HMM: So I see this story via Drudge:

Officials with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel say they have received so many phone calls from the public that they launched an investigation into Sheriff Scott on Tuesday.

The question is – did he use his position as sheriff to influence an election? If so, he could be in violation of a federal election law called the Hatch Act.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office receives more than $1 million in federal grant money from everything from human trafficking to bullet proof vests.

But if Sheriff Scott is found in violation of the Hatch Act, the feds can pull two years salary worth of federal funding – the equivalent to $300,000 for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

Another possibility is removal from office.

So if this is the case, what about those sheriffs and prosecutors in Missouri? Here are the guidelines. Wonder if they got any complaints about the Missouri “truth squad” affair? The guidelines say that covered state and local authorities may not “use official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the results of an election or nomination.”

UPDATE: Dave Hardy writes that the Hatch Act is “inapplicable to elected state officials so long as the elected post is their primary job. Since the Hatch Act also bars covered persons from RUNNING for office, it’d be pretty hard to apply it to elective posts! I wonder why the OSC even bothered opening an investigation, except to appease the people pestering it.” That’s probably it.

SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE: Amazon goes deeper into the grocery business. I’ve actually signed up, as I’ve been ordering staples regularly from Amazon anyway — saves gas, traffic, and hassle, and with Amazon Prime the shipping is free. But with this deal, the shipping’s free anyway, and you get 15% off, too.

UPDATE: Reader Mark Sykes emails: “The Amazon search engine is quite helpful; searching for ‘beef’ in general groceries it asks if I meant ‘beer.’ Come to think of it, I did.”

MY EARLIER POST on the video setup led to a lot of people asking what the red stuff on the walls is. That’s part of the audio treatment by Ready Acoustics. My brother has the same panels in his studio and agrees that they make an awesome difference. I blogged on that earlier.

FACT-CHECKING THE FACT-CHECKERS: “True,” says CNN. “False,” says ABC. They’re talking about the same McCain statement!

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE DISPLAYS his dizzying intellect in arriving at an incredible deduction.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “It’s not fair to call the New Party “socialist,” and it’s really not fair to paint Obama as a crypto-socialist today because of his association with it.”

WHY AL GORE IS PROBABLY CHEERING THE ECONOMIC CRISIS: “A slowdown in the world economy may give the planet a breather from the excessively high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change, a Nobel Prize winning scientist said on Tuesday.”

1,000 RECORDINGS you should hear before you die.

THE TOP 10 CONTROVERSIAL INTERNET CHARACTERS of 2008. Well, so far, anyway.

CORRELATION ISN’T CAUSATION: Obama’s fortunes and the stock market.

JEFF JARVIS: The fall of journalism is, indeed, journalists’ fault. “It is our fault that we lost readers and squandered trust. It is our fault that we sat back and expected to be supported in the manner to which we had become accustomed by some unknown princely patron. Responsibility and blame are indeed ours. . . . I’d say our relationship with readers is a problem — in more ways than one: A Gallup survey says 52 percent of Americans do not trust news media, up from 30 percent in 1972.”

THIS IS COOL: “Starting this Friday, disabled and elderly people in Japan will be able to rent a robotic suit to help them become more mobile. Available in a two-leg (for a $2200-per-month rental fee) or one-leg version ($1500/month), the suit — called HAL, for Hybrid Assistive Limb — reads brain signals and directs leg movement.” Faster, please.

OBAMA AND AYERS: McCain goes there.

JOHN MCGINNIS WRITES: “How about a little more detail on your video production setup? Name names!”

Okay. I’ve got a Sony Ipela HD camera setup — it’s an HD camera that’s remote-controllable for zoom, pan, tilt, focus, etc. from the studio in L.A., connected to a bonded T1 line (my DSL is plenty fast on the download, but not fast enough on the upload, and I think you get less latency with a T1). That goes to the studio in L.A. (actually, El Segundo) where they plug the feed into their editing/switching setup. I’ve got two Kino Diva lights on stands, audio — from my mike, and to my earphones — goes through a little Behringer Xenyx mixer and into the Ipela control box, and that’s basically it.

Here’s a picture of what I see when I’m in the chair. You can see the monitor, where I can see who I’m talking to, with the camera peeking over the top. Those two sheets of paper taped to the stand are my “teleprompter” setup; no XD-235 for me!

CONTRIBUTING TO FUTURES RESEARCH via massively multiplayer prediction games.

PRESS COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN:

I would love to have someone from Obama’s campaign explain why the entire press corps, the Secret Service, and the local police idled for two hours in a Miami hotel parking lot recently because there was nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was not an isolated case. . . .

The McCain folks are more helpful and generally friendly. The schedules are printed on actual books you can hold in your hand, read, and then plan accordingly. The press aides are more knowledgeable and useful to us in the news media. The events are designed with a better eye, and for the simple needs of the press corps. When he is available, John McCain is friendly and loquacious. Obama holds news conferences, but seldom banters with the reporters who’ve been following him for thousands of miles around the country. Go figure.

It hasn’t hurt the coverage, which is why they don’t care. Plus this: “The McCain campaign plane is better than Obama’s, which is cramped, uncomfortable and smells terrible most of the time. Somehow the McCain folks manage to keep their charter clean, even where the press is seated. ”

Maybe that should be McCain’s new schtick: If we can clean up after the press pool, we can clean up America!

UPDATE: Reader Billy Harvey suggests this slogan: “McCain/Palin – we pass the smell test!”

YOUR LONGEVITY, and the composition of your mitochondria.

THE CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES IS UP!

BAD NEWS FOR THE ECONOMY: U.S. auto sales predicted to plummet to 13.4 million in 2009. Of course, the stock of existing vehicles is huge, and cars last a lot longer, and are a lot better, now. So until they can give you a significant reason to buy a new car — like much improved gas mileage, or some other feature existing cars don’t have — there’s not much of a reason to buy.

PRICE SIGNALS WORK (CONT’D): PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION RIDERSHIP is up for 2008.

IN THE MAIL: Milton Katselas’ Acting Class: Take a Seat. Blurbed with praise from Michelle Pfeiffer, Gene Hackman Chris Noth, and many more.

MICKEY KAUS on George McGovern: “Can I vote for him? … Done it before!”

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Notes from the North Korean border.

PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY: This Corpse Has a Pulse.

NARCISSISTS AS NATURAL LEADERS: People are willing to take orders from the self-absorbed. This explains a lot, alas.