“I’m negotiating to figure out how can I get information from outside of the 10 or 12 people who surround my office in the White House. Because, one of the worst things I think that could happen to a president is losing touch with what people are going through day to day.”
— Barbara Walters interview
I don't like crowds. And I don't like waiting in line. But if Our Source comes through with tickets, Barb and I plan to attend the inauguration of President Obama on January 20. Barb has a friend who has graciously invited us to stay with her (no hotel rooms for miles and miles).
I really don't expect to see much. Or even as much as we could see on TV. But it's one of those historic events that even I can't pass up, given the opportunity. Should be a blog-rich environment. And the experience might make all future airport check-in's seem like a walk in the park.
"People attending the ceremony and parade can expect to be searched by machines, security personnel or both. Precautions will range from the routine — magnetometers like those used at airports — to counter-snipers trained to hit a target the size of a teacup saucer from 1,000 yards away. Plus undercover officers, bomb sniffing dogs and air patrols.
The Secret Service — the agency coordinating the security — also has assigned trained officials to identify and prevent cyber security risks. And, as it does at every inauguration, the service has mapped out escape routes for the 44th president.
In addition Washington's 5,265 surveillance cameras, spread around the city, are expected to be fed into a multi-agency command center." [Article at RawStory.com]
This could still fall through. Our Source is a Republican big wig and they aren't swinging as much weight as they once did. Stay tuned.
“A week after the election of the nation’s first black president, gun buyers across the country are flocking to gun stores to stock up on assault rifles, handguns and ammunition. Some say they are worried that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will attempt to re-impose the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. Others fear the loss of their right to own handguns. A few say they are preparing to protect themselves in the event of a race war. — L.A. Times
I support the right to own a deer rifle or a shotgun or a handgun, for that matter. No point in talking about race war or assault weapons. That’s moron country.
But here’s a wager I offered today and I’ll extend it to readers who really believe the new administration is going to take away your right to own a handgun.
You buy a new pistola for, say, $500. If the right to buy or own a handgun is limited in any way by the end of Obama’s first term, I’ll pay you $500. If not, you pay me $500. We’ll give the money to an agreed-upon third party to hold.
What do you say? Here’s your chance to get a free Beretta (or whatever). Hit the comment link and we’ll set it up.
US president-elect Barack Obama is to make the first YouTube address to the nation on Saturday, recording a talk not just on radio but also on video. The weekly radio address will be posted to Change.gov. First time a president/president-elect goes multi-media (or knows what that is?). AP
Not likely, but wouldn’t it be great if O just recorded the video on his MacBook Pro and uploaded himself? Sure, not a good use of his time but talk about going directly to the people.
UPDATE: It’s now Saturday morning, the video is up, and I’ve been thinking some more about this…
I don’t recall which president started the weekly radio address (or when), but I’m pretty sure we aired it occasionally on KBOA back in the 70’s. Strictly filler for a slow Saturday morning.
I always assumed this was a radio address because none of the TV networks were going to air a 15 or 20 minute speech by the president, and radio stations might. Ironically, I don’t ever recall hearing it on the radio (except at KBOA). And the network newscasts frequently feature a few seconds of the audio, usually with a graphic of an ancient microphone or VU meter.
This week’s Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio message will –as noted above– be YouTube’d. I have to wonder for how much longer this will be described as the president’s weekly "radio" address.
One final footnote… Back in August of 2005, the White House began podcasting the president’s weekly radio address. YouTube was created in February of that year but was still too new for anyone to think about using for the weekly address.
I’m working my way through a stack stories and columns examining how the Obama campaign used the web, social networks, email and other online tools. They went so far beyond just “click here to send us some money.” Somebody on the team (some bodies) really understands this space where so many of us choose to live and work.
Here’s a couple of snippets to get started and I’ll update as we go under the category: Obama Online
Washington Post: “The nucleus of that (campaign) effort is an e-mail database of more than 10 million supporters. The list is considered so valuable that the Obama camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in the campaign, though it wound up never needing the loan, senior aides said. At least 3.1 million people on the list donated money to Obama.”
New York Times: “The juxtaposition of a networked, open-source campaign and a historically imperial office will have profound implications and raise significant questions. Special-interest groups and lobbyists will now contend with an environment of transparency and a president who owes them nothing. The news media will now contend with an administration that can take its case directly to its base without even booking time on the networks.
More profoundly, while many people think that President-elect Obama is a gift to the Democratic Party, he could actually hasten its demise. Political parties supply brand, ground troops, money and relationships, all things that Mr. Obama already owns.”
I’ve felt since I first got hooked on Obama’s campaign that my affinity is to this particular man (and his ideas), not the Democratic Party.
An excellent source for this kind of info is techPresident.
NYT/Bits: “Mr. Obama’s campaign took advantage of YouTube for free advertising. (Joe) Trippi argued that those videos were more effective than television ads because viewers chose to watch them or received them from a friend instead of having their television shows interrupted.
“The campaign’s official stuff they created for YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours,” Mr. Trippi said. “To buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million.”
There has also been a sea change in fact-checking, with citizens using the Internet to find past speeches that prove a politician wrong and then using the Web to alert their fellow citizens.”
Strange/muted tension at work today. I am one of a handful (five? six?) of out-of-the-closet Obama supporters in our office. Two years ago, Bush supporters roamed the hallways like Senior jocks, administering titty-twisters to freshmen Liberals. As Bush devolved into the pariah he has become, they shed their Neocon uniforms and melted back into the crowd.
Today, the morning after the majority of Americans said they’d had enough of W and his ilk, I gave the gop’er’s lots of room and resisted the Snoopy Dance. And they found other things to talk about as we passed each other in the parking lot.
A few have dropped a little chum in the water to see if I’d bite (“Boy, the country is in trouble NOW”). But it’s hard to lay this shit-storm at O’s feet after only a few hours.
But it’s coming. A few of my pals are already looking forward to playing “I Told You So,” but I’m ready.
I’m encouraging them to chronicle every misstep of our new president. If they don’t have a blog, I’ll help them set one up. They can share their anger and despair with the world. And me.
For those that insist on sharing their political angst with me in person, I’m introducing a new feature on my politix blog:
“I Told You So.”I’m keeping an audio recorder with me at all times. When the subject turns to President Obama’s latest terrorist/socialist/liberal sin, I whip out the recorder and let them have their say. Which I’ll post to the politix blog. Unedited and unfiltered. A bully digital pulpit.
Don’t want to go on the record, no problem (“Did you see 30 Rock last night?”).
Seriously, hope it doesn’t come up. I HATE talking about politics. Or religion. Or my sexual fantasies. I’ve posted on this before.
So, if you love me… if you enjoy my company, but hate my politics… don’t read my blogs. And I won’t read yours. But we can both have our say and spend our time together talking about movies or books or that smokin’ hot intern.
I grew up in Kennett, Missouri, the county seat of Dunklin County. So when I heard the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a front-page story (by Todd C. Frankel) about Bootheel politics, I headed for the paper’s website to check it out.
I wasn’t really surprised to learn than Dunklin County was Obama’s worst showing in the primary. Just 18 percent.
But then I was heartened to learn that the Obama campaign has two office in the county and that Sheryl Crow’s momma and daddy volunteer for O.
They have a Republican campaign HQ but if I read the story right it’s a first for Dunklin County.
The story quotes Ronnie Johnson who’s “voting for McCain. Or rather, against Obama.”
“He is reluctant to explain this at first — “You don’t want to know why,” he says.”
“The others on the porch goad him. And Johnson, a lanky 20-year-old white man who works as a meatcutter at a grocery store, starts to talk about an issue that has persisted throughout the campaign: race.”
“It is not just that Obama is black, Johnson says. He has heard that Obama is Muslim. (Obama is Christian.) He also has heard rumors that Obama refuses to salute the American flag, and that Obama has promised that black men will have more rights than white men. (Independent fact-checking groups say these rumors
are false.)”“He’s white,” Johnson says.
The story concludes with a couple of demographics:
“Dunklin is one of the poorest counties in Missouri. The unemployment rate hovers near 9 percent. More than a quarter of the population lives in poverty.”
Not sure we’ll see this clipping on the Chamber of Commerce bulletin board.
Aden Nak doesn’t understand why it’s taboo to say someone is too dumb to be president. He somehow managed to get his hands on the flow chart used to prep Governor Palin for last night’s debate.
“The truth is that Palin didn’t answer any questions she didn’t want to tonight, and she said she’d do exactly that at the start of the debate. She had a hand full of index cards and a brain full of buzz words, and it was her job to say them all in front of the camera. Actually, it was her job to say them while looking at Joe Biden for five seconds, then looking at the camera for five seconds, and then looking back at Biden to start over again. It was like she was on a timer. One of the many things she’d probably been coached on after the whole flap about McCain not looking Obama in the eyes.”
People of a certain age might remember old TV shows that used an “applause meter” (it was just an audio level meter) to allow the studio audience to “vote” on something or someone. The kids at Twitter have come up with a 21st century twist for tomorrow night’s debate. From NYT’s The Caucus:
“If Senators John McCain and Barack Obama actually do debate Friday night, you will be able to watch what thousands of viewers think of their verbal sparring almost as they talk. Twitter, the service that lets techno-hipsters broadcast their thoughts in 140-character bursts, is setting up a special politics page to make it easy to tune into the chatter.
At midnight Thursday, the company is launching election.twitter.com, the first specialized section of its site. Like Twitter’s main service, it is dominated by a big white box. But instead of typing an answer to “What are you doing?” the election site asks, “What do you think?”
Below that box is a constantly scrolling display of the thoughts (called “tweets” in Twitterspeak) of other Twitter users. These include all the tweets entered on the election page as well as those entered in any other part of the service with obvious election-related phrases, such as “Palin.”
I think our company should do this very thing for each of the colleges we work with. Sure, you’d get a few fans tweeting that the coach made a bad call but I suspect the majority of posts would be supportive. And what a sense of “being part of the crowd” this would create for fans listening to the radio or watching TV. Might even be something a hip, web-savvy company would want to sponsor.