"I Always Feel Like..."

"Somebody's watching me..." I think that MUST be Joe the Plumber's new theme song. This did not get anywhere NEAR the attention it should have gotten, but what you may not realize is just how much Joe has been investigated since having the gall to be asked a question by The One in his OWN driveway that sparked some controversy. Joe was just minding his own damn business when Obama sauntered up, and told him he wanted to "spread the wealth around" in response to Joe's question on possible tax structures for small businesses (major H/T to Truthteller and NQ at No Quarter for the major article and video).

Yes, you, too, should you dare breathe a word that you might be thinking of buying a business can have ALL of your records researched - by someone in the state government. No, I am NOT making this up - it happened. Oh, coincidentally (cough, choke), the person, Helen Jones-Kelley, from whose office a good bit of this all happened, made the maximum allowed donation to - yes, of course, Obama. But she SWEARS that is not what motivated her looking into all of Joe's records. Get this - her "reasoning" is that when someone mentions they want to buy a business, of course it is the responsibility of the state to investigate if that person is actually CAPABLE of buying that business, or if they have back taxes, or liens, or are on welfare, or...Sounds to me like maybe they were not checking out his business but GIVING him the business because he - GASP - does not support Obama. That alone seems to be reason enough to investigate this private citizen by THE STATE. For Ms. Jones-Kelley, that is. Not for the Ohio Senate president, Bill M. Harris:

Harris called the multiple records checks "questionable" and said he awaits more answers. "It's kind of like Big Brother is looking in your pocket," he said.

If state employees run checks on every person listed in newspaper stories as buying a business, "it must take a lot of people a lot of time to run these checks," he said. "Where do you draw the line?"

Where indeed??

Are you getting this?? The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services INVESTIGATED A PRIVATE CITIZEN BECAUSE HE MENTIONED HE MIGHT WANT TO BUY A BUSINESS in framing a question to a presidential candidate, the answer to which exposed more of the candidate than he wanted. That is their BS explanation for why they have delved into this man's life. What a crock. We know damn well why they are delving into his background, because I can GUARANTEE you that not every person who mentions they would like to own their own business has a State office go into their economic and personal records, whether that information is released or not (and Ms. Jones-Kelley claims the confidential information was not. Uh huh.) No way in hell.

Oh, and you are going to love this additional reason into why she investigated Joe the Plumber. Because she was getting so many media requests about information that, she claims, was in Public Records, and some that was, um, confidential. Well, I may not have gone to Journalism school, but I do have a ton of education, including 5 years of graduate work. I don't recall anyone EVER doing my research for me. If it is in PUBLIC RECORDS, that means you can look it up your own damn self!! And if it is CONFIDENTIAL, why are you LOOKING at it?? So, not only did Ms. Jones-Kelley do their jobs FOR them, but she did it on STATE TIME and on a STATE COMPUTER. She claims there was no ill intent to these checks, some into confidential records. Funny - because I'm sure illin' that anyone in state government would stoop to these levels simply because a resident of the state ASKED A QUESTION!! I mean, really - it wasn't even an inappropriate question, for pete's sake!

I should add that a clerk who used the LEADS (Law Enforcement Automated Data System) to determine if Joe's address was the correct one for - naturally - the media, actually got in a little bit of hot water, though the "punishment" for using a state computer to access a private citizen's information which then - miraculously - made its way to the media is unclear. Yeah, okey dokie.

Here's the bottom line: if this sort of activity is occurring NOW, when Obama is just the (illegitimate) Democratic nominee, what in the sam hill will he do if he is PRESIDENT? We all thought - okay, almost all of us (shoot, someone supported the guy) - that President Bush was the most vindictive, petty, thin-skinned politician to come down the pike. But Obama and his minions, with their attacks, from verbal, physical, destructive, and dangerous - even to the point of trying to run the McCain campaign bus OFF THE ROAD, has taken this to a whole other level, and it is disturbing on a massive scale.

Let's recap, just in case anyone is missing the point: a private citizen, just an ordinary American citizen, had his life investigated by his STATE government, and turned upside down BECAUSE HE ASKED A QUESTION. If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, well, I just don't know what will.