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Office of Special Counsel Raided.
It's about the deletion of White House and Republican party emails by GeeksonCall after a subpoena.
Our product is community, democracy, and fairness.
by kaye on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:20:44 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
by greenskeeper on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:25:11 AM PDT
The consultant they used said that a seven level sweep of a hard drive is almost never used. It is for when you really really really don't want anyone to see the information. That was covered on Randi Rhodes' show last year.
Iran Contra was able to be prosecuted because Ollie North didn't understand computers. He deleted files on his White House computer and thought they were uncoverable. A summer intern pulled the files back up.
JPZenger was a newspaper publisher whose jury trial in the 1730s for seditious libel helped establish the freedom to criticize top government officials.
by JPZenger on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:41:22 AM PDT
Computers were simpler beasts back then.
John McCain voted against health care for kids.
by Land of Enchantment on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:43:46 AM PDT
we'll stand him up against a wall and pop goes the weasel /rufus t. firefly
by 2nd balcony on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:00:02 PM PDT
But they're guaranteed to erase the files.
by lofistew on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:50:59 PM PDT
who cut up all those documents?
"Speak out, judge fairly, and defend the rights of oppressed and needy people." Proverbs 31:9
by zdefender on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:54:05 PM PDT
Edward Scissorhands??
Ego is the sedative that deadens the pain of stupidity. Unknown
by dazed in pa on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:59:57 PM PDT
by HugoDog on Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:15:16 PM PDT
Which candidate will rescind Executive Order 13233?
by el vasco on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:15:50 PM PDT
In most OS now, as was the case 20 years ago, deleting file simply removes the file's inode from the file system, but doesn't zero out the data itself. A little poking around can easily bring stuff back up.
In general this is a Good Thing. When the FS on one of my drives got hosed a few years ago I was still able to recover most of its contents (alas, some pictures and text documents were lost forever).
by Hyuga on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:34:27 PM PDT
JEEZ - that totally went over my head.
Too much LDS back then I suppose . .. .
by Roadbed Guy on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:49:32 AM PDT
"I said, 'Wait a minute, Chester, you know I'm a peaceful man.'" Robbie Robertson
by NearlyNormal on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:59:51 AM PDT
Mind altering drugs and religion do have the same effect, right?
At least that's the take home message I got from a bumper sticker my neighbor used to have on her car that said TRY JESUS NOT DRUGS
by Roadbed Guy on Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:21:11 PM PDT
...Jesus won't fit in my pipe.
by vacantlook on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:39:55 PM PDT
must be must larger than all those angels that can purportedly dance on the head of a pin?
But isn't dancing evil? So why would angels be doing that at all?
This religion stuff is just too complicated . . makes one head spin . . .
by Roadbed Guy on Tue May 06, 2008 at 03:45:24 PM PDT
He won't light very well, too damp.
Stop rewarding bad behavior.
by FLDemJax on Tue May 06, 2008 at 03:47:13 PM PDT
Come see TV from the reality-based community at RealityBasedTV.com
by MarkInSanFran on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:34:39 PM PDT
...Mr Spock.
(Tips to anyone who truly understands that reference.)
by vacantlook on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:15:03 PM PDT
both movie-wise and Iran contra-wise?
many kudos.
by Roadbed Guy on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:25:44 PM PDT
But yeah, I remember seeing Oliver North's face on tv a lot while I sat in the floor playing with my Max Ray Centurions action figure. It probably wasn't until a few years later that I first saw The Voyage Home.
Speaking of TVH, what is wrong with Bush that even Pavel Chekov can pronounce "nuclear" correctly!!
by vacantlook on Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:57:39 PM PDT
I loved The Voyage Home.
by leftynyc on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:45:49 PM PDT
The even ones rock.
So long as men die, Liberty will never perish. -- Charlie Chaplin, "The Great Dictator"
by khereva on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:27:18 PM PDT
"Remember, these are a primitive and paranoid people" - Captain Kirk (Star Trek IV, upon visiting 1960's America)
by howardfromUSA on Tue May 06, 2008 at 03:13:58 PM PDT
in a theater full of Mormons. From the uproar, you'd've thought that it was the best joke of all time.
Copy editor by day; typo creator by night.
by Mr Boring on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:03:37 PM PDT
when they get rid of their old computers. It's the only way to keep someone else form possible being able to recover credit card information. Well, that or take the hard drive out and beat it with a hammer.
--- Fight the stupid! Boycott BREAKING diaries!
by VelvetElvis on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:01:36 PM PDT
Well, that or take the hard drive out and beat it with a hammer.
I think that pretty much describes what the WH has been doing to the Constitution these 8 years...Bush has been using it to perform a 7 level wipe on his ass.
Intelligent Designer Laments Lapse in Intelligence
by mrblifil on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:26:29 PM PDT
by el vasco on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:20:01 PM PDT
he'd invested in one of these. All that money squandered on flat screens, sigh.
Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. --Molly Ivins
by sap on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:39:36 PM PDT
Say, like in the VP area of the White House. Just saying.
Raising Children: Long days and short years.
by atmplant on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:42:23 PM PDT
if you like shiny gold donuts. Had a computer going to recycling that refused to boot a disk-shredder floppy, so I used an allen wrench to take the drive apart. Try it some time.
by Econaut on Tue May 06, 2008 at 03:22:06 PM PDT
is DBAN or Darik's Boot and Nuke. Thermite is also a fun way to destroy a drive. :D
by pgm 01 on Tue May 06, 2008 at 03:33:35 PM PDT
think to wipe network backup tapes and servers? Not a question that can be answered here, but if the contractor didn't know exactly what they were doing, everything may be intact somewhere else.
Looking for intelligent energy policy alternatives? Try here.
by alizard on Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:40:47 PM PDT
actually functioning correctly, that is, the FBI is the good guy here, going after a bad guy here, Block, a Bushie who is getting his due?
OR, is Block a Bushie who was about to stray off the ranch and come clean and name names to the detriment of BushCo, so he was preemptively nailed by the FBI, acting as BushCo goons?
You never know what is true reality in BushWorld.
by BonzoDogBand on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:01:18 AM PDT
Bloch has been a controversial figure since he was appointed by President Bush in 2004. One of his first official actions was to refuse to investigate claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Career employees in his office say Bloch blamed them for leaking the story and retaliated by creating a new field office in Detroit and forcing them to accept assignments there or relinquish their jobs.
Bloch has been a controversial figure since he was appointed by President Bush in 2004. One of his first official actions was to refuse to investigate claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Career employees in his office say Bloch blamed them for leaking the story and retaliated by creating a new field office in Detroit and forcing them to accept assignments there or relinquish their jobs.
This is CLASS WAR, and the other side is winning.
by Mr X on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:15:23 AM PDT
...not.
(-5.50,-6.67): Left Libertarian
by Sparhawk on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:24:02 AM PDT
did find that Rove violated the politicization of the Executive branch law (remember those lunch time presentations). Nothing came of it, but I do remember being very surprised that a Bushie actually disageed with his owner.
Barack Obama - I'll never see the threat of terrorism as a way to scare up votes, it's a threat that should rally this country against our common enemies
by madgranny on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:38:39 AM PDT
And there's nothing they can do to hurt me."
Loyalty is perhaps the most prized quality in the White House. In the book, O'Neill suggests a very dark understanding of what happens to those who don't show it. "These people are nasty and they have a long memory," he tells Suskind. But he also believes that by speaking out even in the face of inevitable White House wrath, he can demonstrate loyalty to something he prizes: the truth. "Loyalty to a person and whatever they say or do, that's the opposite of real loyalty, which is loyalty based on inquiry, and telling someone what you really think and feel—your best estimation of the truth instead of what they want to hear." That goal is worth the price of retribution, O'Neill says. Plus, as he told Suskind, "I'm an old guy, and I'm rich. And there's nothing they can do to hurt me."
Paul O'Neill was never heard from again.
by lgcap on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:44:23 AM PDT
"Statistics are people with the tears washed away." Sociologist Ruth Sidel
by Vicky on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:49:08 PM PDT
They were investigated within an inch of their lives. The only thing found was oral sex by an intern followed by perjury. Everyone was called in front of committees and special counsels. People had to leave office when found wanting. Bill Clinton's Presidency is forever tarnished by his perjury. Monica Lewinsky will always be the butt of jokes.
The Clintons are not Republicans, and it was not ok.
by kaye on Tue May 06, 2008 at 03:27:09 PM PDT
he didn't commit perjury.
Ancora Impara--Michelangelo
by aravir on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:20:35 AM PDT
"I am just a patsy."
by BonzoDogBand on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:21:35 PM PDT
Could it be that something in BushWorld is actually functioning correctly, that is, the FBI is the good guy here, going after a bad guy here, Block, a Bushie who is getting his due?
I vote NO. I prefer to vote "Coverup."
My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. Barbara Jordan 1974
by gchaucer2 on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:16:28 AM PDT
by BonzoDogBand on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:12:36 PM PDT
Bushie if that person did not piss them off. Stuart Bowen, the head of SIGIR (Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction), Stuart Bowen was thought to be a loyalist too until he started uncovering all kinds of messes. He has been under investigation since last fall.
Though it is certainly possible that everyone is screwing up...
The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad; For the multitude of thy iniquity, and the great hatred...
by Tirge Caps on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:32:57 PM PDT
"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." -- William James
by AllanTBG on Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:04:39 PM PDT
he needed to be disappeared.
by lgcap on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:17:12 AM PDT
That kind of thing doesn't happen in Amer................................................................................................ ..............
"Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war." John McCain at the RNC, August 31, 2004
by Pangloss on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:12:29 PM PDT
and we are so lied to we need to actually question whether this has been done in furtherance of Justice or Corruption.
by IngeniousGirl on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:54:55 AM PDT
by BonzoDogBand on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:11:22 PM PDT
They gave Bloch two years to get ready for this raid, plenty of time for him to learn how to use a computer, clean up the paper trail, send anyone who was working at the office back in '04 to high paying private sector jobs (that they would lose if they started talking)...
So: FBI raids the office. Whenever the FBI is asked, they say it's under investigation and won't discuss it. Whenever someone from the special counsel office is asked, they say it's under investigation and won't discuss it. Keeps congress from investigating directly and issuing subpoenas, gives everyone an excuse not to answer any more questions. Then the whole investigation is quietly dropped sometime between Xmas and New Years.
by HiBob on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:57:57 AM PDT
that "things have been erased" - so things can be erased, right?
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. -- Julius Caesar, I.ii.
by semiot on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:45:34 PM PDT
by FundaMental Transformation on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:00:06 PM PDT
Contact Pelosi about impeachment: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
by Pescadero Bill on Tue May 06, 2008 at 02:19:14 PM PDT
Just for those of us who sometimes don't click the links.....
The Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management has been investigating Bloch for more than two years. He allegedly retaliated against career employees and obstructed an investigation. He also admitted hiring the company "Geeks on Call" to purge his computer and two of his deputies' computers. Bloch claimed the computers contained a virus; however, investigators are believed to suspect that he meant to destroy evidence. The warrant to seize the computers apparently was part of an investigation of whether Bloch violated a Congressional mandate known as the Hatch Act. The act prohibits employees from using their offices for partisan political purposes. The Office of Special Counsel was created by Congress after the Watergate scandal to protect federal whistleblowers. Bloch has been a controversial figure since he was appointed by President Bush in 2004. One of his first official actions was to refuse to investigate claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Career employees in his office say Bloch blamed them for leaking the story and retaliated by creating a new field office in Detroit and forcing them to accept assignments there or relinquish their jobs. Related NPR Stories
The Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management has been investigating Bloch for more than two years. He allegedly retaliated against career employees and obstructed an investigation.
He also admitted hiring the company "Geeks on Call" to purge his computer and two of his deputies' computers. Bloch claimed the computers contained a virus; however, investigators are believed to suspect that he meant to destroy evidence.
The warrant to seize the computers apparently was part of an investigation of whether Bloch violated a Congressional mandate known as the Hatch Act. The act prohibits employees from using their offices for partisan political purposes.
The Office of Special Counsel was created by Congress after the Watergate scandal to protect federal whistleblowers.
Related NPR Stories
Pretty Bird Woman House has a new house!
by betson08 on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:38:55 AM PDT
so he did a seven-level format of the hard drive. that's an interesting way to get rid of a computer virus. he could have just had the hard drive incinerated...
how ridiculous! I just heard this on NPR myself and couldn't believe my ears.
by MJ via Chicago on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:26:42 PM PDT
Karl Rove's Least Likely Interrogator: Scott Bloch and the Office of Special Counsel ... It appears that the OSC's probe will go well beyond the prosecutor firings, delving into the broader issue of the politicization of federal agencies at the hands of the White House. Among the things OSC investigators will be looking into is a PowerPoint presentation delivered to political appointees at the General Services Administration (GSA) in January by Rove deputy J. Scott Jennings. ... There is speculation, the investigator said, that Bloch is pursuing the Rove case to show his bona fides—"to provide some protection" for himself, given that an attempt to oust him from OSC now would look like a vendetta. "There's definitely one part of me that thinks it's great that we're taking some initiative to see how politicized the federal employment system has become under this president," he said. "Part of me applauds this. I wish I could take Scott seriously and trust him, but everything he's done at this agency shows that he's untrustworthy and that his motives are suspect. I don't know why we should trust him now. I hope we can, but I really don't." "This," he added, "is going to be interesting."
Karl Rove's Least Likely Interrogator: Scott Bloch and the Office of Special Counsel
...
It appears that the OSC's probe will go well beyond the prosecutor firings, delving into the broader issue of the politicization of federal agencies at the hands of the White House. Among the things OSC investigators will be looking into is a PowerPoint presentation delivered to political appointees at the General Services Administration (GSA) in January by Rove deputy J. Scott Jennings.
There is speculation, the investigator said, that Bloch is pursuing the Rove case to show his bona fides—"to provide some protection" for himself, given that an attempt to oust him from OSC now would look like a vendetta. "There's definitely one part of me that thinks it's great that we're taking some initiative to see how politicized the federal employment system has become under this president," he said. "Part of me applauds this. I wish I could take Scott seriously and trust him, but everything he's done at this agency shows that he's untrustworthy and that his motives are suspect. I don't know why we should trust him now. I hope we can, but I really don't."
"This," he added, "is going to be interesting."
The Bushies thought he was one of them because he is a homophobic religious zealot. It should have worked.
by lgcap on Tue May 06, 2008 at 12:33:21 PM PDT
Now I remember it. Block chose not to involve the in house IT department in the purge. He specifically went outside of the rules to hire an outside source to purge the files. Most likely because "Geeks on Call" do not know the laws regarding destruction of government information.
The plural of anecdote is not data.
by bobinson on Tue May 06, 2008 at 01:33:31 PM PDT
...but not unrecoverable.
Just "nearly" so.
Never, never brave me, nor my fury tempt: Downy wings, but wroth they beat; Tempest even in reason's seat.
by GreyHawk on Tue May 06, 2008 at 04:47:31 PM PDT
wide narrow
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