Let me start off by saying not everyone needs to know computers inside and out. But when you don’t know computers it is best not to pretend you do and make ignorant and wild claims. For example, the Federal government replaces its computers regularly for a variety of reasons from saving costs associated with maintaining older, out of production systems to trying to keep up with technology after decades of falling dismally behind across the board (best examples were FBI and FAA whose systems were so old it was like visiting a museum).

When pulling old systems they destroy the data on them – which is no big deal because all the data on and passing among computers is recorded on central servers. Given the size of the workforce they do a damn good job in recording the massive amounts of information that resides on government computers every day. It is not perfect (nothing is life is, get over it) but I am sure it is above 99%, which I dare anyone to be able to do as well.

So with that in mind, check out how a technical ignorant judge and a technically illiterate news media try and create a conspiracy out of thin air!

The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed.

“When workstations are at the end of their lifecycle and retired … the hard drives are generally sent offsite to another government entity for physical destruction,” the White House said in a sworn declaration filed with U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola.

It has been the goal of a White House Office of Administration “refresh program” to replace one-third of its workstations every year in the Executive Office of the President, according to the declaration.

Some, but not necessarily all, of the data on old hard drives is moved to new computer hard drives, the declaration added.

In proposing an e-mail recovery plan Tuesday, Facciola expressed concern that a large volume of electronic messages may be missing from White House computer servers, as two private groups that are suing the White House allege.

Facciola proposed the drastic approach of going to individual workstations of White House computer users after the White House disclosed in January that it recycled its computer backup tapes before October 2003. Recycling — taping over existing data — raises the possibility that any missing e-mails may not be recoverable.

Emphasis mine. All the areas I highlighted show one thing – baseless accusations. There is no evidence all the data these people sought is not there (and clearly they found nothing of use in their lawsuit). They are saying there might be missing data. There might be – so what? There was no intent to hide or destroy evidence. People regularly clean off the disk drives when moving to a new computer. Email gets tossed out after a while. Records are only required so far back. BFD!

If you have nothing but unsubstantiated speculation then the judge should be tossing this case out – except it seems he forgot the law he is supposed to be overseeing. Typical of our judicial system where judges can basically make it up if they feel like it. Most don’t, but enough do and only their comrades can call them on it.