Open Government: The gospel according to Colberg

There are stories abound about the on going Branchflower investigation regarding Troopergate that seem to come right out of a Law & Order episode. 

Branchflower showing up in offices, flanked by techies, ordering hands off of keyboards and searching hard drives of state employees computers for emails...or possibly missing emails.

Meanwhile Attorney General Talis Colberg issued the attached memo regarding personal use of state issued equipment such as Blackberry PDA's and computers along with an opinion regarding the liability of those communications being subject to public disclosure.

Pay close attention to pages 12 and 13 of the memo.

It appears that short of going to court and requesting an opinion from a judge, the state can define just about anything a private conversation and be protected from public disclosure.

Is this really the true definition of open and transparent government?