Romney spent nearly $100K to hide records

[Star_Cards]

yeah. I get it. :)

I still find it odd that employees of a government organization would be able to buy their hard drives. I work for a large company and we pay to have old computers erased and destroyed. Selling them to workers would never happen here. I'd assume a government organization would have the same idea about that. Outside of government information you have the software rights issues as well. I guess these computers could have been stripped clean but still seems odd.

[sanfran22]

yeah. I get it. :)

I still find it odd that employees of a government organization would be able to buy their hard drives. I work for a large company and we pay to have old computers erased and destroyed. Selling them to workers would never happen here. I'd assume a government organization would have the same idea about that. Outside of government information you have the software rights issues as well. I guess these computers could have been stripped clean but still seems odd.

Yeah, not sure on that. Maybe they are trying to not waste computers? Or maybe they are hiding something...who knows...

[Star_Cards]

Yeah, not sure on that. Maybe they are trying to not waste computers? Or maybe they are hiding something...who knows...

true. I just know my company never does that. Not to say that no one does, but still odd.

[duane1969]

yeah. I get it. :)

I still find it odd that employees of a government organization would be able to buy their hard drives. I work for a large company and we pay to have old computers erased and destroyed. Selling them to workers would never happen here. I'd assume a government organization would have the same idea about that. Outside of government information you have the software rights issues as well. I guess these computers could have been stripped clean but still seems odd.

Since the computers in question date back to 2003ish they would be outdated and not have any real value if refurbished. My guess is they would be no better than Pentium 2 processors with under 1.5GB of capability making them generally worthless for anything other than word processing or internet browsing. Refurbishing and upgrading them with a better processor, more RAM, a bigger hard drive and a better monitor would be more expensive than just buying a new computer.

In the same manner, they may not be able to be destroyed because of how the state laws read concerning destroying tax payer property. Here in WV we have to auction computers to the public or they have to be taken to a special approved disposal location where they are recycled for their materials. Even then we pull the hard drives and destroy them ourselves and we have to document the serial number of every recycled computer and report it to the state.

Without knowing how Mass. state laws read concerning this then it is hard to make a big deal of. Speaking for me personally, if I could buy the hard drive from my teacher-use computer when I leave I would since it is full of my lesson plans and bookmarks to websites.

[duane1969]

true. I just know my company never does that. Not to say that no one does, but still odd.

Tax laws limit how corporations can handle these issues. I am sure AUTaxman could expand more than I can, but I think that most states have laws in place that would require that they report money from selling outdated company-use computers. I imagine the responsibility of reporting the sales amounts for tax purposes and then paying taxes on the money outweighs the few bucks they would make off of the computer, so they destroy them rather than give employees an option to buy them.

[Lynco Cards]

Same Song 2nd Verse! The liberal's want to talk about all the money Conservatives Hide but never want to talk about the liberals. What about JOHN CORZINE??? 1.2 BILLION stolen from the Middle Class. Obama is talking today about TR and saying we need fairness???? He say's he has roots in Kansas?? His roots are in the Middle East. I wonder if Bill Ayers, Von Jones, and all his other cronies are there with him. What about STOP THE DARN SPENDING!! His Auto Bailout, Stimulous, and all the other OBAMA spending has created NOTHING but more DEBT. I have to watch my Language LOL. So Darn is my new word.

[Star_Cards]

Tax laws limit how corporations can handle these issues. I am sure AUTaxman could expand more than I can, but I think that most states have laws in place that would require that they report money from selling outdated company-use computers. I imagine the responsibility of reporting the sales amounts for tax purposes and then paying taxes on the money outweighs the few bucks they would make off of the computer, so they destroy them rather than give employees an option to buy them.

very true. I also know that one issue is removing NDA info as well as software. It's probably cheaper for them to pay a company that legally must wipe the hard drives of everything than hire someone in house to do so and worry about NDA info or getting hit with software piracy issues. Would think a state would have the same practices in place.

[Star_Cards]

Same Song 2nd Verse! The liberal's want to talk about all the money Conservatives Hide but never want to talk about the liberals. What about JOHN CORZINE??? 1.2 BILLION stolen from the Middle Class. Obama is talking today about TR and saying we need fairness???? He say's he has roots in Kansas?? His roots are in the Middle East. I wonder if Bill Ayers, Von Jones, and all his other cronies are there with him. What about STOP THE DARN SPENDING!! His Auto Bailout, Stimulous, and all the other OBAMA spending has created NOTHING but more DEBT. I have to watch my Language LOL. So Darn is my new word.

UGH!!! So tired of rebuttals to a topic about one party being, "what about the other party." It's such a hypocritical stance and it drives me crazy. I get people have biases, but if you are truly capable of a bipartisan opinion one wouldn't chime in with "what about the other guy". So tired of people (here as well as everywhere) willing to hold a politician to the fire as long as he's on one side of the other but not both. I get that people typically vote for a specific party but would think they'd still be capable of seeing that both parties have flawed people (not saying this makes mitt flawed either).

I'm also not saying everyone here does this, but it happens a lot in the media, here, and everywhere. I don't see why people are so loyal to one party or the other. Both sides have just as many loser and scammers. I'd think more people would recognize that rather than sticking up for one side by deflecting like this.

rant over. :)

[Star_Cards]

Since the computers in question date back to 2003ish they would be outdated and not have any real value if refurbished. My guess is they would be no better than Pentium 2 processors with under 1.5GB of capability making them generally worthless for anything other than word processing or internet browsing. Refurbishing and upgrading them with a better processor, more RAM, a bigger hard drive and a better monitor would be more expensive than just buying a new computer.

In the same manner, they may not be able to be destroyed because of how the state laws read concerning destroying tax payer property. Here in WV we have to auction computers to the public or they have to be taken to a special approved disposal location where they are recycled for their materials. Even then we pull the hard drives and destroy them ourselves and we have to document the serial number of every recycled computer and report it to the state.

Without knowing how Mass. state laws read concerning this then it is hard to make a big deal of. Speaking for me personally, if I could buy the hard drive from my teacher-use computer when I leave I would since it is full of my lesson plans and bookmarks to websites.

the age of the computers and them not being valuable makes sense which goes to my questions about why the employees would want them. still you'd think that their disposal method would be different. Also I'm not clear with this article... are they saying that they think some of this data was stuff that would typically have been archived or are they just trying to stir something up. I guess I'm not sure because I don't know if day to day communications and files are all archived in the governmental setting or not. I'm not sure what data was purged that should have been archived... if any.

[AUTaxMan]

Can someone sum up the issue? I don't want to read the article. #toobusy/lazy