Obama Told He Must Kick His Blackberry Habit

For a variety of reasons, President-elect Barack Obama has been told that during his Presidency he must not use his Blackberry. A recent New York Times article called "Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe", reported that in the interest of compliance with the Presidential Records Act as well as security, Obama, an avid Blackberry user, intends to break his habit cold-turkey when he assumes the office in January.

What a refreshing approach to the business of the White House - an Administration taking measures to ensure the integrity of the public record rather than finding ways to bypass it. Compare this viewpoint to the Bush Administration who dismantled the e-mail archiving system installed by his predecessor's staff and Governor Sarah Palin who is allegedly claiming Executive Privilege to justify using her Blackberry.

If he can quit smoking, surely he can break his Crackberry habit. Yes, he can!

Related posts:

A Goodbye to Bush and His E-mail Records
Sarah Palin and Her Maverick Emails
Mr. Bush - You Have Some Splainin' to Do

Federal Judge Rules Against White House

This past Monday, a Federal judge ruled against the White House and in favor of the National Security Archive, declaring that the courts do in fact have the authority to force the White House into recovering 225 days worth of e-mail correspondence from back-up tapes.

A lawyer representing the National Security Archive, Sheila Shadmand, said that the timing of the ruling is crucial because it provides the opportunity to protect these valuable records "before they get carted off or destroyed as the current administration packs its bags to leave."

A Goodbye to Bush and His E-mail Records

When George W. Bush came to power, he removed the White House e-mail archiving system that Bill Clinton's administration had previously installed. For eight years, there has been little or no record of e-mail correspondence in the Presidential Office. As a result, the National Security Archive is very concerned because of the apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act.

The President is supposed to turn over these records by January 20, 2009. Meredith Fuchs from the National Security Archive said recently in an interview with Nationaljournal.com that if he does not turn over the e-mail records it will be unprecedented. "He would be treating them as his own personal records and not as records of the American public," she says. "That's a really troubling possibility."

The courts have advised the Bush Administration that, in the absence of an archive, these e-mails must be recovered from back-up tapes, an arduous and time-consuming project. Even if there was enough will to do this at a time when the Administration is packing up its stuff and heading out of Dodge, there isn't enough time...nowhere near enough time!

It will now be interesting to see if President-elect Obama takes a different approach to e-mail records during his term.

A View from NorthSeas

By popular demand, here is the screen capture demo posted recently on YouTube.

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