered the story last night, and Dentel's only responses to the very serious complaints filed against her were to insist she had done nothing wrong, and to whine that it was a "politically motivated" attack.

Karen Castor Dentel: Teacher Gets Schooled on Ethics

Karen Castor Dentel

Karen Castor Dentel, currently employed by Orange County Public Schools as a teacher at Dommerich Elementary School, is challenging State Representative Scott Plakon for the District 30 seat in one of the most closely watched campaigns in Florida this year.

Dentel comes from a family of prominent Democrats (mother Betty is a former state senator and education commissioner, and her sister Kathy is a Congresswoman), so I assumed she would have the best advisers helping her campaign, especially considering how highly the Florida Democratic Party was prioritizing this race.

However, recent developments reveal a stunning pattern of ethical violations by Dentel, including complaints filed with the Florida Elections Commission and the Florida Commission on Ethics. I've embedded both complaints below, or you can click on the links in the previous sentence to view them.

Brutal new Scott Brown ad asks whose side Elizabeth Warren is really on [VIDEO]

Whoa. Scott Brown's campaign has come out with a new web ad that just eviscerates Elizabeth Warren's claims of fighting for the little guy. The ad focuses on Warren's legal representation of LTV Steel in a bankruptcy case in which coal workers lost their pensions and benefits, and some of the most damning clips are those that feature Warren herself:

Was Elizabeth Warren practicing law without a license?

Wow. Professor William Jacobson has a knock-your-socks off exposé of what appears to be repeated instances of unlicensed practice of law by Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren at his blog, Legal Insurrection, this morning:

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. 

Yes, tax bills have to originate in the House. No, Obamacare didn't violate this rule.

I addressed this in the comments section of my post on the Supreme Court opinion yesterday, but I wanted to reemphasize the issue, because I'm still seeing it pop up today:

Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution requires tax bills to originate in the House of Representatives, and it was the Senate version of the Obamacare legislation that became law. 

The Supreme Court just wrote Romney's campaign ads

In case you've been hiding under a rock this morning, the Supreme Court just issued its opinion on ObamaCare, with Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and even swing-vote Kennedy voting to overturn the law as unconstitutional, but Chief Justice Roberts joined the liberal wing of the court in voting to uphold it.

The Court ruled that even though it was an unconstitutional violation of the Commerce Clause to force Americans to buy health insurance, the individual mandate survived as a...tax.

Wait, what?

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.

Sandy Adams defends bloggers, leads effort to ask DOJ to investigate SWATting

We should be clapping for her.

I am just so darn proud of the Republican freshmen that Florida sent to Congress in 2010. They are a tough, feisty bunch who are dedicated to making the tough choices to get our government back on track.

Congresswoman Sandy Adams fits in well with this group, making a name for herself for her perfect attendance record and for taking a lead role in legislation like the Violence Against Women Act.

This past Monday, Adams again took a lead role on an important issue, sending a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, encouraging the Department of Justice to investigate recent SWAT-tings of conservative bloggers. "SWAT-ting" is when someone calls 911 (often using VOIP or other technology to spoof the name and number that is calling), claiming that a violent crime has been committed at their target's address, with the goal of sending law enforcement to the location and inciting a dangerous confrontation. Fortunately, the bloggers who have been targeted recently, including RedState's Erick Erickson and Patterico, were not harmed, but the potential is definitely there.

I'm more of a Hoosier than Dick Lugar

Both of these guys are running for Senate in Indiana.
Only one of them actually lives there.

Indiana Senator Dick Lugar has not owned a home in the state for more than three decades, but he had the audacity to be outraged when a local election board ruled yesterday that he had abandoned his Indiana residence and was ineligible to vote.

POLITICO reported that Lugar characterized the ruling as the result of "a rather concerted campaign by self-appointed persons who believe this is the best way to settle the Indiana election."

Actually, Senator Lugar, it is the United States Constitution that states that this is how Senate elections are supposed to be settled. It's in the third paragraph of Article I, Section 3, to be precise: