Althouse: "As Watergate taught us, we rightfully reject illegally breaking into candidates' private communications for political intrigue in an attempt to derail an election."

April 30, 2010

"As Watergate taught us, we rightfully reject illegally breaking into candidates' private communications for political intrigue in an attempt to derail an election."

Says Sarah Palin, after the man who broke into her personal email account was found guilty of obstructing justice and unauthorized access to a computer.

(The 22-year-old student, who faces a 20-year prison term, would like you to see what he did as a mere prank.)

89 comments:

Greg Toombs said...: He wanted to be a hero.; 4/30/10, 10:25 PM
Anonymous said...: Man, Palin sure does get lucky all the time with her rhetoric (this, death panels, etc.) for being such an unwashed moron.; 4/30/10, 10:27 PM
Anonymous said...: I might have been lenient about the hacking itself and agreed it was a prank, but disseminating the material crossed the line.

(Waiting for the usual suspects to try to make political hay about the leaked AGW e-mails vs. Sarah Palin's.)

Word verification: gazessi. (Gesundheit!); 4/30/10, 10:36 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: As Watergate taught us, we rightfully reject illegally breaking into candidates' private communications for political intrigue in an attempt to derail an election..

or in Edwards case, an erection ;); 4/30/10, 10:40 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I love you Sarah but.. don't you think this is a little over the top?

Sister please!; 4/30/10, 10:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief.
—Arthur Schnitzler

True, but she doesn't want to create a martyr here.

A few months in jail and long probation would do the trick. If he's sent up for more than a year, HE becomes the issue, not the crime, no matter how Watergatesque.; 4/30/10, 10:44 PM
lucid said...: He would have happily destroyed her candidacy by stealing her private communicatons.

I say its a serious crime that the perpertator doesn't recognize because he is a self-righteous liberal who thinks that anyone who disagrees with you is sub-human with no rights.; 4/30/10, 10:46 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'm sorry but in my mind I cant fairly compare a 22 year old man with the White House plumbers.

He could have done this, he could have done that.. all he did was hack an e-mail.

Something for which up until now, was hardly ever prosecuted to the full extent of the law..

Am I wrong about this?; 4/30/10, 10:52 PM
former law student said...: The main lesson is that you can get twenty years for obstructing the FBI's investigating you. The penalty for snooping the Governor's email was only one year.; 4/30/10, 10:54 PM
JAL said...: Ditto fls.

Very stupid to try to screw up a federal invetigation.; 4/30/10, 11:01 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: That makes more sense.; 4/30/10, 11:04 PM
Bob Ellison said...: I feel compassion for this little puppy. It got out of its cage and put the personal information (and therefore the lives) of unwitting people at stake, but it didn't mean to. Take the sock away from it.

Put the liddle puppy away in a cage for a liddle while.; 4/30/10, 11:34 PM
Revenant said...: I loathe hackers and other computer criminals. I hope the guy gets the full 20 years in Federal PMITA Prison.; 4/30/10, 11:54 PM
Scott said...: Why would you get 20 years for obstruction of justice but only one year for hacking? Sesms ass-backwards to me.; 5/1/10, 12:04 AM
Fen said...: Regardless, the Libtard's cellmates should be made aware that he is a child molestor so they may handle him accordingly.

Maybe a mass mailing, just be to sure.

Hey, he's the one who wanted to play hardball.; 5/1/10, 12:07 AM
cryptical said...: I'm just glad the little idiot is a felon, and thus not allowed to vote anymore.; 5/1/10, 12:13 AM
Zachary Sire said...: Maybe she shouldn't have been conducting state business on a Yahoo account. And maybe her password (which the convicted guessed, not hacked) shouldn't have been "Wasilla." Duh.; 5/1/10, 12:36 AM
LoafingOaf said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/1/10, 12:45 AM
LoafingOaf said...: cryptical said...
I'm just glad the little idiot is a felon, and thus not allowed to vote anymore.

Felons can vote in some states.

Ayway, if he does any time at all, it won't be hard time. I see him as similar to James O'Keefe, although he dug a bigger hole with the obstruction. But, yeah, he and James O'Keefe are two partisans who got carried away playing dirty tricks.; 5/1/10, 12:47 AM
Palladian said...: Yes, Zachary, she deserved what was coming to her, just like a woman who wears a skirt and gets raped!; 5/1/10, 12:50 AM
Anonymous said...: Zach -- I don't think "conducting state business" means what you think it means, but what does that have to do with someone hacking Palin's email account and then obstructing an investigation?

Also, speaking of hackery, what's it like to be a complete and total shill for the ideas of others? How does that feel?; 5/1/10, 1:00 AM
reader_iam said...: Regardless, the Libtard's cellmates should be made aware that he is a child molestor so they may handle him accordingly.

That is, he should be raped and beaten up throughout his sentence. In this way, Fen might adjudge things being set even and aright.

I'd bet tons of bucks that Sarah Palin herself wouldn't agree with Fen's idea of remedy: Regardless, the Libtard's cellmates should be made aware that he is a child molestor so they may handle him accordingly.).

I'd bet even more tons of bucks that in no way would Sarah Palin advocate extralegal violence among prisoners as a way to set things even and aright. I suspect she'd find that notion appalling (for starters).

Jesus, Fen: If you want to deputize inmates to mete out extralegal punishments (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), do it openly and honestly. Go run for office--openly and honestly--on that platform somewhere.

In the meantime, consider whether it's such a great symbol of loyalty to Sarah Palin--for starters--to peddle that sort of sneaky, preening bullshit.; 5/1/10, 1:01 AM
Anonymous said...: Also -- this guy deserves a sentence of about a year in a very comfy jail with the option to get out in a fraction of that. Let's be reasonable.; 5/1/10, 1:02 AM
reader_iam said...: Ironically, I do consider cybercrimes to be quite serious (as I have since quite an early stage). I daresay I consider many cybercrimes to be far more serious than many others do (and have since quite an early stage).

I do not think sentences for crimes ought necessarily be light just on account of their being cyber (especially since those who commit cybercrimes are particularly likely to invoke the "just a prank" defense, and pretty much everyone else is likely to buy into that, for whatever reasons).

All that said: Last time I checked, and so far as I know, prison beatings and rape are not among sentencing options included in either our state or federal penal codes.

***

Is it so crazy of me to say that respect for the rule of law is not just for criminals?; 5/1/10, 1:26 AM
Rose said...: What happened to Sarah Palin is astounding in so many ways. The vociferousness of the attacks, the mind-bending hatred, the hordes of reporters pawing through her garbage - and this punk.

Don't make the mistake of thinking because he is young that he isn't like the Watergate burglars - were they all 85? I doubt it. And anyone who uses a computer knows what he did is wrong - worse still are those who egged him on, who took what he stole and used it to try to destroy a woman whose only crime was that she said, "Yes." when asked if she would run as a VP candidate.

Oh, no, that's not true. She committed two other crimes - she didn't have a 'D' after her name, and she was running against the messianic One.

In the end, we now see Obama the fraud standing before us, and Sarah Palin. The. Real. Deal.; 5/1/10, 1:39 AM
reader_iam said...: I got distracted by other stuff, but:

Zachary Paul Sire: Screw your "duh." Should you have a lame-ass lock on the back door of wherever you live, that isn't equal to giving permission to assholes to break in and steal shit. They're still breaking the law, and they're still criminals.

If you don't believe that and believe that most people also don't believe that, then I also suggest to you that you ought run for office, wherever, with that concept openly and honestly declared as part of your campaign.; 5/1/10, 1:40 AM
Revenant said...: Maybe she shouldn't have been conducting state business on a Yahoo account. And maybe her password (which the convicted guessed, not hacked) shouldn't have been "Wasilla." Duh.

Sure, maybe. Also, maybe I shouldn't have left my pull-out car stereo in my old car. I also probably shouldn't have left my watch sitting on my beach towel when I went for a swim.

Doesn't change the fact that, like David Kernell, the people who stole that stereo and that watch deserve both (a) a brutal ass-kicking and (b) a nice lengthy time getting raped in prison. :); 5/1/10, 1:50 AM
Anonymous said...: Conducting state business, according to beloved tool and shill Zach:

In a 30-minute testimony last Friday, Mrs Palin said that Kernell had compromised the main way she had communicated with her family during the campaign by breaking into her Yahoo e-mail account.

Earlier this week, her daughter Bristol testified that she had received harassing calls and text messages after screen shots of e-mails from the account revealed her mobile phone number.; 5/1/10, 1:51 AM
reader_iam said...: As for this...

As Watergate taught us, we rightfully reject illegally breaking into candidates' private communications for political intrigue in an attempt to derail an election

... there are so many assumed premises with which I disagree and so many embedded "facts" that I'd dispute, it's hard to know how to start.; 5/1/10, 2:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Reader -- Exactly. That's what makes it such fabulous rhetoric. When you can utter a sentence that appears utterly right and reasonable on its face and people who disagree with you must write a huge treatise in response to demonstrate how you are wrong, well, the debate is over before it started.; 5/1/10, 2:19 AM
reader_iam said...: I wouldn't exactly say the debate is over, but rather that, thank God, that bit of rhetoric, among others, is utterly irrelevant to the legal proceeding at hand.

wv: gullog; 5/1/10, 2:40 AM
Revenant said...: here are so many assumed premises with which I disagree and so many embedded "facts" that I'd dispute, it's hard to know how to start.

Well, let's see.

As Watergate taught us

Admittedly disputable. Maybe Watergate didn't teach us anything relevant to this.

we rightfully reject>

Also disputable. Maybe we don't reject it.

illegally breaking into candidates' private communications

That Kernell illegally broke into Palin's private communications is a fact not in dispute, as it has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt in a court of law. That Palin was a candidate at the time is also not in dispute.

for political intrigue

Intrigue: "the use of underhand machinations or deceitful stratagems". Kernell posed as Palin and used the Yahoo password recovery feature to obtain access by guessing or researching her security questions. A strategem involving deceit = a deceitful strategem. As the action was indisputably political (see below), "political intrigue" describes it accurately.

in an attempt to derail an election

I'll let Kernell speak for himself:

"I read though the emails… ALL OF THEM… before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped"

So here we have the results. The parts that aren't indisputably accurate are in bold:

As Watergate taught us, we rightfully reject illegally breaking into candidates' private communications for political intrigue in an attempt to derail an election

So. Which part do you disagree with? That illegally attempting to derail elections is wrong, or that Watergate taught us that? :); 5/1/10, 2:44 AM
Unknown said...: Blogger Zachary Paul Sire said...

Maybe she shouldn't have been conducting state business on a Yahoo account. And maybe her password (which the convicted guessed, not hacked) shouldn't have been "Wasilla." Duh.; 5/1/10, 3:37 AM
Unknown said...: Blogger Zachary Paul Sire said...

Maybe she shouldn't have been conducting state business on a Yahoo account. And maybe her password (which the convicted guessed, not hacked) shouldn't have been "Wasilla." Duh.

She chose a bad password so she deserves whatever happens and it wasn't hacking? Really? What exactly do you think hacking is? Did you watch 'SWORDFISH' too many times and think that hacking means typing really fast while cool graphics flash by? Guessing passwords or 'reading' someones keystrokes is a large part of hacking, or at least it was back when I was changing my classmates .login commands to read .logout.

btw It was reported that when the One took office he demanded that he keep his Blackberry. But that's totally unrelated to Gov. Palin having a Yahoo account in which she might have talked about government business.; 5/1/10, 3:47 AM
AllenS said...: How cool would it be if someone broke into Zachary Paul Sire's house and stole his computer? Way cool.; 5/1/10, 4:55 AM
traditionalguy said...: Sarah shows that she is more than a compassionate female with a great smile. She is an executive.; 5/1/10, 5:45 AM
Unknown said...: Interesting the people trying to make excuses for this little twerp. He did this to find something to be used against her and would have done his dead level best to destroy her life if he found anything that could be construed as such.

This is no different that Watergate just because this clown is an amateur. Amateurs have brought a good part of the Internet down with their worms, viruses, etc. About time some of them were made to pay.; 5/1/10, 5:45 AM
Ben Morris said...: It seems obvious to me that it's more or less the same crime with the same intent as Watergate, but it still seems different to me that he is just a dumb kid and not a professional political operative.; 5/1/10, 6:52 AM
AllenS said...: Stop the presses!

The National Enquirer is reporting that Barack Obama has been ridin dirty!; 5/1/10, 6:54 AM
Fen said...: I'd bet tons of bucks that Sarah Palin herself wouldn't agree with Fen's idea of remedy

Its not remedy, its holding the perp accountable to his own standards - he wants to play dirty, I'll play dirty.

And I'm not a Palin supporter, so whether she agrees with me is not a concern.; 5/1/10, 7:04 AM
Fen said...: But thanks for granting that, in this instance, Palin is not Evil.

I was about to check her for hooves.; 5/1/10, 7:10 AM
Tank said...: Scott

Why would you get 20 years for obstruction of justice but only one year for hacking? Sesms ass-backwards to me.

In one case your are committing a crime against the gov't; in the other, you are committing a crime against a private citizen.

This tells you where their priorities are.; 5/1/10, 7:23 AM
Dustin said...: "I'm sorry but in my mind I cant fairly compare a 22 year old man with the White House plumbers. "

Why not? Seems like you CAN compare them, but you realize one is worse than the other after the comparison.

The law is black and white, and so is the morality. This asshole did something seriously wrong and he really does belong behind bars for a few years. I know it seems pranky because of the hysteria surrounding politics these days and Palin in particular, but this was a really terrible thing to do.

20 years... of course not. He won't get that. But he obviously is guilty and should pay a penalty. I think he should make restitution of at least $250,000 to Sarah, and spent perhaps a year in prison. Perhaps a little more than that.

It's a terrible thing to do.; 5/1/10, 7:27 AM
Dustin said...: And the blaming the victim shit is sad.

Partisan hacks: her password wasn't Wasilla. No one knows what her password was, because the hacker was unable to guess it. He guessed her high school as Wasilla. She had the account before she rose to national prominence, and forget the massive security problem that is Yahoo's dumb system. I don't remember all my verification questions throughout the years either.

And of course it's OK for her to email he coworkers with her private email. Caling that 'state business' like some kind of scandal is just sleazy. She was sued and sued by you nutjobs, and her private life exposed like no politician I've ever seen: she's totally clean. She might be a bad leader, but she'd no crook. She's proven that. She's head and shoulders above, say, Rezko friend Obama.

He indeed hacked her system. And guess what: that's a legal fact now. If a Tea Partier did this to Obama, you wouldn't blame the victim.; 5/1/10, 7:31 AM
Fen said...: there are so many assumed premises with which I disagree and so many embedded "facts" that I'd dispute, it's hard to know how to start.

Heh. We get this with Libtards and the MSM every single day. Welcome to our world.; 5/1/10, 8:02 AM
knox said...: I think it's appropriate--and useful--for hackers to know that they face severe punishment for this sort of behavior. It is absolutely serious.

Certainly a token couple months and probation is inadequate. He should get a couple years, at least.

As for the people saying he needs to be repeatedly raped in prison, WTF.; 5/1/10, 8:14 AM
Big Mike said...: @Slow Joe, you are dead on the mark. The fellow had to work at it to break into her account, and he deserves whatever he gets. There are way too many people from his generation who think that hacking and generating new worms and viruses is all good clean fun.; 5/1/10, 8:17 AM
rhhardin said...: Palin plays to the crowd.

It's cheerleadership.; 5/1/10, 8:32 AM
lucid said...: The fact that he is a self-righeous liberal and she is a delegitimized conservative does not excuse him or reduce this to the level of a prank.

He meant to do serious harm to a vital national process through a felonious action.

The bottom line is that that he intended to do as much damage to her as he could, on a matter that directly concerns the national interest in conducting a presidential election and choosing a president and vice-president.

He inteneded to interfere in this process by committing a felony.; 5/1/10, 8:44 AM
kalmia said...: Jeeez. Enough with the wishing for prison rape crap. It's revolting.; 5/1/10, 8:49 AM
george said...: Can you imagine any other politician being subjected to what Palin has gone through and coming out with as clean a bill of health? The press did everything but insert an anal probe in the hopes of finding a scandal. Indeed, many of them are still obsessed with her uterus. This little cretin was just part of the spittle flecked pack.; 5/1/10, 8:56 AM
Fen said...: Libtard call for "civility" in 3 2 1; 5/1/10, 8:57 AM
kalmia said...: Whew! Glad you cleared that up, Fen. Being beaten and killed in prison is much better.; 5/1/10, 8:59 AM
kalmia said...: BTW, I'm not crying out for leniency. I think he committed a serious crime and should receive a hefty sentence.; 5/1/10, 9:07 AM
knox said...: You're projecting. No one is "wishing" for prison rape.

Whatever, dude.

I'm hardly a "libtard" and you coulda fooled me.; 5/1/10, 9:18 AM
LoafingOaf said...: Fen said...
You're projecting. No one is "wishing" for prison rape.

Commenters upthread clearly stated they think he should get 20 years and be raped up the ass the whole time. I hope they are similaly in favor of extremely harsh punishments for politicians who lied us into war and tortured people to death in our name.; 5/1/10, 9:26 AM
Ann Althouse said...: @rh Sarah Palin was a basketball player more than a cheerleader in school. But she was also a cheerleader. But if she became President, she would not be the first cheerleader who became President. She'd be the 5th.; 5/1/10, 9:36 AM
David said...: The hacker can get probation in a few years and then go on TV to urge us to BUY GOLD! This may well be timely advice.; 5/1/10, 9:38 AM
AllenS said...: I hope he goes to prison and dies from a virus, or malware.; 5/1/10, 9:41 AM
kentuckyliz said...: I don't hope that he gets treated like a child molester in prison...I hope he gets treated like a fresh faced 22 year old college boy.

Prisoners are zero income and hence qualify for the full Pell grant for expenses only (they don't get to keep the excess refund). He has plenty of time to go to college now.

This is typed from my new GigaTouch. New toy!; 5/1/10, 9:57 AM
Kirby Olson said...: Private communications should be a universal human right.

It's only countries like the Soviet Union or Red China that don't understand this.

(Add Harvard to the list.); 5/1/10, 10:01 AM
Lincolntf said...: The fact that this snot-nosed prat is the son of a Dem pol is priceless. Apart from his obvious political animus, I'm guessing that a lifetime of zero consequences for being a punk are the "root causes" of this particular crime.
I wonder if a phone call from Daddy will carry as much weight in the pen as it did at prep school? I'm guessing not.; 5/1/10, 10:48 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: Will the judge do the right thing and slam this criminal with a harsh sentence? Or will he wimp out, feel sorry for the young man with a bright future ahead of him (caving in to the punk's daddy's political clout) and give him a slap on the wrist?; 5/1/10, 10:49 AM
rhhardin said...: @ann Palin's cheerleading style is what puts off the right that'a put off by her.

Cheerleadership is just a nice word for this substitute for leadership.

Many of those on the right never went along with crowds in the first place; that's how they got on the right.

If Palin used her basketball talents instead and got the right words for the right moment, it would be different.; 5/1/10, 11:13 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: First of all as a "white collar" type of crime the guy will probably go to a federal camp, not a full lock down prison.

He will spend his time in a room, not a cell, with another "white collar" guy. Maybe an embezzler or a stock broker who stole from his clients or a politician who took bribes.

They will get to read books, work in some sort of light labor type of environment like a library or community garden. Maybe even write his own book about his experiences and learn how to launder money...gain new skills and make influential friends.

Next even though he was sentenced for 20 years, he will probably spend only a year, maybe two, in camp.

So your sick fantasies of rape and getting beaten up are fruitless.; 5/1/10, 11:13 AM
GMay said...: "What happened to Sarah Palin is astounding in so many ways. The vociferousness of the attacks, the mind-bending hatred, the hordes of reporters pawing through her garbage - and this punk."

Don't forget Andy Sullivan setting up camp in her uterus.

wv: horbit - "That horbit me!"; 5/1/10, 11:23 AM
Popville said...: Scott said...
> Why would you get 20 years for
> obstruction of justice but only
> one year for hacking?

In San Jose we're familiar with this tactic. The Govt. pulled a Barry Bonds: if you can't prosecute the crime, get 'em for messin' with the government (tho in Barry's case they fubar'd that also). This trick harkens back at least to Chicago gangster area with tax fraud prosecutions.; 5/1/10, 11:34 AM
Balfegor said...: The main lesson is that you can get twenty years for obstructing the FBI's investigating you. The penalty for snooping the Governor's email was only one year.

That makes sense. But a 20 year penalty is grossly excessive in view of the underlying crime. Just lock him up for a year or so in a low security federal prison, and then send him on his way -- it's not a violent crime, lying to the authorities isn't. The point, one hopes, would have been made.; 5/1/10, 11:43 AM
Balfegor said...: In one case your are committing a crime against the gov't; in the other, you are committing a crime against a private citizen.

This tells you where their priorities are.

The policy reason for the government to come down hard on lying to the FBI is to ensure that people know there are consequences for misleading government investigations. People lying to government investigators isn't just a crime against the government, it actually perverts the whole operation of the justice system. Innocent people can be punished, if witnesses lie to the investigators. Guilty people can go free. The government has a unique and terrible power to imprison people by force and inflict punishment, and I think we all have an interest in ensuring that it isn't misdirected by private misconduct, to wit, people lying to them.; 5/1/10, 11:48 AM
Balfegor said...: Well, lying, destroying documents, falsifying documents, whatever. I don't actually know what the man in this case did.; 5/1/10, 11:48 AM
DADvocate said...: I find it a little humorous that a kid from my humble alma mater did this. Not a hot bed of liberalism.

20 seems a little rough but 5-10 wouldn't bother me.; 5/1/10, 12:26 PM
TWM said...: "The main lesson is that you can get twenty years for obstructing the FBI's investigating you. The penalty for snooping the Governor's email was only one year."

Something most children learn quickly is that the lie if often worse than the crime itself. This isn't brain surgery, folks, although a brain was involved, albeit stupidly.; 5/1/10, 1:19 PM
Anonymous said...: There are way too many people from his generation who think that hacking and generating new worms and viruses is all good clean fun.

Amen. I worked in a hospital that got a bad computer virus infestation, and it affected patient care severely. I couldn't prove it killed anybody directly, but it damn sure made it harder to take care of them.

So I say make an example of this twerp. I want his mother to cry every day for twenty-one years. Prison is too good for computer hackers, they should be put in public stocks and mercilessly horsewhipped to a bloody pulp.; 5/1/10, 1:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Sarah Palin was a basketball player more than a cheerleader in school. But she was also a cheerleader.

Are you sure, Ann? I don;t recall any such thing. There's nothing on Wikipedia about cheerleading, just basketball and x-country running.

I always thought it was unjust that a bookworm/athlete caught such wrong and unfair crap from the Left for being a moron cheerleader type.

Maybe you're confusing cheerleading with her single foray into the beauty-pageant world for scholarship money.; 5/1/10, 1:56 PM
Fen said...: LoafingLibtard: Commenters upthread clearly stated they think he should get 20 years and be raped up the ass the whole time.

Nope. Read the thread again. No one said that. You're projecting.; 5/1/10, 2:27 PM
Revenant said...: I cant fairly compare a 22 year old man with the White House plumbers.

Is 22 not old enough to be able to tell right from wrong? If not, why do we classify them as adults and let them vote?; 5/1/10, 3:21 PM
Revenant said...: Nope. Read the thread again. No one said that. You're projecting.

No, he's not. I said that.

My personal view is that the crime he committed merits execution. Identity theft is a terrible crime, and one which is going to cripple our society going forward unless we crack down on it hard.

Since the law doesn't actually allow for capital punishment in these circumstances, I'll settle for hoping he gets raped in prison instead.; 5/1/10, 3:29 PM
Balfegor said...: Nope. Read the thread again. No one said that. You're projecting.

The special horror of rape isn't in there, so you can feel morally superior to the bestial politicians of California, I suppose . . . but I hardly think this:

And child molestors aren't raped in prison, they are beaten and killed.

is at all appropriate. All he did was steal a password. Beating and killing, extrajudicially (as reader-iam points out) is pretty horrific.; 5/1/10, 3:41 PM
former law student said...: I do feel the teeniest bit sorry for the guy. On the one hand it shouldn't be so eas to m commit a crime that carries a 20 year sentence just googing off at your computer. On the other hand he he was pranking a candidate for vice president, not one of his dork buddies.; 5/1/10, 3:51 PM
former law student said...: I'm having computer troubles, sorry. It had looked good on my screen.; 5/1/10, 3:53 PM
Balfegor said...: My personal view is that the crime he committed merits execution. Identity theft is a terrible crime, and one which is going to cripple our society going forward unless we crack down on it hard.

Okay, I see that . . .

Since the law doesn't actually allow for capital punishment in these circumstances, I'll settle for hoping he gets raped in prison instead.

Okay, that's just straight-up wrong.; 5/1/10, 3:54 PM
Palladian said...: Hoping that someone is abused or murdered in prison as some form of extra-judicial punishment is vile and barbaric. If you're so keen on rape and murder being punishment for crimes, then lobby to amend the Constitution to legalize your barbarism. The "wink-wink, he'll get what's coming to him in prison" is not an acceptable thought for anyone who values liberty, the rule of law or common human decency.; 5/1/10, 4:59 PM
kalmia said...: What Palladian said.; 5/1/10, 5:45 PM
Fen said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/1/10, 9:46 PM
Fen said...: Hoping that someone is abused or murdered in prison as some form of extra-judicial punishment is vile and barbaric.

Not hoping. Arranging for.

But yes, I admit to being vile and barbaric. So what's your point?

not an acceptable thought for anyone who values liberty, the rule of law or common human decency.

Then you should be nicer to those pesky Christians. Maybe they are on to something.

Me? When a brownshirt fascist activist throws hardballs, I'll bat them right back through his libtard skull.; 5/1/10, 9:49 PM
Fen said...: Hey, if it really bothers you that much, try to think of it as a mere "college prank".; 5/1/10, 10:17 PM
Palladian said...: "But yes, I admit to being vile and barbaric. So what's your point?"

Nothing. I have no point to make about you. That you're a vile, angry scumbag speaks plainly for itself, pretty much every time you make a comment here.; 5/1/10, 11:49 PM
Fen said...: Palladian: I have no point to make about you.

But then...

That you're a vile, angry scumbag speaks plainly for itself, pretty much every time you make a comment here.

No need to get vile and angry Palladian. I'm just doing unto David Kernell as he's done unto others.

Kinda like what you think you're doing here - responding to vile anger with vile anger.

So thanks for making my point with your point. We'll have you converted to the Dark side in no time.; 5/2/10, 1:10 AM
caplight said...: I do volunteer work in a Federal high-medium security prison (level 6). I wouldn't wish a day in there on anybody. That said, Kernell will probably come out a lot less arrogant than when he went in. He will grow up fast, real fast. Federal judges have a lot less lee way than other judges do so the sentencing will be interesting.; 5/2/10, 6:11 AM