State representative confirms his son is at the center of hacker-gate

[bluedem77]

From the Tennesean:

State Rep. Mike Kernell confirmed Thursday that his son, a University of Tennessee-Knoxville student, is at the center of heated Internet discussion into the hacking of the personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, confirmed that it is his 20-year-old son, David, who is being widely named on Internet blogs and chatrooms in connection with an unfolding story about Palin's hacked e-mail accounts.

The FBI and the Secret Service started a formal investigation on Wednesday into the hacking.

David Kernell is a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Mike Kernell said he spoke to his son on Thursday, as he does on a regular basis.

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/NEWS02/80918081

In my view, this kid, if proven responsible for the incursion into Palin's email, is a whistleblower and deserves protection from the law. Palin is not supposed to conduct official business in outside email accounts.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Thorny issue:

As someone who does computer stuff a lot, I have nothing but enmity for those of any political stripe who would abrogate the privacy of another, regardless of their party affiliation. Also, if he was a sincere whistleblower, he should have secured a lawyer familiar with the process and proceeded with his evidence with the counsel of said lawyer.

Yes, his evidence does clearly show official malfeasance on the part of Palin and others. But the manner in which he handled it, posting it on that internet shithole "4chan", points to the sad fact that he was not a sincere, altruistic whistleblower, but one of the rabble that hangs there, the rabble that does stuff like that and posts it there to receive the accolades of the assembled. Accolades that tend to be accompanied with a lot of drool.

Maybe he should have stuck with the nude photographs that underage girls post of themselves there.

The fact is, the kid is gonna go down hard. His ass is in a legal woodchipper. A lot of political heavyweights are gonna be vying for his head, mounted and hung on the wall of their cigar parlor.

[zbdent]

2. This kid will get a surprisingly harsh sentence ...

and yet, a bunch of people who exposed a CIA agent (against all law) get talk shows on Faux ...

[MadrasT]

3. Sternly worded letter!

:woohoo:

[BlooInBloo]

4. Republicans will probably try to put him in gitmo.

[rucky]

5. good point about the official business

what are the expectations of email privacy for elected officials, anyways?