campaigns

First for the definition - Phishing as provided by the SEC:

“Phishing” involves the use of fraudulent emails and copy-cat websites to trick you into revealing valuable personal information — such as account numbers for banking, securities, mortgage, or credit accounts, your social security numbers, and the login IDs and passwords you use when accessing online financial services providers. The fraudsters who collect this information then use it to steal your money or your identity or both. 

Now the claim:

Now the details:

"Democratic White House hopeful John Edwards' team has been collecting e-mail addresses from supporters who've sent his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, notes - and using them for fund-raising requests, aides acknowledged yesterday.

The link on Edwards' campaign Web site invites people to "send a note to Elizabeth and John" and features a sad letter from the former senator penned just after the couple found out her breast cancer had spread and is now incurable.

But people who've been sending such well wishes have been hit with e-mail solicitations from Team Edwards, asking for donations just as all candidates are looking to post big online fund-raising numbers.

In the letter, Edwards says the pair is staying optimistic and fighting hard for Elizabeth. Below the letter is a space for writing the couple a message - which can't be sent without all sections completed, including one asking for the sender's e-mail address.

That, in turn, is added to the campaign's online database for boosting Internet donations.

In response, message-senders get a "thank you" for their kind words, but no other indication that their e-mail addresses are being stored.

So how is this "phishing"? This is a common practice by all campaigns, and all campaigns include a link to no longer receive emails at the bottom of their messages. This is in no way phishing and in no way illegal. What Malkin's article does consist of is slander against Edwards. She is saying he is doing something illegal without any conviction, let alone charges or investigations. Again Malkin proves her lack of intelligence.

Kos found this gem

Yup - that is wingnut darling supporting Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson. This is the same Rocky Anderson who called Bush a war criminal this week and said he should be impeached. Kos has a bunch of Rocky's diaries highlighted.

Hear that? It is the meltdown of the wingnut bloggers. Just when they thought it was so neat about the Hillary 1984 ad on YouTube. The maker of that ad has summed it up perfectly:

I made the "Vote Different" ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process. There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it--by people of all political persuasions--will follow.

The only thing I would like to add to that is the difference the media age is making on politics. It was easy to sit there and deny saying something in past elections, but now thanks to the power of the internet, we have archives to go through and demystify any shades a candidate might try to cast over a previous part of their lives. Some are taking awhile to learn this. Tony Snow got caught with it yesterday when asked about his sudden support for executive privilege when 10 years ago he was so against it.

I am sure everyone has heard about Mitt Romney getting heckled this weekend over being a Mormon. I found a video of it and decided to post it.

 I find it interesting at the end how Romney says we need leaders of faith and it doesn't matter what faith. I wonder if he would support a Muslim for President then.