White House reused e-mail tapes(backup computer tapes, including those in the CIA leak case)

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages — including those pertaining to the CIA leak case — have been taped over and are gone forever.

The disclosure came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide.

Among the e-mails that could be lost are messages swapped by any White House officials involved in discussions about leaking a CIA officer's identity to reporters.

Before October 2003, the White House recycled its backup tapes "consistent with industry best practices," according


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_go_pr_wh/whit... ;_ylt=AoxMAzujVRtqYwBzrVrj0eED5gcF

[Botany]

1. Hello Nancy P?

This was destruction of evidence in a criminal case not
recycling backup tapes "consistent with industry best practices."


The White House "does not know if any e-mails were not properly preserved in the archiving process," said the statement by Theresa Payton, chief information officer for the White House Office of Administration. "We are continuing our efforts," said Payton, whose staff is responsible for the White House e-mail system.

If the e-mails were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal records or presidential records

[Benhurst]

26. Shh!

So they broke a few laws. So what?
It would be so rude to make an issue out of this.
We should sit down at a table and talk things over with them, make them see the error of their ways.
There is far too much division in this country.
We don't want to be confrontational.
Why can't we all just be friends?

How about singing a verse or two of Kumbyyah?

[orleans]

31. um...excuse me...but i think it would be rude to point out the error of their ways

and we should just sit down at the table with them,
order a little lunch--not too much or too heavy,
maybe something low-cal
a little seltzer with a lime twist

[Benhurst]

39. Heavens to Betsy! You've caught me in a serious breach of good manners.

One should never, never point out the shortcomings of one's guests.



I can only hope my sincere apologies will be accepted, and I won't be ostracized by the feel-good wing of our party.

[Jackpine Radical]

76. Can't we all just get along with each other?

They were just trying to save some taxpayer money, after all. Recycling is GOOD!

[donkeyotay]

84. Youse guys are being so negative! There's no point dwelling on the past.

Let's just look forward and stop the bipartisan bickering. Just accept that Dick Cheney is our government and learn to go along to get along. A little war, a little spying, a little cheating and lying... it's not like anyone got hurt.

[rtassi]

48. Yes ...

Something they can eat while standing!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

73. letters only cost 41 cents. Far better than lunch.

and you can really, REALLY mean something in a letter.

[orleans]

82. oh god, i laughed out loud at that. thank you! n/t

[Botany]

35. Treason is such a little crime

My brother works for the DoD in some very secret "stuff."

Now he can't talk about what he does too much but he and everybody
else in his area had to sign a documanet that said something to effect
if you "out" a CIA agent you get 10 years in fed jail no questions asked.

Rove, Cheney, Scooter, & others all had to sign that same document and the
outing of a CIA agent, Val Plame, broke that law. Plame and her '"cover company"
Brewster Jennings, were risking their lives to protect all of us from real nuclear
weapons and real terrorists they have to be held accountable if we are a country
about the "rule of law."

Pelosi and others blocking real hearings into the crimes of bush & company are
just as big a threat to our future as terrorists or the neo cons.

[Pachamama]

54. Come on, its just the Bush Administration's "Recycling Program"...

[Raster]

78. Excuuuuuuuse Me??? If this had been a Dem President and a rethuglican Congress,

Impeachment would be a DONE DEAL! But no, not even close.

Wake up America! Accomplices and collaborators!

[Atman]

2. What utter, 100% BULLSHIT.

It sure took them long enough to think up THAT lamer! The only reason to re-use would be to save money, and if there is one thing we know for a fact that this administration is not the least bit concerned with, it is saving money. They want us to believe they send an aide down to Circuit City to pick up a couple of back-up tapes. Nonsense. They have a warehouse full of them. And besides, we're now to believe the archivist didn't know that what he was doing was patently illegal? What the hell was he/she the archivist for, then?

Just more unmitigated horse manure from the chief shit-shovelers.

.

[Kokonoe]

57. WHOE WHOE WHOE

How can you say THAT. It is most assuradly o VHS TAPE. I have a lot of VHS tape, I know!!1!. They keep telling you it"s on tape, but you just fucking refuse to beleive them. What can I say. I just went to Circuit City, and I could not even buy it anymore. So OFCOURSE it MUST be reused tape. Stop saying that.

[Kokonoe]

80. You can't edit this message because the editing period has expired.

You can't edit this message because the editing period has expired. I ment to add sorry.

[Gonnuts]

62. Anyone that has anything to do with government services ...

knows that EVERYTHING gets backed-up three times over at the very least. And what will become of this? My take is Rodriguez, after being granted immunity, will say it was all his fault and "puff", case closed.

It's gotten to the point that I'm surprised we even hear about possible government corruption anymore. Let alone phony, dragged out investigations that lead no where. I can't help but believe we're on the brink of total totalitarianism. All we need is one more "false flag" attack, maybe just the economy collapsing would be enough for Marshall Law to be declared and before we have a chance to assimilate what's happened we'd have Blackwater troops rounding up "dissidents".

There is just too much evidence out there now not to suspect otherwise. The passing of H.R. 1955 Homegrown Terrorism and Violent Radicalization Act, the Military Commission Act, Patriots Act I & II, the refusal to hold impeachment hearings, the resent beneath the radar FCC ruling allowing one corporation to own print, radio and TV in one area (the same ruling overwhelming defeated when Michael Powell tried to pass it), FEMA calling 9/11 Truthers equal to terrorists and being terrorists recruiting sights, our phony corrupted election election system, it goes on and on. All the things necessary to place the final nails in the coffin of what was once a great nation are in place. They just need one incident to complete the take-over.

[Kokonoe]

75. I could not agree with you more, and your conclusion says it all

"It's gotten to the point that I'm surprised we even hear about possible government corruption anymore." As we know the government must be trusted. After we ARE the government, if only during our time in the voting booth (and that says all I need to know}.

[FREEWILL56]

70. Agreed 100% BULLSHIT.

Let's list the crimes here:
1 Failure to keep the records.
2 Destruction of evidence.
3 Contempt of congress.
4 At the very minimum, aiding and abetting the crime of ousting a CIA agent.
5 In lieu of the previous crimes this is a violation of the oath of office.

The punishment. Kiss bush's ass some more and ask his forgiveness for imposing upon him in these hours of war.

[Kokonoe]

77. SARCASM ICON PLEASE

OH I didn't see it. Nice post

[Tesha]

3. Wot a shock! Who'da thunk it? (NT)

[msongs]

4. yawn. why waste all this time for a matter the congress will do nothing about anyway? nt

[Botany]

10. Nancy Pelosi is gonna send 'em a letter

That will show 'em.

Good Lord this was obstruction of justice, plain and simple.

[Kokonoe]

64. Thak You for making sense.

I jusy put that there to look unbiased.

[rodeodance]

5. so they came up with this EXCUSE-in the nick of time. ha ha. Boy, are they ever

taking us for a ride.

[rodeodance]

6. "The disclosure came minutes before midnight " yeah yeah.

[ursi]

7. um, a good computer forensic examiner ought to be able to fix this problem

[rodeodance]

11. No geeks allowed--they might find evidence.

[paparush]

21. DING! Yes, data can be recovered from overwritten DAT tapes

http://wipe.sourceforge.net/secure_del.html

[kenfrequed]

63. Which to me suggests...

That they destroyed the originals and will be turning over only once used-tapes.

[Kokonoe]

69. See post 62....the reply for #4 after #10 n\t

spot on confusion, ROVE LIVES

[kenfrequed]

72. Hmm

Some of them were probably removed after the damned fire in Cheney's office

[Kokonoe]

83. Your forgetting about the alter secret duplicate government

in case of emergency all powerful information file cabinet that are not removable without BTHOC {by the hand of cheney}.

[kenfrequed]

85. Well actually

I know you are joking, but the fact is the secrecy and criminal behavoir of this government is less "X-files" and more ho-hum Public Relations Banality.

[Kokonoe]

88. Listen to yourself

"the secrecy and criminal behavior of this government is less "X-files" and more ho-hum" I know you are a good person, but I must say the secret criminal behavior is not ho-hum, it is the cover up that is MEANT to be banal.

[kenfrequed]

92. Well

At least be good enought to cite my entire sentence. I did not mean to diminish the crimes of this administration. I have been calling for impeachment since 2003 and I still believe very strongly in it.

My point was more directed at the people that cry "Tinfoil." As I have had to hear it a lot over the years. They seem to conflate conspiracy to:

A: Somehow impossible, after all if it happened wouldn't it be on the news

and

B: Worthy of ridicule, mainly by conflating it to absurdity without regard for how much evidence exists to prove it.

Oh yes, and they also are some of the same people that, after the evidence is obvious, turn around and defend Pelosi and Reid from all comers when they are criticized for not standing up to the administration.

[Kokonoe]

95. Yes, thank you, good points all.

[Xithras]

98. No, data can be recovered from erased dat tapes.

And data can be reconstructed from overwritten tapes using data recovered from the empty formatted spaces between datablocks on overwritten tapes. That means that ALL data can be recovered from an erased tape, a small portion of the data can be recovered from tapes overwritten once, and almost nothing can be recovered from a tape overwritten twice.

That whole thing about recovering data that's been overwritten six or seven times? It's an urban legend. You can get data from a tape that has been formatted a few times, but an overwrite realigns the magnetic particles that held the original data, reusing them to store the new data.

[rodeodance]

8. and now they are bragging they are GREEN: recycled its backup tapes "consistent with industry best p

[L. Coyote]

9. The White House is under new management, the three blind mice and three monkeys named

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Prosecute no Evil. Absolute incompetence seems the only inference in claiming no coverup!

..... the White House is apparently unable to answer how many e-mails are missing from White House servers.

The White House "does not know if any e-mails were not properly preserved in the archiving process," said the statement by Theresa Payton, chief information officer for the White House Office of Administration. "We are continuing our efforts," said Payton, whose staff is responsible for the White House e-mail system.

[rodeodance]

15. good one. ha ha

[Javaman]

12. We aren't even a government agency and our firm's IT dept

knows fully well you don't recycle tapes.

This was done on perpose.

[aquart]

42. I don't think they did it at all.

They just don't want to hand them over. So they'll hand over current stuff and say this is on top of the old stuff.

[Javaman]

60. Nail on the head. nt

[Kokonoe]

90. They need to subpoena the chimpsters private torture copies.

[HereSince1628]

13. Wouldn't it be ironic if tapes took down the Cheney administration?

Shooter has an obsession with avoiding all records since he saw the secret tapes take down Nixon and set back the race to the imperial presidency.

[rodeodance]

14. "Backup tapes are the last line of defense for saving electronic records." Is this true?

.......Backup tapes are the last line of defense for saving electronic records.

Separately, the statement reveals the extent to which the White House is apparently unable to answer how many e-mails are missing from White House servers.

The White House "does not know if any e-mails were not properly preserved in the archiving process," said the statement by Theresa Payton, chief information officer for the White House Office of Administration. "We are continuing our efforts," said Payton, whose staff is responsible for the White House e-mail system.

If the e-mails were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal records or presidential records.

[paparush]

20. Backup Tapes are one method of long term data storage

Not the ONLY method.

You can store your data on:
A second hard drive.
Flash memory
CD/DVD
Data clouds like Amazon's S3 data storage.

And, data can be recovered from overwritten tapes..
http://wipe.sourceforge.net/secure_del.html

[Xithras]

96. Tapes are the only method in common use

CD/DVD backups are slowly becoming more common, and the others are very rare in actual use. I'd venture to say that more than 95% of datacenters still use some sort of tape solution.

[tsakshaug]

16. huh?

I am the IT department in a small school district. I have 7 years of archived emails, they do get deleted after 7 years. I use tapes on a 3 week rotation only to back up the OS of the mail system, taking weekly full backup snapshots of the os. The tapes are minor and used on occasion. If asked in a FOI question I am supposed to come up with these old emails, if I cannot, there goes my job. Why am I held to a higher standard?

[KeepItReal]

17. You are not held to a higher standard. Those folks are simply destroying evidence - with impugnity.

eom

[bemildred]

18. Reuse is irrelevant.

Competent backups in whatever media are used a done daily (what changed today), weekly (what changed this week), monthly (what changed this month) and annually (everything). Periodic tapes are reused until they become unusable, archival tapes are kept "forever". There is no way in hell the data is gone unless someone deleted archival media that should be preserved.

[MotorCityMan]

22. Exactly; I started as a computer operator 20 years ago

You had daily, weekly and monthly sets of tapes.

The weekly tapes were archived for about a month before being reused.

The monthly tapes were taken off site to be archived for 7 years.

[Lasher]

97. They are saying there are no archives for 473 days between 2003 and 2005

The White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President, for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary of an internal White House study that was disclosed yesterday by a congressional Democrat.

The 2005 study -- whose credibility the White House attacked this week -- identified 473 separate days in which no electronic messages were stored for one or more White House offices, said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.).

Waxman said he decided to release the summary after White House spokesman Tony Fratto said yesterday that there is "no evidence" that any White House e-mails from those years are missing. Fratto's assertion "seems to be an unsubstantiated statement that has no relation to the facts they have shared with us," Waxman said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[paparush]

19. There ARE techniques to Recover Overwritten Data from DAT tapes

http://wipe.sourceforge.net/secure_del.html

[Lone_Star_Dem]

23. I don't buy that they don't have archive tapes

I just don't. Even the lowly places I've worked at kept archive tapes along with their regular backup tapes.

This is a pathetic attempt at stalling in my opinion.

[yellowcanine]

24. "consistent with industry best practices," Yes if you want to make sure the info is gone.

But not if you are supposed to preserve the info according to law.

[Roland99]

25. Quelle surprise.

[Skip Intro]

27. What is the point of having the tapes if you are going to tape over them. How effn stupid do they

think people are?

[jtrockville]

28. CREW has a LINK to the White House declaration

Follow this link and see "related documents" on the right:
http://citizensforethics.org/node/30771

[Highway61]

29. Quick...call the Geek Squad

the white house certainly know the wheels of justice turn ever so slowly....gave them plenty of time to come up with a "solution". Makes Nixon look like a walk in the park doesn't it? Our Congress will turn another blind eye to bad behavior.

[Gonnuts]

67. Watch this questioning of Waxman ...

and be convinced that there isn't a segment of our government that isn't corrupt to the gills. And remember, Waxman is suppose to one of the "good guys".

http://jamartell.blogspot.com/2008/01/gotcha-moment-for...

[pnwmom]

30. But how can we blame them for that?

Isn't RECYCLING supposed to be good?

[ladjf]

32. Crimes against the American people shouldn't go unpunished.

[LeftHander]

33. Tapes were used as fuel in Cheney Office campfire...nt

[FreepFryer]

34. No More Lies! No More Torture! No More Using Important Backup Tapes to Record LOST! (n/t)

[truthisfreedom]

36. Wow, I really couldn't see this coming. What with all the accountability that bushco's brought to

the White House. One little slip-up in 8 years... I guess I can forgive them.

[benld74]

37. Consistent with BUSH ADMINISTRATION best practices

[Mark D.]

40. Options

Maybe the lines those transmissions went through
have some record, the hubs / service providers??
Not likely. They probably will next say (once it's
is revealed geek-forensics can recover info) the
tapes were all stored in the part of the offices
of Dick Cheney that were involved in the fire...

Does it matter. They could have Cheny and Bush
in full-length video saying aloud that they lied on
intel for the war, intentionally outed plame, and
helped orchestrate voter theft nationwide and we
wouldn't get any but a few Democrats in congress
wanting to put impeachment 'back on the table'...

[RoccoR5955]

38. What a load...

...of horse hockey!

Just as hard drives that have been erased can have their previous data discovered, so can tapes. It's just another form of magnetic media.

How dumb do these people think that all of us are?

[Fresh_Start]

41. How does anyone reuse backup tapes?

How does IT not know for 4 years that their backup process isn't working?
The White House has thousands of employees.
Over the course of a year, a few of those employees are going to have computers go south.
They will need to be restored from backup so that the employee can get back to work.
And this NEVER happened to anyone on the administration staff?
Why does this reek?

[Lint Head]

43. They are F#@KING criminals.

Bush,Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz should be in jail now.

[rateyes]

44. Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Conyers...

when are you going to stop this administration from spitting in your collective faces?

[rateyes]

45. Dammit, George, if you can't keep

Barney from eating your homework, then get rid of the damned dog.

Anyone who really believes this happened is a fucking idiot.

[groovedaddy]

46. WILL SOMEBODY, ANYBODY PLEASE DO SOMETHING!?!

This is just flat out insanity that our Dem representatives and senators are putting up with this shit! I know a few are standing up and trying but WHERE ARE THE REST?

[DontTreadOnMe]

47. OK, I get it.

If you ADMIT to the crime, then it is OK and we'll forget about it.
That was easy.

[formercia]

49. The dog ate my homework

Move along, nothing to see here.

[MsMagnificent]

50. Of course. We all know how FRUGAL these guys are!

Hell, 'Recycle' could possibly be their middle name!

.....in an alternate universe, that is


Why waste perfectly good tapes that could be taped over, virtually erased,
er, recycled (yeah, that's the ticket!)
It's just too bad Rose Mary Woods used that perfectly good excuse to erase 18 1/2 minutes already! Oh, those slippery fingers, well greased with American, Afghanistan and Iraqi innocent blood!
Anyhow, recycling is just a better excuse nowadays, it's more hip, groovy and with-it. You don't need a Rove to think of that one!


Fucking pathetic bullshit from fucking pathetic people.

[AikidoSoul]

51. Bring them to trial!! There's already enough evidence

that they've committed impeachable offenses.

NANCY....ARE YOU EVER GOING TO DO ANYTHING? IF NOT YOU WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BEING COMPLICIT WITH THESE CRIMINALS!!!

I am so sick at heart with all of this. I think my heart is completely broken and wonder truly if it can ever heal.
I'm actually getting more and more symptoms that are telling me that it's physically damaged from the stress of
seeing my own country and its honor destroyed.

Did the honor ever exist? Was it just an illusion all along?

[Deny and Shred]

52. US government is NOT an industry.

Of all their lame excuses, "consistent with industry best practices," is right up there. The Federal gvt has many rules that are intentionally different from industry, so that precisely this sort of thing does not happen. What's their next excuse, "consistent with the record keeping of last year's homework from Mrs. Johnson's first grade social studies class?"

Just because somebody's rules somewhere are more lax does not mean you can follow those rules. Great googlie mooglie. When does the DOJ decide this requires an independent prosecutor?

[Pachamama]

53. Look at what happened to Nixon for the missing 10 minutes....he was sliced, diced and roasted..

Nancy Pelosi and the rest of this cowering Congress just says to Bush....Impeachment is off the table, no worries....



Uneffing believable....guess this qualifies as the Bush administrations "recycling program"...

[kineneb]

61. 18 minutes, actually

Our household joke: Tricky Dicky was listening to the album version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"(1968). It is the all-time great stoner piece by Iron Butterfly, for all you under 45. It runs 17:05 according to my copy (yes, vinyl).
He had Rosemary Woods erase the tape so no one would know about his secret taste in music.

[Turbineguy]

55. They are at least saving money

They could probably run Air Force One for 3 inches off these dramatic savings. Soon, the National Debt will be gone! Go Bush Administration!

[LibertyLover]

56. Bet whoever came up with that excuse

got a "heck of a job X" from Bush.

[mlevans]

58. What's to do?

The thing I have to wonder is what's to do next. Obviously there are no surprises here; nobody here had any doubts that they would lie and try to cover up, and look...they've lied and tried to cover up. Part and parcel of the administrations tenure. It would have been a great deal more surprising if when given the deadline they'd just said "oh, of course" and sent a courier over with all the tapes that had been requested. That's the thing that would likely have given me the heart attack.

That being said, has anyone any serious suggestions as to what to do about it? We can sit around here and agree with one another...yep, yep, them Bushies must think we're pretty stupid, and so forth...but that's not going to change things one iota. It's been noted by several that Pelosi and our party probably won't make a move to deal with this (other than possibly symbolically), and I think that's a pretty good call too. So what concrete thing could we be doing that might stir them off their butts...because I don't think a whole lot of them are ever even going to read this thread. No offense intended to anybody here whatsoever, but all we're doing at the moment is preaching to the choir.

[Phred42]

59. There are NEVER only 1 SET of BACKUPS

I've been in IT for 35 years - Computer Operations

I"m here to tell you that there are NEVER only one set of backup tapes.

Don't stop looking

[kineneb]

65. exactly. usually at least two copies.

When Hubby worked for WorldCom, they made two sets of archive tapes; one was kept in-house, and the other sent off site. He was also in Operations.

If these hosers re-used their archive tapes, they have really lousy Operations people, or they are just plain lying. And in the tech world, nothing really disappears, it only becomes difficult to retrieve.

[Phred42]

71. SOP would be to have MANY Sets of tapes

IF these guy used anything close to SOP on SERVER backups there could be many sets of tapes conatining this info.

4,5,6 or more sets is not unusuall

[unc70]

74. Absolutely agree. Off-site, archival. Impeach, indict, maybe treason.

There is no way that anyone in IT would have a backup system that fragile. There should at least be off-site archival snapshots at least weekly, maybe at different remote sites.

A common procedure for over 40 years would take a full snapshot of all files on a weekly basis, then make daily incremental backups of changes since the weekend. Every second or third non-latest weekly would be sent to a remote location for protected storage and would not ever be deleted. Providing archival services to industry is a huge business, storing records in places like salt mines.

Periodically operations would do a test restore to ensure that everything is recoverable. (Might also do some that were not tests.)

In a scenario like I described, the daily incremental backups older than a month or two might be reused and overwritten with the assumption that the weekly tapes provided enough granularity ongoing.

Could they possibly be trying to make some distinction between "backup" and "archive"? That should get the lawyers.

I seem to remember they replaced the previous email with a MicroSoft "solution" so their IT operations might be completely clueless in other ways.

Look forward to seeing this discussed at Slashdot.com!

[Pavulon]

91. By design

some systems write data to tape using AES (high powered) encryption using a daily key. GFS Rotation specifies a daily (diff or incremental), weekly, and monthly tapes. These are kept for some amount of time.

When their life is up, they key is destroyed (making the data unrecoverable at least by any public method) and then the tape is scratched (destroyed by overwrite).

When done properly the data is only recoverable by TLA's, maybe.

[Dawggie]

66. The missing 17 minutes from Nixon's tapes? This "Dog ate my homework" crap has to stop. n/t

[superconnected]

68. Crooks, thieves and liars. And that is NOT industries best practice

I'm a server admin, we save things for at least 7 years.

[neohippie]

86. clearly the law isn't important to these folks

in privately held companies there is no law requiring archiving emails. But I am pretty sure that all public companies and I would imagine governmental bodies, and institutions, there are probably detailed policies in place to make sure that things are archived and more than likely off site.

If they put a policy in place to overwrite tapes, someone knew that this would violate the law, but they choose to feign stupidity and beg for forgiveness, they should be held accountable for something, why not start here with obstruction of justice.

[Imagevision]

79. What happened to Nixon when he tried to pull this shit!?! Bush, laughing his ass off at Americans

Anyone one think he won't shock n awe Iran before leaving DC.?

[unc70]

81. Their response might indicate monthly/daily/weekly issues

Her response is very carefully worded but it would appear that nearly all email since 2003 should be recoverable and some prior email might have been sent and deleted everywhere between two of the remaining snapshots.

All this talk about how hard it is to recover. All this about trying to find just where some email might be is smokescreen.

Systemtically restore everything starting at the beginning, extract all possibly meeting criteria (even in secondary locations), remove duplicates.

Even if one believed their explanation and they recycled some of their tapes, the remaining could all have been restored and processed while they have been resisting this.

Believe that the legal requirement on the WH requires them to capture every email when sent and to preserve and send to the archivists.

[superconnected]

87. Any minute pelosi will renounce this ...

and then give them a rubber stamp on whatever bill is most imporatant to the bush administration, before midnight.

[Beetwasher]

89. BREAKING!! DU EXCLUSIVE!!! PIC OF THE IT PERSON RESPONSIBLE!!!!!

[Lisa]

93. since when have they ever endorsed recycling?

Other than re-using Nixon and Reagan-era hacks, that is.

[katty]

94. gee, big surprise.....

[GoddessOfGuinness]

99. I'm profoundly moved by the WH's concern for the environment...

and their bold move to keep spending in check.

How could I have been SO wrong about them?