Turning Massachusetts Red

As you know, I am in Massachusetts right now, helping Sean Bielat's Congressional race. I miss my family and friends in the Sunshine State, but this has been an incredible experience so far. One of the more interesting aspects for me has been observing the activities of the Massachusetts Republicans, and some very promising developments in conservative grassroots activism around the southeastern part of the state.

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. 

Most Tasteless Administration in History

In April of 2010, Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary at the time, infamously claimed that Obama administration was the "most transparent administration in history."


Well, the eleventh hour maneuver to claim executive privilege to shield documents related to the Fast and Furious scandal blows their already-laughable claim of "transparency" to pieces, but I'm thinking that maybe another adjective that begins with "T" is appropriate: tasteless.

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?

How you can help people affected by the Colorado wildfires

In Florida, we are regularly threatened by Mother Nature's wrath in the form of hurricanes, and people from all over the country have always pitched in to send donations and supplies. 

If you didn't know, Colorado is experiencing some very serious wildfires right now. Tens of thousands of people are being evacuated, and a heartbreaking number are losing their homes.

The Colorado Division of Emergency Management has set up a website at www.HelpColoradoNow.org, with information about what kind of supplies they need donated (if you are in the area), and where financial contributions should be sent. 

Marco Marco Marco

My Senator, Marco Rubio, always makes for good television, and has been making the rounds to promote his new autobiography, An American Son: A Memoir.


In case you missed them, here are videos from three of Rubio's television appearances from the past week, on Hannity, The View, and The Daily Show:

Heh. MassGOP buys Elizabeth Warren an Ancestry.com membership for her birthday

Oh this is too funny. The merry pranksters at the MassGOP sent out a press release this morning, saying that as a gift for Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's 63rd birthday, they had bought her an Ancestry.com membership:

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.

Morning Coffee Reading for June 20, 2012

Here's your morning coffee reading for today...enjoy...

• In case you missed it, I had a trifecta of Florida-centric posts yesterday, regarding what may be a large-boned Viking woman singing for George LeMieux's Senate campaign, another story quoting "unnamed sources" regarding Marco Rubio being quickly debunked, and some interesting facts about the so-called "voter purge" to remove non-citizens from the voting rolls. Go check out  those links if you haven't read them yet. (I may be in Massachusetts, but you had better believe I'm still keeping an eye on the Sunshine State.)

• Attorney General Eric Holder is going to have a very, very bad day today. Matt Boyle at the Daily Caller has all the gruesome details.

Florida voter purge dropping more Republicans than Democrats

Despite all the teeth-gnashing and rending of garments from the Left (and filing of nonsense lawsuits by the DOJ), it turns out that Florida's effort to purge illegal immigrants from the voting rolls is actually targeting Republican white guys.

Surprise, surprise: MSM story about Rubio turns out to be false

Yawn, so predictable.

Yet another mainstream media story about Senator Marco Rubio, citing the infamous "unnamed sources," makes a claim about him that is proven to be demonstrably false within twenty four hours.

FreedomWorks endorses Mack, calls LeMieux a RINO

Try as he might, he just can't get
 the Oompa Loompa off his back.

Throughout his campaign to be Florida's next Senator, George LeMieux has claimed that he had a "conservative" voting record during the sixteen months he served in the United States Senate after former-Governor-and-former-Republican Charlie Crist appointed him.

I thought that was nonsense, and a little quick research gave me several good examples why in a post I wrote back in September:

Sunshine State Sarah | Reality Check on LeMieux's "conservative" voting record

Catching up with Karen Harrington at Right Online [VIDEO]

Karen Harrington, candidate for Florida's 23rd Congressional district, is attending the Right Online conference, and I caught up with her this morning for coffee.

We had a great discussion about the lessons she's learned from her 2010 campaign against Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and what kind of reception she is getting with Democrat and independent voters in her South Florida district.

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.

What happens in Vegas, isn't going to stay in Vegas

I'm in Las Vegas at the Right Online conference, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, today and tomorrow.

There's a packed schedule with some great speakers, and you can watch the livestream of the conference here.

We will be having a tribute reception in honor of Andrew Breitbart later, followed by a screening of Occupy Unmasked. We saw a preview of the film at BlogCon earlier this year in Charlotte, and I'm looking forward to seeing the completed film. (If you missed it, my post collecting tributes to Andrew is here.)

Something fun to do in D.C.

Saw this on Facebook earlier, and thought it would be a fun thing to try next time any of you are visiting our nation's capital...

Sunsets and Palm Trees

I decided to switch the background image of this website back to the sunset and palm trees. Yes, I'm still in Massachusetts, but I'm proud of my Florida roots. The blog is still called "Sunshine State Sarah," after all. And besides, it's not exactly snowing here:

I love ya, Florida, but Massachusetts
definitely wins the June weather contest.

The return of the sunshine is also appropriate this week because I will be headed to warmer climes for a few days: the annual Right Online conference, which will be in Las Vegas this year. Stay tuned...

Grassroots vs. Michael Moore

I've seen a lot of different types of campaign fundraising strategies, but I have to say I'm really enjoying what the Sean Bielat campaign posted today: "Match Michael Moore." (Disclaimer: I work for the campaign...but you probably already knew that.)

Moore (along with a number of other liberal Hollywood elites) donated $2,500 to Joe Kennedy III. Team Bielat is asking grassroots supporters to match that by midnight tomorrow, and we're chatting about it on Twitter under the hashtag #MatchMichaelMoore.

Keep punching back, Romney!

"Oh, Obama made an infographic
with a fictional character named
Julia? That's cute."

One of the major frustrations I (and many other Republicans) had with the 2008 McCain campaign was how timid and reluctant they were to respond to the negative attacks from Obama's campaign.

Romney was - rightfully - criticized during the beginning of the primary for seeming to "play it safe" during debates, and many had fears he might follow the McCain example. I was glad to see him show a tougher, feistier side during the debates in Florida in January, and  I was thrilled to hear about Romney's surprise press conference in front of Solyndra last week, and I'm glad to see that he's not showing any signs of letting up.