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Obama, McCain Campaigns Both Hacked, Files Compromised
dunezone writes "As the election ends, news is coming out from both campaigns on what happened behind closed doors. During the summer, the Obama campaign had their systems hacked, but so did McCain — and not by each other, but by a third party. '... both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: "You have a problem way bigger than what you understand," an agent told Obama's team. "You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system." The following day, Obama campaign chief David Plouffe heard from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, to the same effect: "You have a real problem ... and you have to deal with it." The Feds told Obama's aides in late August that the McCain campaign's computer system had been similarly compromised.'"
Also from the article: "Officials at the FBI and the White House told the Obama campaign that they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps' policy positions — information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration."
I guess we'll find out soon enough.
http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
Is that all they're after? Pff. The Internet Archive already lets me do that. And if that's too much work, the candidates have already done the graphical diffs for us!
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they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps' policy positions--information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration."
"they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps' policy positions--information that would be entirely useless once the winner back pedals on all campaign promises made."
Fixed that for them.
My bet is someone trying to get a leg up in their Fantasy U.S. Elections league.
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Our adversaries(even though China and Russia are technically our "allies") aren't the only ones who seek to gain from inside knowledge of foreign policy plans.
Israel is a good example but there are many others. Somebody hurry up and post other examples before some mods with sticky trigger fingers see this and mod me down for being a "racist Jew-hater".
During the summer the Obama campaign had their systems hacked, but so did McCain - and not by each other but a third party.
Bob Barr or Cynthia McKinney?
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
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...Carly Fiorina worked on McCain's campaign.
I particularly love this insight:
The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me ⦠answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."
Could you have imagined Obama saying that during the election? heh
I don't think that having legislation enacted that cites the latest Die Hard movie as a source and has Ted "Tubes" Stevens as an adviser is a good thing.
We'll wake up one morning and hear that the cyber-terrorism meter is at paisley.
Pffft, before you go jumping up on all the other countries who would want this info, given the current foreign policy of the US, I wouldn't at all be surprised it they weren't both hacked by inside sources - just to make them THINK it was another country "wanting to invade the proud US of A".
I mean seriously, all those paranoid big chiefs sitting in powerful seats within government organizations? They have careers to protect. Why not make whoever gets into power fearful of the "outside world and it's dangers" before they even get into office? Sure would help get their policy in line with the policy of aforementioned big chiefs in government seats.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Fuck it. We got him elected, he's going to have to answer for himself from now on. And I hope more people are with me on this -- especially those in the media.
The good news is, I believe that he will.
When posed the question of how one might respond to cyberattacks on their own websites, the following responses were gathered:
McCain: My friends, I've been around the block a few times. I know what it's like to be hacked. I know what it's like to be crippled, to be seized by foreign powers and pried for information. My friends, I've been there, not 30 years ago I was......Internet? What's that now? Oh, like the tubes...
Obama: There is no classified data on those servers. There never was. I will not hide information from the people of America. I will not hide my concerns from foreign powers. We are a nation built on freedom and that includes freedom of information. If they want to know our bathroom schedules, we will let them know. Yes we can. If they want to know where I park my car in the afternoon, I will tell them. Yes we can. If they want to know the route my daughter takes to school...
Palin: Dog gone it, how am I going to know when my next hair appointment is? Oh, it's still there? But you said they stole it. Could we go back to the part just after, "You're my vice presidential choice"? I've been a little confused since then.
Stevens: You ask me if they'll get away with this? I'll tell you. "NO!!"
Bush: Thank Christ the Lord I am done with this job. Next question...
You raise a good point. Even TFS says "'... both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: 'You have a problem way bigger than what you understand,' an agent told Obama's team."
The old guard have spent the past 8 years stinking drunk with money and power and now 'Bama(and, apparently, most of the common Americans) wants change. Of course, that tinfoil hat theory implies that 'Bama and the old guard are at odds and Obama would be wise to reverse his stance re: telecom immunity.
It's a good thing McCain doesn't know how to use a computer!
Kwisatz Haderach
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This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Why would Obama or McCain have secret foreign policy plans in their campaign planning computers? The sensitive data here was most likely canvassing, financing, and advertising plans. They'd be very useful to the other campaign, or to a party supporting either campaign and planning to influence the election. Maybe unaffiliated but supportive organizations like those of T Boone Pickens and his democratic equivalent had this done.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
95% of the unauthorized http accesses and port scans to my PC at home are from China. Go figure.
Your tinfoil hat is cutting off the circulation to your brain again.
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"
-- Aristotle
This wouldn't be a problem if our political system did not practically require politicians to keep secrets and lie through their teeth.
Obama seems to have somehow slipped through the vetting process. It's common knowledge that politicians should not have an independently functioning brain with an ability to grasp the overall picture. Did no one interview this guy to make sure he could be swayed by a $600/hr lobbiest in an expensive suit, or by advisers with hidden agendas? This, my fellow Americans, can lead to no good outcomes. Applying common sense and logic in this fashion will surely grind Washington D.C. to a halt.
Mark my words...this fool will be making decisions which will utterly confound both major parties. The only thing I can't determine is whether they'll strip his flesh like a school of piranhas or end up following him off the cliff of common sense. :-)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Feds: Hey you've been hacked... trust us, we know
Campaign: Um, so how do you know that?
Feds: They removed our backdoors
Campaign: Oh... right... so what are you going to do about it?
Feds: We only investigate if you reported it, but WE reported it to YOU, so YOU have to investigate it. See how that works?
Campaign: *grumble*
Sounds about right.
Having worked on the Obama campaign, mostly with the data end, I have to say they did a really good job. There are a few things that could have been improved, sure, but overall the system scaled very well until the last few days when the load became just ridiculous. Even then, it only displayed minor misbehavior - it worked just as quickly as before. The vast majority of volunteers have read/limited write access to volunteer and voter lists. I don't believe I had access to any donor information. The fact is, below the upper echelons, a data leak is really, really insignificant, because the data is essentially publicly available anyway. We got all the starting information for our database from the DNC, which got it from voter rolls. I'm assuming here they don't store credit card numbers from donations, etc.
So, I'll refrained from criticizing any conservative or GOP positions, and simply deal with what's incorrect.
1. NAFTA - that story you link to is incorrect. A couple of days after the article you cite, both the Obama campaign and - more importantly - the Canadian embassy itself declared that no such assurances were made. So either they're all lying, or the first article that you cite got it wrong.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/03/politics/main3898313.shtml
2. Obama's position on coal is: We will probably need some coal as a transition away from foreign oil. But coal also comes with environmental risks, so clean coal is better than dirty coal.
That's not shifting, that's reasonable. Sometimes reality is nuanced. That's addressing different circumstances in a complex world.
3. There was and is absolutely no change in Obama's tax plans, or anywhere near it. That link you cite is not even from Obama speaking. That's Biden making a gaffe-tastic misstatement in a speech. The Obama campaign restated it's policy after Biden's misstatement - it says that in the very same article you cite.
4. As for Biden's transcribed dialogue - it seems quite clear to me. It's just transcribed from live human speech. Biden's saying "When the US and France kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, Barack and I wanted NATO forces moved in to fill the vacuum. Otherwise Hezbollah would walk back in."
So, in conclusion, I'd like to propose that, from this point forward, we criticize what people's actual articulated positions are, and see how their actions match up to those positions. Because, as an Obama supporter, I *want* to see Obama's positions and policies criticized from every possible angle. Both in formulation and in practice.
But let's stick with what Obama and others are actually intentionally saying (and will now be doing) - and not hearsay or misstatements. Let's concentrate on whether or not it will work, and why.
Sound good?
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