Kunin Failed 17 Times To Gain Access

This Strib article totally buries Mr. Kunin and his apologists.
Logs of Internet traffic show that blogger Noah Kunin made 18 attempts to gain access to an ad agency's website containing an unreleased ad for Mark Kennedy, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, a spokesman for the agency said Thursday. The blogger's aggressive attempts to penetrate the website might be criminal hacking or they simply might be routine antics in the new world of Internet-based politics, where computer geeks delight in discovering the undiscovered, and where pushing the envelope is part of the game.
Here's what one of his apologists is saying:
Guess what. This is not a password screen.

The code above confirms my suspicions. An actual password screen gives the user access to a restricted area. The screen above is simply a redirect to a publicly accessible client web page.
If this is a redirect screen, why did it take Mr. Kunin 18 attempts to redirect? Those of you who think that Kunin's actions are appropriate need to take a test at King's blog. It's a short test but it's a great teaching instrument. (It took me less than a minute.)
The ad agency isn't blameless in the episode, said Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. "We wouldn't be talking about this if they had been competent about their own security," he said. And the Klobuchar campaign, with a commanding lead in the polls, should have stayed away from the ad, he said. "You're ahead, everything's going fine, and you're playing with this stuff? Come on!" Schier said. "This is an object lesson in how not to handle it."
Somehow I'd doubt that people will think that the webmaster for that site was incompetent. Somehow, I think that they'll remember this more for how it destroyed the Klobuchar candidacy. She'd already lost momentum by losing Tuesday's debate. Ms. Klobuchar and her staff are facing tough questioning from the FBI. I suspect that that'll be an intimidating experience for them.

This officially eliminates the Democrats running on their 'Culture of Corruption' meme. This also is aging Brian Melendez at an ever-increasing rate. First he had to deal with the fallout from the Dean Johnson debacle. Then he dealt with the Entenza week from Hades, the Hatch scandal where he tried intimidating a State judge. This week's scandals are Klobogate and the Ellison debacle. That's on top of dealing with Democrats on a daily basis.

I almost feel sorry for Mr. Melendez.



Originally posted Friday, September 22, 2006, revised 04-Jan 2:39 PM

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