NEWS: Oops, We Totally Broke The Law

POLITICS: Oops, We Totally Broke The Law

The White House admitted in a court of law this week that it blatantly broke the law and... nobody gives a shit. Late on Sunday night, the criminals known as the Bush Administration acknowledged in a court filing that they don't have backup tapes of emails between March 1 and May 22, 2003. Nothing much happened during that time, except the build up to the Iraq War. As a matter of fact, May 22nd just happens to be the day the UN gave formal approval to the US occupation of Iraq. How unlucky is that? And, it turns out we have something called the Presidential Records Act, which is a law that requires the president to save all his records. Thank God nobody gives a shit about our president breaking the law.

Yeah, that's a bummer Tommy. Did you see the Laker game?



Two non-profit organizations are suing the White House to recover any missing emails and to create a more effective email archiving system. (That basically means, don't throw your hard drives in the shitter.) Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) and the National Security Archive (NSA) are the two groups on this mission of failure.



Up until Sunday, there were quite a few contradictory reports coming from the administration. They said they had them, then they didn't have them, then they did, then they recycled the back up tapes, then they were lost in a boat accident, then they were killed in Russia and finally, the court was told the emails got drunk and took off in a Jeep. None of those statements turned out to be true. The court asked the White House to clear up the confusion and state exactly which backup tapes it did and did not have from March 2003 to October 2005. Finally, late Sunday night, the White House came clean and said they had totally blown it. I believe they used the legal term, "My bad" and the US media responded with the journalistic expression, "No worries."



In October 2003, the White House stopped their "policy" of recycling backup tapes. All tapes after that date have been preserved. Up until that point, it's a bit spotty. In 2003, no tapes exist for March thru May and for the months May thru September the number of existing tapes is extremely low.

It's been 2 ½ years since the White House "realized" there was a problem with the archiving system - and they are still trying to say they don't know whether many emails are missing or not. The White House is clearly trying to run out the clock, knowing nothing will be done to punish them once they are gone. After Bush leaves the White House, the Republican media machine will go bat shit crazy if anyone investigates their obvious criminal activity and the Democrats will cower in a corner and shake. But, hey, the worst thing they did was commit an act of treason, so no big.



At this point, CREW and NSA want the judge to issue a ruling that forces the White House to copy email archive files from all electronic sources. It may actually happen now that the Administration has admitted that they "can't find" a couple months worth of emails.



Go America!

You know what's the difference between the White House and me? I'm answerable for my acts to God - the White House to nobody.

It's so awesome that nobody cares about this.

It's astonishing to me how little most people seem to care about everything this administration has done. Especially when you consider the absolute frenzy that everyone flew into when Clinton got a blow job.

I've been writing letters to my congressmen on pretty much a bi-weekly basis trying to hold them accountable for you know...doing something about the various messes that we have. I've gotten a bunch of polite responses promising "further investigation" and the like...we'll see what happens. Oh wait, that would be nothing.

It isn't that nobody cares. It is that the people who do care don't have any options. I sure as hell can't walk into the White House and say "You're all under arrest." And you can sure as hell bet that no Bush appointed federal judge is going to issue warrents for arrest. Congress isn't going to impeach, and all Bush has to do is sacrifice someone if there IS an investigation, then pardon them. So while there are MILLIONS of people who care, we have given away our power and can do nothing.

Power can be given away or it can be taken back, I think one of the best things happening to this country is the shift of people towards independant, from the two existing parties. It means in theory at least that politicians will need to be held more accountable for their actions.

Edited to finish saying.

hopefully in the next few election cycles enough people will have moved away from the big two that they can no longer rely on beating the same old dead horses for votes then do nothing once in office. The power will be ours once again it's just going to take time to take it back is all.

isn't this the reason you have the right to own arms though?

Only if I were inclined towards treason.

I'm ashamed. I was hoping to hear Bush say his dog ate the tapes.

Yeah, Secret Service kind of frowns on the general public pulling a gun on anyone in the white house

But it worked in the movie!

Why do you assume no one cares?

And what have you done with your outrage?

No, it isn't.

Well for some of us it is.

I've been writing my senator for years...my senator never wrote back......
I lived in NYC; i guess she was too busy trying to plot how to fuck up democratic rivals.

Remember, all problems can be solved by killing someone.

When negotiations fail, violence is all that is left.

I, for one, have taken the "They're gonna do what they want anyway... Is it November 2008 yet?" stance. I feel like a victim of abuse with a plan in place to escape and just waiting for that day to come.

And when violence fails because the US Military has more guns than you do, what comes next?

+1

Th e US military is having a spot of trouble in a country with only 26 million people , try scaling that up to 300,000,000 and throw in the fact that most soldiers won't want to shoot their own friends and family and by extension the friends/family of their fellow soldiers.

I think i'll be fine.

Oh and <----- how did you miss that?

I didn't miss it . . . I just forgot to include my own

And as mistakes go, yours was fatal. *blasts you with violence*

I very much disagree. Most people don't even know, let alone care. I think if the kitchen table issues weren't so kitchen tabley, the madness that was the Democratic Primaries hadn't been so mad, and me and mine weren't over here getting shot at, this administration would receive more scrutiny. Unfortunately this is not the case and instead of an "Are you serious?", stories like this get a "So?"