Why publish maps and specific street names and photographs of the private (not anymore) homes where the Vice President and Defense Secretary and their families spend their vacations?

Why?

Because blabbermouth Bill Keller feels like it, right? (Interesting timing, no?)

Because the “people” (you know: Code Pink, Fred Phelps, jihadis) have a “right to know,” right?

Because neighbors are talking and because the Washington Post blabbed it already, right? And because al Qaeda already must have an inkling that Rumsfeld and Cheney live somewhere in the greater Washington, D.C. area, right? So what’s the harm in handing them all the details, right?

I wonder how Pinch Sulzberger would react to citizen photographers trampling his driveway, snapping pics of his vacation home, and splashing them all over their blogs?

It’s in the “public interest,” right?

(Hat tip: Newsmax, Frontpagemag , Leo, Anna, Mary, and Alicia.)

***

Moonbats invaded Rumsfeld’s DC home and John Negroponte’s home in May.

Left-wing thugs scared Karl Rove’s family at a protest at his private home in 2004.

There is a concerted, organized effort to dig up and publicize the private home information of prominent conservatives in the media and blogosphere to intimidate them.

***

Meanwhile, hardly a peep from the Left about private information disclosures posted on the Huffington Post targeting Swift Boat Veterans and their families to retaliate them for their political activism against John Kerry. David Holman of the American Spectator website reported earlier this week:

Some readers of HuffingtonPost.com have initiated a new wave of harassing phone calls to Swift Boat veterans who questioned John Kerry’s military record in the 2004 campaign — and the website’s proprietors remained ignorant of it for days, despite repeated complaints.

Last Saturday morning, HuffPost, Arianna Huffington’s year-old online effort, linked to a story regarding the release of Navy personal information. By Saturday afternoon, two registered “trusted” HuffPost commenters posted the names and personal information of more than a dozen Swift Boat veterans. “SatanLivesinUSA” wrote at 2:15 p.m., June 24, “SwiftBoatVets who need some Black Ops done on them. I have some very good ideas I gleaned from ‘CIA BOOK of DIRTY TRICKS’ Don’t get mad, get EVEN.” Minutes later, at 2:19 p.m., “YvonneMoorhead” repeatedly pasted SatanLivesinUSA’s comments on that page and on another Huffington Post post. Elsewhere, in February, YvonneMoorhead had posted, “F*** em, they died for the greater Isreali [sic] goal of stealing more land by having its proxy America invade Iraq and next Iran. They are not called Masters of Deceit for nothing.” Aside from one or two complaints, fellow commenters did not object to the posting of the information or the threats.

Some of these men reported receiving harassing and threatening phone calls over the weekend. At 2:30 a.m., Saturday, June 24, Adrian Lonsdale said he received a call from an apparently drunk man claiming to be another veteran, Van Odell. The caller said, “Our lies are all over the Internet. We are in deep ****.”

ORDER IT NOW

After the contact information was posted on the Huffington Post, the harassing calls increased in frequency. Saturday afternoon Lonsdale received another call, “congratulating” him for “ruining our country.” In the early hours of Sunday morning, Van Odell received three calls, he told TAS, at 1:47 a.m., 1:48, and 1:50. A man calmly told him, “I want to know why you lied about John Kerry… Traitors must die. We will get you. You can’t get away with this.” Then his call descended into cursing, at which point Odell said he hung up on him. Odell received another round of calls around 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon. He has turned his phone off so that his six-year-old grandson could not pick up the calls.

Though the men have contacted their local law enforcement officials, they had difficulty addressing the harassment through the Huffington Post. They told TAS that they repeatedly emailed HuffPost at [email protected], beginning Sunday night. Odell’s son said that he and co-workers flagged the comments as “abusive.”

The comments remained posted on the pages until Tuesday afternoon, when TAS contacted Katharine Zaleski, HuffPost news editor, via an unlisted telephone number. HuffPost promptly removed the comments.

David has links to the invasive HuffPo posts. RedState follows up on the Left’s selective outrage.

Yup, tell me about it.

***

John Hinderaker at Power Line quips: “Maybe the Times would say that the jihadis already knew about the lens in the birdhouse [outside of Rumsfeld’s home], since it’s well known that high-ranking government officials take security precautions.”

Patterico offers two words: Times Select.