Inauguration of Barack Obama

Inauguration of Barack Obama

I'm so excited I can't sleep. O.K., that's an exaggeration, I did get five hours of sleep, but I couldn't go back to sleep, after giving into the temptation of turning the television on to check out some of the Inauguration coverage. This makes me wonder how much sleep Mr. Obama has had, for it must be tough to sleep on the night before such an exciting event.

Streaming Media

I'm going to try and watch the event live from work, but I suspect many others will be too, and there's one thing about bandwidth - there's only so much to go around. There will be dozens of people, maybe hundreds, trying to watch the show via streaming audio-video, and that gobbles up bandwidth. I'm sure the IT network people will notice how slow the Internet will become, and they might block streaming content for today if things get too slow.

The Speech

I'm sure Barack's speech will be a good one, he's a fine writer, and orator. I hope he keeps it short and sweet, and doesn't get too detailed about his economic plan. He needs to stay lofty, and inspiring - and I'm sure he, and his speechwriters know this.

The Dress

Much concern has been expressed about what dress Michelle Obama will be wearing. It's kind of silly, but I hope she wears something red. Then again, maybe a blue dress. O.K., I'm just kidding - I really don't care - maybe something yellow?

The Wheel Chair

I see where V.P. Dick Cheney is going to be in a wheel chair for the event. What an odd image. Sort of Strangelovish - is that a word? He needs some leather gloves and a cigarette holder too.

Bush

I am so very glad that these are the last few hours of the George Walker Bush administration. Despite the generous spirit which Barack Obama has lent the whole transition, even saying some kind words about Bush, I really can't stand Bush - at all, and want to see him gone from the world stage, and I'm sure I'm in the majority when it comes to such feelings.

Main Stream Media

I've been watching a great deal of coverage. I watch MSNBC more than CNN during prime time, but I watch a great deal of CNN too. I like CSPAN for it's slower, quieter, and more thoughtful coverage. CSPAN's way of covering events like this allows me to feel like I'm actually there. They take cameras to such events and just leave them on. The History Channel has been televising some excellent documentaries about the Presidents, Washington D.C., and the White House. I have found this whole event massively interesting and educational.

Security Concern

While I doubt anyone will get close enough to Barack Obama to assassinate him today I do have concerns about the crowd. There doesn't seem to be a way to protect such a massive crowd. I'm guessing that no one in the crowd believes they are being protected, and they'd be right for the most part. So if moments before, or after Barack takes the oath of office we hear reports of explosions and hundreds of casualties in the crowd I won't be surprised.

I suspect that there are thousands of under cover police in the massive crowd, but what can they do? At most they can use some kind of zonal defense, and profile people. That's right they must use racial profiling. White faces, and dark black faces are overlooked, while brown Middle Eastern faces lead to further investigation.

I would gather that every Middle Eastern face in the crowd leads to a cursory investigation, a scoping out so to speak. Is this person alone? Is this person nervous? How does this person react to being stared at? Or being bumped? Fail the test, and I guess it would lead to an accidental shove or trip, and a pat down.

Just thoughts since I really don't know, but how else could the crowd be protected once it reaches such a massive size? Oh, and this would have to be ongoing while the crowd arrives, because once you have that many people in a large space the operation would probably change to using television cameras to check faces from a distance.

Just hope nothing happens, but the truth is anyone can get into the United States by simply walking in from its southern border, and there are probably terrorist sleeper cells in the U.S. waiting to cause havoc at an event like this one.