Something's brewing on the Right. Many right wing blogs are attempting to link the Palin Email hacking incident to a Watergate style conspiracy from the Democrats.
All at the expense of a poor 20 year old kid whose reputation is getting destroyed by a bunch of overzealous people who are quick on the trigger and ignorant on the facts...
Clearly, this is ridiculous, but it's gaining traction on the conservative blogs so I thought I'd do an in depth analysis to debunk all of the talking points the right are trying to throw at the situation.
Here is what some of the conservative blogs are saying:
From Gateway Pundit:
FATHER OF HACKER Is Tennessee Dem State Rep!!!!! ...Update: Name- David Kernell ...Update: He's Been Contacted by Feds!
From The Other McCain:
Tennessee state Rep. Mike Kernell, Memphis Democrat, last night disputed published newspaper reports, including one in the Tennessean that said his son was the focus of the Palin hack investigation.
"I talked to David today and he has not been contacted, not a target by any federal group, any investigation," Mr. Kernell told The Washington Times on Thursday night. He was answering phones at his office late into the evening to clear up inaccurate media reports, he said.
When asked whether his son is involved in the case in any way, Mr. Kernell said: "I can't talk about my son. I can just tell you no one has contacted him or I about this."
A complete analysis can be found at the Daily Shocker, but here are some key points:
The hacker was named "rubico" therefore a google search returns someone with the email address rubico20@yahoo.com, which MUST mean its the same person.
Not only is it hearsay that this email address was even used in the posting of the supposed confession by the hacker, 4chan.org allows anonymous postings from anyone through a form so anybody could have entered that email address into the posting. Hell, the hacker could have entered in Michelle Malkin’s email address if he wanted to (and had a sense of humor). Would the Right wingers give it any credence then? Probably not. The fact remains that because the thread is deleted, it is only hearsay that this was in any way the actual email address used, if there even was one. Chances are the hacker DID NOT EVEN PUT his email address, because he is NOT AN IDIOT. If you robbed a bank would you leave your driver’s license? If you were a serial killer and mailed a confession note to the cops, would you include self-addressed stamped envelope? These morons seem to think so.
The screenshots posted are of Sarah Palin’s email, so they MUST have been made by the hacker himself, making the proxy in the screenshots the one that he used .
Everyone is missing an important detail here. The images and text files that are on Wikileaks were compiled by the 4chan users that were able to get into the Yahoo account before the password was changed. In fact, at least one of the screenshots was taken by the very person who changed the password. That said, there is very little likelihood that any of the screenshots that show the Proxy URL are even the hacker who cracked into Yahoo in the first place, nullifying the notion that the Proxy seen in the URLs of any of the screenshots was even the original hacker. Although everyone who was in the Yahoo account is an accomplice in some way, it’s clear that the person who discovered the password is the culprit everyone wants to vilify, so let’s for the sake of argument give the conspiracy theorists the benefit of the doubt and say it was in fact the hacker who used the Proxy found in the screenshots and continue on...