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.

Why Would Anyone Listen to John Bolton?

John Bolton on CNN:

BLITZER: But you know, in fairness to Mohamed ElBaradei, before the war in Iraq, when Condoleezza Rice and the president were speaking about mushroom clouds of Saddam Hussein and a revived nuclear weapons program that he may be undertaking, he was saying there was absolutely no such evidence. […]

BOLTON: Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

That's cute. We're supposed to believe that Bolton is some kind of authority? On the subject of proliferation?

Tell me, what are the man's accomplishments?

Tell me, what are the man's credentials?

Tell me, what has John Bolton ever gotten right?

The man couldn't even get confirmed for the job he was not even close to being the right person to fill. He was a self-important non-entity when serving at the United Nations. He was so bad, Condoleeza Rice made it known when taking over the State Department that Bolton would have to go. Oh, and he was part of the legal team that helped stop the Florida recount in 2000--anti-democratic blood runs in his veins, I get that. Beyond that, his thin resume and bogus credentials line up nice if you buy neo-con bullshit. Shame on CNN for having Bolton on its network. Can't they find someone who knows something about the subject? Is Bolton and his pornstar moustache the best they can do?

What a joke.

A whole new definition of "ordinary"

...is obviously at play here...

"Today, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down. And ordinary life is beginning to return." — President Bush, Thursday evening, in his speech on Iraq

Ordinary?

Really?

To paraphrase Inigo Montoya..."I do not think that word means what he thinks it means."

Only a dolt would use the word "ordinary" to describe a city in which armed gunmen ethnically cleanse neighborhoods, a household is lucky to receive two hours of electricity a day, and the water supply, when available, is not potable. Violence is verifyably down somewhat, but that is due to the fact that the ethnic cleansing has been, for the most part, successful, and the remaining holdouts hunker down and venture not outside, lest they encounter militias that will kill them.

Yousef al Mousawi, a 28-year-old Shiite resident of Sadr City, told this story Friday: Two days ago, his friend Mustafa was kidnapped from his computer shop. He was later found dead, shot in the head. It wasn't unusual. In his neighborhood — controlled by the Mahdi Army militia, loyal to cleric Muqtada al Sadr — he sees bodies every day.

Traffic jams terrify him, he said. He was wounded by a car bomb last year and has traveled the region since for medical treatment.

"The Mahdi Army isn't just killing Sunnis now, they are killing Shiites as well," he said. "I go to university, I'm afraid of suicide bombers and car bombs. I come home and I'm afraid of the Mahdi Army. We're living in fear, endless fear."

Pardon me, and my ignorance might be because I'm an unsophisticated, state-schools-educated hick, but that does not sound like it would fit anyones definition of "ordinary" to me. Maybe an Ivy Leaguer can enlighten me? (I'll read slow and promise not to move my lips...)

This week saw the start of the holy month of Ramadan - the month-long observance where practicing Muslims fast from sunup to sundown, and feast every evening. This year, the feasts are spare, and usually dependent upon the fare available from a lone grocer. Trips to various markets throughout the city are too dangerous, so people make do. Especially Sunnis in a Shi'ite capital.

"It has become a dream for us to shop from any central market. No way can I roam freely in Baghdad. I can barely get from home to work, there are so many checkpoints manned by people I don't trust."

"By what standards can I consider this life ordinary?" he asked. "Would Mr. Bush consider my life normal if he knew the details? Would any American?"

One Sunni who was willing to speak to reporters for McClatchy was a 36 year old man who lives in Mansour, in central Baghdad. He maintains that when he plans trips across the city, he plots his course carefully, trying to make sure he only passes through Sunni neighborhoods, because if the wrong person looked at his (authentic) ID, and his tribal identity was known, he could lose his life.

Again. Mr. pResident, what part life, as described by that Iraqi is "ordinary"?

Or this one, for that matter:

[A university student] he fears leaving the neighborhood because the checkpoints are manned by police commandos, units known to be rife with Shiite militiamen, who alert gunmen in civilian cars to attack suspected Sunnis. Three days ago, a father and son were killed at a checkpoint, he said.

Bush, he said, "is speaking the opposite of what's going on on the ground."

And folks...it's up to you to bring on the outrage...on that bit, I am calling it a night.