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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."
Good luck with asking people not to upload photos during the event.
One would think that a new leader in today's economy, especially one who promotes "change", would have a dozen people together and maybe the press and swear in. Instead this "politics as usual" phony spends millions of dollars with his coronation ceremony.
Yea, we see your change comming!
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
Twitter's service is likely to be as screwed as the cell network with millions of people around the country tweeting about how they just saw (on TV, Internet or in person) Obama swear in, etc. Expect the service to be down most of the day imo.
There's certainly been a vast advancement in technology [especially communications] since early 2001.
So that's technology like social networking, blogging, microblogging, webcasting, etc etc.
It'll be a memorable event.
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
PETA knows about the abuse these will get.
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I am a programmer. I am paid to produce syntax not grammar. Deal with it.
Surely there is no need for two new buzzwords. The light trucks have wheels so they are also COWs. Or do COLTs only work for OMG Pink Pony calls.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
But I'm going to try to use up some bandwidth anyway, you know, just to make visitors' lives a little less fun.
Oh please, this cost myth is just your average right wind Drudge myth garbage. Check this article out. They are claiming the Obama inauguration will be 160 million. Well the 2005 Bush inauguration was 157 million. Not much difference folks.
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
Why does the FBI need an MRAP? Cough "Poser!" Cough
I just really hope he doesn't get assassinated by some wacko gunman or other conspiracy ploy. Think of the massive backlash, Los Angeles would pretty much burn to the ground with the intensity of a thousand Laker games.
Be afraid, but we are here to protect you (but only from moderately large whoopee cushions, anything else you are on your own).
They could dig up Leni Riefenstahl and have her film the inauguration and then show it all over the world in huge sports coliseums!
You can't stop a determined assassin.
Prepare for one thing and they'll use another, and never, ever underestimate the effectiveness of someone willing to trade their own life for the life of the target.
I'm not saying this to brew fear, i'm saying this to point out there is a reasonable point at which marginal returns to extra security diminish, and a point at which flexibility (hence my example) is more important than durability.
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Oh please, that link is just your average left wing Soros funded myth garbage.
It's so nice that the picture inside the mobile command center has a split screen monitor with the food network, themselves, days of our lives, and The Care Bears.
How cute.
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
Note the Care Bears on the monitor in the mobile command center in photo 8. Gives me the chuckles. :)
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
This coronation-like ceremony is getting out of hand. A quiet ceremony in the Capitol, broadcast on TV, would be sufficient. That's what was done during WWII, when there were concerns about an attack on FDR.
This is the first time an inauguration has shut down Washington, DC for two days. All the Potomac River bridges out to the Beltway are closed Monday and Tuesday. That's well beyond the impact of previous inaugurations.
My concern is what if something bad were to happen during the inauguration, and suddenly a million people whip out their cellphones all start calling 911, their family, news organizations, and generally broadcast an emergency to the world all at the same time.
Anyone want to watch one of those expensive cell-towers on a truck burst into flames?
My concern is what if something bad were to happen during the inauguration, and suddenly a million people whip out their cellphones all start calling 911, their family, news organizations, and generally broadcast an emergency to the world all at the same time.
Anyone want to watch one of those expensive cell-towers on a truck burst into flames?
Given their decision to go with silverlight for the event, I suspect the trucks would BSOD long before that happens.
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The point of all this security isn't to stop a serious, well funded attempt to assasinate this man. As many people have pointed out, unless they kept the person in a bunker or in a series of undisclosed locations, a well funded team could probably harm him or her.
Except...any sane organization has nothing to gain by killing this leader. Unlike a dictator, the president can be easily replaced with someone else, and routinely is swapped out ever 4-8 years. In fact, a reasonable person would expect a backlash. The real reason the U.S. government doesn't give two shits about the Palestinians is because they kind of seem like the same kind of guys who committed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That's backlash.
Any group that killed the American president would be crushed, and would never get anything they wanted.
However, lone nuts and other poorly equipped people get mad at the President all the time. The secret service can probably stop such morons in almost all situations.
Also, a lot of the security is reactive. Presidents who were killed in the past were usually killed by some kind of small arms attack. Hence the bulletproof limo and the ring of armed guards. If some other form of attack ever succeeded, god forbid, then security precautions might change. Such as eliminating public appearances entirely and doing everything via teleconference and holograms.
Do they really need a mobile command center? What about their static command center http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building
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Coronation is spot on. You'd think he was Jesus or something the way people act.
Obama has been working hard on his official karaoke coronation song:
Stanky Legg, by the G-Spot Boyz
Chorus
Bitch im wild!
Do the stanky leg (3x)
when I hit the dance floor.
I be-
Do the stanky leg (3x)
Bitch Im wild up! (repeat from begining)
Verse 1:
When I hit the dance floor, you know Im doin the stanky leg. (do it!)
Sauce on my ring (ay) then I rub it 'cross your head.
You an h boom cool chick you can do it too.
Jack your feet up in the air and check your Myspace too.
Now you can lean wit it,
now you can drop wit it.
You can switch to the other leg and you can stop wit it.
Now get it, get it (4x)
Now hit the booty do, hit the booty do (2x)
Now you can get wit it, you can get wit it. (2x)
-Chorus-
Verse 2:
Now I cant focus watch me do like my bro (like my bro)
Stick your leg out, dougie fresh, and drop it low.
(bitch in the backround) Look i can can do the stanky leg!
Then go on let me see it.
Ro- roast up your weight and get slide next to me.(ay!)
Ay you better bang yourself cause I can tell that your hot.
I hope you wind it up, lean back and show your socks.
Dip. Dip. Then i want you to stop.
Do the booty do.
Lift it up and let it drop.
-And dont forget...
-Chorus-
Verse 3:
When I slide through the place my slide goes walky but they digg it.
I stick my leg out on the floor and start jiggin.
Wiggly legs, watch me shorties drop it to your feet.
Do the stanky leg watch me step and grab my knee.
Now drop like a goon, but dont chicken noodle soup.
I want see you dropt it, shake that woop da dee doop.
drop that, woop da dee doop
shake that, woop da dee doop (2x)
-Chorus-
Its because of the NRA. As of lately they have been circulating propaganda saying Obama WILL make handguns illegal. Ask anyone who is a member or reads Guns 'N Ammo. I am all for private ownership of firearms and the second amendment but the NRA is overreacting here.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
If you want to note the impact of flat-panels. Image that command center with CRTs that size. You'd be popping tires left and right.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
welcome our new holographic overlords!
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
I feel safer already!
Now, I'm a pretty young whippersnapper (almost 30) but I cannot even recall reading about another presidential election that's generated this much hoopla. From the primaries, to the election, to the inauguration, it's all been full-throttle excitement. And not just from the press, but people on the street as well. Even my bigoted father and step-mother think he's just great.
Is it because:
A) He's the first halfway intelligent president our generation has seen?
B) He has the most fucking fantastic marketing department ever?
C) He's the first not-exclusively-white guy to take office?
D) The Internet is enabling average people to express their opinions and reach out to each other more easily than ever before?
E) Pretty much everyone wants Bush out of the White House, even the most right-leaning republicans?
So are we witnessing history here (and not just because of the race thing) or has there been another presidential election with this much carnival atmosphere to the whole thing? This is a serious question. Ya know, for old people. (And historians.)
In 1996, Obama said that he "supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns"
He didn't say any such thing. You are referring to a questionnaire that a staffer filled out erroneously. You could try and argue that's a lie from the Obama camp, but then why should Ron Paul get a free pass on his racist newsletters that the good doctor has disavowed as someone else's work?
The NRA is a hack organization. Gun nuts ran saying how they couldn't vote for Gore or Kerry because they supported gun control, completely ignoring the fact that Bush said he supported existing gun control laws and would re-sign the assault weapons ban. Or how Rudy Guiliani, who backed gun control more than any other candidate this cycle, spoke in front of the NRA and wasn't booed out of town.
Sure, the NRA will stick up for your right to own a gun - but actually use the "ammo box" and you're on your own. The NRA doesn't lift a finger to help those who use guns in self defense against runaway law enforcement - see Randy Weaver and Cory Maye.
What I would give to be able to mod this +1, Crotchety
The future ain't what it used to be.
Just because I've had some wool removed...
Supposedly my new leader will lead a Green revolution and we will upgrade power, etc, to save the planet. Yet 2Million (est.) people flocking to one location and belching carbon along the way (directly or indirectly) seems to be rather counter productive to the message(s) put out their by the greenies that contributed a lot of grease to get this ball rolling...
I wonder for the record if anyone will state how much estimated carbon was used to gather... how much to protect those gathered, and last of all, how much trash they all leave behind.
I predict no coverage of these things other than thousands of "Ooohs and Ahhhs..." by the Genuflected masses... (And that is just the Media folks, not to mention the other people actually there to see this.)
Sure, Google searches heat tea, but wouldn't it have been better (and safer?) for everyone to stay home and watch it on TV/WEB?
Unless... Maybe the SUN and WATER vapor is the real source of 98% of all Greenhouse effects???
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
Attention everyone! There is a Silverlight 1.0 player available for PowerPC macs and Moonlight. Details here.
Millions of people aren't showing up because it's a big event, it's a big event because millions of people are showing up. Freedom of Assembly, and all.
"The FBI has released images of some of the kit that will be deployed "
1. I thought everyone loved Obama?
2. Why would you release these photos? Wouldn't you want to keep the security secret?
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I think the best reform might be to integrate "Ow! My Balls!" into coverage of the workigns of the Federal government.