# 22 MILLION, that's right, MILLION, Bush-era emails found **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 14, 2009, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/22-million-thats-right-million-bush-era-emails-found/521285 "2009-12-14T23:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/22-million-thats-right-million-bush-era-emails-found/521285/21 "2009-12-15T05:57:15Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > 22 million? These pricks must have been unnecessarily “forwarding all” as much as my last company. I’ll bet 21.5 million of them were LOLcats. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/22-million-thats-right-million-bush-era-emails-found/521285/22 "2009-12-15T06:12:51Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I find it unfathomable that a robot could have done such a bad job. Well, Sirius Cybernetics had to start _somewhere_. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/22-million-thats-right-million-bush-era-emails-found/521285/23 "2009-12-15T14:03:11Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I find it unfathomable that a robot could have done such a bad job. > [@Fritz](#): > > I don’t care what comes after, THIS wins the thread. No it doesn’t – this does: > [@Lightnin](#): > > How’s the saying go? “Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by maliciously-programmed robots designed to bring about the end of civilization.” > > Something like that, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/22-million-thats-right-million-bush-era-emails-found/521285/24 "2009-12-15T14:19:35Z")
What’s interesting about the sheer volume of the emails is most likely the vast majority of them (like, say, at least 21,950,000 or so) are probably extremely mundane and totally of no interest to anyone, anywhere. Stuff like, “Hey we’re changing our 9 o’clock meeting to 10:30”, CCed to 30 people. The sheer volume of emails meant it was all but certain people would want to know why they were missing. I have to wonder, **if** I wanted to hide emails of an embarrassing nature, wouldn’t it be better to get rid of a few thousand emails in the hope no one would notice they were missing? Or perhaps when you start talking about a huge number like 22 million the hope is that since so much effort is being expended in retrieving a huge number of emails, any that you made “disappear” will not be noticed. I don’t really know what the data storage policies are at the White House but you delete an email in enough places and there really is no bringing it back. Especially when we’re talking about mass storage where it’s likely traditional file recovery methods will be difficult to pull off due to the high use of the drive. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/22-million-thats-right-million-bush-era-emails-found/521285/25 "2009-12-15T15:23:47Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > EtJ (Explaining the joke): News sites tend to change the stories on their front page. It’s better to link to the actual article. No, you really didn’t get the [joke.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541297) ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/22-million-thats-right-million-bush-era-emails-found/521285/26 "2009-12-15T18:48:34Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > I liked this: > > Gee, ya think?? > _waiting in amused impatience to hear the rationalizations and excuses from the right for this one_ Here’s the explanation per [CNN’s article](http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/14/white.house.emails/index.html) on the subject. > [@](#): > > But Scott Stanzel, a former deputy press secretary in the Bush White House, said the group “has consistently tried to create a spooky conspiracy out of standard IT issues.” > > “We always indicated that there is an e-mail archiving system and a disaster recovery system,” Stanzel said. “We also indicated that e-mails not properly archived could be found on disaster recovery tapes. There is a big, big difference between something not being properly archived and it being ‘lost’ or ‘missing,’ as CREW would say.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/22-million-thats-right-million-bush-era-emails-found/521285.md?page=1)