Tuesday, July 09, 2002

Also from Salon, Joe Conason writes about G.W.'s recent tough-talking press conference: In other words, everybody was responsible for his failure to observe the securities laws except him. It sounded a bit tinny when he reminded those listening to his press conference that his very favorite theme is "a renewed sense of [personal] responsibility." 4:35:32 PM

My friends are helping keep me informed today. Lisa sent me this story on FBI raids immigrants' stores (geeknote: it appears the '?x' at the end of the URL prevents popups on Salon). From Lisa's e-mail: a Turkish man named Bulent Ertur ran one of the greatest sandwich shops on earth. The last time we went in, the counter had a sign on it that read, "Closed until further notice." When we asked the Korean shopkeeper who shares the building what was going on, he said, "Oh the INS took him. They came and did an inspection and then took him away. He's in their jail downtown. Let me tell you, the INS, they're more powerful than the CIA and FBI put together." 4:34:22 PM

Thanks to Mark for the link to this article from The Register denouncing the use of ROI to measure the success of an IT project. Executives polled for the survey see value in the ability of IT to increase customer satisfaction, improve information access or allow better knowledge sharing. Innovation, improved revenue and reduced costs were not seen as being closely tied to the IT function, however, turning on its head the belief that technology is best sold on the promise of reduced costs or improved revenue. 1:02:02 PM

In an interview with the LA Weekly, Gore Vidal rants and cranks and conspires: Anybody who could get up and make that speech [about about "evildoers" and this "axis of evil"] to the American people is not himself an idiot, but he's convinced we are idiots. And we are not idiots. We are cowed. Cowed by disinformation from the media, a skewed view of the world, and atrocious taxes that subsidize this permanent war machine. And we have no representation. Only the corporations are represented in Congress. That's why only 24 percent of the American people cast a vote for George W. Bush. 12:49:12 PM