Palin Email Intrusion Investigation Moves Forward

According to Fox News, warrants have been served in the Governor Palin / Yahoo! Email breakin. As I wrote previously, the person of interest is one David Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Kernell is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative in Tennessee. Per Fox News “A witness told the station they took photos inside Kernell’s apartment and that his three roommates were subpoenaed to testify this week in Chattanooga.”

Also of particular interest to me is that the perportrator used a service called CTunnel.com while committing this crime. For those who don’t know, such a service is a way of “hiding” where the network traffic is coming from, by proxying the connection. What I find interesting however is that I dont recall such a service actually aiding in the investigation of such a crime. The CTunnel.com owner Gabriel Ramuglia is cooperating with authorities, of his own volition it seems.

My point is that some people seem to think that if they just take a step or two to hide their electronic footprints, it’s not necesarily going to make them invisible. There is always a trail when it comes to the Internet. For better or worse, your actions online are tracked *somewhere*, even if you take steps to obfuscate your actions. CTunnel, for example, kept logs of the traffic it was proxying…and is now apparently handing them over to the Feds.

Also see: Michelle Malkin - On the Palin Hacker E-Mail Trail

Palin Email Intruder’s Father - Democratic Rep in Tennessee

According to an article at Wired.com -

“Threat Level was unable to reach the student by phone because his number is unlisted. A person who identified himself as the student’s father, when reached at home, said he could not talk about the matter and would have no comment. The father is a Democratic state representative in Tennessee. Threat Level is not identifying them by name because authorities have not identified any suspects in the case, and the link to the student so far is tenuous.”

This is unacceptable. I sincerely hope that the investigation of this issue is being handled seriously, and intensely. Out of all the people out there with the knowledge and skill (not that much needed, but still) to accomplish this breach, the person who does it just happens to be the child of a Democratic Party politician?

On another note, I sincerely urge all who read this blog to take seriously their online security. Yahoo mail has been demonstrated to be insecure, other online email services can be exploited as well. Regularly change your passwords. Regularly inspect your email for anything out of the ordinary.

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Also see:

• Password Security Tips
• BREAKING: Obama’s Email Hacked! UPDATED
• How Many Emails Accounts Do You Have?

The Wheels Continue to Come Off

The desperation on the left and in the Obama campaign grows more evident by the day. For two weeks Barack Obama’s campaign has been completely reactionary and it seems the problem grows worse by the day. The flap over Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” comment had the candidate address the issue this morning in a campaign speech when yesterday he had no intention of dealing with it.

No one can claim with credibility that Obama’s pig remark wasn’t ill advised. Whether it was an intentional attack on Sarah Palin is debatable but a strong candidate in control of the situation would have known better than to use the line in the first place. That Obama chose that particular line in light of Palin’s repeated use of the hockey mom and bulldog joke reveals his inability to correctly assess the situation in the present circumstances, which in my mind is a good indication as to how Obama might react in a genuine national emergency.

Prior to the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate, the Obama campaign was very disciplined. They tightly controlled what was said not only by the campaign but by campaign surigates. That is no longer the case. Since that announcement the Obama campaign has been unable to stay on message. They have no control over the situation so that are reactive.

Meanwhile democrat leaders continue to make outrageous remarks out of pure frustration. Just today, as reported by Politico.com, South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler said that Sarah Palin’s, “primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.” I mean really, that’s pretty desparate!

So Obama is today reduced to accusing the McCain campaign of stooping to swiftboat politics. Rather than deal with the reality that, at a minimum, his choice of words was poor, Obama attempts to turn it around a attack the McCain campaign. While I can understand the tendancy to want to take that approach, it is clearly a counter productive approach. Indeed, with every attack, the McCain/Palin brand rises further.

Watching the TV interviews with various Obama spokespeople and surigates has really been entertaining! This afternoon on FOX News, Shepard Smith was interviewing someone with the Obama campaign. Smith pointed out that things have not been going well for the Obama campaign for two weeks and he asked what their plan was to get back on message. The spokeswoman first refused to accept that there was even a problem. Smith, with almost open scorn, asked the question several times, even bringing in the latest polls showing the large swing in McCain’s direction and she claimed that the two campaigns were essentially where they were before the two conventions! She said that with a straight face?

So the Obama campaign and the left continue to spin at a rate that will surely send them running for the nearest trash can. Perhaps they are just toying with us. Perhaps they have a grand master plan that will be apparent to all over the next few weeks, that will make sense. More likely they are twisting like contortionist desperately searching for a plan, any plan, that might deliver them from the hell they’ve found themselves in.

UPDATE:

From an NRCC email this evening

Today, on the floor of the House of Representatives, liberal Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen (Memphis) equated Barack Obama to Jesus, thereby furthering liberals’ absurd belief that Obama is the Chosen One sent to save the world. Then Cohen outrageously compared Sarah Palin to Pontius Pilate.

“If you want change, you want the Democratic Party,” said Cohen. “Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister just prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor.”

Here’s video of the remarks.

It just gets better and better!

See also:
Oh, nooooo, they never meant to liken Palin to a pig