Slashdot Mirror
Presidential Inauguration Hardware and Other Challenges
holy_calamity writes "The FBI has released images of some of the kit that will be deployed to safeguard Obama's inauguration, including mine-proof armored trucks like those used in Iraq to protect against IEDs, and a large armored chamber that any bombs will be shoved inside to be transported away and perhaps detonated inside. Interesting, even though the really good stuff is presumably being kept under wraps." Relatedly, necro81 writes "The Inauguration of Barack Obama tomorrow is expected to put considerable stress on the cellphone network around Washington, DC. The expected crowd could top two million people, and many of them are expected to call, text, tweet, photo, and blog their way through the event. In response, the major wireless carriers in the area have spent millions of dollars upgrading their local networks and will bring in extra 'cells on wheels' (COWs) and 'cells on light trucks' (COLTs). They are also requesting that attendees limit their usage during the event, and avoid bandwidth-heavy activities — like uploading photos — until afterward."
In 1996, Obama said that he "supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns".
GPP's use of the word "they" was a little unclear. The point is that Drudge, Limbaugh, et al. are claiming that Obama's inauguration will be much more expensive than Bush's, while Media Matters (and numerous other sources) are setting the record straight. The right-wing noise machine is saying that Obama's inauguration is costing ~$160 million (true) while Bush's only cost ~$40 million (false.) They get the difference in the figures, IIRC, by leaving out the cost of security for Bush but including it for Obama. The fact is that Obama's inauguration is barely more expensive than Bush's in absolute dollars, and factoring in inflation over the last eight years, it's probably cheaper.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Setting aside the obvious fact that the investigation was a multi-million dollar partisan witch-hunt, Clinton was in the end found to be not guilty.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
You don't follow politics much do you? Clinton got impeached for perjury, not for diddling the unattractive intern.
Wrong. He was impeached because after the Republican Congress couldn't nail him for fraud (Whitewater) or murder (Vince Foster), or a parking ticket, they settled on a manufactured perjury charge.
And Clinton didn't even lie, much less commit perjury.