21 November - Yet another great day in Republican Party History

[BOSSHOG]

on this date in 1973 nixon lawyer J. Fred Buzhardt revealed the existence of an 18 AND 1/2 MINUTE GAP in one of the White House recordings relative to Watergate.

So lets combine the morals of nixon with the sense of humor of bush with a skit in the oval office as the president is searching for those lost 18 and 1/2 minutes. No there not under the desk, not in the drawer. Aren't those republicans just so fucking funny.

[whistle]

1. They are still trying to find out what may have been on the 18 1/2 minute

...gap:

Watergate Tape Gap Still A Mystery

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2003

<snip>
Audio experts trying to recover what was said were not allowed to do tests on the original tape, which is stored at 65 degrees in a vault at the archives in College Park, Md. They had to prove they could retrieve voices from test recordings that have been erased without damaging the test tapes, said Susan Cooper, a spokeswoman for the archives.

The first test tape, distributed to experts in February 2002, consisted of erased test tones and spoken words. Results included partial identification of test tones, but none of the spoken words were recovered.

A second test tape was sent to experts in August 2002. This tape was recorded using blank 0.5-millimeter tape confiscated from the Nixon White House. It contained speech similar in quality to speech heard before and after the gap on the tape. None of the experts recovered any intelligible audio from the second test tape.

"We were really hopeful that there would be some technology out there to recapture the sound, but we'll have to put the tape away and possibly re-examine newer advances at a later date," Cooper said.
<more>
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/27/politics/main565298.shtml


....also, take the poll at this site to express how you feel about '18-minute gap' in the Watergate tape:

<link> http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa081301a.htm

Do you really want to know what is recorded on the '18-minute gap' in the Watergate tape?

Yes (596) 62%


No (337) 35%


Undecided (21) 2%


Total Votes: 954

[whistle]

2. Also, an interesting website about the Nixon White House tape recorders

<snip>
The Nixon White House Tape Recorders

In 1971 President Nixon installed secret audio recording systems in the Oval Office, his hide-out office in the Executive Office Building, the Cabinet Room and at Camp David . Conversations were recorded between February 16th, 1971 through July 18th, 1973. The recorders where installed and maintained by the US Secret Service.

There were a total of seven hidden microphones in the Oval Office. Five where in the President's desk and one each on each side of the fireplace mantle. Two microphones were installed under the cabinet room table in front of the President's chair. These hidden mics ran to a place in the basement of the West Wing and connected to a voice activated tape recorder hidden in a locker. Four microphones where also placed in Nixon's Old Executive Office Building Office which connected to another tape recorder in another room.

The desk phones in the Oval Office, The Executive Office Building Office and the one in the Lincoln Bedroom in the residence of the White House were connected to tape recording systems and telephone calls where automatically recorded. The recordings were tied to the US Secret Service Presidential Locator system. This was a system that knew where the President was at all times. The voice activated automatic tape recording system only worked when the President was in the room. However, it recorded automatically when Nixon was present.

Nixon was not the first President to use a secret recording system. Both Kennedy and Johnson secretly recorded some meetings and phone calls. In fact, secret audio recording goes all the way back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Nixon tapes consist of 2,019 hours of audio recordings.
<More with photos>


http://www.pimall.com/nais/pivintage/nixonrecorders.html

[madinmaryland]

3. I think it was the Clenis on those 18.5 minutes of tape.

:shrug:

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

4. And it spawned the song

"If I had a friend like Rosemary Woods" who was Nixons secretary and is suspected of having something to do with this............ :)