National Security Archive sues White House over missing e-mails
Archive Sues to Recover 5 Million Missing White House E-mails, The National Security Archive, September 5, 2007.
The National Security Archive today sued the White House seeking the recovery and preservation of more than 5 million White House e-mail messages that were apparently deleted from White House computers between March 2003 and October 2005....
"The Bush White House broke the law and erased our history by deleting those e-mail messages," said National Security Archive director Tom Blanton. "The period of the missing email starts with the invasion of Iraq and runs through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."
White House Sued Again Over E - Mail, by The Associated Press, September 5, 2007
The White House abandoned an automatic archiving system for its e-mail in 2002 and did not replace it, says a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Executive Office of the President.Continue reading
Bookmobile Day 2: Oohs & Ahs
Day 2: We got welcomed by Bob, the tipsy owner of the Featherbed B&B in Quincy. He proundly told us they have great healthy and tasty breakfasts prepared by the same cook who cooks for the hospital and hospice. Hmmmm hospital food has never been known as tasty, but we'll see. James pointed out this morning that all the food was very soft. I will leave you to your imagination.
After the "heathy" breakfast we drove to the Plumas County Library and set up the bookmobile. It happened to be the day that all of the branch librarians were meeting, so we were able to meet up with all librarians from Plumas county. They all came out to see the bookmobile and our demo -- and were pretty impressed.
After demonstrating the bookmaking process we definitely got oohs and ahs all around when we brought out the $100 laptop. IMHO I think we are getting better every day as bookmobilistas! Rightly, librarians asked us how our demo is relevant to their libraries since they don't have funds to purchase binder, printer, etc. We suggested they look through IA and other digitization projects and think of ways to incorporate digital books into their collections. For example, we suggested adding links in catalog records of any books that they own so that their users would be able to access the digital versions even if their physical copy was checked out. One librarian said this would be especially useful for helping out local high school students -- who have reading lists but the library is not able to keep enough copies for all of them. This day was a bit slower than yesterday, but Quincy is much smaller than Auburn. One memorable teen (who was being home-schooled) was really keen on the technology, and in helping us make a book, described the cutter (aka Bessie :-) ) as "smooth like butter!" It was great to see such an inquisitive young person.
Of course we can't pass a day without technical problems. After a lengthy interview with the head librarian, I found that my videotape was damaged and couldn't save any of the footage. Tonight we're in Nevada City and we'll be at the Madelyn Helling County Library doing our demo again. It's been really interesting to talk with people about the public domain, hearing their perspective on copyright etc. Check out more new photos here.
Continue readingTotal Recall: The Podcast
Weekly Recall Review is a 3-5 minute summary of product recalls and other consumer safety news from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. According to the podcast website, the 8/31/2007 show included "highlights back-to-school safety, including clothing with drawstrings, art supplies, playground equipment, portable soocer goals, and helmets"
This podcast joins its siblings on our government podcasts page. Have a listen and if you're a podcaster, consider dropping in part or all of one of these public domain podcasts into your own podcasts.
Congressional Committees – Secrecy and Delayed Transparency
Perla Ni of VoterWatch says, "We just did a survey of what transcripts/audio/video is available from Congressional Committees. What we've found is pretty sad. Here's the state of available video/audio/transcript for House and Senate committees." (Transparency of committee hearings - transcript/audio/video , Perla Ni, Open House Project group, Sep 4, 2007)
- Congressional Committees - Secrecy and Delayed Transparency
"You'll notice how many committees for which there is no audio, no video nor transcript available. Including the Ethics committee, ironically. Also, for the ones that do post video, either it's not posted until months after or it's posted, but not archived so if you miss it, you've missed it."
And Paul Blumenthal says, "Check out this study I did last year on this very topic. These two blog posts contain all my research from the 109th Congress." (reply Sep 5, 8:00 am)
- House Version: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/1596
- Senate Version: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/1617
Welcome Cass Hartnett, blogger of the month for september, 2007!
As you've probably already noticed, Cass Hartnett is our BOTM for September! Most everyone around these parts knows Cass, but just in case, check out her bio for more. Thanks for volunteering Cass!! And also, many thanks to Amy West, our BOTM for August. Amy posted lots of good stories over the last month and for that we heap thanks and praise on her! Here's a roundup of Amy's posts:
- Expanded Use of Domestic Spy Satellite Data
- Wikipedia Scanner and government information
- Freedom and Information: Assessing Publicly Available Data Regarding U.S. Transportation Infrastructure Security
- Data Sharing between Agencies: FDA/DOD and VA/DOD
- Sierra Leone Peacebuilding Initiative
- U.S. Federal and Minnesota Information on I-35W Bridge (One of our most popular blog posts ever!!)
- GSA goes to Eagle Eye for contract, grant data
- Congressional Budget Office (CBO) - Estimated Costs of U.S. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and...the War on Terrorism