Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles has released his report on the snooping by various governmental agencies in Ohio against Joe the Plumber.
The report finds:
1. There was no legitimate business purpose for the head of Ohio’s Department of Job and Family Services to order staff to look up the records.
2. Investigators weren’t able to determine whether the searches were politically motivated. (What other motivation could there have possibly been?)
3. The report looked into 18 background checks, and found that 8 of them were performed with no legitimate business purpose.
4. The findings have been forwarded to the Franklin County prosecutor’s office in Columbus.
What happened to Joe Wurzelbacher was an outrage and I hope people ultimately go to jail because of it. Governments are vested with broad power to obtain huge amounts of information about all of us, and it must be made clear that those who would abuse this information will pay a heavy price.
I agree with your anger Jonolan but I deleted your comment. Talk of “gunning down” the officials involved goes way, way over the line.
If you say so, Donald; it’s your blog.
How infidels may be punished for daring to challenge the Most High and Mighty President Elect. Of course the main bureaucrat responsible donated a couple grand or so to the campaign. Would write It Will Have A Chilling Effect and Beware The Fairness Doctrine and so forth. I have very little faith in anyone involved in the business of politics- as Scripture warns put not your trust in princes. But I sense the Obamaites will fall over themselves to implement their many and varied and often conflicting agendas. From Fairness Doctrine to FOCA to whatever, they may well wind up with a losing batting average. Consider the Dems’ panic at the thought of a 2010 meltdown. While sending up Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to Homeland Security. In past life, she was legal counsel in 1991 for St. Anita Hill, Virgin And Martyr. I would expect her confirmation hearing to be jolly fun, particularly if she faces my senior Senator, the Hon. Arlen Specter. AKA Chief Inquistitor for St. Anita. As for our Joe, he will walk away with much coin following the mandatory lawsuits against these officials. A special guest star at GOP fundraisers. Nothing succeeds like excess.
Maybe you should offer Plumber Joe’s (along with You Betcha Sarah’s) book through American Catholic…
They all seem to go hand in hand…
Funny how I did not see a similar concern from you over the Bush Administration’s outing of Valerie Plame…
Funny how I did not see a similar concern from you over the Bush Administration’s outing of Valerie Plame…
I don’t know why I am bothering to respond to this troll, but A) This blog didn’t exist in 2005, and B) the Bush administration did not “out” Valerie Plame, but of course knowing that would require getting one’s news from something other than the Daily Show and CNN.
My recollection is that, indeed, American Catholic was silent about the Plame affair. Additionally, we failed to condemn Watergate, opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and Joe McCarthy ;-).
Btw, I don’t think Mr. DeFrancisis is a troll (despite occasional similarities).
Oh, so he just plays a troll on the internet?
The Plame case is still an existing civil suit.
The person who revealed the non-secret secret that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent and used her position to have her husband Joe Wilson investigate Iraqi attempts to purchase yellow cake in Niger was Richard Armitage, right hand man of Obama endorser Colin Powell. The Plame civil suit was dismissed in federal court on july 19, 2007 and the dismissal was upheld on appeal on August 12, 2008.
Let us also remember – well, learn if the Leftists have that capacity – that there is no direct equivalence between outing a CIA operative and illegally using government resources in order to harm a private citizen who embarrassed a political candidate. Both are wrong, but they’re not equivalent crimes against America.
Well said Jonolan, especially when the fact that the CIA operative was a CIA operative was an open “secret” in Washington is taken into account. Joe Wilson, her garrulous husband, certainly went out of his way to tell reporters that his wife worked for the CIA when he was shopping around his take on his role in the Niger yellowcake investigation:
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/when-and-why-joseph-c-wilson-iv-outed-valerie-plame
More information is coming up on the involvement of Obama sympathisers today:
http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2008/11/21/4_more_punished_over_joe_the_plumber_searches
Tito,
Thanks for this bit. Can’t wait to see an update on the news tonight.