Ohio State Employee Was Given False Info by Supervisor When Asked to Run Background Check on Joe-the-Plumber

Vanessa Niekamp said that when was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.

Niekamp didn't know she just had checked on "Joe the Plumber," who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain's example in a debate of an average American.

The senior manager would not learn about "Joe" for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.

The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are "thrust into the public spotlight," amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.

Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. "I've never done that before, I don't know of anybody in my office who does that and I don't remember anyone ever doing that," she said today.

The Democrats and their ACLU allies scream over the PATRIOT Act, warrantless wiretapping, government infringements on privacy rights, and yet there has not been a single case of abuses by the Bush administration.
And when there finally is a case of privacy abuse, it is perpetrated by the Democrats and the 0bama campaign.

Please, consider for just a minute what these people will to do to us if they get in power. Consider how the PATRIOT Act will be abused and used against 0bama and the Democrats' domestic enemies. And who will stand up for our civil right then? The 'watchdogs' on the Left will sit in silence, while those on the Right are dismissed and marginalized. 0bama and his one party Democrat state will make us all long for the days of the Clintonistas.


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Spread the Wealth Around

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Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber

Investigators trying to determine whether access was illegal
Friday, October 24, 2008 8:57 PM
By Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch

"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber."

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama.

The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an example of an American who would be harmed by Obama's tax proposals.
Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.
Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.

It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.

Paul Lindsay, Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign, attempted to portray the inquiries as politically motivated. "It's outrageous to see how quickly Barack Obama's allies would abuse government power in an attempt to smear a private citizen who dared to ask a legitimate question," he said.

Isaac Baker, Obama's Ohio spokesman, denounced Lindsay's statement as charges of desperation from a campaign running out of time. "Invasions of privacy should not be tolerated. If these records were accessed inappropriately, it had nothing to do with our campaign and should be investigated fully," he said.

The attorney general's office is investigating if the access of Wuzelbacher's BMV information through the office's Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi.

"We're trying to pinpoint where it came from," she said. The investigation could become "criminal in nature," she said. Brindisi would not identify the account that pulled the information on Oct. 16.

Records show it was a "test account" assigned to the information technology section of the attorney general's office, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Thomas Hunter.

Brindisi later said investigators have confirmed that Wurzelbacher's information was not accessed within the attorney general's office. She declined to provide details. The office's test accounts are shared with and used by other law enforcement-related agencies, she said.

On Oct. 17, BMV information on Wurzelbacher was obtained through an account used by the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Cleveland, records show.

Mary Denihan, spokeswoman for the county agency, said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services contacted the agency today and requested an investigation of the access to Wurzelbacher's information. Cuyahoga County court records do not show any child-support cases involving Wurzelbacher.
The State Highway Patrol, which administers the Law Enforcement Automated Data System in Ohio, asked Toledo police to explain why it pulled BMV information on Wurzelbacher within 48 hours of the debate, Hunter said.

The LEADS system also can be used to check for warrants and criminal histories, but such checks would not be reflected on the records obtained by The Dispatch.

Sgt. Tim Campbell, a Toledo police spokesman, said he could not provide any information because the department only had learned of the State Highway Patrol inquiry today.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/10/24/joe.html?sid=101



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Palin visit energizes Colorado supporters

The GOP vice presidential nominee draws thousands at three stops in the state.
By Karen E. Crummy and Nancy Lofholm
The Denver Post


LOVELAND — Armed with homespun rhetoric and sharp words targeting her opponents, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stopped in three Colorado Republican strongholds Monday to ignite get-out-the-vote efforts.

Her visit to the state, one of only a handful of tossups left in the presidential election, was scheduled to coincide with early voting that started Monday, her campaign said.

"She came to Colorado today to excite the base and turn out the vote. She is also reminding everyone that today kicks off early voting," said Tom Kise, a spokesman for Palin and presidential candidate John McCain.

McCain will visit Colorado on Friday. Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Democrat Barack Obama's running mate, is scheduled to arrive today.

Socially conservative, pro-gun, and anti-abortion, Palin has invigorated the Republican base since McCain introduced her as his running mate two months ago. To thousands of people who turned out to hear her in Colorado Springs, Loveland and Grand Junction, Palin still possessed tremendous appeal, especially when she took Obama to task.

In Loveland, when a woman yelled out "Obama!" and was booed, Palin interjected: "Keep her in here so she can learn a little bit."

Palin touted her experience as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and governor of that state, where she said she eliminated personal property taxes and vetoed wasteful spending. She vowed that she and McCain would balance the federal budget, help families that have children with special needs, and end the country's reliance on foreign energy sources — which ignited the chant of "drill, baby, drill" from the crowd.

"We haven't been just talking the talk. We've been forced to walk the walk," she said. "In our administration, we will never forget that we are there to work for you, the people who hired us, the good people of America."

Palin, who threw out a lot of red meat to the GOP crowd, told them that "every innocent life counts" and often spoke of "liberty and freedom."

"It's going to come down to the wire and be a close race. It's going to come down to what we believe in," she said. "America is not the problem; America is the solution."

In Grand Junction, the Broncos-Patriots football game on national TV might have cut into Mesa County Republican Party officials' predictions that as many as 30,000 people would overflow a Grand Junction baseball field for a rally Monday night. An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 pompom- and flag-waving Palin supporters filled most but not all of the bleachers as Palin spoke from a stage built over the pitcher's mound.

She gave the same stump speech that she delivered at her other Colorado stops Monday after recognizing the Grand Junction location by saying, "It's great to be here in the home of the Mesa State Mavericks."

Palin spoke in front of a huge American flag with the star power of Hank Williams Jr. on stage.

Her speech struck the right note with supporters.

"What she said is what I would say. It's like it came out of her mouth from my mouth," said Fonda Lobach, a self-employed businesswoman from Fruita. Lobach was still waving a flag and a pompom five minutes after Palin's speech ended.

Doreen and Jess Grett, Olathe ranchers, said they didn't mind missing the Broncos game for Palin.

"She's thinking of us as the normal people that are as important as anyone in Washington," Jess Grett said.

In Colorado Springs, Palin said Obama's tax plan would "punish hard work and productivity" and would result in "more big government." Referring to a comment Obama made to "Joe the Plumber" last week about "spreading the wealth" when it came to tax cuts, Palin said: "What that means is government taking your money and doling it out as politicians see fit."

Palin expanded on her definition of Obama's tax plan at her next stop, at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, where the crowd was estimated at 5,000 to 7,000. An overflow crowd was directed into an adjoining building.

"Now is not the time to experiment with socialism," she said, receiving huge cheers.

Although Colorado has voted only once in 40 years for a Democratic presidential candidate, the state is undergoing demographic and political changes. As a result, the Republican Party, which led Democrats by 180,000 registered voters four years ago, now has an advantage of only 12,861 voters. Registered unaffiliated voters, often an unpredictable bloc, are now the largest group in the state.

(snipped)

During her campaign stops, Palin stuck mostly to her traditional stump speech, painting McCain as a war hero who has served his country for 22 years in Congress and would end the Iraq war, slash taxes and put the "economy back on track." At the same time, Palin described Obama as a "Chicago politician" who would raise taxes.

Karen Crummy: 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10771372


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A Shout Out for Virginia, Birthplace of Our Nation!!!!!

John McCain and an Army of Joes


The real anger at McCain’s rallies.


By Byron York
Woodbridge, Va. — Tito Munoz was ready to rock when John McCain showed here up at the Connaughton Community Plaza in Woodbridge, Virginia Saturday afternoon. Dressed in a yellow hard hat covered with McCain-Palin stickers, wearing an orange high-visibility vest, Munoz carried a hand-lettered sign that said CONSTRUCTION WORKER FOR McCAIN. He got a coveted spot in the bleachers directly behind McCain, where he could be seen in the camera shot along with the guy holding the sign that said PHIL THE BRICK LAYER and the woman with the ROSE THE TEACHER banner. He cheered a lot.

Munoz and the others cheering.AP

Everybody was playing on the Joe-the-Plumber theme. McCain spent a lot of time on it in his stump speech, using the now-famous Joe Wurzelbacher of Toledo, Ohio, as a stand-in for “small businessmen and women all over America [who] want to keep their earnings and not give it to the government.” McCain added that Obama’s response to Wurzelbacher — the assertion that it would be best to “spread the wealth around” — made Joe the Plumber “the only person to get a real answer out of Sen. Obama.”

The crowd laughed and cheered. But for them, Joe the Plumber is much more than a zinger in McCain’s stump speech. In recent days, the Joe the Plumber phenomenon has taken on a deeper meaning for McCain’s audiences, for two reasons. First, he is a symbol of their belief that Barack Obama is going to raise their taxes, regardless of what Obama says about hitting up only those taxpayers who make more than $250,000 a year. They know Wurzelbacher doesn’t make that much, and they know they don’t make that much. And they’re not suspicious because they believe that someday they will make $250,000, and thus face higher taxes. No, they just don’t believe Obama right now.

If he’s elected, they say, he’ll eventually come looking for taxpayers who make well below a quarter-million dollars, and that will include them.The second reason Joe the Plumber resonates with the crowds is what his experience says about the media. Everybody here seems acutely aware of the once-over Wurzelbacher received from the press after his chance encounter with Obama was reported, first on Fox News, and then mentioned by McCain at last week’s presidential debate.

Wurzelbacher found himself splashed across newspapers and cable shows, many of which reported that he didn’t have a plumber’s license, that he wasn’t a member of the plumbers’ union, that he had a lien against him for $1,182 in state taxes, and that he failed to comprehend what many commentators apparently felt was the indisputable fact that Barack Obama would lower his taxes, not raise them.

As the people here in Woodbridge saw it, Joe was a guy who asked Barack Obama an inconvenient question — and for his troubles suddenly found himself under investigation by the media. In the audience Saturday, there were plenty of people who were mad about it. There was real anger at this rally, but it wasn’t, as some erroneous press reports from other McCain rallies have suggested, aimed at Obama. It was aimed at the press. And that’s where Tito Munoz came in.

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