You, Off My Internet

So here's a question, peripherally related to the attorney firings and this but really, if there's a more inept bunch of liars alive I've never met them.

Has anybody ever really done a study or a story or any kind of examination of why and how e-mail's being used within this and other presidential administrations?

I ask this because between the Sloganator and this, watching these people use the Internet is like watching my grandmother yell at the answering machine.

And I just think, given the amount of personal stuff people usually send through their work accounts (note to hatemailers: this is DUMB and I'm not above forwarding it to your boss) that somebody had to think to themselves, you know, maybe it's not such a good idea to give everybody a White House e-mail account.

I mean, do you really not think what you write through such an account, be it the umpteenth forward about how men can't put the toilet seat down or explanations of how you're going to lie to Congress today, is going to end up in somebody else's hands? You work in the White House, you twits. The blatant stupidity of it offends me, on top of the lying and illegal stuff everybody else is already all over.

Tell me there's a manual. Something along the lines of:

1. Don't send the nuclear launch codes to Barney's address, Mr. President.
2. No changing your nickname to "SexyBack123," Madam Secretary.
3. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, Karl.
4. No, you can't really get medication free from that web site, Laura.

A.

Comments

[spocko]

You will note that they SAY that some people don't use email. I think that Rummy and Cheney (and especially Karl) learned from the Nixon days that if it is written down it can be used against you. And I'll bet they are careful with what they ACTUALLY say,
Like the mafia who don't actually say the words when referring to drugs, 'Did you get those things from the guy at that place?"
is what the FBI hears which means did you get the dope from the dealer at the the drop point.

But yes, their lessers (the people who aren't smart and evil as Karl, Rummy and Cheney ) are going to spew all sorts of shit via email.

And they will probably recount CONVERSATIONS. But I DO wonder about actual printed out paper with hand scrawled notes. Like Cheney did. Any more of these? I think we have to ask for the stuff that they aren't thinking matters.

[virgotex]

I've thought the same thing- remember back when half the people in the Clinton WH were getting subpoenad? I remember reading how NOBODY so much as kept a day tracker, much less emailed, because there was no telling when it could come back to chomp them in the ass.

I agree with Spocko about the big guys not leaving trails, but you think they'd have a policy about no one leaving trails, since those trails more often than not lead back to the big guys.

So. Yeah. Seems too dumb to be true.

[dan mcenroe]

They might not be leaving official trails, but the dumb fucks are using an outside email server to bypass White House mandatory record keeping:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/4/135310/0946

Thing is, since it's a private server, nothing that gets transmitted through it is protected by executive privelege. Whoops!

>>I agree with Spocko about the big guys not leaving trails

One of the things that struck me during Iran-Contra (as much as anything political can strike a teenaged boy) was how much of this shit they had written down. They kept detailed records of every last bit of skullduggery they had committed. I think it's because they were obsessed with their legacy: "We will be vindicated by history!" I'd bet that the current bunch of criminals has put a lot more down on paper than we think - we just haven't figured out where to look for it yet.

[apishapa]

My cousin was assigned to the White House for several years. She was convinced that all the Secret Service did all day was read other people's e-mails. Needless to say, I never got an e-mail from her White House account.

I work for the state government and I do send personal e-mails, but I did tell my brother that he cannot send me dirty jokes anymore. he still does. I get "banned content" stuff all the time.