2008 What’s Taking So Long?
posted by on November 9 at 12:41 PM
Why is the National Archives being so slow in releasing those Hillary Clinton records from her time in the White House? Blame the UFO seekers and conspiracy theorists, who move faster than the journalists, apparently:
A major delay to the release of Clinton White House papers that might be of contemporary interest is that UFO believers and other conspiracy theorists filed their Freedom of Information Law requests ahead of the journalists, historians, and Clinton rivals who were digging for information about the First Lady.
Among the records that are coming out ahead of those that could shed additional light on Hillary Clinton’s failed health-care reform efforts:
-All files on UFOs, Roswell New Mexico, flying saucers, Area 51 or the TV show X-Files in the files of John Podesta-Records or correspondence related to President Clinton wanting the Sci-Fi Channel at the White House and Camp David
-All files on UFOs in the files of Mike McCurry, White House Press Secretary
i think dennis is behind this.
This is not a story. The story is that Bush II has made it so onerous to release presidential records to the public that records from the Reagan era have been held up indefinitely just as they were about to be daylighted.
If I became president tomorrow the first thing I'd do is make all presidential records up to now public, and reduce the sealing time for my own (and future) presidential records to six months. Tough for my administration, but good for America.
Ah, I love it. When the absurd rears its head like this, I just love it.
While I'm not actually a Hillary supporter, as an archivist I've been frustrated at the misinformation in the press about the process of releasing presidential papers. Hillary, or even Bill, simply cannot just say, "Release everything immediately" - there are the Presidential Records Act and the lack of staffing at the National Archives that prevent that, among other factors. The AP has a pretty good Q&A that explains some of the issues here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_po/clinton_papers_q_a_3
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