“This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them,” the McCain campaign said in a statement.

The Secret Service contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday and asked for copies of the leaked e-mails, which circulated widely on the Internet. The AP did not comply.

The disclosure Wednesday raises new questions about the propriety of the Palin administration's use of nongovernment e-mail accounts to conduct state business. The practice was revealed months ago _ prior to Palin's selection as a vice presidential candidate _ after political critics obtained internal e-mails documenting the practice by some aides.

One person whose e-mail to Palin apparently was among those disclosed, Amy B. McCorkell, declined to discuss her correspondence. “I do not know anything about it,” McCorkell said. “I'm not giving you any comment.” Wired.com said McCorkell later confirmed that she did send the e-mail to Palin.

Another of the e-mails apparently revealed Wednesday was an exchange in July with Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell discussing a talk show host who had been critical of Parnell. Parnell declined to discuss the matter.

Palin herself used “gov.sarah” in one of her e-mail addresses, but the hackers targeted her “gov.palin” account. Her husband used “fek9wnr” in his address. “Fe” is the representation for iron, and “k9″ is an abbreviation for canine. Todd Palin was the winner of the grueling Iron Dog snowmobile race, and “fek9wnr” also is Todd Palin's vehicle license tag in Alaska.

The ad, seen below, includes audio of Garrett reporting that Barack Obama would not say whether he supported or opposed the government bailout of AIG.

Fox News' letter, embedded below via DocStoc, says:

“It has come to the attention of Fox News this morning that ana d for the McCain campaign uses the voice of our Correspondent, Major Garrett. We demand that you immediately remove Mr. Garrett's voice from this ad. As Mr. Garrett is a non-partisan news correspondent covering the Obama campaign for Fox News, it is highly inappropriate, among other things, of your campaign to use him in your ad. Please confirm to me in writing that you have removed Mr. Garrett's voice from your ad.”

See the letter:

PPM106_mccainad – Get more Business Documents

Last week, CBS forced YouTube to remove another McCain ad that used video of Katie Couric in a manner the network described as “misleading.” The campaign has also had several problems with recording artists and record labels over unauthorized use of songs they have played throughout the campaign.

* Fox News

John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic — Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To give readers a flavor of Mr. McCain untethered, we'll quote at length: “Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch. The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino. They allowed naked short selling — which simply means that you can sell stock without ever owning it. They eliminated last year the uptick rule that has protected investors for 70 years. Speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground.

“The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the President and has betrayed the public's trust. If I were President today, I would fire him.”