Or as Auric Goldfinger put it: first time happenstance, second time coincidence, third time enemy action.

Good for you, apo. There sure are alot of people in this administration who should eventually be put behind bars.

I am wondering about how the presidential pardon power works - is it within Bush's power to pardon any of these people for crimes for which his federal prosecutors decline even to investigate, or does the failure to investigate mean that there is no tangible legal jeopardy from which they can be pardoned, thus leaving them fully exposed after Bush leaves office?

One can be sure that the office of White House Counsel and Gonzalez in DOJ have been busy studying these questions.

Physically stealing actual documents out of a secure evidence room seems "greater" to me than failing to save copies of your own email.

failing to save copies

Yeah, that's what happened. They just failed to save copies.

Dude, we're talking about *millions* of emails they were required under the Hatch Act to preserve that have disappeared into the ether. I'm not defending Berger; the guy's a moron who should never again get a security clearance. But this is clearly a much, much huger deal.

Just thinking about it theoretically for a minute, imagine that Bush guy A and Bush guy B have a chat about some matter of national importance. Are they required to write a summary of what they talked about and save it forever? If not, then why should it matter, morally speaking, if they save records of all their communications by email?

I understand it was against the law for them to delete their emails, so if they broke the law, bad on them. But on a moral level, it doesn't seem as bad to me as stealing something.

why should it matter, morally speaking, if they save records of all their communications by email?

Because they are official government communications that are required by federal law to be preserved. There's no way to sugarcoat this, GB. This isn't an accident or oversight, it's deliberately destroying evidence. And why would they do that? There's really only one explanation that makes any sense: *because* they are breaking the law and are eliminating evidence of a crime. Did you read the Greenwald post? It isn't just this case; it's an entire administration built around operating in secret, without oversight or accountability. If you consider yourself a conservative, you should be appalled.

I'm not disputing that they should be punished for breaking the law.

I'm not disputing that they should be punished for breaking the law.

I'm just trying to advance an argument over relative moral equivalence so I don't have to pay attention to how foully and dangerously lawless this Administration is.

Whatever. The important thing is, Terror-Fightin' Dolphins!!!

An interesting diversion, GB, and one that I can honor by furthering the threadjack:

"Animal rights activists are resisting Navy plans to ship the dolphins and sea lions to Washington state. They worry that waters in the region, which are about 10 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) cooler than in San Diego Harbor, could put stress on the animals."

In the long run, no problem - because of global warming! In the meanwhile we can heat their pens, and maybe fashion some wetsuits.

If you want to get to the heart of the Big Crime, what you need to do is figure out what Sibel Edmonds has been forced to keep a secret about.

If you read between the lines, however, what she accuses them are various things like, oh, herion and arms trafficking, tangoing with very nasty terrorists and in some ways aiding and abetting them, and (ahem) treason.

IF you have ever seen the Old Batman Movie, you will remember that in it, Batman and the Boy Wonder had to take on the Penguin, the Joker, CAtwoman, and Riddler all at once. It was hoot. They somehow all managed to put aside their differences and work from within the same submarine.

In this case, what we had was (1) the neocons and their friends in Israel, (2) the hard right wing Dick Cheney militarist types with ties to Lockheed , Raytheon, etc., (3) the country club Republican oil men with ties to the Saudis and to American intelligence and (4) the religious right foot soldiers and their media assets--all these clowns got together under one roof, put aside their scorn for each other, made some deals, and then proceeded to gang rape the American taxpayer and burn the middle east.

That is what the missing papers will show.

But it will point back to one major ring leader. And no, I don't think it was the neocons--although they noisily were allowed to have the run of the house for a long time.

It was the Friends of the Bush family.

Mark Kleiman has a suggestion I agree with: it's time for Congress to seize the servers and start arresting people that resist.

I can't stop thinking about Watergate and the 18 1/2 minute gap. There was a hilarious photo of the President's secretary Rosemary Wood showing how she might have erased part of the tape. I'm betting we will soon get a similar cock and bull story for this. I really hope there will be a photo.

13: Hells yeah.