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Palin Email Hacker Found
mortonda writes to tell us that the person responsible for breaching Sarah Palin's private email account has been found. We discussed the breach last Wednesday, shortly before the hacker, a University of Tennessee-Knoxville student, posted a message detailing his methods. Wired has a story examining the potential legal consequences for the hacker.
I would hope that the punishment would be the same as would be handed out to someone that hacked my hotmail count.
Not that, you know, I have a hotmail account...
Not even password guessing. He apparently took public information about her and reset the password.
If anyone wondered if demanding date of birth, home town, etc. was a BAD way of determining identity, this should resolve that for them.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
They might give the kid a partial immunity deal if he gives up someone in office or the Obama campaign.
It's been reported that his father is an ultra-liberal Democrat in state office - who does have some serious connections with the Obama campaign.
IF (big "if") there is any link to any campaign, then we have almost the exact same thing as Watergate going on here. This would then be the first "-gate" scandal since the original that actually deserves the name.
Can anyone say "what did they know and when did they know it?"
Oh I definitely lean to the left and feel Palin would be grossly unqualified should the qualified (but very old) McCain were to have health issues requiring him to leave office. I missed the part on slashdot where I have to register my political bias! This isn't a newspaper I'm entitled to my opinion on the facts available to me. Also keep reading additional posts to see what else I have to say and why I came to that conclusion (i.e. recieving and responding to emails from Aides of politicalrelevance is activity I would consider official).
Which way do you lean? Left or right? Do you feel it in any way biases your thoughts/comments?
moox. for a new generation.
If somebody hacked my email would they start a huge investigation or is justice only for the privileged few.
No sig today...
While they may both feel that way, Gov. Palin's use of yahoo email provides zero insight regarding that mentality. No one has identified a single email from her yahoo account that was of an official nature. Yes, there were plenty of emails to officials, but merely talking to a public office holder doesn't make the communication official and a matter of public record. In fact there were a number of emails of a political nature which would be flat out illegal to do over her official email system.
This is why, outside of partisan bloggers and ignorant commenters, no one anywhere is talking about Gov. Palin doing anything wrong.
In the emails that the investigating commission DID get, there are exchanges between Palin and her subordinates discussing whether they can evade subpoenas by using Yahoo, and other exchanges reminding people to use the Yahoo account, not the official governors one.
IOW, the ENTIRE purpose of her office using the Yahoo account was to obstruct justice.
And yet Palin hasn't really stated anything about her real views or policy decisions on any of those issues.
She's obviously against abortion, and clearly wants to overturn RvW by installing additional conservative judges on the SCotUS. But when asked about her views, she gives mealy-mouthed replies about how she 'respects the opinion of others.' She is fundamentally a bullshitter.
With 'religion in schools,' the real issue is that she supports radical fundamentalist Dominionism, the far right goal of establishing the US as a Christian Theocracy (minus any real elements of Christianity) that will spread Jesus over the earth (minus the teaching of Jesus). This isn't about 'can we pray in school' or 'can we respect the 10 Commandments,' but a radical effort to install CBN-style televangelist religion as the primary purpose of government.
This is a BIG FUCKING ISSUE that has been ignored and Palin has done her best to keep quiet, but her tape in June praising her "witch hunter" pastor that she credited with bringing her to the goverership of Alaska, and her efforts to get people to pray for her "will of God" pipeline and "will of God" war while telling Charlie Gibson that she would "never presume to know the will of God" should shock the shit out of anyone with an IQ above 60. She would be one cancer/heart attack episode away from turning the US into something that even GW Bush didn't really support.
Firearm rights? That's a significant issue in the presidential election? There is no threat of guns being taken away. There is threat of the Federal government becoming something you might want to take up arms against. This might be an issue if Obama was crusading for gun control, but he isn't.
"Domestic issues" - Right, which of those were raised? Which have Palin talked about? She steered Alaska through vast oil wealth while demanding massive Federal dollars to build unnecessary projects while supporting secessionists. What qualifications does she have to talk about domestic issues like the size of government, fiscal conservatism, and state's rights when she has demonstrated no principles and nothing but self serving hypocrisy ever? She's a big government, big spending Republican who taxes others so she doesn't have to pay them. She has no rational stance on domestic issues.
"Foreign affairs" - All Palin knows is that she "can see Russia from her house." She lives on a dead lake killed by poor city planning (building big box retail that runs its road waste into the lake) and refused make any efforts to help rehabilitate it. She doesn't know anything about diplomacy. She suggested going to war with Russia despite not even having met the people involved. She wants to stay in Iraq until "Al Queda is defeated" according the the McCain website. How is that possibly going to happen, and how would we ever prove it was? And remember how Al Queda wasn't in Iraq before the war started?
Palin has no legitimate stance on any real issues. She revealed not even knowing what Freddie Mae does. We don't need a bullshitter figurehead, we need someone who can present a stance on issues they can back up with reason and effectively put in place as a workable solution, regardless of whether they are more conservative or more liberal.
Palin isn't that, she's just a bullshitter who want to force her religion on America and make wildly bad spending decisions with the nation's resources and people.
The Big Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Attack
Good to know that you don't care about people doing illegal things just to TRY to get some dirt (even if they fail). So when we send covert operatives in to dumpster dive and hack into bank records to find out how Joe Biden is owned by the credit card companies (As one of my friends puts it, "You mean the Senator from MBNA?") Or when we dig to find out exactly HOW his house was paid for? Or perhaps dig into personal emails and such to find out exactly how linked Obama and Ayers are? Or Rezko? Will you put some cash in for those operatives as well?
You like this guy because he tried to "get" Sarah Palin. And as I have noted further down, didn't. If this would have been the other way around, you would have been bleating bloody murder about how horrible it was that a Republican would stoop to doing something illegal. Why you might even call it a Watergate! Perhaps this should be called YahooGate? After all, breaking in to email is to me the equivalent of breaking into a private office in a hotel.
- No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades really cramps his style.
Actually you can. Clinton has done this, so has Bush and Cheney. The problem is that while any other person may be legally required to answer a subpoena, Certain political oriented people aren't necessarily those people.
The problem is when the move is politically motivated and extends past the collection of evidence. In Clinton's case, he defied subpoenas from congress and even got the Supreme Court to back him up. He refused to let his staff testify and so on. This also happened with the independent council and White Water where they wanted to subpoena white house attorneys to see if he discussed the mess with them. Of course the white house attorneys work for the government and lose a lot of the client privileges but it stuck here because the president needs the confidence that he can confide in advisers and counsel as a part of doing his job.
Palin has cooperated until this turned into a political witch hunt and then refused to do so. There is good reason to believe that the purpose went from investigating her actions and attempting to find a reason other then the stated one and I'm not sure what the employees could offer that would add much more then what has already been supplied. They haven't even determined that the reasons for the firings were shaky yet. Are we seriously supposed to believe that if the reasons he was fired was sound that just because there was a conflict where he refused to fire a trooper is reason not to fire him for the already sound reasons?
That's the problem I have. From what I can tell, the guy should have been fired anyways. Who cares what he thinks the motivation was, he deserved to be fired. When you fuck up, your not safe just because someone who might have been out to get you was there to catch it and do something they already wanted to do. But some how, Palin is Evil because she points this out and shows that the investigation has turned political. Either way, I support her just like I supported Clinton during the witch hunt on him. Now don't get me wrong, he did some bad things and got away with them, but they were looking under every rock he had ever cast a shadow on and that was wrong.