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Obama Sides With Bush: Tries to Kill E-Mail Case
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.
Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove is a central figure in the Bush White House missing e-mail scandal. House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman, who has spearheaded the e-mail investigation, called the revelation that the e-mails might have been lost "a remarkable admission that raises serious legal and security issues," adding that, "The White House has an obligation to disclose all the information it has."(Gerald Herbert/AP) Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush's eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama's Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration's bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.
During its first term, the Bush White House failed to install electronic record-keeping for e-mail when it switched to a new system, resulting in millions of messages that could not be found.
The Bush White House discovered the problem in 2005 and rejected a proposed solution.
Recently, the Bush White House said it had located 14 million e-mails that were misplaced and that the White House had restored hundreds of thousands of other e-mails from computer backup tapes.
The steps the White House took are inadequate, one of the two groups, the National Security Archive, told a federal judge in court papers filed Friday.
"We do not know how many more e-mails could be restored but have not been, because defendants have not looked," the National Security Archive said in the court papers.
"The new administration seems no more eager than the last" to deal with the issue, said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the other group that sued the EOP.
The Executive Office of the President includes the president's immediate staff and many White House offices and agencies.
Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, noted that President Barack Obama on his first full day in office called for greater transparency in government.
The Justice Department "apparently never got the message" from Obama, Blanton said.
The department defends the government when it is sued.
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58 Comments so far
Show AllJust when you thought ..........
Yes, it's been a trifecta weekend so far: Pakistan, Bagram, and now this. What could be next?
Escalate Afghanistan. Continue to ignore Gaza.
Joe
Um, the new Iraqi regime has re-opened Abu Ghreib prison under a new name (Baghdad Central Prison). It has nice new paint and fittings including notices saying NO TORTURE. (I'm not clear as to whether that is a claim, a reminder, a rule, or a suggestion.)
Rainborowe
Isn't it odd that Obama sides with Bush on trying to kill the e-mail case and on the same day this weird story appears:
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A California Republican congressman has called on President Obama to put in place a system that ensures all White House emails be preserved even if official business was done through private e- mail accounts.
Rep. Darrell Issa, the senior Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, made the request in a February 19 letter to White House Counsel Greg Craig.
Issa specifically mentioned the new administration’s brief use of Gmail accounts after Obama was sworn in last month, as they waited for the official White House e-mail accounts to become active.
“As you know, any e-mail sent or received by White House officials may be subject to retention under the Presidential Records Act (PRA),” Issa wrote Craig in the letter.
[...] A White House spokesman told CNN Thursday that all staff were told to forward any official correspondence to their White House e-mail accounts, and added that private e-mail accounts are no longer being used.
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/issa-gets-panties-twist-over-potentia
** The neo-cons often utilize a propaganda technique where they accuse others of the exact crime they've committed. They then send the talking point out to their thousands of assets in the corporate media and it's repeated an infinite number of times. So if you were to have a conversation with your buddy and throw out the topic of "missing e-mails" he'd say...Oh yeah, I hear Obama is tying to hide his communications from the public. And when you explain to him that it's Bush who has hidden millions of e-mails that could link him to EVERY crime he committed he looks at you like you're nuts, because he can't remember ever hearing anything about it.
Gosh Toto, this isn't our democracy any more.
How did this sort of gangsterism get enshrined in our government?
Fascism creep with no public outcry nor response.
but we don't really need to know what bush did to have hope & change do we?
Well, I guess that just about does it for any lingering illusions we may have had about seeing justice served on the myriad crimes and ghastly depredations of the Bush gang. It's almost as if Obomber was brought in for the very purpose of sweeping it all under the rug. And so we proceed, ever more surely, step by step, towards the abyss...
Surely it can't be! It is too much to hope for, surely? Is it really! In the picture are those really bars that I see behind Turd Blossom and his two minders?
Shades of Tricky Dick (Richard Milhous Nixon) but this is a little more than 18 minutes worth.
If the Government does not obey the law, why should anybody? The Government sets the example.
"if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)
Downwinder,
Good find! The contempt continues to build in all areas of this criminal society.
I remember vaugely from Common Law that if the government fails to execute its own laws or hold its own officers to account when they violate those laws, that there is no need for any citizen to remain beholden to that government or to obey its officers, and the citizen is completely rightful to seek its replacement. The federal government of the USA fits this set of requirements as it consistently breaks its own laws and fails to enforce other laws on the books in order to favor some at the expense of others. No citizen is bound to support any criminal government; and as attested to on a daily basis, the federal government is a criminal government.
Karlof1
You'll find that in the Declaration of Independence and also in it's predecessor:
The Charge against the King [Charles I--January 20,1648/9]:
"That the said Charles Stuart, being admitted King of England, and therein trusted with a limited power to govern by and according to the laws of the land, and not otherwise; and by his trust, oath, and office, being obliged to use the power committed to him for the good and benefit of the people, and for the preservation of their rights and liberties; yet, nevertheless, out of a wicked design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people, yea, to take away and make void the foundations thereof, and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment, which by the fundamental constitutions of this kingdom were reserved on the people's behalf in the right and power of frequent and successive Parliaments, or national meetings in Council [& etc]
"By all which it appeareth that the said Charles Stuart hath been, and is the occasioner, author, and continuer of the said unnatural, cruel and bloody wars; and therein guilty of all the treasons, murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, desolations, damages and mischiefs to this nation, acted and committed in the said wars, or occasioned thereby."
***
Beyond that is the Magna Carta, in similar vein. The point is that this is what leaders (democratic OR NOT)tend to do whenever they can get away with it. I'm not suggesting countering this by rising up in arms against the head of government/state; merely that I think Americans have become victims of their own exceptionalist mythology and that they may (to paraphrase Voltaire on the democratic English) think they are free men but are, in fact, only free every 4 years and the rest of the time they meekly go back to their chains rather than recognize the reality and keep the pressure on those whom they freely elected. They seem to turn their elected (Chosen?) ones into hereditary but absolute monarchs for the duration--especially if That One, however nominally, represents "their" party.
It seems to me to be a rather immature understanding of both democracy and republicanism.
Rainborowe
"It seems to me to be a rather immature understanding of both democracy and republicanism."
This seems to be the root of the problem, doesn't it?
Also at the root of the problem is that many/most people seem to believe that everyone in the U.S. needs to be on the same page in order to affect change. Not true. A critical mass is made up of a small percentage of the whole population. As long as that critical mass can form and agree on a way to proceed, change can take place.
This has yet to happen.
And so we all sit here at our keyboards, repeating to the choir that which we already know 14,000 times over, despondent and complaining, instead of discussing how we should be taking real action to force the bums out of power. Waiting around for the next corporate-bought faux-election is obviously not an answer.
Will the US populace ever again have the guts and gumption to take control of their government? Or will it continue as armchair patriots and pseudo-intellectuals blowing hot air across the web?
I would submit that we need to show "the US populace" that they must "have the guts to take control of their government," as the Propaganda and Indoctrination Systems have done a very good job at keeping silent the major reasons why we must replace the current constitution with a new one. But when I go out and speak with common folks at coffeehouses and pubs about our broken federal government and the need to change it, I get met with agreement, but currently have no answer when asked what can be done to force change. The first item as I see it is the formation of an organization that acts as a thread to sew all the disparate individuals I see and read together; something along the lines of MoveOn. But once connected, there must be something to connect with, to discuss, which means a working draft of constitution 2.0 must be completed prior to any website being formulated; otherwise, there's nothing for folks to do once thsy arrive at the website.
Do you have anything to add, Seditious?
I do. I think it is long overdue that the federal government and it's moneyed corporate hierarchy is removed by insurrection, and that we should start over. A "Constitution 2.0" would be a necessary basis, but the need to completely remove the existing plutocracy immediately and the means to do it are the most pressing I believe. The problem is, very few in America would deign to risk anything of significance in order to go about the removal of the corrupted system.
The only way a serious effort could possibly be mounted would be if the progressives and others on the left could make common cause with the socially conservative underclass, i.e. the Joe sixpacks and the Betty Bible-thumpers. There will be many hurting people in the coming years and it is critical that the corporatists are not allowed to divide them and pit them against one another. If the progressive left could unite with the Christian Right and other poorly educated members of the working class on economic issues (those who "cling to guns and religion"), then the corporatists could be put on the run.
O bah bah bah .........
It should now be painfully clear to all but the most blind that Obama is now Public Enemy #1, and that the federal government is beyond broken, a complete failure. Federal government secrecy directly attacks my liberty, and it is clearly obstructing several capital crimes. The first constitution provided a check/balance on the president by appointing the losing candidate for president the vice-president. But that very important bit of the constitution was removed by the Twelfth Amedment, which was pushed for by Jefferson, in 1804.
I'm beginning to think that it's the office of the president that is the problem, not the amount of power vested in the office, espescially when congress doesn't do its job checking and thus balancing executive power. It doesn't seem to make any difference what sort of individual occupies the office as it's turned all post-WW2 presidents into tyrants, who broke the law and committed heinous crimes.
Does it make sense for one person to be designated a nation's leader and to vest that person with altogether too much power? I think we need to increase the number of those designated to lead and to greatly reduce the amount of power they wield. Constitution 1.0 is a failure no amount of amendments can fix. We must have a constitution 2.0 and the new governing institutions it will utilize.
This place is basically a dictatorship. Plain and simple. Adios.
Well, let's see now. Congressmen and Senators are too busy junketing and campaigning for the next election to read any bills, so their
staff tells them what to vote for or against or what to abstain from, and staff gets their orders from the
lobbyists, who tell the staff what their owners, which is big business/banking/MIC/etc., want passed or failed.
In the White House, the Cabinet advises (tells) the President what to do, based on what their handlers, (which seem to be the same business interests that control congress) want done.
The President's Cabinet and other advisers seem to be the same people that have been dictating policy since the Reagan years or before.
Continuity of government? Oh yeah! A time of change? Riiight!
There is only one thing to bring change. This is to stop...really stop
giving them your money.
This means you will need to reconsider your priorities and decide if what you own today is more important than stopping this corruption and bringing real change.
They do not care what people do as long as you keep giving them your money.
So the U.S. Government wants to read your emails but they don't want you to read theirs. Sounds fair! Sounds democratic! Sounds very U.S.!
Never mind. The U.S. Government will be bankrupt soon after the costs of escalating the Afghan invasion and occupation start to bite. By then, most Americans will be bankrupt as well!
Then the matter of emails will become small cheese.
www.dangerouscreation.com
We are the people they are her to protect us from... So we better do what they say or who knows what we might do...
Pan
George Orwell 1984
Obama sposed to work for us.
One does not look to corruption for justice or immaturity for Constitutional defense. Obama is not up to the job.
I saw the movie Frost Nixon tonight. Some friends really wanted to go. The movie focused on Nixon's personality and psychology. I thought it was a surfacey job.
Obama has a completely different personality and yet here we are again. Bomb Pakistan (Cambodia). Escalate Afghanistan (Vietnam). Cover-up up Watergate wrongdoing (torture, missing emails). And he continues to stonewall on Gaza, Israeli nukes and where the bailout cash went.
By the way, it is not time for any self-righteous comments "I voted for Nader" etc. What good did that do? We have all failed so far to turn around the institutionalized violence and corruption in our country. It has little to do with personalities or individuals. It is much deeper and more serious.
Joe
Look and listen...
Seeing a movie and the equating that experience to the current schism in this country is self-serving. If not self-righteous.
His 'apparent' personality is that of a run-of-the-mill politician with the added talent of articulating and renouncing by condescension and an ample supply of arrogance. Of course, to say this is tantamount to being a racist, even as this is any politician in this country, today.
I watched him and Missy Clinton through the drought of political pandering we call an election year. The hypocrite McCain. Shit.
We got shit to vote for. No one will ever explain to me that was not intentional.
I watched a British movie with Sean Bean as an SAS captured in the first 'Bush' extravaganza. He had to hand shovel human waste down a small hole, then he had to lick his hands clean while the guard talked about going to America for schooling in film or something...
That sums up this circus.
Huh?
Joe
Thank you, Joe, for your thoughts.
I agree that Obama is falling in a similar groove that others have. And, how could he not - the system hasn't changed.
And yeah, agreed about the "I voted for..." statements. Nader would have walked into the SAME situation as Obama or McCain, except without a bit of support. IMO, he'd be toast by now.
Hopefully, Americans will at long last realize that politicians are not going to stop being politicians. It's really up to us as citizens to pull this thing in the direction we want it to go. We really have no other choice - we've seen what the other choices bring.
So, you are saying Mr. Nader would be an ineffectual leader by now? You mean he would have been just like Mr. Obama is now?
Well, I can believe that it makes no difference who we vote for then. We are all toast, soon, with the economic and military mess we have going.
I believe Nader would have said the truth, which is a very dangerous thing, especially in Washington. By now, he would either be a lame duck, or a dead duck.
>>By the way, it is not time for any self-righteous comments "I voted for Nader" etc. What good did that do?
Uh, right, Joe. And just what good did it do to vote for a guy who "sides with Bush", who is busy escalating wars in Afghanistan and ordering missile strikes in Pakistan, and has packed his cabinet with neo-cons and other assorted ideological idiots?
When will it be time to say "I voted for none of this shit", Joe? After the fascist/military/CIA takeover?
The problem is that our elected official have been pre screened and sponsored, not by the US citizens, but by an outside organization for the last 100 years. This same organization has gone by many names in the past. Some of them are: Illuminati, Round Table, Free Masons, Bilderberg, Trilateral commission which has a sub group working in politics known as the CFR. From Jimmy Carter to today, all canidates have been prescreened and vetted before allowing to run. Please google these items:
Global elite gather in D.C.
Trilateral commission: world shadow government
Obama: Trilateral commission end game
We are in deep trouble, and don't have much time to figure out what we are going to do. Request feed back! Thanks cabin.
I look forward to a time when we have built an effective national challenge outside the two parties. Anybody can see that was not 2008. The independent campaigns were pathetic. The inability to rally any significant numbers of people to support a political campaign means that we progressives lack a fundamental level of political competence at this time.
Until we build something, radical sounding talk is just hot air. Sad to say I tell the truth.
Joe
Surprise? Are we still surprised? I mean really?
mr. obama,
in your effort (if in fact you're putting forth one) to correct the scales of balance, you continue to be unimpressive. it's way past time to start walking the walk. we've had far too much lip service over the last four months.
It seems he is no white knight in shiny armour,even though he led us to want to think he was.Continualy strutting himself as one who did not vote for war when it turned sour.And now he begs for gold from China,while it spreads it's human right abuses.The shine showing on him was black like shoe polish which like polish dulls with wear.The saying is money makes the world go round.But with him letting human rights abusers linger around him,his demonology is there for the world to see what is more important to him,money and more money.
More alarmist tripe and bleating greens that didn't vote for the man anyway.
This article is misleadingly and dishonestly titled.
Another Sunday at CD, ho hum.
>>This article is misleadingly and dishonestly titled.
Oh really? Just what, exactly, is misleading or dishonest here, other than your attempt to disregard simple facts in a pathetic attempt to make it appear otherwise?
Did one of you just say "Obama is Public Enemy Number One?"
omifrigginword
You sound precisely like Alan Keyes.
new bedfellows for the keyboard activists
Yes, I did, and he is. Just as Bush was, and Clinton before him and so forth. Your level of ignorance is staggering if you cannot understand why this is so. The man broke his oath of office even before it was read for him correctly to recite. Just because there are tiny nuances of difference between Obama and Bush doesn't absolve Obama from his status of Public Enemy #1. He's earned it, just as those who went before earned theirs.
Since he says he needs to study every question brought to him,he must of concluded it was not feasible to run another government study he must of concluded going after the money was the "high road" and human rights were the "low road".Thus providing the world a glimpse of him.We now know the new boss is the same as the old boss.Has anyone ever seen human rights abuses ever get any better any where in the world?
Extension of unlawful raids into Pakistan, more troops to Afghanistan, Bagram, protecting the Bush junta's criminal practices... I probably forgot something. It looks more and more like the Bush years are not quite over.
Just 'cuz George W. is now living full-time in Texas don't mean yet BushCo has left the White House, I suppose.
'cuz, yeah, 'BushCo' is a brand name, the name of a kind of politcking and messing with the world and the folks at home.
BushCo is now ObamaInc.
So, what part of change you can believe in did you believe in? Wake up, Obama is part of the one party system of war and coporations, and he and the whole bunch of scum bags in Washington don't give a fu_k about you. Every election America sends a new bunch of lying assholes to Washington, and think things will get better.
Or Doctor,to put it a different way. The definition of political insanity: Voting for the same 2 political parties over and over and expecting a different result!
From my perspective, there is only one way to take America back from the crime family that really governs it and that is, no more divide and conquer! America needs a new George Washington, that can form a coalition of right,left and center citizens that realize we are all in the same boat and (to use a Western movie analogy)being screwed by a corrupt Sheriff and his thugs that have taken over our town and it is time for the good citizens to quit being cowards and take their town back!