The WH and Bush have trumpeted their document dump of emails, stating that if the Democrats and others want to know what happened, they should read the emails. Which is great and everything, except for one little detail- three weeks of messages appear to be missing:
I think a commenter in our document dump research thread may have been the first to notice that the emails released by the Justice Department seem to have a gap between November 15th and December 4th of last year.
(Our commenter saw it late on the evening of the dump itself — see the comment date-stamped March 20, 2007 02:19 AM in the research thread)
The firing calls went out on December 7th. But the original plan was to start placing the calls on November 15th. So those eighteen days are pretty key ones.
I blame Democratic overreach.
Slide
and not even an acknowledgement…
Larry
The ghost of Richard Nixon still walks the White House hallways, apparently. Is there a secretary who will now come forward and demonstrate how she accidentally deleted the missing items?
Moll Slanders
Of course you do!
Slide
nah… this is the computer age, it will of course be a computer glitch of some sort. But, could they possibly have thought they could get away with not supplying all the emails? Even I have trouble thinking that they could be that stupid.
cd6
Maybe they just didn’t release those emails because the bulk of them are from Mark Foley and are too explicit for TV?
Moll Slanders
What’s gay sex got to do with it?
fwiffo
The reason 18 days are missing is because the White House and Justice Department computers were just updated for the Gregorian calendar. There’s been a little bit of backlog in their IT department.
mrmobi
I anxiously await an explanation from someone in the administration as to how the 18-day email record was “accidentally erased,” along with its’ backup.
This is pathetic.
Moll Slanders
I’m anxiously awaiting Darrell’s explanation of why he keeps giving this administration a pass after that explanation you’re anxiously awaiting.
jenniebee
First it’s a missing 18 minutes of tape, now it’s a missing 18 days of email. The party’s consistent, I’ll give it that.
Larry
Updated this for you.
mrmobi
Thank you, Larry. I had almost forgotten about Rose Mary Woods.
Seems like old times, doesn’t it?
mrmobi
Haven’t seen Gruppenfuhrer D around here much lately.
Could it be even National Socialists find defending these lying sacks of shit difficult?
Bubblegum Tate
I blame Democratic overreach.
I blame the abject hatred Murtha, Pelosi, Kerry, and Shumer have for T3h Tr00pz.
Tsulagi
Gee, how did that happen? Of course, they just know they’re so slick no one would notice. They’re smart like that. They never fail to deliver.
I look forward to the “It’s just 16 words!” crowd cranking up “It’s just 18 days!”
monkey boy
Maybe nobody used email for 18 straight days. All sign language and semaphore, and a shitload of Kelly Temp mimes employed for those weeks….
Dreggas
But…But…THE CIGAR WAS MISSING!!!
Krista
They’re not. But they obviously think that the rest of America IS that stupid. They been saying, “Trust us!”, while crossing their fingers behind their backs and grinning at each other like slavering jackals.
AkaDad
It’s time for Bush to launch Operation Stonewall™
Moll Slanders
Well, if they left that job to Kely Temps, they SHOULD be hung.
ThymeZone
We are living in historic times! The race is on …. will Bush 2 replace Nixon as being seen as the most corrupt president in history?
I think he now has a legitimate shot. The idea that you can basically have a cheap political trickster (Rove) running the U.S. Department of Justice is something for the history books.
Priceless.
Even way out here in Arizona, people get this story.
The Other Steve
Didn’t Clinton do something similar?
Moll Slanders
Why should that be surprising? I’m concerned about folks in “Missippi” getting it myself.
ThymeZone
Yeah, he called Janet Reno and asked that some attys be fired for not bashing Republicans. And she told him to suck her dick.
A1
No “Republican Stupidity” tag?
Dreggas
At which point Clinton laughed then she showed him she had one.
ThymeZone
Aligned with the historical record :-)
Moll Slanders
at which point he began to wonder if sneaking Monica in the back door was really worth it.
Dreggas
Dreggas
Straightened out you mean?
p.lukasiak
in the old days, the House Judiciary Committee would have assigned one, maybe two, employees to go through the emails… and it would have been done systematically, and taken weeks, because they were dumping 3000 pages.
And the media might have assigned one or two reporters to read them looking for “smoking guns”, but they wouldn’t assign anyone to actually put all the emails documents into context. (they ignored the Bush military records after finding no obvious “smoking gun” — even though there WERE smoking guns if you examined them within their proper context.)
Rove and Co. were working from pre-internet assumptions about how the data would be processed, and assumed that the gap would not be detected for weeks… well after the scandal had played out, and the media was on another story.
They failed to understand that thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people would be going through these documents meant that the odds were really high that the gap would be discovered immediately — and that the story would be picked up by the media
(and having it be an 18 day gap to match the 18 minute gap makes the story irresistable….)
ThymeZone
Ba-da-boom!
Yes!
{ which one of us is doing Ed McMahon here ….? }
{ role confusion }
Moll Slanders
It duz, it duz!
ThymeZone
I’m washing my hands of this.
Dreggas
Who cares who’s who it’s all good.
Moll Slanders
Moll Slanders
Dreggas, that’s the same thing, isn’t it?
Dreggas
you’re lucky he had to wash much more…out damn spot.
BrianM
8th most read, after “Winning lottery ticket expiring”, “PV socialite expected to plead guilty in deal”, and “Britney Spears leaves rehab.” Did beat out “Boy puts urine in teacher’s coffee,” though.
Sometimes I almost think I’m out of touch with the public.
Punchy
how many years in school…and I never thought of this?
Genius, really.
ThymeZone
This has been Great Moments in Dry Cleaning History.
jenniebee
How quickly they forget Harding.
Dreggas
Nah, there’s no way you can sneak on that one.
Steve
Harding wasn’t corrupt at all, he just had a lot of self-dealing people in his Cabinet. Same with Grant. Nixon, on the other hand, was personally involved.
Dreggas
I faked that I jumped out a window to help push one teacher over the edge into a nervous breakdown during my senior year. Of course I also did my senior term paper on the Psychology of Mass Murderers and Serial Killers and told said teacher in a conference book report on a book on the manson family that Charles Manson was a genius for using sex and drugs to get people to do his dirty work hehehe.
ThymeZone
US Attorney firings are the second top story on the front page today.
Our governor is a former (Clinton) US Attorney. People are paying attention out here.
ThymeZone
At last, we know who is writing Darrell ……….
Bubblegum Tate
At which point Clinton cried upon realizing that hers is bigger than his.
Richard Bottoms
28% of America is that stupid.
That would be the hard core dead-enders who will support president Potato Head come hell or high water.
Dreggas
No I’m not quite to that level of insanity yet. I have medication now…
Moll Slanders
Do you also pull wooden toy ducks in front of psych professionals saying “here ducky, ducky…”?
Jake
Democratic Overreach meets the Republican Reach around.
Am I the only one who thinks that the Administration doesn’t understand how the internons work? How many times has the following scenario played out:
* Admin Person X makes a stupid comment in front of the cameras.
* Stupid comment hits the internons five seconds later and the outrage turbines begin to roar.
* Administator X denies making the comment.
* People cite now internationally viewed film clip.
* Admin person screams in pain as he realizes he just stepped on his own dick.
Dreggas
Heh no but during a Rorschach test I see lots of ink-blots.
Seriously I hated this teacher with a passion, had her as an english teacher in 7th grade and 10th grade and remember her getting all pissy about me wanting to read a Stephen King book in 7th grade but had no problem making us read a book about a girl and her several failed suicide attempts.
PeterJ
The Gap(tm) just came up on the press conference with Tony Snow. He declined to answer and told the reporter to ask the DOJ.
Moll Slanders
“Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret”? If not, it’s probably another Judy Blume book, I’ll bet.
ThymeZone
Oh man, chick stories.
Dreggas
Lisa Bright and Dark actually (suprised I remember it). It wasn’t Judy Blume, it was far more graphic.
Moll Slanders
Not just chicks, it is much worse than that. When I was in all-state chorus, we had to sing a song called “Dominic Has a Doll“.
Punchy
So she had Kerrigan whacked. Big deal.
mrmobi
This reminds me of that old (Richard Pryor) joke about two men in a fishing boat, taking a piss over the side. Guy #1 says, “This water is cold.” Guy #2 says, “Yeah, and it’s deep, too.”
mrmobi
This thread should be renamed the “Let’s take a walk down memory lane.”
Slide
back to the “Gap”
mrmobi
Wow. Sounds to me like old Tony is hedging his bets.
ThymeZone
Wow. That’s disturbing, if you’re a Republican in congress.
GOP members have to be thinking, how far away do I have to run from these feckless assholes before I have a chance at reelection in 2008?
DougJ
I wonder it’s got something to do with the change in daylight savings time.
Cyrus
Could be, but I don’t know, the “didn’t understand YouTube/Google/PayPal” excuse is sooooo 2006. My assumption was just that the White House is trying to run out the clock. It’ll be another two weeks or more before those e-mails are “found,” but they’ll be of unverifiable provenance. Or they won’t be found at all, and it’ll take another month at least to figure out exactly which member of the administration gave the order/bribe/threat to the record-keeper.
And so on until it’s the fall of 2008. Either they don’t care about the fortunes of Republicans in the next elections, or they believe (rightly or wrongly, and either way it could depend greatly on details) that investigations wouldn’t make Democrats look good. It seems to me that since last November, the administration’s goals have been relatively simple: keep the army in Iraq and Bush in office for as long as possible, damn the consequences, and only admit to a mistake if it means not admitting to a larger one.
ThymeZone
A strategy ususally employed by the winning team.
These guys are doing great imitations of pathetic losers at the moment.
DougJ
I remember a parody of this called “Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret Atwood.” That will probably offend Krista — I know Margaret Atwood _is_ a God in Canada.
Slide
huh? hey.. this the computer age, what does it take to search for those emails by date and subject? Two weeks? Please, I don’t think anybody will buy that.
ThymeZone
Well, first they have to write them and munge the headers.
That isn’t something they can do in one day, ya know.
Moll Slanders
I wouldn’t put it past them to try it.
Face
Fixed to be dickish.
ThymeZone
Me either.
{ neither? }
Nor me.
Not me, too.
Ditto.
ThymeZone
Is he from Canada? I did not know that.
If he is, I mean. If he isn’t, I knew that I didn’t know that.
Moll Slanders
If he’s Canadian, what the hell is he doing screwing with our electorate? He’s NOT Canadian, I highly doubt it.
Face
Getty, Leif, and Neil, you obstinate poo-head. ;)
Moll Slanders
Don’t talk about Leif when in Ritz Carlton Hotels. LOL
One of my favorite bands!
Moll Slanders
But isn’t it Geddy? Not Getty?
and I personally like to call them Lee, Lifeson and Peart.
Tsulagi
LOL!
Tony’s brain: Okay, not even I am going to repeat the total bullshit response I was told to give and completely embarrass myself. I don’t want to be laughed at again, so tell them to let DOJ say it.
DougJ
Am I the only one who can’t hear the phrase “seems like old times” without thinking of the end of “Annie Hall” and quietly weeping?
LLeo
It is SAT time for all the little High School kids. So I have come up with an analogy for them:
George Bush is to the Presidency of the USA
as
Ken Delay is to the CEO of Enron.
Moll Slanders
Does that make the USA defunct?
Richard Bottoms
And funny as hell if you are a Democrat.
But as John says, Hillary just irritates him. And what else could be as important in a president than to be non-whatever it is that Hillary… is.
So tell me, why are Republicans running someone in 2008? I can tell whoever it is, it will be slow, it will be painful.
You will not enjoy it.
Har.
Paul Wartenberg
Gee, considering the number of other Operations this gang has implemented over 6 years, do you think that’s wise…?
Andrew
Ask the Chinese. It’s up to them.
fwiffo
No love? Man, I thought that was my best material in months.
Moll Slanders
By the way Face, you did know about this, right?
On another note, Face, I want to tell you how cute I thought you were on Nick, Jr. I had no idea you were so political though.
ThymeZone
It was excellent work. Just that we’re all really full of it today and too busy trying to out-snark one another.
demimondian
Well, their Exchange server went down, so they’re waiting for the emails to leak, so that they can retrieve them from the Google cache.
Moll Slanders
I’m sorry, I’m still working with the Julian calendar.
LLeo
I think the US has better fundementals. Like term limits for the Presidency.
Dreggas
but that fundamental is up against another fundamental. Percentage who vote.
Moll Slanders
I’m not so sure Georgie knows what that term “term limits” means. It might mean to him that we have to limit that term altogether.
Moll Slanders
Nu-uh! I was under the impression they hadn’t figured out what the Google Cache is, I was hoping they never do.
Larry
Everyone is in a very snarky mood today. Let’s keep in mind that the integrity of our justice system is on the line here.
mrmobi
No, you are not, sir. One of my all-time favorites of Woody Allen, and a spectacularly musical performance from “Annie.”
Punchy
Myself…I prefer the Jenna Jameson calender.
Here’s hoping we KO AG the AG ASAP, OK?
carpeicthus
I always said the integrity of our justice system was based on Baloon Juice comments.
Moll Slanders
You’re right, of course. But, it’s so hard to stop being gleeful while watching them finally stick their feet so far down their own throats that it’s causing this kind of spillover.
fwiffo
Yes, this is very serious. We need to get Joe Klein in here to sort this all out.
les
Could be they just upped their use of non-official e-mail addresses, and by-passed the mandatory backups required under law. I bet Abu G could come up with a defense for that. And TPM (I think it was) has already noted some oddball addresses in the pile o’ shit already released.
mrmobi
Agreed, Moll.
On the other hand, all of this smells like the “Saturday Night Massacre” to me, and that’s scary. If Abu Gonzales does resign, it will be very important that the Senate make sure the new guy isn’t another crony without a conscience.
demimondian
Joke Line isn’t enough — we’re going need a whole movie. I’m thinking the Aristocrats, myself…
Baby Jane
Potato potato.
Moll Slanders
Do you really think they’ll actually get someone with integrity? I’m not holding my breath. This administration has been so audacious for so long that I’m feeling like someone who hasn’t had sleep for a week… I’m crazed with laughter over this whole mess; but then, I’m also the kind who would probably laugh as my reserve parachute refused to open, too!
Halffasthero
Just when you think this administration can’t sink any lower, they find themselves a trap door. The infamous 18 minutes that Nixon left in his old tapes from yesteryear and the 18 days here are going to be striking too much of a chord of recognition. As to “not breaking any laws” regarding the removal of attorneys, that actually remains to be seen since the evolving stories clearly indicate that GWB and his band of merry followers are having trouble with a straight story. More sophistry to cover up specific facts and they keep insisting “there is nothing to see here”.
A atrreaight answer from this administration would be truly refreshing. After 6 years, I am glad I wasn’t holding my breath.
Richard 23
It’s not uncommon for a large organization like the Federal Government to misplace documents and computer files. No big deal really.
It’s not surprising that the libs are celebrating like it’s Fitzmas morning all over again. But they’ll be crying in their coffee when they unwrap their presents and discover that they didn’t get what they wanted. “Oh no, a sweater? I wanted a marching frog!”
A delusional lot, they are. Really.
There’s no there here but it doesn’t stop the left from going on a feeding frenzy. But where’s the beef?
Tax Analyst
Say, wasn’t Rosemary Woods’ “accidental” tape erasure EIGHTEEN MINUTES? Or am I just experiencing some problems with my flash-backs again? Now we have EIGHTEEN DAYS of “missing”, “misplaced” or “the Bad Dog ate it, and we’re gonna punish him” e-mails. Oh, wait…I think I was right…the delusional flash-backs are happening to that “Richard 23” clown, not me. Dude, the “beef” is that wad of crap that’s sitting where your brains ought to be.
ed
“You deserve to know your President is not a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
Either a Nixon quote or what I was expecting Bush to say halfway through that
messpress conference. All the false bluster of the extremities-deprived Black Knight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.Zifnab
If Abu gets the boot, they’ll have to replace him with someone and in the meantime the Justice Department will come to a grinding halt. Normally, that would be a problem. But given the DOJ’s track record recently, I think it might be a blessing this time around.
Baby Jane
This is more of a macaroni and cheese affair, Richard, but if you dig around you’ll probably find a few wieners.
Moll Slanders
Richard, what would it take for you to acknowledge a “here, there”? I’m curious.
ThymeZone
You’re right, this is a veggie burger.
Isn’t it?
Heh heh.
ThymeZone
Don’t look now, but I think Darrell is a new dad.
Clearly he has been the victim of “nasty” discourse and we all owe him an apology.
Somebody else please go first ….
Jake
What’s Harriet Miers doing these days?
Gex
Those emails and their backups are probably wherever the Padilla interrogation video(s) ended up. Just imagine what other goodies ended up down that rabbit hole!
Moll Slanders
If you ask me, they’re in a secret vault in the GHWB Library, awaiting transfer when the GWB Library is complete.
Tax Analyst
I read the article, TZ, but I don’t recall anybody here ever calling Darrell “Fat”, except maybe to suggest that he carried too much of it between his ears. OH…BTW – in all seriousness, I DO think it’s shitty that people dumped on that lady for being overweight. It’s pretty likely that she’s aware of it and it’s not doing those doing the dumping any harm.
ThymeZone
Quite right. I think we used the word “fatuous” a couple of times, though.
Richard 23
Evidence of wrongdoing. Sorry to pee on your unjustified gloat parade and loony leftist echo chamber. But that’s just the way it is. Evidence first, convictions later.
You’re setting yourself up for a fall. Have some cheese and macaroni, leftards.
Moll Slanders
Are you so sure there is no evidence of wrongdoing? Do you want to be more specific? This is so vague that if there IS any evidence of wrongdoing, any kind at all, someone here is going to call you on it. Are you sure you don’t want to get more specific? You’re leaving yourself open to a retraction if any wrongdoing appears.
Dreggas
Of course it was no big deal that these guys (Bogden and the one in AZ) were being distracted by the Puritan Police when they should have been going after, you know, the important stuff that was, like, illegal.
Richard 23
In your dreams. I won’t need to retract anything. Show me the evidence of wrongdoing. I haven’t seen it. Nothing to retract.
It’s the libs who have had to backpedal. Over and over again. Example: see Fitzmas, frogmarch.
Moll Slanders
I’m not talking about in the past, or in the current moment, I’m focused on the future, what WILL it take? Perhaps you just can’t answer that question because you could never accept that it will come to that. It will, eventually. Patterico says it’s too hard to defend this crap, yet you keep on treading the BushCo water. What does it take for you to stop? That’s what I’m asking.
Would you allow them to do anything, so long as you can stand by your president? Or do you have a breaking point, that’s what I’m asking.
MikeF
GEDDY, ALEX, and NEIL, thank you very much.
Moll Slanders
Leif, Lifeson, same thing… LOL
demimondian
Yup. Scooter Libby? Nope, he wasn’t convicted. Mark Foley…those were just overly friendly. Duke Cunningham? Just a few friends working together to make the world a better place. NH phone jamming? Nah, the Democrat party just didn’t rent enough phone lines, that’s all.
CaseyL
It’s the usual Bush/GOP procedure: blow a lot of smoke (in this case, releasing thousands of printed out pages rather than a file on disk, so it can’t be searched) and hope some key stuff (the missing 18 days) won’t be noticed. And then go nyah nyah nyah, we gave you want you wanted; so there.
Libby did the same thing. Hey, and it worked out really well for him, didn’t it?
There doesn’t seem to be anyone in the Bush Administration who’s matured beyond age 13. Nor very many in the GOP generally. And absolutely no RW’er in the blogosphere or mass media. They’re all the equivalent of the schoolyard thugs who make fun of ‘retards,’ steal lunch money, and then run away crying when the grownups show up.
Hey, Bushists? You’re an embarassment to humankind.
Evil, sure.
But mostly an embarassment.
Richard 23
Wow, your ability to change the subject impresses me, dummymondian.
Richard 23
How deep CaseyL. Keep speaking ‘truth to power.’ That was really enlightening, like all the other tripe you post here. Reread this thread to see how “reality based” the left really is
The Other Andrew
You can always tell the Bush party is in trouble when they have to resort to the “You’d better be careful!” line. Yes, I absolutely believe they have the Democrats’ best interests at heart…
In another three decades, will there be 18 missing years of some certain record? And no doubt we’ll hear, “(insert new war here) won’t be like Vietnam and Iraq! Stop dredging up the past!”
CaseyL
I rest my case.
Tulkinghorn
Hey! Stop stealing Darrell’s lines!
Justin
The other important question to ask, of course:
Other than the 18-day gap, what other emails were withheld?
This seems like sort of a reverse-Brady violation.
demimondian
Jeebus, R23, “dummymondian”? That’s…weak. It would be weak if demimondian were really my name, and, since it isn’t, it’s beyond weak. It’s weaker than weak. It’s like so weak that calling it weaky-weak-weak-weak is the only insult that’s weak enough. What’s next, R-boy? “I’m rubber and you’re glue?”
Meanwhile, how about the Libby acquittal, eh? He’s only going to jail for thirty years, not thirty-two. Merry Fitzmas, eh, Lewis?
Tax Analyst
TZ, “fatuous”?? My cousin used to think that was a plump Jewish girl. I can’t help, it’s been a long day and I’m about to go home…
Shawn
Where did the 18 days go? Up in smoke maybe?
Dunno, I thought the timing was interesting.
Richard 23
Shoot the messenger, ignore the message. It shows how far out the left really is. Dishonest as hell.
Randolph Fritz
In this case it is illegal, however. Given the strategic importance of the material involved, it seems unlikely to have been accidental.
By the way, good coverage of this, with background, including cites of precedents and discussions of personalities, over at Dave Neiwert’s blog.
mrmobi
Hey Dick23, got a couple of questions for you.
If all this USAttorney stuff is such a “non-story,” why is the explanation of why they were fired changing on an almost daily basis? And why are members of the Party of Torture calling for Abu Gonzales’ resignation?
Also, did you happen to notice yesterday when the Boy King made his “bring it on” statement about subpoenas, that he used the word “resignations,” instead of “firings?” The title on the handout also used the word “resignations.”
The eight US Attorneys did not resign, they were purged, or, at the very least, fired. Even someone with an IQ of 23, like yourself, should be able to figure that out.
Just trying to help.
jake
If this was their intent it would be futher evidence of the Bush Admin’s computer proficiency deficiency. “Scanners? Wasn’t that a movie? Heh.”
Feh.
Richard 23
Ask your never-ending thirst for non-stories. I can’t help you with that one.
Baby Jane
We’re gonna be getting lots of new stories everyday for some time to come, so you might get lucky and find one you like. :-)
Baby Jane
Here’s a good one:
Prosecutor Says Bush Appointees Interfered With Tobacco Case
mrmobi
From The Jesus General, The Gap, explained:
Emphasis mine. Isn’t he great?
Brian
Shoot, Mr. Mobi, You beat me too it :) I love (in a 110% heterosexual way) Jesus’ General.