About 4,700 Democratic Files Improperly Obtained

[cjbuchanan]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Republican congressional staffers improperly accessed about 4,700 computer files of their Democratic colleagues, a source familiar with an investigation of the matter said on Thursday.

Members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) privately received a written report on the probe of their own panel's computer system, and put off until at least next week what, if any action to take, said the source, who asked not to be identified.

Options included -- if consensus can be reached on the often sharply divided panel -- seeking criminal prosecutions against the two Republican staffers who have since resigned.

The computer files were improperly accessed between 2001 and 2003, the source said, and dealt largely with President Bush (news - web sites)'s embattled judicial nominees.

more:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/congress_memos_dc

So anyone else thing no real action will be taken?

[proud patriot]

1. Rate this !

:bounce:

[arcane1]

3. indeed!

oh, what I wouldn't give for an honest media... my very life, even!

[Redbear]

4. Why is it we are always wanting to rate Yahoo stories high

and the GOP always wants them low?

[jayfish]

5. Because Yahoo Does Story Placement Based...

on it's ratings. For instance: The thugs would want a story about G.W. BushCo. cutting S.S. benefits to be rated low. That way no one would see it. The thugs are about keeping info. from the American people. The Dems. are about freedom of information.

Jay

[AZCat]

2. Of course not- it's the Democrats fault! (sarcasm)

I am amazed at the constant hubris of Republicans. Manuel Miranda has had the audacity to blame the Democrats for his ability to access documents (as if that was the issue), and to claim that the documents themselves represent unethical actions!

What a scumbag!

[David Zephyr]

6. I Was #117 Voting a "5" For This Story. Please Help.

Thanks cjbuchanan for the post.

[Career Prole]

7. I was number 148...

...average is at 4.35 :bounce:

[comsymp]

11. That's interesting- I'm # 13 @ 7:45PM

Avg is now 3.77
:shrug:

[Career Prole]

12. The bastards!

I just looked at it again...same link as in the topic starter. Now it says the story is 38 minutes old (which is bullshit) with only 37 people rating it for an average of 2.84?!!
Either Yahoo posted an updated Reuters story at the same link and didn't keep the old ratings or they scrubbed the ratings and started over! Either one is bullshit...the latter moreso than the former. :wtf:

[kainah]

13. and I'm #51 at 8:18 PM

avg is now 3.31

:grr:

[worldgonekrazy]

8. This is the most ridiculous article EVER!

Files "improperly obtained" versus "stolen"?! This makes it sound like nothing, as if they just failed to go through the proper bureaucratic hoops.

Or how about this one:
"Options included -- if consensus can be reached on the often sharply divided panel -- seeking criminal prosecutions against the two Republican staffers who have since resigned."

so lets see here:

1) an option for a Watergate-like crime is charging a few peons?

2) assuming that the two parties will agree (read: the Democrats don't bitch too much), which never really happens, so don't expect this story to go anywhere.


Yeah, real hard hitting journalism there Yahoo.

[tom_paine]

9. No action taken -- wrist slaps at most

Don't you know that Watergate would be LEGAL now if the Imperials did it?

And they do! I maintain that Watergate is a minnow compared to Uncle Karls's Black Ops Squads on both internet and in the "Real World".

The only thing Watergate taught these Totalitarian Monsters is NEVER make tapes and it also showed them some ways to avoid getting caught again.

Of course, the best way is to degenerate the system of checks and balances so that, like now, even if they were caught red-handed, beause they are Imperials it is "legal".

I could just imagine how badly the Busheviks would hammer the Dems, both legally and in Corproate TV Pravda, had they perpetrated this crime.

Double-Standards in investigation/prosecution is a hallmark of Totalitarian Third-World Nations like Imperial Amerika.

[snippy]

10. So republican criminals, but I repeat myself, may get away with it.

The White House is involved in this also. There has never been an administration so obsessed with controlling everything, including everything in Congress that it cares about, as this one. Cheney even has offices on both sides of the Capitol.

[w4rma]

14. Headline makes it sound like the Democrats improperly obtained

their files, imho.

[UpInArms]

15. here's a related story that attempts to play down the

theft by the republicans

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200403041443.asp

As the investigation into the Senate Judiciary Committee Democratic strategy memos reaches a climax, National Review Online has obtained two new Democratic documents that were downloaded by a Republican staffer sometime in the period from late 2001 to spring 2003.


Ironically, the two documents, apparently written by an aide to Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, concern a Republican memo that had been mistakenly sent to Democrats. In November, 2001, a top aide to Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch sent a strategy e-mail to several other Republicans. One of the intended recipients was a Hatch staffer whose last name was Johnson. But instead of going to the Republican Johnson, the memo went to a woman named Olati Johnson, who was a top Kennedy aide.

...more...

[alarcojon]

18. CNN Headline News didn't mention the party affiliation

of the "improper accessors" on their 6:30 broadcast, if I am not mistaken.

[LiberalFighter]

20. Nobody would want to steal any POS from Hatch

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stevedeshazer]

17. Good luck.

And good night.

[LiberalFighter]

19. Here was my response with "Key Points" to earlier story

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=393410#393479

[Just Me]

21. If no one enforces a body of laws,...there exists no law,...

Complicity. Well,...all I can say is that I am torn between "fight or flight". Witnessing those who have so much more power and influence than me,...cower,...increases my conflicting plight,...in that "free will" world in which I have invested my life. In a way, I anger my own self by choosing to fight (which has no reward other than the fight) over the comfort of flee,...especially when I am so tired, already, by the punishment associated with exercising such noble values.