Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts

Jun 29, 2013

Air Force One

Air Force One is not a single plane. There are a number of planes that are outfitted the same way and they are housed at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. The second official presidential plane used, in 1945 was named the 'Sacred Cow', although presidents had used other special planes since 1933.

In March 2012, President Obama took the British Prime Minister David Cameron to a basketball game in Ohio aboard Air Force One.

The planes are only designated as Air Force One when the president is on board.

A VC-9C that was once used as Air Force One and Air Force Two (vice president) went on auction sale in June with an opening bid of $50,000.

Jun 19, 2012

New PLAN for Your Phone

The federal government wants to implement a centralized system of control over all communications, with last year’s announcement that all new cell phones will be required to comply with the PLAN program (Personal Localized Alerting Network), which will broadcast emergency alert messages directly to all Americans’ cell phones.

Although users can opt out of receiving the alerts from FEMA and the Amber Alert program, messages direct from the president will be mandatory.

The thought of cellphone users being forcibly targeted with text messages from Barack Obama during the election season has obviously stoked concerns that the emergency alert system could be exploited for political reasons.

The system went live in the New York and Washington Metro areas last December 2011, caused panic in New Jersey after Verizon customers received text messages warning them that a “civil emergency” was in progress and to take shelter. This prompted alarmed citizens to flood 911 lines with anxious calls.

Verizon Wireless later apologized to its customers for causing alarm, admitting that the confusion was caused by a “test” of the PLAN emergency alert system.

The emergency alerts are designed to be incorporated into the Intellistreets system which turns all street lights into surveillance hubs that can record conversations and broadcast messages.

For the first time ever the government will have a direct line to millions of Americans who use cell phones and be able to transmit whatever messages it decides. Between this and the GPS required on all cell phones, we no longer need worry about being alone.

Mar 22, 2011

Wayback Machine

If you are interested in what a particular web site used to look like, you can use the Wayback Machine website to help. It shows a calendar and  you pick the date you wish to see what the site looked like. I mentioned this last year, but thought it was worth mentioning again.

Some get around it and the pages are no longer available. For instance, I was looking up some info from the Obama campaign where he answered questions that were sent in. The pages have all been replaced with a page that sends you to the whitehouse.gov site. LINK  Seems the answers from back then might not be the same today and we might be confused. However, I did manage to find a way to the original site by another means.

Mar 4, 2010

Tax Day Coming

More Americans than ever will be subject to scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service this year as the government pumps billions of dollars into tax collection.

More than 1.4 million Americans were audited last year. Even more audits are expected as the Obama administration plans to spend $8.2 billion in tax enforcement initiatives in 2011, a nearly 10% increase over last year. That is one stimulus that may pay off for the government. . .

Oct 13, 2009

Quotable

I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House. Barack Obama

Oct 8, 2009

Politically Speaking

TRUE - Last month, Sept, 2009, Obama said, "I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void, but not a lot of mutual understanding."

He said he would be happy to look a bills that could give newspapers tax-breaks if they were to restructure as 501 (c) (3) corporations (most hospitals are 501 c 3). One of the bills is that of Senator Ben Cardin, who has introduced the 'Newspaper Revitalization Act'.

Yeh, the newspapers put things in context and are not one sided. Right!