You know, I don’t think anyone would have accused the Palin e-mail hacker of being a genius in the first place. But after reading this article from Computerworld, I’m convinced the guy was an even bigger idiot than I first suspected. Most hackers have a tiny bit of intelligence, as they’re usually able to pull off some pretty sophisticated computer tricks. But this guy seems to be an everyday script kiddie who probably learned what he knows in his keyboarding class in 10th grade.

This is a classic from the article:

It was only after finding nothing that the hacker realized how easily he could be caught, since he had used only one proxy to access the account. So he decided to make access to it available to others on the /b/ board by posting Palin’s recently reset password. Rubico claimed that he “then promptly deleted everything and unplugged my Internet and just sat there in a comatose state.”

“Just sat there in a comatose state“. BWAHAHAHAHA. He don’t know comatose. Just wait ’til he becomes some tattooed 300lb bald guy’s girlfriend.

The Obamunist is very fond of public schools, so “Suitably Flip” decided that his economics term paper that he wrote in response to the Lehman failure needed to be graded. We all knew that his public speaking skills when away from the teleprompter were lacking, but it seems that his writing leaves a bit to be desired as well.

Check out how The Teach scored Barry’s writing assignment.

(HT: Crush Liberalism)

test 123

Martin Knight wrote a diary here just before the now-infamous ABC News crucifixion interview of Sarah Palin. He opined that Palin should bring her own cameraman to record what was said so the REAL interview could be documented.

Indeed. Mr. Knight was quite correct.

The web site Newsbusters.org now shows us why this is the case. They point to several egregious examples of hacks of the interview text that made Palin look bad. Newsbusters shows how “ABC News edited out crucial portions of the interview that showed Palin as knowledgeable or presented her answers out of context” What, you ask, the mainstream media try to manipulate to make a Republican look bad? Why, that would never happen - the press is UNBIASED! Right…

When I read the article, it just made me ill. The sad thing is that this will likely never get outside the blog world. No one will hear about it. All they’ll hear is about the “Bush doctrine” crap, even though that’s utter nonsense as well.

I pray that we are able to defeat the Obamunist. If not, I’m not sure the USA can make it through four years of socialist policies and the emasculation of our national defense. Despite the current polling, etc., I am becoming more pessimistic of our chances. The deck is stacked completely in the direction of the Democrytes. The average schmuck on the street doesn’t read Newsbusters or Redstate or even DKos. They see ABC and CBS and CNN on TV or read the local fishwrap, and with few exceptions, they are in the bag for The One.

What a way to start a Saturday.

What is “NT”?
Well, in some contexts, it stands for “New Testament,” but not here at RedState. “NT”, sometimes stated as or N/T or some other permutation, stands for “No Text”. Posters often use it to indicate that they are not posting any text in the body of their posting. When perusing the “Recent Comments” block in the middle of the page, one can then tell there is no other info in the posting.

What is “5″?
When someone uses “5″ as a posting title, or some other derivative, such as “55555″ or “5!” or “5**5″, they are ranking the comment/diary as a “5 out of 5″. In the olden days of RedState, it was possible to rank comments and/or diaries, but that capability was removed due to (as I understand it) some abuses that occurred. When someone ranks your diary or comment as a “5″, it’s a compliment.

What is “Reply To This”?
The “Reply To This” link is found at the end of each posting in a discussion thread. It is used to create threaded responses in a discussion. Use it! It makes reading threaded conversations far easier, and it makes it clear who a responder is responding TO.

We have threaded comments at RedState to help organize the various discussions that result from postings. Failure to maintain the thread can leave to disjointed commentary and at time confusion as to whom the comment is addressed.

When you read a comment that you would like to reply to, you click on the “Reply to This” link at the bottom of that comment. This will move you to a new window for you to type in your reply.

What is “Blam!”?
“Blam” is used by (at least some) RedState moderators to indicate that they’ve banned a user. Why are users banned? For many reasons, but primarily because they’ve used excessive foul language, they’ve re-registered after being banned previously, or in recent weeks, because RonPaul™ boosters, Obamanauts, and Sarah Palin haters have been too obnoxious in their religious rants about their favorite candidate. Consult the RedState Posting Rules for more information.

What is PULLING A KOWALSKI? (ht: kowalski himself…)
“Pulling a Kowalski” is an eponymous term and a euphamism for replying to your own comment with another comment. I do it because my blogging brain works in a strange, asynchronous manner — thoughts I would rather have placed in their proper order during execution are mysteriously delayed “in flight” while my brain parses them, and arrive out-of-order in the output stream. It is left to you, Dear Reader, to read re-parse all the comments and reassemble them into a coherent thought, if possible. I have to do this myself a lot of the time, alas.

I also do it sometimes because I am of different minds on a given subject, or because part of the subject is tangential to the rest, but that is rarer. Everyone knows I was a leftist before I became a Republican and the resulting schizophrenia is diminishing, but I fear will never be completely dormant. I don’t do it to take up space deliberately or to annoy people, and I’m glad that most around here have found it to be endearing enough to name the practice after me.

NOTE: When RedState 3.0 first arrived, there was actually a button titled “Pull A Kowalski” that appeared when you attempted to respond to your own comments. Unfortunately, the instability of RS3 required the admins to pull that feature. Oh well - kowalski had his 15 mins of fame…

What is a “moby”?
The word “moby,” as used here, refers to the musician, who in 2004 encouraged the pathetic, tone-deaf trolls who listen to his work to go on conservative boards and be so over-the-top that it would serve to discredit conservatives and Republicans. We now use it for anyone pretending (badly) to be a Republican or conservative, who is instead trolling for no reason we know or care. Once identified, they get tossed.

What is a “troll”?
A “troll” is described on the following sites:

http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/troll.htm

http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/troll-tactics.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

http://www.firelily.com/support/depression/trolls.html

Periodically RedState will get hit by a major wave (dozens, or even hundreds of them showing up around the same time) of leftist trolls. Trolls can be rather annoying, but most of them are easy to spot and are usually banned within minutes. In consequence to past attempts at trolling RedStaters often pay a lot of attention to the membership history of posters, and commentors (long established members are less likely to be trolls). This is why occasionally a new registrant will be treated somewhat harshly…there is natural suspicion that they’ve registered simply to “troll.” (thanks to Herodotus for the info)

The “concern troll” is a special kind of troll who writes comments or diaries that show “grave concern” about a candidate or policy position on the conservative/GOP. They seldom are truly concerned, but are simply masquerading as “one of us” and are trying to stir things up. (On rare occasion, the poster is TRULY concerned and trying to have an honest discussion, so RedState participants need to be a little graceful in how they handle potential concern trolls)

What is “The Hinz Rule”?
This “rule” originates from a diary by RSer David Hinz, where he encouraged us to not “feed the trolls.” When someone invokes the Hinz Rule, it says “OK, folks, that’s enough, let’s not encourage this troll-like person to continue”. But what’s a troll, you ask? “Troll” is a common term used to describe Internet message-board troublemakers…see more about it here, in Wikipedia.

What is REDHOT?
Redhot entries are created by RedState moderators, contributors and Directors who have brief postings to share, and just wish to throw out little tidbits. They usually cannot be commented upon, although on occasion a moderator will open comments on a particular entry. If the general populace wishes to comment on a Redhot entry, they should start a diary/blog entry and point back to the Redhot entry.

Who are the directors?
The directors are those who founded and set direction for Redstate.com. They are Erick, Ben Domenech, Mike Krempasky, Clayton Wagar, Victoria Gardner Coates, and Dan McLaughlin. They also act as contributors and moderators (see below). Oh, and see the About document for an up-to-date list.

Who are the moderators?
They are the ones who enforce the rules and keep things from getting out of hand. Be nice to them and follow their instructions! Moderators are the Directors (see above), plus streiff, Leon H Wolf, Robert A Hahn, Moe Lane, Adam C, and maybe one or two others who I am not aware of. Moderators are also contributors (see below)

Who are the “contributors”?
Contributors are individuals who are able to create front-page stories and REDHOT entries. They have been blessed with this privilege by the Directors of RS. There are far more “contributors” than there are “moderators” and/or “Directors.”

How can I contribute?
Unless you’re stunningly brilliant and the RS Directors realize that immediately, you’ll probably just start off as a lowly blogger like the rest of us. To create your own blog content, a) register for RS, b) sign on, and c) click on the “Create New Diary Entry” near the top of the page. If your content is worthy, you may see some comment responses, and perhaps even recommendations. My advice: lurk for a while - don’t post any blogs or even any comments before you’ve read RS for a couple of weeks. Get used to the kind of content that is acceptable and the tone of how you interact with the rest of the community.

Why doesn’t my stuff show up on the front page?
Only contributors and/or Directors can post items to the front page. Occasionally a diary will be “promoted” to the front page, if the contributors/Directors see a worthy entry.

How do I do those cool HTML tricks?
Comments and diary/blog entries can be created with just plain text, or by using HTML to augment an entry. Neil Stevens has been kind enough to create a number of different “tutorials” on how to use HTML at RedState. Read Neil’s hints and tips and you’ll be far better equipped to post here. Also, socrates (well, not THE socrates - OUR socrates) posted a diary on formatting that provides some good hints.

Note: Here on Redstate 3.0, there is a little less need to use HTML. The buttons above the comment entry and/or diary entry fields will lead you through some of the formatting through the use of a formatting “language” known as “markdown”. The buttons automatically generate the markdown tags.

How do I create a signature?
Click on “My Profile” in the white box near the top of the page. Then click the Edit button in the white box just below the “My Profile” line. then update the “Signature” field near the bottom. You can use HTML in that field, per the instructions in the prior FAQ.

What’s up with the “(Un)Recommend” button?
If you have registered for RedState and you are reading a blog entry that you are particularly fond of, you can recommend it by clicking the (Un)Recommend button (near the top of each diary). This does some kind of voodoo magic behind the scenes and can boost that blog entry into the “RECOMMENDED DIARIES” list on the right. A secret algorithm determines where the recommended diary goes on the list and how long it remains there. If they told us the algorithm, they’d have to shoot us. NOTE: DO NOT recommend your own blog entry! It is bad manners, it is against the posting rules, and it is greatly frowned upon by the rest of the RS community.

What determines the order of the Recommenders in the “RECOMMEND THIS BLOG ENTRY” box?
In the old RS 2.0, the list is sorted by longevity on RedState. However, now the recommends are listed in the order they are received.

How do I follow recent comments to RedState?
Everyone has their own technique to read RedState. In RedState 2.0, a feature called the “Tracker” would allow a user to see what comment postings had appeared since their last visit. However, that feature fell victim to the (as of 9/08) convoluted web site caching mechanism. There is currently a “Recent Posts” link at the top of the page that serves as a rudimentary way to tell what’s been added of late - but once you’ve entered a particular diary, there really is no way to tell what’s been added.

A very nice addition to RedState 3.0 - You can follow your own comment threads by clicking “My Profile” and scroll down to “Recent comments by (your name)” and see if anyone has responded to your comments. But alas, there is no good way to follow new comments as a whole. Hopefully the “New” indicator from RS 2 will somehow be resurrected some day.

I have a beef with RedState - where do I go to complain?
Click on the “Contact” link at the top of the page. You can send Redstate an email, and someone will (may) contact you via email…at least that’s how it’s worked for me in the past.

Who the heck is “Franz”?
Franz is RedState’s resident canine diarist. He was planning on running for POTUS, but we believe he is now holding out for a cabinet position in the McCain administration.

For additional information…
Adam C wrote a nice entry, similar to this one, back a year or so ago. It has some excellent information on etiquette, abbreviations, etc. Please check out his writeup as well.

That’s all I can think of for now. I know I’ve missed something. I will update the FAQ as I think of new items, or as our esteemed contributors and bloggers provide their ideas and/or criticisms of my list.

Note: the original title of this diary ended with “2.0″, but it really was just the 2nd version of the diary. I now changed it to read “3.0″ so it reflects that the information is sync’d with RS 3.0

When I lived in the Bay Area, long, long ago, in a life far, far away, Willie Brown was the Speaker of the California General Assembly. I detested the man and thought that every syllable he uttered was total, utter nonsense. Now I suspect that if I knew more about Mr. Brown today, I’d probably still detest the man.

However, Willie wrote an article last Sunday titled “Palin floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee” that was very observant and pointed out some key items that the Dems should note. First, he points out that they need to get off defense and go on offense:

The Democrats are in trouble. Sarah Palin has totally changed the dynamics of this campaign.

Period.

Palin’s speech to the GOP National Convention on Wednesday has set it up so that the Republicans are now on offense and Democrats are on defense. And we don’t do well on defense.

You’re right, Willie. The Dems do NOT do well on defense, and that has been shown repeatedly this week. They are bumbling around like the Keystone Kops, trying to keep The One from tripping over his words (again), but in vain. Mr. Teleprompter cannot seem to make a point without someone reciting it to him, and his now infamous “pig and fish” comments about McCain and Palin just go to prove it. He may not have meant to insult Palin with the “pig” illustration, but when you’re on defense, stuff like that seems to hit you head on. This comment from Willie illustrates that:

Whenever you start having to explain things, you’re on defense.

Exactly. And that’s what’s happening right now.

Willie continues:

She didn’t have to prove she was “of the people.” She really is the people.

There is one thing she should have done: announced when her 17-year-old daughter and the teenage father of the girl’s unborn child are getting married and invited all of us to the wedding. It should be like Sunday at church.

He’s right. That would have been an incredible coup. She’s an every-woman, and inviting folks to the wedding would have gone farther towards writing off that entire stink. And with Palin’s delivery, it would have been taken quite sincerely.

Brown then makes what I believe is the most salient point in his article:

If she can answer questions like she handled herself at the convention, Palin will turn out to be the most interesting person in all of politics, and the press will treat her like they treated Obama when he was first discovered.

Bingo. I believe someone else here at Redstate made that observation recently - Obama is no longer the “rock star” - Sarah Palin is. She bumped him off the Billboard Hot 100, clear into the “One Hit Wonders” bin.

Oh, and Willie’s last bit of sage advice:

By the way, a note to John McCain: Get rid of the suits.

McCain is best with an open collar, his sleeves rolled up and in a Western shirt.

He doesn’t come off well in suits at all.

They make him look old.

And Cindy - keep the hair up.

He’s right again. McCain needs to go with the younger look. It’s less Bush-esque, and it helps defuse some of the mutterings about his age. And it’s in line with his “maverick man of the people” image.

But I disagree with Willie on one account - Ms. Palin needs to keep the hair down. I don’t dig the librarian look.

Camille Paglia claims the kind of personal beliefs that I find quite objectionable - Obama-supporting, pro-choice, atheist, drug legalization, etc. But it seems like every time I read her stuff, I find myself intrigued by her points. And her article today is no exception. She displays stunning insight about the DNC and GOP conventions, the Palin nomination, and her credentials as a “brand new style of muscular American feminis(t)”.

First, Paglia points out the horrendous mess that the Obama campaign is in: “Is the Obama campaign shooting out to sea like a paper boat? ” She correctly identifies Barry’s Saddleback butt-whupping as the beginning of the downslide:

I must admit that McCain is currently eating Obama’s lunch. McCain’s weirdly disconnected persona (beady glowers flashing to frozen grins and back again) has started to look more testosterone-rich than Obama’s easy, lanky, reflective candor. What in the world possessed the Obama campaign to let their guy wander like a dazed lamb into a snake pit of religious inquisition like Rick Warren’s public forum last month at his Saddleback Church in California? That shambles of a performance — where a surprisingly unprepared Obama met the inevitable question about abortion with shockingly curt glibness — began his alarming slide.

Paglia then points out an item that I thought maybe I was the only one who noticed - Barry’s newly found accent:

As I said in my last column, I have become increasingly uneasy about Obama’s efforts to sound folksy and approachable by reflexively using inner-city African-American tones and locutions, which as a native of Hawaii he acquired relatively late in his development and which are painfully wrong for the target audience of rural working-class whites that he has been trying to reach. Obama on the road and even in major interviews has been droppin’ his g’s like there’s no tomorrow

She then goes on to point out how The One’s Nuremburg Denver stadium event completely disappeared off the radar screen when McCain pulled off the most perfectly timed VP announcement in political history. I’m a bit surprised that she missed the negative impact of Barry’s Excellent Adventure in Europe, but that probably would have been like piling on - she didn’t want to pull a Lieberman.

Paglia then proceeds to describe how Palin has made the biggest strides in feminism “since Madonna” (I’m not sure I agree with Madonna being one who has advanced the cause of women, but Paglia is a lefty…). She also acknowledges the stupidity of the attacks on Palin:

Over the Labor Day weekend, with most of the big enchiladas of the major media on vacation, the vacuum was filled with a hallucinatory hurricane in the leftist blogosphere, which unleashed a grotesquely lurid series of allegations, fantasies, half-truths and outright lies about Palin. What a tacky low in American politics — which has already caused a backlash that could damage Obama’s campaign. When liberals come off as childish, raving loonies, the right wing gains. I am still waiting for substantive evidence that Sarah Palin is a dangerous extremist. I am perfectly willing to be convinced, but right now, she seems to be merely an optimistic pragmatist like Ronald Reagan, someone who pays lip service to religious piety without being in the least wedded to it. I don’t see her arrival as portending the end of civil liberties or life as we know it.

(Bold is mine)

And she also points to the idiocy displayed in the Left’s attacks on the faith of the GOP/conservative side:

The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances.

It is fascinating how Paglia has identified so many key points where the Loony Left is failing. Her final killer point is on the subject of abortion. Even as a “pro-choicer”, Paglia realizes that abortion is murder and that the Left’s connection between abortion rights and feminism is a false dichotomy.

It is nonsensical and counterproductive for Democrats to imagine that pro-life values can be defeated by maliciously destroying their proponents. And it is equally foolish to expect that feminism must for all time be inextricably wed to the pro-choice agenda. There is plenty of room in modern thought for a pro-life feminism — one in fact that would have far more appeal to third-world cultures where motherhood is still honored and where the Western model of the hard-driving, self-absorbed career woman is less admired.

This is one of the best articles I’ve ever seen from a liberal. She gored so many of the Left’s oxen in this article that it’ll take weeks to clean up all the blood. Great article, well worth a full reading.

The influx of cretin Leftists has made this site unusable and unreadable. When I CAN get to a diary to read the comments, I can’t stomach the crap that’s being spewed by the unbelievable flood of idiots. The Drudge and Yahoo stories have resulted in a tidal wave of stupidity descending upon us.

It’s time for a moratorium on registrations. Either turn the stinkin’ thing off and let things idle through the convention, or implement a waiting period. RedState has become an ungodly mess.

UPDATE: Please read NightTwister’s diary and take his advice about ignoring the trolls. See here for further info. My idea is to flag the troll entries with a simple response of “Slug” in the title, and including a nice little picture of a slug in the body of the comment, making it easier for the cleanup crew to locate the offenders.