Michelle Malkin has penned an excellent column under the title, "Plundering the Plumber’s Records" (subtitled, "Suddenly, the Left isn’t concerned about privacy"). It seems that some state-government functionaries in Ohio have gone after "Joe the Plumber" with a vengeance. As Malkin's blog indicates:

"On Wednesday, Jones-Kelley admitted that the records checks on ["Joe the Plumber"] Wurzelbacher that she approved were far more extensive than she first acknowledged. In addition to pawing through his child-support papers, the [Ohio Department of Job and Family Services] 'also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes.'"

The first part of the article says it all:

"If Joe the Plumber were Jawad the Suspected Terrorist, civil-liberties activists would stampede the halls of Congress on his behalf. Liberal columnists would hyperventilate over the outrageous invasions of his privacy by Ohio state and local employees. The ACLU would demand the Big Brother snoopers’ heads. And Democratic leaders would convene immediate hearings and parade him around the Beltway as the new poster boy/victim of unlawful domestic spying.

"But because peaceful American citizen Joe Wurzelbacher is an outspoken enemy of socialism, rather than an enemy of America, the defenders of privacy have responded to his plight with an impenetrable cone of silence."

Sadly, this appears to be correct.

covered here.

I am using Columbus Dispatch as a source as its a liberal newspaper.

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Pioneers are walking all around singing songs about Lenin and they should be shot for it.

Handlebars

"If you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror"- V

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
H. L. Mencken

come on you know you wanna play football..

Beagán agus a rá go maith.

Economic Left/Right: 3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87

That is a good source, Finny, considering the newspaper's center-left predisposition.

Thanks for the link.

Tough. Ya lost.

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You meet the same folks on the way up as you do on the way down.

Actually, it was my impression that the election has not been finalized yet.

I will grant that there is a good probability that Sen. Obama will emerge victorious--perhaps with over 300 electoral votes--but it would probably be best to wait another 24 hours or so before speaking of the election in the past tense.

In any event, it might be a good policy to avoid taunts, and address the matter at hand.

Why are the Republicans fixated on "Joe the Plumber"? He is the only one kneeling in front of a toilet other than Larry Craig???

Or, ..... it's your party is in the toilet and you need a plumber???

Too bad McCain didn't vette Joe, just like he didn't vette Sarah.

Don't lecture anyone on policy, Bushbot.
You lost.

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You meet the same folks on the way up as you do on the way down.

Come again?

I did not speak of policy, either foreign or domestic. But I do believe a modicum of civility would be a good thing, as regarding any political discussion.

Would you disagree with that?

The word "fixated" is highly tendentious. No doubt, the GOP has taken advantage of the situation--now there's a real shock!--by transmuting "Joe the Plumber" into a symbol of Everyman, whose aspirations may be quenched by Barack Obama's fetishization of higher taxes and redistributionist doctrine. But that is entirely beside the point.

None of this empowers Democratic partisans with the moral authority to go after this fellow, with all the zeal of Wahhabist fanatics and all the vitriol of Daily Kos enthusiasts.

IT is a problem with both the parties. Just as it is now coming out that republicans leaked Obama's aunts Resident status(witch is a felony)

Both the Democrats and the GOP play dirty from time to time.

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