…The story was briefly posted Wednesday to the 4chan forum where the hack first surfaced. Bloggers have connected the handle of the poster, “Rubico,” to an e-mail address, and tentatively identified the owner as a college student in Tennessee.

Threat Level was unable to reach the student by phone because his number is unlisted. His father, when reached at home, said he could not talk about the matter and would have no comment. The father is a Democratic state representative in Tennessee.

Did you catch that last bit there? I know what you’re thinking; OK, Shawn, so his dad’s a Democratic Congressman, that doesn’t mean the hack was political.

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, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family.

I then started a topic on /b/, peeps asked for pics or gtfo and I obliged, then it started to get big
Earlier it was just some prank to me, I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be, just like all of you anon out there that you think there was some missed opportunity of glory, well there WAS NOTHING, I read everything, every little blackberry confirmation… all the pictures, and there was nothing, and it finally set in, THIS internet was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this shit ever got to the FBI I was f—ed, I panicked, i still wanted the stuff out there but I didn’t know how to rapid[share] all that stuff, so I posted the pass on /b/, and then promptly deleted everything, and unplugged my internet and just sat there in a comatose state

I’m not saying he did this with the approval of his father, I’m saying this is the mindset among Democrats online — that it’s OK to invade someone’s privacy, so long as they’re Republican. Think about this, how nuts did Liberals (and other Americans, to be fair) go when the NSA spying story was splashed on the frontpage of the New York Times? Yet it’s OK to hack into someone’s personal email so long as you find something ‘incriminating’ or something that would ‘derail her campaign’? So just who is this Congressman’s son with a keyboard?

rubico10

David Kernell
rubico10@yahoo.com
20
Memphis, TN
amateur chess player
son of democratic state 93rd district senator Mike Kernell (Tennessee)

I’ll bet it’s his father who’s in the ‘comatose state’ tonight…

Update: Ouch. Looks like someone got a visit from the Feds…

Please Direct Your Hate Mail To: ShawnWasson -AT- Gmail.com

Share and Enjoy:

September 17, 2008 -- Sarah Palin’s Email Account Hacked!
January 20, 2010 -- PALIN FOR MCCAIN
January 11, 2010 -- PALIN TO FOX NEWS
December 12, 2009 -- PALIN MOCKS SHATNER
December 7, 2009 -- TOMATOES AIMED AT PALIN
December 6, 2009 -- PALIN IN A HAT
December 4, 2009 -- PALIN BACKS BIRTHERS?
December 1, 2009 -- PALIN THE HERO?
November 24, 2009 -- PALIN SELLS 700,000
November 21, 2009 -- SARAH PALIN BOOK TOUR UPDATE

Memyself

"I’m saying this is the mindset among Democrats online — that it’s OK to invade someone’s privacy, so long as they’re Republican."

No. I lean fully in the Democrat camp. But this was simply wrong. Everyone I know, regardless of political affiliation, believes that hacking someones private email is wrong.

If a Christian blows up an abortion clinic full of people, is that action automatically acceptable to all Christians?

coodie

yay, sweeping generalities! not all of us share your panglossian view of politician's honesty and cleanliness and when someone blows the whistle on their illegal activities i look on it with approval. pentagon papers, anyone?

bard

You are a tool... The kid was a kid doing kid stuff, not a representative of "The EVIL Democrats"

Your logic seriously lacks.

rachel

How does it feel, David...you little turd.

Fawk off

"Think about this, how nuts did Liberals (and other Americans, to be fair) go when the NSA spying story was splashed on the frontpage of the New York Times?"

How are you even trying to turn this around on "liberals" and "democrats"? It's called getting a taste of your own medicine. Just desserts. Irony.

It's perfectly all right to wiretap millions of innocent American citizens without a warrant in the name of fighting so-called terrorism, right? After all, if you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?

name

So Shawn, buddy, which do you think is right: That it should be illegal to spy on email, and anyone who does so should be arrested, or that it's OK if you think you have a good reason?

Spartacus

I AM DAVID

david

fucking v&. 7 proxies much?

Ex PFC Wintergreen

>I’m saying this is the mindset among Democrats online — that it’s OK to invade someone’s privacy, so long as they’re Republican.

Because it's obviously legitimate to draw a conclusion like that based on the actions of one person.

Faggot.

America Lover

Lets not discriminate, 5 to 8 in the fed pen for little David Kernell. He is young his little butt hole will heal, maybe he will learn from Bubba about being a good little boy. Oh, did you say his Daddy is a Democratic TN state rep? He will get away with it, just like all left wing criminals!!!

Tyler

It is ok to invade the privacy of someone who supports the invasion on everyone else's privacy. I would hope this would make Palin think twice about unconstitutional investigations, but that would require her to learn how to think. Her crying foul over this is just another entry in the endless list of ways that most politicians prove their hypocrisy.

Anonymous

I call bull.

Looks like the feds went on a little goose chase, and I can hear the conservative wolves hitting F5 with their mouths watering to martyr the one who attacked their own.

You can post any email address you want on the chans; They don't have to be real, and they certainly don't have to be your own.

I'd take this with a tablespoon of salt, and if it's true that this Kernell kid is the victim of a goose chase orchestrated by Anon, then I pity all of the negative press he's going to get for no good reason.

Chris

this is the mindset among Democrats online

Just remember which administration is checking every one of your e-mails and all of your phone calls.

As for the invasion of privacy remark, is turnabout fair play? Let me quote just about every Constitution hating NeoCon I know, "If you ain't done nothin' wrong...there's nothing to hide."

Melanie

America Lover,

You're right, this is horrible invasion of privacy and is also illegal. Other than the fact that this hacked information was posted online, can you describe this to being different than the warrentless wiretapping program, or AT&T's email tracking that is recording the communications of both of us?

Real American

The real point here is she used a public email service to conduct government business. I guess you could say that it was only Alaska, and that a state so insignifigant doesn't need a private email service, but...

Bumbaclaat

I have no sympathy for Republicans who push for warrantless snooping of all of our email (and other communications) and then who whine when they get snooped on

Can you say... hypocrisy?

Sass

Oh god, the irony of a Republican bitching about internet privacy!!!

palingrl2012

I say part of this little pip squeak's punishment should be that the feds publish all of juniors communications & website viewings since he turned 18 for us to see & endlessly comment on. Obviously, the art of playing dirty tricks gets taught in this family. I have a feeling dad (& maybe the democratic party as a whole) are going the be suffering long & hard over this stupid, childish stunt. If there was nothing damning in what you found David why did you pass the info on? Were you trying to impress a girl? He's your typical left-wing liberal: "It's all about ME."

Sass

And LOL @ your hypocritical stance that crys about privacy yet goes out and provides full contact information on someone. I guess privacy only counts when the person being defended is a Republican? What a joke.

Johnny

One college student with too much time on his hands is representative of all Democrats? Whatever. :roll:

Sass

Let's see how you like it scumbag. Will you post this information about yourself since you're alright with it being done about someone else?

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Parmenio

I'd say it's pretty silly to attribute this mindset to "liberals". Currently we have some very authoritarian minded people in power that look at just about every e-mail. I'm not really too concerned that some kid was bright enough to hack a yahoo account for giggles.

real doozy

Larry Craig! is that you? you should be ashamed of yourself.

sjc

lies

matt

A lot of people are saying how hypocritical an attack like this is when we are so upset about NSA wiretapping.
These people do not care about our concerns or our privacy and illegally rob us of our 4th amendment right. Why should we respect a government that blatantly tramples our rights time and time again against the will of the people. It didn't matter how many petitions we signed, how often we called our congressmen and senators, I even went to visit my representatives in Washington to talk to them about the issue. In the end BOTH parties gladly took hundreds of thousands of dollars from AT&T and passed an unconstitutional ex post facto law at the expense of our civil liberties.
When they refuse to respect our privacy for campaign contributions, they deserve none themselves. These people are the biggest criminals and the largest threat to the security of our nation and they should be exposed as the frauds they are.

mongo

I love this.

republicans are soo predictable.

republicans are the first people to point out the ridiculousness of conspiracy theories.

yet when a person who has democratic family members completely proves all of the criticism about a republican party member, it is immediately a conspiracy created by the democrats.

I will say this. Sarah palin TRULY believes that the earth is 6000 years old. she does not just say this for her party.

she actually believes this (I know, wow huh!)

if mccain wins, and dies (which looks to be pretty soon)

our country will have completely lost any scientific edge we have ever had.

all of the hard work that scientists and engineers have performed during WWII and the cold war will be erased.

we will officially be the most backwards modern country in the world.

honestly, she makes me ashamed to be american. I am semi-conservative, but if she becomes VP, I will have to move my semiconductor business to canada, because that would just be too much.

Jones

Oh, FFS Shawn.

You republicans seem to favor warrantless wiretapping of the citizenry. I think this is a fair example of reaping what you sow ...

I also note that you posted this kid's identification on the net. Nice ethics there. Oh, oops. Looks like someone just returned the favor on Reddit.

eric blair

that's not fair. I'm sure very few democrats and liberals agree with this action. i'm very liberal and i certainly don't approve of hacking. it scares the hell out of me. just like the patriot act. same fear. I want my privacy, and I want sarah palin, republicans, and all people to have theirs too.

Stradivarious

I’m saying this is the mindset among Democrats online — that it’s OK to invade someone’s privacy, so long as they’re Republican.

uhh, what? how can you logically draw that conclusion from the presented data?

badjoke

Who says it's OK? Maybe he thought so, but that's not indicative of all democrats being uncaring thieves as you try to say. An easier thing to say would be that teenagers are uncaring, and invincible-feeling. Nice try to put a political spin on it, but I bet his dad isn't patting him on the back for this one.

hypatia

What the kid did was not right, and he'll serve the time for it as he should. But surely you can grasp that there's a world of difference between a stupid college student making a lucky password guess, and a governmental agency with oodles of power and sophisticated technology running a spying program on its own citizens. Yes? Do you see how one is scarier than the other?

Phil

I'm a liberal and I don't think it's ok for this guy to have hacked her account. I know plenty of liberals who share that view with me and in fact I don't know anyone who thinks what this guy did was right. So I don't know where you get the line "the mindset among Democrats online — that it’s OK to invade someone’s privacy, so long as they’re Republican".

I also don't think it's right for the government to eavesdrop on me either.

Respect people's privacy.

But I do want to take your generalization and do the same thing by saying that "the mindset among Republicans online is that it's OK to invade someone's privacy, so long as it's the government doing it."

-Phil

ILOVEAMERICASOMUCHIMARRIEDIT

It's a kid. Could you guys calm down a little?

George Bush

I hope for your sake the kid's not a minor, publishing photos and address/id will be as bad for you as it is going to be for him.

George Bush

Fun, isn't it?

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anonymous

you are as much guilty of personal privacy violation as that kid is, IF he is the hacker.

You really should not expose his info, without any proof that he was the one. You are causing sensationalism and destroying his life.

Anyone can use a known "internet handle"

DragonFlyEye

Funny: there's nothing here about the fact that Palin was using the email address for purposes which were themselves illegal, only that "Democrats online" think hacking her account was OK. Speaking as a "Democrat online," I'd say that criminals getting punked by other criminals is just one more reason not to be a criminal. Just ask Superfly.

America Lover

We as U.S. citizens do not have any more privacy! We are bieng video taped as we drive down the roads, walk down the sidewalks, in stores, banks, elevators, everywhere. Our phone conversations are being recorded, I worked for a cellular company, they installed a storage device that had enough space to put EVERY BOOK EVER WRITTEN in it three times. Voice, voice mails, text, and anything you downloaded or sent via email through your phone was saved. What this kid did was wrong, what the government did was wrong, but, we do not have any public privacy. People could listen to your conversations in your own house. This is the technical society we live in. Good, bad, or indifferent anything you say or do can be recorded or filmed. The only reason this kid got caught was because he posted it online, would he have been caught if he didn't post it? I personally think, I would rather have the government reading my emails and listening to my phone conversations to prevent terrorist attacks than some snot nosed kid posting my emails all over the internet. But thats just me...

anonymous

Your comments have no fundamental. Your quick to draw conclusion and quick to stereotype. If you had any value lets talk about Title 18 and Cyber Law. Just blaming in general one side to the other means nothing but just your own blog rant. There is no substance to your rant and saying that Democrats where the only ones to get concern about the NSA "spying" issue is absurd. I bet there are a lots of Libertarians and Republicans that felt the same way. Get a life and please provide more substance to your material. The guy (David Kernel) will get his day in court, I'll leave it at that. But wait do you remeber Watergate, enough said. Anyways do us all a favor and get a US History lesson and stop being so bias. Yes there was a privacy violation done by David and he will pay for it. This is not an issue of party lines or any Robin Hood or The Avenger type of dilema, this is a crime.

Dem4McCain

Sorry, all you "college prankster" believers.. There is a video online of David Kernell with none other than David Plouffe, campaign manager for BHO...
whip out the Google...
oops

VOL DAD

IT'S AMAZING WHAT KIDS LEARN AT HOME. I GUESS THIS BOY'S PARENTS SPENT MORE TIME TALKING ABOUT THEIR POLITICAL PARTY AND "CONDITIONING" THIS KID TO MAKE HIS MARK. WOULDN'T BE SHOCKED TO FIND OUT THEY HUNG OUT WITH THE FORD FAMILY IN MEMPHIS.

America Lover

Peeved Guy:
I agree, someone must have linked this somewhere. I always wonder how, WJNO mostly runs conservative talk shows except Randi Rhodes and there is so many liberals who post here. Do you think they are trying to convert us with their cut and pastes?

VOL DAD

DON'T KNOW BUT IT WILL NEVER WORK...

Wayne

"I’m saying this is the mindset among Democrats online — that it’s OK to invade someone’s privacy, so long as they’re Republican."

Shawn, I am really disappointed that you would say something like that. Of course that is untrue. I vote Democratic, I want everyone's right to privacy respected. What was done to Sarah Palin was WRONG.

You have a very twisted view of what Democrats believe.

NO2WAR

Yes, President Bush said it best. “I don’t use e-mail ... because I don’t want you reading my stuff.” - GWB 4/15/05

Only Mr. Bush should be able to snoop without a warrant.

VM

All of those people who think that the government is spying on them with no probable cause are complete idiots. What Kernell did was clearly a crime and whether or not it was officially connected to the Democrats isn't really the point. He is himself an "Obamacrat" and has already admitted he was looking for incriminating information with political motives. That's bad enough. And those who suggest that Palin was dumb about her password 'protective' information and that it makes her unfit or whatever are complete idiots too. Clearly people don't expect that their emails will be violated by evil people looking to ruin their lives. Besides when she is VP the Secret Service will protect everything about her, which they should have been doing already, especially in light of all the insane media attacks on her and her family. There is NO comparison between Kernell's invasion of her privacy and the govt wire-tapping suspected terrorists. The "reasoning" that most of the Democrat comments here suggest that they aren't at all capable of seeing things rationally.

jerry

I hope the little sh*# goes to jail and gets butt raped while he is in there.

grace schaefferjust becauuse

put that brat in jail. just because his father is a senator doesn't mean he's better than any other

natnat

You know, it shocks me how stupid some of you are. You sit here making comment after comment about how Palin was using her Yahoo account for business, and meanwhile, the very person who got into her email account said there was NOTHING in there. What part of NOTHING do you have trouble understanding. This asshole kid wanted to take down Palin more than any of you Democrat posers and even HE said there was nothing. Also, the fact that Palin discusses some things in her emails that relate to a job, does not mean she is conducting business on her Yahoo account. If she was, then every single person she discussed it with was also breaking the law, and I think the chances are slim of that, unless you want to lump some of your Democrat saviors into the bunch, because surely she had to deal with the Dems too right? I can sit here all day discussing a budget plan for my city, but you don't see me signing/sealing any deals here, so shut up and get over it. This kid was fingered for far more than some stupid posts on 4chan.

Maybe you guys missed it, but his screenshots of Palin's email box contained code in his address bar, some of which can be traced all the way back to the proxy company he used. The owner of the company gladly turned over all IP info when he discovered that his service was used in the Palin break-in. Plain and simple. The kid got caught and he should be punished. As stated earlier, if a Republican had done this to Obama or Biden, heads would be rolling. I am going to laugh at all of you Democrats who think you are above the law, and above anyone who thinks differently than you do. You all have the worst manners of anyone I have ever seen online. You can barely go a minute without bashing someone or calling anyone who thinks differently than you an 'idiot'. All I have to say is, after hearing you bitch and whine for 8 years about how much of a fool George Bush is, how is it this fool who was never smart enough to even be president, also somehow managed to fool the world in his devious scheme to take over the oil in the middle east. You can't be diabolical and an idiot, people. I would argue the opposite point... how the hell did GWB get elected TWICE with all you mr/mrs smarty's running around out there. Seems to me you got it wrong all the way around. Then again, maybe I am completely wrong and GWB IS an idiot. Maybe he's just a bit smarter than the rest of you idiots.

RobRoy

The constitution of the US states that Cruel and Unusual punishment is against the law. Yet you seem to condone anal rape as an appropriate punishment for invasion of privacy? Are you sure you love America or would you be better suited in perhaps a theocratic Middle Eastern nation?

Trambok

WTF; No this is NOT the mindset of the Democrats.

This is the mindset of 4chan/b/

It is my opinion that the person who wrote this... REALLY does not get it.

REALLY does not.

Kat

I'd conjugal visit that. :twisted:

Real CSN

If you had the slightest clue what 4chan is and how the army of anonymous works you wouldn't have linked this to 'democrats online,' in what I can only call a desperate smear campaign. It makes me wonder, if his dad was a judge would you have blamed the justice department? Or if he were a teacher, the school system? Anonymous is its own army, it follows its own rules and it attacks whomever and whatever it wants, Republican, Democrat, even the Prez himself if they can find a way.
Lurk Moar as the ones in the know like to say.

Jonathan Blaque

Man, reading through these comments... what is it with you Republicans and your anal sex kink? Ick.

Meet Palin’s Hacker: David Kernell

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