Yeah, You MIGHT Want to Follow the Law

Noted with incredulity:

Judge to White House: Hold E-Mails
By PETE YOST
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.

In response, the White House said it has been taking steps to preserve copies of all e-mails and will continue to do so. The administration is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.

The organizations allege the disappearance of 5 million White House e-mails. The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.

The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.

[snip]

The judge's order "should stop any future destruction of e-mails, but the White House stopped archiving its e-mail in 2003 and we don't know if some backup tapes for those e-mails were already taped over before we went to court. It's a mystery," said Meredith Fuchs, a lawyer for the National Security Archive.

Uh, no. It's not a mystery. And if you want to know what the Republicans really think about missing E-mails, just wait until a Democrat says they have a missing E-mail. Why, the foundations of the Republic will likely be shaken to the core and a black cloud of distrust will descend upon America if, for example, President Obama can't locate the archived copy of the joke E-mail his cousin Doug sent him in 1999.

And, better yet--did anyone think the include the Office of the Vice President in that order? Or is he going to claim electronic franking privileges, based on the fact that he's in the legislative branch, at least partway?

The law doesn't apply to these people. The rule of law doesn't apply to these people. Doing what's right doesn't matter to these people.

If there were five million E-mails that detailed how great and wonderful of a job these people were doing, do you really think they would have disappeared? Do you really think that if there was no there there, and that these were mundane, routine E-mails, that they would have disappeared? I wonder why a Federal judge has to tell the White House to obey the law. Is it because there's simply no chance whatsoever that these people have the common decency to obey the law? If so, then why the fuck should anyone accept anything they say? Just once, I'd like to hear a reporter say, "yeah--bullshit. What's really going on? Nothing you're saying could even remotely be true."

I know I've agitated for better Democrats, but a functioning press would also help.

Just when you think Dick Cheney has bottomed out, he digs deeper into the pit of perfidy, hubris and arrogance

Dick Cheney finds oversight of his office so distasteful that he has gone so far as to attempt to abolish the office within the National Archives that oversees the dissemination of national security information and is charged with protecting sensitive national security information.

Yes, children, you read that right. Rather than comply with the rule of law, Cheney just tried to make the problem go away entirely by eliminating the Information Security Oversight Office that wanted to keep tabs on the national security information tht his minions have amply displayed they can’t be trusted with.

The ISOO is a small shop, about 25 people work there. They have been trying to get information from Cheney for years, and he has stonewalled. When the ISOO got pushy, Cheney tried to just make them go away.

What, exactly, is that fat bastard hiding?

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President's office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.

I have had quite enough from this imperialist prick. If he doesn’t resign for “health reasons” in the immediate future, Congress needs to grow a pair and get behind Dennis Kucinich who has introduced Articles of Impeachment against him.

Not a member of the Executive Branch my ass. Impeach his ass and see how far he can make that argument fly.