Alaska Must Release Palin E-mails By May

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from msnbc.com: "The state of Alaska has until May 31 to release about 25,000 pages of e-mails from former Gov. Sarah Palin and senior members of her administration, the state attorney general declared Wednesday. ... the delays in dealing with public records from the Palin administration will have stretched out longer than the Palin administration itself. She was governor for 966 days. By May 31, the request from msnbc.com for the official records will be 986 days old. State regulations usually require records to be made available within 10 days, but state officials said they were overwhelmed by the volume of the e-mails."

Comments

Slashdot:

[Anonymous Coward]

News for nerds, stuff that matters.

Re:Slashdot:

[Anonymous Coward]

Government incompetence claiming it takes 3 years to find some e-mails? As a site for sysadmins who handle these kind of requests, of course it's news for nerds, and demonstrates to us (moreso than most people who don't understand the work involved) the level of incompetence and/or corruption going on.

Oh, no!

[intellitech]

Oh, no! They have only until May 31st to deliver 25,000 pages of e-mails to the metaphorical shredder? What ever will they do?!? /humor

Seriously, though, any chance that they're poking through those e-mails more and reading them more carefully than they did when they were originally written/read, and "shredding" those e-mails which make Sarah Palin look like even more air-headed? Either way, I highly doubt the lengthy delay in release of these records is due to anything other than a PR spring cleaning for her almighty. As it stands, they should be able to suppress quite a bit of them, anyway.

How easy is it for a government official to get away with erasing documents of this nature? I would like to assume there are adequate data-retention policies in place to make this exceedingly difficult, but who knows..

Re:Oh, no!

[MoonBuggy]

I don't really see what can be taking this long other than censoring them; just locating the relevant files and dropping the few gigs of data on a flash drive would take a few days, at most. If it's taking years, it means that something is being done with the actual content. According to TFA there are rules allowing certain messages to remain private, so some of the censorship will be legal, but I imagine that they'll just stamp a big red "privileged" restriction on anything that's too embarrassing to Palin.

Re:Oh, no!

[intellitech]

According to TFA there are rules allowing certain messages to remain private, so some of the censorship will be legal, but I imagine that they'll just stamp a big red "privileged" restriction on anything that's too embarrassing to Palin.

My thoughts exactly.

Re:Oh, no!

[MillionthMonkey]

Seriously, though, any chance that they're poking through those e-mails more and reading them more carefully than they did when they were originally written/read, and "shredding" those e-mails which make Sarah Palin look like even more air-headed?

Your analysis falls apart completely with the phrase "more carefully". It's possible they're poking through, but the most likely scenario is that they'll shred the wrong emails; how will they distinguish which of her statements are embarrassing? Sarah should hire Keith Olbermann as a consultant, as he has a couple months off, and no one in Palin's camp seems able to warn her when she is being offensive.

Re:Oh, no!

[wiredlogic]

How easy is it for a government official to get away with erasing documents of this nature?

Do what Bush did and arrange for a conversion from Lotus to Exchange or vice versa and let the inconvenient bits get dropped on the floor in the process.

Re:Oh, no!

[Locke2005]

If they redact everything embarrassing to Palin... that's pretty much everything she's ever said, isn't it?

Re:Oh, no!

[joshki]

Oh come on. That's flamebait and you know it -- he got sent to jail for illegally accessing an email account.

Re:Oh, no!

[camperdave]

I don't really see what can be taking this long other than censoring them;

Are you kidding? Do you know how long it takes to print 25,000 pages of emails, even without paper jams? That's at least ten boxes of tractor feed. Plus it needs to be separated and edged.

They didn't say HOW they wanted them delivered. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Re:Oh, no!

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

How easy is it for a government official to get away with erasing documents of this nature?

Do what Bush did and arrange for a conversion from Lotus to Exchange or vice versa and let the inconvenient bits get dropped on the floor in the process.

Or, just do what Palin did and use non-audited email accounts like yahoo or hotmail for government business too.
Fortunately alaskan sunshine laws don't have enough lumens to shine on those and aren't strong enough to make using them illegal either.

Re:Oh, no!

[davester666]

Hopefully, they are busy converting all the emails to PDF, then drawing black boxes over all the redacted content.

Re:Oh, no!

[mwvdlee]

Which probably explains why it's taking so long. Would YOU know where to get 25,000 pages worth of red ink?

Re:Oh, no!

[Opportunist]

So illegally accessing an account of a public official, someone allegedly working for you, is more a crime than illegally shredding the mail of a public official? I dunno, but somehow that sounds a wee bit wrong in my books.

Re:Oh, no!

[Opportunist]

Knowing Palin I bet her solution would be to hand them a few bottles of white out and demanding that they cover every inch of the screen where those incriminating data could be seen.

Re:Oh, no!

[Opportunist]

I could make a very tasteless Iraq joke now, but I'll refrain.

Re:Oh, no!

[Opportunist]

I was guessing it would be etched into ice sheets and then delivered to south cali for examination.

Re:Oh, no!

[rgbatduke]

Gigs? 25000 x 1000 = 25 MEGAbytes, and that's probably an overestimate. All in a handful of mail spools files. State officials (assuming Alaska sysadmins aren't totally incompetent, which of course is probably not a good assumption) should have informed the governor and her cronies that all mail sent or received on official servers was a matter of public record and instructed her not to use it for personal purposes. Even if they were poorly spooled with no sender cc (so they are mixed into other people's spool files) a single day armed with procmail and a few regular expressions would sort the whole thing out. As a matter of public record, they could just slap it up on a website and let anybody download it at will. It would take me some thirty seconds to get the whole ball of wax sitting where I am right now if they did this -- why should msnbc.com have access where "the people" do not?

The interesting thing to me is the 25,000 number in the first place. That's an average of 17 emails a day over a four year term. In an eight hour day, that is two an hour. Take weekends etc into account, more like 3 an hour, or one every twenty minutes. That's actually remarkably dense email utilization -- I doubt most /. geeks manage half of that (although I receive hundreds a day, most of them are spam or systems messages or user problem messages; the number I actually write is probably only rarely as many as ten). If the messages have any real content and aren't just "Do you want to go shoot a moose after work today?" (reducing the size of the spool way down even from 25 MB) Palin didn't have time to do any actual work!

The second most interesting thing, no matter what they release, will be her literacy on display. It's one thing to give folksy speeches and use big words your scriptwriters have put into them. It's another to use big words yourself (and actually spell them and use them correctly).

rgb

Re:Oh, no!

[joshki]

You assume something is being shredded.

As we don't like republicans.

[jellomizer]

This must be news on Slashdot. If it was for a predominant democrat. it would be less newsworthy. As probably just some crazy propaganda from Fox News.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever. As I read your comment I couldn't help thinking of a quote from shitmydadsays: "Everyone thinks their opinion matters. Don't argue with a nobody. A farmer doesn't bother telling a pig his breath smells like shit."

Have a nice day sir

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Rivalz]

Yea because seeing the gov's email admins not being able to export 25,000 pages of email ( probably less than 25,000 emails ) isnt news worthy?
I can understand if some info has to be redacted or filtered for confidential info but that is quite a long time to be sitting on someones task list.
Also who picks up the tab for having this data made available?

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Red Flayer]

Well, we don't like Democrats either, by-and-large. If it was a prominent Democrat whose office had been spending years scrubbing emails subject to a state equivalent of FOIA, it would be news also.

Your attempt to derail the conversation with "B-b-b-ut this is biased against Republicans" has nothing to do with the FACT that this is about Sarah Palin's governance of Alaska, and potential misuse of government communications channels. It has nothing to do with whether people on slashdot lean right or left. So drop your silly persecution complex, it adds nothing to the conversation other than the idea that conservatives have no possibly valid points other than how much they are discriminated against.

And FWIW, I see conservative viewpoints, when expressed clearly, modded up all the time here on slashdot. I see the same of liberal viewpoints. What cracks me up is how often conservative viewpoints are modded up right alongside a post complaining of slashdot bias against conservatives.

Let's face it... Palin is a divisive subject, but given her power as a public figure, she's worthy of discussion -- for what she has to say, for what she has done, and for what impact she has on the American political scene. I believe she's a greedy, selfish, uneducated, calculating, egotistical nightmare... but I don't let that get in the way of my recognition of her importance as a topic of discussion in general.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[MikeMacK]

Actually I'm surprised Sarah used a public e-mail account while the Gov of Alaska...I would have thought she would have subscribed to the George W. Bush school of...wait did Bush go to school?

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

you are aware that Palin was completely corrupt and is a total idiot right? DO you really think someone who received a communications degree after transferring universities 5 times and thinks a baby gate can keep boys out of her daughter's room is smart?

Do you really think someone who gets to be Governor of one of the states in the US and become the de facto leader of a multi-million person movement is "a total idiot"? Are YOU really that downright fucking stupid?

No wait - hold that. Please don't fuck. We don't need morons like you reproducing.

I may not agree with Sarah Palin, but I don't subscribe for one moment the arrogant, imbecilic, and self-serving belief that she's stupid. One would have to be as dumb as a post to think that.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[bmo]

We need the emails because Sarah Palin instigates the same morbid fascination that a train wreck does. We need to know why she's so damn stupid.

The only person stupider than her is Michele Bachmann, who isn't even bright enough to look into the network cameras and thinks that John Quincy Adams "worked tirelessly until slavery was ended"

I think Republicans in general are cool and "don't afraid of anything" but the Teabagger Base (use your fundament, baby) is odious, despicable, and one misfired suicide bomber from being American Taliban.

"Spiritual Warriors" - pfui.

--
BMO

P.S. Palin/Bachmann 2012 - to immanentize the Eschaton.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[spun]

Do you really think that no elected officials are idiots? What faith you have in government! Do you think that a movement of morons can not be lead by a moron? Why not? History holds plenty of examples of the dumb leading the stupid.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[h00manist]

Actually I'm surprised Sarah used a public e-mail account while the Gov of Alaska...I would have thought she would have subscribed to the George W. Bush school of...wait did Bush go to school?

There were mentions that much of the govt business was indeed being done over private email accounts. And now all this scrubbing is just pointing more towards apparent destroying evidence of wrongdoing. Which is now even worse.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

Correction, we don't like complete fucking morons. Of which, Sarah Palin is a prime example.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[icebraining]

Not much of a Green Acres fan, is he?

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[clarkkent09]

I am just personally tired both of Sarah Palin and of the left's hatred of her that borders on psychotic. She is a mediocre politician who would never be talked about if McCain didn't make a mistake of choosing her as his running mate.

Having said that, all the vitriol about her just doesn't make sense to me. Whenever I ask a liberal, who at the mention of the name starts foaming at the mouth and screaming something like "greedy, selfish, uneducated, calculating, egotistical nightmare" why exactly they hate her so much, I never get a satisfying answer. She misspoke a bunch of times but so has Obama and don't get me started on Biden. She is very conservative but there are plenty of male politicians who are more conservative than her and are not hated so much. It seems to be a pattern that any woman with strong political beliefs, particularly on conservative side, tends to bring out really deep hatred in both women and men who disagree with her politically.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Attack DAWWG]

What cracks me up is how often conservative viewpoints are modded up right alongside a post complaining of slashdot bias against conservatives.

Actually, it's not just alongside. Surprisingly often it is the post complaining of Slashdot bias against conservatives that gets modded up.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[interkin3tic]

This must be news on Slashdot. If it was for a predominant democrat. it would be less newsworthy. As probably just some crazy propaganda from Fox News.

Hmm... those slashdotters who are not biased, that's obviously not true for. Those of us who are biased think we have good reasons for said bias, and don't really care.

Yes, I dislike Palin already and most republicans. I don't know of a single democrat I'd want as president less than her. I make no apologies for that. She'd be a terrible president in my opinion. But that's beside the point in this case. What's the fucking holdup? The only e-mails to be released are the non-privileged ones:
""records that are not privileged" refers to the process, as allowed by law, for the state to withhold records, or parts of records, if release would violate privacy of individuals or meet other exemptions in the public records law. " She was the governor of Alaska. She doesn't have to scrub nuclear launch codes or the names of operatives in Afghanistan. As TFA says, this has been delayed longer than she was actually governor.

Either there's something in there that they don't want released, or someone is pointlessly impeding the public's right to open government. True I might care less if a democrat I trusted did it, but that doesn't change anything besides my interest level in the story. This is still unacceptable no matter what party she is.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Attack DAWWG]

Sorry . . . the first sentence above ("What cracks me up . . .") is a quote and should have been italicized. It doesn't show up that way in some browsers. I guess I should have used the "quote" tag instead.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[HeckRuler]

Do you really think someone who gets to be Governor of one of the states in the US and become the de facto leader of a multi-million person movement is "a total idiot"?

Yeah, pretty much. Plenty of stupid people vote you know. Half the populace has an IQ less then 100.
I'm sorry if that sounds elitist, but anyone that would willingly want to put her in a place of political power is a bigger idiot then she is.

And WHY have I decided that she's an idiot?
Well, from every instance I've seen of her on television, most of her political decisions, and from a judgment of the crowd that supports her, both the general populace and individuals I've met and chatted with.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[spun]

It could be that strong women engender more hatred. Or it could be that she really is a "greedy, selfish, uneducated, calculating, egotistical nightmare." She certainly seems greedy, look at her spending of campaign money. Selfish? Surely she has demonstrated that. Uneducated? By her own words, obviously so. Calculating? Okay, every politician is that. An egotistical nightmare? Look at this very story and tell me she isn't!

Perhaps people despise her because they feel that her brand of political discourse is damaging to the country. Perhaps they feel it is unfair that someone like her can become a millionaire, a governor, a candidate for vice president, and a well paid political consultant without having any of the skills or qualities usually required by those jobs. She is just one more piece of evidence that we do not live in anything even resembling a meritocracy, and that galls some people.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[spun]

Persecution complexes and other paranoid delusions are rarely rational.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[spun]

Well, Bachman was looking into the cameras of the group that sponsored her, the Tea Party. Let's not even talk about where she was looking, it distracts from the stupid that came out of her mouth. And Palin had her own gaffe, she had no idea what "sputnik moment" meant, and attributed the collapse of the Soviet Union to sputnik. Seriously. She thought "sputnik moment" refereed to the launching of sputnik, rather than our response to the launching of sputnik. And she thought that launching it was what bankrupted them, so having another "sputnik moment" would be a bad thing.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

Palin gets so much flak because she is always putting herself in the spotlight. Her liberal use of ridiculous hyperbole doesn't help.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Red Flayer]

Perhaps people despise her because they feel that her brand of political discourse is damaging to the country. Perhaps they feel it is unfair that someone like her can become a millionaire, a governor, a candidate for vice president, and a well paid political consultant without having any of the skills or qualities usually required by those jobs. She is just one more piece of evidence that we do not live in anything even resembling a meritocracy, and that galls some people.

What galls me is that people are stupid and mentally lazy. Stupid and lazy enough to fall for her schtick. I know it shouldn't bother me that a lot of people are idiots; for some reason it just irritates the crap out of me.

It's not that I think conservatives are idiots because of their political views. Surely it must be possible to have conservative views without being an idiot. It just seems that the willfully ignorant followers of demagogues are just too legion for this nation to withstand.

Another reason I get irritated by Palin and her ilk is because I believe I have the ability to do EXACTLY what they do. And that I could be very successful at it. But I can't do it, because I believe it is immoral. So I guess the real reason I despise Palin et al is because I think they made an immoral personal choice to exploit others, and are therefore, to a certain extent, evil. And deep down, I'd like to believe that the good should win. Yeah, it's an idealistic hope... which is why I've turned into a cynic. I hate Palin, Bush, Reagan's puppetmasters, et al for turning me into one.

And that, my friend, is the end of the navel-gazing I'll do tonight.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[clarkkent09]

Well, greedy, selfish and egotistical more or less amount to the same thing, looking at her own self interests above anything else. I am not really sure about the evidence that this is the case with her to an unusual degree, but it might be. The same is true about most politicians, actually people in general. Same with calculating. Uneducated. Well, we all know there are many successful people without much formal education. The first thing I look for in a politician is where they stand on issues, how they have voted in the past and will likely vote in the future, not so much if they are nice people. Part of me is annoyed by the treatment she gets because it seems unfair, and part of me is just annoyed that she is kept in the spotlight and made to look like a victim which might only increase her support.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Red Flayer]

Whenever I ask a liberal, who at the mention of the name starts foaming at the mouth and screaming something like "greedy, selfish, uneducated, calculating, egotistical nightmare" why exactly they hate her so much, I never get a satisfying answer.

Because I believe she's not qualified to be a good leader of people. Because she's a demagogue out to serve her own ends.

She is very conservative but there are plenty of male politicians who are more conservative than her and are not hated so much.

It has nothing to do with how conservative she is. It has to do with her immorality. Please see my post below (in response to a post by Spun) for a little more info on why I feel the way I do about her.

The fact that so many people fawn over her is why people who don't like her need to react strongly. She is an abhorrence on the idea of a well-qualified statesman serving their country for what is best for that country.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Culture20]

The only person stupider than her is Michele Bachmann, who isn't even bright enough to look into the network cameras

You deserve your Troll rating just for this comment. Michele Bachmann looked into the appropriate camera. Just because CNN/MSNBC didn't pony up for a feed off that camera doesn't mean she's dumb.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/blogs/114802314.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsl

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[SnickleFritz]

Don't count out the quality of the staff. I've seen some elected officials that are indistinguishable from rocks with staffs that can get anything done.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[khallow]

She is either stupid or evil.

So according to you, she's evil.

Given that she's a member of the Evil party rather than the Stupid party, duh. If this internet thing gets too hard and frustrating for you, you can always take a break and play with your dolls for a while.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right. The speech and her complete misrepresentation of American history is what makes her dumb.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you really think someone who gets to be Governor of one of the states in the US and become the de facto leader of a multi-million person movement is "a total idiot"?

Yeah, pretty much. Plenty of stupid people vote you know. Half the populace has an IQ less then 100.

I'm sorry if that sounds elitist, but anyone that would willingly want to put her in a place of political power is a bigger idiot then she is.

And WHY have I decided that she's an idiot?

Well, from every instance I've seen of her on television, most of her political decisions, and from a judgment of the crowd that supports her, both the general populace and individuals I've met and chatted with.

Ever seen Barack Obama speak without a teleprompter?

Scary, but only if you believe that being able to extemperaneously speak clearly in front of a crowd at all times is a measure of intelligence.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[thetoadwarrior]

Yes if you ignore the fact Palin is a complete moron, has questionable ethics and she's a complete hypocrite (hand notes whilst mocking tele prompter use) and she's fake. I say she's fake because she doesn't always seem that at home with the rural life she portrays on her TV show and had at least one press release on the governor's site supporting something Democrats had done and it disappears the day it's found out she's McCain's running mate and she becomes some raging conservative. I think the fact her approval rating as a governor dropping considerably once she became famous shows she puts on an act either for her voters in Alaska or to the nation.

As a Republican I'd say she's fucking embarrassing. To the point even I'd register as an independent just to disassociate myself with anything to do with her if I was still living in the US.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[thetoadwarrior]

She isn't the same person Alaska voted for. I suspect she BS'ed her way into convincing people she was something else. That explains the deletion of any content complimentary to democrats from the governor's site when becoming the VP candidate and it explains the huge drop from nearly 100% in her approval rating as she stepped into the national lime-light.

Intelligence has nothing to do with whether you can lead people. You have to be able to tell people what they want to hear. If, during an election, you were also given an army of people to train you so you don't look like a complete tit then all you have to be able to do is expand on your training.

If you had intelligence you wouldn't have to write such basic notes on your hand. It's not like she was writing deep insightful things she thought of. They were basic things she claims to believe in. Seriously someone who bangs on about tax and spend liberals needs a note reminding herself to talk about taxes? If you were intelligent or even if you had only average intelligence and you claim to read papers and then you're asked which papers it should be second nature to list them rather than not answer at all.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[MichaelSmith]

And WHY have I decided that she's an idiot?

I don't think Palin is an idiot. She may not be Nobel prize material but she has latched on to a fairly common gimmick for right wing politicians who want to appeal to stupid voters. Her stupid act is just a way of saying I'm just a normal person like you.

Two examples from my own country are Pauline Hanson and Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Its not a coincidence that both are from Queensland.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just the left that hates her. As an anarchist I hate all politicians, but I hate her with more passion than I could ever dream of mustering for most other politicians.

And for the record, I thought McCain was a pretty ok dude, despite being a politician.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[bmo]

"The reason, it appears, is that Bachmann delivered her speech to TeaPartyHD's camera"

That's straight from the article itself. Instead of an "address the nation" speech, it was "address my base" speech. Like I already said. It's not up to the networks to use the candidate's personal camera. That's how it's done. She should have been looking into the network cameras *like everybody else does.*

Her M.O. is not to be inclusive. Her M.O. is appeal to the gullible to extract as much cash as she can out of her "base." And her base is pretty stupid if they bought into a single word she said. The amount of stupidity that came out of her mouth is astounding for such a public figure. I live here in the Northeast where History is in my back yard. The insult to my intelligence that she perpetrated deserves all the scorn and ridicule I can dish up. Because she is that misinformed.

And don't even get me started on how the Tea Baggers and Far Right say that this is a "Christian" country, when the fucking Touro Synagogue is 20 miles from me. No. The far right and the Tea Baggers are FUCKING STUPID at best.

Burning Karma because I am mad at what these idiots have done to my country.

--
BMO

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Her stupid act is just a way of saying I'm just a normal person like you."

She's not a witch. Got it.

As a foreigner, I just don't get it. What's the fascination with a has-been VP candidate, has-been Governor who deserted the job, has-been reality show failure?
Who cares what that twat thinks?

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

And deep down, I'd like to believe that the good should win.

But you see Lonestar, evil will always win because good is dumb.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[dryeo]

Probably liked Mr Ed.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Anonymous Coward]

other twats.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Opportunist]

I've seen bigger idiots become heads of whole countries, so yes, I'd deem that entirely possible. All it takes is the right people wanting the idiot in the hot seat and presto, you're in.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Opportunist]

Look, I don't get it either, but hey, don't act like that ex-politician, ex-showbusinessperson, ex-celebrity going for new fame with being a loudmouth is limited to the US.

We're heading for Idiocracy. Globally. Watch TV, the new heroes are the idiots. From Homer Simpson to American Dad to Tim Taylor to Doug Heffernan. Just look from one TV show to the other (and I'm not even talking about "reality shows" like Super Nanny or Big Brother, which would probably be the pinnacle of idiot celebration), the new Hero is the idiot. And it's by no means limited to the US.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Opportunist]

With her, I'd prefer a stick of quality. Or a club. Or some other item that doubles as a LART.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[Opportunist]

Actually, my only problem with McCain as a potential president WAS Palin. He seemed quite decent, but his less than stellar health left the damocletean sword of him having to step down and letting her take over hanging over our heads.

And that was simply too big a risk to take.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[gd2shoe]

There are two kinds of people in the Palin camp who scare me. (1) The people who "fawn" over her. There are people like this in every camp, and they really need to wake up. (She does have more than her fair share, though...) (2) The people who rally behind her because they believe it would be best to have a female Republican president before Hilary gets there. They rarely say this out loud, of course.

The novelty vote (first black, first woman, etc) is destructive, but seems to be a driving force in politics right now. Personally, I want the first woman president to deserve it and serve capably and honestly. (and fiscally responsibly...)

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[gd2shoe]

True, but for sane people they do usually have a basis in a persons upbringing, schooling, socializing, or other experiences.

The trick for all of us is to recognize where our own misplaced ideas are and where they came from. Not at all an easy task.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[gd2shoe]

I think Republicans in general are cool...

I don't, and I'm registered with them. They're just generally better than the other bad choices out there.

... and "don't afraid of anything"...

???

... but the Teabagger Base (use your fundament, baby) is odious, despicable, and one misfired suicide bomber from being American Taliban.

You've bought the media rhetoric. "The tea party" often refers to "The Tea Party Express", a minor offshoot of the larger movement, and one that has been annexed as an extension to the Republican party. Most of the "hate" that you see is either painstakingly sought out by the media, or fabricated by allies to the Democratic Party.

The tea party movement is nothing more than a loose coalition of groups that believe in lower taxes and cutting government waste. In other words, people fed up with politicians (mostly Republicans, in this case) never, ever delivering on campaign promises. I think most voters can empathize with that.

Oh, and any rally will bring out the loonies. They always do. You'll see it again among all parties when the presidential election comes full swing. (Well, you might or might not see it in the media. That will depend on the popular narrative at the time.)

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[gd2shoe]

This must be news on Slashdot. If it was for a predominant democrat. it would be less newsworthy. As probably just some crazy propaganda from Fox News.

If she was a democrat, it would be considered less newsworthy. That is both true and unreasonable.

It doesn't change the fact that Palin is a terrible politician. (I lean towards inept, as opposed to corrupt.) It doesn't change the fact that there are people out there willing to cover for her when they should be looking for proverbial ammo.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[garynuman]

"Perhaps people despise her because they feel that her brand of political discourse is damaging to the country. " this

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[DavidTC]

Indeed.

There are people I'm not sure if they're dumb or just pretending to be, like Bush. I'm basically convinced he's smarter than he seems to be. He might be intellectually lazy, but not stupid.

Palin, OTOH, really does seem stupid. Like you said, she apparently can't remember basic beliefs she supposedly has. And, yes, all politicians lie about holding those beliefs...but they can at least explain them to some extent.

If I were, literally, in Palin's shoes, I'd have the 'what percentage of people pay what percentage of taxes' misleading statistic, or a note to mention we have the highest corporate tax rate, (Also misleading) and stuff like that, written on my hand. That's the sort of stuff you put on a cheat sheet, not the fricking basic premise of your argument. '10% p 70% tx. Hgst corp tx', not 'Taxes bad, tree pretty.'

And I came up with those off the top of my head, from right-wing talking points I've argued against. Surely her team of advisers could have come up with better things.

And if she were of average intelligence even if she didn't read papers it should be easy enough to give them name of her local Alaska paper and the Washington Post or something. No one is going to quiz her on stories in the recent edition, and she could always say she's been busy traveling and hasn't been able to keep up.

She really doesn't seem smart enough to lie in a convincing way,and she's been caught doing some really dumb things that no one could possible think would benefit her.

Whereas the dumbest thing Bush ever did that wasn't scripted to make him a 'good ole boy' was trying to open doors that didn't open, which, let's face it, any of us could have done.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[bmo]

"You've bought the media rhetoric. "The tea party" often refers to "The Tea Party Express", a minor offshoot of the larger movement, "

It's not a "minor offshoot" when the Tea Party Express can dish out the money needed to support lunatics like Bachmann and that guy from New York that ran a whole county into the ground. The Tea Party Express is the one with the control. They're controlling the rhetoric and anyone else is lost in the noise. Why? Because money and power, that's why.

If you're a tea partier, I've got some news for you. You've been co-opted. This shouldn't be any big surprise.

You keep telling yourself that this is all grass-roots. Denial is a powerful emotion.

--
BMO

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[gd2shoe]

You just ignored what I said, and repeated much the same thing. The Tea Party Express has money and power only because they were annexed by the Republican party. It is borrowed power. They have media attention because it "makes a better story". (Neither Republicans nor Democrats want real change; due to political cronies in the media, that idea is DOA.)

Many (most?) of the local rallies have not been co-opted, but the image of the tea party movement certainly has been.

Re:As we don't like republicans.

[HeckRuler]

I don't think it's an act. Now, some of her mannerisms and terminology she uses could be with that whole "appealing to common folk" shtick in mind, but her overall platform, policies, and knee-jerk twitter reactions paint her as an idiot tried and true. A lot of people thought that Bush was simply putting on an act, that he wasn't really that much of an imbecile. But I don't buy that either.

I'll save everyone the trouble

[neoevans]

It's all lolcats and forwarded emails from people who swore they received checks from Microsoft, sprinkled with the occasional note to the president (at the time) somewhere along the lines of,

"Do you like me? Check one:

-Yes
-No
-Maybe"

Re:I'll save everyone the trouble

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent hilarious.

Alt Source

[NEDHead]

Can't they just get them from Wikileaks?

Re:Alt Source

[wooferhound]

Can't they get them from her daughters ex-boyfriend ?

Overwhelmed?

[wiredlogic]

Overwhelmed? They really must try to come up with better BS than that. Even princess half-term can spout off more believable nonsense.

Re:Overwhelmed?

[geekoid]

sadly, no she can't.

Re:Overwhelmed?

[Obyron]

No joke. I'd hate to see how long it takes them to release the records of a governor who actually served a full term. And they're saying the volume of requests was a factor? Whether they get 1 request or 1 million, they only have to go through the data once. This is some combination of administrative incompetence and whitewashing the Tea Party's golden gi-- oh wait, even they're sick of her, and they're on the Michelle Bachmann bandwagon now.

Re:Overwhelmed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Especially seeing as how prince half-term was able to become President.

Re:Overwhelmed?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Even princess half-term"

And people wonder why the current political climate of insults comes from...if this is how you feel now, I wonder how you felt back then. Yeah, I know, it's only words. And yes, it's W's fault.

Re:Overwhelmed?

[Oswald]

Fun fact: my first wife was so acquainted with the effects of the various recreational drugs that she could have told me what you're on just be reading your baffling and ungrammatical prose.

Dun da da da duuuuuuun!

[tunapez]

Openleaks! To! The! Rescue!

Would actually make a great soft-pitch, first at-bat for the start-up. Would be refreshing to see what these celebrity politicians really say and think... You know, without the cameras and the scripts.

more interesting

[MikeMacK]

Just add a colon and it becomes a more interesting story..."Alaska Must Release Palin: E-mails by May"

Re:more interesting

[Amorymeltzer]

Better with a semi-colon or a comma.

Re:more interesting

[spun]

No, not the punctuation mark, like so: "Alaska Must Release Palin's Colon, Emails by May" Not sure what we'd do with Palin's colon, but I imagine we could find some use for it.

Re:more interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Bukkake.

Re:more interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

It's okay to insert a colon, but please make sure that she doesn't miss a period!

Re:more interesting

[WatchMaster]

ba dump dump tshhhh. thank you, I'll be here all week. don't forget your waiters.

Re:more interesting

[dbIII]

Not sure what we'd do with Palin's colon

The popular Australian phrase "bugger that for a joke" comes to mind.
Ignore her. She doesn't have any Republican or Koch money behind her anymore and they were really the only things that make her more noticable than possibly well over a thousand others. Being former governor of Alaska is no longer a political asset considering what happened during the short period she was governor.
These days she's nothing but your Pauline Hanson. Just like Pauline she stirred up support by pointing out what is wrong but provided nothing in the way of solutions apart from blame and suggesting opponents are removed. Reducing complex issues to childish name calling and truly outrageous lies (death panels) only makes things worse.

Re:more interesting

[Dahamma]

Nah, it's gotta be all blocked up with caribou meat by now, I'd stay away.

Re:more interesting

[Adambomb]

Wasn't the original the British 'bugger that for a lark'?

Re:more interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Just add a colon and it becomes a more interesting story..."Alaska Must Release Palin: E-mails by May"

Rest of world responds: No, you can keep her.

Irony

[cosm]

So the kid who guesses her security questions with answers that were guessable based on her Wikipedia profile gets hard time for posting her private emails online (not to mention that she used her private account for some work emails as well allegedly), all the while Palin Inc. LTD LLC is taking its sweet time releasing the actual campaign emails because I'm guessing (this is pure speculation) that there is content in there that the GOP is afraid the Palinites won't cherish dearly.

I hope she runs for office, and is put to shame at the ballot box. I am so sick of hearing about this washed up nobody anti-intellectual and her following of people who have been fleeced by her PR handlers into thinking she actually has the mental cahones of more than a donut.

Re:Irony

[ColdWetDog]

all the while Palin Inc. LTD LLC is taking its sweet time releasing the actual campaign emails

It's the State of Alaska, not Palin's political supporters. While there probably are a couple of Palinites left in the state, most Alaskans would just as soon use her for wolf bait. She's an embarrassment for a state that has a long line of political embarrassments.

Re:Irony

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the State of Alaska, not Palin's political supporters. While there probably are a couple of Palinites left in the state, most Alaskans would just as soon use her for wolf bait. She's an embarrassment for a state that has a long line of political embarrassments.

Yes, even the Eskimos got voted out of everywhere else.

Re:Irony

[Greyfox]

Maybe they should let him out of jail and put him in charge of releasing her E-Mail. He seems pretty good at that, and they don't seem pretty good at that.

grep?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, what's the problem with running a search on the 'From:'?

At 986 days we're talking about processing at a rate of twenty-five emails a day.

Re:grep?

[cosm]

Seriously, what's the problem with running a search on the 'From:'?

At 986 days we're talking about processing at a rate of twenty-five emails a day.

foreach (string s in ToFromFieldCollection) { (if s == "Sarah Palin")
{PointAndLaugh();}
}

Needless to say the programmer has been promoted for his hilarity. It is either that, or she sends each email one letter at a time, which wouldn't surprise me at this rate.

Re:grep?

[zippthorne]

Perhaps there is a person reviewing each one for stuff that must be redacted, like certain personal names/addresses, or Obama's birth certificate.

Plenty of time to *fix* this mess

[GodfatherofSoul]

As in preparing explanations for the questionable, illegal activity she was up to. Or, outright scrubbing the logs where possible.

Re:Plenty of time to *fix* this mess

[Locke2005]

Well, they have to redact all of the "state secrets"... after all, Alaska is our first line of defense against invasion from Russia!

What if she doesn't release them?

[jrozzi]

What can really happen if she doesn't release the emails?

Re:What if she doesn't release them?

[h00manist]

As far as I'm concerned, on day 11 they should have gotten a court warrant and just taken all the records, there is no reason to give anyone any extension of a legal obligation, especially not from 10 days amost 1000. The law is not supposed to be malleable to your schemes.

Re:What if she doesn't release them?

[spun]

Palin is an elite. The laws do not apply to elites in the same way they apply to the rest of us. For example, http://blogs.forbes.com/halahtouryalai/2010/11/08/wall-street-broker-escapes-felony-hit-and-run-charge/

Re:What if she doesn't release them?

[DragonWriter]

As far as I'm concerned, on day 11 they should have gotten a court warrant and just taken all the records, there is no reason to give anyone any extension of a legal obligation

State "sunshine" laws usually have a very short "normal" response time (the 10 days indicated for Alasks is fairly typical of the one's I've seen), they also fairly usually allow the response given within that 10 days to be either the requested documents or an explanation of the justification of the delay in releasing the documentation, along with an expected date of release. Some (as Alaska's apparently do, from TFA) require some official to approve extensions, others make the extensions essentially automatic within certain limits, but allow them to be challenged in court by the requester.

Re:What if she doesn't release them?

[Martin Blank]

There are exceptions for when e-mail may have sensitive records. Not everything that goes into e-mail is a record accessible to the public. For example, e-mail regarding personnel issues, health records, or ongoing litigation may be subject to redaction or withholding. That can provide a reasonable reason to extend beyond ten days. However, anything much beyond a month, even for many thousands of records, is not generally considered acceptable. (I'm not saying that this kind of information is the case here, just that there are situations that can delay such releases.)

Re:What if she doesn't release them?

[Hatta]

For example, e-mail regarding personnel issues, health records, or ongoing litigation may be subject to redaction or withholding.

Don't care. On Day 11, release everything to the public. If anyone is harmed by the release of private data, they can sue the public official who failed to meet her legal obligations. It's not like she didn't know she was going to have to release these documents, she had all the time in the world, starting from day one of her term to redact them.

Re:What if she doesn't release them?

[RightSaidFred99]

Good God, put a cork in it. You're so full of shit, and the whole "oooh, the fat cats are getting away with shit!" line is so boring and idiotic.

Try reading this. You're just using selection bias to rouse the rabble and make them think something unique happened there. In fact, this guy was sober when he hit the cyclist, he'll be paying a shitload and his felony would have been expunged in 4 years while the two misdemeanors won't be.

But don't let facts get in the way - damn those rich Wall Street Fat Cats, amirite?

Re:What if she doesn't release them?

[Martin Blank]

There are legal obligations regarding the protection of that material. It's covered under federal HIPAA regulations and state personal records regulations.

I work in a government office. We don't worry about redacting things as we create them. They are redacted if and when necessary for a filed records request; records that have personal information, health records, etc., are not released without a subpoena, and even then, it may be fought if there is a reasonable belief that it violates privacy laws. We've never taken as long as Alaska has in this case, but we have missed our window due to the volume of records, particularly if it's e-mail. The courts have generally been forgiving in these cases, though firm in their directives to come up with the records as quickly as possible.

Huh?

[DurendalMac]

Thought these were already public thanks to a now-incarcerated /b/tard.

Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[The Living Fractal]

You might read that subject line and go "wait, that's totally impossible! A populist is someone who believes in power of the people for the people and a plutocrat is someone who believes in the power of the rich and wealthy, and those two just can't really mix". Except that they can. I would guess that Palin thinks she should be the rich and wealthy of the 'people' so she can then be more powerful, all of course 'for' those same people while being a part of them. The pretext for this sort of situation would be that she is the one most qualified to wield the power for the people and hence deserves much of the wealth.

This is why she scares me. Because she thinks she's qualified to be that person, the Plutocrat amongst Populists, the Ideology Transcender, and I simply do not agree. Disclaimer: I live in Alaska.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[Locke2005]

I used to live in Alaska. I still can't believe half the people up there were stupid enough to vote for this dizzy bitch. Please tell me you weren't one of them! My biggest complaint about Sarah and all the other "conservatives" is that they seem constitutionally incapable of recognizing their own hypocrisy... they've adopted self-delusion as a lifestyle, and it fits them well.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[khallow]

This is why she scares me. Because she thinks she's qualified to be that person, the Plutocrat amongst Populists, the Ideology Transcender, and I simply do not agree. Disclaimer: I live in Alaska.

That describes a lot of politicians (any rich populist, pretty much) including a few others from Alaska. Ted Stevens comes to mind as an example. You must lose a lot of sleep over the sheer quantity of people you are afraid of.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[ArcherB]

I used to live in Alaska. I still can't believe half the people up there were stupid enough to vote for this dizzy bitch. Please tell me you weren't one of them! My biggest complaint about Sarah and all the other "conservatives" is that they seem constitutionally incapable of recognizing their own hypocrisy... they've adopted self-delusion as a lifestyle, and it fits them well.

You mean like Nancy Pelosi's travel expense:

* Speaker Pelosi used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at an average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. The average cost of an international CODEL is $228,563.33. Of the 103 Pelosi-led congressional delegations (CODEL), 31 trips included members of the House Speaker’s family.
        * One CODEL traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008, “to discuss matters of mutual concern with government leaders” included members of Congress and their spouses and cost $17,931 per hour in aircraft alone. Purchases for the CODEL included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.
        * According to a “Memo for Record” from a March 29—April 7, 2007, CODEL that involved a stop in Israel, “CODEL could only bring Kosher items into the Hotel. Kosher alcohol for mixing beverages in the Delegation room was purchased on the local economy i.e. Bourbon, Whiskey, Scotch, Vodka, Gin, Triple Sec, Tequila, etc.”
        * The Department of Defense advanced a CODEL of 56 members of Congress and staff $60,000 to travel to Louisiana and Mississippi July 19-22, 2008, to “view flood relief advances from Hurricane Katrina.” The three-day trip cost the U.S. Air Force $65,505.46, exceeding authorized funding by $5,505.46.

Oh wait. She's a lib so it doesn't count, right? I'm sure it's in the Constitution somewhere that the Speaker of the House can spend thousands on hard liquor while traveling abroad.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[Anonymous Coward]

With all of the attempts by Republicans to paint the Democrats as "tax and spend" for the last two decades, you would think that a Democrat who actually lives up to that spending part wouldn't surprise you, but you are still pretending to be aghast. Why the b.llsh.t veneer? Either they are, or they aren't, but you can't have it both ways.

It is the Republicans who are spending like crazy that you should be jumping on, but you guys seem rather reluctant to do that ... Bush/Cheney spending? Nothing to talk about there. Obama, on the other hand, is a crazy spending Democrat! OH NO! Did everyone see that?! WHAT A SURPRISE ...

not ...

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[bored_engineer]

I used to live in Alaska, and expect to live there again, quite soon. My biggest complaint about your comment is 'all the other "conservatives"'. I've known quite a lot of people of different stripes, and branding so many of them as "conservative" is quite a disservice. Overall, they were probably just looking for a different brand of conservatism than Murkowski's. I think it's a shame that Parnell is governor, but he looks better than either Palin or Murkowski. Please don't forget that Knowles and Cowper were both governors before Palin. (Yes, I remember Hickell, but he was even more nuts than Palin. He was thankfully ineffectual, and we should be forgiven for having elected Mr. Water Pipeline. After all, Minnesota managed to elect Jesse Ventura.)

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[The Living Fractal]

The sheer quantity of people like Sarah is small... Right now it's a very limited group, and I don't lose sleep over it because they are marginalized. But if they ever come to power.....

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[khallow]

The sheer quantity of people like Sarah is small... Right now it's a very limited group, and I don't lose sleep over it because they are marginalized. But if they ever come to power.....

Like Obama. He's exactly what you claim to be afraid of, a plutocrat (sure a slightly different flavor of an oligarch than a plutocrat) populist with an ideological agenda. And he has profited financially quite well by his political deeds.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[iphinome]

1 [citation needed] If you must copy and paste from your favorite right wing talking points blog please show your work
2 How does overspending on flights relate to hypocrisy?
3 It isn't in the constitution that the capital have bathrooms but it does, this falls under "necessary and proper". Congress is empowered to do things not explicitly listed in order to exercise one of their enumerated powers, this is called implied powers.
4 Do you have any point at all or was this just an excuse to insult someone on the other side you don't like? Free speech and all that so feel free but it is annoying to see posts like this that are not only off topic but fail to make any point at all.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[gd2shoe]

I believe GP was a knee jerk reaction to this: (emphasis mine)

My biggest complaint about Sarah and all the other "conservatives" is that they seem constitutionally incapable of recognizing their own hypocrisy...

ArcherB responded with something touted as hypocrisy of a liberal.

(1) A citation would indeed be in order. (2) I don't have any quotes on hand from Pelosi about government waste, but I'm sure something could be found. (3) Are you going to call excessive, expensive booze "necessary and proper"? If our politicians want alcohol, let them pay for it themselves. It's a relatively small thing compared to other abuses, but it still amounts to fraud (essentially). (4) Oh he made a point, it just wasn't very relevant.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[iphinome]

3 was mainly in response to "Oh wait. She's a lib so it doesn't count, right? I'm sure it's in the Constitution somewhere that the Speaker of the House can spend thousands on hard liquor while traveling abroad." I wasn't commenting on it being a good idea to do so only that it's disingenuous to suggest the constitution would need to mention booze on airplanes, it is a framework the rest is built on not checklist of every specific allowed expenditure.

It isn't that I have no concern about government waste. If --and big if since it's uncited-- ArcherB's claims are true I would certainly want to hear some justification for them. This doesn't really justify making the above rant here and now though. There are people I don't like either, that doesn't justify pulling them out as a boogyman and throwing a bitchfest about them every time someone I do like is criticized.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[ArcherB]

[citation provided]

I don't know if Judicial Watch is considered a Right Wing site or not. Not that it matters as facts are non partisan. In other words, I don't give a rat's ass what site it comes from. If you can't counter the FACTS presented, STFU.

2 How does overspending on flights relate to hypocrisy?

As another reader pointed out:

My biggest complaint about Sarah and all the other "conservatives" is that they seem constitutionally incapable of recognizing their own hypocrisy... they've adopted self-delusion as a lifestyle, and it fits them well.

And the hypocrisy I was pointing out is your own. When Sarah Palin spends money, you're all over her. When I bring up Nancy Pelosi living like a queen on the tax payer dollar, you actually defend her.

And, BTW, you listed exactly zero examples of Sarah Palin wasting tax payer money. Sure, the McCain campaign gave her a make over, but the $100,000 in clothes went to charity after the campaign. Sure, when put a tanning bed in the governor's mansion... HER OWN tanning bed.

Still, don't let facts get in the way of your hatred.

It isn't in the constitution that the capital have bathrooms but it does, this falls under "necessary and proper". Congress is empowered to do things not explicitly listed in order to exercise one of their enumerated powers, this is called implied powers.

All government buildings need proper facilities in order for government workers to do their jobs. That makes it "necessary and proper". However, taking over health care or bailing out anything at all or subsidizing farmers or spending tax payer money to study grape seed genetics or any of other millions of government programs are neither necessary nor proper. But government has stuff it can and is supposed to do. Government can't really do the tasks spelled out for it to do in the Constitution if government employees are having to piss in a bucket!

And if "necessary and proper" covers everything, what was the point of the 10th Amendment? The 10 Amendment was written AFTER "necessary and proper". In other words, the Founders said after everything was written, "Hmmmm. I think some asshole might think the government has unlimited power because of the "necessary and proper" and commerce clauses. We better go ahead and spell it out because half the people are below average intelligence. We'll make it the 10th Amendment".

4 Do you have any point at all or was this just an excuse to insult someone on the other side you don't like? Free speech and all that so feel free but it is annoying to see posts like this that are not only off topic but fail to make any point at all.

The point was to show that your hatred of Sarah Palin and other conservatives are not based on fact or the reasons you list because you don't care when someone of the left does the exact same thing. It was to show that your hatred of Sarah Palin is about nothing other than the differences of opinion you have with her. Libs like you always talk how important it is to be a free thinker and to speak your mind and all, but as soon as someone says something you disagree with, they must be taken out. You will relentlessly attack conservatives like Palin and point out any single flaw she has to justify your raw hatred of someone with a different political view than yourself.

The hypocrisy is not of Sarah Palin. It is all yours.

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[ArcherB]

Really guys. It's not that hard.

Click HERE

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[garynuman]

So she should have rode her bike to Israel? and they bought all the fixings for a small bar... I fail to see the problem here, outside of the fact that you've citied no sources, also, you're last objection, that " * The Department of Defense advanced a CODEL of 56 members of Congress and staff $60,000 to travel to Louisiana and Mississippi July 19-22, 2008, to “view flood relief advances from Hurricane Katrina.” The three-day trip cost the U.S. Air Force $65,505.46, exceeding authorized funding by $5,505.46." By my math thats roughly $350/day/per member of congress... $350 a day to cover travel, food, and lodging for a member of congress along with at least one member of their staff.... this is unacceptable to you? I feel like you must be a blast at parties.....

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[ErikZ]

Yes? What do you forsee?

Last time I checked the Tea Party is the "Leave me alone" party.

So do you dread the day the government isn't invading and taxing every aspect of your life?

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure it's in the Constitution somewhere that the Speaker of the House can spend thousands on hard liquor while traveling abroad.

1st, I'm pretty sure that the primary expense in the referred $17,391/hr flight operation expense is jet fuel, followed by crew wages and maintenance staff (although being military crews, the pay would be fairly low). That said, have you seen the liquor bill of senior sales executives for large corporations? Some of them would put even the Speaker of the House to shame. With her being fairly high in the line up to the Presidency in an emergency, there's some pretty good security-based arguments that she shouldn't be flying cattle-class on Southwest, and if she needs to fly in her own plane, then her staff may as well come along because the variable costs aren't that high. Now bringing family along is another matter and one I don't really support as being on the taxpayer's dime, whether it's Nancy Pelosi or Sarah Palin

Re:Palin the Populist Plutocrat

[Anonymous Coward]

The Republican party is the party of "limited government" but somehow since the 80s US budgets and deficits have grown the most under Republican administrations. The inability of Tea Party politicians to explain where they will make the spending reductions they claim they want to make makes me doubt their veracity on all their claims, particularly the "Leave me alone" part.

Consequence of failure?

[pwnies]

What consequences does the state of Alaska face if they aren't published by that date?

Re:Consequence of failure?

[Anonymous Coward]

We'll stop shipping them beer.

Yeah riiiiight....

[twebb72]

Volumes of emails huh? 900 huh? Apparently Alaska doesn't have copy/paste functionality yet.

I mean, if it were any more, the whole Alaskan infrastructure would need to switch from punch cards to Microsoft Access.

Under the same law, how about we ask for

[Phizzle]

visibility of ALL public government officials emails starting with Boehner and Pelosi. I dont care that much about crap from Alaska, but I do want to read what the people holding the real puppet strings are emailing about. Does MSNBC have the sack for that?

Re:Under the same law, how about we ask for

[Culture20]

visibility of ALL public government officials emails starting with Boehner and Pelosi. I dont care that much about crap from Alaska, but I do want to read what the people holding the real puppet strings are emailing about. Does MSNBC have the sack for that?

Here you go:

Dear [Redacted],
Thank you for [Redacted] my [Redacted]. I [Redacted] [Redacted] [Redacted] toothpaste in my [Redacted] while you [Redacted] on a cherry [Redacted] Episcopalian [Redacted] extension cord [Redacted] wetness [Redacted] with a parking ticket.
Thank you, [Redacted]

That's the quality you get with any FOIA request, and why it's taking so long for Palin's emails. I guarantee they're forcing people to meet for a couple hours of overtime once a week and argue whether the word "is" should be redacted in the third email. Then they order pizza and beer on the state dime. Next week, next word.

Commenting System or User Fail

[cosm]

Is it just me, or in the "new layout" are comments seriously hidden if their parent isn't within the current threshold, but the child is? This comment contains a +5 child, but since it is under a troll-rated parent, I can't see it when browsing on a 5-2 threshold range. How does this stuff even make it to deployment?

Re:Commenting System or User Fail

[Red Flayer]

Is it just me, or in the "new layout" are comments seriously hidden if their parent isn't within the current threshold, but the child is? This [slashdot.org] comment contains a +5 child, but since it is under a troll-rated parent, I can't see it when browsing on a 5-2 threshold range. How does this stuff even make it to deployment?

Well, as the author of the post you cite...

It's not a big deal. If the OP in the thread was a troll (I don't think it was... I think the writer of that post was trying to make a serious point, albeit a misguided one)... then my response was trollfood. If my response was indeed trollfood, then it's probably just as worthless as the troll I responded to.

I guess what I'm saying is... nothing of value was really lost when the slashcode decided my comment was not worth displaying to you. If the parent to my post wasn't visible, then there's no reason to display my post.

That said, I wish the new slashcode would strictly use the threshold, or make it clear that even if you view at +2, you're going to miss posts above your threshold when the parent is below your threshold.

Re:Commenting System or User Fail

[cosm]

I don't know, I still think its a big deal, because if it is as I suspected above, downmodding one parent with 100 children could hide a handful of +3 to +5 insightful comments for no reason other than their parent was rated unworthy. That seems like a design flaw to me, and good and final reason to not obsessively press F5 on this site any more.

Re:Commenting System or User Fail

[Red Flayer]

Good point. Time to email a bug report, I guess.

Re:Commenting System or User Fail

[nuckfuts]

If the parent to my post wasn't visible, then there's no reason to display my post.

Suppose you made +5 Funny riposte to a -1 Troll. I'd want to see it.

Re:Commenting System or User Fail

[glodime]

I just sent the following email to feedback@slashdot.org:

1)
Look at this comment:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1971610&cid=35039378

The # of comments indicated under the word "Comments" is 9.

The number of comments shown with a 3 / 0 threshold is 3 (1 full / 2
abbreviated).

2)
Now actually read the comment:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1971610&cid=35039378

Understand the complaint in the comment (be sure to follow the link
within to see an example).

3)
Fix both or you will loose readership and page views.

4)
Don't tell me that it will be fixed. Just tell me when it is fixed. I'll
be getting my news from elsewhere in the mean time.

Re:Commenting System or User Fail

[Anonymous Coward]

It also affects any middle-clicking on comment ID's to rethread them in a new tab. Bookmarking really good comments so you can get to them is also affected, and on bad days we will forget to click on the abbreviated comments and then do searches by the comment's exact HREF'd target ID from the URL bar.

Re:Commenting System or User Fail

[lightversusdark]

Imagine if folded responses suppressed quoted text.

Re:Commenting System or User Fail

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just you. It's just them, 'Production Testing', or 'Web 0.9c beta'.

Creeping Elegance has become Overwhelming Mediocrity.

Captcha: Trapped

Really?

[TiggertheMad]

I know that /. is full of cynical and borderline paranoids, but really. Think about this for a second...

There there is probably one state IT guy that this got dumped on. Being that he is a state employee in IT, he probably has plenty of other shit to do, and picking through 25k email is a huge time sink. It will need to be evaluated, because a Governor could be, in theory, privy to sensitive material. So, he will probably catch hell if a missed sensitive e-mail goes out, especially in light of the whole wiki leaks thing.

In addition, there is probably a clause that says personal mail doesn't have to be released, and so he has to pick through this idiot woman's mad rambling about pointless shit that shouldn't be on a state mail server anyway. I don't envy the people who have to pick through all the e-mail that is out there when information requests come in.

But in general /., don't be so quick to see a conspiracy, when idiocy and ineptitude are so much more likely.

Re:Really?

[MoonBuggy]

I see your point, but I don't think it too far fetched that, when more-or-less given carte blanche to mark certain emails as 'not for release', those doing the marking will choose to use that power for a little pre-emptive damage limitation. Sure, there are probably strict rules, but in reality nobody with clearance to see the un-redacted archive will ever bother checking, and on the off chance that something is noticed as mis-marked it's easy to put down to human error.

I don't see it as some great Orwellian cover up, but I do see people with motive, opportunity and almost no risk being given the ability to limit the release of data.

Re:Really?

[kenrblan]

I doubt some poor IT guy is sifting through these emails checking for sensitive information. Having worked in public higher education, I had to respond to these types of requests, either for subpoenas or freedom of information act requests. Our procedure was to produce an archive file for the legal staff to handle. The legal staff was aware of what could or could not be released in order to comply with the release. If there is one thing state governments have, it is lawyers. Of course, we are talking about Alaska and judging by the debatable competence of the governor in question, one could speculate about the abilities at all levels of the state government.

Re:Really?

[bored_engineer]

To place even more limits on his time, he's probably had meetings with lawyers, and anything that he thinks is marginal goes to the lawyers for review. To make matters worse, Alaska has long had a shortage of technical types: Engineers, IT, et c. I've been in southern CA for a while, but the recession left me with nothing but the occasional odd job. I recently started applying with the state of Alaska (where I'm from) and have received the following advice: Apply early and often, because of a shortage of engineers has left the state in a bit of a bind. Because of the shortage of talent overall, they apparently have a single hiring manager (the person who checks references and processes applications) and won't even be able to call my references for another week. (If you're looking for work and don't mind the cold, look at the state of Alaska's job page.)

Re:Really?

[PopeRatzo]

because a Governor could be, in theory, privy to sensitive material.

I'm not doubting you, but short of personal information of citizens (which shouldn't be in any emails anyway) could you give an example of something "sensitive" that the governor of Alaska might be "privy" to?

And if the governor of a state is so foolish as to put such information in an email, wouldn't you want to at least know that she had done so?

I say, turn the whole thing over to some journalists at the Alaskan Sentinal or something and let them redact anything "sensitive".

Re:Really?

[Wyatt Earp]

I work in IT here in Alaska. Not the government but a quasi-governmental agency, so state benefits, school year schedule, here in Anchorage.

There are alot of jobs, both with the State and the Universities, and if you have a Federal security clearance there are a ton more up here.

We moved up here when the wife got a job, I was offered three jobs out of five interviews within two weeks.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

how much you wanna bet that when they release this shit, they release like 12,000 emails, they account for another 6,000 as being of personal or sensitive in nature thus not releasing it, and then "lose" the other 8,000 emails some how?

Re:Really?

[gd2shoe]

Of course, we are talking about Alaska and judging by the debatable competence of the governor in question, one could speculate about the abilities at all levels of the state government.

Oh, common. There are elected officials every bit as inept throughout the country. There just aren't many in the limelight.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

based on 986 days, it currently represents covering the contents of 1 email every 10 minutes
this is based on:

986 days * 5 / 7 ~= 704 days (to exclude weekends)
704 days * 345 / 365 ~= 665 days (to exclude a generous 4 week holiday)
25000 email / 665 days ~= 38 emails per day
38 emails per day / 6 hours ~= 6 emails per hour (using a generous 6 hour 'effective' work day)

either each individual email contains more more 2000 words, or there's a ridiculously long checklist to get through
and just remember that the longer this drags out for, the higher the minutes per email rate get
projecting forwards:
- 3 years: 1 email every 10 minutes
- 3.5 years: 1 email every 12 minutes
- 4 years: 1 email every 15 minutes
- 4.5 years: 1 email every 15 minutes
- 5 years: 1 email every 20 minutes
- 9 years: 1 email every 30 minutes
- 13 years: 1 email every hour
i've included the 5, 9 and 13 year marks for the cases where:
a) palin isn't elected
b) palin is elected for 1 term only
c) palin is elected for 2 terms

Re:Really?

[gd2shoe]

I'm not doubting you, but short of personal information of citizens (which shouldn't be in any emails anyway) could you give an example of something "sensitive" that the governor of Alaska might be "privy" to?

Oh, easy. Much of the oil infrastructure up there could be tempting to terrorists. There may easily be other security and/or terrorism issues local to Alaska that the governor would be privy to. (Ports, gubernatorial security procedures, etc.) Use your imagination.

And if the governor of a state is so foolish as to put such information in an email, wouldn't you want to at least know that she had done so?

Not necessarily. Let's say she had an email discussion between herself and someone in charge of a sensitive matter. The email may never have left government computers at all. She could easily have responded with sensitive information that had been sent to her by the same correspondent.

I say, turn the whole thing over to some journalists at the Alaskan Sentinal or something and let them redact anything "sensitive".

Oh, right. Rely on the media to self-censor. We see how well that worked for Wikileaks. (Admittedly, they did some.)

Re:Really?

[strikethree]

WTF?! You seriously think there is one IT guy for the whole state of Alaska government and that one guy will be the one to review the emails and decide if they are fit for public consumption? Seriously dude, wake up. There is no way that anyone in IT is going to be reviewing those emails, much less deciding on whether or not they are releasable. It is not within the scope of IT to make such decisions for governments, state or otherwise.

strike

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

But in general /., don't be so quick to see a conspiracy, when idiocy and ineptitude are so much more likely.

You don't think that, in this scenario, there would be a REASON why the state would only assign one single lone underpaid staffer who's already swamped with other things to do?

Why is it considered OK for the state to break the law (on Slashdot, no less!), and so blatantly for that matter? The law says "10 days"; in reality, it'll apparently be closer to 1000 days. That's two orders of magnitude.

And as usual, ask yourself: cui bono? Who benefits? If something happens that benefits someone who had both the motivation and the means to do it, then it's not entirely unfair to entertain the possibility that they did indeed do it.

Re:Really?

[PopeRatzo]

We see how well that worked for Wikileaks.

It seems like it's worked out really well. I still haven't heard of anyone being killed because of anything wikileaks has published. But it's possible something happened that I didn't hear about, but with the frenzy over wikileaks, you'd think it would have hit the news if something like that had happened.

Re:Really?

[PopeRatzo]

There there is probably one state IT guy that this got dumped on.

Nonsense. I've got a pal who does IT security here in Illinois and they're very well staffed. With all the Federal taxpayer money that gets funneled up to Alaska, I'm betting that they've got a very good-size team with plenty of redundancy.

You may be surprised to know that Alaskan state government is not a model of a "lean, mean" organization. They're probably near the top of the number of government employees per capita.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't judge the state by the woman. Most of us had no clue how batshit insane she was until she hit the national scene - AK has the second highest disapproval rate of Palin in the nation. Normally, us state underlings can actually get quite a bit of work done, whenever some elected assh^H^H^H^Hofficial isn't sticking their finger in things to try and justify their existence. At the risk of paraphrasing The Decider, sometimes I don't wonder if we'd get a heck of a lot more done if this was a dictatorship...
 
You're right, in that it isn't/won't be some lone IT guy, but more than one IT person filtered by a legal team (of which Alaska has plenty. Oh, god, why do lawyers keep coming up here?). Basically, her successor doesn't want to release the stuff, and has found all sorts of excuses to drag the process out to the point where nobody cares anymore.

Re:Really?

[gd2shoe]

Do you know how easy it is for reporters to track individual deaths in a war zone? Not easy at all. I'm sure the Pentagon is trying to keep track of how many of those people are dead. They would have a hard decision to make: release that information to further prejudice people against wikileaks, or keep it to themselves and hope their informants start to feel a false sense of security.

The former doesn't help win the war, the latter is a calculated risk that might. I'm sure if a trial results (probably a matter of time) those details will be discussed in closed court.

Re:Really?

[mind.the.oranges]

Do you know how easy it is for reporters to track individual deaths in a war zone?

Slighter harder than in Egypt I'm sure, but if you weren't paying attention the last round of leaks contained more government-sponsored deaths than the leaks themselves could ever possibly cause. American lives are worth no more than any others, yet your government bullies the world and supports brutal dictatorships that slaughter their own people and you would seek to blame the messenger for delivering you the news? Stay classy.

Re:Really?

[gd2shoe]

... your government bullies the world and supports brutal dictatorships that slaughter their own people...

Nice strawman argument.

It's not as if we didn't already know that (and revile against it). It's not as if it changed our governments policies, nor started the Egyptian conflict.

Some things might have needed to get out, sure. Most of the things leaked, though, serve no purpose but to give targets to violent radical islamists, to destroy legitimate means of diplomacy, or serve no purpose at all. Even if the leak was well intentioned (debatable), it was very, very sloppy.

Hence my point about self policing media. They're good at many things, that isn't one of them.

MsDoS

[Culture20]

As a friend mentioned during a FOIA discussion, it's easy to do a Meat-space Denial of Service on a public entity by requesting "all of X" records, and forcing them to go through and redact. It's even worse when they ask for "all of X" where X is a department in NASA with highly trained people, like engineers or scientists. And they have to redact it instead of letting some bureaucrat decide what should be included. Just imagine a case like this where everyone and their mother did a FOIA request. It's a DMsDoS!

Re:MsDoS

[Anonymous Coward]

I enjoyed this.

Comment system fail

[davros-too]

Its not just you. The +5 child post is only visible if the parent is not abbreviated. I want to see ALL posts, with low-rated posted abbreviated, as per my comment settings. I've tried to be open to change, but I am really starting to dislike the recent 'upgrade'!

Re:Comment system fail

[Anonymous Coward]

The old one was even worse imho. Half the time the tab to show more comments was in the address bar and unclickable regardless of browser. WTH happened to the slashcode over the past two years? It's gone from awesome to crap to crappier. I'm just an artist so I am unsure how hard it is to code, but this is the only web site I visit that consistently displays wrong in IE, Firefox, AND Opera. Nerds need to fix shit.

Re:Comment system fail

[macshit]

Yup, I agree, the new code is really broken in a lot of ways, though it's hard to tell whether it's bugs, or simply bad design.

I actually really liked the immediately previous incarnation of slashdot -- it was much nicer than "traditional" slashdot, because many things like expanding comments were dynamic and didn't require jumping to a new page (which I used to hate about the traditional code), but also seemed to be reasonably solid and well thought-out. This new slashdot is basically a regression in almost every way (except that perhaps the actual code is cleaner, but that's a bit hard for me to tell).

Hopefully all the problems with the new system are just shallow bugs and easily-rectified design mistakes, which will be quickly shaken out...hopefully...haha..."

Re:Comment system fail

[tsm_sf]

I'm just an artist so I am unsure how hard it is to code, but this is the only web site I visit that consistently displays wrong in IE, Firefox, AND Opera. Nerds need to fix shit.

It's not that difficult, but programming tends to attract people who can focus intently on one thing to the detriment of everything else. It's actually something of a requirement for certain projects. Unfortunately this almost always leads to tunnel vision and loss of the "big picture", which is what you're seeing here. Someone is working out a cool or novel approach (at least in their view) and doesn't have the perspective or management to ask if it is, in fact, working.

She?

[DragonWriter]

What can really happen if she doesn't release the emails?

Using the pronoun "she" to refer to the State of Alaska is somewhat unusual.

Re:She?

[WatchMaster]

yeah, the name Palin gets everyone all worked up and ready to blame her for something. even though it is in fact the state of Alaska that is responsible for this effort. I'm sure she can be connected to the riots in Tunisia and Egypt based on her 'inflammatory rhetoric'. Check to see if any of the cross hairs fell on those countries.

Re:She?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? Go read any of the touristy literature: "Alaska's wide-open spaces are just what you have been missing. Her mountains, glaciers and wildlife are exactly what you need." Sounds like she's a beauty!

Mod parent up

[Esteanil]

Looks to me like this is correct, and this would be a major and unnannounced change to slashdot

Policy solution:

[bussdriver]

1) All government emails are released regardless; except security issues which are DELAYED x years
2) All private emails are recorded solely for litigation and archival purposes.
3) use private emails for government business is prohibited and punishable by mandatory JAIL TIME upon completion of the job. Yes, I think every gov should spend a week in jail for their mistakes... but the number grows rapidly as the infraction count gets higher!

Idiocy and ineptitude are the easiest defense and with so many sympathetic people (who understand ineptitude...) there are hardly any consequences for unintentional acts. Kill somebody with a DWI and you get extra punishment simply because it otherwise you could kill people easily by just getting a little drunk (well some people would have trouble at that level while others are minimally impacted by the DWI alcohol levels.) Seems to me that similar measures should be applied in other areas.

The same law won't work

[DragonWriter]

Under the same law, how about we ask for visibility of ALL public government officials emails starting with Boehner and Pelosi.

Because the "same law" would be an Alaska state law that only applies to agencies and officials of the State of Alaska, and neither Boehner nor Pelosi (at least not the Boehner and Pelosi I would think you are referring to) are employed by any agency of the State of Alaska.

What...

[Anonymous Coward]

A treasure trove of retardedness this will be.

On second thought, I apologize to retarded people.

Re:The Prog Meltdown = Hilarity

[cosm]

I don't disagree too much, but let me fix something for you:

The psychotic rants from Sarah Palin are already LOL-worthy

Now, when you calm down and come out of left-vs-right land, do realize that the vast majority of politicos suckle the tit of the corporations and do not work for you. Not left-or-right, just a collective them screwing you. The 'poor-progressives' are no worse than the 'evil-neocons'. They are the same turd, one wrapped in handouts and sunshine paper, while the other is wrapped in American flags and chest-thumping. But still turds.

Kenya

[Anonymous Coward]

So any word on that birth certificate?

Re:Kenya

[Anonymous Coward]

So any word on that birth certificate?

You mean this one? That's been available for years.

But the idiots who are so convinced of the Kenya stupidity will just claim it's a fake (and they have). Hell, you could put them in a time machine, travel back to 1961 so they can witness the birth themselves, and they'll still be convinced that it's a scam. When people desperately want to believe something, all the facts in the world won't change their minds.

Did anything ever happen with...

[Anonymous Coward]

...those work related emails Anon uncovered in her private email box? Slap on the wrist? Anything?

Essentially just a back door way to avoid FOIA requests.

Re:Did anything ever happen with...

[jmac_the_man]

The e-mails themselves showed that Palin wasn't doing anything wrong and was using it for personal correspondence and not state business.
The Crazy Left hypothesized that she must have had ANOTHER secret e-mail address. ("She's Sarah Palin. Of course she's doing something wrong.")
The "hacker" was sentenced to a year in jail.
The "hacker's" father, Mike Kernell, D-93rd District, Tennessee House of Representatives, was re-elected in 2008 and 2010.

or read them on Wikileaks next week

[Petronius]

c'mon Alaska! there has to be someone who can send this to Julien Assange pronto.

The Palin Trap

[jameskojiro]

I think it is funny how whenever Palin's name is mentioned both the left and the right start barking like crazy rabid dogs..

Of course if the Left didn't hiss like vampires hiss at people holding crucifixes and would just ignore her inane ramblings the right wouldn't be so fired up about her and we would all remember he like we Remember the the GOP VP candidate in 1996, I don't even remember who was the Republican Vice President Candidate in 1996, I remember the Old Geezer Bob Dole the viagra dude, but his running mate, no bloody idea, maybe he didn't even have one.....

Remember the old saying, "Any publicity is good publicity" well because the constant Palin hate the Liberals have make her into a superstar. If there had been a couple instances Palin Hatin' that occurred after the election and then let it die down we would be saying "Palin Who?". Even if the right brought her up here popularity would be where Newt Grinich's popularity would be and that is the crapper.

Of course the Left's Hatred of her is irrational and the Right's love of her while being just as irrational has a perfect partner in the whole irrationality of an intense Love/Hate relationship. Which is why she is so damned popular. If either side would simply "drop it" this paradigm would collapse and she would sink into obscurity where she belongs. Instead the left tends to make her their version of the devil even though most on the left don't believe in God, the Devil or Bob the Builder. And the right makes her into their version of Jesus in pumps holding a pump shotgun.

When people in the middle start seeing these completely overstated attacks they react how someone would to seeing someone bullied, they either feel pity for her, or they feel contempt for her. After a while of peeling off people in the middle to both sides and her popularity as either a target or a martyr starts snowballing. It doesn't help that she is an attention whore.

What is the worst thing that can happen to an attention whore? Ignore them.... They will go away... Eventually, of course the more attention you give them early on the longer and harder it is to ignore them so they will go away.

I can't blame the backwards Republitards for liking her because she is the cleaned up version of inbred hillbilly folk.

But the Democrats should know better and hold themselves to a higher standard when it comes to hating her and simply be dismissive and ignore her like the inconsequential fool she is.

If by some sorta Beverly Hillbilly Miracle she gets elected President in 2012, I guess we can either Blame the Mayans for their doomsday prophecy or the dumb ass celebrity obsessed media of the left who have been feeding her attention ever since the day after the last election.

Re:The Palin Trap

[tsm_sf]

The problem is that, on one side, Palin is a walking, talking stereotype of how the left views the right, and on the other side every redneck with MILF fantasies wants to nail her.

I actually feel sorry for her. Were we better people she would have quietly sunk to an anonymous level of middle management that matched her talents a long time ago.

Re:The Palin Trap

[WatchMaster]

thats why shes so entertaining

Re:The Palin Trap

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia, Sarah does you.

Re:The Palin Trap

[gd2shoe]

She won't be elected 2012. I fear that she might become the Republican nominee, though.

You bring up some good points, but do remember: the media LOVES the Palin controversy. It would have gone away if they had dropped it. It thrived because they constantly revived it. I wonder if they're merely following what they perceive to be a good story, or if some more devious political manipulation is going on. (insert conspiracy theory here)

Why so hard???

[FragHARD]

Why not just hire the kid that got into Palin's emails before???

Wow...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not choosing a side... but it seems that Palin gets different media scrutiny due to her conservative political stances. She can get attacked for the slightest comment (be it correct or incorrect), while a liberal politician can get away with, say, mistaking Afghanistan with Iraq... the State Department choosing songs that sing of American defeat in Korea, waiting weeks to react to the BP Oil Spill, etc, with barely a comment. I find this coordinated "steering" of the news by a willing media transparent, tiresome, and alarming.

I find the selective outrage of the left-leaning media disturbing. Honestly, at this point, when I see a story like this involving Palin, my first thought is immediately "Smear Job."

Re:Wow...

[mr100percent]

{Citations needed}

Re:Wow...

[gd2shoe]

You realize you're asking AC to cite references?

To get a general feel for the GP's point, start here.

(If you're in CA, you really should be listening anyways. If you're puritanical, be prepared to skip some hours. I do.)

Re:Wow...

[RightSaidFred99]

You know, it's kind of silly to ask for citations when the post you're referring to mentions specific instances that can be easily searched for on Google.

Let him fucking google that for you, huh?

Re:Wow...

[mr100percent]

All right,
"state department american defeat korea" Zero meaningful matches on google. What was the GP talking about?

Re:Wow...

[RightSaidFred99]

Your Google foo is weak. I guess he was talking about this. Mind you, I think it's a silly thing to get all worked up about, and I can't stand Palin, but that wasn't my point.

Re:No hypocrisy there, nope, none.

[rabryan21]

Hat's off...best troll I've seen in a couple years.

Re:No hypocrisy there, nope, none.

[Zuato]

Not only that but the entire birth certificate thing has been debunked how many times now and people still try to bring that one up? Sheesh.

Re:No hypocrisy there, nope, none.

[Anonymous Coward]

A *sitting* PRESIDENT however, needs no more than "someone" claiming that they've *seen* his birth certificate to satisfy the presidential requirement of citizenship by birth...

Here. Now even you have seen it.

despite his own grandmother asserting he was born in another country.

No, she didn't. There was a miscommunication. This happens when you ask oddly-worded questions to an illiterate 90-year old non-English speaker through an interpreter. Who know's what her understanding of the question was. It could have been translated to her as something like "were you in Kenya when Obama was born?" Here's the actual transcript:

MCRAE: Could I ask her about his actual birthplace? I would like to see his birthplace when I come to Kenya in December. Was she present when he was born in Kenya?

OGOMBE: Yes. She says, yes, she was, she was present when Obama was born.

MCRAE: When I come in December. I would like to come by the place, the hospital, where he was born. Could you tell me where he was born? Was he born in Mombasa?

OGOMBE: No, Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America.

MCRAE: Whereabouts was he born? I thought he was born in Kenya.

OGOMBE: No, he was born in America, not in Mombasa.

MCRAE: Do you know where he was born? I thought he was born in Kenya. I was going to go by and see where he was born.

OGOMBE: Hawaii. Hawaii. Sir, she says he was born in Hawaii. In the state of Hawaii, where his father was also learning, there. The state of Hawaii.

Re:No hypocrisy there, nope, none.

[WatchMaster]

yeah but he hasn't really given us anything new lately, so we have to stick with the good old stuff. Maybe wikileaks will have something for next month.

Re:No hypocrisy there, nope, none.

[dbIII]

Please admit why you want this "proof" - you really just want to see the presidential penis don't you?
Tough luck.
He's no Bill Clinton so it's not on display.
He'll keep it zipped and keep hiding "evidence".


I'm making fun of the people your statement reminds me of partly because it's all pointless and Bush should have shown you that nobody is going to be able to get rid of an incumbent president even if their own party see them as a massive liability. Also if there was anything in it we would have seen Hillary shouting it from the rooftops long before the end of the primaries. Just file it with the moon landing hoax conspiracy and move on.

Palin

[DarkIye]

...state officials said they were overwhelmed by the volume of the e-mails.

Make sure to give all Republican party members one of those ChromeOS laptops without the capslock key in future.

Birth Certificate

[gd2shoe]

Ah, that's different. The last one I saw had said "FEMALE" before it had been doctored. (Maybe it was a Republican ploy? I don't know.)

This one was clearly made using a computer, and not a typewriter. (examine the font; also, they didn't have Laser printers in 1961.) It doesn't mean that he wasn't born in Hawaii, but it isn't the original certification of live birth. That's not a big deal. Many people get replacement birth certificates. What I think people ought to have concentrated on are the registrar's records.

I think both sides of this topic are generally off base.

Re:No hypocrisy there, nope, none.

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy shit, his mother's name is Stanley? I knew it all along, he is the product of a gay wedding! That's something we rightwing nutters fear even more than we fear people born in other countries.

Leave Sarah ALONE! She at least has a REAL JOB

[VirtualJWN]

Maybe the emails will tell where Sarah hid Obamas birth Certificate? Or who REALLY was reponsible for the rescession, housing bubble burst AND most importantly WHO REALLY SHOT the CARIBOU!! LETS ALL IGNORE THE THIRD GOVERNMENT TO FALL TO MUSLIM EXTREMISTS SINCE B. HUSSEIN OBAMA BECAME "the first immigrant MUSLIM president" "Big Ears McChicken Legs" (AKA Obama) said his experience running a bussiness was his "Campaign".....I'd call it more of a reign of terror than a business. Sarah Palins family has several businesses, she has been a Community Prganizer (not a real job) Councilman, Mayor, Governor, Board Member, Vice Presidential Candidate, Fishery Owner, and Mom. Obama on the other hand, know one really knows where he went to school, or grew up. He "worked" for Tony Rezko (known criminal) was friends with Jeremy Ayers.

Glad to see Media interested in Obama

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh silly me. They are not done trashing palain from 08.
Would be nice to see any type of dirt on Obama.

I call Shenanigans!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Overwhelmed"???

Nearly 1,000 days to release 25,000 emails... The state can't get it's act together enough to ready 25 emails per day for release???

I call Shenanigans!!!

Re:Leave Sarah ALONE! She at least has a REAL JOB

[BitZtream]

Or who REALLY was reponsible for the rescession

The media and the panic of crowds. The media blew the whole thing WAY out of proportion because there was little else to talk about, which paniced people too stupid to realize that nothing that effected them was really happening. The only reason the stock market effects anyone outside of New York and the wealthy is because people get scared, otherwise it means almost nothing. The recession didn't exist until the media told us it did and that it was scary and the worst since yesterday ... Then they managed to find some douche bags living in a tent city because they were too fucking stupid to move out of California or go to McDonalds and respond to the now hiring signs.

housing bubble burst

Mostly over paid idiots. Some of the over paid idiots worked at banks and lenders, allowing loans to be processed that even a 4 year old wouldn't have known not to allow. Some of the over paid idiots were the ones that paid 5 times more than a home was worth because it was in some expensive subdivision only to find out a year later that no one living there could afford their mortgages and oh yea ... its not worth what you paid for it so good luck selling it.

WHO REALLY SHOT the CARIBOU

I did but it was 20 years ago, and we made sure to use all of the animal. No waste.

LETS ALL IGNORE THE THIRD GOVERNMENT TO FALL TO MUSLIM EXTREMISTS SINCE B. HUSSEIN OBAMA BECAME "the first immigrant MUSLIM president" "Big Ears McChicken Legs" (AKA Obama) said his experience running a bussiness was his "Campaign".....I'd call it more of a reign of terror than a business.

I don't really know if you're being funny or not, and I can't tell if you're for or against Obama since I can't figure out if you're being sarcastic but ... I could give a fuck what religion a country is really. I have a few muslim associates and you know what? They are just as likely to be nut jobs as the people I went to church with growing up. Religion doesn't define you as a fanatic, while its a common them for people to be religion fanatics, they aren't mutually inclusive. Fanatics are fanatics regardless of religion, and all religions have them, that includes the religion of 'science' ... where people get so fanatical about science that they actually get violent at people who are religious ... which is pretty common on slashdot.

Sarah Palins family has several businesses, she has been a Community Prganizer (not a real job) Councilman, Mayor, Governor, Board Member, Vice Presidential Candidate, Fishery Owner, and Mom.

Yes yes, but I was in clubs in high school that had more people in it than she had under her at any given point in time. Doesn't make her good or bad, but it just shows how meaningless that statement is. I've had a few jobs myself and the reason I don't have a couple of those jobs is because I sucked at them. Just naming jobs people have says nothing about the person unless you say they've only have ever had one job or they've had a new job every week of their life, in which case you can make a few safe bets about them but other than that, your list doesn't mean shit either way.

Obama on the other hand, know one really knows where he went to school, or grew up. He "worked" for Tony Rezko (known criminal) was friends with Jeremy Ayers.

I used to work as a clerk in a store for one of my friends mom.

Turns out she was selling cocaine and pot right in front of me without me noticing, and the last time I saw her she was in a hurry out the door to deal with a family emergency ... which translated too ... she had to drive across town, severally beat a man, then throw him off a bridge to his death for somet

Re:Leave Sarah ALONE! She at least has a REAL JOB

[VirtualJWN]

Sounds like you grew up like the show "Weeds", wow din't know people were like that for real. We REALLY need a Border fence and a mote on the north and south borders. And Border guards that can shoot a dealer in the butt and not go to the Federal Slam, while the Dealer gets citizenship and a get out of jail free card. It isn't so much judging Obama, as there really is NOTHING to judge. He has LOCKED all information pertaining to his Birth, Dual Citizenship, travel while growing up, High School, where he went to College and who paid for it, and much of his private life, including why he has multiple social security numbers. Did you know that people in Iowa at a company which handles student loans were jailed for reading his information last year?? Look it up, really happened. Old adage to finding crime.....follow the money. If you do that with Barry, you find Anton "Tony" Rezko, Jeremy Ayers, and a host of other "baddies" that frankly WOULD throw you off a bridge (I live in Illinois trust me!) Sarah Palin on the other hand is not from the "lower 48" and does into share the criminal tendencies of the people in Organized Crime (AKA Politics). She should have been the top of the Republican ticket in 2008 (McCain dragged the party down) and she would have whooped Barry's butt!!! That is what the MEDIA and LIBS fear, this woman is like much of America, the 75% that are REALLY REALLY REALLY pissed off at the way the idiots in charge are ruining this country! This is only going to change if and when the government of this country starts listening to the people who pay the bills (no not the Chinese) the American People! 2012 is a coming, and the wave is building.