Off the newswire:
June 29, 2004 | Washington — The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a request seeking the Justice Department’s database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.
“Implementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating,” wrote Thomas J. McIntyre, chief in the Justice Department’s office for information requests.
If this claim by the Department of Justice is true, it validates my view that our own government is on the wrong side of the digital divide. How can we ever expect to ensure that the disadvantaged get access to modern technology when the federal government does not?
If this is a bogus excuse — it’s just as scary to think that the public will accept it as being true. It is 2004, people, excuses that were semi-plausible 10 (or maybe even 5) years ago are not acceptable today.
on Jun 30th, 2004 at 9:40 pm
And this is just the tip of the iceberg folks…