Sweet Jesus, when will you and Letterman realize the election is over? And ya realize your CIC Elect is having a bit of difficulty explaining that whole mess in IL right?
On Dec 12, 7:26 am, mike 532 <[email protected]> wrote: > Palin used these nonofficial accounts for official business, in > violation of Alaska state open records > rules,http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/12/11290_palin_emai... > Would You Pay $10,000 for Sarah Palin's Emails? How > much would you pay for access to the emails Sarah Palin has sent and > received as governor of Alaska? Would you part with $10,000 for them? > That's basically what her office is asking. > > During the general election, I filed an open records act request for > all emails that had gone to and from Palin in her official capacity. > And Alaska citizen watchdog Andrée McLeod, who had long been > peppering > Palin's office with similar requests, did the same. At a time when > Palin was on the hot seat as Senator John McCain's vice presidential > running mate, her office replied that it would cost over $65,000 to > round up all of Palin's emails and that Mother Jones would have to > cover this cost. > > The problem: Palin had used at least two nonofficial email accounts > (such as a Yahoo account) to conduct her state business. Given that > the governor's office did not have access to those accounts, its > information specialists had concluded that the only way to gather all > her emails would be to search the state email accounts for about 70 > people who worked within the executive offices of the governor and > look for emails to and from Palin's nonofficial email accounts. > Palin's office estimated it would cost almost a thousand dollars for > each search of these 70 or so official accounts. > > It seemed absurd and unfair for Palin's office to pass the cost of > this search on to those who had requested Palin's emails. After all, > she should have been using her state email account for state > business. > In a letter to her office, I maintained that requesters should not be > forced to pay for Palin's inappropriate use of nonofficial accounts. > Palin's office eventually agreed, deciding it would not charge fees > for the extensive search operation that would be necessary to compile > Palin's emails. In early October, it informed me that it would begin > reviewing Palin's official emails and gather the emails related to > state business that were sent to and from her nonofficial accounts. > All for no charge. > > But there was a rub: this whole process could be expected to take > weeks. That meant that none of her emails (from either official or > nonofficial accounts) would become public prior to the November 4 > election. Because Palin had used these nonofficial accounts for > official business, arguably in violation of Alaska state open records > rules, she had managed (wittingly or not) to orchestrate the > functional equivalent of a cover-up--at least, a temporary one. > > On December 5, Linda Perez, Palin's administrative director, sent me > a > letter noting that Alaska's Department of Administration had > completed > the job of assembling Palin's emails into a single account. "The > account is now available for records production purposes," she wrote. > In all, there are approximately 25,700 emails in this account, the > letter reported. > > But they are not yet ready for release, and now here come the real > fees. > > Each email, Perez wrote, has to be opened and printed separately in a > "fairly time-consuming" process. The cost for doing this: $3,955.23. > The calculations: a staffer paid $15.39 an hour could review about > 100 > emails per hour. And Perez said that Mother Jones and McLeod would > have to pay for this. > > The process, though, would not end there. Once these emails are > printed out, the records would then be sent to the state's Department > of Law (which is headed by a Palin appointee) for "privilege review." > That is, individual emails could be withheld on the basis of various > exemptions. (When the Palin administration responded to an earlier > email request from McLeod regarding two Palin staffers, it withheld > over 1100 emails, relying on questionable exemptions.) So there's no > guaranteeing how many of these emails will be released. > > And there's more. Once the legal review is finished, the emails > deemed > appropriate for release will have to be copied, and Palin's office > will charge a duplication fee. In earlier correspondences, Palin's > office indicated the fee could be over 25 cents a page. If about > 25,000 emails (a page each) are cleared for release, the copying fee > could top $6,000. > > Ten thousand dollars to see Palin emails reviewed by Palin's legal > department? Is it worth it? > > Other media outfits have submitted requests for some of Palin's > emails > (based on subjects). It may be possible to create a consortium of > groups to share the costs. I will be talking to representatives of > these other organizations to determine if we can work together. And > there may be other options. > > So stay tuned. Palin has certainly not retreated to Alaska. She > recently campaigned for Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of > Georgia, > during the special election Chambliss ended up winning. "I can't > overstate the impact she had down here," he said afterward. With > Palin > acting as if she is interested in remaining a political player on the > national stage, her emails--if the legal reviewers do not censor them > for political purposes--might still make interesting, and perhaps > important, reading. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
