TRY to make sense out of this report!!!

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Link

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Y2K bug out, panic is in as new year fear

By David Westphal Bee Washington Bureau Chief (Published Sept. 27, 1999)

WASHINGTON -- In one respect, the man responsible for preventing a Y2K debacle in this country may have done his job altogether too well.

Less than two years ago, John Koskinen, head of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, was having trouble convincing anyone that a computer glitch could become a national disaster at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2000.

Now, after governments and businesses spent billions of dollars on software and hardware fixes, Koskinen once again is worried that Americans are too complacent about the Y2K threat.

"We can't surprise people," Koskinen said. "There are going to be Y2K failures on New Year's Day."

The fact that Americans are once again shrugging off the Y2K menace reflects how much progress has been made during the last year. To a remarkable degree, industry experts now concur that any Y2K failures will be more nuisance than catastrophe as the new millennium begins.

They believe the lights will stay on. The airplanes will stay up. Fuel and food supplies will continue flowing. Stocks of prescription drugs will be plentiful. ATM machines will keep spitting out dollar bills.

But they don't deny that periodic problems will occur. And they're not at all sanguine that the whole celebration will occur without a last-minute panic attack.

What Koskinen and others fear is a late realization by Americans that they should stock up -- or should have stocked up -- on money, food and fuel. According to one scenario, this could happen as late as Dec. 31, if Americans see problems pile up in the 17 time zones that will ring in the new year ahead of the United States.

At a recent Y2K conference in Washington, industry experts repeatedly invoked the same caveat while giving an otherwise thumbs-up assessment.

"We'll be fine," said Kelly Johnston of the National Food Processors Association. "As long as there's no mass panic."

Added Kendra Martin of the American Petroleum Institute: "Our supplies will be fine. We just can't handle everyone pulling up to the gas pump on New Year's Eve."

As a result, a legion of Y2K leaders are encouraging Americans to stock up a little on end-of-year provisions like food, fuel and cash, but to do so over the last 10 days to two weeks of December, not the last day of the year.

"People ought to prepare, but they ought to prepare early," said Koskinen.

The government's cautionary mode results partly from the fact that no one knows how Americans will act as the countdown to the new century nears completion. Will they focus on the history being made and their own celebration plans? Or will they begin to fret that things could go haywire?

The reaction could be influenced not only by Y2K problems developing in Asia, Europe and Africa, which will ring out 1999 ahead of the United States, but also in this country. A large chunk of the nation's electric grid, for example, operates on Greenwich Mean Time, meaning its computers will flip over to 01/01/00 at 7 p.m. Eastern time on New Year's Eve.

The Y2K problem is an outgrowth of the date coding in the sentence above. Many computer chips -- ranging from desktop computers to those in cars, appliances and industrial equipment -- will read the data as Jan. 1, 1900, unless they've been retrofitted in the last year or so. That could cause the chip to crash or go off in unpredictable directions.

After a year of furious fixes, though, most critical industries in the United States -- including electrical, fuel, food, pharmaceutical and financial -- assert that they're all but immune to wholesale crashes.

Despite that, all levels of government and key industry sectors will be on high alert the evening of Dec. 31. The federal government is establishing a Y2K command center and virtually every department will be staffed.

The same is true of the private sector. Most electricity companies, for example, will mobilize as if awaiting a debilitating storm, said William Brier of the Edison Electric Institute.

Even if the new millennium arrives with a minimum of computer-induced hassle, though, some experts say Americans still can't become complacent, because Y2K difficulty abroad could gradually snowball into a host of economic troubles that could spill over into the United States.

A report last week by the Senate's special Year 2000 committee warned that unpreparedness in such countries as China, Russia and Italy, along with a handful of oil-supplying nations, could plunge the United States, and even the world, into recession.

"Severe long- and short-term disruptions to supply chains are likely to occur," the report said.

Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Year 2000 committee, warns that in some ways even worse is to come. The Y2K problem, he says, will merely be the nation's first brush with its growing vulnerability to terrorist computer hackers.

After a number of confidential briefings, Bennett said, "The more I found out about it, the more frightened I become. . . . The vulnerabilities are there, especially at the Pentagon."

Bennett said the threat could be acute on New Year's Day because hackers might surmise that an attack could be mistakenly seen as a Y2K problem.

In general, though, Bennett is bullish about the United States' readiness for the early morning hours of Jan. 1. It's only abroad where he says major trouble could lurk.

The best way to judge a foreign country's state of readiness is to watch where the airlines fly on New Year's Day, he says.

And he offers one hint: "I wouldn't fly in China."

---------------------------------------- So, according to this article, everything is going to be FINE as long as people prepare in advance, do NOT panic, and don't rely upon

-- Greg (balzer@lanset.com), September 27, 1999

Answers

...foreign oil or the US economy.

-- Gregory (balzer@lanset.com), September 27, 1999.

Thanks Greg,

"A large chunk of the nation's electric grid, for example, operates on Greenwich Mean Time, meaning its computers will flip over to 01/01/00 at 7 p.m. Eastern time on New Year's Eve."

Words to note.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 27, 1999.

"People ought to prepare, but they ought to prepare early". Gosh, Mr Wizard, that's what we were saying TWO BLEEP YEARS AGO! There's time to pump it through the pipeline, we said. Three day storm, they said. There's time to plant more crops, we said. Three day storm, they said. There's time to prepare slowly, without panic, we said. Three day storm, they said. There's time for the average person to have a month's food, we said. Three day storm, they said.

Thanks a bunch, gummint, you've really helped us out. Hope everyone listens to ol' John, and doesn't wait TOO long to prepare!

Don't know whether to laugh or cry.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), September 27, 1999.

Thanks Greg! The article says people should stock up the last 10 days to 2 weeks in December. I don't understand that reasoning. We've been told before that the system cannot sustain that type of impact. If the whole country waits until December 15, then begins to buy an extra week's worth of food... they already told us it would be impossible... Why not tell them to begin NOW and do a little at a time!?!

Another thing: a lot of families I know will be trading Christmas presents for that week's worth of food. They won't have the money for both at the same time. And what about those on a fixed income? Does anyone really think they can do this in 10 days? This is going to be very interesting! How sad!

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 27, 1999.

Koskinen finally recognized what we've been saying for months. Telling everyone to go get batteries and to visit the ATM on New Years Eve guarantees a panic. It can't be done.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), September 27, 1999.

Man, this is not good news.

The PR spin is starting to shift... now we're away from information and perception management and into crisis management and don't panic, but you really should prepare.

I read this as the beginning of a change in the message. A big shift is starting. Right when I started to hear the words, "don't panic" and "there is no need to panic" it was obvious that *something* wasn't right from the perspective of TPTB.

Ed was right on again...it's the End Game and the gov waited too long to prepare the public for inevitable disruptions.

Think about this statement from a man known to pick carefully his words,

"We can't surprise people. There are going to be Y2K failures on New Year's Day."

So far the gov has managed to totally mishandle this situation and asking people to "not panic" is like sending out invitations to do just that.

The problem is they'll have to up the speed of the timeline to get their message across. They had the great luxury of time in keeping perception under control but that isn't the case now.

Now, too many people are complacent. They did too good a job. Too many see Y2k as no problem. The gov will have to move quickly, in a hurried pace. The emotion they'll target is fear and to try to control fear is uh, difficult, to say the least.

Mike

=====================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 27, 1999.

That's right, Mike: and the whole rooster/owl BS is about to come full circle.

The doomer judgment, even eighteen months ago, was correct.

It's the polly position that's gonna hose it all.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), September 27, 1999.

"Most electric companies, for example, will mobilize as if awaiting a dibilitating storm, said..."

This sentence as much as says the power *will* go out.

...The End Game is Here...

-- mar (derigueur2@aol.com), September 27, 1999.

Diane wrote "A large chunk of the nation's electric grid, for example, operates on Greenwich Mean Time, meaning its computers will flip over to 01/01/00 at 7 p.m. Eastern time on New Year's Eve."

What specifically are you referring to Diane? According to any reports that I have read from power companies, there is virtually nothing affected by the roll-over date. Embedded chips generally don't care what date it is whatsoever. Also, our grid is not connected to the grid where GMT is in effect so why would we run on their time?

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), September 27, 1999.

Someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong, but I beleive airlines and air traffic control also use GMT. Using local time causes problems when time zones are being crossed, as is the case with both utilities and air traffic.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), September 27, 1999.

Craig, Diane was quoting the article.

My ERCOT guy quoted me the same timeframe in an email a while back.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), September 27, 1999.

"The government's cautionary mode results partly from the fact that no one knows how Americans will act as the countdown to the new century nears completion. Will they focus on the history being made and their own celebration plans? Or will they begin to fret that things could go haywire?

"The reaction could be influenced not only by Y2K problems developing in Asia, Europe and Africa, which will ring out 1999 ahead of the United States, but also in this country."

Imagine that you never set your virtual foot into cyberspace. On your a.m. drive, you listened to the banter of the two local glam punks between the uninterrupted minutes of music and the sports scores. You catch the headlines at the newstand at the 7-11, and you listen to the evening news while your wife told you the latest changes in the kids' after school schedules and how things went at work.

Now it's Tuesday night, December 28. Things have been a little squirrely at work. All this holiday stuff, all the food. New Year's is going to be a wild one. All those nuts and their Y2K stuff. But your brother's party sounds like THE event of the season, and you're looking forward to going. You feel sorry for the IT guys, having to spend the weekend at work; but hey, who knows, maybe we'll need 'em. They seem more grim than usual, even for geeks. Thank God it will all be over in a couple days and everybody can relax.

You pull down the sheets, and reach for the remote as the local news comes on the tube. Just as you're about to click it off, the perky blond smiles that Ultra Brite smile and says "Stayed tuned. For those of you who haven't been paying attention, the Y2K bug is on our doorstep. The county has released its list of local shelters for those of you who get caught empty handed if the power folds."

Then a commercial comes on and a guy with a wet white mustashe has the gall to ask "Got Milk?"

Geeze, I'd hate to be among those who get it that late. I don't want to be living next door to 'em, either.

But I am. They're everywhere. The die is cast.

It didn't have to be this way. I'm with bw; I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

-- Faith Weaver (suzsolutions@yahoo.com), September 27, 1999.

Yesterday my next door neighbors' pipes broke. They came over with an empty jug in hand, asking for water.

This tells me they have NO water put by yet, at all. *sigh*

-- mommacarestx (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), September 27, 1999.

"The world is divided into 24 time zones. For easy reference in communications, a letter of the alphabet has been assigned to each time zone (less the letters "I" and "O"). The "clock" at Greenwich, England is used as the standard clock for international reference of time in communications, military, maritime and other activities that cross time zones. The letter designator for this clock is Z.

Times are usually written in military time or 24 hour format such as 1830Z. To pronounce this, the phonetic alphabet is used for the letter Z, or Zulu. This time is sometimes referred to as Zulu Time because of its assigned letter. It's official name is Universal Coordinated Time or UTC. Previously it had been known as Greenwich Mean Time or GMT but this has been replaced with UTC."

I don't know why "a large chunk of the grid" should operate on UTC/Zulu Time/GMT--perhaps it's an international standard agreed on by engineers. I do know the International Date Line has been at Greenwich since a need for same was identified and Britain was the major world power at the time.

That section of the article reading, "What Koskinen and others fear is a late realization by Americans that they should stock up -- or should have stocked up -- on money, food and fuel." Now why do you suppose there will be "a late realization" causing "fear" by Koskinen and others? They so arranged things! Were they hoping for some sort of reverse psychology to kick in? Who knows? All I know is I don't want to be out shopping the last three weeks of the year. Maybe I'll get Sweetie to take his vacation then too--who wants to be on the roads with crazed people looking for batteries and cigarettes? TPTB could STILL ameliorate the situation somewhat if they get people stocking up now. Panic spread over a couple of months is preferable to panic stuffed into two or three weeks.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), September 27, 1999.

Power utilities use GMT because they have to co-ordinate extremely precise transfers of electric power across time zones, especially as far as getting the correct phase is concerned.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), September 27, 1999.

GMT aka UTC is referred to as ZULU time and the worldwide globalized outfits use it.

Remember CORY said that the message would change Mid October. This is probably the "Meta Signal" to Kosky's media lackeys that a "change in message and nuance" is to be expected.

OT... but possibly NOT. Does ANYBODY out there know of a generalized Unified Theory of SPIN??? Perhaps backed up by survey data, or Skinner type Psychological testing. Because this Administration is too good.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It's ALL going away in January.com), September 27, 1999.

It does look as if a shift is going on in what is being recommended to the public about prep. About a week ago, an article in a Georgia newspaper suggesting two weeks worth of preps, and the two week figure was apparently with official blessing:

http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/reports/y2k/dos.html

[snip]

Be prepared: A list of do's

By Marilyn Geewax

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Washington -- Don't panic, but get prepared. While the nation's basic infrastructure will function after Jan. 1, authorities say the Y2K computer bug is sure to cause some problems. The power could go out in one community, while the water system falters in another and traffic lights malfunction in still another. Because no one can say with certainty which systems might fail, "the basic message we are giving people is ... be prepared for an emergency," said Red Cross spokeswoman Leslie Credit. Start your preparations by figuring out who is going to be in your household between Dec. 31 and mid-January, and what each person's special needs will be. Then lay out a strategy for making sure everyone can stay hydrated, healthy and warm for up to two weeks. These are among the recommendations being made by mainstream agencies:

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 27, 1999.

"Yesterday my next door neighbors' pipes broke. They came over with an empty jug in hand, asking for water. This tells me they have NO water put by yet, at all. *sigh*"

Oh, that's not *all* it tells you.

It *also* tells you that they know that you *do* have water "put by"!

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), September 27, 1999.

I guess, by now most of you in this newsgroup have a pretty good take on the messages of John Ko-skin-em'. There is no doubt at all in anyone's mind EXACTLY what he has been saying since he came into being last March.

In a nutshell, he has done ANYTHING but warn people to prepare. He has done ANYTHING but explain that there will be serious problems. He has done ANYTHING but inform the American public of the true state of affairs. Now, this article wants to annoint him. Hold on to your seat!

========

"We can't surprise people," Koskinen said. "There are going to be Y2K failures on New Year's Day."

( BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Wait, let me catch my breath. He has done more than any one government official to dispel any notion of serious problems occurring. And now, at the eleventh hour, he is coming out to say that he 'can't HIDE this'? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! If ever there was a case of take with one hand and give with the other, this is it. Now, when it all comes down, he will have spent a year and a half DISSUADING folks from serious preparation AND be on record so he can say "SEE! I told you I could not hide there would be problems.'

If I could take the Lord's name in vain, I would here. This is MASTERFUL. Absolutely MASTERFUL. Bravo! Bravo!! I'll bet he said it with a straight face while pulling a cigar out of his breast pocket. "Im going to say this one more time. I DID NOT hide that there would be problems....... with that computer thing. " I'm gonna puke.)

"What Koskinen and others fear is a late realization by Americans that they should stock up -- or should have stocked up -- on money, food and fuel.
According to one scenario, this could happen as late as Dec. 31, if Americans see problems pile up in the 17 time zones that will ring in the new year ahead of the United States. "

(If this actually is the case, why did they not say so EXPRESSLY two years ago? The fact of the matter is that they did not because their every waking moment was spent doing EXACTLY the opposite. This is "1984" all over again.
"We have never been at war with EastAsia." We have always been at war with Eastasia' Is the American public, so dumbed down, so stupid, so intellectually bereft that it does not see this? YES. A resounding YES!
America deserves every bit of anguish that it is about to recieve as a WELL DESERVED testimony to it's incalculable aptitude for self-delusion.
Such amazing arrogance I have rarely seen. When the citizens not only fall for this folderol but welcome it with shouts of "MORE! MORE! they deserve everything that they are going to get, in spades.)

"People ought to prepare, but they ought to prepare early," said Koskinen.

( BWAHAHAHAHAAHHAHA! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Send the rescue squad! I'm choking...I'm choooooking! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Joseph Goebbels is spinning in his grave. "Pinwheel Joe" they refer to him as now. He repents in sackcloth and ashes that he ever thought of himself as a Minister of Propaganda in light of Kosky's work. When did you EVER warn the American public to PREPARE EARLY, or AT ALL, you VILE LYING SACK OF SHIT?
Any time you even condescended to mention the word it was in derision, scorn, downplaying or in an effort to recommend what could not possibly constitute preparation even to an embarrassed boy scout. Additionally, telling them your deep concern for them to prepare early at the eleveth hour is a 'roll me on the floor and smear my ears with jam' laugh riot. .)

What makes me fall on the ground GAGGING, nay, BLUBBERING with laughter is the first line of this monumentally SPECIOUS article....

Y2K bug out, panic is in as new year fear
By David Westphal
Bee Washington Bureau Chief
(Published Sept. 27, 1999)

WASHINGTON -- In one respect, the man responsible for preventing a Y2K debacle in this country may have done his job altogether too well.

BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

First they crown him savior, BEFORE the fact, in COMPLETE contradistinction to reality and the evidence but what's worse.....they are saying that he DID IT TOO WELL.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!

But wait! there's more!!

"The fact that Americans are once again shrugging off the Y2K menace reflects how much progress has been made during the last year. "

(Really? This is a ridiculous fallacy. The number of people who believe one way or the other has nothing to do with the situation at all. This is like saying that the fire chief sent only one fire truck so it can not be a five alarm fire. And once again, they laughably refer to 'progress' as if that was an indication of anything at all. How does it reflect that progress has been made because most people shrug it off? Duuuh!
The most recent Cap Gemini/Rubin Survey shows that over 40% of 14.5 MMMMILLION small business have DONE NOTHING yet to remediate and are 'waiting' to see what happens. Is THAT an indication of how much progress has been made? LOL LOL LOL To them, sure it does. "See, last week 45% had done nothing. See what wonderful 'progress' we are making with less than 75 working days to go?"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! PULLLLLLLLEEEEEEEASE!)

========================

I am absolutely apoplectic. STUNNED. Bumfuzzled.

The US is going down, going down BIG TIME. And it is going down more from its arrogance than anything else. "You know what" comes before a fall.

Won't be long now. So long suckers.

http://www.capitolalert.com/news/capalert01_19990927.html

--
Paul Milne
"If you live within 5 miles of a 7-11, you're toast"

-- saw this on csy2k (lurk@watch.wow), September 28, 1999.

The administration now has a tiger by the tail.

They have conned the American people into becoming 99% Pollys, and now they want to change course.

A wise old-timer I know once said: "The Federal government is like a hippo. When it tries to turn around in water it makes a huge splash but nothing seems to happen very quickly."

Kosky is about to learn that lesson.

The reality is Americans will not think three months ahead, and by mid-November their focus will be on the holidays.

Public perceptions simply cannot be changed between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and since this New Year is viewed by most in Pollyland as the ultimate party that could hold true right up to rollover.

By the time the Administration figures this one out (mid-December?) they will then have a tough decision to make.

Does Clinton finally make a public speech solely about Y2K and call it a "national and international crisis" and ask every American to make last-minute preparations?

Will it have little impact or cause panic? Both are possible, perhaps even at the same time in different locations.

Clinton wants his legacy. Well, he is going to get it--the guy sitting at the chair when Y2K ripped through the economy.

This will not be pretty.

-- cgbgjr (cgbg jr@webtv.net), September 28, 1999.

You all are acting as if this news is common knowledge. Has anyone heard this report on the News? Anyone seen the media run this on the front page? Did it get to McNeil/Lehrer, CNN?

The sheeple are still asleep. They won't wake up until they see lines.

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), September 28, 1999.

IMHO, what's significant about this article is that it indicates a SIGNIFICANT SHIFT in strategy coming out of Washington.

This newspaper (Sacramento Bee) has been consistantly *SUPER-POLLY* up until this point in time. Notice that this article was written by a SacBee writer based in Washington DC. My guess is to attribute the significant change in Y2K preparation philosophy to direction from *headquarters* in DC. Keep on the lookout for this same change in attitude in your local newspapers.

Doesn't anyone in the popular press think for themselves anymore?

-- Greg (balzer@lanset.com), September 28, 1999.

I strongly suspect we are being set up for a "My fellow Americans, we have been LIED to" speech.

John Koskinen was put in charge of mine clearing by the simple expedient of walking through the darn minefield.

He was and is scheduled to play the sacrificial goat. Whether this will actually cause him inconvenience or sacrifice, I rather doubt. But, publically, he will take the heat for Clinton.

Maritial law? Darned if I know. Emergency powers? Could be. A massive, last second campaign "organized" by FEMA/.gov to have specialists in place to try to FOF. Quite possible.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), September 28, 1999.

Sacramento Bee newspapers web-site (remember... The State Capitol of California... the worlds 7th largest economy in its own right... home of numerous politicians taken seriously by the Washington D.C. folks... sometimes)...

http://www.sacbee.com/

Search the SacBees free 7-day news archive, on Y2K and...

http://www.sacbee.com/search/

One of the article links goes directly to the above Capitol Alert article...

http://www.capitolalert.com/news/capalert01_19990927.html

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 28, 1999.

For some historical perspective on our government's attitude about Y2K awareness, see this article from January 1999:

"Feds Plan Y2K Spin Control"

http://www.wired.com/news/print_version/politics/story/17527.html?wnpg =all

Here's an excerpt:

[snip]

Feds Plan Y2K Spin Control

by Declan McCullagh

3:00 a.m. 26.Jan.99.PST

WASHINGTON -- Fears of Y2K panic have prompted the federal government to begin quietly preparing a media strategy designed to assuage public fears of blackouts or other potential infrastructure failures. John Koskinen, assistant to President Clinton and chairman of the White House's Y2K council, has entered into discussions with a public- relations firm, Wired News has learned. The firm has recommended conducting awareness surveys and honing a "stay-calm" message based on the results.

The campaign is designed to thwart widespread hoarding and extreme reactions to Y2K, including the possibility of bank runs and stockpiling-sparked shortages.

Fifty percent of Americans plan to take extra cash out of the bank and one-third say they'll stockpile food before the new millennium, according to a recent Time Magazine and CNN poll.

Officials have suggested other strategies, such as asking broadcasters to donate free air time and creating a media-advisory group that would work hand in hand with the federal Y2K council to soothe anxious Americans.

During a December closed-door meeting held by the council at Federal Reserve Board headquarters, attendees bemoaned negative media coverage and suggested staging "community cooperation" events to calm jitters and spur positive press coverage, a participant said.

Jack Gribben, a spokesman for the council, stressed that no decisions have been made. "Both communications and the issue of communicating with customers and constituents were discussed."

He said that "we have had discussions" with at least one public- relations company, but "there's nothing firm at this point."

At the council meeting, the Federal Communications Commission's Marsha MacBride and the US Postal Service's Richard Weirich reportedly suggested a federal project to monitor the public's reaction to Y2K. An Agriculture Department representative complained that the agency's most frequent telephone inquiry has become: "How many cans of food should I stockpile for my family?" Radical responses to Y2K have become a top concern among Washington insiders such as Koskinen. Last year, he warned, "We need to avoid creating panic and precipitous, counterproductive activity."

The head of the Senate's Year 2000 committee has echoed that sentiment.

"Even if the Y2K problem is solved, the panic side of it can end up hurting us as badly," Senator Robert Bennett (R-Utah) said in December.

When an industry-advisory group met for the first time last Thursday, members fretted over how to prevent public overreaction to Y2K. The members of the group include incoming Securities Industry Association chairman Roy Zuckerberg, United Airlines chairman Jerry Greenwald, North American Electric Reliability Council chairman Erle Nye, and Scott Anderson of the American Bankers Association.

Officials also are growing edgy about releasing sensitive information. Last May, the National Security Agency classified a Defense Department Y2K database as "highly sensitive," prompting the military to yank it from the Internet.

In response to a Senate request, the General Accounting Office last fall compiled reports on each industry's Y2K readiness, but has not yet released the complete results to the public. Some agency Y2K officials even worry that the bulky quarterly reports published by the White House's Office of Management and Budget every four months contain too much information.

Even though Koskinen said as recently as two weeks ago that "our strategy is based on the premise that the public has great common sense and will respond appropriately when they have the necessary information," the Clinton administration and Congress have taken steps to close meetings.

A bill that Clinton signed last fall was widely touted by the White House and a bipartisan group of legislators as a way to limit inappropriate Y2K liability. But a key provision bars the public from attending meetings of the Y2K council and its subcommittees. The Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act says the federal open-meeting act "shall not apply to the working groups established under this section."

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 28, 1999.

Bold off.

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 28, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

What Koskinen and others fear is a late realization by Americans that they should stock up -- or should have stocked up... It would be interesting to see the exact words Koskinen used. If these are they, then "realization" is an interesting word choice. I would have thought he would say something more like "What I fear is irrational jitters fueled by millenial hysteria, inducing people to greedy, anti-social hoarding selfishness...

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), September 29, 1999.

Whoa - sit up and pay attention folks. This is a pivotal moment. If Kosky is coming clean THIS early, before the Christmas sales have gotten into gear, then we are in DEEP excrement right now.

As soon as his message really soaks in then the stock market will be toast and the banks will be on very shaky cyber ground.

Best of luck to you all. My prayers are with all of you and you're loved ones.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), September 29, 1999.

Connect the dots.

All the rage in Washington today is we finally succeeded in getting, I think, the general public interested in the so-called Y2K problem.

Bill's meeting with religious leaders

-- This (is@some.coincidence), September 29, 1999.

"cowering in churches waiting for the world to end...determined to buy desert land and hoard gold, bullets and Skoal in their pickup trucks."

William Jefferson Clinton.

Fifth Millennium Evening at the Whitehouse.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0010nj

If Bill has any sense left, he'll make sure he's the ONLY person packing iron in his bomb shelter.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), September 29, 1999.

"Unified theory of spin"? I like that.

Well, let's take quarks. They have strangeness, charm and color, right. Isn't that what the gummint statements have? I mean, there's a certain charm to the idea that the biggest disaster in our lifetimes could be just a BITR. The whole episode is strange, and gets stranger every day. And putting the correct rose color on everything is critical to K's work, apparently.

So sit back and listen to K quarking. Enjoy it, but don't mistake it for reality.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), September 29, 1999.

A sign of a change in the air?

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/local/state/michigan/story.html?s =v/rs/19990929/mi/index_1.html#8

[snip]

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Y2K Preparations Underway - (DETROIT) -- Preparations are being made for the upcoming Y-2-K computer glitch. The Detroit City Council is determining whether to spend 200-thousand dollars for water, food and other disaster relief items. In the neighboring upscale suburb of Troy, city leaders are undecided on how best to prepare for Y-2-K. The city management is recommending the council spend about 170-thousand dollars on disaster relief items like mats, blankets, water, flashlights, duffle bags, games and other supplies, just in case the dreaded computer glitch causes problems.
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[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 29, 1999.

ever notice how die-hard Pollys avoid threads like this? wait...where are the real, die-hard Pollys anyway? they've been absent lately. I bet they're out buying preps now because the gov is shifting it's message. maybe they'll be back soon telling us we've taken too long to get ready

-- not telling (working@home.today), September 29, 1999.

Wow, linkmeister, that is a change in the air.

I had some business in Troy and everyone I dealt with seemed intelligent, astute and practical.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), September 29, 1999.

lisa,

And then there are those new press releases about plans for universities in Iowa to be used as warming centers:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001TwN

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 29, 1999.