Several folks have written in asking if I knew of any reason why the comments section of the blog is no longer accessible within the CJC at Harris County computers. I've heard varying accounts from people not being able to post comments to people not being able to read them. Some asked me if I had done anything to the comments by changing something on my blog settings, but I had not.
Most surmised that Lykos and the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight had something to do with it.
Well, surprise surprise, if you guessed Lykos and Crew as the culprit, you solved the mystery before I did.
Apparently Lykos ordered her tech guys to have ITC disable the comments section on all county computers. I presume that applies to everyone in the courthouse, since I don't see if they could do it only for the District Attorney's Office computers.
I wonder whether or not Lykos ran that by Alex Bunin at the P.D.'s Office or any of the 37 judges who might actually enjoy reading how things are going at the D.A.'s Office.
Somehow, I doubt it.
Well, I have to admit that I'm flattered to be joining the ranks of the banned, along with Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Joseph Heller and Luther Campbell.
Just kidding. I have nowhere near the writing talents of Luther Campbell.
Actually, I'm more bemused than anything at Lykos' absolutely idiotic plot to keep people within her office from knowing what is going on there. I've never accused Lykos or her group of being particularly bright, so let me spell out a couple of things for her:
1. They have these thingies called "Smart Phones" now. Whether it be a Blackberry or an iPhone or a Droid, they can ALL browse the Internet. All of them.
2. While browsing the Internet, they can also leave comments about how their technologically-stunted boss is a terrible District Attorney who is now being investigated by a Grand Jury.
3. Every last one of your employees knows that you are a paranoid megalomaniac and none of them are stupid enough to type something bad about you from an Office computer. They will wait until they get home before they do that on their home computers. You can't track them and monitor their thoughts there.
4. Most of the comments are coming from your own people anyway. You shouldn't be worried about what they are reading. You should be worried about what they are thinking and writing.
5. It isn't the folks inside your office that you need to worry about finding out what a group of morons you and Leitner and crew are. Trust me, they've known that for years. I'm willing to bet that if the 2012 election was held just by your own employees, you'd lose in a landslide. It is the folks on the outside of the Office that you should be afraid of learning about your antics. They, for some reason, seem to embrace your dishonesty and bullying.
Sadly, once again, the depths of Lykos' stupidity never cease to amaze me.
35 comments:
Murray and all, once again be reminded that if one accesses county e-mail from one's private phone, the phone is no longer private. Your personal phones are county acessible.
I look forward to tomorrow's memo to office staff announcing that Lykos is back from Hawaii and that she has single handedly won the war on drugs.
To the Hierarchy - since you still undoubtedly though have access to this fine blog - I suspect that the HCDAO will be exploring with its medical insurance carrier whether implant devices to monitor the "thinking and writing" of its employees outside the office environ will be covered if the Hot Check Fund does not have sufficient resources to cover this necessity after having been depleted by a vacation trip (Ops, a seminar) to Hawaii.
Calvin A. Hartmann
Anon 8:08 I am at a loss as to your comment. Are you saying if someone accesses their county email from their personal smart phone, the county then gains access to their personal smart phone and the content? I would like to see the law on that.
Calvin, I don't think she used Harris County funds to pay for the trip to Hawaii. I think the sponsors paid her way, obviously thinking she has some expertise in Pacific Rim narcotics trafficking. I subscribed to the email service for the county agendas right after Lykos won and have been keeping up with what she requests. I did not see a request to pay for the trip on the front end but then that very odd request for $1770 on the date of travel. More interesting is that it was withdrawn which then begs the question, why was she requesting $1770. Spending money? Better hotel room? Did her husband go with her? Upgrade on travel to first class? As with everything Lykos does, so many questions.
Anon 8:08--this makes zero sense. By that logic, if I access my bank account from my mobile phone, the bank will have access to my entire phone?!? Or if I put my DA business card in my purse, they can rifle through it?!? They don't own my phone. They would need PC of criminal activity (and a warrant) to search my phone.
Upon further reflection, I am betting Anon 8:08 is on the vaulted "Leadership Team" at the DA's office, simply trying to scare the rank and file. Which would also fit those administrators' lack of knowledge of any actual law...
Most of the people that I know who still work there are too afraid to even look at your blog, much less make comments from a Harris County computer. The Lykos Nazi's would have you on the firing line. It would be suicide to go to your web site from that office using a County computer. I bet the DA and Harris Co. IT guys will have the "Firing Squad" pay them a visit today. I would love to see them try and gain access to an employee's personal phone. Someone needs to step up and run against her. I think everyone has had enough of this BS from her and her evil cronies.
If you talk to some of the "old heads" that still work there, they say "here we go again". Maybe, e-mails will sink her, too. Patsy went to Hawaii because she took credit for an article that she didn't even write. Now that's a lot of gall and she has plenty of that.
I bet the gang will be looking at employee county phone and e-mail records looking for any contact with you.
I wonder who'll be thrown under the bus for her latest blunder.
I hear Joni ordered her guys to be sure and tell Leitner if they get a GJ subpoena. Are you serious? I thought they were supposed to be secret. Nothing is sacred in that office.
Anon 8:08 I am at a loss as to your comment. Are you saying if someone accesses their county email from their personal smart phone, the county then gains access to their personal smart phone and the content? I would like to see the law on that.
It's sort of like the difference between evidence that is discoverable and evidence that is admissible.
Basically, if you use your personal phone for county business, then it is subject to open records act requests. But technically, that just encompasses the communications you made on county time or for county business. A third party could get to see those (ask the Bush administration).
However, what Lykos is apparently doing is funneling comments through private phones that she may later want to get a look at. Never mind the fact that (1) those requests are usually made by third parties to get official documents and (2) the things she wants to see are not official in nature. She wants to use her "right to access" your phones as a fishing expedition. She will not look at a single official e-mail. She will just look for personal use that contradicts her authority.
Or hell, maybe she really just wants people to stop goofing around at work. Y'all have a shortage of prosecutors, right? Stop screwing around on blogs and get your ass to work. I'm not paying you to goof around all day!
Rage
Government employees are subject to open records requests.
That doesn't require PC of criminal activity OR a warrant.
I don't know about the whole "work e-mail on personal cell phone" thing and how that applies. My hope is that it would be limited to your work email.
However, that doesn't stop someone from making an open records request. I'd hate to be the one who is subject to a request and has to fight it.
Just for general good practice, I'd keep personal and work completely separate.
The bottom line on private Smart phones is not nearly as complex as the battle of the gerbils in Rage's very small cranial vault.
If one were to access a government server eg. Harris County Technology Center or conduct government business with a personal phone an open records request would be enforceable to that extent. Rage and Durfee are not the go to guys with questions.
Roger B may have problem if judicial campaign work has been done on county time-----Wayne is already looking at overtime payments
Rage and Durfee are not the go to guys with questions.
Well you must not be either, because we said basically the same thing.
What you left out is that in order to see what is "official" they have to look at everything and say "this is official and this is not." The non-official things don't get "produced", but Lykos isn't looking for official things. She's looking for the chaff, not the wheat. (And again, this all assumes y'all aren't going crazy.)
Try to keep up here.
Rage
Overtime payments? Who at the DAs office gets paid overtime?
Best compliment lycos could ever give you Murray
Ok people. The actual criminal lawyers should know the law here. The government does not have blanket authority to search your phone if you have sent a work email from a personal phone. An open records request MAY apply to the email that was sent. But that email has to go through a work server. So its no different than sending the email from your work computer.
I would love to see the authority people cite to be able to search someone's personal phone with which that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy merely because the email that goes through the work computer may be subject to an open records request. That's like saying the government can get everything on your home computer if you remotely accessed your email. It simply isn't the law.
I'm actually pretty sure that I know who Rage is at this point.
Folks - I think Lykos presented us with a challenge to post as many insider comments as possible on weekdays between 8 and 5.
Folks - I think Lykos presented us with a challenge to post as many insider comments as possible on weekdays between 8 and 5.
"Most of the people that I know who still work there are too afraid to even look at your blog, much less make comments from a Harris County computer. "
Really? I doubt that's true. I used to to look at at lunch when I was a DA, and I saw people doing it all the time. The administration is bat-crap crazy, to be sure, but following every key stroke of misdemeanor and felony threes isn't high on the agenda, I'm guessing.
Okay Rage, I appreciate your interpretation. However, I disagree with your conclusion. While I absolutely agree with your thoughts on the process Lykos could take to sort through data, I don't believe that they could get to the other info on my smart phone, because it's not in their possession.
Here's what I mean: if I file an open records request to the DA's office for any disciplinary records in soneone's personnel file related to Brady violations, the DA's office will turn that over. However, if I file a request to the Harris Cty DA's office to request all disciplinary records for that same ADA from when that ADA worked at another office, the HCDAO cannot produce what is not in their possession.
So here, my phone is not in their possession. The office cannot comply with such a request, because they don't have my phone. I do think they could (and would with no fight) produce any records related to any servers in their possession. However, I am thinking that to get the really good info, they'd need a subpoena (and thus PC).
And I still think this is an attempt to scare us...
They don't have possession of my phone, and they're not getting it without a search warrant.
I do think...
I am thinking...
Good luck with all of your thinking.
Using your phone for county business could convert it for the purpose of responding to these requests. Plus, if Lykos shows up in your office and says "our records show that you've been using your phone for official use. Hand it over.", what are you going to do? Fight? Ask for a union rep?
Your thinking vs. their disparate bargaining power will get somebody's phone taken away and searched.
Rage
Rage, don't be such a whining bitch all the time.
Rage 2:51. If what you describe came to pass, the DA or ADA who engaged in the conduct would likely be guilty of the criminal offense of Official Opression. They would also be sued in Federal Court under a 1983 cause of action.
Heck Lloyd Kelly would love to take on another headline grabbing case like that and take out yet another Harris County Elected Official. Remember you are not a criminal lawyer. Give Lloyd a call. He can explain it to you.
I am hearing that more of the sky is about to fall on the brilliant Lykos administration.
Welcome Home from Hawaii, Pat!
Rage - again you don't know your ass from a hole in the ground. Cite the authority for your proposition that Lykos can look at a personal phone. The authority to say it cannot be done is found in the 4th Amendment, and, more specifically, Chapter 18 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
I'm waiting ...
Remember you are not a criminal lawyer
Rage may not be licensed to practice law. Waiting on confirmation from State bar.
Rage said: Plus, if Lykos shows up in your office and says "our records show that you've been using your phone for official use. Hand it over.", what are you going to do? Fight? Ask for a union rep?
Actually, I would quit before giving them my phone. Because I would not work for a place that would do that without any suspicion of criminal activity.
I wrote a respectful comment directed to Rage, and his jackass response, now changing the scenario shows me two things:
1) He never thought of the fact that the phones are not in the HCDAO's possession. He realizes this is actually a good point, cannot admit this, and thus must get pissy and change the scenario.
2) He still has no grasp of criminal law.
It's the electronic Information - not the physical phone. If the County computer system was accessed via wireless capabilities - they already HAVE any information they need. Wheat, Chaff, whole loaf of cooked toast.
Deep-Throat
Deep Throat,
Bingo!
One of the servers Rage uses is the Harris County Technology Center. The little irritant knows just enough superficial law to impress a titty dancer. His incompetant arrogance will have the same fate as Chucky and Patsy.
Behind the scenes with Judge Patsy "the troll" Lykos and Jimmy "little weasel" Leitner:
Troll: Weasel (puff, puff gulp gulp) bring me another bottle of Jack and a pack of Lucky's.
Weasel: Your eminence you sure could use some luck right about now.
Troll: Shut the fuck up bitch and obey.
Weasel:(slinking away uttering under his breath) What have I done? Am I really this patheic?
Troll: I heard that, stop whimpering and follow orders fuckhead chop chop.
Tail between his legs the little weasel slinks off.
The troll takes a long drag on her unfiltered Camel plotting her next move. Her health is not what it used to be coughing spastically in another failed attempt to clear her thick secretions. She resorts to her failsafe polishing off the liter of Jack as she settles down in her thrown. Muttering, "where the Hell is my errand boy" as she passes out.
The weasel returns relieved to find his ruler passed out on the floor. The troll's labored breathing and bladder incontinence are a frightful site but at least the weasel can slither in retreat without verbal abuse until re-summoned.
The weasel crawls in his hole to ponder his future. Terrified the troll might falter and be replaced with a competent leader he lets out a frightful gasp at the mere thought of getting his just rewards.
Could it be that his sinister plot fails? He was sure the booze and cigs would kill the troll and pave his way to DA. But now all that is in jeopardy. Weasel knows the trolls craving for tar tar and as he wipes the tears with his shaking paws wonders if weasel tar tar will soon be on the troll's platter.
Just Sayin'
Wait this makes no sense. If access to the comments is blocked for all county employees how will Jim spend his days? A man can only play so much solitaire!
Someone should re-visit that 'who's getting paid overtime comment?' If you look close enough, you'll find smoke and where there is smoke, there is fire.
Post a Comment