Flint, I know its not polite to talk with my mouth full, but I'd sure like to hear you defend this debacle in DC:

Subject:	Washington DC: Up In Smoke
Date:	1999/09/29
Author:	Paul Milne <fedinfo@halifax.com>
	Posting History

(My comments in Parenthesis)     Cash-strapped D.C.races for Y2K finish line   ( Let's start with the title itself. 'Cash strapped'? Let's see, these 'geniuses', these 'professionals' started with a budget of less than $8 million for the entire District. Then they went to about $24 million and now after having no way to account for the alleged $120 million that they have NO idea where it went, they want a more than FIFTY PERCENT increase  with less that 70 federal working days left.  Does this sound like these 'professionals' had the most remote clue about what they were doing? No. Does it  sound like they had any appreciation at all for the scope and magnitude of the issue? No. And I am being generous here.)       September 28, 1999 Web posted at: 12:19 p.m. EDT (1619 GMT)   ( September 28th? It's not September 28th. Anyone with half a brain in their heads knows its....Uh Oh, wait a minute. I'm not suppose to rant here. Nevermind. I was on a roll.)     by Dan Caterinicchia From...   ( Dan... nevermind)       (IDG) -- Despite a late start and some sloppy accounting, all of Washington D.C.'s critical computer systems will be Year 2000-compliant, but it will be a close call and will require more than a 50 percent increase in federal funding, city officials said on Friday.   (This is pure BULLSHIT.  Late starts are the number ONE reason for failure. They could hardly have started later, underfunded and  understaffed. Now they want FIFTY PERCENT more at the eleventh hour. if they blew $120 million and could not fix the problem, how does anyon in their right mind figure that FIFTY PERCENT more will not merely go down the rat hole? Who is this guy who calls himself the 'mayor', Jon Lovitt's alter ego? "Yeah, we need $68 Million more, yeah, that's the ticket, $68 million more.  )     Mayor Anthony Williams, testifying before the District of Columbia subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, said the district will go down to the wire for full compliance but will have all systems ready and contingency plans in place for Jan.1.   (Oh, they'll go down to the wire alright. Kicking and swinging on a piano wire.     But district officials said they need additional federal funds to reach the finish line and recently filed a request for $68 million in additional funding with the Office of Management and Budget.   (Be reasonable here. They blew it. Completely totally blew it and now like Oliver Twist they beg, "Please, Sir, I want some more. We're talking about FIFTY PERCENT more. FIFTY PERCENT. Good Grief! Suppose your mechanic did that to you. You'd fire him on the spot. )     Officials from the General Accounting Office, however, took issue both with D.C.'s timeline for Year 2000 compliance and its inability to track the funds the district has received to date.   ('Took Issue"? "Took Issue"? Why aren't heads rolling and the gutters full of blood? I mean over the slipshod remdiation, not just everyday in Anacostia.)     Although the district has made notable progress with Year 2000 fixes,   ( Let my stop at the comma, here. 'Notable progress'? BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHA! I sure guess it **IS** notable. No where near done, and they want fifty percent more to flush down the toilet. I'll say that's notable, but I would hardly call it progress.)         it still is in danger of not meeting the deadline, according to GAO, and the district has not fully accounted for how it had spent the $120 million in funding it has received for Year 2000 fixes.   ( Clue.... If they can not manage to even account for the spending, how are they supposed to be responsible to account for what they are suppose to fix? Oh, I get it. They have good, wholesome, church-going, nursing home volunteering programmers manning the remdiation and they merely have misanthropic pussy-cat theater dwelling accountants to watch the purse strings.  )     GAO had "received inconsistent and unreliable cost data from several District officials," said GAO official Gloria Jarmon. "The district cannot offer assurance that funds intended for Y2K efforts have been properly or effectively spent."   ( This one really makes my day. They don't have the wildest clue whether or not the dough was spent on a remediated code or whether the money was spent to refurbish  a PHM"S office with  faux bamboo wallpaper.  Malasada's for everyone!)       However, Williams and the other district officials acknowledged that they had encountered difficulty in tracking Year 2000 funds and said efforts were under way to accurately track the money.   ( Efforts are underway. Boy, I sure am relieved that 'efforts' are underway. Maybe they can get five codeheads to spend a week stripping glue off the wallpaper after they tear it down and retun it for half-price.)     But they also noted that the district's Year 2000 readiness efforts contributed to the problem.   Given the emergency status of the remediation efforts, the district's top priority has been simply securing the funds, Williams said. "In my world, you have to distinguish between the top priorities that are blowing up, and just the top priorities," he said. "The city is going to be ready."   ( No facts, no evidence, no proof. Just rhetoric. He might as well drop his pants and such a crack pipe. It will give him a better chance of getting re-elected in DC.)   "They would have been pulling people off of Y2K to track funds," said the committee's ranking minority member Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who also said she would "continue to do everything I can to protect those [federal Y2K] dollars for the district."   (Unbelievable. They would have taken coders away from the priority work to track funds. And those idots were serious and you have ANY doubt at all about how they are doing? LOL LOL LOL )     Suzanne Peck, Washington D.C.'s chief technology officer, reported that of the city's 223 mission-critical systems, 130 are Y2K ready and the remaining 93 are in different phases of remediation and testing. Those 93 systems will complete testing by the end of October and return to production in November, she said.     (This is really the capper. If you rule out the 130 systems that were already ready, then they spent an alleged $120 MMMILION to work on just 93 systems? And they ***STILL*** need ANOTHER $68 MMMILLION? PUUUULLLLEEEEEEEEASE!   ========================     If you have not ever seen a horrifying failure story, this is it.  What is it that you Pollies do not yet understand? A few weeks to go and they want MORE than 50% of the original money for which they can not account. Are you THAT stupid? Yes, I guess you are.       http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9909/28/dc.needs.y2k.money.idg/   -- Paul Milne "If you live within 5 miles of a 7-11, you're toast"

-- a (a@a.a), September 30, 1999

Answers

Hope their rat extermination program is having the same degree of success. The Pollys will be hungry ...

Now where's Cory's comments on this? Hopping over to csy2k ---

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 30, 1999.

"and over there was where the capitol was, yes that's right, up on that hill over there...

"Yes, this whole area once housed a wonderful museum complex called the Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art and Air & Space Museum...

"Thank God our previous government had to foresight to move so many of those precious works of art and history to the National Bunker back on September of '99......

-- Archeologist (On@The.Mall), September 30, 1999.

[aside to 'a': I'm still flabbergasted over that 'mouth' comment...!]

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), September 30, 1999.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why aren't heads rolling and the gutters full of blood?"

---------------------

Give it time.

-- no talking please (breadlines@soupkitchen.gov), September 30, 1999.

With all the coruption in DC and elsewhere could it be that many of these funds are being skimmed off like cream from the milk?

-- Rob Carroll (flyingred@montana.com), September 30, 1999.

I wonder how much of that money went for "Marion Barry Quick Acting Nose Candy". Bet some DC officials have nice digs in the Carribean.

-- kozak (kozak@formerusaf.guv), October 02, 1999.