Lots of US govt people have been conducting State and even Federal business on their personal email accounts. Bush and Co. have been under fire for using non-official email channels for years. By doing this they get around the "public record" issues associated with government emails.

It's for the best that this account was hacked and I hope that someone comes out with sensitive State information to underwrite the risks involved in doing this.

I don't like the Palin lady, but I hope she doesn't have anything too embarrassing on her email if someone does release it. Not that I care if it ruins her chances at the VP spot, I just like to think that someones personal emails shouldn't be in the public eye.

Unless she's got naked pics! I'd like to see some of her nudi's (cause you know she's got 'em somewhere) but I hope they are from 10+ years ago...

Well, maybe they're immune to the law, but they ain't immune to traffic overruns. The wikileaks site has been down for a while now.

for so many comments on this story. But I wanted to point out that the hack also exposed Bristol Palin's (the preggers 17 year old daughter of Sarah) phone number and email address - if you're interested it's no too hard to find.

With her believing in a god, having creationist views, using Yahoo mail and having a guessable password. She is genius, clued up , on the ball. I guess we should all hang on her every word and take her with the utmost seriousness.

No it isn't quaint, it's fucking dangerous to have a person like this in high level politics.

I despair for the fate of the human race, we will get what we deserve, reap what we sow. Get what we vote for. I despair.

I too recently had my Yahoo account hacked into (which was then used to access my ebay account and cause havoc). When I reported this to Yahoo they wanted me to email them all my security questions before they would investigate (even though I was emailing them from my Yahoo account which should be proof of ownership). Due to email not being secure and only just having my account hacked into, I decliend to email them all my details so they promptly ignored my report of hacking and did absolutely nothing nothing about it.

As much as I might not like the women, hacking some ones e-mail is not cool. Oh yeah I hope they like visit by the SS and FBI

Anonymous on FOX11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNO6G4ApJQY

Anonymous Exposed - Religious Hate Crimes and Terrorism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbwNyKXux70

Is there not a flaw in your logic here:

[quote]

(even though I was emailing them from my Yahoo account which should be proof of ownership).

[/quote]

Surely if your account has been hacked then the proof of ownership is then gone?!

Right so you got your account hacked, so lost control of it.

Then want Yahoo to believe it's you and not the hacker talking on the same email account without any security questions etc.

With logic like that no wonder your account got hacked Steve..really think about it a little more.

We always use secure passwords of no less than 10 characters with upper and lower case letters, numbers and upper case characters and a few special characters two, we also do not under any circumstances use a real word, nor do we write our password down.

She should have been taught all of this.

I can not believe they think this is secure, I don't know about Yahoo! e-mail system but if it isn't encrypted all the way through (I suspect it is isn't) why is she using it? It could have been side jacked. She could at least use gmail and use the https always option.

This woman is beyond belief when you think about her, Abstinence only sex education, please tell me how that works, Kids are gonna have sex anyway.

Paris, because this has happened to her too!

Anonymous is a leaderless collective of like-minded individuals, from all walks of life.

http://www.enturbulation.org/press-media/faq

"I too recently had my Yahoo account hacked into..."

"(even though I was emailing them from my Yahoo account which should be proof of ownership)..."

Just think about it for a bit, Steve. I'm sure you'll get it.

She's a woman! How can she be expected to remember all that complicated computer password stuff?

Paris, because I'd be as rich as she is, if I had a dime for every time someone pulled that line on me, including female upper management.

You think Faux News and the "Church" of Scientology are reliable sources? Really? Really really?

For my own sanity please tell me you're a troll.

Also, Sarah Palin is a fundie gun-nut who needs throwing in the loonie bin like all the rest of the evangelical nutters.

"2. not have to choose."

WTF?!

Hi Scientologist,

Did you find this story by googling "scientology"? Those videos were made by Scientologists and are all lies. This has been proven so many times.

Good, very good, on so many levels!

Good to know how clueless she is (see icon). Good to see that this sneaky technique finally backfired, too. Why do they think they have the right to hide official stuff from us? In the industry, such methods would get them their marching order.

@whadyaknow

Anonymous doesn't really exist as such, to my knowledge there's no membership card. "anonymous is this or that" is almost as stupid as "Al Qaeda is this or that". They're just nebulous concept that some people join and leave(more or less) at will, there is no intrinsic coherence nor general strategy. That being said, you might disapprove of some actions led by some self-proclaimed Anonimous people (I do), but citing Fox and a (stupid and heinous) YuoTube video doesn't exactly bring you credit.

On the first screenshot you can see that the |-|4><><0R was also browsing 4chan... and /b/, of all boards. Dirty perv.

Ten to one it was Jesus

Yahoo email has a password retrieval service in case you forget your password, which asks you a secret question like "What is your pet's name" - and supposedly her secret question was "What is your ZIP code". Durrr.

Charlie Brooker in the Guardian - 'While half the electorate argue about her hardline stance on abortion, the other half is debating which position they'd do her in first. Not out loud, you understand, but in their heads. Or online.'

Umm should the real title have been "Anonymous! Hacks! Sarah! Palin's! Yahoo! Account! "???

Yeah yeah I know gratuitous use of the Yahoo punchline but how did the rest of you guys Miss! It!?? :)

Me thinks her password was "I_LOVE_JESUS_AND_GUNS", mustve thought that it was long enough and all caps with the underscores would help her not get hacked.....

/Anon causes im doing this at work and Boss is voting for them.

... that her yahooID was a somewhat reasonable "gov.palin@"; I expected something more, um, maverick-y like "akmoosehunter@" or "hockeymom@" or "guv4jesus@".

Yo ho ho and an inbox of guvmail.

It should be apparent by now that Palin needs to be kept as far away from the Whitehouse as possible. Send her back to Alaska, which is far enough away to not do any real damage to the rest of the USA. McCain must be an idiot for having added her to his Campaign.....

This lady's email gets hacked and everyone immediately pins it onto anti scientology protesters? I don't see the connection here.

Paris cos she must be involved in this somehow too.

Actually she should know it, because that's precisely the password strength required at State level for all employees, including the Governor.

As for not liking her, well I'm a Democrat living in Alaska. Most of the stories about book banning and creationism being foisted on schools is absolute rubbish. My kids go to Anchorage schools and believe me they'd be pulled out immediately if any such twaddle was being taught there.

I'm not voting for her because she's not running for President. McCain is and another Republican President will finish off our economy for good. It's the current policy of allowing the rich and greedy to run banks, self-regulate themselves and gamble on the stock market that's lead to this mess we're in now. Imagine borrowing billions of dollars using the payments of mortgages to homeless as security. Now put a self-regulating Nick Leeson* in charge of those loans. What could possibly go wrong?

That is the level of incompetence that we're dealing with, and on top of all the spying, torture, Iraq, Katrina, I just don't think we can survive another Republican administration. Even if everything they were saying about the Democrats was true, it's still infinitely preferable to where we'd be in four years if McCain won in November.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson

On the contrary - Anonymous delivers!

yahoo for business. karma

Funny she is the only person i know when you look pass or through her glasses the edge of her face still lines up. Plain glass ?

LOL

daft cow deserved it, isnt it weird every .gov wants to spy on its people but when stuff like this happens they dont like it.

http://bcclist.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/palins-yahoo-account-hacked.jpg

http://rs307.rapidshare.com/files/145931046/WWIII.7z

I think it is absolutely sad that Anonymous had to stoop to criminal acts to get attention. I am not a Sarah supporter, but I also do not support these type of attacks. Two wrongs do not make a right, so to speak.

"For my own sanity please tell me you're a troll.

Also, Sarah Palin is a fundie gun-nut who needs throwing in the loonie bin like all the rest of the evangelical nutters."

Who's the troll here? For your information, some seventy percent of Americans are active Christians. Whats with the hatefully sarcastic comment after comment?

Oh, I forgot, a bunch of limp wristed, sniveling, socialist europeans. Socialists are so good at sniveling.

I guess it's been enough decades for yall to forget that millions of God-fearing Americans cut from the same cloth as Palin as they gave their lives and blood to free europe from someone else who did'nt believe in God.

And thrown in the loonie bin along with all the rest of the evangelical nutters?

Perhaps you'd like to come do the throwing buddy?

Paris, because she's had what I'd give you.

There was much brouhaha about Palin and others using personal email accounts for state business, in order to avoid being on the public record about it. This sort of thing is needed to keep politicians honest(ish).

There is also the whole... doing state business on a Yahoo! account that anyone can reset the password by simply knowing your Zip code and your D.O.B. - stupid, and possibly illegal.

One hopes Obama and crew have better password security.

Hahahahaha. That quote is one of the funniest things I've heard/read in a long time. God save the English sense of humor - and the Queen.

I refuse to use any of these icons until they're not fuzzy anymore! Otherwise I would've used the happy smiley.

This is why I absolutely HATE these "security question" systems. It used to be "put your own question", so I could put weird riddles or some insane gibberish only I would know; but now the systems just force you to use stupid questions like "what's my pet's name", "what's my birthday" and that "mother's maiden name" question ... which by the way, is rubbish in some countries where the wife *doesn't* lose her last name.

Anyway, its stupid to use free e-mail services for serious stuff... it seems this Republican lot haven't yet grasped that, but then again, these guys put Exchange instead of Notes in the Whitehouse. Bleh.

The full story of the hack is up on MichelleMalkin's website.

The bottom line:

-he was only behind one proxy.

-he didn't hack the password, he answered the "security" questions correctly after googling background information.

-he did it to try and find evil secrets, but found boring, non-issue stuff.

-he read every email in the account.

OWNED

Let's face it: with 23 million noble sacrifices to your four-hundred-thousand-odd, it was the godless Commies who saved all our asses from the fascist nightmare.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004615.html

America's Wars: U.S. Casualties and Veterans

Battle deaths 291,557

Other deaths in service (nontheater) 113,842

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

Country Population 1939 Military deaths Civilian deaths

United States 131,028,000 416,800 1,700

Soviet Union 168,500,000 10,700,000 11,400,000

a bunch of limp wristed, sniveling, socialist europeans?

Can't speak for everyone else over here but at least 70 percent of us don't spend our time grovelling on our knees to a fairy story every Sunday or whenever it is you choose to to do your collective sniveling.

And no we haven't forgotten about the dead americans, its just that most of us don't care. As a well known figure of that time said "gratitude is a disease of dogs".

After suffering through Sarbox, these governments - municipal, state and federal must do the same. Many companies now have policies banning the use of external email for company business, same with IM.

Why is no one pushing this agenda. If the gov are making the rules, they should have to follow it as well.......what am I talking about, that has never happened

1st ac said fundie/evangelical, not christian. And if she wasn't trying to screw over the other 30% of .USians (a figure i would dispute), there wouldn't be the complaints.

surely the bint should have a secure email account hosted by the US government and not a dodgy Yahoo account.

If she was representing me and was using this address to receive my feedback, I would not trust it.

Is America intent on putting the more into moron?

Paris - because even she'd have a hilton.com-hosted email account

Pfft the US "helped" Europe to save its own ass. The prospect of a united Europe was too scary for the US. You "helped" europe out of self interest and ever since the US have tryed to screw with everyone. Any good will the US got back then is well spend my little americanSteroidepumpedRelegiousFanaticalJeasusassKissingGunLovingPsycoTwitt.

Go jump into your 8 ton 400 liter gas pr meter SUV and drive it off a very tall cliff will ya? Please? after all we need to prove Dawin right everytime we can.

ps. Very american of you to end with a threat.

... and given 'Anonymous' is er, anonymous, ever consider she could've "hacked" her own account as a publicity stunt? - you know reveal caring sounding email correspondance... etc.

& @Daniel B ... yes the questions are dumb, but you can set the answer to whatever you want... (all you have to do is remember!)

It was "popcorn". Can you believe that? :P

>Anonymous is a leaderless collective of like-minded individuals, from all walks of life. >http://www.enturbulation.org/press-media/faq

The information contained within that page is mostly false. Anonymous is not an anti-scientology group, it's just a group of people (definitely not like-minded - a quick visit to /b/ will confirm this), a PORTION of which happen to be opposed to scientology.

Anon is also in favour of tits and lulz.

PS. El Reg admins; the spellchecking on this field is an absolute disaster. I would suggest fixing it, but that would be far too much work and as such i recommend ditching it altogether. At least make it stop correcting English spellings... Is this not a UK-based website, with a primarily UK-based demographic? :)

Those god-botherers are too much!

"I guess it's been enough decades for yall to forget that millions of God-fearing Americans cut from the same cloth as Palin as they gave their lives and blood to free europe from someone else who did'nt believe in God."

I'm going to guess you're talking about Hitler as Kaiser Wilhelm was a christian. If that's the case I suggest you learn a little history.

Approx. 330,000 US citizens died in WWII, compare that to 50,000,000 Soviet citizens and you may just begin to understand why Europeans find the US's conviction that you guys won the war single-handed both confusing and highly insulting.

Just in case your maths is as bad as your history perhaps I should point out that 330 thousand is not "millions." 50 million on the other hand, is.

Paris - because you've shown yourself to be as intelligent as she is.

over 400,000 American gave their lives in WW2. Many of them in Europe. For their sacrifice I am grateful. They came to fight for freedom. they died as heros.

However the leaders that sent them did so for other reasons: Money; Political Power and Fear of the commies. Never forget that the US entered the war in Europe only after a) Pearl Harbour, when political capital could be made from war-mongering. and b)The Russians turned back the Eastern Front and looked like they could march right over Europe thereby threatening US interests. Also Britain has only just finished paying back war 'loans' to the US, the only country in the world to make a profit from WW2.

""I too recently had my Yahoo account hacked into..."

"(even though I was emailing them from my Yahoo account which should be proof of ownership)..."

Just think about it for a bit, Steve. I'm sure you'll get it."

Think about it a bit longer and you'd realise that's the very reason they should have investigated his report instead of ignoring it.

"This guy's email claims his account's been hacked."

"Can we verify it was sent by the genuine account owner?"

"No."

"Well then, it's probably just a hacker using his email. Ignore it."

-- A different Steve

Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML

I've being following Anonymous since it came to fame with their campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of the cult of Scientology. Anonymous seems to be a new phenomenon of Internet and real world activist. Anyone can claim to be Anonymous and it doesn't matter because "in" Anonymous everyone acts as freethinking and acting individuals with total responsibility for their own actions. "In" Anonymous a person is judged solely on their actions; there is no race, religion, gender or sexual orientation issues "in" Anonymous because on the Internet these things are hidden and what you expose by your attitude is you.

The individuals who did this did a good service. Presumably their actions were precipitated by the recent controversy over personal email usage, which most people missed, and this act has done more to highlight the issue than anything else could have done. Sure it is inconvenient and embarrassing for the target but lets hope the inconvenience and embarrassment teaches these people a lesson in humility and gets them to play properly.

Bet she's so embarrased about it all she's turned as red as her cfm shoes.

On the issue of politics, I'll say my bit: why was she chosen for running mate, eventually becoming vice president? Two reasons: 1) she's a women and appeals to the female voters, 2) She's pretty.

Is she suitable for the job? Evidentally not, for many reasons.

Who says pretty girls don't get on more than non-pretty girls.

"...but now the systems just force you to use stupid questions like "what's my pet's name", "what's my birthday" and that "mother's maiden name" question ..."

While I agree that not allowing free-form questions stifles those of us who like our security a little tighter, it does prevent the average numpty from using questions such as "What month is Christmas in?" and "What day comes after Friday"*

*These are actual examples I have seen from a UK public organisations email system that does allow free-form questions.

I am a member of the loose collection of people who call themselves "Anons". We have no "leader", and certainly no dogma that we follow. And as a group, we do not EVER encourage illegal activity. Nor do we participate in it.

And, sorry Guys, no membership cards. Just a common goal. To expose the terrible abuses of the Cult of $cientology. And we will not rest until every crime the church has committed (sanctioned from the top), and every abuse comes to light.

(I encourage anyone reading this to visit xenu.net for more information.)

Anyone can call themselves an "Anon". And what one individual does, does not speak for an entire group. I do find the timing odd, considering the FBI (and a few other agencies) are allegedly looking into complaints about the Cult of Scientology.

Final note: no member of Anon, who ALL protest legally, (permits and all!) has ever assaulted a member of the Cof$. However, a quick trip to YouTube, and Google Video is filled with attacks upon Anons by cult members.

Under their continued "Fair-Game" policy, Anons have been followed, threatened, family members harassed, and there are ongoing investigations of break-in's of houses, offices, and private property by church members. A former member of the cult even had his hotel room broken into while on vacation with his wife & child. The case is still under investigation.

Google: Operation Snow White

This is the same rhetoric spouted in newsgroups and blogs all over the web in response to criticism of the dominance of religious attitudes and narrow mindedness in American society. American sacrifice saved our asses in the war? For which we Europeans should be eternally grateful? I don't think so, history recounts a different story.

What is it with Christians, American Christians especially that makes them think they are the answer to the worlds problems and not in the slightest bit responsible for them. The current global political situation is a direct result of the arrogance of Christian based, right wing, neo-conservative American foreign policy.

Where do Christan Americans get off from telling the world how to live, how to behave and what is righteous? Like they have a clue, hypocrisy is rife. I accept many American Christians are decent people who have respect for others and their beliefs or lack thereof. I just wish they weren't such a minority compared to the arrogant we know best, we must change the world by force if necessary to meet our own agenda types.

Americans died to save Europe is a ridiculous a statement as Jesus died to save us from our sins.

I wish you well despite the picture of yourself your words paint. You can thank a limp wristed, sniveling, socialist European upbringing for my tolerance. So who do I have to thank for yours?

Nobody is safe from us, For we are Legion.......

Webmail.

The most insecure form of communication known to man.

We all (or mostly all) use it 'cos it's convenient.

Price of convenience = no security.

Anyone in public office who uses webmail for ANY purpose, be that official or personal, can expect no sympathy if it gets hacked.

Please, please, please 'merkins, for the sake of humanity, DON'T vote McCain/Palin into office. The world REALLY doesn't need 4 more years of 'merkin Republicanism.

In the way that we don't need any more of NuLabour. (Though the alternatives don't look much better!)

Guys? What is up with you this week. Surely the headline should be:

Anonymous! Hacks! Sarah! Palin's! Yahoo! account!

In addition to the figures above, lets not forget that if the Americans had not been involved in supplying the Nazis with weapons and funding, we wouldn't have needed you at all, the war would have been over far sooner and the death toll would be nowhere near as high. I suggest you look at the history of your current presidents family - in particular his grandfather Prescott Bush. Many American companies benefited enormously by supporting the war in Europe and siding with Hitler.

PS:

Hitler did believe in God and convinced many that the cause they were fighting for was holy.

I quote from Mein Kampf

'I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord'

If you want more evidence just google it or look at http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm

Do they even teach you your own history in your schools? I bet the fact that you only won the war of independence because you got the french to bail you out of a war you were losing is also something that is 'forgotten'

Now sod off back to church, fire them guns and praise the sky fairy.

that is all... :(

Bullshit it was anonymous.

Another smear attempt by the scientologists.

Someone scared of making a decision - great choice for the whitehouse.

Let's leave the America / Euro bashing out of this eh? Also lets stop trying to cheapen live lost in wars by claiming the credit ourselves, we who were not even born then.....also weren't most of the soldiers in the latter stages of ww2 draftees??

Also, since when has 'Liberal' equalled 'Socialist'? And when did this become a swear-word anyway?

God botherers can fight elsewhere and anyway, shouldn't you be above responding to criticism, so secure are you in your beliefs?

There's enough things to slate Palin for without resorting to misogyny. You're making yourselves look like, er, bored IT workers that don't meet enough women.

Politicians need to be accountable, particularly dangerous ones like Palin - even more so. With Dick Cheney's shredders running at full pelt as bush's term comes to and end, and karl rove's Destroy the backups and lose the emails policy and the general republican policy of using the NRC Blackberry server for sending emails on all the law breaking they want to do (avoiding white house record keeping) - Citizen Gumshoe is needed, if that means hacking some moron's email so be it, it'll remind them that power is transitory and not to get too puffed up.

Given Palin's Ethical entanglements with troopergate, and politically motivated sackings, and her refusal to cooperate with investigators and general ethical bankruptcy, this account would be a valuable resource in any legal proceedings, shame someone decided to hand it back before all the delicious evidence was extracted

Palin's hubris seems to be that she appears to disguise official business on a personal email account. The case is not exactly proven at this stage.

The hubris of some commenters here is that they are prepared to overturn the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' seemingly merely because Palin is a senior public figure with a robust presentation of views that do not garner universal approval. Grow up. I am not a Palin supporter.

The real issue here is one of fitness to govern, openness and transparency and the ability of the wider public to reliably measure the fitness to govern of candidates for official positions. No official, at any level, in a position of civic service in any democracy should use personal email for administrative matters. Yet think, how does a person who receives a personal email on a personal account that then includes some 'business' or 'business-related' matters respond? What would YOU do?

The pure-form answer is: reply in a personal email: "you have raised matters of business that I will address by official means, not here". Yeah right! like that is going to happen 100% of the time. How to control what ALL the friends and associated of ALL officials might include in a personal email? Impossible.

There is no 100% workable solution that I can think of; there can only be policy guidelines and some means of monitor and audit. Some might say all 'personal' email accounts of officials should not be 'personal', rather 'public' - open to all to read and monitor. Overbearingly intrusive; everybody has a right to privacy. Perhaps all public officials should be subject to some legislation that requires them to self-audit periodically; trawl their personal email records for those instances where official matters reared their unwelcome head and so report publically? Unworkable.

Just looked at a pic of me and my face lines up through the glasses, so it could be a relatively weak prescription.

Back on topic, while it's a bad thing to do, it's worrying that the woman who could potentailly have her finger on the button is so naive when it comes to passwords.

(There again, bless her, she's found out how naive she is about abstinence education....)

Actually, Hitler was catholic. Not a reflection on catholics, but he assuredly did believe in God and presumably believed he was doing his will when he slaughtered 6 million jews. Reflect on that for a bit and you might start to see the problem us "socialists" (funny how I don't see that as a term of abuse) have with "y'all".

Am I the only one who got the point of that post? He was responding to a post accusing another poster of trolling, all the while tossing around insults. Perhaps a quick visit to dictionary.com to check out the word 'sarcasm' might help.

Oh, and @Peter Timon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_by_country

So, Europe has fewer Christians eh? Exactly where do you live, anyway? And while we are throwing around accusations of groveling, I would like to point out that at least 100% of Americans don't spend significant amounts of time begging for more and more handouts from our governmental overlords, humbly pleading for permission to do things we do as we damned well please.

gg.

Just finished consulting for a large London Borough.

Guess what..?

Almost all the local councilors use Hotmail & Yahoo accounts for their council business. They even setup blanket auto-forwarding rules from their internal email (that would be the very expensive secure clustered email system I was hired to build).

I/we did try explaining the security consequences on numerous occasions, especially with blanket forward rules. As per usual the self important, talentless, unqualified politicians thought they knew best - and promptly ignored us.

So I apologise to Londoners, if a Yahoo/Hotmail account gets hacked revealing confidential, constituency, or even child protection emails - they were warned.

Honestly, politicians - can't vote for them, can't shoot them.

>I too recently had my Yahoo account hacked into (which was then used to access my ebay account and cause havoc). When I reported this to Yahoo they wanted me to email them all my security questions before they would investigate (even though I was emailing them from my Yahoo account which should be proof of ownership). Due to email not being secure and only just having my account hacked into, I decliend to email them all my details so they promptly ignored my report of hacking and did absolutely nothing nothing about it.

How would they know you weren't the "hacker"? Couldn't you have emailed from another account quoting your email address and security question answers?

What do you want them to do if they can't verify you are the right person?!

"Who's the troll here? For your information, some seventy percent of Americans are active Christians. Whats with the hatefully sarcastic comment after comment?"

Granted it was trollish, i'll give myself a hearty slap on the wrist. However, 70% of Americans are not fundamentalist evangelicals and have thankfully retained their sanity. It's the wazzocks who believe that the world was created in 6 days 6000-odd years ago by some magical sky-fairy who need locking up. If you're one of them then I'm sorry, but your room's right this way. The doctors will be along shortly.

"Oh, I forgot, a bunch of limp wristed, sniveling, socialist europeans. Socialists are so good at sniveling."

I don't think that the limpness of my wrists (they're quite taut thank you), my being of left-wing persuasion or my being European has anything to do with anything, although I must point out that I'm not snivelling because I live in a country with a national healthcare system, so unlike 50 million Americans I can just pop along to the Doctor and they'll fix me right up. Still, those Republicans better keep fighting against 'socialized medicine', eh?

"I guess it's been enough decades for yall to forget that millions of God-fearing Americans cut from the same cloth as Palin as they gave their lives and blood to free europe from someone else who did'nt believe in God."

Firstly, Hitler was very religious, a real God-botherer. That didn't stop him being a headcase, but was perhaps indicative of it (Ok, ok, now I really am trolling. Very naughty). Secondly, whether American soldiers believed in God or not is irrelevant, you really think that non-religious people _didn't_ fight? (In fact, of course, when it comes to conscientious objecting, it was the religious types wot did it, guv). Thirdly, and I'll say this in all-caps to make it absolutely clear: AMERICA DID NOT WIN THE WAR. American involvement probably shortened the war by a year or two, but the Nazis would never have gotten past the Urals or been able to mount a successful invasion of Britain. If any country won the war, it was Russia. You guys can take credit for the war in the Pacific though, although don't tell the ANZACs 'cause they might be pissed.

"Perhaps you'd like to come do the throwing buddy?"

Gladly. =)

"Paris, because she's had what I'd give you."

Sex? Are you propositioning me? Sorry, but I'm not that sort of guy.

Now, that all being said, you might want to stop feeding the troll, the troll being me.

They aren't. She does have a secure govenment email address, but anything that's used for is part of the official government record.

A personal Yahoo address is just that, personal, and nothing to do with the running of the country, even if it being used for that. It's a loophole in the law that allows shady government dealings to be kept from the public eye.

Although it's not a very good method, as if you're trying to keep something secret, storing it on the net, on a server you don;t own and have no direct control over isn;t the best way to go.

and finally @ryan

It's y'all, not yall. if you're going to butcher the language, at least do it properly.

Ryan:

As has been stated, fundamentalist, not Christian. Please explain how having a problem with Sarah Palin is linked to the deaths of US service personnel in WW1 and WW2?

It is accepted that Hitler did believe in God.

It is extremely arguable that should the UK and its allies not opposed Nazi Germany in 1939-41 and had not won such things as the Battle of Britain then the first that the US would have known about Hitler's intentions is when atomic bombs rained down on New York.

Peter:

I care very much that those US service personnel (and civilians) died in the war(s), and I am grateful that they did so to allow me the identity I have today. If gratitude is as you say then I am proud to be a diseased dog. And you should go and fuck yourself.

Full quote is:

"It helps that she's hot. Hot for a politician, that is. In the street she's a standard Milf. Stand her next to 500-year-old John McCain and she's a Barely Legal covergirl. While half the electorate argue about her hardline stance on abortion, the other half is debating which position they'd do her in first. Not out loud, you understand, but in their heads. Or online."

Article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/sep/13/television.television

Is it me or is Solomon Grundy making sense today?

No icon 'cos the new ones are shite...

It's a very naughty group.

>Anonymous is a leaderless collective of like-minded individuals, from all walks of life.

So is Al Qaeda.

Has anon' deliberately branched out from harassing Scientologists?

Does no-one else find this idea of an unseen group meddling in a US presidential election a tad disturbing? Possibly more disturbing than the nut job celebs into Scientology?

As for Palin's security, since Anonymous found nothing of interest, maybe it worked?

Apparently was "Popcorn"

@Peter Timon

"As a well known figure of that time said "gratitude is a disease of dogs"."

Nice. I bet you're a very nice person to know. Remind me to buy you a pint sometime.

A few things

1) Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult*

2) Actually, there is no need to 2; 1 covers it all

*You know it was all made up, right? I am sure Hubbard is laughing his socks off (OK, ankle bones off).

we have seriously got to get a troll icon in here.....

til then : Have A Nice Day (smiley!)

They should make it illegal to conduct government related work on a personal/private account to bypass the 'public record' oversight legislation.

Sadly this won't happened whilst the current cabal that has seized power is sitting in the Whitehouse.

Sarah Palin’s email account was hacked by one person. Not a group.

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/17/the-story-behind-the-palin-e-mail-hacking/

Take from it what you will....

"I guess it's been enough decades for yall to forget that millions of God-fearing Americans cut from the same cloth as Palin as they gave their lives and blood to free europe from someone else who did'nt believe in God."

Would that be the same guy who said:

"As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice."

"I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews. I am doing the Lord's work."

"To do justice to God and our own conscience, we have turned once more to the German Volk."

"We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out."

You might want to think about the actions (and inactions) of German Christians in those days, too.

0 out of 10. See me after class.

Daniel B,

Just because the question says "What is your pet's name?" doesn't mean you have to use your actual pet's name for the response.

"On the contrary - Anonymous delivers!"

They do?! Excellent... I'll have the 12" Meat Feast, 12" Seafood Special, some potato wedges, 4 cheese garlic bread and a large bottle of coke... oh - and 2 garlic and 3 chilli dips please...

And if you can nip into the Off License on the way round, that'd be grand... Thanks!

Appears to have vanished?

Why persist in talking to flaming redneck hicks?

That includes George W. Bush, having just nationalised two of the world's biggest financial institutions.

Keep the red flag flying, comrade! Marx would be proud of you.

... who found that picture on the masthead so disturbing that they had to ad-block it?

Never mind the gun-nuttery or Jesus-freakery, anybody who names their offspring "Track", "Trig", "Bristol" (lovely name for a girl, that!), "Willow" and "Piper" is obviously unfit for any kind of public office (even if they *are* American!)

So, this would be exactly the reason that McCain doesn't use email! Man is clearly a genius and his VP could learn a lot from him :-)

U Sir r just a wretched hive of skum and villany...

... but, at least your skum and near-do-gooders are non-believers, as all future (long time ago) well informed people will be....

.. no, wait, just remembered, your full of midiclorian believing heretics!!

As of 7:30 am cst.. Wikileaks is down...

No.

"I guess it's been enough decades for yall to forget that millions of God-fearing Americans cut from the same cloth as Palin as they gave their lives and blood to free europe from someone else who did'nt believe in God."

Believe whatever you want to believe. The fact that you believe in God means that you already do this but remember one thing, the truth is not open to democratic decision making processes.

Now fuck off!

99% of the calls to a help desk are made by Steve.

100% agree, well said.

I'm a UK expat living near Eindhoven in the Netherlands. This week is the anniversary of the liberation of this area by the US 101st Airborne during Operation Market Garden. I am eternally grateful for the sacrifices made by US soldiers in WWII. On Sunday I took my daughter to see the laying of the wreaths on the Airborne memorial in our town - I want her to be aware of the debt we owe to ALL those who gave their lives for freedom.

@ Peter Timon: Shame on you for quoting the one person in history with even more blood on his hands than Hitler.

I'm sorry, but what knucklehead of a public figure would have such an obvious email account as gov.palin@yahoo.com? You would have THOUGHT that someone on the McCain campaign would have made sure this was secured (or eliminated) was she was chosen as McCain's running mate? Duh! Apparently Sen. Obama's comment about Sen. McCain not being able to use a computer applies to his staff also.

http://whistlersear.wordpress.com.

However, the people in America now are not the same people. The people in charge are not the same people in charge then.

And the current incumbents have pissed away any goodwill with their arrogant nonsense.

And DEMANDING that we thank you eternally for your help (massively well paid for, by the way. doesn't that make you a mercenary army??) is not the way to make friends and influence people.

Matt, it IS illegal.

However, Shrub already tested the water and used non-government systems to conduct government business. Then "lost" the emails. Which weren't backed up properly because they weren't government controlled.

They are still trying to work out how to persue this without indictment of the president, which may well lead to a coup.

This wouldn't BE meddling in government if the stupid arrogant cow didn't use personal emails for government communication (which am illegal in the US and Alaska). Even mailing from there to someone @gov.uk is illegal misuse of government resources.

What I'm curious about is how was Sarah Palin's email account broken into?

Was her PC compromised with spyware? Did she carelessly connect to an unencrypted Wi-Fi hotspot? Did she choose a dictionary word for her password ("aardvark") that was easy for the hackers to crack?

Or did she fall for a similar trick as the one that caught out a certain Miss Paris Hilton back in 2005. If I recall correctly, Paris's mistake was making the name of her pet chihuahua (Tinkerbell) the secret question/answer to reset her Sidekick's password. Uh-oh.

I made a video comparing Sarah Palin's plight with Paris Hilton's experiences, which Register readers might like: http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2008/09/18/paris-hilton-sarah-palin-video/

>> Also, Sarah Palin is a fundie gun-nut who needs throwing in the loonie bin like all the rest of the

>> evangelical nutters.

> Who's the troll here? For your information, some seventy percent of Americans are active

> Christians. Whats with the hatefully sarcastic comment after comment?

Do you really think that "Christian" is the same thing as "Fundamentalist" and "Evangelical?" Don't you ever stop to think that maybe there's a broad range of beliefs within the Christian religion itself, and pointing out that Palin is a fundamentalist and evangelical isn't a slur on the entire religion, just on a particularly intolerant wing of it that has aggressively denigrated everyone in the world who doesn't think exactly as they do?

No. No you don't.

"I am a member of the loose collection of people who call themselves "Anons". We have no "leader", and certainly no dogma that we follow. And as a group, we do not EVER encourage illegal activity."

I have been Anon, and may still be. Anon most certainly does encourage illegal activity, drug use for one, harassment of gamestop employees for another.

"no membership cards. Just a common goal. To expose the terrible abuses of the Cult of $cientology."

That goal ceased being common a long time ago. I agree with it, but do not participate. Many would call you a "protestfag" or cancer.

Anon, for me, is about disrespect for rules, for laws and for other people. For some it may be a cause, for others it is an outlet for anger, yet others consider it a hacking group. Many are in it for the lulz (and I strongly suspect that this is where the Palin crack came from).

The best explanation I've ever heard is that anon is a memeplex, a collection of mental detritus pouring fourth from the cesspits of the internet. The fact it has done some good (Co$) is a happy accident.

Anonymous, because none of us is as cruel as all of us.

Except maybe..

"Lately I just pray may God's will be done. I am trying to learn patience and listen to God."

So she either listens to a voice in her own head, or the opinion of a man listening to the voice in his head and wearing a dress every Sunday...

Sound pretty bloody worrying to me!

And as such should not be engaged in political activity due to self-confessed mental incapacity.

... are not all the same.

I don't think myself better than anyone else, and I don't pressure people repeatedly to repent. Jesus actually says not to badger people who don't want to listen (I'd have to look it up later ... I don't bring a Bible to work).

Not all are neo-conservatives - unfortunately, that is the most vocal group, and they happen to have hijacked a major political party. To assume that *all* American Christians = lunatics is equivalent to "All French are cowards" and "All English have bad teeth." Those aren't true, but that's what happens when you pain with a large brush.

Try to remember this and keep the venom level down - because painting with a large brush isn't pretty.

(AC because, honestly, I'd rather not be badgered myself)

>This wouldn't BE meddling in government if the stupid arrogant cow didn't use

>personal emails for government communication (which am illegal in the US

>and Alaska). Even mailing from there to someone @gov.uk is illegal misuse

>of government resources.

Rather depends on what they hoped to do with the info doesn't it?

As it is, having found nothing, they've gone down the "make her look like she has no concept of computers, thus must be stupid" route. You don't think that the reason she was targeted at all was that she's a VP candidate?

I would suggest that they hoped to find information that they could use to defame her in order to manipulate the impending US presidential election in favour of their preferred candidate.

However, the absence of anything significant suggests that perhaps she new perfectly well the account could be compromised and thus left nothing important in it.

The fact is that the "stupid cow" was a victim of a crime, and as usual there's a bunch of pompous (and even more arrogant!) geeks blaming her for being a victim, blame the criminals, they did it.

I, for one, welcome our Anonymous overlords.

And @Ryan... Get a life (and an education).

No icon until El Reg brings the old ones back.

No, it wouldn't matter what they happened to want to to with private data, it wouldn't be *government* data.

If she's a blackmail candidate then she's a security risk and shouldn't be in the running.

If her children might get kidnapped, this will NOT have changed the chances.

"The fact is that the "stupid cow" was a victim of a crime, and as usual there's a bunch of pompous (and even more arrogant!) geeks blaming her for being a victim, blame the criminals, they did it."

You missed the point.

It appears she is dishonestly using her private email to conduct official business, something for which the Republican party has been chastised before, in order to avoid transparency and disclosure laws.

Whilst she will play the victim and the republican faithful will lap it up, she should be disgraced by this further suggestion that the party is indulging in unethical and illegal acts. The fact that she feels the need to keep it off official servers is damning enough and illegal in Alaska.

No, it wouldn't matter what they happened to want to to with private data, it wouldn't be *government* data.

If she's a blackmail candidate then she's a security risk and shouldn't be in the running.

If her children might get kidnapped, this will NOT have changed the chances.

PS if it were to defame, this would be a normal criminal matter and suitable for the police *not* the secret service to get into.

Don't confuse "Christian" and "evangelical fundamentalist". The two are very different, sadly the right-wing crazies and Republican hangers-on who make up the second group have hijacked the once-good name of the first group with their entirely un-Christian attitudes of hatred, intolerance and judgmental thinking.

Fundies of any religion don't belong in politics. That's how you get situations like Iran, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland to name a few.

While 70% of Americans may claim the Christian faith, less than 35% of them are "active" or practicing. They aren't Christians in any sense of the religion - only in name. And only then because they don't want to burn in the "lake of fire" for all eternity and they believe that by paying lip service to "God" they'll be taken care of - cause everybody knows Jesus will let you off the hook for anything if you say you're sorry.

Which gets to my point that many of the people who claim Christianity as their religion have no idea what the religion is about and rail on about things they absolutely do not understand, or even care to understand. Unfortunately those people give the rest of the Christians a bad name. Sort of like the crazy Muslims (all suicide bombers 'ya know).

Most of the people who take their religion seriously will never spew dogma at you, make accusations about/toward anyone else, or attempt to blow you up. It's the fakers that cause all the problems.

How many in your family know your mother's maiden name?

You should NEVER submit the true answer to any of those questions (pet name, first school, inside-leg, blah).

It's a key-value pair FFS, and you're the only one who knows what you set as the answer. That's the whole point. There is only one right answer, there's no true/false connection, and only you know what it is.

Q: Mother's maiden name? A: SHITC*NT-666

Likely not how most people would naturally find themselves thinking, but that's how it works.

Chrissakes.

thats where she was keeping her policy stuff and it got deleted.....

or maybe just pics of beautified bulldogs...

Amazing.

Some of my fondest memories are of times I spent in the UK. The Brits are among my favorite people in the world. I am greatly saddened by what has happened to their society over the last forty years. It seems that the gentlefolk of my youth have been replaced by . . . some sort of gleefully giggling pack of vaguely canine animals.

Wisdom has been replaced by a kind of meme-driven collective intellect, obsessed with proving to the world that it's clever, and smarter-than-thou. Civility has been replaced by institutionalized rudeness and derision. Study and understanding have been replaced by "knowledge" on teh intertubez.

I'm amused by the conflation of attacking Palin with Scientology bashing. Just . . . wow. The "logic" of I-hate-X, Anon-attacks-X, so Anon-is-cool, anyone-Anon-attacks-must-be-lame . . . stunning stuff.

I had an uncle who was a Rosicrucian. He was a little weird. He was also an astrologer who more often got it right than wrong. Spooky stuff. In the twenty years that I knew of his association with the Rosicrucians, it never once occurred to me that I ought to bash them or ridicule them. Why? Because, frankly, I'd never actually studied any of their material or known any of their members beyond my own uncle. It would have been intellectually dishonest of me to attempt any external analysis without some actual study.

I spent some years in Europe working alongside Scientologists. I became familiar with their principles, their methods, some of their organizational concepts. I read some of their books. Still have some of them, actually. What impressed me was that they got results. Real, stable, workable results. We were doing rehab and educational stuff. The government clowns weren't getting results, and the medical "experts" weren't getting results. Our group did alright (with no public funding, thank you very much), but the Scientologists and their groups outperformed us.

In the thirty years since, I've known an assortment of Scientologists. Worked with some. Even had one as a boss. Visited their LA headquarters in the mid-eighties. While there, I ran into a couple of the people I'd worked with in Europe. Small world. Good people.

I don't have a problem with them. I've seen them up close. I know who they are. I know how they work. I have seen their results. As a manager? I'd have no problem hiring one.

Now, this Palin thing?

Well, she seems to be a whole lot more open and genuine than pretty much anyone I've seen in government in decades. Christian? Meh. That's a majority demographic in the US. No problem with that. How does she govern? Pretty much against the traditional grain with respect to corruption and such. And that's a good thing.

Barking that she's not hip and a group of criminals outsmarted her? Pretty smarmy stuff, that.

You do know that it's an actual crime to break into someone else's email account, right? I mean, being clever and all, you do actually grasp that this was a criminal act?

But it's a cool criminal act because . . . you hate her? Wow. That's right off the smarm-chart.

And she's scary? Frightening? Really? But a committed Marxist isn't scary? That's some solid thinking there.

If what I see here represents England, then I weep for Britain.

I really, truly do.

Hey, at least she knows how to use e-mail...unlike that guy she's running with....

(Paris, cuz she knows how to use e-mail, too)

There is a wikileaks mirror here: http://cryptome.org/ downloading the emails now...

You really will have to stop confusing England with Britain you know, you're as bad as the English tabloid press - and I'm sure you don't want that, really.

Paris, knows all about the English tabloid press.

Why would a committed Marxist be scary?

Why are 'liberal' and 'socialist' terms of abuse in America?

It makes no sense to me.

Oh, and Scientologists aren't scary. They're just a bit sad.

Is it just me or does the picture of Ms. Palin on the front page bear a striking resemblance to Ava Devine? Now that would be a turn up for the books.

Mine's the shabby macintosh.

Why do you allow pro-scientology screed on here? It's nonsense:

"I read some of their books. Still have some of them, actually. What impressed me was that they got results. Real, stable, workable results. We were doing rehab and educational stuff."

Their rehab programs are an unscientific joke and they refuse to supply any results so that their results can be compared to other methods.

Their education programs are abusive of the minds of children, deliberately teaching thoughtless obedience.

No thank you.

"it's a cool criminal act because . . . you hate her? Wow. That's right off the smarm-chart."

No, it's a cool criminal act because the republican party have been part of the largest illegal and warrantless wiretap operation in history over the last few years, snooping on millions of private citizens without their knowledge or even legal backing. This is just a small taste of their own medicine.

That and they seem to like to hide official communications away from government mail services where they might be subject to disclosure.

Defending Palin and the Co$ in one swoop? You must have invested heavily in asbestos underpants.

The fact that Sarah Palin was using a Yahoo! account is almost neglectable in light of the fact that Anonymous members were illegally cracking the email account and deliberately spread private and government information on the internet, on top of all endangering the safety of Palin's family. No "public interest" exists for this, and their doing was just plain illegal. Anonymous is known for illegal and harassing actions for a long time.

Article:

http://www.nolanchart.com/article4803.html

Fox11 News on Anonymous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNO6G4ApJQY

Anonymous response:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFjU8bZR19A

Another Fox11 report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYH-5ke_bOU

Anonymous documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbwNyKXux70

http://www.anonymous-exposed.org

You seem to have missed many of the comments who do not support the action by anonymous. However as a person that may wield considerable power if elected in one of the most powerful nations on Earth, her background and beliefs are indeed suitable for scrutiny.

Palin is a Fundamental Christian, not the majority demographic you claim, as commented above by more than one person. This group of people are no better than the scientologists or the Islamic fundamentalists. They are scary, convinced they are in the right and their beliefs can drive them to do things that no sane person would contemplate.

Regarding 'How does she govern? Pretty much against the traditional grain with respect to corruption and such', I suggest you research what has been mentioned above - troopergate, politically motivated sackings and refusal to co-operate with investigators. Showing her true colours as being as corrupt as most politicians when it suits her.

As for 'Study and understanding have been replaced by "knowledge" on teh intertubez'. It is true that more information than ever before is available, and much of it is rubbish and downright lies. That said, the methods Scientology uses to protect its 'secrets', persecute people who try to expose them or leave the cult and extort money from people are well documented by very credible sources. As such, the whole cult should be exposed for what it is - a cult and the world should be free to know this. Maybe in the mid-80's it was easier to hide in ignorance about their tactics, but that is the case no longer and all their dirty secrets are being exposed.

No Obama as 'a committed Marxist' isn't scary. It's actually a good start on bringing the American government back in line with the core ideals that it was formed from. That all people are equal and their opinion matters instead of fawning all over big business. I would rather live in a marxist society than the republican way of doing things. Pandering to big business, making the rich richer on the backs of the poor etc. Communism is actually a good idea in principle - everyone is equal, no one is better than another and everyone has enough to live comfortably. Unfortunately human nature lets it down, as some will always be more equal than others as the leaders of every communist party prove time after time. Marx's and Engles dream of the true communist society has never been realised anywhere in the world.

As for all the bull about how the British people have gone downhill in terms of civility - you mean like how the Americans have turned away from the all absorbing me,me,me I deserve everything and I want it now culture, thrown away their guns in favour of debate, have a society were the poor can receive the same care and support as the rich and gang warfare on the streets has all but disappeared? Even given our societies problems of late, we are still more civilised than a large part of the good ol' USofA

That is of course an assumption on my part that you are American (you may well not be) but given your glowing report on Scientology, I would put money on you being a Scientology shill.

AC, as given the topic it seems fitting

Nah.

I don't need to defend Palin. I reckon she's a big girl and can take care of herself.

Marxism? Oh, I dunno, the whole forcible confiscation of wealth thing. The idea that a government -- any government -- can achieve prosperity through enforcing equal outcomes regardless of individual ability. Enforced fairness. Things like that. I suppose, though, that anyone who sees nothing wrong with a system of this sort isn't going to be convinced by anything I say, clever or not.

CofS? Again, I reckon they're big boys and girls and can likewise take care of themselves. Their results? Been there. Seen it with my own eyes.

<<Their rehab programs are an unscientific joke and they refuse to supply any results so that their results can be compared to other methods.>>

Eh? I don't need anyone to "supply" results. I was there. Bark all you want

<<Their education programs are abusive of the minds of children, deliberately teaching thoughtless obedience.>>

Priceless. I watched a Danish kid go from unable to read, to reading ahead of his class in under four months. Obedience? OMG! He can READ! He's gonna be mindlessly obedient!

There are many things about which you can lie to me, and I may be fooled by that. It's a lot harder to lie to me about things to which I've been a first-hand witness.

Of course, my observations are -- in your world -- just bytes on teh intarwebz, along with all the other "facts" you have. Pick the ones you like best.

Whatever you do, don't go get your hands dirty and observe anything first-hand.

That would simply never do.

Because Fox 'News' is a credible and respected outfit, right?

You still miss the fact that any government information released by this cracking of her password was only there because Mz Palin was breaking the law putting it ON THERE.

So where are the FBI for the investigation of that???

like Deidre Barlow.

"I don't need to defend Palin. I reckon she's a big girl and can take care of herself."

Well, it's pretty irrelevant anyway, the US isn't going to vote for more of the same unless its citizens are even dumber than we already think.

"Eh? I don't need anyone to "supply" results. I was there. Bark all you want"

Then you'll know their rehab programs involve administering large doses of B vitamins and locking people in a sauna for hours, followed by claiming that the following Niacin overdose is somehow the drugs leaving the system. All based on LRH's claims that addiction is caused by traces of drug in fat cells - utter nonsense. And their relapse rate is as high as anyone else's. The intentions of some individual members may well be honourable, the organisation is not.

BTW, you know that many of the higher-ups of scientology were convicted of fraud a little while back, and breaking into government records to erase their pasts? Look up Operation Snow White sometime.

The church is a shady and criminal monster,

"Priceless. I watched a Danish kid go from unable to read, to reading ahead of his class in under four months. Obedience? OMG! He can READ! He's gonna be mindlessly obedient!"

Hurray for meaningless anecdotes! Now go read up on what Jenna Miscavige-Hill (niece of the head honcho) went through in her church-organised upbringing and tell me it's not child abuse.

But whatever you do, don't look past the smiling face on the front door, that would never do.

Sorry!!!

How 'bought you folks just forget I ever posted here. Relax, guys!!!? Look over there!

And when the next Russian/German/Jamaican bobsled team army storms Europe, for whatever self-centered reason us evangelical whacko gun nuts come running to your rescue, I won't even mention this nuclear bomb of a flameout on the ol reg as I grab 'ol betsy...

I forgive you. As I welcome our new yes I have free email and kiss my ass there's nothing on it for you Palin Overlords.

p.s. Thnx, Lee (@Ryan, RE: Peter Timon)

The smiley face because I now feel gay for even trying to reconcile with you pack of piranhas.

And because the perp will come to justice for a childish prank, which turned up nothing, yet was what his overlords demanded.

And for this post, I am disgusted by elReg and will not visit for another twenty four hours because such a consensus among the readers has to reflect upon the editors.

And, tomorrow on the roof, when I turn a nail sideways and split my finger in half, a trademark of us fundamentalists who make a living the old fashioned way, actual WORK, I shall spray in blood "The REG SUX" to be read by the crew who tears the roof off thrity years from now, under the leadership of their airborn robot overlords. And the spark of historic defiance may awaken them to a Brave New World and remind us all of our American "We will kick your ass even if you kill most of us unless we're French" roots.

You know, my original observation had to do with the oddness of a thread of comments that was as strongly anti-CofS as it was anti-Palin.

That's still my primary observation.

I happen to be in the unique position of having experience with one and having to seriously consider the other, since my future is sort of enmeshed with it.

Relating a personal experience? Foolish of me. I mean, what was I thinking? Ahh, well, I'm no stranger to foolishness. Probably won't be the last time.

On a disrelated note . . .

I do a bit of shooting. Quite rusty, really. Too many years out of the forces. Anyway, I picked it up again a few years back. There have been considerable advances in ammunition technologies and some in the actual design of firearms as well. It took me a couple of years before I didn't feel like a complete ignoramus. I had to spend hours with people who knew the hardware, who could show me how it worked, how to tear it down, how to clean it, how to adjust things. Hours with people who taught safety. More hours with people who taught technique and accuracy. Learning to shoot all over again is a little like learning to drive after a thirty-year hiatus.

So, yes, lots of time and money spent with various experts and more money spent on equipment and practice and assorted supplies. Did I mention that I spent a lot of TIME on this? And then there was legal research. And technical study. Hell, all I wanted to do was have some fun putting holes in targets, and this was starting to be a lot like work.

As I matured in this new (again) sport, I began to encounter a whole stratum of other "experts."

People who had never touched a gun, never mind shot one, were sagely advising me on pros and cons. People whose whole knowledge set was derived from stuff they'd learned from gaming or learned online, pontificating about calibres, powders, bullet design. And an amazing amount of it simply wrong. Just made up. Bizarre stuff.

I was hearing "expert" guidance that directly contradicted my own personal experience, not to mention the words of actual industry personnel.

Over this period of, what is it, four years now? I've learned to sort the wheat from the chaff. I'm far from any sort of expert myself, but I can recognize crap information when it comes my way.

There's just no substitute for hands-on, on-the-ground, up-close-and-personal experience.

There's no substitute for real research.

So. Right, then. Where were we?

Oh, yes, Palin.

I have a robust acquaintance with reality. Don't worry your heads that I will somehow be "hornswoggled" by Palin -- or any of the other, uh, personalities in our politics.

I'm married to a researcher, a digger of dirt, a ferreter of facts. Someone who does exposés of falsified stories in the press. I'm pretty well briefed.

Come the day, I'll vote my (informed) conscience.

Just as you would.

I haven't seen in any story on this, that any of the e-mail sent or recieved by Palin from this yahoo account included official Alaska government business

now it *may* have, or I didn't read a story claiming so

however most posters here seem to be ASSuming she is/was using this private account for official government business ...

PLEASE point me to the proof .. so I won't be thinking about 1/2 of you are just *complete* anti-American eurosnob rumor mongering socialist jerks

"You do know that it's an actual crime to break into someone else's email account, right? I mean, being clever and all, you do actually grasp that this was a criminal act?"

Really? All I know is that if I was to phone 999 and report my email account had been hacked I would more than likely face a charge of wasting police time, the best result I could possibly expect would be for the operator to laugh at me and tell me to get real.

But then again, I'm not a VP candidate with a private (public funded but private none the less) army to do my bidding.

If you had looked at the contents of the file that was kindly linked to above

http://rs307.rapidshare.com/files/145931046/WWIII.7z

or wikileaks

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin_Yahoo_inbox_2008

You will quite plainly see emails that are most definitely Alaskan government business.

Examples taken from the inbox list:

Meghan Stapleton

Attachments

FW: Motor Fuel Tax Suspension

Sat, 8/30/08 1169KB

Read

Ruaro, Randall P (GOV)

Draft letter to Governor Schwarzenegger / Container Tax

Thu, 8/28/08 12KB

Read

McBride, Rhonda (GOV)

Rural Wireless Service

Sat, 8/23/08 32KB

Read

Nizich, Michael A (GOV)

RE: Using Royalty Oil to Lower the Cost of Fuel for Alaskans

Fri, 8/22/08 42KB

Read

The proof was there if you bothered to look - it really didn't take a lot of effort so no ASSumptions required.

Posted by a proud anti-American eurosnob rumor(sic) mongering socialist jerk

'Marxism? Oh, I dunno, the whole forcible confiscation of wealth thing. The idea that a government -- any government -- can achieve prosperity through enforcing equal outcomes regardless of individual ability. Enforced fairness. Things like that. I suppose, though, that anyone who sees nothing wrong with a system of this sort isn't going to be convinced by anything I say, clever or not.'

As opposed to the American system which is - My grandfather/father had talent and made my family rich and now we just buy anything and anybody we like and get our own way regardless of any individual talent or ability on our part? Bit like the current President?

Kind of like the old English feudal system which the Americans so detested yes? I'm important not through anything I have done but just because of who my father was.

You sanctimonious Twat (and you do deserve the capital T)

Paris as another prime example

In Alaskan statutes it is illegal for her to mail a person in their @gov.ak.us government email address from a private email address. Probably because there's no required audit trail on private email accounts.

They are evidenced.

Some of the emails shown have been affirmed by their recipient to be true and accurate representations of emails actually sent from her.

Now if these were just "Hi. How's your daughter doing, now?" she could show them and clear herself.

But there's already a problem with her use of it. Given that some of the emails have subject headings that indicate government or at least political operational issues were the subject of the email, she has now to prove herself innocent of wrongdoing. The prosecution has already shown ample evidence of wrongdoing for a conviction.

I quote:

"since my future is sort of enmeshed with it."

This doesn't sound like a religious acceptance but a cult indoctrination.

If you do not want to be classed as a body thetan, I would leave and not turn up again. You are damaging the CoS cause.

I see you hunger for more anecdotes.

Well, you've been naughty, so no more anecdotes for you.

I see the reading comprehension crowd has weighed in. *Sigh*

"Separated by a common language," indeed.

So, since my future is somewhat "enmeshed" with the outcome of this election . . . that's "cult indoctrination?" Yes. Of course.

"American system?" I work for a living. I earn every single red farthing. Of course, a substantial dollop of that goes missing with every cheque. I've never taken a bloody government handout. The government, on the other hand, has never felt embarrassed to have it's hand in my pocket.

Some of you write as though you know me, as though you know what moves me. That's to be expected, I suppose.

It does, however, rather make my point about cleverness vs understanding.

I must really apologize for my initial indignation. I assumed much. And I was clearly wrong. My experiences, though, are what they are. My fondness for the English remains. I've lived under both socialism and capitalism. All things considered, I'll eschew socialism to whatever degree is possible. Capitalism has its problems, but it engenders greater prosperity, so I'll stay with that.

Given that I have this anti-socialism bias, I'll select the candidate that shows the least likelihood of adopting it.

I'm not much of a fan of modern government in any case. It wants to be my parent, my nanny, my teacher, and my warden. Being a primitive sort, I find this unacceptable.

Right now, as unsophisticated as she seems to be, Palin seems to be the least likely to want to be my nanny.

This mail-strom in a teacup is an engineered distraction. Knowing that the majority of the nation are favorably disposed toward much of what she represents, a staggering amount of effort is being expended to blacken her name, "expose" her for a fraud, and generally shout her down in the media.

Primitives, like me, will remain unconvinced by this sort of thing. I remember an old saying that goes something like, "if you're taking flak, you must be over the target."

She's taking a lot of flak.

If she were considered "mostly harmless," the focus would be on something or someone else. She's become a regular little lightning rod.

I find that encouraging.

I have to totally agree with you. You took the words out of my mouth. I just hope she makes enough stupid mistakes like this to sway the public away from voting for McCain/Palin.

Personally, I've had my fill of irrational self-serving bullies with the last 8 years of Bush... I don't need any more.

What kind of name is 'Erik Aamot' anyways? Are you even American? And we're letting you vote? I bet you're some kind of dirty immigrant.

Paris, because she's smarter than you and Palin. And would probably make a better president than McCain anyways.

Well you're the anonymous that hacked Palin's account, aren't you? You have the same first name, anyway.

Look, if you're going to stand up, stand up WITH YOUR NAME.

The subject matter were appropriate for official communication when you include the name of the person they were from or to.