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Carnegie firm plays Palin role

Published by Tim McNulty on .

Pittsburgh has been sticking its nose into national headlines lately.

Turns out that the company that uploaded Sarah Palin's emails -- for free -- and then got its Twitter hacked by her supporters is from Carnegie. Slate has the story on Crivella West:

Judging by the fake tweets sent out, it appears as though the hack was politically motivated and pulled off by someone less than pleased by all of the media attention being given to the trove of Palin emails that was released by Alaska state officials on Friday.

Among the fake posts to Crivella West’s Twitter account that were captured in screen grabs by liberal blog PoliticusUSA:*

    • Emails: Gov. Palin a Hard-Working Public Servant
  • Email Witch-Hunt Backfires
  • Weiner’s America or Palin’s America—That Is the 2012 Choice
There's also this statement from owner Art Crivella:
"It appears that in this case 'hacking' means sending out spam tweets pretending to be us,” he told MSNBC. “I think real hackers might be offended."
The city also hosted a boot camp for openly gay political candidates, and got a weekend write-up in the New York Times. To wit:

As a gay man running for City Council in Houston, which already has a lesbian mayor, Josh Verde figured that he would have no trouble talking to voters about his sexuality. Then he came to Pittsburgh, to a boot camp for openly gay candidates, and promptly flubbed his lines.

"I have a boyfriend," Mr. Verde announced during a mock interview with a campaign consultant posing as a reporter. Instantly, he regretted the words. "It sounded like high school," he said later, amending his language to say, "I'm in a relationship."

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