Thursday, September 18, 2008

Once Again - Anonymous

We here in the Land Of Blog all know about the cowardly types who post negative and/or foul messages on ours or our friends' blog posts. Well, the world of cowards is not limited to your posts or mine. Here is a band of Liberal Cowards who think that breaking the LAW is acceptable and they believe because they remain "Anonymous" they are untouchable.
I DESPISE cowards. Regardless of their political affiliation. Conservative or Liberal. Hold your head up if you are willing to shred another person either personally or politically. Anonymous people are despicable wastes of good oxygen.
I read this post this morning and I am sharing it with you- NOT as a political statement but rather as a statement to just how low some people are willing to go to try and "win". Win with honor for crying out loud. Otherwise, take your sniveling, "I am a victim" attitude and slink back into the sewage you crawled out of.

EDIT: I am adding this little addition to my original post because I did not expound enough on why I posted this article.
Running for public office does not mean that you are no longer protected by this countries laws. This piece of crap group is NOT entitled to violate ANYONE's personal rights as an AMERICAN CITIZEN. IT IS NOT OKAY. Without exception. Hands down, no way, no how, not today, not tomorrow and not yesterday. NEVER. This doesNOT fall under the mistaken idea that being a public figure exempts you from a private, personal life. In additon, there are many, many times that government officials HAVE to communicate outside of their "govt network" because of the restrictions and requirements used for the internet highway the govt provides. This issue is NOT about what was exchanged between Palin or anyone else. It is about the violation of her "certain inalienable" RIGHTS. SHE IS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN!!!!! Now, lets pretend just for a moment, that you are the subject of this disgusting display of cowardice. Lets pretend that someone hacked into your life. They stole everything they could get their hands on and broadcast it to the entire world. I'll pretend that it's okay...

Left Wing Group Hacks Palin's EmailBy Caleb HoweSep 17th 2008 3:30PM

Filed Under:eBreaking News, 2008 President, Scandal, Media, Sarah Palin

The ill-defined protest "group" known as Anonymous, famous both for their campaign against Scientology and their strange protest activities, has hacked Gov. Sarah Palin's private email account and posted some of the contents online.

Internet "griefing" is a key component of the activities of Anonymous, and this is no exception. The full text of two private emails, as well as the screenshot of Palin's inbox and some of her family photos were added to the site wikileaks. The purported reasoning is that they are blowing the whistle on Palin using private email addresses for public business. However, as pointed out at Network World, the two example emails do not support the assertion, as they involve political material not permissible for use with a government email address.

Anonymous may be unaware, but elected officials not only may use private email addresses to correspond with other public officials, they actually must if it is material deemed not appropriate. For example, if Nancy Pelosi wanted to send the latest Michael Moore video to Howard Dean, she'd have to use her yahoo email address to do it, not her house email. So a bunch of addresses of people like Arnold Schwarzenegger showing on the list is evidence of nil.
The face of the controversy could change as the contents of the remainder of the emails are parsed ad nauseum by the online left, as you know they will. The current takeaway is clear: as the last two weeks have shown, the online left and their traditional media enablers will stop at nothing, not even the law, in their bloodthirsty quest to tear Gov. Sarah Palin limb from limb. It will be instructive to see who, if anyone, can be bothered to condemn this hack job.

UPDATE: The McCain campaign has issued a statement: "This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment."

It is amusing to see, this week, a half-hearted attempt by the DNC and media outlets to paint the McCain campaign as playing dirty. Obama's religiously devoted followers, including on blogs and in the press, have been doing his dirty work for months, and much dirtier than the McCain campaign could ever hope to stoop to. It's a neat trick to try and avoid getting Obama's hands dirty, and I recall a lot of people earlier this year whining that surrogates were doing McCain's dirty work for him. Yet the most significant Democrat blog online openly admits to doing so on behalf of Obama.

The number of lines willing to be crossed in the Palin witch-hunt the last few weeks continues to grow. From spreading rumors about her children to questioning her as a mother ... hacking her private email account and posting her private family photos online fits in perfectly. I have no doubt we'll soon hear a defense of the importance of this illegal activity to the political process. Steal personal email, don't steal press release prayers. Claim Palin's children are fair game because they are with in her public now and then, claim Michelle Obama is not fair game despite being a speech-making, event-hosting part of the campaign.

Anonymous may be anonymous, but their tactics are as plain as day. It's Obama Supporter 101. Do as he wants, not as he pretends not to do. Anonymous broke the law, but they kept the spirit of the left perfectly intact.

Update: Tonight, Unusable Signal is live on the air at 11pm. Unusable Signal is the number one progressive/liberal talk show at blogtalkradio, and I cohost on Fridays and Saturdays. Tonight it will be hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and AOL's Tommy Christopher. I'll be calling in and taking questions as well. I'm persuadable on the definition of Anonymous as left wing.

If you are not as furious as I am about how this person's Rights as an American Citizen have been violated, maybe we as a country should be re-examining why we even BOTHER to elect our officials. From now on, let's just draw straws because after all, if you don't care about the flagrant violation of a fellow citizen's rights, why bother.

24 comments:

21stCenturyMom said...

If they weren't anonymous they'd be in jail so I think that all figures.

It is appalling that they would hack her email but it is equally appalling that she would show the poor judgement to use a yahoo account to conduct state business. It's a data point - and an important one.

When you run for public office your private life is lost. If you can't accept that you don't belong there. Really. It works both ways.

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

Di - it is appalling. I guess when you don't have anything true that's bad to say about Palin, you can always take one of her quotes, slice off the beginning and the end, omit the context, and before you know it, it looks like she said something crazy. (i.e., the mission from God misstatement).
Do you think our liberal leaning friends would have called foul if Anonymous did this to Obama's private email? Really. It works both ways.
For anyone to say that what has transpired about Bristol Palin, and whether or not Sarah is the real mother of Trig (!), is just an indication that there isn't a whole lot of "real" bad stuff to say about her.
I personally like Sarah. If she lived in my neighborhood, we'd be friends. I'd invite her to running club. ;-)
I'm not even a conservative republican and I am embarrassed! Makes me want to like her even more.

Comm's said...

This is further prima facie evidence that the liberal democrat party is the party of hate, class warfare, dirty tricks covered by the press party.

Its appalling that anyone would defend this hack.

If this was someone who broke into your account to steal your identity would you allow someone to say its, All in the proper context, that you have to look at it?

Di said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
:) said...

Dead on, Comm...I couldn't have said it better.

21stCenturyMom said...

Time out!

"In additon, there are many, many times that government officials HAVE to communicate outside of their "govt network" because of the restrictions and requirements used for the internet highway the govt provides. "

Not if it is illegal. And it is. It is absolutely against the law to use a private email account to conduct state business. If she really didn't use her private account with the address gov.pallin@yahoo.com (which sounds suspiciously official) to ever send emails pertaining to government business then you are correct. However - there is ample evidence that she did. This is no more a private matter than is a nominee getting kicked off the ticket when someone finds out they hired and illegal alien for a housekeeper.

21stCenturyMom said...

"This is further prima facie evidence that the liberal democrat party is the party of hate, class warfare, dirty tricks covered by the press party. " - Comm

You mean kind of like the Swift Boating of John Kerry - a man who served his country with honor?

Supalinds said...

I will just mention that what this the group 'Anonymous' did is wrong; but direclty aligning them to and criticizing democrats because of - doesn't make much sense.

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

I think people are attaching "Liberal" to the Anonymous people is because Anonymous is only hacking the email address of a Republican. If Anonymous also hacks and publishes a Dem email (and I am not suggesting they do) then it wouldn't have the appearance of doing it for partisan purposes.

SWTrigal said...

I agree with Supalinds. Just because some crazy nuts blow up abortion clinics doesn't mean everyone against abortion is a murderer..just an analogy of sorts.

Afternoon Tea With Oranges said...

Whether or not Palin used a yahoo email account to conduct state business and whether or not that is illegal is STILL in no way a justification for someone or some group to hack her email account and publish its contents. And it in no way makes what Anonymous did "ok" or "better" or even "what she deserved." I think it is down right despicable, and it sad that the citizens of the great country resort to such during times of election.

That's my two cents. And I totally agree with you, Di.

Green Eyed Lady (aka GEL) said...

"Not if it is illegal. And it is. It is absolutely against the law to use a private email account to conduct state business."

Please cite the source for this outrageous comment.

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

I have two more cents to offer!

1). Sarah is just a person. A human being. She's not a God. She's not perfect. So can we just stop for a minute and try on this idea?:

Who among us doesn't go home after work, sit at the computer to check personal emails, then have a brainstorm that we need to tell a co-worker about, and then shoot them an email? Does each of us non-perfect error-prone mortals remember to log off one email account, login our work accounts before we hit "send"? I'm not even sure we all know in the back of our heads that we probably should have, but who actually does that every time without fail? Does the fact that our job has a clause about login/logoff prevent us from making that email mistake? One thing we should remember is that she and her personal and official emails were vetted out. There is nothing contextually compromising IN those emails, just that on a rare occasion she failed to logoff/login. Why is that such a big deal?
Is that really all her enemies can find against her?
Also, can someone cite the law that say's it's "illegal" to send emails this way? I'm not doubting that "conducting official business should be done on the official email address", but can anyone actually cite it? Can each of us recite the rules regarding email (every single one) that our own companies have in place? Why should she be lambasted for that?

2). If indeed it IS illegal and there is a bona fide law that she broke, here is my next question: Since we do know it IS illegal to hack people's personal email accounts and publish them, is it also then OK now to enter each other's homes looking for illegal stuff, as long as we FIND illegal stuff? In other words, do we need warrants and such or not? Are each of us willing or eager to have someone read all our private emails without our knowledge? Do we want ALL our political figures to be subject to these e-searches? Or do we still sort of believe in our laws for all of us, even those on the "other side of the aisle"? As an Indepublicrat, I would have hoped that the laws apply to every American.
I still say it makes the Anonymous group (who claim responsibility, and I've learned are openly liberal Dems) look desperate.

p.s. - it's okay to disagree, and these lively debates are so American, and so interesting.
;-)

Di said...

LOL - this has indeed been one of my more "stimulating" posts!
The one where I killed a serial rapist actually got more reaction...

Green Eyed Lady (aka GEL) said...

AND if it were illegal to use a private email acct to conduct state business, should not the opposite be true? Would we get busted for using our professional email accounts for personal use? Oh, wait, I'm cleaning out my desk right now and checking the want ads tomorrow! ;)

21stCenturyMom said...

So I've looked around and I don't get that it was some fringe liberal group that did this. It was some nerd. He set out to show that she used personal email for state business (may or may not be illegal) and he came up empty.


And I'm going to say this once again - I never excused anyone and please don't anyone pull that 'excuse by implication' crap with me. What I said is that if you are in the public eye you are going to be scrutinized heavily and your garbage will be rifled and people will take pictures of you they shouldn't take and apparently try to hack in to your email. Hacking email is wrong and illegal and this guy will probably go down in flames because some forensic IT person will figure out who it is at some point.


I think what this really shows is that Sarah Palin is not, perhaps, the sharpest tack in the box. Why in the world would she name her personal email account gov.palin instead of say.... sarah.palin. If it's personal wouldn't that make much more sense?

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

Maybe she used gov.palin because it never crossed her mind that she'd have something to hide? then or in the future? or if she ever decided to run for VP? or if she ever had to send an email from home?
I sure hope being honest doesn't make you "not a sharp tack".

p.s. - P, you know I still love you even if we disagree on this!

James Bonworth said...

Wow! Never seen you this cross Diana :)
Speaking as an interested outsider-the relevance being yours is the most powerful coountry on the planet and your Prez is the man with the button(s)]: first, isn't this how politics goes in the colonies? dirty tricks [Watergate] etc... And no, I'm not saying it's right to break the law and try to smear a politician, or anyone else.
Without my trying to split hairs, there's a lot of direct and indirect smearing and dirty tactics going on in the runup to the election. Surely this, albeit reprehensible, action just occupies a position on that continuum? Until we have civilised (oops, sorry, 'civilized') political systems both sides of 'the pond' we are going to be dogged with a litany of 'new & improved' stunts that pass for post-modern politics. Perhaps I am being naieve-and I am no expert- but isn't it the case that people make their own decisions based on what they know/believe, including how ethical or not smear campaigns are? Personally, I would not vote for someone using underhand tactics, whether attributable or not.
Just a thought... :)
The UK is sunny and clement, so let Marc know I've seen the sun - it's in my diary!
LOL

Fe-lady said...

The FBI is on this. As well as other agencies I think to bust these idiots.

And let them go...the more the left continues to do stupid things like this,(and boy have they pulled some good ones!) the more people will switch sides and vote for the Republicans running. So I think it will all work out in the end!

Green Eyed Lady (aka GEL) said...

"It is absolutey against the law to use a private email account to conduct state business."

"He set out to show that she used personal email for state business (may or may not be illegal) and he came up empty."

I think what we're looking at here, folks, is a retraction! ;)

Di said...

Let me make it very clear here - I am not, repeat, NOT outraged at this because the act was supposedly committed by a democrat/dem affiliated group/person. I don't give a flying rats a$$ about the political affiliation. What I am outraged about is that it happened. What I am outraged about is that the media seems to be treating it with total indifference and almost reverance. Give me a break folks, I would be equaly outraged if this sort of thing had been done to Obama. The comments that are focused purely on the politics of this disturbing theft, quite frankly seem to be missing the point. Lines have been crossed here and I don't hear many people expressing their outrage over the laws that have been broken or the pillaging of a woman's life. Her children's lives, her husband's life and so much more. Have any of you ever been robbed before? Have you experienced the feeling of being violated and having no way to get back to that comfort of knowing you're safe? My outrage over this is over the fact that noone else seems to fell the same way. Forget about partisanship. Stand up and take action against this sort of thing. Let these filthy, cowardly crooks know, it is NOT okay. No matter whether it happens to Palin, obama, you or your own retired mother living on a fixed income. I know many of you out there do get it and I know you understand the injustice here.
Di

21stCenturyMom said...

Of all the things that most upset me about it it was the ease with which it was done. Truly frightening. And of course I would hate someone to rifle my email and post it but honestly I wouldn't feel half as violated by that as I would if my house were broken into and robbed. It's email. Yes it is mine and it is private but the internet is not very secure and clearly yahoo mail is very breachable and that's just a fact of life. I'm not able to mount the indignation and sense of outrage you feel at all. Not sure why.

And THANK YOU for pointing out it isn't a matter of liberal or conservative.

And people - the ugly stuff is happening on both sides here - that's politics in America.

And Green Eyed Lady - it was obviously a retraction. The day I can't admit to a mistake might be a good day to slit my wrists.

And Jenny - I just don't think Sarah Palin is particularly bright. I don't necessarily dislike her as a person but she is definitely not someone I would want in the White House in any capacity for several reasons. Her lack of intellect is but one of them. Her stance on several issues and much of her political behavior are the others.

And I love you all - even if we would sit on opposides of the aisle if we were in government. It takes all kinds.

Last but not least - Di, your post about stabbing the rapist was the best, funniest thing in the world. I loved that post.

21stCenturyMom said...

Check this out and tell me if it makes you just as angry.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=5987804&page=2

Comm's said...

Here may be the final note on the subject:

A Democratic state representative's son has been indicted by a grand jury in Tennessee for intentionally hacking into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account.

The grand jury in Knoxville, Tenn., returned the indictment on Oct. 7, charging David C. Kernell, 20, son of state Rep. Michael Kernell of Memphis, with intentionally accessing Palin's Yahoo e-mail account.

According to the indictment, Kernell allegedly reset the account password and gained access after answering a series of security questions. He allegedly read her e-mail, made screen shots of her directory, e-mails and personal information and posted them to a public Web site on Sept. 16.

If convicted, Kernell faces up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine.