Well, this is new. I received a spam email from "Rick" sent through the Dilbert.com domain, replete with a cute Dilbert cartoon at the bottom of the page.
The text is the usual 419 phishing crap:
Your friend Rich wanted us to send you this from Dilbert.com.
Message from Rich:
From Richard
Dear one,
Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into business relationship with you, I got your contact from your country directory, please i need a trust-worthy person that will help me to transfer this money.
I am richard sanko, the only Son of late Mr and Mrs johnson Sanko My father was a very wealthy Gold Merchant in sierra leon the Capital of republic of sierra leon.
my father was poisoned by his business associates while my mother died when i am little and my father took me so special because I am his only son.
Before the death of my father on 14th Setember 2007 in a hospital in Cote D'ivoire, he secretly called me and told me that he has the sum of(USD $8 MILLION U.S DOLLARS )which he deposited in a bank Abroad.
He also made me understand that it was because of this money he was poisoned by his business associates while on a business trip with them and he instructed me to look for a foreign partner who will help me transfer this money out of Cote Divoire and invest it for me, my purpose of contacting you is for you to help transfer this money to your country before this people who kill my father will kill me too.
I'm now hiding in a local place and I will compensate you with 20% of this money if you help me to transfer the money to your account l hope you will not betray the trust i have on you because this money is my only hope in this life and you will also help me to come over to your country to continue my education while you will invest my own share of the money for me.
I can assure you there is No Risk involve the money is an inheritance from my late father.
If you are interested please furnish me with your.
1) Real Names
2) Phone/Fax numbers
3) Occupation
4) Residence address
I am waiting to hear from you,
thank you.
Richard Sanko
There is no doubt this was actually routed via the Dilbert.com domain, which means either someone is cutting and pasting this spiel and sending it to random or bought email addresses, or Dilbert has been hacked. I don't quite know enough about it to render a judgment. I did send the Dilbert.com administrator an email through their web site, and got an automated response. We'll see what happens.
I've watched the entire 18+ minutes of her resignation announcement, and I have to say that it was off the charts weird, even for Sarah Palin. Jittery, nervous, nonsensical, the speech, if you can characterize it as such, rambled all over the map, in the end, failing to do what it was intended - give some sort of coherent rationale for leaving the governor's office well before her term ended. I read the first transcript before it was pulled from the Alaska government web site, and it was full of air quotes, fully capitalized words, and lots of exclamation marks, often bunched all together to keep warm.
My personal feeling is this was prompted by several things - boredom with her job, harsh criticism of her job performance and from the presidential campaign, a desire to cash in on her name, and likely a way of minimizing some sort of incoming ethics scandal, presumably one rather serious as she has been wildly successful at utilizing the organs of the state of Alaska to exonerate herself from wrongdoing in all previous complaints against her. That last may prove the killing blow, but we'll have to wait and see.
And the presidency? Never rule it out. Rachel asked me after I told her Palin was resigning if I thought she could still run and win in 2012 against an incumbent Obama. And I paused, because my gut answer - "shit no!" - isn't all that clear. The country is in deep shit, and so far, despite the talk of "green shoots" there are no concrete signs of recovery. Imagine things are this bad when Republican primaries get set to jump off, and she could conceivably not only become the nominee, but win if conditions remain poor or get worse.
Know-nothing populism can be a very powerful force to people caught in the midst of a gigantic shit storm apparently without an end in sight. The electorate would eventually regret handing someone so clearly unfit for high office that much power, but the damage she could wreak while she held the reigns is almost unimaginable. Her gleeful, prideful ignorance is awesomely dangerous when hitched to the power of the presidency.
In the short term, expect to see her on the Wingnut Welfare circuit, giving talks for 10-20k a pop, getting her book published, making all sorts of appearances as a way to position herself for 2012, even if she ultimately decides not to run.
She is addicted to exposure, fame, and the idea of power.
