Tag: d.c.

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The White House and Illegal E-mail

I just read a flurry of accounts describing the many ways the Bush Administration has repeatedly violated the Presidential Records Act.

There’s an excellent segment explaining why this act requires White House officials to communicate via their official e-mail addresses and how much of the activity behind the Gonzales / AG firings scandal took place on RNC servers, where the data transmitted could be encrypted, deleted, and stay out of the public eye. You can click here and listen to the segement on this from this weekend’s On the Media:

Additionally, we now know that the White House has added five years of delay into the process of releasing presidential records (since 2001) if for nothing else than to cover their asses.

Further investigation of this issue points to conspiratorial — but heavily documented — accusations that Karl Rove is the kingpin of covert (and illegal) e-mail communications in concert with a Republicans-trusted server farm based in Tennessee.

UPDATE: Coptix is now taking credit for manufacturing the digitally altered photo referred to below.

This post at CorrenteWire explains best how a recent photo of Rove with a Coptix folder unravels into a long paper trail of activity involving the nameserver gwb43.com and Rove (he privatized his e-mail there). This method helps him, and other White House staffers, like his ex-assistant Susan Ralston, feel confident that they will not be held liable as they can destroy any evidence that might lead to a subpoena. But, alas, might the circumvention of white house communication policies alone be enough to serve a subpoena. Furthermore, the same company, Coptix, also SmartTech, is said to have been involved with filtering election results through their servers.

OK, now — I know it’s April Fool’s Day and this sounds incredibly tin-foiled-hatty as I’ve tried to relay it, but listen to the short radio piece and read the Corrente piece (and comments)…. Of course, this isn’t the first (or last) time BushCo will be caught breaking laws, but…

Finally, in another careless and potentially fatal blow (the Department of Homeland Security seems to be able to do whatever it wants):

“At an ICANN meeting in Lisbon, the US Department of Homeland Security made it clear that it has requested the master key for the DNS root zone. The key will play an important role in the new DNSSec security extension, because it will make spoofing IP-addresses impossible. By forcing the IANA to hand out a copy of the master key, the US government will be the only institution that is able to spoof IP addresses and be able to break into computers connected to the Internet without much effort. There’s a further complication, of course, because even ‘if the IANA retains the key … the US government still reserves the right to oversee ICANN/IANA. If the keys are then handed over to ICANN/IANA, there would be even less of an incentive [for the U.S.] to give up this role as a monitor. As a result, the DHS’s demands will probably only heat up the debate about US dominance of the control of Internet resources.'”

read the article DHS Wants Master Key for DNS (via slashdot).

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Thoughts + a Song

* Can anyone tell me why Google Reader doesn’t have a search/filter function?

— considering the nature of The Google, I suspect that either a) I’m missing something or; b) this will be resolved by the end of the weekend.

cartoon by RJ Matson.

* The new Secretary of Defense is both demanding and accepting resignations. I wouldn’t call this refreshing — the last SecDef would deny any wrongdoings to the grave, but the Walter Reed scandal could have been handled months ago and only know that it’s been uncovered is action being taken. You go to war with the hospitals you have…, right?

So, Robert Gates, or Bob, as the case may be — I dare you to take preemptive measures and have Halliburton/KBR etc pay us back some money so we can have welfare and education in the States. And democrats, support the troops — but don’t support the contractors!!! Even the troops can’t stand them (not the individuals, but the contracting corps w/ non-bid, cost-plus arrangements). Ok, so I did just watch Greenwald’s Iraq For Sale.

Exhale.

And now, some music, from the new Arcade Fire release, Neon Bible

Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running [ 3:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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It’s Not About Health Care; It’s About Caring

Sure, LA has its own problems with hospital patients being dropped off in skid row, but how — as Joe Galloway so eloquently wrote — can the blinders stay drawn while our injured troops are left in blight within the Beltway?

I try not to get sidetracked with being pissed off at shocking injustices at the hand of our wickedly rich government, but, mind you, I do bother to read Froomkin daily, but sometimes — especially on the day after being brought back to reality from the sheer mechanics and mindless rhetoric of even the most hopeful of campaigns — I must vent.

Froomkin borrows from Dana Priest’s piece in today’s post in remarking on the White House and Tony Snow’s unbelievable non-reaction to the uninhabitable quarters on the Walter Reed campus (ask the DoD… it’s an “action item.”

“At the White House, press secretary Tony Snow said that he spoke with President Bush yesterday about Walter Reed and that the president told him: ‘Find out what the problem is and fix it.'”

I must admit I found that a bit odd: Asking the press secretary to fix a military hospital? Is Bush saying it’s just a PR problem?

Sadly, not taking care of our own is nothing new.

photo by poppyseed bandits