Idiots and Government E-mail
So the White House had been using external e-mail servers and accounts for nongovernmental business.
The story there claims that they were used for official business, but no quote is provided from anyone actually claiming that, so I do not believe it.
The story also gets one major fact majorly wrong, by saying something that is a literal impossibility:
They could have been using some separate equipment, but it still had to go through the same server hardware if it is the same accounts, and those accounts would have been government servers, which would violate the law when those "same accounts" are used for nongovernment business. So the Bush administration set up separate accounts to comply with the law.
This is normal. I communicate regularly with my Republican state and county officials and their aides on two separate accounts, their official government accounts for government business, and their personal accounts for political or personal business. Just this week I sent out a request for legislation to my state officials' government accounts, and a Precinct Committee Officer appointment form to a government aide on his personal account.
However, it appears if some official government business was conducted on these "personal" accounts, it was illegal. The question was whether this happened, and whether this business qualifies under the relevant law. And I've seen no evidence of this, except the summary of a reporter who obviously doesn't quite understand what she is talking about. (I am open to actual evidence being provided.)
And then there is the issue of losing the email. I lose email all the time. Yes, it is possible for me to find it somewhere if absolutely necessary, by looking at my own backups, my server backups, router logs, etc. But it is still not wrong to say they are lost, as I often do. But that doesn't stop some wild-eyed crazyass Bush-hater from claiming that because nothing is every truly lost on teh internets, the White House is therefore lying. Yes, we are not stupid, we know that it is theoretically possible to find things that have been deleted, and the story even said that they are trying to recover the lost mail. But if you don't have it in hand, and you are not sure where to find it, it's lost. This is called English, people.
The story there claims that they were used for official business, but no quote is provided from anyone actually claiming that, so I do not believe it.
The story also gets one major fact majorly wrong, by saying something that is a literal impossibility:
Under President Clinton, White House aides used separate equipment for political spadework but did not have separate accounts.
They could have been using some separate equipment, but it still had to go through the same server hardware if it is the same accounts, and those accounts would have been government servers, which would violate the law when those "same accounts" are used for nongovernment business. So the Bush administration set up separate accounts to comply with the law.
This is normal. I communicate regularly with my Republican state and county officials and their aides on two separate accounts, their official government accounts for government business, and their personal accounts for political or personal business. Just this week I sent out a request for legislation to my state officials' government accounts, and a Precinct Committee Officer appointment form to a government aide on his personal account.
However, it appears if some official government business was conducted on these "personal" accounts, it was illegal. The question was whether this happened, and whether this business qualifies under the relevant law. And I've seen no evidence of this, except the summary of a reporter who obviously doesn't quite understand what she is talking about. (I am open to actual evidence being provided.)
And then there is the issue of losing the email. I lose email all the time. Yes, it is possible for me to find it somewhere if absolutely necessary, by looking at my own backups, my server backups, router logs, etc. But it is still not wrong to say they are lost, as I often do. But that doesn't stop some wild-eyed crazyass Bush-hater from claiming that because nothing is every truly lost on teh internets, the White House is therefore lying. Yes, we are not stupid, we know that it is theoretically possible to find things that have been deleted, and the story even said that they are trying to recover the lost mail. But if you don't have it in hand, and you are not sure where to find it, it's lost. This is called English, people.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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