Arkansas Blog

If the data on those hard drives was about nothing but ethical activities, there'd be no reason to destroy them.

I remember several recent examples of prison sentences for executives who destroyed evidence when the dogs were closing in.

On the face of it, destroying public records is evidence of something illegal or embarrasing in those records.

I had the misfortune, or rather my daughter did, in needing to access the services of the state in an inssue of suspected child abuse. After a considerable amount of stonewalling and general mishandling by the state agency, I resorted to contacting the governor's office. I was referred to one of his folks working with that agency. Over the course of the next couple of months, a considerable amount of, shall we say, delicate and personal information, including indentification information was exchanged. The issue was resolved, thanks to their intervention, and I continued to receive follow ups for about a year afterward. Many of the conversations were via email. For one, I was pretty happy to hear that these drives were destroyed and not left out recoverable. I just hope they burned them and then sealed them in concrete when they finished crushing them. Give it a break guys. You want it to be all about you and your precious right to know. You DON'T have a right to my personal information, including medical information. Ask anyone familiar with HIPAA. Information can and is recovered by reporters all time in the name of trying to make someone look bad. If these drives had not been destroyed, but rather left open for view, and private inforamation leaked out, you would have had just as much fun scourging them for not destroying the information. Give it up. It isn't nearly as important as loads of other things. Heck, they followed published policy.

"I remember several recent examples of prison sentences for executives who destroyed evidence when the dogs were closing in.

On the face of it, destroying public records is evidence of something illegal or embarrasing in those records. "

--------------------------------
So...........Childe_Roland_to_the_Dark_Tower_Came

Can You Remember Sandy Berger?

There are legitimate ways to deal with sensitive (HIPAA-type) information. I do it every day. That type of sensitive information is one thing, but self-incriminating evidence is something else, and destroying it without review is also something else.

Re: Sandy Berger:

I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, Clinton or his staff did it too. Good God can you not find another rationale? Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Anyway, I was amused by this entry from Wikipedia. See if you can guess the poltical outlook of the writer. For all I know, JayFrame wrote this.

"They suggested he destroyed primary evidence revealing anti-terrorism policies and actions, and that his motive was to permanently erase Clinton administration pre-9/11 mistakes from the public record. Public statements to this effect have been made by talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh,[16] former Clinton campaign advisor Dick Morris,[17] USA Today reporter Jack Kelley,[18] multiple times by Fox News correspondent John Gibson (the last as recently as December 2006[19]), and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Republican-Illinois)...."

I have no desire to read about Al Fornaut's groin cyst. I would only be interested in a child abuse case if the child was mine. I don't care if Huck downloaded porn day and night. I do care about money and in every step on this hard drive crushing case our money was wasted.

There is software available to reformat every crushed hard drive. It's cheap and it's quick and it works. But instead Huck decided to spend a fortune crushing a bunch of state owned hard drives. I want that money back!

Then to add insult to injury, someone decided to replace all those hard drives and a butt-load of state computers by paying 4 or 5 times the going rate. I want that money back!

Huck's reckless disregard for state property cost us almost half a million bucks. What if he'd tossed a burning can of gas into his office on the way out the door? Would that be justified? That would keep people from nosing around in Al's personal business too.

With these kind of antics going on no wonder we're 49th. Paying 5 times as much for anything will bankrupt little ole Arkansas. We have been crooked and I want our money back!

When the money is returned then others may question what dishonesty was covered up by hard drive crushing. But I want our money back! Let the Attorney General of the State of Arkansas present Huck with a bill and once that's satisfied I'll forget I ever heard of the Huckleberrys. Get our money back!

Wasn't a cyst on my groin DBI, I was just happy to see you.

The crushing I have no problem with. The amount of money Huck spent is criminal and he should be forced to pay it back.

I work for a federal agency. We don't have the budget to hire outside contractors to erase our hard drives. When we get new computers, we run a military grade wipe program. Then we take hammers to the removed drives out on the parking lot. Then we donate the older computers to a vo-tech sans the drives. We have a shredder for the CD's and other format portable storage devices.

Too many client social security numbers and other info to risk.

Why would the hard drives need to be crushed, or even wiped, if there was no plan to buy new computers by the incoming administration?

Doesn't make any sense, unless there was something to hide.

That was a LOT of money too. That doesn't make any sense either.

Are we still preventing contrary opinions?

Wow, that's amazing. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you....

You're so gracious, Max. Seriously, that was pretty ridiculous. But, it sure does have an interesting sound in here when all you here is a bunch of echos.

Good to see you back, Nonny. It aint the same without you coming over to slum around with us.
I'm not sure what's going to happen here when Huckabee becomes a non-news factor but I'm sure Max will find something that'll put your blood pressure pills to the test.

So, Nonny, let's stand shoulder to shoulder in the electronic arena and shout to the spectators, "We who are about to blog, salute you!"

No!! Not with that finger!!!

"it sure does have an interesting sound in here when all you here is a bunch of echos."

here = hear
echos = echoes

Carry on.

I have no idea what Anon is carrying on about, nor do I care.

What I do care about is Huck ripping me off, as a taxpayer in the state of Arkansas.

I paid thousands of dollars in all manner of taxes over the last 40 years. I'll pay more at the end of this month and even more when April 15 comes around.

And Huck decides to spend my dollars to crash computers?

Send him the bill for it.

you win, lwood. Sorry. I try to pay closer attention, but even I slip up every now and then.

As for Huckabee, Jake. I couldn't agree with Max more today. The Huckster is a sheister of the first order and hasn't been a good Republican. I don't mind any help y'all can pitch in to make sure he doesn't get my nomination.

bridge, I was carrying on about the fact that Max decided to block me from posting because a comment I made disappeared and I asked if he was censoring me. So, he censored me for suggesting that he would censor me. I suppose I'll be blocked again for this current infraction. I know I shouldn't make any waves.

As for your comments about the Huckster, I agree.

Okay, nony, the 1105 is just masturbyting.

So what if a post disappeared? Shit happens. Your warning was public. You're a guest here, we're all just guests. So when you say something like,

" Oooh, I'm scared. What would you think if a comment which you posted that disagreed with the blogger disappeared??? I'll your buy your explanation. But, you ought to apologize not threaten to censor me for assuming the obvious."

That's kind of being an asshole. The host warned you not to throw that BS around anymore, perhaps because it detracts from the discussion that might otherwise take place. You might as well have typed out "nanner nanner boo boo"; it would have looked the same. Have we not learned how to be guests by now?

If I act an ass on a blog and the host asks me to cut it out, I'll either cut it out or just not come back, out of respect for others in that community.

If you don't like the philosophy around here then go away. I doubt you're changing any minds. If you want to offer up an opposing viewpoint, by all means, please do so. I don't mind hearing another point of view, as long as it's engaging. Just don't be an ass, especially to the host. He doesn't have time for that, and I'd rather spend time reading something engaging. Too bad I can't write something engaging.

p.s., I think Huckabee is an ass for spending so much money to destroy something that was nothing to hide. I guess I didn't build up much trust for him as governor.

I thought we weren't allowed to swear on here anymore.

Either way, I'm pretty sure I was asked by someone for an explanation, so I gave one. I've been blocked from commenting for a day and a half because I had the nerve to ask what happened to a comment I made. Fine, I'm sorry, Max. I think that was an overreaction on his part, but it happened. You're right. It's his blog.

I could care less about changing any minds. I just think it's pretty sad for people to sit around agreeing with themselves, so I offer commentary from time to time. If you don't like it, go away.

You must mean this request for an explanation:

"I have no idea what Anon is carrying on about, nor do I care."

Yep. It's his blog. I shut up when the blogmeistro asks me to, or when he tells me adios.

Good for you.