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Thousands of White House E-mails Deleted
kidcharles writes "The Washington Post reports that in the midst of an investigation by the U.S. Congress into the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Department of Justice, numerous White House e-mails have been lost. Among them are communications from presidential adviser Karl Rove. Parallels are being drawn with the infamous '18 minutes' missing from the Nixon Watergate tapes. Also at issue is the use of Republican National Committee e-mail domains (such as gwb43.com and georgewbush.com) rather than the official White House domain. This is a violation of the Presidential Records Act."
Don't they understand that computers mean nothing can ever be truly deleted?
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
I seriously doubt the server people in charge of email for the White House would not be keeping both full and incremental backups in addition to major redundancy. After all, they'd want to CYA for actions they did take more than actions they didn't take. Of course, this IS the government, so anything can happen!
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
that somebody learned from the mistakes from the past.
What?
It's a traditional thing, much like the 18.5 minute gap in Nixon's tapes or the shredding of Enron documents:
n _scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_tapes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Enro
These look to be three distinct domains. For example,
gwb43.com - 24.58.33.115
georgewbush.com - 64.203.98.31
whitehouse.gov - 205.160.212.222
And being as part of the problem is that the white housers were using those other domains, if that is where the emails are missing from, then we might not be able to blame the white house for losing the emails, as they may have been located on a different server, at a different location.
Staffers who work at the White House and also for the RNC and Bush's campaign have a potential conflict. The Presidential Records Act requires them to only use government email for White House work, but the Hatch Act requires them to never use government email for anything campaign or fundraising related.
There are no personal consequences in the law for violating the Presidential Records Act, but you can get a big personal fine or go to jail for violating the Hatch Act.
If there is any question of whether an email is going to violate the Hatch Act and be campaign or fundraising related, then how many people are going to risk jail in order to also follow the Presidential Records Act? Yeah, almost everyone is going to err on the side of following the Hatch Act and ignoring the Presidential Records Act if there is a conflict.
Now when you've got a Blackberry (which they were all issued by the RNC) and are using that to talk to other people in the White House about campaign/fundraising issues, when you need to communicate with those same people about something else, how many real people are going to bother to wait until they can get to their government email account and how many are going to just hit reply on the Blackberry?
Sounds to me like this is just human nature and some badly written laws coming together.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
The Republicans stood (when I was young and carefree) for freedom. No coddling and pampering from the state, take your life in your own hands or perish! Be strong, grasp the opportunities and you will succeed! Lean state, lean government and as little regulation as possible, the freedom of market and people as the principal goal to achive.
How does this match a government that limits and restricts every kind of freedom the US used to have? How does this sync with more and more laws, more and more regulations, more and more limitations, not only for personal freedom but also for enterprises? Where "free trade" is a farce, and instead you have more and more laws that support and fortify the leading position of a few cartels?
I not only want the country back, I want the friggin' party back!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"....Whoever...
...covers up by any trick, scheme, or device
a material fact...
in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch
Shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or both."
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
Read somewhere recently that the pilgrims were used by the British Monarchy to establish a beachhead in the new world:
1. Send some malcontents to colonize the 'new world'.
2. Exterminate the 'savages' who already live there.
3. Follow the first settlers with bureaucrats and more settlers.
4. Profit!!!
(there's no need for a '???' step, because this is what actually happened.)
The profit was interrupted by that pesky rebellion that started in 1776... Independence was never an overly popular proposition, and even though the colonists technically 'won' (due to assistance received from the French), certain elements of the country immediately began to plot the United States' return to the empire (specifically, bankers especially liked the way things were). Fast forward 200 years, and the United States of Amerika and Britain are lock-step once again.
Evidence: Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. Cecil Rhodes had established his scholarship for the express purpose of returning America to the Empire. Bill Clinton pushed NAFTA (negotiated by his predecessor, Skull & Boner George H.W. Bush) through the congress, which was a decidedly out of character for a President who was supposedly a 'Demoncrat', the traditional party of Organized Labor. NAFTA and other agreements for unrestricted trade have been a steak through the heart of the unions. Listen to Chomsky's Class War talk (I found a torrent with a little searching some months back), for example.
Also see Coleman's The Misdirection Conspiracy, for example.
Oh, but this is a conspiracy, and conspiracies don't happen all the time because they're un-possible. Drats. What's interesting about the collapse of the Bush Dynasty is how individuals in the media are beginning to realize that they've been used like tools, and aren't playing along anymore. McCain's recent trip to Baghdad, for example...
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
OK, this gets a little complicated so bear with me as I try to go through it...
Summary: While the Democrats are jumping on the opportunity to bash Bush and company, it's really Bush and Company's own fault that there is any room to question the legality of it because they instituted some bad laws to begin with. In short, both sides are in the wrong on this one. The president dug himself into a mudhole to start and now the democrats are throwing more mud around to make the mess bigger.
Detail: To understand why there is any question of legality to begin with, we have to take a step back and look at the "patriot act". There is a provision of the "patriot act" that in essense allows attorneys appointed by the president to serve indefinately. It used to be attorneys had to be confirmed by congress after a period of time. This is just one very small, but significant breech of the balance of powers among many such items along with breeches of the rights of individual citizens that were dumped on us by the patriot act. Of course the patriot act was brought to us by none other then Bush and his administration. So basically the bad law making is coming back to bite him and the other side is rubbing it in. Of course the real solution to all this would be to repeal the patriot act so the balance of powers is restored...but instead all the polititions would rather mud sling and bash each other till the cows come home. So we are left with nothing more then a bunch of polititions on both sides that are more interested in politics then whats right for the country so much so that there is not even an aknowledgement of what the real root cause of this fiasco is.
Thanks for reading:)
I'll be surprised if they are deleted beyond the recall of reasonably simple forensic techniques.
If they do manage to hide those emails, that'll be a first for The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight.
Their consistent MO has been to spout brazen nonsense, then rely on the sheer effrontery to keep the truth hidden until it is covered in a pile of bullshit so deep it will never be brought to light. And the damned thing is that it worked -- a least for a while. Seriously, who has time to think about the truth behind the Iraq WMD lie? It's buried in a strata of crap so deep you'd need a team of archaeologists to find it.
I think the reason this works is that regular people, the people who vote, have no way to know directly whether something is true or not. That's the power vacuum in which money is supreme. Then these guys blew it by telling two big lies that the public could see for itself were lies: that the Iraq war is succeeding and that they cared what happened to the victims of Katrina. Katrina was the watershed event. Before you could get away with lying if you were glib enough. Afterward it was much more dangerious.
But they're still doing it.
Take the US attorney firing. I'm not a lawyer, but even I know enough never to tell an easily refuted lie when you can get by with a uselessly vague truth. I'd have been saying things like "It was time for new blood." or "David Iglesias did a fine job, but a shakeup will keep everybody on their toes, and Larry Gomez deserves his chance to show us what he can do."
Instead they concocted a pile of utter horseshit that is easy to disprove and which by the way impugns the reputation and service of a group of people who happen to be -- wait for it -- high power lawyers. Don't they even watch TV? The way prosecutors get you is they let you talk and talk until you've buried yourself in your own crap and you'll do anything they ask if they'll just please, please throw you a rope? It's a wonder these guys can make it from the shower to the breakfast table in the morning without being indicted.
It's never been a surprise these guys are liars. I knew they were liars before they even came in -- and I don't say that lightly. I don't think people are evil because they disagree with me. I don't see eye to eye with Bob Dole, but he would have been a strong and honorable president. But this guy was obviously a pathetic liar from the start. They didn't exactly try to hide the fact they ran a whisper campaign against John McCain in South Carolina. Anybody with even a whisp of decency would had the person responsible fired in disgrace. It's a disgrace to the Republican party they didn't kick W out right then and there.
It goes to show you there are worse things than losing.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
True, but in a democracy there's an even better and more readily available method of control. Voting. And I don't think you can argue that Bush & Co. aren't doing things vastly differently than they were before the '04 elections.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
He got away with the remark. The reason he was fired was the long history of prior remarks that was unearthed once the story broke. What really finished him off was the series of attacks on Gwen Eifel.
Same thing happened with Trent Lott and George Allen. They mouthed off crypto-racist comments for years. Once the story broke it became obvious that it wasn't just a one-off mis-speaking, it was a pattern.
The only slight element of injustice is that Imus is nowhere near the worst offender out there. Ann Coulter's schtick is way more offensive but she still gets away with it. Matt Druge regularly gets caught 'making shit up' like his non-existent 'source' for the hit piece he did on Ware last week. But they don't get called on it because, well there are different standards for wingnuts. they are not expected to tell the truth or be civil so they can get away with it.
Twenty years ago it was the right that used to be behind this type of media firestorm. There used to be an amazing sit-com called SOAP which was completely brilliant. The religious right got it taken off the air.
Imus is no great loss to culture. SOAP was. So were the numerous programs like SOAP which simply could not be made until HBO started.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
This tired GOP talking point is completely untrue.
A USA can be replaced by the President. But the President cannot replace a USA in order to obstruct justice.
In the Carol Lam case the alleged reasons for firing her have all proven to be lies. The only credible explanation for her being fired was to prevent her continuing her investigation of corrupt Republicans - an investigation that had already resulted in two top House Republicans pleading guilty. When Lam was fired it appeared that an indictment of Jerry Lewis was likely to occur.
Two senior members of the GOP house leadership are in jail here. There is nothing remotely similar that occured during the Clinton admin.
Other USAs appear to have been fired for refusing to bring bogus charges against political opponents. This is also a form of obstruction of justice and is again a criminal offense.
There is more than enough evidence here to impeach Gonzalez. Any successor who did not immediately appoint a special counsel to investigate the corrpution allegations against Rove, Lewis, Foggo, Gonzalez and their subordinates should also be impeached.
Reno appointed independent prosecutors in cases where there was a clear conflict of interest. This administration should stop stalling and do likewise.
Also Bush should immediately pledge not to pardon any person who was a member of his administration. There is a strong suspicion that many are keeping quiet here in the hope that Bush will issue a blanket pardon after the November 2008 election.
He won't of course because he is as corrupt as they come, as well as being incompetent.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
It's also one thing to fire all US attys at the start of a term and replace them with competent personnel. They fired these folks selectively, in mid-term, and replaced them with a bunch of Bible-spouting fruitloops from Jerry Falwell's "law school."
Sent from the iPad I found in your car.
Republicans don't have a clue what the word patriot means.
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
Sure President Reagan did some good things, but he's also responsible for civil forfeiture laws, financial anti-privacy laws (demonization of the term "money laundering" - only the very rich are allowed financial privacy) and hugely escalating the failed and costly War on Some Drugs.
I'm sick of both Democrats and Republicans and unending corruption and gradual loss of freedom.
Yes, those powers were given by an overzealous Congress recently in an effort to get reelected without even reading the bills.
Let's see, from my (incomplete) list: energy policy secrecy, nope. The war, yes but only due to mis-information (al qaida in iraq? WMD? Yellowcake?), so thats really a no. Torture, nope. Rendition, nope. Signing statements, nope. FEMA (by which i meant the politicization of the department, putting horribly inadequately experienced political buddies in charge), nope. Whether FEMA is part of DHS or not is not really relevant if the head is a horse lawyer. FISA & domestic wiretapping, nope. Habeas corpus revocation, yes sort of, again at the behest of the administration. Scientific report "editing", nope. US Attorney purge, not really. The purge has nothing to do with congress, the patriot act provision (which was slipped in by a republican senatorial aid after final negotiations were finished) was passed by congress, but that is ancillary to the purge.
So, no, claiming those behaviors were somehow "given" by congress is not an accurate description. That they occurred and congress chose to look the other way is the only possible argument you could make, and even that is weakened by the administration's strong-arming.
It's not checks and balances when Congress is trying to micromanage the Iraq war and international relationships.
Congress is explicitly given the authority to fund (or not) military actions. The country has expressed a clear opinion (in polls and the last election) that the are not supportive of the war. It would be dereliction for the congress to sit back and not exercise their duty to impact foreign policy in the way they are allowed to. Micromanaging is when you tell military commanders that they will have to make do with a smaller invasion force than they want, like the administration did.
If you honestly think it's fine think about if Tom Delay did the same thing with a Democrat president.
Better example, what if Newt Gingrich did that with Clinton? Oh, right, he did.
That's all moot anyway, and you should read a social studies textbook before you speak about the powers again -- several of the items you list are perfectly legal and in the purview of the president. I also supported Bill Clinton's "grabs at power" if that's what you consider firing AGs... and he fired every single one for political reasons.
Go through that list and tell which you think are legal and ethical. Clinton, like Bush I, like Reagan administration, replaced all USA's when he came into office. They are political appointees, and that is normal way of administration change. Firing USAs mid-term is nearly unprecedented, and doing so because the USA's unwillingness to subvert the justice system for political hay is beyond unethical, if still technically legal. However, lying to congress for the reasons behind the firing, and lying about whether you were involved, is quite illegal.
Whether this administration broke the law in every one of my list is not really a defense. They clearly acted in a horribly unethical way in each, and *did* clearly break the law in many of them, with no repercussions until very recently. The point of oversight it to make sure the branch responsible for executing the laws is at least not breaking them, and ideally enforcing them appropriately. Claiming that exercising oversight responsibility is a bad thing really just does not make sense.
-Ted
-=-=- Quantum physics - the dreams stuff are made of.
Additionally there were no allegations when Clinton fired the US attorneys that the whitehouse or Democrats were interfering with investigations to help out their friends.
News to me. The firings saved Dan Rostenkowski's bacon and kept anyone competent from the Little Rock post. See here.
Just because you say something while being ignorant of the facts, does not make them true. Clinton also had an all Democrat congress, so yeah, he had to get Democrats approved by Democrats. Big deal.
Considering Bush can't even get his nominee for ambassador to Belgium to get a vote because John Kerry's feelings are hurt, that isn't petty? You think he'll have an easy time getting any attorneys through Leahy and Schumer?
The opposite of progress is congress
I vividly remember the Clarence Thomas hearings. I felt only sympathy for Anita Hill, a loyal Republican team player who was publicly ripped to shreds by her own party because it came out that her boss (Clarence Thomas) had been sexually harassing her. I remember the outright accusations that she had come on to him or even that she was insane. The whole thing had the horrible feeling of a 1950s rape trial where they blamed and humiliated the victim.
It was those hearings, more than anything else which made me vow never again to vote for a Republican. I was also ashamed of the spinelessness of the Democrats who were rendered powerless by Thomas's famous whine that he was suffering a 'high tech lynching'. The allegations of racism left them speechless and they folded like a house of cards.
Those hearings, which were supposed to be confirming a Supreme Court Justice, were actually a political farce and we will be paying the price for a long time.
There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
Non-Linux Penguins ?