Outstanding, Mr. Flint. Simply outstanding. It will be interesting to see any response from the Times-Argus and later, the state bureaucracy.
Regards, Dave On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 7:48 AM, Paul Flint <[email protected]> wrote: > Greetings Editor-in-chief Rob Mitchel, > > As a long time subscriber to the Barre Times Argus, I read with great > interest and sympathy about your struggles to obtain electronic based > correspondence from the Vermont State government in investigation of > government wrongdoing. I have also been through the expensive and lengthly > obfuscation that the State Bureaucracy wishes to put you through. So, I > would like to share with you some observations and suggestions. > > First a proposition. If it cost $20,000.00 to send these emails > originally, would they have ever been sent? So, reason demands the common > man ask; what is the difference in the cost between now and then? Here is > what I know. How the State Bureaucracy delivers the email evidence to you > when you request it from them under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) > is in the Portable Document Format (PDF). What basically happens here is > that the Bureaucracy takes the email message, prints it out on paper, and > then scans this printed document back in PDF form, appending it to the rest > of the PDF'd documents to be released as one large PDF file, typically > delivered on a Compact Disk (CD). In my experience, this method will not > include any attachments or header information, additionally, these pictures > of emails as released are not easily search-able using common text > processing tools. > > I would recommend that you demand on behalf of the public who paid for > these emails that they be released to you in native Simple Mail Transfer > Protocol (SMTP) format. In this format the document remains in the > original digital, search-able format, as this is the format that the > document was originally transmitted and received in. In this format, > emails include header and also attachments, which are encoded in > Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) format, and again are easily > searched using common text processing tools. Should the State indicate > that it cannot deliver the email to you in this format, have your advocates > point out that this is the standard way that all email is transfered on the > Internet without exception. > > Finally, I would like to respectfully inquire as to where the Vermont > State Bureaucracy arrived at the idea that they should expend any of my tax > money redacting emails that the citizens of Vermont, as represented by your > responsible journal, own and have a right to view. The public nature of > Vermont State emails is made clear to all Bureaucrats when they sign a > document generically called a Rules Of Behavior (ROB) before they are > allowed access to the taxpayer owned computer. Additionally every time > they sign onto the Vermont Government Network, a reiteration of the public > nature of the information is displayed on the screen, and they must > actively acknowledge it. The Bureaucrats involved in the current scandal > were told in their employee orientation that they should take care of what > they write and consider before sending, as any email correspondence they > author might end up in a newspaper, as is the case here. As public > officials employed by the State of Vermont they are explicitly and > repeatedly briefed that their official correspondence carries a severely > limited expectation of privacy. The unclassified email system operated by > the State of Vermont is a public system. Any Personal Identifying Data > (PID) or Privately Issued Credentials (PIC) in these emails directly > contravenes the stated security policies of the Vermont State Government > and is a violation of Vermont State Rules and Policies in itself. > > In summary, acquiring publicly owned emails specifically requested by the > Vermont Press Bureau, and any other publicly produced emails, demands that > you ask for and accept nothing less than Simple Mail Transfer Protocol > (SMTP) format data with Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) > attachments. For further information on these standards, please refer to > the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Request For Comments(RFC) RFC > 821 and RFC 5321, Google these strings for detailed information, and please > continue to shine a bright light on the waste, corruption and fraud > perpetuated on the Citizens of Vermont by the current Vermont State > Bureaucracy. > > Sincerely, > > Paul Flint > Director > Barre Open Systems Institute > (802) 479-2360 > (802) 595-9365 Cell > > /************************************ > Based upon email reliability concerns, > please send an acknowledgment in response to this note. > > Paul Flint > Barre Open Systems Institute > 17 Averill Street > Barre, VT > 05641 > > http://www.bosivt.org > http://family.flint.com/flint > skype: flintinfotech > Work: (202) 537-0480 > > Consilium _ gratuitum .~. > ASCII ribbon campaign ( ) > valet /V\ against HTML e-mail X > quanti /( )\ www.asciiribbon.org / \ numerantur ^^-^^ > -- Sent from whatever machine I might be on right now.
