Hacker impersonated Palin, stole email password

Friday 19th September, 06:34 AM JST

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yabits at 11:10 PM JST - 19th September

Sorry, my previous post should have read:

But Obama is nowhere near that stupid or UNethical.
sailwind at 11:43 PM JST - 19th September

If Obama did something as stupid as to set up a private email account with Yahoo -- and insisted his closest aides do so as well -- for the express purpose of conducting the business of his office in order to circumvent sunshine laws, I think we'd be right to be deeply disappointed in our candidate.

Agreed..... He uses a private cell phone for that. Hope no way some hacker makes his phone bill public and posts it on the net to see who has been calling.
Taka313 at 11:58 PM JST - 19th September

Sail,

And of course, being a fair and balanced moderate, you have evidence that Sen. Obama has a private cell phone that he uses to conduct official governmental business with the intent of circumventing sunshine laws.

Taka
Nessie at 12:02 AM JST - 20th September

it's not true that the hacker found nothing. What the hacker found was that Palin was using a private account for official business.

Bingo, Sez.
sailwind at 12:14 AM JST - 20th September

Taka,

I have never said I was a fair and balanced moderate on this board or through my entire posting history. I have always stated that I tilt right of center and my political views reflect that. I am fair and balanced when I consider all the facts and always try to look at the entire package that a person that runs for public office has to offer, that includes the good and the bad.

Governor Palin I disagree with her social conservative stances just as I disagreed with Huckabee's. You might recall he was my candidate that I would have loved to see be the republican nominee.

Palin has many of the same things that I saw in Huckabee. A person that really can bring CHANGE to Washington and not mouth the words. You wish to destroy her go ahead, I won't stoop to that I like the lady and I like the way she has run Alaska as Governor and I think Washington D.C could use a healthy dose of what she represents a PTA mom that made good. Real good.
Taka313 at 12:32 AM JST - 20th September

Sail, O.K. I concede the argument of you claiming to being a fair and balanced moderate and apologize for claiming such.

Now then, about your allegations regarding Sen. Obama using a private cell phone to do govt. business in order to circumvent sunshine laws, where do we stand there?

Taka
sailwind at 12:54 AM JST - 20th September

Taka

Thanks.....

Now then, about your allegations regarding Sen. Obama using a private cell phone to do govt. business in order to circumvent sunshine laws, where do we stand there?

I'm pointing out private e-mail and cell phone conversations used by public officials should be just that private. The line where it gets crossed is blurry as far as where do we draw it in their private dealings as how they make public policy decisions and what the public has the right to know.

Until I have compelling evidence that Governor Palin actually broke some law that says she can't have a private e-mail account as Governor and discuss policy decisions she might want real advice about or Obama for that matter I think the matter is nothing more than a witch hunt to get dirt. I know of no law that says as a Governor she can't have a yahoo account and discuss what ever she has is mind. That goes for Obama also.
Taka313 at 01:35 AM JST - 20th September

Sail,

O.K. Now we are getting somewhere.

There may not be a law, but, there sure as heck is a policy, at least in the military. Can Sailors discuss ship's movement or official business over NIPRNET accounts? No. Why not? Because it's a breach in security. Is it "illegal?" I honestly don't know.

Should they? Well...the U.S. Navy sure as heck doesn't think so. Why? For security reasons.

Do you think it was sound judgement on her part to conduct governmental business over a Yahoo account? I do not.

And in a post chock full of questions, I leave with one last one:

Who the heck vetted the governor and do THEY still have a job? I would think that, "Do you have anything that could be a possible security risk?" would have come up. It did when I applied for a TS clearance. I would hope that the screening process for a TS clearance is less stringent than that for the vice-presidential candidate for the republican party.

And yes, the guy who hacked her should be punished. I would add that then he should be hired by the NSA for being a computer genius, but, unfortunately, it took very little in order to hack her Yahoo account and gain access to official government business. So...no computer genius job for him.

And if you think this is a witch hunt, I cannot even begin to imagine what you thought the flag lapel pin thing was.

Taka
Taka313 at 01:35 AM JST - 20th September

Sail,

O.K. Now we are getting somewhere.

There may not be a law, but, there sure as heck is a policy, at least in the military. Can Sailors discuss ship's movement or official business over NIPRNET accounts? No. Why not? Because it's a breach in security. Is it "illegal?" I honestly don't know.

Should they? Well...the U.S. Navy sure as heck doesn't think so. Why? For security reasons.

Do you think it was sound judgement on her part to conduct governmental business over a Yahoo account? I do not.

And in a post chock full of questions, I leave with one last one:

Who the heck vetted the governor and do THEY still have a job? I would think that, "Do you have anything that could be a possible security risk?" would have come up. It did when I applied for a TS clearance. I would hope that the screening process for a TS clearance is less stringent than that for the vice-presidential candidate for the republican party.

And yes, the guy who hacked her should be punished. I would add that then he should be hired by the NSA for being a computer genius, but, unfortunately, it took very little in order to hack her Yahoo account and gain access to official government business. So...no computer genius job for him.

And if you think this is a witch hunt, I cannot even begin to imagine what you thought the flag lapel pin thing was.

Taka
Alinsky4prez at 03:21 AM JST - 20th September

And if you think this is a witch hunt, I cannot even begin to imagine what you thought the flag lapel pin thing was.

Barack wears a flag pin, okay.

Get over it. He is NOT a Muslim.
SezWho2 at 10:57 AM JST - 20th September

sailwind,

I think you are pointing to something that makes sense and I would certainly be willing to concede that more information is required before any conclusions are drawn.

However, given that official records are subject to public scrutiny and private accounts are not, why would anyone conduct official business from a private account if the public account is available for use? Of course, there are many explanations for this. Let's look at some.

Laziness. This would be the one most apt to apply in my case. Why would I want to go to the trouble of logging on to another email server when I'm already logged on to one. This is quite understandable. Yet I don't think American voters want someone who will sacrifice probity or security to convenience.

Slow government servers. Gee! It sometimes takes forever for a comment submitted on JT to post. I could father children in the time I'm staring at the screen. But if I were the Alaska governor, I could also shake up my IT department and get reliable service so that I didn't have to wait on a balky system. I could perhaps also copy correspondence to my government account.

Evasion of public scrutiny. I think this perhaps is the sticky wicket. What, for example, is "official business"? I agree with you--and reluctantly with Dick Cheney--that some communications are privileged and not guaranteed to be accessible by the public. Included in that would be advice as to what to do about a particular problem. (Although here I would depart from Cheney and say that since the American taxpayer paid for his time and expenses in the energy confabulations, we really do have a right to know what's in the secret energy policy.) However, to the extent that deals are being done, policies are being formulated and plans are being made, I think that might be the people's business and not the exclusive business of Governor Palin.

Again, you have a good point on the phone issue. Nonetheless, that's a point that also applies to every politician and not just to Obama. The issue at hand here is emails.
zurcronium at 02:31 PM JST - 20th September

sailwind,

you are right about the tilting part. The rest of your comments are not substantiated at all.

palin used private email so that she could claim immunity from a government review of her communication. that is why she was running the state of alaska business out of her yahoo account. In Alaska, where most of the repub officials are being indicted, she was being careful. She knew she would be indicted one day herself for taking bribes like senator stevens or something so she was preparing. She is not so stupid that she does not know how to protect herself.
USARonin at 04:35 PM JST - 24th September

They got the kid that did this. It was actually his Tennessee politician dad but he put it off on his kid. Dad sent the Secret Service to the kid's room where he was day sleepin'. One column said the boy lost control of his bladder when he woke up to the barrel of a Sig Sauer pressed against his forehead.

What the hey. He's still got more kids outside of prison he can work with.

USAR
SezWho2 at 12:21 PM JST - 25th September

And why would a sleeping boy suspected of hacking an email account need to wake up with a Sig Sauer pressed against his forehead? Perhaps we can send him to the Gulag for his sins.
Ageha at 05:04 AM JST - 26th September

Palin was pretty dumb for having such easy secret question to begin. It only shows how prepared she is.