Criminal heroes

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for criminals who expose government malfeasance. In recent news we have two good cases of this: the first are the Somali pirates who unknowingly tried to ransom (and seem to be succeeding) off a ship transporting weaponry from the Ukrainian government to probably rebels from South Sudan, in contravention of an agreement that ended (but apparently not for long) the decades long Sudanese civil war.

The second example of the noble criminal (I guess the pirates weren't actually that noble – they didn't realize they'd be exposing such a scandal) is the kid who hacked into Sarah Palin's e-mail account. Unfortunately, he's been arrested and is in the process of being indicted by a grand jury, but without his adept hacking (well, more like Google fu), the world would never know that Sarah Palin kept a secret e-mail account, which she used to communicate with people about government matters in contravention of laws that require that all written communication about government matters be archived (and released at some point). Since Palin never told anybody about the account, obviously she wasn't planning on turning over the e-mail contents at any point. Or at least so thought an Alaska judge when he ordered Palin to recover and save all of the e-mails kept in these previously-secret accounts.

Sarah Palin: less informed than my seventh grade brother

In what looks like the stupidest Sarah Palin moment yet, Sarah Palin can't name a single newspaper, and becomes offended at the suggestion of the question and deflects, ultimately ending with a defensive, "Alaska is like a microcosm of American." Fun twist: Palin was a journalism major at the University of Idaho, and once worked for a small newspaper.

Mayor Palin vs. Gov. Palin

Though Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain claim to be tough opponents of pork, it seems that Mayor Palin had a much different take on the issue. During her six years as mayor of that town of 6,700 souls, Palin raked in $27 million in federal (and federal alone!) earmarks. That includes $15 million for a rail project, which would seem to go against McCain's anti-Amtrak subsidy ethos.

According to her spokeswoman, Palin's turn from bacon-lover to a pork-buster came in 2003:

Maria Comella, Palin's campaign spokeswoman, said Palin sought the Wasilla earmarks because she was "working in the best interests of Alaska, working within the confines of the current system."

Palin became a staunch reform advocate after her 2003 appointment to the state's Oil and Gas Commission. She accused another commissioner – Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich – of raising campaign contributions from industries he was regulating. "She realized that the environment around her was no longer what it once was, and elected officials were abusing their power," Comella said.

Ah, yes! Ms. Comella must have been recalling those good ol' days back between 1996 and 2003, back when politicians were honest and righteous, and nary a piece of legislative pork did pass.

A note about pork: it's basically nothing. One percent of the federal budget. So when McCain says he's gonna balance the budget by trimming the fat from it, he's lying.