The Email Is In The Mail (And Other Classic Lies)

I have come to the end of the road - I can not begin to grasp the extent of this White House email debacle.  Well, it was fun when Al Gore had his problems with email, so now we can watch the other side enjoy themselves.

The Anon Lib has a good Karl Rove - Valerie Plame connection:

What's particularly preposterous about this explanation is that the White House's dual email system was almost surely the subject of intense discussion in early 2004, when emails were subpoenaed in connection with the CIA leak investigation. In fact, the seemingly inexplicable delay in turning over the most discussed piece of evidence in that case, Karl Rove's email to Stephen Hadley, makes a lot more sense now that we know Rove does 95% of his email on a separate RNC account. This would also explain Patrick Fitzgerald's apparent assertion that "many emails from Cheney's office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy."

Per Dan Froomkin, there is a 2004 tie-in:

Until 2004, all e-mail on RNC accounts was routinely deleted after 30 days. Since 2004, White House staffers using those accounts have been able to save their e-mail indefinitely -- but have also been able to delete whatever they felt like deleting. By comparison, the White House e-mail system preserves absolutely everything forever, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

The timing and motivation of the 2004 switch is not explained - the obvious non-Plame guess would be that in 2004 the re-election effort ramped up and folks realized there was a modest records preservation issue in play.  The obvious Plame guess (obviously) is that the inability to comply with the Fitzgerald document requests produced red faces and a flurry of memos.

Clown show.  Expletive deleted clown show.  Someone ought to ask Fitzgerald where his emails came from, not that he will say.

MORE:  I am not seeing any spine-stiffening reaction from the right at Memeorandum, but do feel free to leave a link to anything that might help talk me off the window ledge here.  (No hurry - the rain sort of suits my mood, and I am on the first floor).

GOOD POINT!  Fred Thompson wouldn't lose emails!  Neither would Rudy.  Hillary, OTOH, will lose anything not nailed down.  Hmm, I would feel even better if Bush had campaigned on a promise to maintain deceit and denial in the White House.  Bu we are looking forward!

Comments

[sylvia]

"but do feel free to leave a link to anything that might help talk me off the window ledge here."

No link yet, but DON'T JUMP TOM! We don't want you to get muddy shoes when you land.

[sylvia]

Don't they have a way to read even deleted emails, so shouldn't the RNC make their servers available to Fitz? Or have the RNC people figured out a way to cleanly delete the emails, so there is no trace and no use to look at the server. Probably the latter actually.

Well why not? There is no law that states all emails from all people must be preserved, so Rove can delete any emails he pleases pre-subpoena. In fact, I'm surprised at the number of people who get busted because they keep shady emails and docs around, I'd be shredding those on a regular basis.

[Other Tom]

At this point, I simply throw up my hands and say I hope they did it, and I hope they get away with it.

And as for the retrieval of deleted stuff from the hard drives, I'd advise them to put the hard drives in a trash compacter and hit "Run." Just fight the goddam war and then get the hell out of town.

And include a lenghty chapter in your memoirs about why in the name of bleeding Jesus Christ you picked the illustrious Alberto Gonzales to be the nation's chief law enforcement officer.

[old irish]

Good job Maguire! Haven't been around in a while, and there's a bikini babe on the front page, registered comments, and you're on the right side of an emerging scandal!

What the hell happened?

[clarice]

I thought I read a cople of hours ago they wre going thru the RNC hard drive to retireve anything that might be relevant. Next! Leahy should demand access to the paper trash at the WH just in case there is something there to make his so far unproven case that there was anything wrong in the decision to remove 8 US Attys.
BTW, could any sentient person work under these ROE? I couldn't. I mean I could never even remember how to unlock my safe when I handled classified documents.

[Looking_For_a_Way_out]

Tom M,

Whatever you do, don't jump!

I assume we all agree that, short of throwing all of the infected hard drives and backup media in a trash compactor, then lighting the remains on fire, the deleted emails are most likely recoverable. Isn't this lost email story just an attempt to "obstruct the investigation" as suggested by Kyle Sampson.

[ajacksonian]

The same Dan Froomkin that encourages reporters to break the WaPo's Standards and Ethics? Haven't the faintest idea why anyone would pay attention to him...

[Enlightened]

Senator Leahy doesn't believe White House claim that messages about fired prosecutors are lost. (SFGate)

Hah - I don't believe the FBI lost their notes on Russert either. But I bet Leaky believes it.

What a maroon.

I'm with Other Tom - All hands on deck, man the torpedos and let these dimwits have it. And no matter what, do NOT throw AG under the bus. He is a litany of things not to do - granted.

But just for the thrill of it - deny the dimbeciles what they truly crave...just to see them twisting in the wind is getting to be some damn good sport.

[SunnyDay]

Monica Goodling is the only one with any common sense.

[Looking_For_a_Way_out]

"And no matter what, do NOT throw AG under the bus. He is a litany of things not to do - granted."

Don't worry E. I just watched the Final Report on Watergate. Bush won't make the same mistakes Nixon made. Alberto goes nowhere. Firing him is a political loss, and replacing him with another sycophant would be nearly impossible. The only way Alberto is going out is if the Republicans decide to impeach him. Expect the Democrats to have him in front of their committees for the next year and a half, and get used to defending his performance.

[Nick Kasoff - The Thug Report]

If these people were smart, they'd use anonymous Hotmail accounts, and communicate in secret codes. For example:

bart_simpson@hotmail.com Do we have enough peanuts for the first round of the circus?

lisa_simpson@hotmail.com No, Bart, better talk to Moe about getting another shipment.

Translated:

Rove: Do we have enough dirt on Pelosi to go public yet?

Cheney Not yet. Contact the PI and see if they have anything new.

This would throw a real monkey wrench in those subpoenas.

Nick Kasoff
The Thug Report

[richard mcenroe]

Why would the Democrats attack a member of La Raza?

[Looking_For_a_Way_out]

Monica Goodling is the only one with any common sense.

Posted by: SunnyDay

Think Progress and Time report the Judiciary Committee is considering offering her immunity.

[clarice]

HEH.

Actually, once a friend had stopped in a made a call to a friend about some Indian themed group their kids belonged to where he spoke in some cockamamie code the group to tell him the meeting had been rescheduled.The conversation went something like,"Hi, Chief Thundercloud, the forest gathering won't take place at the teepee on the day of the midnight sun..." Little did we know that Kissinger had ordered the home phone of the guy at the other end tapped. I always wondered what the heck the FBI listener thought that was all about....

[Sara]

It isn't that the rules aren't needed, but that the rules in place in this age of electronics as to what you can do in government buildings and what you have to do from private quarters or campaign headquarters are draconian.

The Congresswoman I worked for commuted everyday between Timonium, Maryland and Washington, DC. She had a van set up as an office and often did morning ride radio interviews or worked on paperwork or made phone calls during the commute time. Back then mobile phones were all bag phones and we finally took her "official" phone, paid for out of her Congressional office funds and marked it with red cloth tape with a big X so as to distinguish it from her other phone which was paid for out of campaign funds. Then to make it even more confusing, she also had her personal phone which she paid for out of her personal funds. Luckily for us, that phone was permanently mounted in the vehicle, so it didn't look like the other two.

With Blackberries and laptops, I don't know how they manage to keep it all straight. I use different email addresses for different functions such as personal chit chat correspondence, business correspondence, or even political rants. My email client sets a default reply from/send from and on more than one occasion I've fired off an email that I meant to send from one address under the default address which I really don't want floating around if I'm ranting or dealing with my bank.

[SunnyDay]

and get used to defending his performance.

excuse me?

[SunnyDay]

Think Progress and Time...

hahahaha!!!

Immunity from what? They want to trap her into "perjury" - there is no immunity.

[Sara]

OT - So it turns out, according to the news, that the bombing in the Green Zone today was carried out by the bodyguard of an Iraqi lawmaker and the lawmaker (I think a female) was one of the first to die. If those hired to guard are willing to strap on suicide bomb vests, it seems a much harder task to make sure these things don't happen again. What's next? A secret service agent strapping on a bomb vest and blowing up the President or one of the Presidential candidates they guard?

[Specter]

I hear that Ms. Goodling has agreed to testify in 24-business hours. LOL - j/k. But maybe she has good info about sealed v. sealed.

[PeterUK.]

Ah,Spector,signed, sealed but not delivered.
Does Leahy have clearance for this stuff anyway>

[Syl]

I just can't get over what a waste this all is.

The Eight Fired Whiners.
Imus vs the sports team.
ANS

The Islamists are laughing at us. This isn't democracy, it's a frat house.

I've never been so ashamed of my country.

[Pollyusa]

Someone ought to ask Fitzgerald where his emails came from, not that he will say

Someone did

First, I called Randy Samborn to see if he'd comment about the discovere 250 emails. I gave him an out to say, "it's grand jury information, so I can't say one way or another." Which is what I thought he'd say. Instead, he said, "there's nothing public, so I can't say." Take that for what you will. TNH 4/11/07

[SunnyDay]

It's eeeeeeeeevil Rooooooooooooove!! Indictments forthcoming. They haven't found anything wrong yet but that doesn't matter, we know there's a crime because they're all criminals. Political criminals.

[PeterUK.]

Blame the Boomers

[Lew Clark]

I think they have a winner. Notice their proof of wrong doing is always contained in "missing information". Since there is an infinite amount of "missing information" in the universe as opposed to a finite amount of not missing information, they can prove anything. Since everything is not only possible in a infinite set of data but is 100% probable.

[clarice]

Exactly,Lew.Somewhere Over the Rainbow lies the damning information..Oh, and it's always just like Watergate.

[Neo]

The real irony here is that while Leaky is demanding e-mails that were off the official government e-mail system due to restrictions of the Hatch Act, Waxwoman is busy pushing a Hatch Act infraction involving the showing of a "Karl Rove generated" PowerPoint presentation to GAO employees.

Or is that GSA employees ?

[lurker9876]

Mac Ranger thinks "Blatant democrat hypocrisy on WH emails"

and I agree. I'm so sick of Waxman and Leahy. Big Lizards now say:

Has AP gone wobbly?

They appear to have inadvertently blurted out the truth... that the 110th Congress' Democratic majority wants to get rid of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- for no reason other than to show that they can. After the forced resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the Democrats hunger for another scalp, by any means necessary:

It all adds up to relentless pressure on an administration that for six years of Bush's tenure operated with virtually no oversight from the Republican-controlled Congress.

No longer.

Democrats don't have - or apparently need - evidence of wrongdoing to shake Gonzales' hold on his job or challenge the White House's defense of its internal deliberations.

But the odd thing is... AP doesn't appear to see anything wrong with this.

[lurker9876]

Mac Ranger thinks "Blatant democrat hypocrisy on WH emails"

and I agree. I'm so sick of Waxman and Leahy. Big Lizards now say:

Has AP gone wobbly?

They appear to have inadvertently blurted out the truth... that the 110th Congress' Democratic majority wants to get rid of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- for no reason other than to show that they can. After the forced resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the Democrats hunger for another scalp, by any means necessary:

It all adds up to relentless pressure on an administration that for six years of Bush's tenure operated with virtually no oversight from the Republican-controlled Congress.

No longer.

Democrats don't have - or apparently need - evidence of wrongdoing to shake Gonzales' hold on his job or challenge the White House's defense of its internal deliberations.

But the odd thing is... AP doesn't appear to see anything wrong with this.

[lurker9876]

I can't believe that Minnesota college aren't allowing Christians their say but giving the Muslims their own daily prayer rooms.

Minnesota college to install facilities for Muslim daily prayers

[lurker9876]

Now we see Pelosi and Reid capitulating by reluctantly agreeing to meet with Bush.

Unfortunately, I doubt that much, if any, will be done. Nothing will come about of it.

[lurker9876]

Hi, gang,

Why is Charles Schumer on the Board of Advisors of Foundation for Defense of Democracies?

[topsecretk9]

-Posted by: Neo | April 12, 2007 at 10:14 PM-

Exactly. I predict the Democrats will as usual regret this particular witchhunt ... can we please see the Townhouse listserv (and the various splinters - roach motel serv - that exist or came into existence when Townhouse was exposed?)- whose on the Townhouse list and the emails too please?

[topsecretk9]

Are the DNC emails archived in good fashion? DLC? Heck, the congressional Dem's email - we know they are in constant communiqué with, taking their marching orders from and coordinating with non-profits thanks to Manny...are non-profits legally allowed to do this? CREW and Conyers emails?

[Cecil Turner]

"As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication."

Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't it illegal to use government facilities (including e-mail) for purely political activities? Ahhh, thought so. So what we're sayin' here, is that political types have to have two sets of e-mail accounts, but they can only use the one for "official" mail, and the other for "political" mail. And some folks may have gotten blurry with their definitions and used the wrong accounts at times? Horrors!

There might be an issue if there were actually some evidence of malfeasance. But it looks a lot more like another digfest looking for someone who can't remember something non-essential to make political hay or trump up a perjury/obstruction charge. And the White House oughta tell Waxman they aren't going to play.

[clarice]

Yes, another digfest..When you have nothing, pound the table and suggest (a) something not available holds the key and (b) it's just like Watergate.
LOL

[Barry]

And some folks may have gotten blurry with their definitions and used the wrong accounts at times? Horrors!

No kidding. I have a business account and two personal accounts. I've got business mail in my personal accounts and personal mail in my business account. And even when you get it all straight, someone you accidently emailed from your business account keeps using that address for personal mail,and etc.

I doubt there is anything there, but wouldn't you just *love* to get hold of "political" email to peruse? I know I would like to look through Waxmans email. Well, maybe not, it might look like the postings at DU or Kos, nauseating reading.

[abwtf]

Since the Presidential Record law apparently wants things “adequately documented” it looks like another case of relying on the appearance of impropriety. If Rove sends an email to Bush "Wanna grab some tacos" there's no harm in deleting it. And if Rove emails Bush "Some of the US Attorneys should be replaced" there's no harm in deleting that as long as the final decision is "adequately documented".

[Other Tom]

Not quite, Clarice: per John Dean, everything is WORSE than Watergate.

[cathyf]

I mean I could never even remember how to unlock my safe when I handled classified documents.

Did you ever read Feynman's memoirs of the Manhatten Project? He would go into people's offices and stand in front of their safes while talking to them. All the while, he had his hands behind his back cracking the safe (by touch!)

One time the lab director at Oak Ridge was incommunicado and the staff desperately needed something in the safe. They called Feynman in Los Alamos to ask him if he had the combination.

He did.

[clarice]

I don't recall reading that, but Feynman certainly was a genius.

I had a trick way of recording the combination. We weren't supposed to do it, but with my bad memory I had to.

Still, I came back from a long vacation and it didn't work. I kept trying and ...nothing. Finally, after wasting a lot of time, I asked around and after talking to a lot of people someone remembered that while I was away DoJ had decided it was time to change all the combinations and they'd forgotten to tell me or give me the new number.

[DEMO]

CBS fires Don Imus from radio show

We refrain from editorializing our commentators," said an CBS executive. "and, generally let them do as they wish no matter how outrageous it may be. In fact, the more outrageous something is, the more listeners a commentator will attract. And generally, nothing is too taboo for a shock jock. But, in this case when our major ad buyers began canceling contracts we just felt we had to do something. Doing the right thing or wrong thing is one aspect, but when things begin to affect the bottom line it is another matter entirely and then it's no choice. We knew then he'd stepped over the line."

"After this episode we will begin taping our shows before airing them." he said.

[cathyf]

The details of Feynman's safe-cracking prowess are actually sort of relevant. The military trained people that after they opened their safe, they should give the dial a spin so that it would end up in a random place. Otherwise, you could just look at the safe and know the last number of the combination still there on the dial. The particular safes that the army bought had a bug in the design that if the dial had not been moved since the safe opened, then you could slowly rotate it back and when it got to the second number it would "click" in a way you could feel. Ok, so now Feynman had two of the three numbers. He would just stand there trying all of the possibilities to get the first number.

All because even though everyone had been told over and over to spin the dial, nobody did. In fact the reason that Feynman broke into people's safes was to embarrass them into doing what they were supposed to do. The problem is as old as the hills...

[clarice]

Today, spies just grab desk top computers.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/04/shoplifting_secrets.html

[DEMO]

Lieberman Stands Behind Imus

"We are lowering the standards of what is acceptable in our society and we are sending a message to our children," he said. He denounced an "acceptance of rude language, foul imagery and gross behavior in the entertainment mainstream." - Joe Lieberman

[Jane]

Good Morning! So whatever happened to Difi and her little misappropriations gig?

I think people are ignoring Congress. I actually think this AG scandel has no longer more than a big yawn for most people.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Barry:
I have a business account and two personal accounts. I've got business mail in my personal accounts and personal mail in my business account. And even when you get it all straight, someone you accidently emailed from your business account keeps using that address for personal mail,and etc.

Yeah, tell me about it. Here at work, they block you from getting to internet email.

So -- and I've never said this before but now it seems relevant -- all you ladies who keep emailing those pics of yourself, you might as well stop. I can't get the email here at work, and I sure as heck am not going to open those pics at home. Unfortunately, I have to simply delete them.

[clarice]

Now you tell me!

[Pofarmer]

Does anybody wanna remind me what laws were ostensibly broken to demand the subpoenoeing of all these people and documents?

I mean, besides "Governing while Republican".

[Jane]

You're up early Clarice! Nice to see you at this hour.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Clarice, I just figured, in case you reconsider the babysitter job, I would give you directions. No pressure, just in case.

OK...

Turn left. Then take a left. Go straight for a while, then take another left. Then turn right. Head south for a long time, then veer right. Head east for a little while then exit right. The road loops around to the right and comes to a stop sign. Turn right. Take a right. Then turn left. Then turn right. Another right. Another right. Another right (sounds like you're going in circles, but you're on winding roads). You are now in my neighborhood. Follow the traffic circle around until you make a left. We're the second house on your left.

[clarice]

Hi, Jane. I don't know what happened. I thought it was later than it was.H & R those directions are very helpful. Thanks.

[syn]

Dems 'We will indict without evidence Bushco's oppressive patriarchal system, it's for the children'.

Remarkably like Duke professors and their continuous indictment of innocent Duke University students.

[DEMO]

You’ve got to be extremely thorough to delete emails completely. The full implementation of Department of Defense's own 5220-22.M standard requires seven discrete passes. Imagine doing seven discrete full-surface formats of a hard disk drive and you'll have some idea of how tedious this is. So, how could Rove actually delete his emails on the RNC or any other servers? What about the recipients’ computers? What about backups? I smell cyber-smoke. “Spoliation of evidence” is an interesting term that comes to mind.

[Pofarmer]

“Spoliation of evidence” is an interesting term that comes to mind.

Evidence of what?

I would think that most servers routinely clean up,especially those with a high volume. I know the server I use does. You get so much bandwidth, then they start deleting stuff, if you don't. How thorough are they? I have no idea. I also have no idea how some supposed DOD standards have anything to do with anything, for that matter.

[lurker9876]

No, there is no spoilation of evidence or cyber-smoke. There are company policies for managing emails up to a limited number of days and space quotas. I'm sure that the WH has similar policies.

Emails are generally stored on the mail servers. I'm sure RNC has mail servers, which the emails are archived. The users have their own discretion to delete their own emails, on an individual basis or all of them.

Conyers, Leahy, et al., are not going to find anything in those emails at all. They are on a fishing expedition.

Jane,

"I think people are ignoring Congress. I actually think this AG scandel has no longer more than a big yawn for most people."

I hope this would be the same for Waxman's "Confused Plame Status" investigation. Hit and Run, don't make Waxman as confused as your directions are.

[Cecil Turner]

“Spoliation of evidence” is an interesting term that comes to mind.

Oh, please. While I'm sure the Democrats would love to dig through the RNC's servers, perhaps they'd first like to open their own files. No? What are they hiding?

I seem to recall that when Democrats left their political files on shared servers, the Republicans were at fault for reading them. Now they demand to be able to read the same sort of thing from the RNC? Risible.

[Jeff Dobbs]

lurker:
Hit and Run, don't make Waxman as confused as your directions are.

I fashioned my directions after a Waxman show trial. Very declarative statements -- with little relevance to anything of actual, legitimate use to anyone.

(you think I really want Clarice to show up at my house? A woman of her character would have no choice but to call social services, and with mrs hit and run gone this weekend, it would probably end in a standoff with authorities)

And honestly, I think Waxman may well be the least confused person in this whole thing. He knows exactly what he wants, and will twist and cajole whomever it takes to get it. He has no illusions about Plame being super secret IIPA covert. He just needs to be able to assert covertiness, and let the media run with and direct the ensuing political ramifications.

[clarice]

Now you tell me. And I spent the whole morening digging up charcter building books for tots and spinich tasties. *sigh* I'm unpacking and putting up my feet.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Actually, those spinach tasties sound pretty good....compared to my likely menu of frozen chicken nuggets tonight.

[DEMO]

When those RNC emails are sent or received, copies are kept on a minimum of five different servers or hard drives. Fully erasing mail or any other information on those hard drives requires physically smashing it into pieces or melting the hard-drives into slag. It's a virtual certainty that there are many copies of the emails out there, some on servers not under the control of the White House or RNC, it's only a matter of time before they start appearing.

[Cecil Turner]

It's a virtual certainty that there are many copies of the emails out there, some on servers not under the control of the White House or RNC . . .

Yeah, so? The point is that they're not on servers under control of the White House (and thus can't be delivered on demand). The contention that the RNC is wiping servers is entirely made-up, as far as I can tell. It's merely that their archival system apparently dates back only to 2004, so if a previous e-mail had been sent via the wrong system, it might now be lost. All of which is irrelevant to the issue of whether the RNC allows the Dems to dig through their system.

And some of the stuff in those articles is just silly. For example, this illustrates the proper use of an RNC account:

In January, an assistant to Mr. Jennings used a gwb43.com account to circulate a document discussing Democrats who are being singled out for defeat in 2008.

That sort of thing would be illegal on an "official" WH e-mail.

[Other Tom]

Spoliation of evidence can only occur to evidence that is relevant to an ongoing or anticipated criminal or civil proceeding, and the person who does the spoliation must have acted with the intent to withhold evidence from that proceeding.

[Lew Clark]

I have always managed my email account, deleting all the junk and archiving the rare "keeper". I have looked down my nose at the people who never clean up their email.

Now I find, they will be decorated as true citizens and I'm going to prison for felony email erasing.

[cathyf]

*snort* C'mon, guys, we've got The Ferret in here arguing that no IT organization anywhere has ever failed to get back a deleted file, and you aren't rolling on the floor laughing at him?

(Actually, my laughter is somewhat tempered by our loss last year of our 100GB file server. No one had ever tested the RAID assembly, and our computer guy was taking beta blockers for the first day when a drive crashed. It turned out that the RAID was not set up at all, and the "mirrors" were blank. Somewhere in the confusion the IT guy copied the blank "mirror" all over the real drive. And the data was truly lost forever. We had some of it backed up here and there, other parts we were able to reconstruct pretty easily, but the stuff that is gone is, well, gone.)

[Jeff Dobbs]

Are the emails I sent my cousin back in 2005 at risk of being discovered? He worked in the WH at the time, and I think I poked fun at a Cindy Sheehan protest to him. IIRC, he didn't make any inappropriate comments back, but *I* sure would hate to get caught up in this.

[Cecil Turner]

*snort* C'mon, guys, we've got The Ferret in here arguing that no IT organization anywhere has ever failed to get back a deleted file, and you aren't rolling on the floor laughing at him?

Yeah, good point. That part of the WaPo story was also clueless:

The same thing happens with e-mail: Trashing a message only means that the mail program clears its records of where it had filed that e-mail in its own database.

Which would be a good observation, if we were talking about a midnight attempt to sanitize . . . considerably less so, as we're discussing years-old e-mails on a presumably busy system.

But one thing's for sure: the breathless insinuation of wrongdoing theme is here to stay. And despite the qualifiers, many on the left will soon insist it's proof positive of nefarious intent . . . if they haven't already.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Heh, funny enough, I just went through my archives.....and, whaddya know some of my sent emails to my cousin are still saved in there....

Here's one line I feel comfortable quoting...(me writing to him)

Just wondering if you are going home for Thanksgiving - or will be in DC? We were thinking of coming up there. If you're there, would love to see if we could get together. If not, just leave your key to the WH somewhere and we'll let ourselves in.

[clarice]

A clear code:Fire 8 US Attys because they might be investigating you. (I used my Ovaltine decoder ring)

[cathyf]

Yeah, Lew, talk about adding insult to injury... I already deeply regret the occasional "keeper" that I've somehow accidentally erased. Like a former coworker Pete Farmer (who seems to have dropped off the face of the earth since leaving the company that we worked for) wrote this hysterically funny email about his misadvanture attempting to buy 2 kiwis and a toblerone bar for an afternoon snack at the company canteen one day. And now I can't find it. I already feel terrible about losing this masterpiece, and now I get to brood about it in prison.

Oh, well, Lew, maybe we'll get cells with wireless internet access.

[SunnyDay]

Well, hey, maybe they'll get fragments of emails - those could be useful, really. Just imagine!

[Pofarmer]

When do we get to see Feinstein's emails with regards to the contracts to her husbands companies? Hmmmmm.?

[Other Tom]

I hope they deleted the one where Rove says, "Look, GWB knows they don't really have any WMD, but that's beside the point. He's still pissed that Saddam tried to kill his daddy, and his oil buddies and Cheney's friends at Halliburton are more than willing to spill a few guys' blood if we can get our hands on all that oil. So let's send that poor stooge Powell off to the the UN with a bunch of bullshit, and then let's roll."

[Jeff Dobbs]

SunnyDay:
Well, hey, maybe they'll get fragments of emails - those could be useful, really. Just imagine!

Yeah, watch this. Let me quote cathyf...

Yeah...I...deeply...Like a former coworker...who seems to have...this hysterically funny...misadvanture...in prison...

[clarice]

Other Tom,,,,,,,,,,,,It just so happens.......$1 billion dollars........

[fdcol63 🇺🇸]

[sarcasm]

Oh, come on. Don't all intelligent liberals know by now that Rove, Cheney, and everyone else at the White House use "Halliburton" email accounts, with the ".HEL" domain extension?

[/end sarcasm]

LOL

[Jeff Dobbs]

Well, they haven't discovered Cheney's secret .FU domain yet..........shhhh, don't tell them.

[Other Tom]

This from earlier today:

"The issue arose because the White House and Republican National Committee have said they may have lost e-mails from Rove and other administration officials. Democratically chaired congressional committees want those e-mails for their probe of the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

"'His understanding starting very, very early in the administration was that those e-mails were being archived,' Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said.

"The prosecutor probing the Valerie Plame spy case saw and copied all of Rove's e-mails from his various accounts after searching Rove's laptop, his home computer, and the handheld computer devices he used for both the White House and Republican National Committee, Luskin said.

"The prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, subpoenaed the e-mails from the White House, the RNC and Bush's re-election campaign, he added.

"'There's never been any suggestion that Fitzgerald had anything less than a complete record,' Luskin said.

"Any e-mails Rove deleted were the type of routine deletions people make to keep their inboxes orderly, Luskin said. He said Rove had no idea the e-mails were being deleted from the server, a central computer that managed the e-mail."

Spoliation of evidence is a crime. The crime has not occurred. There will be no prosecution. Period.

[clarice]

Isn't it a little bit suspicious that he's always innocent? I mean, c'mon, baby.

[Sara]

OT - Bombing yesterday.
Blackfive has an interesting letter from a guy who is there on the ground. He says the Parliament building is not even in the Green Zone.

Actually, despite the reporting I’ve heard from CNN, BBC and NPR, which keeps up the ominous drone of doom about the terrorists breaching the Parliament building in “the heart of the heavily fortified Green Zone,” the FACT is the Parliament building is NOT IN the Green Zone. We turned it over to the Iraqis in 2006. And when it was, it was at the outer NW edge of the Green or International Zone.

Of course, no one here especially expects the press, with its now, 4 year old biases to get it right. But that being said, I am beginning to believe there is something else going on here that this episode illustrates, which in an unfortunately perverse way, suggests deeper progresss.

[MikeS]

He's still pissed that Saddam tried to kill his daddy...

So was I. Now I'm only pissed that Clinton didn't take Saddam out for that.

[Daddy]

Jeez, Why didn't Bush just appoint that moron Gonzalez to the Supreme Court where he couldn't have caused near as much trouble. I'll bet he looks lots better in Black robes than in black and white prison garb. I keep scrambling for an excuse for this continuing tour de force of incompetence but I keep coming up empty, and all the while the cash (yawn) is still thawing out in Congressman Jefferson's fridge and Sandy Berger's just written on the blackboard his final "I will not steal and destroy any more confidential government documents, now where's my security clearance?

[DEMO]

So You've Lost a $38 Billion File

Personally, I would have called drivesavers.com and NOT Dell or Microsoft.

[DEMO]

So You've Lost a $38 Billion File

Personally, I would have called drivesavers.com and NOT Dell or Microsoft.

[Dwilkers]

When Bush was elected I remember a news story saying he had decided to stop communicating with the twins via e-mail because he didn't want his personal communications with his daughters to end up as archived public records.

Rove or anyone else could, of course, simply stop using e-mail and do the vast majority of his business by phone. In fact I'd guess he's very careful to do any business of a confidential nature exactly that way.

I would be doing it were it me in his shoes.

The very nature of this Rove witch hunt is asinine. He's not even an elected official. The left hates him because he beat them. Tough titty stuff. If the Dems intend to run this 'politics as crime' campaign then they're going to have to understand people are going to cover their asses any way they can, using hotmail, no e-mail, code words or whatever.

How about we just cut the crap and let politics be politics?

[arrowhead]

"The very nature of this Rove witch hunt is asinine. He's not even an elected official. The left hates him because he beat them." Dwilkers

I recall a similar fever on the left to "get" Michael Deaver during the Reagan administration. Accused of influence peddling, Deaver was indicted on five counts of {{{{{PERJURY}}}}} for lying three times to a Federal Grand Jury and twice to a Congressional Subcommittee. Hmmmm.

The one shining moment for the democrats in the last half century was Watergate. Ever since, they have tried to replicate it. It's like an addiction.

[Erin Bizon]

"Don't they have a way to read even deleted emails, so shouldn't the RNC make their servers available to Fitz?"

I change out tapes for our company server and we have 30 days of tapes however once a new month rolls around and the backup is used again there is no mail or files left to get, now I am sure through some serious attempts you might get something however after multiple uses there would be nothing in my opinion.

[Other Tom]

I hope Waxman and the rest of those dolts go absolutely out of their minds about this e-mail nonsense. Remember, they've waited twelve years for this. This is their big chance: Oversight! And what we've seen is the best they've got. The public yawns, and pays no attention other than to give the Democratic congress progressively lower and lower poll ratings.

Should anyone be surprised? When Waxman is at work, he's inside the beltway. When he's home, he's in Beverly Hills. Did anyone expect that, in his sudden ascension to power, he would do or say anything that any ordinary American cared about? (Hmmm...Other Tom solicits your answers to that one.) And here's another intriguing question:

Could this weird sap find his ass with a ten-hand working party? I am moved to doubt...

[clarice]

It's been a slow news week--here it isin a nutshell:
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/15bfe93c-1035-40c8-af43-75830fc04d59>Peep Show

[lurker9876]

Clarice, may next week be as quiet as this week...especially with that non-binding Defense pork bill and Gonzales testimony.

How much of America is paying attention to the Gonzales / email non-scandal? Sure doesn't look like much.

[lurker9876]

But...you know what....

it's been so nice not having to read the nonsense from the ferret, re-pete, ali-cleown, jerry, et al.

[Sara]

This business about RNC emails isn't about oversight. It is the dems trying to get a look at RNC strategy for 2008. That's political theft of the playbook, so to speak (if they get away with the ruse).

[Jane]

Geez lurker, don't push our luck!

[MikeS]

I hope Waxman and the rest of those dolts go absolutely out of their minds about this e-mail nonsense

I would rather fight. I think the President should declare the conductors of the current round of show trials a bunch of incompetent liars and losers who dreamed up these attack months before the Nov elections.

Then he should refuse to cooperate until each committee demonstrates that its efforts are relevant to the American people and meet the standards of previous hearings.

OT

May be in wheelchair for months; Red pickup hunt intensifies...

Wear your seat belts!!!!

Prayers are with Gov. Corzine for as speedy a recovery as possible. I had no idea the crash was so bad that he ended up on a respirator in critical condition and in the ICU. I can tell you though, having broken both my lower vertebrae and a thigh bone, that months is a very rosy prediction. I spent over a year bedridden and much of that time in traction and it took over 2 years to learn to walk again. And, of course, I'm still suffering disability from the broken vertebrae.

I wonder if he can continue as Governor. He'll need some heavy duty pain killers for quite awhile and his mobility will be severely limited for even much longer.

[lurker9876]

What a great idea, MikeS!!

[Sara]

The Governor Corzine post is by me. Why did it leave my name off? Hmmmm.

[cboldt]

Libby filed a notice [Doc 335] that he will not file a Motion under Rule 33. That is, there will be motion for a retrial. The notice indicates that the trial record is fine as is, and need not be supplemented in order to provide the foundation for appeal.

The deadlines for Response and Reply to a Motion for retrial are mooted by this notice.

[Enlightened]

cboldt - Sorry can you clarify - There will be NO motion for retrial? They just want to go straight to the appeal?

Sorry, I'm not even close to a law student...

[clarice]

I'm not cboldt. but that is exactly what it is--he will go to sentencing on June 5 and ifile an appeal w/o first trying to persuade the judge there was an error warranting a new trial.