Hackergate redux

Hmmm...a new "hacking" story. What a surprise.

We might as well face the fact that every single election from 2006 on is going to have some kind of "hacking" story.

We all remember Sen. Joe Lieberman's baseless and slanderous accusations about the reason his shitty website crashed on the day of the 2006 senate primary. Rather than look into the cause, he and his campaign staff immediately launched a smear offensive against every liberal blogger who was even remotely involved in covering the election.

Of course, both the FBI and simple common sense exonerated the bloggers, but not before there was extensive media coverage of Lieberman's lies. Lamont campaign Internet coordinator Tim Tagaris summed up the Lieberman campaign's inadequacies in this scathing radio interview on election day:



So it's obvious that we're now living in a world where charges of "hacking" and computer shenanigans will be a part of every single election. Yesterday's news story about Gov. Sarah Palin's email getting "hacked" is a prime example of this computer hysteria we're seeing.

Here's the gist of what happened. Somebody figured out that Governor Palin was using her vanity license plate as a password on a non-secure Yahoo email account, and they got in and took screen shots of her Inbox and then posted them anonymously.

That's it. That's all that happened. But judging from the outcry by McCain's campaign, you would think that crazed anti-American anarchists had stolen our nation's nuclear launch codes and gave them to bin Laden!

Just calm the hell down, guys. In a world where identity theft is a business, and where non-secure email accounts are compromised a million times a day, the real story here should be, "Why is Gov. Palin using a NON-SECURE email account for government business?"

Alaskan state rules specifically prohibit anyone within the government from using non-secure email accounts to discuss government business. From ZDnet.com:

The list of e-mails include an exchange with Alaskan Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell about his campaign for Congress and an e-mail from Amy McCorkell, whom Palin appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in 2007.

The biggest problem with a governor using private email accounts for government business (or a vice president for that matter, as Dick Cheney is alleged to do the same thing) is that those emails aren't backed up and made part of the permanent record. From CNN:

The e-mails shown include one from July between Palin and Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell and another dated earlier this week from Amy McCorkell, the woman Palin appointed to the Governor's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in 2007.

Palin has faced criticism for using a private e-mail account to conduct some state business — prompting critics to allege she was attempting to hide information from the public record.

So while the McCain camp wails and gnashes their teeth is utterly phony outrage, they're succeeding in keeping the focus of the media off of the real issue here. The issue being Sarah Palin's pattern of abuse of authority and failure to abide by governmental rules.

Dick Cheney must be SO proud of her.