MSNBC:
Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry.
Those are seven words President-elect Barack Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when he takes office in 65 days.
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President Elect Obama is MY CHOICE for President , I am concerned about his backing Lieberman and choosing hillary foe SOS and do not worry Barack Nancy Pelosi will still get orders to you !!!
Study Lincoln, study Roosevelt, and you will know exactly what he is doing...Republicans are going to be in that cabinet too! He knows history and he knows the challenges...he is building a machine that is unstoppable...he will meet challenges unlike anyone prior. We go from the worst to the best!
Amen. And we should not fear this approach at all. He knows what he is doing.
What a shame. Obama is the first President smart enough to use a BLACKBERRY>
I seriously doubt that. I have a crackberry and it really isn't very difficult to operate. Even a dumb conservative like me can operate it. I do turn off the notifications since I get about 70 messages a day. I don't like to type more than one sentence in a reply.
The world's first honest conservative.
Dang. I feel very old. I don't know the difference between a Blackberry and a Crackberry. It sounds like one of them is on drugs :)
Dang. I feel very old. I don't know the difference between a Blackberry and a Crackberry. It sounds like one of them is on dr. ugs or something :)
lol ok if u r being serious i will explain. It's the same thing ecxept that its addictive hence the name crackberry. i call Facebook Crackbook too.
They just want ot keep up with him.
If the military can filter classified and unclassified e-mail correspondence bet. the outside world, why can't they safely do the same for the Pres?
How will he receive orders from his corporate masters now?
The same way you recieve messages like the one you just posted. Take off that tin foil hat, please.
hahahahahahahahaha good one!
DUDE! This is a place for intelligent conversation. I think you got a little lost so let me point you to the forum you were looking for www.thedrudgereport.com. I hope this helps you out. BYE and don't come back you hear.
lol. thanks
ROTFLMAO. You told him!
Thank you, oh wise one. Save us. Tell us who will show us the true way.
Obviously no one with a (D) next to his name.
Nader, once again, was the right choice this election.
Me too, but I would have to because my teenagers are telling me there is nothing cool about a mom who can text without looking! Although I never took a job where "typing" was in the description, my early secretarial training did prepare me well for "modern" times! My husband, a psychotherapist, tells me that one of the biggest complaints kids have about their parents is their addiction to their blackberrys.....(would that be blackberries? hah)
So the president isn't allowed to be connected to the rest of the world via the internet?
He is allowed to correspond with whoever he wants through whatever means he wants, but he is not allowed to keep any of that correspondence private - it shall all be out in the open. So he CAN keep his Blackburry, but he can't keep it private - everything has to be shared & recorded. That includes private messages sent to his wife or kids or friends (something I wouldn't want to share if anyone under any circumstance... A reason he'll probably give it up for his own good, at least that part of the use of it.) Same goes for ordinary e-mail, which is the reason why Bush doesn't use it (he did, until he became prez, just like the article says, when you read it in full). Obama can, if he will, but there will be restrictions, both due to computer safety & no privacy. As President, his schedule will be tight and controlled, too, which is probably also a reason (not mentioned in the article) that digital correspondence, like old-fashioned letters, will be taken care of by aides and secretaries, instead of being left to himself.
In either case, of course he should have a lap top - whether it's connected to the internet or not. Not to have one is like not having access to a pen & paper...
isn't it amazing that the president can't enjoy the right to privacy? after W and cheney I totally understand why this is necessary, but it's sad that they can't enjoy the same rights they were elected to uphold.
This is thanks to eighteen minutes of tape erased by the Nixon White House. After a President is elected, he becomes the employee of the citizens of the US. Every employer has the right to monitor their employees activities.
It's the price you pay for having the job. The country needs to know that the people can look the President in the cards and make sure he doesn't abuse his powers (I know, easier said than done, like 43 has shown us).
As for his privacy: He has a right to private conversations and private family life in the residence (etc, etc.), but that part of his life will be smaller than it would have been had he not been seeking office. And the uses of Blackberry and e-mails are not part of that private bubble.
He must be so grateful to John McCain for inventing it. ;) How ironic that having beaten JM in the election, he'll have to give it up now.
I agree, the techies should be able to get around this for him somehow. Yes! They can!
I feel for the guy, really. He's giving up a lot. I'm sure the techies could figure out a way to 'wire' the White House and Capital Hill. Man, has that place been in the Dark Ages with Bush. Looks like we've got a techie President who will modernize the White House, one way or another.
This frightens me...really frightens me! For it plainly shows that the POTUS is NOT his own man. But, with hope, Barack will be.
Well techinically he is not and will never be we have something that it above him its called our Constitution. Thats what separates democracies from dictatorship thankfully.
Carol
What does the Constitution have to do with a Blackberry? Obama wants to be in control of his own schedule and his own time.
The poster did not mention blackberry she was speaking in general terms when she said that it shows Obama will not be his own man well of course he wont because he has to follow the constitution. NO president is their own man or woman.
BTW it may not relate directly to the constituiton but I'm sure they are probably laws on the book indirectly as to why he cant have a blackberry. In which case the basic premise holds he is subjected to laws.
Carol
I disagree. Obama can still be his own person while following the Constitution. Obama is still his own person because he ran his own campaign(his campaign did not run him) and that is the way he will run his time in the White House.
The Constitution also counted black folk as two thirds of a human being, so it it time to move into the 21st century.
These antiquated rules work to keep the President isolated and out of touch. If the buck stops with the President then he IS his own man. If others are in control of the news that he recieves, they can put their own spin on issues of the day. The President should have the right to hear, read, ALL viewpoints on the current issue that needs to be addressed. If he doesn't he becomes a puppet. Obama is nobody's puppet and in a larger sense, any President should not be anyone's puppet.
No one is suggesting Obama is no longer allowed to look stuff up on Wikipedia. They're talking about his longtime personal email address and whether or not he can keep using that address in the way he has in the past. It's better if he puts that address on a freeze until he's out of the White House and uses official email addresses, where his aides can keep check on them, respond where appropriate, alert him when appropriate, etc.
This has nothing to do with the news that he receives or the viewpoints he can access. It's just about his old email address. How much news do you get via email? I get none. I browse for my news.
I'm a techie and work for a local county gov't. We have strict public records law and we use a Blackberry Enterprise server. It basically sync's w/ an Exchange server. Any and all communications can be archived on that Exchange server. The BB is just a tool, no different than a PC getting email from the same source.
I bet the transition team/secrect service/cia/etc can figure that one out if he REALLY wants a BB to keep up to date.
Personal email, however, will probably have to be avoided :. I feel his pain, I'm an avid BB user too!!
It's his longtime personal email address that's in question. *Someone* around him is going to have a Blackberry to check messages, and he will certainly have some sort of Smartphone to use to browse the web if he wants. It's not about limiting what the man can access. It's about limiting access to the man. An army of aides carrying Blackberries will surround him at all times.
Are you kidding me no other President have a laptop on their desk. No wonder we are falling behind technologically. Thank goodness we now have a 21st century President.
Carol
All it would take is one forwarded email to go viral and modified and then the impeachment calls will come in.
The best approach would to have a website that is filtered and moderated where Q's can be submitted and of course this will give the SS immediate IP tracking of the submitter.
Responses can be via authorized staff or be dealt with on a forum basis so that it is all there in real time.
All these would be difficult to control - I guess one would need vetting to be able to participate.
At the end of the day, I doubt that there would be any returns correspondence from the WH unless released through audited channels.
The more public he is the more he risks criticism - I guess we will have to be happy with the press and their commentaries from here on in.
No wonder Bush was in a bubble of non-reality. This president must be kept in the loop of all information on what is going on in the country and the world. This is a serious matter that the techs need to fix before he assumes office.
How does not checking your personal email address keep you out of the loop? This is not about *WEB ACCESS*. This is about an old email address. He can spend all the time on the web he deems necessary.
Why can't the Blackberry messages be routed through the White House System so he can stay directly in touch with the OUTSIDE world while still having his messages recorded!
Come ON People get some "TECHIES" on this NOW!
Its not that they don't have the ability to record the messages. Its whether or not the President wants to submit to having all electronic messages preserved for public record. I'm sure its not that they are too worried about their own privacy but more the privacy of others that may e-mail them. This includes phone calls too. All phone calls made to or from the president are logged.
Yup, Obama is gonna have to change too... and I'm sure that the techies will develop an excellent system for him to "communicate" there will be private channels... staff... secure phones, secure email etc... Not to worry... change is inevitable..... YES HE CAN! YES WE CAN!
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First Posted: 11-15-08 11:06 PM | Updated: 12-16-08 05:12 AM