This will likely be a re-occurring article that I’m calling “Mistakes of the Day”, or MOTD — I hope to use it to make suggestions. The not so apparent thing here is: I’m hoping it will help in pointing out my own mistakes. I hope everyone wants to increase perspective. So, feel free to comment, or send an E-Mail. Today’s (first) MOTD is pretty easy to wrap your head around. I’ll call it “Drowning in Your Own Numbers.” And it has to do with the hot-topic of some “missing” E-Mail, from over in that big, White… House…

People seem to enjoy the appearance that they are smart. So, then, it should not be shocking, that people like to use things like logic, or numbers, to help add credibility to the arguments they make. Probably because, seemingly smart people are direct associates of the two subjects. However, when you show yourself to be in direct misuse of these methods, you’re making your point seem less based in method, even biased — numbers do well at speaking for themselves.

Recently, CREW wrote an article about the number of “missing” E-Mail that were admittedly deleted through 2003-2005, from the E-Mail servers used by Presidential aides. It is alleged these “missing” E-Mails may contain evidence needed for an ongoing federal investigation.

The shorthand seems to be: if you’re at work, doing work, you should be using work-computers to do it. And the opposite of this guideline, is also true, you should not be using work-computers for personal activities. There are plenty of reasons, some of these are not so obvious, and don’t seem likely at first: you could easily say, infect the entire work-network with a virus, or other malware, and destroy everyone’s work, with your play. But, there are plenty of other reasons too. For instance, in the Executive Office, Presidential aides can’t use government servers for political reasons, because political reasons are actually personal reasons. Wow, that could get pretty convoluted, don’t you think? There are obvious reasons for these rules. Some of those same reasons even spawn independent organizations like CREW, who claim an interest in ensuring a just oversight takes place. At the White House specifically, the rules say, aides can use services of the RNC or DNC (Republican or Democratic National Committee(s)), or one of the many free E-Mail services, and/or even their own privately paid-for Internet access, so long as their respective choices comply with network security standards, and employment policies.

While this also is not so different from most offices elsewhere, there are some especially criminal scenarios that can occur here in government, like those already mentioned, those arisen from political motivations, because these crimes can have the most widespread, and far reaching effects. Worse, the line between politics and government has gotten blurry these days.

Despite what you might think, if you’re doing something work-related, even in the White House, the rules clearly state, you ought to be using work-computers. And, an important reason for using work-computers at the White House, is that, everything needs to be recorded. Since the adoption of the Presidential Records Act, this record-keeping has been a requirement of the Executive Office. Its not something to consider, its part of the job. The records belong to the American people. People like those in CREW, those who are especially worried about this record-keeping. And, rightfully so.

In 2004, aides of the President were using these same RNC accounts for government communication(s), and these systems were deleting E-Mail regularly, every 30 days or so. This caused a rather silent scare. As a result of the discovery, many of these accounts were “moved”, or simply changed, so that this didn’t happen in the future, preserving officials’ E-Mail messages. After all that, these aides went ahead and deleted E-Mails themselves, manually — while all of that is worth a discussion, its not to have now, before we have solid facts about certain important things.

We need solid facts to make informed decisions, so lets take a look at what CREW says happened.

How many E-Mail did these Presidential aides manually (or purposefully) delete? Well, CREW doesn’t know precisely, but they’ll suggest 5 million. I think anyone with experience with E-Mail could tell you 5 million E-Mails, is a lot of E-Mail indeed.

Considering that number, the first thing you might wonder, is, why is it so much? Thats simple though: big numbers seem to make a bigger argument, so its good to use them. Its a tactic to get people shocked into acting out. What CREW has done, in trying to shock people into action with such a large number though, is leave room for the naysayers to chip away at their huge, poorly concluded number, making it less appealing, less actual, and less viable as a swaying factor in their argument, and all arguments going forward.

This CREW number takes into account all the E-Mail deleted before the 2004 discovery. Its worth all the E-Mail before and after the change in policy. Thats a little generous, don’t you think? They’re even counting the E-Mail automatically deleted! Certainly there they’re looking at the big number of 5 million. Besides, its also unknown to us how those numbers take shape; how many, and which users, these numbers account; how many might be duplicate content, etc.

The truth is, this number 5 million is an almost useless, arbitrary figure in relation to the real question, and the number is also largely misleading in nature. Without knowing of those 5 million E-Mail messages, who they each came from, who they each were going to, what they each were in reference to, and why they were each were deleted, all we really know is: on some private computer, there were 5 million E-Mail messages removed, as part of user’s preference, or by a management system that saves on operating costs. That my friend is not shocking, and who even knows if its accurate.

It certainly doesn’t seem very likely that 5 million E-Mail messages contain evidence, thats for sure. So, why the big number? I’ll tell you why, it gets people going! Thing is, its the wrong way to go about it.

In misleading people with this data, CREW, and those that follow, and/or align themselves with these numbers, take part in a dance that the Bush Administration has been doing with its peasants, and leading all the while. Meantime, others who wish to add volume to their voice through the presentation of the actual fact, will all be forced mute because of a churning sea of senseless bloodthirstiness. To them I say, please learn that whenever you present an estimate of such oceanic proportions so rapidly, there will always be enough room and time in the tide, for you to be left by your opposition, drowning in your own numbers.

As this 5 million number is slowly put away, and into check, these baited people, and their contentions, will seem just as alarmist, partisan, and ill-informed as the numbers they present are. If an articulate proponent of justice, is willing to speak on the basis of the facts openly, and honestly, in such a climate, I believe, the end-effort will seem to be, sadly, a treading of these dangerously, choppy waters.