Inquiring Minds Want to Know

It seems that we've attracted the attention of government workers at the state and federal level today.

SOMEone at the United States House of Representatives spent a fair amount of time today searching the internets for information on "a big fat slob" (using Google and the IE browser on a Windows machine hooked up the the House network):

Domain Name: house.gov(United States Government)
IP Address: 143.231.249.# (Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives)
ISP: Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives
Referring URL: http://www.google.co...:en&q=a big fat slob
Search Engine: google.com
Search Words: a big fat slob

Now, I don't know that this was related to my articles about Reprehensible Tim Murphy, or my email inquiries sent to his Communications Director, yesterday and today. But, one can make a reasoned guess. I hope they found out what they wanted to find out.

And, I am sure that they also missed the irony here. My write-up on Reprehensible Murphy had to do with his use of his campaign staff to investigate the backgrounds of citizens who dared write letters to the editor critical of Murphy. Of course, instead of simply responding to my inquiries, they, naturally, began an investigation into the background of this Big Fat Slob. Wonder how long it will take that paranoid jerk to get his enemies list up to 30,000?

Moving from Southeast of home to Northeast of home, it looks like Luzerne County Courthouse workers were also "curious" -- if not assigned -- to find out more about Your Slob.

An employee at the Luzerne County Adult Probation Office spent part of the workday searching the 'net for information about "the [sic] big fat slob":

Domain Name: luzcoadultprobation.com (Commercial)
IP Address: 216.37.230.# (epix Internet Services)
ISP: epix Internet Services
Visitor's Time: Nov 30 2006 9:21:47 am

Wonder what the work-related reason for that search was?

But, the big winner for wasting Luzerne County money was this curious soul from the Luzerne County Courts, who spent the better part of over five hours of the workday on the 'nets searching out information about Yours Truly:

VISITOR ANALYSIS
Referring Link http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=the big fat slob&FORM=MSNH
Host Name luzernecountycourts.com
IP Address 216.37.230.249
ISP Epix Internet Services
Visit Length 5 hours 43 mins 34 secs
VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS
Browser MSIE 6.0
Operating System Windows 2000
Resolution 800x600
Javascript Enabled
Navigation Path
search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=the big fat slob&FORM=MSNH
November 30th 2006 09:21:11
November 30th 2006 09:25:34
November 30th 2006 09:29:52
November 30th 2006 09:32:56
November 30th 2006 12:24:28
November 30th 2006 12:24:50
November 30th 2006 13:34:48
November 30th 2006 13:36:29
November 30th 2006 15:04:10
November 30th 2006 15:04:45

So, right after I run a piece about the hit job pulled on Luzerne County Judge Ann Lokuta, and the rumors that President Judge Conahan and other members of the bench were secretly involved with the complaints leading to the charges, two County employees, using County property and on County time, are investigating whatever background information the internets will cough up on the Slob.

I'm sure that Conahan will get right on this and ferret out whomsoever is wasting County money and illegally using County property. The investigation will begin at once . . . . unless, of course, Conahan already knows who did it because he directed it.

It's unfortunate that the good people of Luzerne County, who have four newspapers within the range of a swung cat, don't have a single journalist willing to challenge Conahan and his heir apparent, Mark Chiverella.

And, I am sure that this all gives the people of Luzerne County a warm and fuzzy feeling to realize that Justice in their County, lay in such hands.

Finally, here's an obscure little ditty with which Murphy, Conahan, and their respective posses should become intimate.

Summary only...

Channeling Richard Nixon

Remember the good old days -- secret tapes, break-ins, and the "Enemies' List"?

Nixon's Enemy List was the creation of former & reformed Nixon henchman, John Dean. In August, 1971, he sent a memo to fellow Nixon henchman Larry Higby entitled Dealing with our political enemies.

In the memo he proposed using the agencies of the federal government to gather information on American citizens who opposed (or offended) the Nixon Administration:

This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration, Stated a bit more bluntly--how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.

The list started out modestly, with 20 names; soon they added a few dozen Senators, Representatives, and organizations. Eventually, they put 30,000 Americans on their list. It was that kind of imperious attitude which permeated everything the Nixon clan did and lead ultimately to Nixon's impeachment and resignation. While Dean denied knowledge that Nixon was aware of the enemies list, eventually the Nixon Crime Family were secretly tapping reporter's phones, invading opposition headquarters, raiding psychiatrist's offices, and listening to super-henchman Gordon Liddy talking about assassinating Jack Anderson.

I was fortunate to have the kind of job that allowed me to watch most of the Watergate Hearings live in that 1974 summer which, memory says, was unusually hot.

It seems like U.S. Reprehensible Tim Murphy (PA-18) is also reliving 1974.

Melissa Meinzer, of the Pittsburgh City Paper reports that Murphy used his campaign staff to begin gathering information on everyday citizens who didn't understand how unAmerican it was to write a letter to the editor opposing Murphy's policies. Meinzer reported on an internal campaign memo to Murphy from his campaign manager. Here's what she wrote:

"The following is the information I was able to retrieve on the individuals who wrote negative letters to the editor about you," reads the beginning of a three-page memo dated June 23, 2006. The memo, addressed to "TFM," was apparently written by Murphy campaign manager Justin Lokay.

The memo includes copies of two letters to the Post-Gazette from earlier that month. The first, by Brian Rampolla, criticizes Murphy's claims that a visit to Iraq had shown him the war was going well and getting better by the day. The second, by Christine Gallo, echoes Rampolla's statements.

In addition to Rampolla's and Gallo's addresses and phone numbers, the documents detail Rampolla's voting record and religion, his stances on gun control and abortion, and his place of business -- as well as his supposed support for Rick Santorum's Democratic opponent in the 2000 U.S. Senate race. Gallo's voting record and place of business are also noted in the document.

Meizner also mentioned in her report that the memo had been uploaded and linked to the Wiki article on Murphy. Coincidentally, a few hours after the Meizner article appeared, and anonymous editor deleted the links from the Wiki article. Gee, wonder who and why? Fortunately, on the internets, almost nothing is ever gone for good. I've replaced the link on Wiki, but, just in case Murphy or his henchmen again delete the Wiki links, here's the section with the links restored:

The documents that have been leaked by Murphy's staff so far include:

* a document that shows “background research” performed by staff members on constituents who wrote letters to the editor
* documents that indicate campaign work being handled through the DO,
* a document showing a planned teleconference with John Braebender, a media consultant for Rick Santorum. Oh, and if Reprehensible Murphy's own personal G. Gordon does manage to make the linked documents disappear, lemme know, because I have also downloaded them.

A Bite 'o the Cheesesteak to Capitol Ideas with John Micek for Meizner's article.

(photo credits: Reprehensible Murphy, Haraz N. Ghanbari, Associated Press, via Post-Gazette; Nixon, unknown)

UPDATE: Since Reprehensible Murphy (i) keeps his e-mail a secret and (ii) accepts e-mail through the HR server only from constituents, I sent an e-mail to his Communications Director inviting comment and also asking a few questions, like whether Murphy had ever had anyone else checked out this way and whether his staff had anything to do with the disappeared Wiki links. So far, they have ignored the e-mail.

Summary only...