Some advice for Governor Palin
Posted on September 18, 2008
[NOTE: In this post I do NOT excuse criminal, low, dirty conduct. I simply suggest a way to deal with it]
So someone hacked your personal e-mail account and posted its contents on the web, dutifully picked up and misreported by the Associated Press. Of course, there was nothing incriminating found (why would there be?) as even the hacker admits.
So now it looks like we know who the perpetrator/hacker/criminal is. It seems that the young man has a history of depression and a couple of psychological interventions.
Here’s some unsolicited advice, developed while reading the comments on other blogs over the last hour. Governor Palin, take the high ground (as I believe you are predisposed to do), very publicly. Call State Representative Kernell and say something like, “Please tell your son that whatever happens to him over this, I forgive him. I don’t excuse it, but I forgive him. It ought not destroy his life, so long as he learns something from the consequences of what he’s done.” As an aside you might add that, “I certainly wouldn’t criticize you for pursuing public office since 1974 while you had a vulnerable child at home.” — I’m just kidding about that last part.
A conservation of that sort would no doubt be genuine, but would have great impact as well. People will get back to thinking about how relatable and decent Palin seems. And as a side-benefit, she’d be untouchable on privacy issues for a long time.
Now if it turns out later that more people were involved in the hacking and it was perhaps encouraged in an organized way, that would become a new story in itself. For now, I give the unsolicited advice above for what it is worth. I believe, at this point, that if we in the right-leaning blogosphere make too much of punishing the young man/hacker, it would emphasize the wrong part of the story. The right emphasis is that he didn’t find the dirt he was looking for:
I read though the emails… ALL OF THEM… before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family
» Filed Under "Name That Party", Elections, Illegal Activities, News, Politics As Usual, Sarah Palin
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5 Responses to “Some advice for Governor Palin”
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These are the same people who scream “invasion of privacy” over the Patriot Act, no? I guess it’s not OK for the government tap phones or emails of suspected terrorists to keep America safe, but it’s OK for THEM to invade the communications of their political foes.
Can they spell HYPOCRISY? I’m sure they can’t spell WATERGATE.
FYI, they got him, his name is David Karnell, loser from KTY.
http://mccainpalin2008.blogspot.com/2008/09/they-got-him-david-kernell-is-hacker.html
If Palin does as you suggest, the story will be spun that somehow she was in on this from the beginning as a way to play the victim card and then be the forgiving heroine. The best thing for her to do is what she’s already doing, let the authorities handle it. And it really doesn’t matter if this kid has issues. No way does he deserve a free pass. One has to wonder how many other people he’s done this to, people who may not even know it.
The attack on Governor Sarah Palin’s privacy is inexcusable. Citizens do have rights, among them the right to be secure in their papers. In a hastily worded statement, the Associated Press informed the Secret Service, “No way dude, are we givin’ up them emails ‘till we get the moose stew recipe. Like get your own story man, this one’s ours.” Due to the nature of the electronic medium, the Palin case should be groundbreaking.
For the less technologically inclined: whenever one’s cell phone is switched on, not necessarily making a call, just turned on, even if it’s not a GPS enabled device, it emits a signal that anyone who obtains your SIM card number may track with an array of inexpensive software. GOOGLE GPS tracking devices. The phone’s speaker can also be remotely activated for use as a listening device. Perhaps you’re wondering, as did I, how certain individuals seem to know your whereabouts, or manage to show up when and where they do. High tech devices lend the good, the bad & the ugly a level of sophistication hitherto unimagined. Cell phone option: remove battery when not in use:
Salt lightly dip in batter then fry (+¿+)
The media is America’s true enemy (ò¿ó)