A radical website features the names, addresses, and emails of thousands of delegates to the Republican National Convention. They've also listed the New York-area hotels where some of them will be staying. One of the postings that justifies the publicizing of the material stated: "The delegates should know not only what people think of the platform they will ratify, but that they are not welcome in New York City."

Although the owners of the site supported sharing the personal information of Republican delegates with the world, they weren't so keen on divulging so much as their own names when the authorities came calling. The Independent Media Center, a group comprised of Mumiacs, anti-globalization protestors, and other assorted lunatics, is complaining that the government's investigation is "a fishing expedition to route out dissenting viewpoints, harass people who are simply exercising their free speech rights, and intimidate others from exercising their right to protest in connection with the Republican National Convention." Stamp out dissent and harass the opposition? Wow, and the rest of us thought that is precisely what the Independent Media Center is doing.

With activists attacking delegates and subjecting them to various forms of abuse, is the government wrong to see a connection between the intrusive list and the harassment and violence? Today's New York Times reports a "coordinated plan by anarchists and other radicals to strike out at the delegates at their hotels, breakfasts, parties, and on the streets." The piece adds, "The incidents are the result of months of planning by opposition groups, who report that they have obtained copies of plans and addresses for delegates' parties, caucuses and other gatherings outside the Garden." One needn't be Sherlock Holmes--or even John Holmes, Larry Holmes, or that drug-dealer guy you know who goes simply by "Holmes"--to figure out that there's a connection between the publication of the list and the harassment that delegates are experiencing.

Unconcerned with the privacy of normal people, the ACLU has defended the invented right of secrecy for the posters of the personal information of GOP delegates. The ACLU claims, "This type of investigation is really a form of intimidation and a message to activists that they will pay a price for speaking out." No, actually this type of criminal activity disguised as activism is really a form of intimidation and a message to the Republican delegates that they will pay a price for speaking out.

Can they post the names of abortion doctors on a separate page?

How about at http://www.wereabunchof#&*!inghypocrites.com?