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.

First, it was those clever sleuths who uncovered my super secret connection to the White House, and those big fat checks I (and my fellow bloggers Shannyn Moore and Linda Kellen Biegel) get from George Soros to ruin Sarah Palin’s political career. If it weren’t for us, she “coulda been a contenda.”

Then recently, they went and figured out that I and the other “Alaskan Mafia” (we’re growing our numbers every day) had super secret connections to… the White House, and were now attempting to actually destroy Alaska’s gas pipeline!

And now THIS! Glenn Beck has uncovered my super secret connections to….(wait for it) The White House! Oh, the horror!

CLICK HERE to view.

[You can personalize and pass it on at the end!]

In an address given in Calgary this weekend, former governor turned Facebook blogger Sarah Palin connected with her audience about Alaska’s  “Trans Canada” pipeline project, and also had an interesting Canadian story to tell about her family’s choice of health care options when she was a child.

Here’s the story:

“My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not – this was in the ’60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.”

Yes.  Ironic, indeed.  And it’s a good thing that “little kid accident things” were not, in this case, subject to the dreaded socialist Death Panel that she warns us about, if we model our own health care system after that of the Canadians.  We can’t quite call Palin a hypocrite on this one, though,  since she was only a small child at the time.  Her parents apparently thought that Canadian socialized healthcare was good enough for their children, but we don’t know what Palin herself would do as an adult if one of her children was burned near the border.  We shouldn’t just jump to conclusions.

But it’s worthy of note that it continues to be “kind of ironic” that since Todd Palin is part Alaska Native, that Sarah Palin while pregnant with his children, Todd,  his mother, the Palin’s children and her grandson are all eligible for ongoing coverage from Alaska’s own (very successful) version of socialized medicine through Indian Health Services.  Again, no death panel worries.

But the Calgary Herald, who covered the event this weekend was curious about these stealth trips across the border from Skagway to Whitehorse, and found this little tidbit from Skagwaynews.com.  Remember that Alaska’s capital, Juneau is not accessible by road, and can only be reached by the state ferry sytem, private boat, or plane.

She said new DOT Commissioner Leo von Scheben is committed to a strong ferry system. She added that “a lot of politics were played in the past, and that is why we changed characters,” bringing in sound transportation minds to figure out “how people who are reliant on the ferry system can get from point A to point B with a reliable schedule and service.”
Palin drew from her Skagway past to illustrate her point. Her brother burned his foot badly jumping through a fire, and her mother had to take him down to Juneau on the ferry to the hospital. “All these years later, that’s still what people have to rely on here in some instances,” she said.

So, what about that “Point B” anyway?  Was “Point B”  Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory via stealth border crossing, or was “Point B” Juneau, Alaska via the Alaska state ferry system?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Is it possible that young Chuck Heath, Jr. had not one, but TWO “little kid accident things” that involved burns of the ankle and foot?  Or, perhaps the story was simply tweaked to tell people what they want to hear, while utilzing the perennial “I’m one of you” meme – a great way to “connect to the audience” while skirting those pesky things known as “facts.”

The world’s most famous snowmobile racer in the history of the world, former almost-one-term Alaskan First Dude Todd Palin has lots of sponsors. What company wouldn’t want to have their logo slapped on the side of the most famous piece of snow machinery on the planet?  Mystik Lubricants sure does.

[From the Mystik Lubricant website]

Mystik is an exclusive engine oil sponsor for the 2010 Iron Dog Snowmobile Race and a sponsor of Team #22 Scott Davis and Todd Palin – past Iron Dog Champions. Davis Racing team which includes Scott Davis, Todd Palin, Regina Daniels, Cory Davis and Carly Davis accepted Mystik Lubricants’ sponsorship offer. The members of the team will be racing in ESPN X Games, the 2010 Iron Dog, Amsoil Duluth National, Potawatomi National, Western Nationals, Air Force National, Eastern Nationals, New England Nationals, Canadian Nationals, Hayward 300, Nielsen Enterprises Grand Finale, Arctic Man at Summit Lake, Valdez Mayors Cup and Alyeska Snocross/Freestyle Show.

But, it looks like the Palins may be padding their pockets from a surprising source.

It turns out that Mystik Lubricants  is owned by… wait for it … Citgo.  Yes, that same Citgo that’s owned by Venezuela.  Socialist Venezuela.  Socialist, Hugo Chavez lovin’, Venezuela.

Oops.

Guess they should have heeded the advice Sarah Palin gave to President Obama:

“Now is not the time to experiment with socialism!”

[OK, it's time for a Palin-free weekend.... Is it 5:00 yet??]
[Thanks to Mudflatter anon for the info I used in this piece]

[Also, please note that there is an embedded link in this story to Palingates who wrote about this previously.  That link was embedded within hours of posting this piece.  Thanks.]