Hypocritical hill staffers discover privacy
Hill staffers are angry at a new website, LegiStorm, that has published their salary information along with personal particulars like bank statements and home address. The information is public and the employees are required by law to submit the particulars annually.
LegiStorm argues that they are publishing the information as a community service and after all, it's publicly available anyway. The staffers are bitterly complaining that it makes them vulnerable to identity theft.
Boo hoo. Cry me a river for the staffers. Congress has in almost every case, voted against protecting the privacy rights of citizens when confronted with an alternative need like national security, freedom of speech or more importantly the influence of powerful lobbyists representing companies like say, AT&T.
Let's see if the Capitol Hill pointyheads can muster up a little more sympathy for the rest of us now that it's happening to them.
Posted on April 09, 2008
