The Mudflats

If there’s one thing that Sarah Palin did during her brief try-out as Alaska’s governor, she showed us where the leaks were. I’ve compared her short time in office to the rental of one of those “blower doors” you can rent and attach to an open door of a building to show you where the leaks are. It basically “sucks the air out of the room” (not unlike the ex-gov herself), and you can put your hand up to light switches or the edges of windows, or outlets and feel a stream of cold air coming through.

One of those streams of cold air revealed by the Palin administration came in the form of email accounts. The state is set up nicely with an email system that has the suffix .gov. Any emails ending in .gov are used to keep a record of state business as part of the public record. It’s our government after all. Remember that “of the people, by the people, for the people” stuff?   Well .gov emails belong to US. And that’s why they’re not supposed to be used for partisan political purposes, or campaigning for your next term in office. And you really shouldn’t be on there talking about fantasy football, or sending steamy messages to your date last night, or talking about the Oscars. During work hours, you’re supposed to be doing the people’s work. And those emails on the .gov account don’t really belong to you and are subject to disclosure to the public via records requests.

That’s why people do personal business on their personal email accounts. But what about running government business on a personal account? What about pipeline negotiations, or board appointments, or accounts of what happened in meetings, or budget issues, or things that people may need to look up at some time in the future?   What about the public, who wants to know what their public officials are talking about, or doing with their time, or what was said on a particular issue like game management, or mining, or oil and gas, or taxes, or any other legislation?  And what about the historical record?  What if you, as a member of the public, fill out a public records request to find out information about something, and you’re told there’s nothing there. And what if there really is something there, but it’s been discussed on an email exchange between Governor@hotmail.com and AttorneyGeneral@mosquito.net? Or Commissioner@yahoo.com and Mayor@gmail.com?

That’s what Andree McLeod was worried about when it came to light that Sarah Palin was doing business with administration officials outside of the state email system. It came to national attention during the early days of the McCain Palin campaign, in September of 2008. That’s when we got the news that a hacker had gotten in to then Governor Palin’s private Yahoo! account, where it was very obvious she’d been doing business.   Other than the fact that a Yahoo! account sounds less than gubernatorial, and is less than transparent, security can also be a problem. All the hacker had to do, was to answer the super-secret “only she would know” question to reset the password. Ready for the question?

Q. Where did you meet your husband?
A. Wasilla High

And that was that. When choosing a security question, it’s usually a good idea not to make it something to which the answer can be looked up in a recently published biography, and that you’ve discussed openly in interviews.

I don’t know what that scene must have been like – the young hacker, sitting in his dorm room, like Matthew  Broderick in War Games, cracking his knuckles, staring at the screen and typing in “Wasilla High” [enter] BINGO! I’m sure it was a thrilling and terrifying moment for the young hacker. The Holy Grail on the first try.

I’m sure  David Kernell, University of Tennessee student and son of long-term Tennessee state legislator Mike Kernell (D) now thinks it probably wasn’t such a great idea. 

[He] faces a four-count indictment accusing him of stealing Palin’s identity, improperly accessing her personal e-mail account, allowing at least one other person to access it and trying to wipe from his laptop evidence of his alleged crimes.

Back in Alaska, government watchdog Andree McLeod sued, saying that it should be illegal for the people’s business to be conducted on private email accounts.  Today, Judge Patrick McKay refused to reconsider his ruling stating that it was not forbidden for state business to be conducted on these accounts.  Material on state business should be submitted for archiving, he said, but the rules allow for some interpretation. Room for interpretation.  Hmmm.  It’ll have to be hammered out in the legislature, apparently.

“We realize that under the current law, e-mails that should be preserved can disappear, thus hiding ‘bad motives,’ but it is not this court’s role to overturn an unambiguous, properly enacted law,” McKay wrote.

McLeod’s attorney, Don Mitchell, said Thursday morning that he’d been out of town and hadn’t reviewed the decision. He has said McLeod could appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The attorney for a University of Tennessee student accused of hacking into the account on Wednesday challenged search warrants in the case. Wade Davies, attorney for David C. Kernell, questioned a magistrate’s authority to issue search warrants for Internet companies outside Tennessee.

McLeod and her attorney Don Mitchell are now considering whether to appeal the decision to the Alaska Supreme Court.

And while an army of Palin devotees lauds this ruling as having come down in favor of the almost-one-term ex-governor, the current governor Sean Parnell (R), has at least said:

When executive branch employees conduct state business through email they must, whenever feasible, use the state’s electronic mail system. In some circumstances, employees may need to use, or may inadvertently use, private email accounts to conduct state business….

This statement may prevent future government business from being Palinized, escaping the state’s archiving process, and slipping away into the Yahoo! cyberspace black hole – at least whenever it is “feasible.”  He, unlike the perennial Palin cheering squad, may realize that this isn’t actually a McLeod v. Palin death match.  It’s about issues of transparency and accountability that affect all Alaskans, regardless of political partyaffiliation.  So, until this can be addressed in the legislature, we can hope for ‘feasibility’ – at least until the end of Parnell’s term.

Other questions of legality will be addressed in a courtroom in Knoxville, Tennessee later next month.  That’s when alleged victim Sarah Palin will take the stand and give testimony under oath.  This ought to be interesting.  I wonder how many attorneys out there wish they were Wade Davies, the Tennessee attorney who will be the one asking the questions.  Sources who know say she may be in for a rough day.

Kernell’s defense attorney, Wade Davies, wants Palin to bring any documents relating to that account – when it was opened, how it could be accessed and why and who was allowed to use it.

“I don’t want to get in the position where at the last minute there are questions about whether (subpoenas) were properly delivered,” Davies told U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley on Wednesday when seeking the legal OK to electronically serve witnesses, including Palin.

Federal prosecutors have insisted Davies’ records request of Palin is a veiled fishing expedition. Shirley will hear more about the subpoena debate at a March 24 hearing.

So, grab your Sharpies and circle March 24 on your political calendar.  And then circle April 20.  That’s the day of the trial. More news on the Alaska side of this story as it develops.

Pardon me while I go super local for a minute. But I’ve been waiting for this day a LONG time.

Frustrated at being a marginalized wingnut, Alaska State Senator Con Bunde (R) is retiring.  He is the Senate Minority Leader.  The Majority is a bipartisan coalition of less marginalized wingnuts and Democrats.

You may remember Con Bunde as being the ONLY legislator not to vote to hold Todd Palin and other state employees under contempt of the Senate for ignoring legislative subpoenas during the ethics investigation of Sarah Palin.

After 18 years in the Alaska Legislature representing South Anchorage and the Hillside and more recently as the Senate’s minority leader, Sen. Con Bunde announced his retirement this morning.

This makes things very interesting in my district. With Bunde gone, the field now consists of Parnell-bot Cathy Giessel, and Cardiologist Mark Moronell who will duke it out in the Republican primary.

The winner will face Rock Star and member of the Chugach Board of Directors (D) Janet Reiser in the election.

The prize is the most ridiculously shaped district in the state.

Meanwhile, today in Senate District P, the sky is a little bluer, tiny woodland creatures are peeking out from behind trees, the sun is shining a little warmer, children leave their homes and play in the street, and lo – a rainbow is seen over the Chugach Mountains….  It’s a good day.

Schaeffer Cox, 2008 State House Candidate for District 7 in Fairbanks got himself in a little hot water yesterday.  The former candidate and founder of the local ”Second Amendment Task Force” was arrested yesterday on second degree assault charges.  Fairbanks had eyebrows raised yesterday when I arrived, and only today have details become available on the arrest.  Cox has been accused by his wife of choking her and punching her during an argument as the couple drove to Anchorage with their young son last week.

The Fairbanks Daily News Miner reported on the incident:

Court documents obtained Tuesday detail the circumstances of the arrest of Schaeffer Cox, 26, on a charge of second-degree assault, a class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Cox’s wife told Alaska State Troopers that the couple and their young son were on their way to Anchorage Thursday when they began to argue. The argument escalated, and Cox punched the woman in the arm, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

It was unclear if Cox was driving or pulled over at the time of the alleged assault.

She told Cox that if he ever touched her like that again, she would leave him and take their son. Cox then reached over, grabbed her by the throat and pinned her up against the vehicle door, court documents allege.

The woman fought him off, and Cox stopped choking her a few moments later and continued to drive to Anchorage with his wife and child, the report stated.

She contacted authorities the next day.

When an Anchorage police officer interviewed her, he noticed that there was minor bruising, redness and a fingernail abrasion on her neck.   [snip]

Last year he found the Second Amendment Task Force, a local gun rights group which has organized several open-carry days. He has also organized several high-profile meetings and rallies promoting gun rights and personal freedoms. A three-hour “Freedom Fest” was held at the Carlson Center in April.

Cox’s activities, including the organization of militia, have garnered the support of such groups as the Interior Alaska Conservative Coalition and the Alaskan Independence Party.

It is amusing to note that Cox’s slogan on his campaign web site is “Schaeffer – A Voice for Reason”.  If you like the slogan a lot, you can get it on a t-shirt for a $60 donation to his campaign.  We learn on the site that:

Having grown up in a family business, he had already learned the rewards of hard work, imagination, and treating people well. 

This incident unfortunately adds one more statistic to Alaska’s already unacceptably high rates of domestic violence. 

[Hat tip to Jamie Smith of the Ink & Snow blog and honorary member of the Mudflats Art Department for the fabulous cartoon]

~Scheaffer Cox

[A similar article is posted at The Huffington Post]

“All things Palin?”  “Start acting like a mother?” You mean Stapleton thinks you can’t be an effective mother from your Blackberry?  But Palin even ran the state from her Blackberry during the campaign so she wouldn’t have to hand over power to Lt. Governor Sean Parnell!  A child shouldn’t grow up begging for a mother’s attention?  Hmmm. Perhaps some day we’ll learn the true story.  In the mean time, we can’t help but wonder what Sarah Palin will actually sound like now.  Farewell, Meg.  Don’t let the bus hit you on the way out of Dodge.

Let’s see.  Who’s left in that inner sanctum?  Kristan Cole, Kris Perry, and…. Todd.  And then there were three.

[Meg Stapleton chihuahua photo credit Dennis Zaki]