Dear Geeks,

Never mind about the pressing matter of whether the White House should be required to turn over records about a stash of possibly missing e-mails.

No my question is purely technical, but pertinent, me thinks, to all of us who are hunting information in the digital era, (as well as to those of use who are trying to hide our tracks.)

So, please say it ain’t so that the White House could lose any e-mails. Let alone e-mails from when Bush decided to go to war with Iraq, and White House officials decided to leak the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame and the Justice Department began a criminal investigation into who leaked that classified information.”

Please, please, say it ain’t so. Because if it is...then surely, the electronic ground rules just changed?