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Bush's Electronic Archives Threaten To Swamp National Archives

Posted by timothy on from the if-you're-smart-this-can-all-end-well dept.

ColdWetDog writes "The New York Times reports that the soon-to-be-disbanded Bush / Cheney White House threatens to overload the National Archives with close to 100 Terabytes of data. This includes the Barney Cam and even 'formats not previously dealt with.' By way of comparison, the Clinton White House dumped less than a single terabyte into the archives. Of course, Mr. Cheney, always the Good Citizen, tried to help out when he 'asserted this month in a court case that he had absolute discretion to decide which of his records are official and which are personal, and thus do not have to be transferred to the archives.' Glad to see that somebody over there is trying to clean up the cruft for posterity."

8 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. It's just unreal by Weaselmancer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Mr. Cheney, always the Good Citizen, tried to help out when he 'asserted this month in a court case that he had absolute discretion to decide which of his records are official and which are personal, and thus do not have to be transferred to the archives.'

    Thereby making what he was doing immune to FOIA requests. Nice.

    It's just unreal how unabashedly criminal Cheney is. Nobody ever calls him on it. Anyone in a position to do anything about him (other than Dennis Kucinich anyways) strangely...doesn't.

    Of course, he's also the same guy who shot a hunting buddy in the face. And had the victim apologize.

    Far more dangerous than W. Will not be sorry to see him go. Good riddance. Go retire on your inflated Halliburton stock and please leave my country alone.

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    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
    1. Re:It's just unreal by Chris_Jefferson · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Remember, this is the republican party. If they get back in any time before he dies off, he will be there in the background, pulling the strings of whatever new puppet president they choose. McCain would probably have stood up to him, but I suspect now the republicans blame him for their loss, it could well be back to the "Bush Box" to find their next candidate. Scary thought.

      --
      Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
    2. Re:It's just unreal by martin-boundary · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If particular records are classified as private, does that mean what's on them can be used in court to convict him of private crimes? (not that anybody would have the guts to try it)

  2. Re:Not much of a threat by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think google have a free service where they lend you a Network Attached Storage box. You load it up with whatever then send it back to them. You still have online access to the data and google indexes it for you.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  3. the next white house team... by acedotcom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    100TB seems like a lot, but can you imagine how much data the Obama administration might leave? Considering that they seem more 'connected' then most other politicians.

    there is always talk of obsolete formats here on /. but can you imagine the baggage left by some of these administrations?

    --
    they say it is often more relevant then the comment above, all we know is its called the Sig!
  4. Re:Disgusting by dbIII · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I mean, wasn't this essentially Nixon's view on things? That if the president (or his puppet master, vice-president Cheney) deems it not for the public's purview, it's none of your damn business?

    Looking from overseas I find it sadly funny that people who call themselves "Republicans" really want to act like absolute monarchs instead. Hopefully future administrations will act a little bit more like the government George Washington and others wanted instead of like some 18th century German principality.

  5. Maybe we can find out how by dbIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe we can find out how someone can have the goodwill of nearly every nation on earth (even Libya offered to help!), a tame congress, wartime expediency in letting anything you like get through, signing statements to change anything you don't like, a booming economy, a military grudgingly ready even to abandon the Geneva convention if ordered and access to experts on every subject yet STILL muck it up so badly.

  6. Cheney's personal files by belmolis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Government employees aren't supposed to be using government computers for non-government purposes. I can't complain if Cheney has a few shopping lists and personal emails lying around, but truly personal files should be few and small. If he claims that any substantial portion of his files are personal, he's either lying or he has been misusing government property.