Your point of IANAL is valid for me too and I will agree to disagree with you. Thanks for the discussion.
-PC

I don’t have time to respond to your whole response, but I do want to point out that this is Bill McAllisters interpretation of the law, not the law itself. IANAL but I from what I read of the law, this is wishful thinking on his part, not the letter of the law itself.

We’ll have to agree to disagree on what constitutes ‘official business’. I feel that anything that impacts her role as Governor is official business, whether it’s a final decision or not. And I think the law, as written, is closer to my interpretation, but once again, IANAL.

Martin

Your two points come back to my original point. I do not believe political campaigns qualify as “public records”. She is a private individual running a campaign or talking to friends (she’s a politician, who else is she going to be friends with but other politicians) re: their political campaigns. Again, the email from the lawyer re: Arnold & the container tax could be a concerned citizen talking to his candidate about his concerns, not an official government policy. Also from the link durakje provided, her press secretary says this…She is allowed to keep e-mails confidential if they fall into certain categories, such as “deliberative process,” said her press secretary, Bill McAllister. Obviously someone who is the governor of a state and a candidate for vice-president isn’t just willy nilly ignoring the ramifications of what the law says without a care in the world. They have come to the decision that what she does is legal and it ultimately will be the courts to decide if she has violated a law. My broader point is that there is not definitive proof that any “state business” (sans political campaigning) was done through this email account. I would think the burden of proof in this case would be on the detractors but I’m not a lawyer. I simply think the woman should be able to have a way to communicate with friends, family and yes political constituents with out everybody in the world invading that. I would believe it even if Obama had a similar situation.

Dale,

Put away your tin-foil hat man……are you really comparing someone’s email account that is used to communicate with family with snooping on terrorists that use technology to plot to kill people. Putting aside Bush’s inept running of this situation (I will not call it a war, because I’m offended by the term just like I am with “War on Drug, Crime, Poverty, etc.) we find ourselves in with radical Muslims, why would we not eavesdrop on people who have declared an interest in killing Americans? They aren’t eavesdropping on Grandma Ruth out in Missori. They are listening to conversations that go overseas that have ties to terrorists. You know…..the bad guys. I live in the L.A. area and if we experienced an attack here like the ones on 9/11 and I found out that the government had the opportunity to stop the attack by eavesdropping on the terrorists planning that attack and failed to do so……I would be the first to march on the Whitehouse with a pitchfork and torch to demand the head of the person responsible. They want to kill us man….you, me, your family, your children……let them listen. Your comments, quite frankly do nothing to advance the dialog.

Ben,

(1) Good lord man…..so “extreme fundamentalist Christians” don’t have rights. Because I like a good freak show, please tell us how big bad Sarah Palin is going to impose her theocracy on the good people of America…..no…….the WORLD!!!!
(2) Ummmm…..see my original posts and replies to Martin. I don’t believe it was “official business”.
(3) It just shows that she has private communications with family and friends. She even received email from…..her husband, son and daughter….shocker. Why I even hear that there was a picture of her daughter and son in those screenshots. Scandalous. Your comment about a “fundamentalist with a secret agenda” speaks volumes about you. In your view, is it ok to actually stand for what your religion preaches and let said religion dictate your “world view”? Or are you so jaded by politicians that you expect them to wiffle and waffle re: any subject as the political winds take them? The woman’s private email was hacked, her and her families personal information (including her 17 year old daughter’s cell phone number) was posted on Gawker for the entire world to see, and the best your little mind can come up with is……..outrage over Sarah Palin’s religion.

-PC

Another thing is this just further stirs up thoughts about the Bush administration’s lack of technology management practices. Back when they were trying to recover lost emails. Frankly it scares me that a top level government network can lose emails on a system. I work at a credit union and it would be very hard to lose an email completely. There are so many copies of emails that go through our system through archives, backups, databases, etc. It would require multiple levels of access and multiple people to be able to destroy all copies of an email.

Sarah Palin’s poor use of email just makes me cringe further that we could have another administration that manages their technology poorly. I agree with everything you said Martin. It was a very well written article.

1) While I agree with the points about privacy, I’m not sure that I feel so inclined to apply them to someone who so clearly opposes non-interference in the lives of others. She’s an extreme fundamentalist Christian, which translates into a strong desire to meddle in the affairs of others, including behind closed doors at home. In the Bush-Cheney world, the only privacy is theirs, not that of the average citizen. Why then extend such a courtesy to a candidate who only wishes to extend and expand such a sad state of things.

2) Who authorized her to use an unofficial email account for official business? Moreover, who lacked the balls to tell her this was strictly prohibited? There’s no way the data retention on those emails is in keeping with federal (and state, if they exist) regulations. As several have mentioned, this is directly corollary to the White House “losing” hundreds of rather important emails that now cannot be admitted to legal proceedings.

3) This incident should highlight in general that Palin, like McCain, represents 4 more years of the same garbage. Puts a high premium on secrecy – that’s just lovely! Just what we need – a fundamentalist with a secret agenda as strong as the current VP’s secret agenda. Bloody hell, folks, this is scary! Yes, the hack was illegal and should be punished, but it exposes a highly relevant area of concern for voters.