That should be:

"The file puts on Groucho glasses and says 'Nah nah can't see me"

Damn fingers.

In addition to the valid points about these emails probably being on the mail server, there's one additional point: when you "delete" something on your computer, it does not mean that portion of the hard drive is actually erased completely. The data is just slightly manipulated so that it doesn't show up on whatever interface you're using to view that file/mail/whatever. (I remember reading someone on Usenet describing it as "The files puts on Grouch glasses and says 'Nah nah can't see me"). This is why things can be un-deleted from a hard drive, if you know what you're doing (and if the drive has not been really erase - as in, re-formated, massaged with a magnet, etc.)

Get one decent non-partisan hacker on these White House computers (or the RNC server), the emails will indeed be found.

This is not a defense of the WH staff, but it is possible to delete an e-mail and not have a copy of it hanging around. If the WH uses a client/server e-mail system (such as Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server), a user who connects to their mailbox on the e-mail server with their client does have control over their own mailbox on the e-mail database on the server. If they send or receive an e-mail, delete it permanently before the e-mail database on the server is backed up to a another location or medium, and do not move a copy of it to their local PC or network share then there is not a copy of the e-mail just sitting around on the server. Of course, everyone who has a copy of the e-mail would have to do the same thing for it to be completly gone.

Now, if the WH is using an automatic e-mail archiving system which would move a copy of every e-mail sent and received in the system to another location, the previously described scenario does not apply. The copy of the e-mail would also have to be deleted from the archiving location for it to truly be "gone".

Also, if the written policy (if strictly followed) of the WH to delete all e-mail after 30 days falls within the stated period of the laws that cover their electronic communications, they have not done anything legally wrong by setting 30 days as the time period for retention.

Is THIS what they meant when the said they were going to bring honesty and integrity back to the White House?

If we had real people instead of presstitutes as White House correspondents, they'd ask the same thing.

Just gather the emails from the _recipients'_ accounts and servers. Aren't the lost emails only from White House staff? If so, the Justice Dept staff who received all these emails should still have them. Maybe THAT explains the complete lack of emails released circa Thanksgiving -- embarrassing for content AND because they'd prove the existence of the senders' off-the-books accounts. ;:-j

Cry havoc, and unleash the dogs of impeachment! But first, issue warrants, seize administration computers, and subpeona any and all relevant IP's, servers etc. likely to contain these email correspondence.

Now the repugs all know that GWB is truly the dictator as well as the one who has been "chosen" by god(small g). But the real Christ was crucified while GWB will simply move to Uruguay if things get to hot.

As an aside, I can only imagine the damage GWB and the Bush family can do to Uruguay and all of South America.

Once again, I see behavior in our government for which people like myself would be fired, and for which I would likely have criminal charges brought against me. No one will be held accountable for the lost data, no one will admit responsibility for deleting it, until some poor scapegoat can be found and offered up at the Altar of Blame.

I find it interesting that those of us with insignificant (relatively) jobs are held to a higher level of accountability than the people who are deciding the Fate of the (supposedly) Free World.

e-mails aren't like tape recordings...there are surely ways to get them out of the servers..from those who sent them and those who received them. And of course they would say they were inadvertantly expunged. Haven't we learned by now that whatever this administration says, the opposite is more likely the truth? The hardware and software and all the ware should be impounded right now.

Yeah, the incriminating e-mails are surely warehoused in servers somewhere, but RNC interns are busy massaging them with demagnetizers, right? Or somebody will spill a Coke on the server, or they'll fall off the back of a truck. Or something. Who knew that "Whoopsie" would be the "Sieg Heil" of American-style fascism?

And even if responsible parties are held to account for the wrongdoing, they'll suffer Republican Memory Loss Syndrome (RMLS), where they can't recall anything that they've done since 2000. Those who can't credibly do that'll take the 5th, and hope that Bush gives them all pardons before he turns out the lights in the White House.

I remember when Bush talked about restoring integrity, honesty, and decency to the White House. This must be what he meant! Funny people, those Republicans, mighty funny.

You keep saying the firing of the US Attorneys was NOT political.

Emails discussing the firings were found on the RNC email server.

Now you claim WH staff used the RNC email server when discussing political machinations, in order comply with the Hatch Act and not use the govt network for political business.

Pardon me, but didn't you just admit that the firing of the US Attorneys WAS political? That's the only reason you use the RNC email server, right?

My other point was going to be that the WH would have been far better off, not claiming to have lost the emails, but reacting with righteous indignation that the "government" (by which they would mean Democrats) is trying to invade the RNC's privacy.

But then I remembered. And then I laughed a lot.