White House Admits That They Recycled Backup Tapes
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 8:37am
CREW:
Very, very late last night, just before midnight, the Bush administration submitted a filing in CREW v. Executive Office of the President, our lawsuit challenging the failure of the White House to preserve and restore millions of missing emails. We first documented the massive loss of White House e-mails in our April 2007 report, WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act.
The latest filing from the Bush administration raises some very troubling questions that the White House clearly does not want to answer. (The filing from the White House and related documents can be found here.) This is how CREW's chief counsel, Anne Weismann, described the situation:
With this new filing, the White House has admitted that although it has long known about the missing emails, it did nothing to recover them, or discover how and why they went missing in the first place. The missing emails are important historical records that belong not to the Bush administration, but to the American people. As a result, the public deserves a full accounting and hopefully, now that the matter is before a federal court, we will get one.
The White House has now admitted that it does not have an effective system for storing and preserving emails. This is no mere technicality; it is this failure that led to the likely destruction of over 10 million email. What the White House has not explained is why it abandoned the electronic record-keeping system used by the prior administration -- a system that properly preserved White House email -- but did not replace it with another effective and appropriate system.
Anyone surprised that the time period for this ridiculous excuse of archiving was March 2003 to October 2003. Hmm....what could have been going on at that time? Oh, silly little things like initial invasion and occupation of Iraq, not to mention the leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. Patrick Fitzgerald's inability to continue his investigation past Scooter Libby's obstruction and perjury charges suddenly seems far less confusing. Government Exec has more...
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Once again, I am shocked, shocked I say.
Hate to say it, but a sternly worded letter may be necessary ...
Oh come on guys. Quit being conspiracy theorists. This was obviously an honest mistake! (ppfssshhhhtttt!!!)
When are we going to see these criminals in jail where they belong?
smart criminals always cover their tracks and destroy any evidence of their crimes.
Impeach, indict, convict, incarcerate. Oh, and water-board. Just for the hell of it.
destoying evidence is right.Now we're going to have to deal with these assholes for years and years to come.......after they leave office.sigh.I know they deserve it.....but I'd really like to get them out of my life.....as soon as possible.
"What the White House has not explained is why it abandoned the electronic record-keeping system used by the prior administration — a system that properly preserved White House email — but did not replace it with another effective and appropriate system."
Uh..... because they had something hide?
But isn't the really insane part that this gang just isn't that smart .... and they still get away with every single blessed thing.
Chen*y learned something from Watergate.
When are we going to impeach these guys? They have literally destroyed this country. I'm waiting for Bernacke to testify. But we all know what he will say. Everything is fine! Spend, spend, spend! Meanwhile, we are approaching oblivion.
Karl Rove probably isn't comfortable with Unix/Linux, Windows and had them upgrade to 286's with DOS 6.0.
Even reused tapes will still contain old data.
The only way to end the Republican Party's threat to the nation is for all those responsible for the crimes of this administration to be convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Let the entire nation learn of the threat these anti-democratic authoritarians have been to the country. Let them be exposed so that the Republican Party goes the way of the Whigs, political oblivion.
I don't think they are smart folks involved here. After years back in the 70s working in Federal Prisons all criminals screw up. All they have to do is give up the tapes in question and someone can find some good some good segments on them and they will be playing pitch and putt at a Prison Farm.
The problem is getting ahold of them tapes!
Recycling backup tapes IS standard practice. However, that it was apparently done for a specific period of time that just happened to coincide with time when they were working against Mrs. Wilson shows that this wasn't done because of standard practice.
myiq2xu @ 11:
It requires very specialized equipment to get at old data that's been overwritten and at best you'd only get fragments.
earl @ 8:
It's because the Democratic leadership in Congress has no spine...
Nevil Longbottom @ 7:
Nah, that can be explained much more benignly - ABC - Anything But Clinton...
MISSING WHITE HOUSE E-MAILS? THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED!
and "the chimp" also said anyone in the administration INVOLVED would be fired....
hows that wmd search going?
THOSE EMAILS ARE STILL AROUND.
THOSE EMAILS STILL EXIST!
Swashbuckler @ 14:
I don't agree with the gist of this. It may be "standard practice" to recycle old tapes, but in our organization, it is NEVER standard practice to do so in a way that destroys the only copy of a dataset.
Call Pelosi and demand she put impeachment back on the table. She and Harry Reid are fresh out of excuses, and I dont' give a damn if Bush has another year left in office.
They're fresh out of excuses and if they won't impeach, we need to start a grass-roots campaign to replace Reid and Pelosi as Congressional Leaders. Period.
Complete Baloney !
Convenient that they came up with his excuse the day the
court order said that the tapes were to be handed over.
Total Lie. They still have them. I don't believe a word of it.
It is time for the pitchforks and torches, nothing else is
working.... all of Washington is now complicit.
Murph in Philly
too bad bush couldn't shred his DUI conviction record, National Guard AWOL notice, and Downing Street memo....
>Recycling backup tapes IS standard practice
Maybe.
At a 7/11 ...
should the standard not be a teensy bit higher for the Administraitors (sic) of the most poweriffic country in the world?
Therefore the sentences (that will never come) should be much harsher ...
Karma @ 20:
DITTO!
Now, what else is going to come down the pike as the Bush/Cheney team prepare to leave office!
Jeff Boatright @ 21:
Depends on how they archived the email. If all the email was archived into a database and the emails were deleted from that database then the only backup of the dataset (i.e. the database) was never deleted.
It'd be easy enough to attribute this to incompetence (the Bush administration is a monument to incompetence) if it weren't for minor detail that they did this for a rather directed period of time.
Hell of a time for them to begin to listen to Al Gore and decide to start recycling. As the church lady would say, "How convenient"
earl @ 25:
Dude, it's standard practice at every place that does backup. (Hint: I work for a company that develops and sells enterprise backup products and an enterprise email archiving product)
The Political Junkie @ 22:
The only way you get impeachment on the table is by getting Pelosi out of the Speaker's chair...
These unitary executive theorists think they're above the law. We need to support Robert Wexler against these Pinochetists
Murph @ 23:
amen!
Why in God's name are these people allowed to get away with breaking nearly every law on the books? If this were a Democratic administration, the Republicans would be screaming from the rafters, foaming at the mouth, and spending whatever little money is left in the treasury (or that could be borrowed from China and India) to go after them! And the MSM? What a joke.
Impeach now!
QuakerLady @ 33:
A spineless Democratic Congress...
Impeach everyone of these Reslug. criminals in the White House for knowingly breaking every law of the land.
I think it's cute like a game of "Fisher Price Gubmint"
They pretend they're not a fascist regime that lies, cheats, steals and stomps all over the rule of law and the constitution, that they're not working for foreign oil concerns, that they're not trying to start wwIII, that they aren't trying to create a completely war driven country inhabited by half wit pseudo religious freaks and we pretend to believe them.
Just a techincal question, wouldn't these e-mails also exist elsewhere, not just on the backup tapes in the White House? E-mail communications wouldn't all just be internal would they? Wouldn't various telecommunication companies and other hardware be involved?
D to the Izzle @ 2:
I agree totally! I mean they set up a secret email system under a secret domain outside the normal government work supplied email account to begin with, and then when they got caught the tapes were erased around the time the Gitmo tapes were erased when needed as evidence in a torture trial.
I can totally see how the people that stole our elections. destroyed our freedom and democracy, started a war based on lies and fabricated documents that killed a million people so far could make an innocent mistake like that. They have been obviously been too busy war profiteering to worry about things like self incrimination.
We will get our country back when we find the balls to take it back.
Shan @ 37:
Some emails might exist elsewhere. It the sender and the recipient were on different email servers then it's possible that the emails could exist elsewhere. But telecoms wouldn't have copies of emails that just happened to traverse their networks.
Can you imagine if Clinton had done this? IMPEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gee, gosh, we're so shocked.
You gotta wonder if licensing parenthood isn't such a bad idea.
Jan. 09 can't get here too soon. Congress, the MSM, and yes us, the people, have enabled this Crime family to keep breaking the law. Bush won't stop because they have never had any regards for us.
Swashbuckler @ 14:
When the law requires that you keep records, it is not standard practice to destroy those records.
Meanwhile, in a different universe..
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Criminal obstruction. It proves malice of forethought. Changing a system installed during the Clinton era is counter to all government and business practice. They knew there would be criminal actions in the systems and sought to destroy them.
WAR CRIMES Tribinal for Bush, Chenney, Rumsfailure, Rice, Libby, Abramoff, ...........
whens Hillary takes office
Weaseldog @ 44:
Dude, do you understand what BACKUP means? It means it's a COPY of an ORIGINAL.
thier is no incentive for the gang in congress or the senate to go after cheny and bush , the truth is most of them have been rideing the gravy trin that bush cheny have created with 911 and the wars in iraq and afganistan and big oil!!!!! the corrupt arent going to impeach thier benifactors, fluck you is thier motto ! im getting mine! an honest governments just more smoke and mirriors!!!!!!!!!!!
Left&Left @ 43:
Bush isn't leaving office, trust me. Besides, our alternatives are just as bad in many regards. Clinton and Obama are just liars with better packaging.
ImpeachBushNowwww @ 47:
Oh yeah right. This war is such a mess that war crimes need to be committed in order to sustain it. Clinton will just continue the insanity.
Yes indeed the Bush Cabal.
"Yes we've gotten rid of all the evidence and we are pleased to announce there is not one god damn thing you can do about it."
Frank Dufek @ 50:
hell even if diebold didnt decide the 08 election clinton or obama are sure loosers for the democratic party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How convenient that Evidence in a Criminal matter involving this Whitehouse is destroyed.
This should be more stimulus for going after them as criminal ... will it happen. No, because there is not enough of an outcry by the people of this country. Stuff like this makes me ashamed that the people of America are such sheep who just bleat meekly while waiting in line for slaughter.
Meanwhile, bush's appointee Bernaky (sp) goes before Congress and says America is NOT in a recession and will not be.
You know what folks ... IF IT WALKS LIKE A DUCK AND TALKS LIKE A DUCK, IT'S A FUCKING DUCK and all the lying they can do to try to mend bush's "Legacy" won't cover it up.
They have completely broken this country.
The White House has now admitted that it does not have an effective system for storing and preserving emails.
I dunno -- sounds like they have a very effective system in place.
"The White House has now admitted that it does not have an effective system for storing and preserving emails."
Are you kidding? They have an *extremely* effective system, called "delete".
They managed to get rid of millions of them, which seems pretty efficient and effective to me.
MargeAggedon @ 36:
And, it seems the vast majority of Americans are oblivious to these facts...the movie Idiocracy becomes more relevant every day.
D to the Izzle @ 2:
How many "HONEST MISTAKES" can they make in a month, a week, a day, an hour, a minute per second?
BARFFFFF!
bill w @ 58:
Do keep in mind, this was the administration that vetted people to go to Iraq based upon who they voted for.
I can imagine the interview for backup admin now:
- Do you favor overturning Roe v. Wade?
- Have you ever voted for a Democrat?
And the token computer related question:
- Have you ever used Ubuntu Satanic Edition? (Yes, there really is such a thing)
Swashbuckler @ 48:
Shall we call it the recycling of archival tapes then?
And I do understand. I've worked It in a brokerage house and a bank. If we had destroyed record like the White House does, we could likely be facing prison sentences. But that is in finance where records matter. Votes and governmnetal records are considered quite so important by our White House residents.
Who cares about this stuff? Haven't you heard
the LATEST on Brittany? Sheeeeesh!!!!
Destroying evidence and obstructing justice are not real crimes you know. Raising taxes on billionaires, now there is a crime for you.
You can't recover data on recycled tapes if they were completely written to again...
Anyway, wasn't it the federal government, through Sarbanes Oxley that mandates that public corporations save years of emails? Of course. The federal government forces companies to save emails, even IMs, for 7 years and store this on tape that cannot be written over (WORM - Written Once Read Many...).
What they did was illegal. The American people deserve more than "I know it was a law that we save the data, but we screwed up...". God, Arthur Andersen was destroyed as an entity because they shredded some emails.... By a, frankly, overzealous Bush Administration. And now, they do something worse, and their response is "Sorry! We fucked up."
Swashbuckler @ 29:
You are correct that it is standard practice to rotate backup tapes. Most places have set policies that must be followed to determine how long certain data needs to be archived. Once that time frame has passed...you can reuse a backup tape.
From what I gather, the WH is required to preserve all emails...so reusing the tapes was a direct violation of policy, and someone should be held accountable. Unfortunately, some lacky will wind up taking the fall for this.
BuckFush @ 63:
Like I said up in #54 or so, the sheep are timid and just bleat on the way to the slaughter house.
QuakerLady @ 33:
Limp-Dick Blimpaugh @ 35:
It'll never happen. The Democrats are scared shitles. With good reason. Here's why:
Ralph Nader: "Things Are a Lot Worse than We Thought!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIO-tCPSfHA
Nixon was impeached over ONE FUCKING THING. Clinton was impeached over ONE FUCKING THINK. How many times will Pelosi sit back and let this hopelessly criminal administration thumb it's nose at the us, the nation and our laws before she puts impeachment on the table?
Perhaps it's time we have a conversation about impeaching Nancy Pelosi for not living up to her constitutional responsibilities?
I can't understand you liberals. You whine about how we need to recycle everything for the environment, and yet when Bush recycles data tapes, you complain that he's trying to cover up something. What the hell is wrong with you?! You can't have it both ways!
[/rightwingtalkingpoint]
After this, I must say I have a new found respect for Richard Nixon and his administration, regarding their handling of the Oval Office tapes.
Blue Buddha @ 68:
I think the difference is the Bush regime practices "selective recycling".
And the President laughed at the people again as he stuck pins in their asses..
[Provokateur, just can't get over that misspelling, can you? It happened what-two weeks ago? And you've brought it up how many times? Maybe on an open thread, you can let us all know what it's like to never make a mistake. I'm looking forward to it-Sitemonitor]
I like the "pitchforks and torches" idea! That town needs an enema!
♥♂ Angry Guy @ 54:
Did you hear that one Congresscritter several minutes ago (didn't catch his name) who introduced his speech with: "Tax cuts can put a strain on the economy?! Wow... what a novel fucking idea! Gee whiz... you learn something new everyday!" (Ok, I'm paraphrasing here).
Yeah... what a dickhead.
Ruthless People @ 67:
Take a look at my post @ 66.
Perhaps we should send a few low level WH IT guys to Gitmo and let them take swimming lessons. That should provide all the evidence we need.
Recycling tapes is part of the WH's environmental strategy. Kudos to them!
nevermind all that, did you hear the latest about Britney??!
that's the problem - there's no interest from the asses, I mean masses.
ION aka Provokateur @ 71:
Im liking the gift of "ION" that is now taking on a life of its own far removed from some brilliant individuals error. Consider the ION
as a Socratic gadfly, "a charged particle, a live wire, the name of my new company.
Please do not take my new toy personally. It is not meant as a provocation. Thanks for allowing me to participate.
[Ok-Sitemonitor]
I'm a computer idiot and even I know that when emails are "deleted" and the trash is "emptied" that the emails are still recoverable, UNLESS YOU PURPOSELY INSTALL A SYSTEM THAT WILL RETRIEVE THE TRASH AND PERMANENTLY ELIMINATE THEM.
Duh.
Which means one of two things: The emails are still "there" and can all be easily found with a little computer techy wizard doing his magic, OR the White House had their own computer techy wizard come in and permanently destroy the emails. If they were permanently and purposefully destroyed that would constitute a federal crime and in the case of mulitiple investigations currently on-going, would also constitute an obstruction of justice.
If I am wrong, would someone please set me straight here? Thank you.
Nothing will happen ... nothing ever does.
Even this report of off point really. The report says that a proper administration did something awful. The next time will be the criminal administration further violates the law ... no wait ... I'm living in fantasy land ... this is C&L ... perpetually surprised and behind the curve. The next time will again be ... a proper administration did something awful.
he number of times this administration has committed crimes, stolen, killed and more is nearly surpassed by the number of times bloggers here have been shocked.
In the beginning, there was a candidate for president who didnt want ballots cast to be counted or to count ... tell me bloggers ... at what point did PRESIDENT Bush deserve respectful treatment ... at what point were you respectully reciprocating to a respectful administration ... the answer is NEVER ... you were always unilateral ....
sucker
(unedited)
What we're seeing here is the same word games Bush has played from the very start, and neither the media nor Congress sees fit to challenge him.
1. The deletion of the e-mails, and the legal consequences thereof, land squarely in the president's lap.
2. However, we can expect them to assert that the missing e-mails had no 'administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value'. It remains to be seen if they consulted the Archivist as required (doubtful).
3. Failing the above, the Bush Administration will argue that the missing e-mails qualify as 'personal' and are therefore exempt.
4. A ruling could be sought as to whether or not FOIA implies that records must be kept, and to what extent this overrules any presidential prerogative to discard materials as in #2.
5. 'Fourthbranch' is full of shit, and is not exempt from these requirements. (Unless, of course, there's a convenient fire in your office building ...)
The sad thing is, none of this is a surprise. It's from the same playbook as "The SEC says there is no case," and "If we had known terrorists would use airplanes as missiles ..." - literal truths to cover up incompetence and wrongdoing.
But somehow, "I never had sex with that woman," is a hanging offense.
omg impeach already
Nixon only had 18 minutes of tape missing.
The failure to keep accurate records, whether accidental or deliberate, is a criminal act in and of itself.
Someone please proceed with filing charges.
I have always been under the impression that nothing is ever completely deleted. What if perhaps a warrant were filed and every computer, laptop, pda, and cell phone that received so much as a chain letter from these accounts were seized and along with the tapes were poured over by the best hackers and IT minds we can find? Hell, I'm sure you could get them to do if for free even. There has got to be a way to come up with something. I have almost given up hope of actual charges being brought, even if we had the full tapes, at least until we get new leaders in congress and the lot of them decide to grow balls and a back bone; but damn it, I at least just want some answers for my own piece of mind.
Radian @ 76:
Going green---as in $$$$$$$$$$$$. The new Bush environmental policy.
Swashbuckler @ 14:
I'd only quibble that it's a standard business practice. A democratic government is not a business. No business is run democratically with equal representation of all.
It's like I've always said:
Unix Admins in the public sector are talentless hacks.
If they were any good at all at what they do they'd be working with me in the private sector making nearly 3 times the income.
But they are not, and they know it. So to keep from having to compete for jobs with real admins in the real world they will do what ever their boss asks, even if it makes no sense or is shady (not like those hacks would even know best practices anyway).
You get what you pay for, and Government doesn't pay.
Most. Corrupt. Adminstration. Ever.
Had enough yet, Nancy Pelosi?
SHOCKING!!!
I feel like screaming!
BACKUP IS NOT ARCHIVE. DISASTER RECOVERY IS NOT DATA RETENTION.There are only two possibilities here. Either there were no archives, in which case they have been in violation of the Presidential Records Act for years, or it was archive copies that were written over, in which case evidence has been destroyed.
There's only one thing for it: Presidential Medals of Freedom all round!
Swashbuckler Says:
But if the new data on the tape is less than the old data, you can skip past the end-of-tape marks and the excess old data is still there. (Had to use that trick many years ago when I accidentally reinitialized a tape I really, really needed. Only lost the first file as a result.)
"When are we going to see these criminals in jail where they belong?:
When Reid, Pelosi, Schumer, Lieberman and all the other GOP enablers are out of a job!
Three possibilities why Impeachment and The Constitution are "off the table."
1. The Dems are in on it.
2. The Dems are dumberer than Bush.
3. The Dems are being blackmailed.
Its time to drain the swamp of both parties.
BUT...DOES TREASON RISE TO THE LEVEL OF AN IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE?
WHAT IS THE SENTENCE FOR SUCH AN ACTION?
NANCY!!!!!!!!! YOUR TABLE IS READY!!!
art @ 93:
A Preznitdential Pardon.
well played miss kitty
Yeah, so what?!
What the fuck are YOU gonna do about it?
Heh heh heh.
-George W. Bush
The White House's initial response was that they were following "industry best-practices." Does anyone know whether the administration issued a "signing order" for Sarbanes-Oxley?
Hey, remember this? A month and a half ago, "Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply 'immediately' with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House’s role in the firings of U.S. attorneys."
How's that coming, Gramps? I said Leahy was a coward back then, and nothing's happened to change my opinion.
Darn link.
[You aren't putting a url up. Just words with html tags-Sitemonitor]
Anonymouse @ 98:
Sarbanes-Oxley affects corporations, not the government. The Presidential Records Act was established in 1978. An executive order issued in 1989 by President Ronald Reagan set forth procedures on implementation, and President George W. Bush issued an executive order in 2001 that expanded the order to include the Office of the Vice President.
CheneyIsADick @ 66:
If what Nader said in this video is true. Then that constitutes storming the White House and frog marching Bush and Cheney out of the White House now for national security reasons. Bush and Cheney would be basically threating to waste our military, spend our money and kill countess innocent Iranians to save their sorry criminal assess? Impeachment would be just the first step in the process of bringing the Bush regime to justice.
Any shred of innocence America still had since Clinton is now gone.
Instead of posting on a website ya'all should be writing letters upon letters upon letters.
If my government willingly, intentionally, fucked up *that* badly...my god...I don't know what I'd do...
Shadowgm, I agree. My point was that the administration has defended its actions by saying it was following the current norms in the corporate world. Given that publicly traded companies are required to follow Sarbanes-Oxley, it seems a natural question to ask whether the administration had added a caveat for certain types of companies (or certain types of managers).
If it's simply "industry best-practices," I'm wondering what industry that might be. Enron? Arther Anderson?
Mark Glass @ 103:
Already done that. All I get back is spam from my representatives on how they're fighting the good fight, etc.
Haven't these guys already been given enough rope to hang themselves??? (just asking)
Mad as all get-out! @ 106:
Apparently not.
Somebody somewhere has printed copies of critical emails. I can assure you that this is a common practice for those who fear that later on they will become sacrificial lambs.
It's occurred to me that this 'recycling' excuse is a pile of steaming excrement.
Let's say you have a single backup tape, and you make a backup. Everything is on that one tape, which we'll call 'Tape A.'
Now, it's a week later, and you back your system up again, but re-use 'Tape A.' Therefore, the only way to lose information in the overwrite is if you have previously deleted it on the main system, which is against the law.
If we use a 'common business practice' of rotating back-up tapes, usually 2 or more: 'Tape A,' 'Tape B,' 'Tape C,' then, again, the files only fail to be archived if they have been deleted from the main system, and the archive tapes are overwritten.
If you DO delete information, then common business practice is to set aside a copy of an archive that retains the complete files. Or are you really going to go to the CEO and tell them that you've lost the documents pertaining to an important merger because you were 'recycling' your archive tapes?
The White House is trusting that most Americans don't understand how handling back-ups is done.
(Our newsroom computer kept everything pertaining to newscasts, and that was routinely backed up to tape. When the system ran out of space, we expanded to a second system that was for archival purposes only, so that reporters could find old scripts and video logs. I have trouble seeing the White House as being less reliant on documents and records than a television station.)
RE: "Instead of posting on a website ya’all should be writing letters upon letters upon letters."
I did, several times in fact to Rep. Loise Slaughter (D- NY)....she said she's too busy to impeach theses criminals and that it would be too hard.
See, the Dems don't give a shit about us....its all about them.
Here is the entire email she sent me;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns regarding the conduct of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. I appreciate the knowing of your views.
Like you, I am deeply troubled by the decisions this Administration has made and actions it has taken with respect to both domestic and foreign policy. Since 2001, when the President was first sworn into office, the executive branch has regularly overstepped its Constitutional authority and engaged in misguided and reckless practices. After the attacks on the twin towers, the Administration implemented a series of programs -- many times without consulting Congress -- that offend the very principles our nation represents. From its secret domestic eavesdropping programs conducted by the National Security Agency, to clandestine intelligence operations carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency, to its campaign to narrow the scope of the Geneva Conventions, this Administration has routinely assaulted our civil liberties and jeopardized our international standing as a world leader.
Additionally, with each passing day, it becomes tragically clear that the Bush Administration led us into an unnecessary war with no exit strategy -- and did so with faulty intelligence. When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was without the resources or expertise necessary to provide an effective response, and as a result hundreds perished and thousands more went without clean, safe shelter or adequate access to food. And after the horrible images of detainee abuse from Abu Ghraib surfaced, this Administration failed to conduct a thorough investigation into how these atrocities occurred.
Given their multiple abuses of power and the countless problems their policies have left for this Congress and future generations to solve, your support for articles of impeachment against President and Vice President are understandable. However, the impeachment process is lengthy and it is unlikely that the proceedings would be completed before the Administration's term ends. Moreover, impeachment proceedings would consume staff time and resources that are needed to find an end to the war in Iraq and produce policies that will restore the confidence in the U.S. government domestically and abroad.
Again, thank you for sharing your views, and please do not hesitate to contact me with any future issues of concern. You may also wish to access my website at www.louise.house.gov to see information on my legislative activities in Congress, a schedule of community events in Western New York, and special sections on constituent services.
Sincerely,
Louise Slaughter
Member of Congress
LMS:m
To those that wrote letters...I deeply respect you.
This is disgusting. "Too much time, effort, and money" to impeach clear criminals that have caused your nation unprecedented harm???
A nation that needs healing isn't ever going to get to that point until people that have caused it great harm are held to account with serious consequences that explicitly articulate the condemnation a nation feels towards such behaviour. There's no "moving on" until things that ought to be dealt with first, simply are.
Incredible.
The WH frame shouldn't be considered legitimate. They destroyed evidence. Period. But their excuse gives the Congressional Dems a reason to look the other way. And they will.
The Political Junkie @ 22:
Send Cindy Sheehan a fat check. Then send Nancy a copy of your check. She'll wake up in a heartbeat, especially if 100 people do it.
Call the local offices to get through.
jr @ 31:
What happened to the Wexler petition to impeach Cheney? A few days ago it was bogged down. Now it's become super charged.
http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/
Ask the NSA for the emails -- they have every email that has ever traversed the web since day one.
:(
Just another example of the break every rule that will bend philosophy that is S.O.P. for the Bushies.... Don't worry all you boy and girl geeks in the bowels of the WH, that big old nasty 'I' word is off the table... Nancy in her infinite wisdom said so.. Of course that doesn't mean ol GeeDub won't offer up a few sacrificial lambs to make it all go away... Hmmm on second thought.. All you White House I.T. folks... Be afraid, be very afraid..... JD
nsr @ 100:
I dunno, SM. I was trying to link to a C&L page, and it looked like the page copied into my ref, but for some reason it didn't take. Trying again. The page is http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/30/leahy-moves-forward-with-contem...
testing, testing.
Oh, well, now it works.
'George Bush says' at 110
Peplosi and others are too busy changing the menu at the congressional cafeteria to bother. I heard that news this AM on the Bill Press radio show. They are very concerned about having a healthy complement of choices for all the members of Congress. Great!! How bout some healthy choices for the Katrina victims? Maybe changing the menu of chairmanshits (Lieberman) might help.
All of these e-mails are not gone. If they were then there would have to of been a conspiracy to do it and someone would have had to professionally go to great lengths to destroy all date possible. It doesn't all disappear on its own. If that's the case, then criminal investigation congressional hearings need to take place immediately. A team of non political experts need to show up unannounced (legally) and do an on-site complete and thorough inspection of the PC's , servers, tapes and all computer peripherals. Maybe as soon as they finish those critical baseball sterioid hearings, the Brittany Spears hearings,and the Jessica Simpson - Tony Romo Cowboy playoff loss investigations, they can get to the menial things such as the investigation of illegally destroying White House data/e-mail. America should be FURIOUS!
I'm in the habit lately of skimming a story like this and just movin' on . Why get my anger & blood pressure up , seeing that the Dinos controlling Congress won't do a DAMN thing about it other than BlahBlah hearings . More than a year in power and not one Bushiter has been held accountable . F#ck IT !
Wonder if they've thought to check the NSA internet taps for the data.
BoiseNick@121;
Yea, I'm hearin what you're saying... The situation is so off the charts bizarro crazy now, I just can't rant that much about any of it anymore. I'm all ranted out, all cussed out.. I read a lot of these threads these days... Shake my head, make a comment or two, mostly of the glib/dark humor variety, and like you, just move on... You are exactly correct.. Given the clueless, seemingly useless nature of the Dems now, while even in a majority in the legislative branch, more focussed on whether or not over pampered and overpaid athletes are killing themselves with steroids (on that one example? At least 7 years too late and actually about 17 years too late) and other Entertainment tonight type pablum instead of the real actual serious shit, like what this president, this vice preseident and numerous other republicans did by way of committing crimes and misdemeanors against the constitution and the American public... It's hard to justify even bothering to repeat the same arguments that just get ignored. Why bother... I'll vote and maybe something better will come of the next administration, maybe not.. Just have to wait and see... After the last 25 years? I ain't holding my breath or buying into anything these days... JD
jack damage @ 123:
Are the Republicans secretly pumping vast quantities of ether into the atmosphere? I can't believe that this isn't the kind of thing that leads to revolution, or least impeachment proceedings, or criminal prosecutions.
Crew Crew Crew!
When the average white male is dying of starvation they might realize how stupid they are.
first thing they ever recycled.
Since when are publicans into recycling?
"Admits they recycled" the back-up tapes? No, this is the spin they put on having destroyed evidence.
IMPEACH
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