“The committee is extremely disappointed with the manner in which S&T [Science & Technology] is being managed within the Department of Homeland Security. [It is a] rudderless ship without a clear way to get back on course.”

- A bi-partisan congressional report slams yet another part of our Department of Homeland Security. Lawmakers, and even recently retired Homeland Security officials, say they are concerned the department’s research and development effort is bogged down by “bureaucratic games”, lack of strategic planning and failure to use money wisely.

Why does this matter to you? Because S&T is the group responsible for developing detection technology for explosives like the ones that were to be used in the recent plot that was foiled by the British. So while the British are alert, what are we doing? The Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to take away $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing explosives detection technology and use it to cover a budget shortfall. The administration also was slow to start testing a new liquid explosives detector that the Japanese government provided to the United States earlier this year.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060811/D8JEG1O01.html

“The lesson for many Americans is that today’s Republicans cannot be trusted with the keys to both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. During President Bush’s first five years in office, the federal government increased by $616 billion. That’s a mammoth 33 percent jump in the size of the federal government in just his first five years! To put this in perspective, this increase of $616 billion is more than the entire federal budget in Jimmy Carter’s last years in office. And conservatives were complaining about Big Government back then! How can Bush, [Dennis] Hastert, [Bill] Frist and company look us in the eye and tell us they are fiscal conservatives when in five short years they increased the already-bloated government by more than the budget for the entire federal government when Ronald Reagan was assuming office?”

- Richard Viguerie, one of the architects of the Reagan Revolution, is calling on fellow conservatives to withhold support of the Republican Party establishment and no longer even call themselves Republicans.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51421

“I have officially invited Matthew, who in the meantime has left to continue his travels, to return to Naples soon to eat a pizza together.”

- The head of the city council in Naples (Italy) tries to make nice with Matthew Godfrey, a tourist from Utah. Two men stole Matthew’s camera and fled on a scooter with Matthew in hot pursuit, until a group of bystanders intervened. Instead of helping him, they punched and kicked him, allowing the muggers to escape. Upon release from the hospital, Mr. Godfrey understandably decided to leave Naples.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4777263.stm

“We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security.”

- The amazing story of how a couple of programmers learned to break in to Apple and code for them without permission.

http://www.pacifict.com/Story/

“going to WWDC without a laptop is like going to war with a banana”

-Ted Lee had to send his 4 month old Apple MacBook Pro in for service a week before he was due to attend the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (which starts this coming Monday). The tech on the phone said it would not be a problem getting it back in time, but Wednesday he found out that it was waiting on a part. In a “fit of desperation” he fired off an email to Apple’s executive team, and the next day he gets a phone call from someone who identifies himself as “Steve Job’s personal assistant”. Jobs had read the email and instructed his assistant to fix the situation. Apparently, Jobs found the line about the banana funny.

http://www.tedlee.net/2006/08/03/when-bad-customer-service-turns-good/