Palin’s Email
By now you have heard that Palin’s email account at yahoo has been hacked by those lovable scamps at 4chan. Two quick things:
1.) This merely reinforces how reckless and careless this woman is, and how reckless and careless this choice is. John McCain chose a woman so stupid she runs government business through yahoo.
2.) This response from Malkin is awesome:
“Where are the privacy absolutists now?”
What is the big deal, Michelle? If you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to hide, AMIRITE?
Seriously. I would never publish her private emails, but listening to Malkin kvetch about privacy is, after years of listening to her cheerlead the surveillance state, how do I put this… A BIT FUCKING RICH.
*** Update ***
The dumbest thing about this, dumber even than Palin conducting official business on an unsecure email account, is that a world of hurt is going to come down on the jackasses who did this:
FBI Spokesman Eric Gonzalez in Anchorage, Alaska confirms to CNN an investigation is underway.“We are aware of the allegations and we are coordinating with Secret Service as far as the allegation that someone has hacked into Governor Palin’s personal e-mail account,” he said. “We are going to be working a joint investigation with Secret Service on this.”
Brian Hale, an FBI spokesman in Washington, also confirms the FBI has been contacted about the incident. Two federal law enforcement sources say the FBI and Secret Service would have concurrent jurisdiction normally on a matter such as this, but it remains to be seen if the Secret Service will take the lead on the investigation because Palin is a protectee.
If what I know about the morons at 4chan is accurate, their forte is porn, pedophilia, racism, gaming, and hacking. You would think they would not want to bring attention to themselves.
*** Update #2 ***
Since there appears to be some confusion, “lovable scamps” was sarcasm. Kinda why the whole post was filed under assholes. There really is no love here for folks hacking into people’s personal email.
Warren Terra
Out of curiosity, what was the response of the Countertops Brigade when the McCain campaign (falsely) cried foul that a bunch of Obama staffers had gone up to Alaska to investigate Palin’s record?
demkat620
What amazes me is why the McCain campaign hadn’t already locked this down. But I guess this is really par for the course. I mean, nobody could have anticipated that somebody would hack the Governor’s email.
ImJohnGalt
Since the Open Thread is pretty much down there, let me ask this.
Wife and I are leaving on a Road Trip starting from, say, Buffalo to Wilmington NC. Planning on PA, WV, VA, and NC on the way.
Anyone have any recommendations for fun/quirky/poignant stops along the way? I don’t want to rush down Interstates the whole way. Think “Elizabethtown”, without the convoluted plot.
rawshark
OT:
And again thanks for the tip about Amcon.com
Someone there linked this, it almost makes you think we have a chance
BombIranForChrist
A question:
1. Is it illegal for the governor to include government business in personal email?
2. If it is illegal, can law enforcement take these illegally obtained emails and use them to prosecute?
Don
What happened to not linking to Malkin?
demkat620
Well, Kennett Square, PA is the mushroom capital of the world and has a decent winery.
How’s that?
Punchy
I had no idea you could hack each other’s yahoo accy….
/begins furiously deleting about 1000 raunchy emails from inbox
dr. bloor
Yahoo? Yahoo? I would imagine the sophistication required for this job rendered it as little more than an initiation rite for someone looking to join the group.
Chris Johnson
Oh my.
Such epic win.
Makes me happy :)
DragonScholar
Ironic indeed.
I disapprove of this invasion of privacy very strongly. But Malkin has absolutely no room to complain – ask the Frosts.
SpotWeld
GOP.. our internet has training wheels!
cleek
gotta see the USS North Carolina. it’s docked at Wilmington.
the Eva Gardner Museum in Smithfield NC is pretty quirky.
Nylund
How does Malkin know that the hackers were the same ones who condemned her for stalking a 12 year old (and numerous other horrendous acts of privacy violations)?
For all we know it was Jesse Malkin who hacked it hoping to find some Palin Porn.
Me thinks there are a lot of conservative boys out there hoping to score some nudie Palin pics. Heck, had I any faith that Jonah had any IT skills, I’d guess him. Glenn Reynolds may be up for the challenge, but we all know he’s into the robot sex.
DSB
PmJohnGalt-
Which way are you going? Down 95, or in the left half of NC? If it’s the left half, there are a lot of good places to visit: Old Salem is a quaker community in downtown Winston-Salem. There’s the NC zoo in Asheboro, and if you want to REALLY go out of your way, the Biltmore House is in Asheville, but it’s in the exact opposite part of the state than Wilmington.
As far as Eastern NC, traveling down the outer banks is always a good time. Many of the light houses are still standing and you can take tours of them. The North Carolina Estuarium is neat (it’s a museum about all the waterways in NC) and once you get to Wilmington, the USS North Carolina is always fun to visit.
Hope I helped!
gypsy howell
You just just missed the Mushroom Festival though. That was the weekend before last. Try us again next year.
About the winery though… well, I guess it’s all a matter of personal taste.
DSB
HOLY HELL, reading the comments in Malkin’s blog posts makes me feel like the guy from the movie PI when one of his migraines come along.
oh, and ImJohnGalt, sorry for the previous misspelling of your name
bvac
Yahoo has one of the easiest-to-hack webmail services out there. Literally all you need to do it is their birthday and zip code.
And they want to give her the nuclear codes?
As far as privacy goes, this has nothing to do with it. If someone breaks into my home because I left the key under the welcome mat, they’re not invading my fucking privacy, they are breaking and entering. Furthermore, if I kept company secrets in my home when I wasn’t supposed to, I’d get shitcanned.
AkaDad
Apparently, Sarah Palin is not aware of all internet traditions.
Scott H
I’m not interested in Palin’s emails – but I’d love to know how lame her password was.
And, yeah, McCain’s campaign should have been scrubbing that sort of thing. These people do not need to be in charge of leading (nor defending) this country.
Martin
Hmm, this might be double bad news for Palin as the subpoena for those emails will now have to go to Yahoo for the backup for that account. And I don’t imagine that Yahoo will be inclined to resist that, though they’ll have to move fast.
PC
in b4 7 proxies
David Hunt
As I understand the matter, it doesn’t matter whether or not it is illegal for Gov. Palin to do government business via Yahoo. Stolen evidence can be used if the thief was not acting as an agent of the government. So if a thief steals something incriminating from you (on his own initiative)and then turns it over to law enforcement, the Fourth Amendment has no bearing. 4A was put into place to protect the people from the government. Of course the thief would be subject to prosecution for whatever crimes they committed in obtaining the evidence, usually theft, trespassing/B&E/hacking, etc.
The Moar You Know
A question:
1. Is it illegal for the governor to include government business in personal email?
2. If it is illegal, can law enforcement take these illegally obtained emails and use them to prosecute?
1. Yes, there are reporting and archiving laws. Using personal email dodges those requirements. That is not an accident.
2. They could. They won’t. Fearless Leader Cheney has shown us all the way.
Blackwood
It sounds like you are going to go down west, and then cross over in either Virginia, or in North Carolina. One of my favorite places to stop in western Virginia is Lexington, VA, off of 1-81. Stonewall Jackson grew up there (I think) and R.E. Lee was president of Washington and Lee, and both are buried there in town. The whole town is gorgeous, a true historic town, and you can get your dose of history there, and then hit up the Natural Bridge kitsch about 10 miles away—petting zoo, wax museum.
And Cape Fear, near Wilmington, I would go to the Cape Fear Serpentarium. Epic.
http://www.capefearserpentarium.com/about2.html
Jake
OT, but if you haven’t seen this post over at Mudflats (an Alaskan blog), it’s a must read. It quotes a write-up by a local representative. A snippet:
protected static
Richmond, VA has an Edgar Allen Poe museum. FWIW, Richmond is also home to several other museums that honor treason in defense of slavery…
MikeJ
Not really a privacy issue if she was conducting public business.
blackwood
John Galt:
If you are going down the western side of Virginia, you should stop in Lexington, VA. A true historic downtown. Both Stonewall Jackson and Lee are buried there in town, and the two colleges, VMI and Washington and Lee have great museums on their former leaders. Gorgeous place, and really great shops, antiques, candy, coffee. About 10 miles away is the Natural Bridge, which has a wax museum and a petting zoo in addition to the vastly over-hyped natural wonder of the world, if you overdose on Lexington.
And, when you get to Wilmington, you should go to the cape fear serpentarium. Epic. http://www.capefearserpentarium.com/about2.html.
Stuck in the Fun House
LOL. those guys are good. They need to get “Blackberry John” “POW” MCcain on the case.
Postscript from the Funhouse;
A taste of wingnut medicine for wingnuts is the right prescription for what ails the body politic. Give em the fucking vile.
ThymeZone
Precisealiciously.
Trust me, there is NO expectation of privacy in email to or from a public official about public business.
Zero, nada. Fuggedaboudit. Malkin is completely full of shit.
demkat620
I should have been clearer. A decent winery as far as PA wineries go. I had some of the Chambourcin. It was okay. I really liked their Spring wine they used to make. Nice and light and used to be cheap enough but they got a little pricey when they hit that one wine that was highly rated.
Tsulagi
When you’re right you’re right. Plus, straight talkerette Palin no doubt would be the first to agree. When the new mayor of Wasilla was challenged on spending $50k without council approval to redecorate her office to look like a Madame Palfrey waiting room, her response was…
Sound familiar? Yep, Bush on a tampon. But anyway, the courts didn’t specifically tell those playful hackers they couldn’t hack her Yahoo account so surely she can appreciate their initiative. You thought they broke the mold with the Decider? Nope, here comes Bush’s vagina.
Litlebritdifrnt
If you are coming down the Eastern part of NC I would also recommend the outer banks, Manteo (Elizabethan Gardens), Kitty Hawk for obvious reasons, traveling down US 17 you will come upon Alligator River Wildlife Reserve and Lake Mattemuskeet (sp) the largest lake in NC and just a haven for wildlife.
LiberalTarian
While browsing hurriedly, you can imagine I thought John had finally told us what he REALLY thought.
But, no. Just wishful reading.
oh really
Ordinarily, I would condemn hacking into someone’s email account and leave it at that.
In this case, if Palin was doing government business on a private account to circumvent the law, then having the account hacked will either drive her further underground or chastise her for her behavior and perhaps nudge her back toward the light. If it does the latter, then we are all better off as a result. If it accomplishes the former, no one should be surprised given the lack of belief on the part of Republicans in open and honest government.
Eventually, I imagine we can expect Republicans to be carrying out all their business on super-secret, non-governmental, non-commercial email webs.
I just hope this stunt doesn’t garner sympathy for the “Victim Palin.”
Litlebritdifrnt
PS) John did you see that Vid of Barack today? The “staff meeting” comment. It was brilliant. I believe it is on Ben’s blog.
Rick Taylor
I thought Michelle couldn’t stand McCain and wasn’t going to vote for him if he won? I guess she could stomach Clinton but not Obama? It’s a bit rich.
ImJohnGalt
Awesome, thanks for the recommendations! Keep ‘em coming. We have no agenda at all, and can take as much time as we like to get down there. We’ll actually be ending up in Long Beach, NC, where my wife has a modest beach house. I said “Wilmington” because as far as I knew it was the nearest large city that people might know.
I just thought it might be nice to practice slow travel for a change. We are both foodies, so any great BBQ or other regional food joints on the way down would be awesome as well.
We have no set route, DSB, but my wife’s parents have a mountain house not too far from Asheville, so we probably won’t be coming that way as we’re trying to find new, quirky places to see and things to do/eat. I’ll add the Estuarium to the list.
We’re packing our beagle, our golf clubs, my guitar, and a bunch of books and magazines, and just goin’ this Saturday until the following Sunday.
Gypsy Howell, looks like we’ll just miss your Beer Festival as well. Darnit!
Hoping some WVA’ers and other Penn people’ll weigh in.
John?
Warren Terra
Because other people are using this as an Open Thread, and because I can’t resist it, via Oliver Willis I have this link to a Washington Post Story:
....
[local Republican committee chairman] Hyland said he expects as many as 1,000 supporters to turn out for the event at Edison High School, where former senator George Allen and Reps. Tom Davis and Frank R. Wolf are expected to speak.
....
they are targeting Korean, Arab, Chinese, Taiwanese and Latin American communitiesI guess targeting Americans with ethnic ties to the Indian subcontinent would have been too ironic?
Fairly epic FAIL …
james
You’re welcome :)
dslak
I concur with oh really, but I would also like to add that, as long as the government claims the prerogative to spy on its citizens without a warrant, I can’t condemn citizens who illegally spy on government.
dslak
Jake, the galling thing about that post at Mudflats is how the GOP is willing to drag distinguished public servants through the mud for short-term electoral gain. No wonder it’s so hard to get honest people to work for the government – look how they’re repaid for their hard work!
John Cole
Places around here that you should visit include:
Blackwater Falls
Falling Water
the New River Gorge
ImJohnGalt
Falling Water! Thanks for the reminder, John – we’ll love seeing that.
Stuck in the Fun House
New River Gorge is totally awesome . Used to go there many years ago and watch the idiots jump off with hand gliders.
Shade Tail
Palin is such a tool. She shouldn’t have been using that yahoo account for government business. MikeJ is right, she should have no expectation of privacy for that.
Malkin is such a tool. To act like private citizens hacking into someone’s email account is equivalent to illegal spying by Bush is just such shit.
Jon H
Anyone else thinking that it was the Rovians who leaked the emails?
Now, if legal stuff hits the fan, the GOP lawyers can try to argue that the emails were not obtained using a warrant, murky provenance, etc, etc. Probably won’t work in court, but hashing it out will help run out the clock.
Brian J
I’d argue that while it’s not particularly great that her Yahoo! account was hacked, I don’t see the reasoning behind letting her stall on handing them over. She’s not dealing with national security secrets, but official state business. In other words, I don’t see how you can claim privacy when you are working for the people of Alaska on matters relating to their state.
Kevin
Falling Water, that’s the Frank Lloyd Wright house?
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
Note: This statement was produced after replacing the word “Sky” with “Malkin” and “blue” with “full of shit”
Jake
No doubt, dslak. This guy Monegan appears to have been an all-around good guy that just about everyone liked. The one upshot about all of this is some sense that the worm is turning in Alaska.
4tehlulz
>>And they want to give her the nuclear codes?
They’ll be torrents of the football on The Pirate Bay within 24 hrs of her assuming the presidency.
bago
VP pick pwned by /b/-tards!
How much more of a perfect metaphor can you get for the times.
Melinda
If you get that far east, don’t miss Scranton, birthplace to Joe Biden, homeplace to Hillary Clinton, etc. The last time I was through they had “Dunder Mifflin” banners on the lampposts, which ought to give you some sense of what they feel they have to brag about. Definitely hit the Anthracite Museum. Unfortunately you missed the Polka Fest.
On Palin, I do think that she has some expectation of privacy that ought to be respected. It’s not okay to read other people’s email. On the other hand, one reason that you don’t use servers that you don’t control is because using them increases the risk of this kind of crap (although the fact that someone told her that it’s okay to use Yahoo for state business suggests that they don’t understand the issues well enough to run their own system securely). But just because she’s got crappy judgment (let me count the ways) and has incompetent technical advisors doesn’t mean that her email is fair game.
JackieBinAZ
Here’s some
capelza
I wonder if her own kids will explain to her what 4chan and Anonymous are.
Walker
My family is from Wilmington. Make sure to eat at Jackson’s Big Oak Barbeque. Orton Plantation is a great visit as well.
Unfortunately, the town is not what it once was. The influx of retirees has really screwed with traffic patterns and killed and awful lot of the green space (not to mention the fact that you cannot crab in the sound any more). The migration of shopping out of the city towards the beach on a road with a single point of access has been a disaster (they do not call that shopping center “Mayhem” for nothing).
PC
Haha! O/b/ama, amirite?
D-Chance.
Way to go, Liberals!
Obama finally comes up with the Serious Two Minute Ad covering the economy… and you Liberals completely wipe it off the map with this silly hacking episode. Not only have you negated any momentum the MUPpet Master could have built off this, you also just piled on tons of sympathy points onto the McCain/Palin from the Undecided voters.
It’s almost as if you Liberals WANT to lose the election. How many more times are you going to put that gun barrel in your mouths before November?
4tehlulz
>>I wonder if her own kids will explain to her what 4chan and Anonymous are.
The kids are probably regulars.
Track’s a /b/tard. Fuck, he probably did this for the lulz. Bristol posts Naruto slash (SasukexNaruto 4eva!) on /y/; meanwhile, her husband is on /r9k/ posting about twenty advice threads a day in the vain hope of a way out of this nightmare he finds himself in.
Todd, /d/, he married Sarah, after all. Sarah is probably a /k/ommandno.
Search your heart. You know it’s true.
Nikolita
I agree with Melinda. Dumb as it was to use a yahoo e-mail account, that doesn’t excuse having her account hacked and personal things like e-mail addresses of family members and family photos spread all over the internet.
4tehlulz
lol at D-Chance thinking /b/tards are liberals
PC
4tehlulz wins one internets.
ThymeZone
Actually, it’s fair game because it’s public business. It’s part of the public record, by definition.
A public official who uses Yahoo to send and receive mail related to her job duties? Get serious, she has no standing to keep that mail from public scrutiny. But let her try, the effect will be the same as putting water onto a grease fire: A bigger fire.
dslak
When anything you don’t like or can’t understand is “liberal,” it’s easy to see why someone might think that.
bago
Nikolita is not aware of all internet traditions.
Hacking Private Email Account Of Governor Sarah Palin Is An Act Of “Liberalism”? | THE GUN TOTING LIBERAL™
[...] Other worthy blogger reactions; both sides of the political divide: Don Surber (Right) says the Secret Service might wish to pay a visit to Gawker; Taylor Marsh (Left) says this just proves Sarah Palin is trying to skirt public records laws just like President Bush has done; Wizbang (Right) says this is an example of Palin Derangement Syndrome; Michelle Malkin (Right) tells us how it all went down; Balloon Juice (Middle) stings the Righties by reminding them their mantra is, “If you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to hide“; Hot Air (Right) points out this likely has nothing to do with the Democrats or liberals, but probably just a bunch of bored kids entertaining themselves; FoxNews (FAR-Right) points out this is just “the latest of a series of invasions into Sarah Palin’s personal life“… [...]
DonnaInMichigan
Oh come on.
This was a very strategic plan, played out by the ROVE handbook.
Release these emails, state Palins account was hacked into…Palin then erases ALL those emails BEFORE closing the account. ....TA DA…..
Ms. Palin gets sympathy…and has a very good reason as to why she felt it was necessary to ….take those steps.
She gets sympathy.
She gets those emails erased.
Ta DA…
Janefinch
A Governor with a Yahoo account is just begging for hacking. That’s why there are secure government accounts and that’s why government’s don’t use Yahoo. It’s difficult enough maintaining security without that kind of nonsense…she should have known better, and her staff should have known better.
jcricket
First, let’s not forget, there is clear evidence Palin and her cronies (including her husband) used personal email accounts not on accident, but because they believe they could avoid disclosing the contents of these emails or having them subpoenaed should there be any investigation. There’s almost azero doubt they are wrong, and are violating the letter and spirit of records-keeping and open-government laws. But as importantly – you only do things like this when you have something to hide and/or are virulently paranoid. If it’s the former, dig in and find out what she and her cronies were up to. If it’s the latter, is that what we want in a VP? Palin’s as dumb as Bush, as secretive as Cheney and throws in vindictiveness and a Christianist streak. WTF
?
Best part of the AP article on this was the big “FUCK YOU” from the AP to the Secret Service:
Perhaps this is evidence of the press actually “growing a pair”. I’d take 60 days of a moderately functional press right now. Note also this was only one of her two (apparently) private accounts.
qi4all
Ha Ha Ha! Now Michelle Malkin gets hinky about privacy? That is too rich!
Svensker
Lexington #1 BBQ in Lexington, NC. Best BBQ in the world. Very distinctive western NC style.
Close runner-up but in the eastern NC style is Allen & Son Pit BBQ in Chapel Hill—be sure to get the one that’s just outside town. Really good BBQ and fantastic cobbler.
Gettysburg, PA, is really neat. Strasbourg, PA, has a great locomotive museum, and a fantastic model train layout. Also, Diener’s Restaurant on Rt. 30 just east of Strasbourg—Amish all-you-can-eat, real cheap—is outstanding, but not open on Sundays and closes at 6:00 p.m.
Monticello is as wonderful as everyone says it is, but Madison’s home—which is under intensive archeological renovation—is fascinating, only about 30 miles away from Monticello. Definitely worth a trip.
Martin
Um, the account is gov.sarah@yahoo.com. Does that sound like a private account? It wasn’t ever intentioned to be a private account. Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways.
I work for a .edu and we’re under regular pressure to go to outside agencies for assistance with student-related information – surveys and the like. And I refuse to do it because I don’t have any control or even input of the security of that information. It’s out of our control, and that’s unacceptable.
This situation, right here, is why what Palin did is illegal. Sorry, but I have no sympathy for her. None. Her personal account was not hacked. Her illegal, functional work account was hacked. Does anyone here think that a foreign agent wouldn’t be interested in the contents of a high-ranking official’s email account? I know we tend to dismiss her background, but she is the governor of a state after all. Does anyone really think that 4chan was the first group to access her email since the yahoo address was published?
Jules Crittenden » Lefties for McCain-Palin
[...] Here’s one privacy advocate who gets pissy if anyone dares mention which university employs him as a communications instructor — kind of relevant seeing as he is incapable of communicating without eff words. But John Cole is gleeful about this privacy breach. Apparently hacking of Palin emails is justified by Bushitler’s suspension of the United States Constitution and trundling of opponents off to the hated crussader gulag at Guantanamo. Something like that. [...]
DonnaInMichigan
Ha ha..
Now the McCain campaign wants a FULL investigation….into email-gate.
Oh the Irony.
JC
The Palin emails are all over BitTorrent. Anyone can find them on Pirate Bay or Mininova now.
Sam
Maybe somebody’s already said this, but ten minutes at the New River Gorge Bridge never hurt anybody…well, except those guys that go base-jumping off it and don’t get to experience a functioning parachute…but otherwise, it’s an amazing experience with a nice little museum.
Aaron
One word: Commingling
As an attorney, I’ve personally witnessed people who had ‘protected funds’ such as their social security payments or settlement on a personal injury, attached by a creditor becouse they made the mistake of comingling it with non exempt funds.
So to Mrs. Porky Pig: f—k you. You commingled your government emails with your personal stuff. Your government work is what we call “work product” for your client “the people of alaska” through a process called ‘accountability’.
Your privacy rights have been forfeit.
Bootlegger
Yawn. Rove did it. Everyone will now masterbate to the newest freak show, just when The Whippersnapper began talking about the issues. As a bonus (noted above) emails can now disappear as a “privacy” matter. Rove. That is one slick bastard. Anyone remember how he dropped those fake Bush-Guard documents on Rather? Totally killed the Bush-Deserter meme. Or the well-timed OBL video? That beard was sooooo fake.
Bootlegger
“masterbate” is a lot like masturbate, it just depends on who you’re thinking about while doing it.
mcd410x
LOL funny.
And, Go Rays!
ex-anonymous
I’ve never been more proud to have grown up with /b/.
jenniebee
When we drove from Richmond to Buffalo we discovered Mars, PA, including the Universal Church of Mars, which we thought was at least worth getting a picture of.
In Richmond, the Poe museum is worth skipping – the size of the house is a monument to the tenuousness of Richmond’s claim to Poe. If you want something more interesting in the area, try doing battlefield tours. You can start in Maryland with Harper’s Ferry and Antietam – which has the bestest war monument EVAR
, move down to Chancellorsville and Fredricksburg, then hit Cold Harbor and Seven Days and then Petersburg & the Crater.
If you do pass through Richmond, it isn’t all Monument Avenue and White House of the Confederacy. Check out the slave trail tour. We also have St. John’s Episcopal church, where Patrick Henry gave the “give me liberty or give me death” speech (although there was some doubt, as I recall, that he ever actually gave that speech at all – but if he did, he did it at St. John’s. St. John’s, is, incidentally, directly across the street from St. Patrick’s (they call the area Church Hill for a reason) which is where I got married, which isn’t really something you would care about, I only mention it because I’m wildly egocentric.
Patterico’s Pontifications » E-Mail Hacking Throws the Spotlight on the Jerks in the Room
[...] John Cole calls the people who hacked Sarah Palin’s e-mail “lovable scamps.” In Cole’s world, surveilling murderous terrorists is evil; hacking Republicans’ e-mail is lovable. [...]
Ralph
Privacy for me but none for thee!
Rhetorical question. Don’t shout at me I’m not hanging around to read your responses. I already know what you goons are going to say but think about this: Why do you care more about terrorists’ privacy than any American’s? You can rationalize all you want but it comes down to you don’t care about your fellow American’s privacy but you do care about terrorists’ privacy.
zuzu's petals
And this is what P has to say about John’s update (bold mine):
He was obviously using lovable scamps sarcastically, as his update makes clear by calling them jackasses and morons whose “forte is porn, pedophilia, racism, gaming, and hacking.” Maybe you posted before the update and missed that part, but he clearly doesn’t find them lovable.
Yeah, he posted that update in reaction to my post. I know because he IM’d me about it and accused me of distorting his post.
I still find it telling that his initial outrage appears directed at Malkin and McCain, with the behavior of the hackers dismissed with light sarcasm. His serious disapproval of the hackers is an afterthought, which I believe he was shamed into posting.
But maybe I’m just angry because I was accused of “distorting” and “mischaracterizing” his post, when he says not one word about the shitty behavior of Gawker, and chose to broadside Malkin while gently chiding the “scamps” who fricking hacked someone’s private e-mail.
Comment by Patterico — 9/17/2008 @ 10:26 pm
I finally had to stop reading this guy’s posts…ignorant buffoonery is only entertaining for so long.
zuzu's petals
Not really a privacy issue if she was conducting public business.
Precisealiciously.
Trust me, there is NO expectation of privacy in email to or from a public official about public business.
Zero, nada. Fuggedaboudit. Malkin is completely full of shit.
I think there may be a couple of different issues here.
If the guy(s) had hacked into an official gov’t website, it’s not a privacy issue but a security issue. Appropriate penalties would apply.
Here, the hacker broke into a private e-mail account and published at least part of its contents. Appropriate penalties would apply here, but it seems to me they would be the same penalties that would apply to hacking Susie Smith’s Yahoo account.
Meaning I’m not sure why the Secret Service is involved…unless they regard it as a de facto attempt on her personal space.
zuzu's petals
Not necessarily. As is the case in most if not all other states, the Alaska courts have held that records characterized as part of the governor’s “deliberative process” are generally exempt from disclosure under the Alaska Public Records Act:
Wiki: Alaska Public Records Act
Taking Issue…. – Political Byline
[...] The second thing I took issue with is a post written by John Cole over a Balloon Juice. Who is a Conservative turned Liberal. Some would call him a traitor, but I digress. [...]
Snapped Shot
Leftist Hypocrisy
Patterico accurately weighs in on the hypocrisy of the left:
John Cole calls the people who hacked Sarah Palin’s e-mail “lovable scamps.” In Cole’s world, surveilling murderous terrorists is evil; hacking Republicans’ e-mail is lovable.
...
[Snapped Shot] Leftist Hypocrisy | Old Dominion Blog Alliance
[...] [Snapped Shot] Leftist Hypocrisy Patterico accurately weighs in on the hypocrisy of the left: John Cole calls the people who hacked Sarah Palin’s e-mail “lovable scamps.” In Cole’s world, surveilling murderous terrorists is evil; hacking Republicans’ e-mail is lovable. Right on, Patterico! Personally, I see this email controversy a sign of the desperation liberals have reached. First, they mock McCain for not emailing, then they hack Palin’s account to mock her emails. William Hazlitt once said, "As hypocrisy is said to be the highest compliment to virtue, the art of lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth." [...]
liberal
Snapped Shot wrote,
Yet more right-wingers with too few neurons to understand sarcasm.
rh
The trackbacks to this thread are amazingly hilarious.
Melinda
Break into government-owned mail servers and see how far that argument gets you.
bootlegger
Um, because we don’t. Yep, I think I’ll go with that one. That was an easy straw man to pick up, dust off, and set up again. Any other wingnuts wanna knock it down again?
EJC
I haven’t read all of the comments here, but this story really reeks of an inside job from McCain-Palin, much like the revisions to her biography on Wikipedia.
Suicidal Zebra
Again, isn’t the point of this not that Gov. Palin had her e-mails hacked but rather than she was using a Yahoo account for government business? This may or may not be illegal, but it’s really bloody stupid, and I’d be pretty pissed off by this stupidity were she my elected representative.
grendelkhan
To be fair, government-owned mail servers are subject to FOIA; that’s kind of the point.
As for seeing what was stolen, you don’t need to monkey around with The Pirate Bay or any of that nonsense; Wikileaks has the content. Wikileaks has a lot of content. (Read a job offer from Lehman Brothers to a summer intern for $55k biweekly! Or the UK’s internal review of their 1969-2006 counterinsurgency fight in Northern Ireland!)
Pajamas Media » Palin E-Mail Hacking Brings Campaign to a New Low
[...] 1.) This merely reinforces how reckless and careless this woman is, and how reckless and careless this choice is. John McCain chose a woman so stupid she runs government business through yahoo. (Balloon Juice) [...]
Melinda
Grendelkhan, the wiretap issue isn’t about wiretap per se, at least not for most people. It’s about warrantless wiretap. The warranting process provide oversight and auditability and protection against abuse of power excesses and so on. When you break into someone’s email account, not only are you breaking the law, you’re also sidestepping oversight and accountability, and you’re avoiding the kind of review that’s done before FOIA requests are decided upon. I think that Palin should be subpoenaed for the email that was being sent through her Yahoo account but I have a hard time with the argument that because some of it is official correspondence all of it should be made available by any means necessary, legal or extra-legal. There is no public-good interest in exposing her address book or family photos.
I really, really hate seeing Democrats behave like Republicans and we’ve seen far too much of that during this election cycle.
SGEW
It’s interesting how the recent weeks have played out, simply judging by the sites I go to first to find out what’s going on.
Pre DNC: TPMElectionCentral, Ambinder, 538, Informed Comment, and the “legitimate press” (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, Econ, etc.).
Then, as Palin showed up: TPMMuckraker, Sully, Democracy in America, Crooks and Liars.
As the weirdness sets in: Sadly, No!, Wonkette, MNFTIU, Rude Pundit.
Am I now going to have to go to Gawker and 4chan?
zuzu's petals
Federal gov’t docs (including some e-mails) are subject to FOIA. State docs are subject to their own public records act.
See my comment above re “deliberative process” exemptions for some communications from the Alaska Public Records Act.
Although stealing the records is never appropriate, it appears that Palin and associates were thinking at least in some cases about the possibility of avoiding disclosure through the APRA when they used Yahoo.
mynameishusseintoo
She is an odiot..
I need to start a pool. How mny people think that Mccain will drop Ms Palin before nov 4th?
jvill
If how the FBI dealt with the anthrax investigation is any indication, the folks at 4chan shouldn’t have any problems.
Jonathan
I posted a thorough debunking of the right wingers conspiracy theories here:
Right Wingers Can Wear Tin Foil Hats, Too
grendelkhan
Oh, I concur. I’m just saying that hosting her work email at Yahoo!, in what could be read as an attempt to shield her work from disclosure laws, ironically meant that it was far, far easier for some griefer to get into.
I certainly don’t think it was a good thing that the aforementioned griefer did. Enjoying a touch of schadenfreude doesn’t change that.