Credit where credit’s due, even in small amounts. When the state of Ohio’s partisan officeholders started investigating Joe Wurzelbacher for having the temerity to ask Barack Obama a question, many of wondered when we would hear from the privacy activists at the ACLU. They finally managed to speak up last Friday after several weeks of sitting on the sidelines:
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio recently called on Gov. Ted Strickland and other officials to enact regulations protecting private information kept in state databases.
The ACLU first pressed for reform after it was revealed officials at Ohio’s Department of Job & Family Services conducted a search of private information on Joseph Wurzelbacher, also known as “Joe the Plumber,” and that such searches of those in news headlines were common protocol for the office.
They did? If so, they called for reform very, very quietly. The earliest comment made by the ACLU in Ohio came on October 29th, and hardly was a ringing call for reform. Chris Link, the executive director, did ask why the state of Ohio seemed to “be picking on this fellow”, but didn’t demand any answers, investigations, or reform until a few days ago. Given their heated rhetoric over the detention of terrorists in Guantanamo, this seems like very, very weak tea indeed.
Of course, reacting then may have impacted how the public saw this abuse. Now that the election’s over, it’s much safer for the ACLU to actually protect the civil rights of Joe the Plumber from the Democratic government in Ohio. I guess they finally found their courage in the Age of Obama.
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