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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Sarah Palin’s Personal Emails

posted by on September 17 at 12:40 PM

Read ‘em (allegedly) here.

And to understand the potential significance of hackers breaking into the VP candidate’s private account, read this:

While Ms. Palin took office promising a more open government, her administration has battled to keep information secret. Her inner circle discussed the benefit of using private e-mail addresses. An assistant told her it appeared that such e-mail messages sent to a private address on a “personal device” like a BlackBerry “would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.”

Ms. Palin and aides use their private e-mail addresses for state business. A campaign spokesman said the governor copied e-mail messages to her state account “when there was significant state business.”

On Feb. 7, Frank Bailey, a high-level aide, wrote to Ms. Palin’s state e-mail address to discuss appointments. Another aide fired back: “Frank, this is not the governor’s personal account.”

Mr. Bailey responded: “Whoops~!”

Whoops indeed.

RSS icon Comments

1

Wow, secrecy. That's such a refreshing change from the last eight years of Bush and Cheney.

Posted by Greg | September 17, 2008 12:46 PM
2

The private emails link is down. Has it already been removed?

Posted by tabletop_joe | September 17, 2008 1:01 PM
3

The first link isn't working, but the gawker link is. The gawker stuff is pretty mundane...

I'm hoping that the McCain campaign won't continue to spin this as, "look how mean people are to Sarah". But, I'm guessing that they will... I'm sure that will drown out any noise from using a personal account for state business, at least in the minds of the Low Info Voters.

Posted by Julie in Chicago | September 17, 2008 1:02 PM
4

@2 Keep trying. I finally got through on the third attempt.

Posted by Mike of Renton | September 17, 2008 1:03 PM
5

The wikilinks Talk (https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Talk:Sarah_Palin_Yahoo_inbox_2008) indicates the accounts have been canceled. That would mean the email that was official state business has been lost. this is info that subject to legal proceedings which has now been destroyed. Think of the implications.....

Posted by nos | September 17, 2008 1:16 PM
6

the phone number in the pic message on the inbox screen rings thru to a voicemail for bristol.....right to VM, apparently the phone is turned off. Call her for a good time! 907-982-9061

Posted by randy beaver | September 17, 2008 1:29 PM
7

First of all, I SERIOUSLY doubt this is legit. You guys sure will believe anything you read on the Internet. . .

And second of all, if it IS legit, shouldn't we actually be kind of horrified that people think it's okay to hack into other people's private email accounts and then post the contents of those accounts on the web for all to see? This isn't ethical behavior, and just because Palin isn't ethical either doesn't mean ethics shouldn't apply at all. Ugh, I hate liberals who A) believe anything they read that fits with what they already believe and B) think it's fine to fight asshole behavior by behaving like an asshole. You give the rest of us a bad name.

Posted by Jane | September 17, 2008 2:16 PM
8

Doesn't this mean that if the Troopergate investigation gets unblocked that this evidence wouldn't be admissible if obtained through legit means like a subpoena? I'm no lawyer and I really don't like Palin, but this wasn't a smart move, I think.

Actually, I think that maybe this is the kind of thing that should have been reported. I'm not saying 'should' in the legal sense, I mean it in the 'this just feeds the fire' sense. Kinda like showing a video of terrorists making demands. If we didn't disseminate those videos, would terrorism still have the 'punch' that it has now? That's only 1/2 rhetorical - would it?

Posted by Jason Sewall | September 17, 2008 2:28 PM
9

Jane -
This is probably legit. It fits the pattern of the intellectually challenged bible-thumpers that we are finding the Palin clan to be. (She is obviously an intellectual light-weight, what with the 5 schools in 6 years to get a degree from U of Idaho in "journalism/communications", which she used to further "god's will" as a TV sports gal. Not covering your tracks is something 60 watters do.) Since they are "god's warriors", pesky laws don't really apply to them. They operate under a persecution complex that leads them to believe they need to be secret about their actions. Doing official business "off the reservation" (so to speak), is a way for them to do "god's will" without interference.
It is important for the public to know if their elected officials just ignore critical laws about transparency. It is even more so if those elected officials make promises for increased transparency.

(And before the Idaho crowd gets on me - it's not the school, it's the track record of not being serious about education. We've seen from Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis that even "smart" schools can't educate everyone.)

Posted by Sir Vic | September 17, 2008 2:28 PM
10

I'm torn about whether this is good news or bad news. It's not a very constructive political move - I imagine that none of those illegally obtained emails are gonna be admissible in court. And it's not very reassuring about the security of ANY "private" information. If a high-profile target like Piglips is so vulnerable, then nothing you or I do or say on the internets remains hidden for long.

On the other hand, it sure is fun to see Sarah Palin utterly humiliated in public.

Let's call it a wash.

Posted by Gurldoggie | September 17, 2008 2:42 PM
11

Just because it "Sounds like her" doesn't mean it is legit--duh.

But, the campaign has said her email was hacked so it probably is.

Is the media pointing out that, in order to protect herself, she perhaps put confidential state business at risk by relying on Yahoo's security? At least the government IT people have the mandate to protect such information.

She wasn't putting "state first" then, so why would she put "Country First" now?

Posted by DoYouLikeFreedom | September 17, 2008 8:26 PM
12

Hey this woman she is not ready for vp ok?...She delivered a nice speech what some republican wrote and she is a good looking sexy house wife and everybody getting brain washed and blindfolded from the great republican party.
Wake up people...sarah palin and her gang they are all fake
the email from amy...pray for me...pray for bla bla bla..should tell u everything
And lets not talk about the familly drama...
We can't afford to elect a war hero who can talk only about wietnam..and a viscious white woman from alaska who doesn't known nothing about nothing
She can see russia from the backyard and she things she knows how to handle russia and the issues

Posted by Mozes | September 18, 2008 11:49 PM

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