“TOLEDO, Ohio – Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a reporter’s notebook.

The Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential campaign says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com.

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (WUR’-zuhl-bah-kur) says he’ll spend 10 days covering the fighting.

He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants to let Israel’s “‘Average Joes’ share their story.”

Wurzelbacher gained attention during the final weeks of the campaign when he asked Barack Obama about his tax plan.”

Joe did a great job in his media interviews and you could see that he could communicate clearly and concisely, and might just make a great correspondent.

However it will be a dangerous assignment and Joe is a husband and father so we wish him God’s speed on a safe and successful trip.

Technorati Tags: Joe the Plumber, Gaza

“Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is standing by an agency director who OK’d improper computer checks for confidential information on “Joe the Plumber” and used state e-mails for political fundraising.

Strickland announced today that Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Department of Job and Family Services, will be placed on unpaid leave for one month in response to an inspector general’s investigation.

The investigation found Jones-Kelley had no legitimate reasons to check on Toledo-area resident Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who was popularized as “Joe the Plumber” by Republican presidential candidate John McCain. It also confirmed she improperly used her state e-mail account to raise campaign money for President-elect Barack Obama.

Some Republican leaders, who cited the report’s findings to call on Democrat Strickland to fire Jones-Kelley, were stunned that she will remain on the job.

“The actions described in this report cross the line of what you can do and lead a state agency. She violated the public trust,” said House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering.

“The governor’s lack of firm action here sends a message he is going to be tolerant of a state government that acts in inappropriate ways. He promised a higher standard and this is a lower standard.”

State Auditor Mary Taylor also called for stronger action. “I urge Gov. Strickland, who campaigned on the promise of running an ethical administration, to ask for the resignation or terminate Ms. Jones-Kelley immediately,” she said today after the report was released.

Strickland said that while he accepts the inspector general’s findings, he values Jones-Kelley’s contributions over her career and decided on what he called a “fairly severe” but fair penalty.”

That’s bathtub water. Once again we have a Democrat caught breaking the law and her Democrat boss covering for her.

What Wurzelberger should do at this point is file suit for damages. What the people of Ohio should do is be outraged that a public employee used their taxpayer resources for political purposes to spy on a fellow citizen.

“Vanessa Niekamp said that when she 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.

Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland and Jones-Kelley, both supporters of Democrat Barack Obama, have denied political motives in checking on Wurzelbacher. The Toledo-area resident later endorsed McCain. State officials say any information on “Joe” is confidential and was not released.

Today, Strickland press secretary Keith Dailey said neither the governor’s office nor Job and Family Services officials could comment due to an ongoing investigation by Ohio’s inspector general.”

Regardless of the investigation, which may or may not reveal any truth, Wurzelbacher should file a lawsuit against the State of Ohio for invasion of privacy. If brought to trial this would force discovery of details that might be convienantly glossed over by Strickland’s administration.

Nevertheless it’s not about Joe, it’s about Obama and his plan to raise taxes on the American people. The simple fact is that whether you make 10, 20, 30 50, or $250,000 a year you don’t want your taxes raised. Obama is going to raise taxes and substantially so for those who make more than $42,000.

The fact is that the illusion of Obama’s slide of hand on taxes is going unchecked by the media is the story and the one they want to keep from the American people. Joe the Plumber has exposed the farce of Obama’s tax plan and for that he’s now facing the wrath of his goon squads in the media.

That’s the story.

UPDATE: McCain Ad, and more facts about Obama’s tax charade.

Via the Cato Institute:

“A colleague asked me whether Obama actually supports tax cuts or tax hikes, as he had heard contradictory information in the media. The answer is that it depends on what you compare his proposed policies to–tax rules in place for 2008 or the official “baseline” of projected future revenues.

The official baseline assumes that all recent tax cuts (income tax cuts, capital gains tax cuts, and estate tax cuts) expire at the end of 2010. It also assumes that alternative minimum tax relief is not extended, with the results that 20 million households are handed a whopping tax hike compared to how much they currently pay.

Obama is proposing a tax increase compared to tax policy in place this year, but a tax cut compared to the official baseline. You can get the details in this analysis by the Urban/Brookings Tax Policy Center (see page 28).

My view is that the official baseline is a silly starting point for tax comparisons. For one reason, hardly any fiscal experts think that Congress won’t extent current AMT relief.

More importantly, the true tax “baseline” for the tens of millions of U.S. taxpaying families is how much they currently pay. If current tax cuts expire, they will have less to spend on their own priorities–such as food, housing, and gasoline–because they will have to send more cash to the government. If Obama wins the election and puts his policies into place, Americans would pay higher federal taxes than they do today.

But more important than the additional revenue that would be collected under a President Obama are the two main features of his tax approach:

1. Obama would increase marginal tax rates on wages, interest, dividends, capital gains, small business profits, and estates. Increasing marginal rates is the single most damaging way to raise taxes.

2. Obama would introduce a slew of new targeted tax credits that would distort the economy, treat Americans unequally, and increase Washington’s micromanagement of the economy. Further, many of his proposed special tax breaks would be refundable, meaning that they are actually spending increases and not tax cuts.”

By the way, Biden shows just how Democrats dispise the working man.