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Crowdsourcing Analysis of the Palin Email Trove

itwbennett writes "Surely you've got better things to do this weekend than read 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin's email. But just in case you don't, the NY Times is looking for volunteers to help 'identify interesting and newsworthy e-mails, people and events that we may want to highlight.' And, for your easy reference, MSNBC has posted the complete collection online."

59 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. volunteers? by waddgodd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So wait, we're supposed to do analysis for free for the NYT, which will then hide said work behind their paywall? Yeah, suuuure.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
    1. Re:volunteers? by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My thoughts exactly.
      Why would I want to do this, only to lose access to my own work.
      If they made the articles generated by this work under some sort of copyleft I might be interested.

    2. Re:volunteers? by Nidi62 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If information wants to be free, why should they have to pay you for finding it?

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    3. Re:volunteers? by duguk · · Score: 4, Informative

      Thankfully, The Guardian (UK) are doing the same thing. Dug

    4. Re:volunteers? by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2

      Heh. Why should we bother? It would be tempting to say that the only person who might find something useful in those emails might be Tina Fey. But even her efforts are dwarfed by the stupidity of the object of her ridicule.

    5. Re:volunteers? by makubesu · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah who would ever do a detailed analysis just to have it put behind a pay wall? Now if you'll excuse me, I have a journal article I'm working on...

    6. Re:volunteers? by rust · · Score: 2

      The NYT paywall doesn't work - as a page loads in Firefox, I just hit 'stop' after the page loads and before the popup 'You are over your 20 article limit' shows up, and I can read anything i want.

      Works all the time, mildly annoying but trivial to defeat their idiotic 'paywall'.

    7. Re:volunteers? by X0563511 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Information wants to be free. Services do not.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    8. Re:volunteers? by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 2

      don't be dense.

      the parent may have espressed himself badly, but the fact is, people making money out of opensource don't deny people who want it for free the access to it.

      so the idea is, if the NYT wants free labor, the result should be left free too, they can then make money in an indirect way (ads perhaps), not by putting it behind a paywall.

      now, if they want to block it with a paywall, the least they can do is give one year free access to everyone who contributes.

      --
      What ? Me, worry ?
    9. Re:volunteers? by igreaterthanu · · Score: 2

      Chrome incognito mode disables all browser plugins

      This is actually not the case. Go to Tools, Extensions and then click "Allow in incognito".

      --
      I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
    10. Re:volunteers? by Dan541 · · Score: 2

      If you find something really good you could try writing something yourself.

      --
      An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
  2. Re:WTF? by NiceGeek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Someone reads too much World Nut Daily.

  3. Probably not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    since the National Archives will do it for them.

  4. Re:WTF? by sandytaru · · Score: 2

    Paranoid troll much? While I agree the scrutiny on Palin is eye-roll inducing, I think I'd rather have them devote their energy to exploring actual, serious presidential candidates, like Romney and Cain. Or exposing the extremist crazy of Michelle Bachman, who is still at least in office.

    --
    Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
  5. Press needs to examine its life by techvet · · Score: 2, Insightful

    His question is legit. Hey, everyone knew Bush's grades but no one cares about Obama's grades? (We only know learned that Gore got a "D" in natural science.) They dug into Jack Ryan's sealed divorce decree when he was running for Senate in Illinois but have no time to bother digging into our current president? The press is complete hypocrisy.

    1. Re:Press needs to examine its life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We know what Obama's fucking grades were. Dude graduated summa cum laude. THAT MEANS HE DID REALLY FUCKING WELL.

    2. Re:Press needs to examine its life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Not to feed the nuts, but there were swaths of Bush's life we knew nothing about. Pretty much everything before he was 40, his alleged drug use, his orgies in the frat house, what he did when he was AWOL, what bribes were made to military personel to insure he would achieve the exact grade he needed to get into the national guard instead of vietnam, all unanswered. My big concern is that we never knew how many people he killed while driving drunk, and how many women he raped. The lame stream media simply did not care.

      In point as fact, as Bush was most certainly a felon, he has no more business being in the white house than Obama. Like Obama there was a conspiracy to make sure that none of the felony charges ever went to court or stick. As mentioned he is most certainly guilty of rape, felony drug charges, felony manslaughter due to recklessness. Beyond that the fact that his daddy bribed government official to get him into the national guard, and then bribed government officials agains so he did not have to serve, meant he never went to jail for draft dodges and never received the court martial he deserved for being AWOL.

      But the worst error was not impeaching him for 9/11. Do you think Bush and to less extent Cheney were not owned by the Saudis? Do you not think that as soon as Bush was elected the Saudis knew they have carte blanche to murder US civilians without any fear of repercussions? We saw the photos when Bush got the news of the attacks? Did he look surprised? Why was he out of Washington for a very infrequent business trip instead of on vacation? Do you not think that Bush knew exactly where Osama Bin Laden was, but did not choose to kill him because that would be like killing family. So he created these conflict to increase oil prices so the Saudies would get richer. He passed policies guaranteed to raise the public debt so the US would be vunerable to future attacks and other hostile action. He probably had the CIA build the housing for bin laden, and probably talked about the caves knowing that the American people could never know the truth, that his brother Bin Laden was safe in a palace.set up with a new young wife to keep him company, while the average american were having their homes repossessed.

      You see how easy it is to manipulate available facts into a narrative. No rational person could possible believe that Bush was not a murderer and Bush/Cheney did not welome the 9/11 attacks. That is no rational person who watches fox news. Everyone else knows the difference a good story and reality.

    3. Re:Press needs to examine its life by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Slashdot was much more reasonable when Elementary school was in session.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    4. Re:Press needs to examine its life by toadlife · · Score: 2

      Who paid his tuition?

      A bank paid his tuition...i.e. he took out student loans.

      He talked many times about how he barely finished paying them off only a few years ago.

      They must not have printed that tidbit on worldnetdaily.

      --
      I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
  6. Plausible by Soulfader · · Score: 2

    After #2 was born around 0100, I passed out completely. My wife was wide awake, did her all-important FaceBook postings, did some writing, even got up and walked around. This was in stark contrast to #1, where she was virtually bed-ridden for the first week.

  7. No thanks by Dyinobal · · Score: 4, Funny

    No thanks I'm pretty sure reading Sarah Palin's emails would lower my IQ by a factor of ten.

  8. So we have an illegal war in Libya by hsmith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And people care about some moron congressman tweeting his penis and dumb Sarah Palin. Glad to know the media is focusing on what is important.

    1. Re:So we have an illegal war in Libya by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And people care about some moron congressman tweeting his penis

      Actually, Wiener's wiener just amused me.

      On the other hand, the lying and false accusations that he made the first week bothered me more than a little.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re:So we have an illegal war in Libya by quantaman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with Palin is a lot of people take her very seriously despite an absurd number of warning signs to the contrary. And if the media didn't keep jumping on her scandals and missteps in the past she very well could still be considered a contender for the Republican nomination. Sometimes these media scandals are just a distraction from important issues, but other times they're a chance to say "hey, that person you've been praising as the second coming? Well here's yet another piece of evidence that they're complete nutjob, now go back and think about why you were such an idiot before".

      Sure, most of her followers won't get the message, but a few will, and the world will be that much wiser for it.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    3. Re:So we have an illegal war in Libya by mean+pun · · Score: 2

      But Obama is a Marxist, so anything he does is wonderful.

      The funny part is that the left seem to believe that discrediting Palin would help them, whereas the right-wing Americans I know only like Pailn because she pisses off the left so much; they'd never actually vote for her, but she's a useful distraction.

      In current US politics Marxist must mean something like `slightly less rightwing than the really extreme rightwingers', because Obama is certainly not anywhere near a real Marxist as we Europeans know the term.

      And if Palin is a distraction, exactly what or whom is she distracting from?

    4. Re:So we have an illegal war in Libya by Culture20 · · Score: 2

      Why is the war in Libya illegal? I understand why the war in Iraq is illegal, but when did the UN stop sanctioning action in Libya? [No sarcasm, I'm genuinely interested.]

      The UN does not make War legal in America. The Congress does. Obama didn't even consult Congress before sending in troops. On the other hand, Iraq is 100% totally legal (even with the UN, since the war was actually started in the 1990's, and Saddam never stopped firing on our troops).

  9. Re:WTF? by iluvcapra · · Score: 2

    To be fair, this data dump is fulfilling a FOIA that was filed two YEARS ago, when she had just been nominated vice president (by a few thousand people that probably shouldn't have just taken everything on authority and should have known better, I might add.)

    --
    Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
  10. Re:Trig birth conspiracy by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    My wife came home and cleaned the kitchen. Women aren't always delicate little puffs.

    I bet you got big brownie points for that one....

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  11. Re:Wikileaks? by threeseas · · Score: 2

    Palin's emails got released as there is little damage they can do. In fact they would probably be beneficial as a distraction from the exposure of the paranoid power tripping delusional fraction of 1% of the population messing with the 7 billion rest of us that not only Wikileaks helps to expose but got and getting a verifying reaction of these psychological handicap in need of constraints from their positions of command.

  12. It's a pointless exercise by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason it took them 3 years to release the emails is it took that long to screen out all the damaging material. Palin switched to her private email accounts for all the juicy stuff and she was pretty disciplined about it on top of that. We've got some indications of conversations since emails to those accounts both from and to official aides have been released. I heard on the news last night from the Mother Jones reporter who initiated the email request that stuff like conversations with Cheney and "Same Sex" thread have been completely redacted.

    You think they'd wait 3 years, dump the emails ONLY to printed paper, redact the hell out of the content, and charge people if they *really* wanted to give you access?

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  13. Re:As the great Bart Scott once said... by seeker_1us · · Score: 2

    Actually, she did do something wrong. She used a non government account for official business, so much of the email would not be tracable.

  14. Re:WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    He was magna cum laude. Verified by Harvard. Not as high as summa, but the point remains that he was top 10% of his class at Harvard.

  15. Re:WTF? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All I'm sayin' is if the media still have the energy and resources to root around in Mrs. Palin's old emails, air drop into Alaska back in the campaign to root around in her trash cans, etc. perhaps a little attention to the guy who actually IS president and appears to want to run for reelection might be worthy of the basic scrutiny the media would give a candidate for governor or senate. Or we might want to face the reality that the media already know Obama's story and are intent on the voters never learning it.

    Well, go for it dude. Certainly there have to be a couple of more folks with your bent to get together and sort this out. Certainly the Fox News folks and persons of similar persuasion have the means and the motive to go look for dirt in his past. Perhaps they have done that and found he was a B+ student who wrote boring things, didn't do drugs and didn't get arrested -- basically a meh story. Who knows? Obama is your typical bog-standard Politician, no more no less. Not nearly as entertaining as an attractive batshit insane ex cheerleader with dubious command of history, geography and language.

    What's not to like?

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  16. Re:WTF? by PC+and+Sony+Fanboy · · Score: 2

    Or maybe there is a reason his records are sealed. Because they would make it plain he is a below average shlub who was admitted and honored more for his biography and 'diversity' than his ability.

    ... lol ... same reason his birth certificate couldn't be found. Brilliant PR ... let the loonies make the right wing look completely half-cocked, so no one wants to affiliate themselves with the right, gain votes, and get in.

    But hey. You're free to believe whatever you want, and I'm free to believe you're an idiot.

  17. Re:WTF? by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For example we know W's GPA was actually comparable to Gore or Kerry's. Yet somehow Gore and Kerry are considered so super smart while W is universally ridiculed as an idiot.

    GPA wasn't why Bush was and is considered pretty stupid. The reason he's considered stupid is that he's not really accomplished all that much - his military record was mediocre at best, most of his business ventures (which wouldn't have started without money from his dad's friends) flopped, and his political campaigns were also basically inheriting his dad's political apparatus. That and a speaking style which provoked unfavorable comparisons to Dan Quayle gave him a reputation of being rather stupid, deservedly or no. Basically, there's good reason to think that if he had started out in the same environment as Ronald Reagan did, he would have been a nobody.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  18. Re:WTF? by LanMan04 · · Score: 2

    Do something about jobs and housing already.

    FTFY

    --
    With the first link, the chain is forged.
  19. If she really wanted to clean by publiclurker · · Score: 2

    it would be advisable to let her. When my wife had our kids, some strange nesting instinct seems to have kicked in. Trying to stop her would have not been healthy.

  20. Re:This is /., not Digg. by duguk · · Score: 5, Funny

    You seem to be lost. This is Slashdot, not Digg. When we agree with somebody, we don't say that we "dug" their post.

    Yes, unfortunately this results in a lot of confusion; including being alerted in Minecraft IRC channels every few seconds.

    Dug happens to be my name, you insensitive clod.

  21. Probably too late; but what the hell... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While I find the farce surrouding the opposing forces of Palin's cult of personality and those who simply cannot stomach her and will dig through anything to justify that to be tedious and misguided, we should not let that distract us from the potential real issues at play here.

    Alaska is, perhaps uniquely among American states in the present day(with the possible exception of the poorer; but much more overtly corrupt Appalacian coal belt), a state with an immensely lucrative extraction-economy, and not too much else going on. This means that there is considerable money to be made in controlling pipeline contracts and routes, security assorted extraction licenses, controlling obscure planning offices, and other tedious activity in sparsely settled areas. Although much more scenic than most, and often less violent, this does leave it open to many of the same dysfunctional political dynamics enjoyed by the poor nations who have large mineral reserves and weak governance.

    We shouldn't forget that. It doesn't matter what the contents of Palin's Office Yahoo Account tell us about who popped out out a baby when. Sordid trailer-park drama? probably, but who cares? However, it is generally the case that, behind every folksy politician who is bored by the details, lurks a small army of value-rational and detail-oriented hatchetmen quietly cleaning up the spoils. Sometimes, if the local cult of personality is strong enough, they are in thrall of that politician. In other cases, the politician is their frontman. In either case, though, their activities are the stuff that desperately needs as much sunlight(and cell space) as the public can devote to it. Don't let the personality drama get in the way.

  22. Re:WTF? by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    He's Irish (or at least he was a few weeks back). Doesn't that make him a MacLatto?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  23. At least someone is creating jobs by slapout · · Score: 2

    "Sarah Palin's emails have created more jobs than the last $2 trillion in federal stimulus." -- David Burge

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
  24. Right or wrong by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

    Right or wrong, I've long ago made up my mind that Palin is a skanky ole ho, who is just getting by on her history as a beauty queen. I've not read anything to make me like her, and I've read plenty to make me dislike her.

    I can't see that sifting through her emails is going to improve my opinion of the ole ho. Like most other people, I'll just interpret the crap I find to reinforce my current opinion.

    'Course, most other people can't admit that they'll do that, LMAO!!

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  25. Re:This is /., not Digg. by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

    Well, at least AC isn't lost. He's on slashdot, and he can't be bothered to RTFA, RTFS, or even to RTFN of the poster he responds to.

    not Dug :>)

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  26. Re:WTF? by mean+pun · · Score: 2

    Sorry, but with modern US politics in the state it is in, I really can't tell if you're serious or not. If this is satire it is rather poor quality. If this is a representative opinion of part of the US electorate I think it is time to do a really thorough check of the drinking water. There seems to be a lot of lead in it.

  27. They will never focus on Obama by Shivetya · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Get over it.

    This is why this whole Palin frenzy is so damn distressing. She isn't even declared as a candidate for the next election yet it seems as if the line to be part of the character assassination just continues to grow. This is like taking the worst aspects of Reality TV and having the press and politicians play the parts.

    If they even tried this with Obama there would be lines of people screaming racism. That alone allows Libya to continue and Yemen to be next. I wonder how many years after Obama leaves office before someone will have the courage/be allowed to investigate him. We can destroy women; Hillary really didn't get good treatment from the press either once they crowned Obama their pick, but guys seem to get a free pass in politics, doubly so if they can hide behind an army of sycophants.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
    1. Re:They will never focus on Obama by Microlith · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I understand that you hate Obama (and probably all Democrats,) but your point seems to be mostly irrational.

      She isn't even declared as a candidate for the next election yet it seems as if the line to be part of the character assassination just continues to grow.

      Maybe it's because there's a large, idiotic segment of the population that does want her as president. And people want to see exactly how (un)ethical of a person she is before they try to put her manipulative ass in the White House. That they've taken great pains to ensure that these e-mails are difficult to get and stripped of useful information, I suspect they've worked very hard to hide things.

      If they even tried this with Obama there would be lines of people screaming racism.

      Why? Official e-mails are part of the public record. The reason people are all over this is because of the deliberate actions taken to make these records hard to get.

      I have no sympathy for Palin. She's manipulative, power hungry, and has show no evidence that she would be remotely capable of handling the role of the Presidency. She killed McCain's run, simply due to the fear that if anything happened to him, she'd end up in the hot seat.

    2. Re:They will never focus on Obama by Jsutton1027w · · Score: 2

      I have no sympathy for Palin. She's manipulative, power hungry, and has show no evidence that she would be remotely capable of handling the role of the Presidency.

      Really? What evidence do you have of her manipulation and/or power hungriness? I suppose the less-than-one-term senator that is now our president showed he was capable? What Obama has shown since taking office is that he doesn't have what it takes. He has shown a disdain for the constitution (in many ways). He has shown a disrespect for the role of the judicial branch (his Interior Department being held in contempt of court) when it sutes his interests. In addition, our country is in worse economic shape now than it was 2.5 years ago when he took the helm. I don't believe that presidents alone can improve the economy much, but they can sure as hell make it worse by the policies that they choose to promote and the bills that they sign into law (after our illustrious congress has done their duty of writing rules to complicate our lives). How's that hope and change working out for you?

    3. Re:They will never focus on Obama by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      Palin never had the power to win new converts to his side. She did, and still does, have one powerful attribute: The ability to energise the base. Before Palin, the powerful social conservatives who make a a substantial part of the Republican voters and an even more substantial part of their grassroots campaign just didn't care. Oh, most would have gone out to vote just on the strength of party affiliation, but that was all - they'd vote for McCain just to keep a democrat out. Palin got them excited. With the excitement came the rallies, the campaign contributions, the get-out-the-vote efforts, the volunteer busses from churches and republican-leaning districts to the polling centers. She turned an apathetic base into one more excited than it had ever been. In the end though, it just wasn't enough, but he would have done even worse if he's chosen a 'safe' VP.

  28. Re:WTF? by sandytaru · · Score: 2

    Yeah, I don't know about Obama's SAT score. I do know about ol' GWB's SAT score, and I know that I scored about four hundred points higher than he did. (So did Natalie Portman.) Didn't we all come to the conclusion that SAT scores meant nothing in terms of one's success and that judging a person by their SAT score is intellectual elitism?

    --
    Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
  29. Re:WTF? by sandytaru · · Score: 5, Informative

    Considering he was presiding editor of Harvard Law Review (vol104) , I'm assuming he had to have done quite well. The student editors are chosen from a combination of grades and scores in a competition for the editors slots, and then the students select the "best" among them to be the President of the editing group (which Obama was.) If a poor black kid from Hawaii had the $$ to bribe 39 other rich students into selecting him as the "best" choice among them, I'll eat my hat. As it stands, there's a possibility that the task was given to him because no one else wanted to do it, but considering the prestige that comes with the position, I find that highly unlikely.

    --
    Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
  30. Re:WTF? by wisty · · Score: 2

    I guess he got in because he had been working for 5 years after college - 1 in a possibly CIA-connected business consulting group, 1 in a public interest group, and 3 years as a "community organizer". It looks fucking great to an admissions officer. He's obviously ambitious, community-focused, and comfortable working with people. And I bet he wrote a killer application. Plus he had diversity points. Overal, he had "future mayor, governor, or maybe even president" written all over him - that's the kind of guy people pay to go to Harvard with.

  31. Re:WTF? by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 2

    Harvard Law has about 500 seats per year and thousands of applications, almost all of which are going to have better transcripts that Barry probably had. But Harvard not only wanted this guy they wanted him so bad they were willing to give a free ride?

    because they found something compelling in his application that said "This guy has high potential."

    again, unlike you, whose writings scream "internet kook" and are compelling only in your own mind.

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  32. Re:WTF? by amiga3D · · Score: 2

    You know how it is. Anytime records are sealed people always wonder about it. The conjecture usually is worse than the truth though. That's why sealing records mostly seems to do more harm than good. The best bet is to just be open and deal with whatever the issue is. I put this forward as a guess at a possible reason for keeping things secret. It's based on the point that some members of the administration have in the past expressed admiration for Mao and his policies. I might be wrong, it is just a guess. It's a better one than that his grades sucked though. He could hardly have graduated with honors if his grades weren't good.

  33. Re:WTF? by tombeard · · Score: 2

    Your screwing up an old joke.
    "What did bush get on his SAT? BBQ sauce."

    --
    The reason we subjugate ourselves to law is to better procure justice. If law does not accomplish this purpose then it m
  34. Re:As the great Bart Scott once said... by AlamedaStone · · Score: 2

    Those emails are also in the Great Tree-Killing data-dump.

    We hope.

    --
    "All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
  35. Re:Probably won't find anything... by anotheregomaniac · · Score: 2

    All your email are belong to us

  36. Re:WTF? by Raenex · · Score: 2

    So where does Obama fit in? Everyone in DC says he is the smartest guy who ever sat in the comfy chair. Is he? I haven't seen the slightest evidence of it in his (not his speechwriters) words or in his deeds.

    He handled himself just fine on the live health care debate with the Republicans (who were busy screaming "It's a trap!" before the event). He takes questions and can speak on issues coherently off the cuff. The idea that's he's just some "below average shlub" is ridiculous.

  37. Re:This is /., not Digg. by interkin3tic · · Score: 2

    Dug happens to be my name, you insensitive clod.

    Could be worse.

    Sincerely,
    Reply To This

  38. So let me get this straight... by Silver+Surfer+1 · · Score: 2

    The Democrats could not be bothered to read the 2400 page health care bill but everyone is all over Palin's 24,000 pages of useless e-mails?

    I thought She was irrelevant and the left was "so over her" yet they hang on every word and action She does.

    So very sad.