UPDATE: Forget this, jumped the gun. But read on. -Thers
I’m curious about plumbers. Specifically Joe the Plumber. Joe the Plumber is according to several news reports Joe Wurzelbacher. Who is Joe Wurzelbacher?
According to Ben Smith, and Ben Smith, this guy:
Two readers with access to the Ohio voter file say that Joe Wurzelbacher’s inluence on this cycle will be limited in one way: He doesn’t appear to be registered to vote.
Hmmm. Let’s check who in Ohio is named "Joseph Wurzelbacher." Nobody in the Toledo area, where the original meeting with Obama took place. In the Cincinnati area, yes.
Well, he says he has a small business. Any likely candidates in the Cincinnati area…?
Why, yes! (ed. removed link since the phone # was only one link in.)
Joseph Wurzelbacher
Phone:
(513)
Also Does Business As:Joseph Wurzelbacher Cnstr Co
Interesting. The sales of the company? HOLY SHIT, THIS WAS JUST LOCKED:
$130K
Yes, that’s right — $120K UNDER OBAMA’S $250K threshold.
Now, who else are the Wurzelbachers? I dunno, but there is a Robert Wurzelbacher who has for years given a shitload of dough to crazy ass GOP wingnut candidates like Rick Lazio.
Guys, this was 20 minutes by Google. Burying the $130K difference was just gravy. Nice one, though…
UPDATE: Uh, folks, if you complete a free registration at Manta, you can see the info. For the record:
Year Started:1974
State of Incorporation:N/A
URL:N/A
Location Type:Single Location
Stock Symbol:N/A
Stock Exchange:N/A
Also Does Business As:Joseph Wurzelbacher Cnstr Co
Est. Annual Sales:$130,000
Est. Employees:3
Est. Employees at Location:3
Contact Title:Owner
Screenshot above. (UPDATE: Meh, it’s late, screenshot can be posted by the more technically apt later)
Removed all identifying info like phone #s, of course. But this is all very, very public info. I’m certainly not going to check anyone’s countertops for granite, but I do check Google.
FINALLY: AH, NUTS. No go, this is the wrong info. Sorry, kids. Wrong company, the total is $510,000.
I go to the box and feel shame. Removed evidence of all but my screwup.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
I thought Joe was trying to buy the business?
Since when do employees have their name on somebody else’s business?
Thers!
Dude, I hope I never piss you off…
nite pups
Thers are you suggesting that Joe the plumber was a plant? Cause this scam seems a little to coordinated for an independent person to pull off without help.
McCain had Talking Points at the ready to distract from the economy a little to at the ready if you catch my drift.
Sure a GOP fringe group might have done this but they had to coordinated with McCain’s campaign cause this seems to perfect.
Great Scoop on the MSM Thers let me be the first to congratulate you!
Company Profile: Joseph Wurzelbacher
Year Started:1974
I’m guessing Joe is a Junior and wants to buy his dad’s business. As if his dad wouldn’t be understanding on a price.
~~~ModNote: Edited for content. Removed reference to personal information.~~~
The donor page ties it all in. Best stuff of the night. Great job!
Fox News caught this all on tape where they just happened to have a camera man?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiBupBgl8Ow
Is this Amateur hour? If you want to pull a Con like this there should be no obvious fingerprints that point back to you.
I think Fox News has been colluding with the McCain campaign.
Seriously doubt he’s a plant. Obama made a surprise visit to the guy’s neighborhood in Holland, Ohio (a suburb of Toledo). It was there that they had their conversation that was caught by news cameras. I think he goes by his middle name and that his first name is actually Samuel. Middle initial is J. That matches up with property records on the street that Obama visited. If this is the right guy, he had a tax case filed against him in Lucas County … and, in ‘97 when he was divorcing, he had a mailing address in (drum roll) Arizona. Coincidence? Yeah, I think so.
Hmmm…Plumber Joe a regular guy lives in Ohio why would he give to Rick in New York in 2000 ?
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/by…..rzelbacher
Perhaps because Rick was running against Hilary that year for the New York Senate Seat?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Lazio
That just means that Fox News told Joe where to be and when.
Nope, he has owned the house a while. I found the property records and court records that indicate that.
I meant that Fox told Joe where and when to meet Obama on the surprise visit.
Anybody here know how to search if a Joe Wurzelbacher posts on any of the Righty blogs?
If we can an interview with his ex wife should be interesting.
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/by…..incinnati&
Robert Wurzelbacher according to this has been retired since 2000 so his son has been working 8 years to buy his dad out? But his name not Rob and son is on the business name and on official State papers I think Joe already owns his dad’s business.
Or he is guilty of something like fraud on a state business document.
NUTS, Liberal Heart is right. Updated, cancel sirens etc.
Joe might be buying out his dad and does not own his own business but he has listed himself as the owner on a state document.
What Joe has done is tell everybody who might sue him in the future and contractors get sued all the time is tell the world that his dad still owns the business.
His dad is now likely to get sued too in any lawsuit. Plus by misrepresenting himself as the owner he has given himself a strike against him in any court case.
BTW, this whole thing about a $250K ‘threshold’ for a tax increase for small businesses is a bit misleading in that a business is taxed only on profits, not gross sales. As an owner you usually take what’s left over after the costs of running the business. In that case, there is no profit and so no tax on business income; you pay personal income tax on that residue. Unless you are a consultant working out of your spare bedroom, your take away as owner can be but a small fraction of sales. Remember that a big corp. can have sales in the billions, yet post a loss.
Ballpark rule of thumb in small company construction stuff. You bid a job and figure one third materials, one third labor and one third profit. That makes Joe’s income maybe $150-200K, before deductions and stuff.
And THIS is what I love about the Mighty Tubes of the Internets! You guys are doing great! Information rocks!
I saw the gentlemen interviewed on Good Morning America this a.m. He repeated the line about Sen. Obama tap dancing like Sammy Davis, Jr. When asked whether a person who makes $1 million or $5 million annually should have to pay higher taxes, he said no and spoke about higher taxes upon higher earners not being fair. To my view, he’s a flat tax-er, and not a typically Joe Six-Pack, middle American. He also said he doesn’t make anywhere near $200,000/year. So, when he was confronting Sen. Obama, it was all hypothetical — if I were to earn this amount of money, then I would have to pay higher taxes. I sincerely doubt that people would refuse to work to earn more money solely because they would then be subjected to higher taxes. Our nation’s tax history disproves that idea.
Well…Samuel J. Wurzelbacher did apparently live in Arizona back in the 1990’s according to these legal records
Samuel J. Wurzelbacher Divorce