[TN Democrat State Rep] Kernell mum as feds probe Palin e-mail hacking

[Nutmeg]

I wonder whether they'll set up a legal defense fund for this kid.  If so, I'll be one of the first to donate to it.

[Nutmeg]

You think he is innocent?

I don't presume to divine such things, but I think it would be a shame for his life to be ruined over this.

Besides, it exposed a weakness - it wasn't even hacking, but just good guessing, from what I've read.  Someone who thinks herself capable of being vice president of the United States should try a bit harder to secure her email, and she should conduct official business over official channels, not try to hide communications in a personal account.  But I digress.

[Nutmeg]

Are you people really justifying this and blaming Palin? Really?

Phil, I am not justifying it, but to make such a huge deal out of some stupid 19 year old kid that obviously did this on his own, and will face the consequences of his actions, is ridiculous.

^ This.

That Palin's incompetence is once again exposed is merely a byproduct of this incident.

[Nutmeg]

Are you people really justifying this and blaming Palin? Really?

Phil, I am not justifying it, but to make such a huge deal out of some stupid 19 year old kid that obviously did this on his own, and will face the consequences of his actions, is ridiculous.

^ This.

That Palin's incompetence is once again exposed is merely a byproduct of this incident.

If incompetence=truthfully answering Yahoo!'s security questions, are you equally incompetent? 

"You" meaning me?  First, I use Gmail, not cool-circa-1998 Yahoo, for my personal correspondence, but if I were governor of a state, I would try to make it a bit tougher to crack my email password.  My password-prompt questions and answers are always very cryptic, and I have no reason to suspect that anyone would want to read my messages.  Surely she knew that lots of people would want to read hers.

[Nutmeg]

Are you people really justifying this and blaming Palin? Really?

Phil, I am not justifying it, but to make such a huge deal out of some stupid 19 year old kid that obviously did this on his own, and will face the consequences of his actions, is ridiculous.

^ This.

That Palin's incompetence is once again exposed is merely a byproduct of this incident.

Again, no blame assigned to the asshole who did this. No, it's all about how Palin is "incompetent." 

Anyway, my main takeaway from this incident was that I don't want to see some kid's life ruined for a prank done through true sleuthing, rather than hacking.  No, he shouldn't have done it, but prison seems far too harsh for such an offense.

[Nutmeg]

Are you people really justifying this and blaming Palin? Really?

Phil, I am not justifying it, but to make such a huge deal out of some stupid 19 year old kid that obviously did this on his own, and will face the consequences of his actions, is ridiculous.

^ This.

That Palin's incompetence is once again exposed is merely a byproduct of this incident.

If incompetence=truthfully answering Yahoo!'s security questions, are you equally incompetent? 

"You" meaning me?  First, I use Gmail, not cool-circa-1998 Yahoo, for my personal correspondence, but if I were governor of a state, I would try to make it a bit tougher to crack my email password.  My password-prompt questions and answers are always very cryptic, and I have no reason to suspect that anyone would want to read my messages.  Surely she knew that lots of people would want to read hers.

Once again, laws don't matter. The stupid b*tch deserved it.  Got it.

You can keep repeating that, but I find it disrespectful to Governor Palin, our future vice president!

[Nutmeg]

Are you people really justifying this and blaming Palin? Really?

Phil, I am not justifying it, but to make such a huge deal out of some stupid 19 year old kid that obviously did this on his own, and will face the consequences of his actions, is ridiculous.

^ This.

That Palin's incompetence is once again exposed is merely a byproduct of this incident.

Again, no blame assigned to the asshole who did this. No, it's all about how Palin is "incompetent." 

Anyway, my main takeaway from this incident was that I don't want to see some kid's life ruined for a prank done through true sleuthing, rather than hacking.  No, he shouldn't have done it, but prison seems far too harsh for such an offense.

I love how Palin being a Vice Presidential candidate meant that she's enough of a big deal to have "known better" but apparently she isn't big enough for this kid to suffer from a serious punishment.

The stature of the victim has no bearing whatsoever on my impression of the appropriate consequence for the offender, as it should not in any criminal case.

[Nutmeg]

i have a hunch that if joe biden's private email was hacked, nutmeg wouldnt contribute to the legal defense fund of some young twerp accused of the crime.

just a hunch.

Oh, come on. Don't be like that! He's an "independent!"

I sure would.  Can't prove it, though, so you've got me there.  In any case, my sympathy to stupid kids' committing stupid pranks is greater than the force of my political ideology.

It's rather obnoxious to attempt to discredit others based on their stated partisan affiliations, but if you were to inspect my voting history, no party has received an outright majority of my votes over time.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand: if this kid is guilty, how long should we lock him away?

[Nutmeg]

I have never said the Palin "deserved to be hacked", simply that she was a little naive in not protecting her information better knowing that there would be di**wads that would most likely try to hack her account.

Yes, Oregon Progressive, that is what you and I have both said, more or less, but it matters not to those with a victim/sexism complex with regard to their candidate.

[Nutmeg]

Anyway, back to the issue at hand: if this kid is guilty, how long should we lock him away?

What's the standard punishment here? I don't know if I necessarily agree with jail time. I'm just irritated that some of you don't seem to care about punishing the kid because it's apparently all Palin's fault.

I don't care about punishing the kid because it was so ingenious of him.  Had he actually defeated her security through hacking, that would be a different story.  I find this whole story such a ridiculous sideshow to the campaign - what other public official but Palin would have the place she met her husband as her password hint?

I haven't been able to determine what crime, if any, he could be charged with, and the news articles are rather vague on the matter.  If it had been her mailbox at the state capitol, or the one beside her driveway at home, then things would be more clear (mail fraud having granted us a rather well-developed body of case law).  Does anyone know?