Random Ramblings

New York City

2009-07-06T22:05:00.003-04:00

I admit it, I'm hard on New York City. I'm a Midwestern guy, I grew up in Ohio, I've lived in Ohio my entire life. It was a rather large jump for me to move from Akron to Columbus, I thought I was in the "big city" when I moved down here. However, after traveling to New York city for the 4th of July weekend, I realized how small Columbus really is (despite being the 16th largest city in the nation). The sheer magnitude of people in New York is intoxicating. There are people everywhere you turn, bumping into each other, knocking each other over, and even urinating into a plastic grocery bag on the subway. Despite all of its downfalls, and my sheer frustration with that lifestyle, there are few things in my life that will be as amazing as the picture below.

For those of you that can not quite make out the picture. The large fire on the right side of the picture is the fireworks display (not even the Macy's display) we saw on 7/4. To the left, if you look closely, you'll see the newly opened Statue of Liberty. I was not surprised to learn that tickets to tour Lady Liberty's crown was sold out. It was a long time coming that the crown was reopened. I understand the thinking immediately following September 11th to close the Statue. However, if one was to sit back and think about it objectively, the Statue of Liberty is not a high value target to terrorists (would never be a significant number of casualties). It would be more of a symbolic target then anything.

Enough with my rambling, despite all of my problems with New York City, that picture above sums up what was a great weekend, one of the best July 4th's in recent memory for me. If I could recommend two places to visit just once on the 4th of July, it would be Washington D.C. and New York City.

Social Media & Emergency Management

2009-06-25T22:16:00.002-04:00

There has become a great deal of talk about Social Media since the beginning of 2009. Call it what you will, Web 2.0, Social Networking, Social Media, etc., one thing you shouldn't call it is fad. Based on recent events throughout the world, social media has proved it is more then college students communicating nonsense with one another. Some recent examples of social media:

-Mumbai Terrorist attacks were reported by users on Twitter.

-Hudson River plane landing: The first image seen of the plane in the Hudson was from twitpic, the program used to post pictures to Twitter.

-Iran Election: Because on the Iranian government's crackdown on the amount of bandwidth it was releasing, Iranians turned to mobile devices and posted rally updates, photos and even videos on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

In my field, Emergency Management/Homeland Security, the use of Social Media has exploded. A number of highly respected Emergency Managers are using Facebook and Blogs to get their Preparedness messages out. They are also using Twitter for Response and Recovery, posting constant, real time information so that their citizens can be constantly updated on events. One of the most proactive Emergency Manager's is Eric Holdeman. His blog is an everyday read for me, despite Eric working in the Tacoma, Washington area, his insight and knowledge is useful to anyone, I highly recommend you check out Disaster Zone is you get a moment.

Taking a break

2009-06-03T21:59:00.003-04:00

I'm in the process of finalizing a power point for tomorrow's presentation about Terrorism and the internet. I wanted to reflect a little on what I've learned in preparing for this presentation. I have forgotten how much I enjoy studying and researching terrorism. I've been tied up with Emergency Management and Volunteer Reception Centers for the past couple of months and gotten away from the happenings of terrorism in the world. The ever changing landscape of the topic would keep one reading forever. The troubling part I've noticed in the past couple days worth of research, not much has changed in the war on terror since the new year, OBL is still submitting tapes and the terrorist propaganda machine is outworking the American media. The first step the United States needs to realize if eventual victory is still the goal, is that we need to do a better job at winning the war of ideals and rhetoric. All of the military strength in the world won't solve a determined, motivated enemy.

New York terror plot

2009-05-22T07:47:00.003-04:00

News broke yesterday about a plot to blow up multiple synagogues in New York City and shoot down military reserve air craft with surface to air missiles. The good news that came from this story was that Federal officials, in conjunction with local law enforcement were able to target these would be terrorists over a year ago. The bad news that came from this story, for me at least, is the news that these four men were American citizens. The threat of homegrown, domestic terrorists is growing everyday. One can only expect with continued polarization amongst the American public, the economic downturn and unpopular wars we should expect to continue to see a raise in domestic terrorist threats.

One final piece to take from this story is that we need to continue to address citizen preparedness and awareness. Officials identified these suspects when an informant within a New York mosque learned about their desires to do harm to American. We should continue to remain vigilant and prepared.

These gaps are too long

2009-05-22T06:36:00.003-04:00

I really enjoy blogging, however I'm just having a hard time keeping up with this blog. I'm hoping to start finding a little more time to post shorter, more important blogs in an effort to keep the blogging bug going. With that being said, I'm hoping to make some additional posts today, hopefully to generate more readers.

How fast your life can change

2009-04-11T22:41:00.003-04:00

I know it has been an extremely long time since my last post. I really hope to get back into blogging soon. Unfortunately, this post will not be that long either.

I guess I'm just really amazed at how fast one's life can change. A few months ago, I didn't have work, had just finished my Masters degree and really didn't have much direction. Since then, I've started a new job in a field of my interest, Disaster Preparedness and just this past week, I was offered an adjunct professor position for the upcoming fall semester as a Professor of Homeland Security. I go from no employment in January, to having a great full time job and now being offered an amazing part time position.

The Big Bang Piano Bar

2009-03-16T17:55:00.003-04:00

I've noticed that I've never really offered my opinion on different establishments around the Columbus area. However, I went to a place on Saturday night for my wife's birthday that I just such a great time at, I had to make a note of it on here for all of my dedicated readers. Big Bang Dueling Piano bar is by far the most fun I've had in a long time. The musicians at this bar are out of this world. For them to be able to know the music and lyrics to just about every single song that gets requested is truly amazing. With that being said, anytime there are out of town guests coming to visit me in Columbus, the first place I will suggest going is the Big Bang Dueling Piano bar.

For more information about the Big Bang, click here

So I've returned

2009-03-10T20:33:00.002-04:00

Yes, I'm back. It has been way to long since I've posted on Random Ramblings, but never fear I am back. Hopefully my three readers haven't missed me that much. The one big issue that I want to address is the announcement of President Obama that Florida Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate will be the new director of FEMA. This appointment has been met with over whelming support from all. Please click here to read an article from MSNBC about the Fugate appointment. One really funny piece of information to take out of that article is the following quote discussing the FEMA failures with Hurricane Katrina response:

"Since Hurricane Katrina, when FEMA arrived both late and unprepared, the agency has been under intense public scrutiny and Congress passed a law requiring the head of FEMA to have emergency management experience."

Really? the Congress of the United States needed to pass legislation requiring the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to have Emergency Management experience. Wow.

He's Back!

2009-02-20T05:49:00.002-05:00

Well the long awaited, at least for me, return of Tiger Woods is only a week away. Tiger announced yesterday that he will be returning during next weeks World Golf Championship Accenture Match Play Championship. As much as I love the game of Golf, it just hasn't been the same since Tiger left last June. Granted we have had some fantastic performances such as Paddy Harrington winning two majors, Camillo winning the last two FedEx Cup events including the Tour Championship. The game just hasn't had the pizazz that it does when Tiger is playing. Matchplay, which is a completely different format then the normal tournaments played on Tour provides Tiger the opportunity to possibly have shorter days then normal, if he can finish off his opponent.

Also, as an FYI, if you want to see pictures of Tiger and Elin's new son Charlie, click here

Recovery.gov

2009-02-19T10:08:00.005-05:00

I stumbled upon Recovery.gov because I thought it had something to do with Emergency Management. However, it is a brand new web portal that talks about how the money from the stimulus plan will be spent and where it will be going. Its an interesting website that I'm just starting to look through.

Take a look for yourself

Obama's Terror Approval Ratings

2009-02-19T09:08:00.002-05:00

This seems rather fast to have these types of approval ratings, but the research was conducted by the Pew Research Center, so I guess its legit. There was an article yesterday on Security Debrief that discusses the feeling of American Citizens towards President Obama's handling of the War on Terror. Those that support the President's terror policies stands at only 50%, which seems very low for only being in office around a month. One subject that I've talked about in great detail was the planned closing of Camp Gitmo in Cuba. When asked about that topic, the President's approval ratings are only at 46%, meaning the majority of those surveyed by the Pew are not in favor of closing Gitmo.

With all of this being said, I think it is way too early for approval ratings, despite myself being in the majority that feels it was a hasty decision to announce the closing of Gitmo.

Click here to read the Pew's survey for yourself.

Napolitano and Immigration

2009-02-18T17:38:00.002-05:00

During one of my first posts on Random Ramblings, I talked about President Obama's new policy on Homeland Security. One of the points I mentioned was that he lacked a clear picture on anything that deals with immigration, but we shouldn't worry because his Secretary of Homeland Security (Janet Napolitano) had a little bit of experience in dealing with the illegal immigration issue.

In one the first interviews that I've seen since being confirmed as DHS Secretary, Janet Napolitano sits down with NPR and discusses her priorities on Immigration (you can read the transcript or listen to the interview here). There really isn't much earth shattering news in this short interview, but you can see a strong stance coming from the Secretary on Immigration issues.

Law Enforcement in the South

2009-02-16T15:29:00.002-05:00

Well I know its been a long time since I posted an entry. I guess I just haven't been that intrigued by the goings on in the world today. However, this article from Fox Sports brought me back to my blog. It is a story that the Richland County, S.C. Sheriff's office has decided to not file charges against Michael Phelps for the recent picture of him smoking out of a marijuana pipe at the University of South Carolina. Now, with that being said, I would be interested in knowing when Sheriff Leon Lott is up for re-election. I haven't looked it up yet, maybe my one or two readers can let me know. But I'd be willing to bet that he is up for re-election this coming fall. He used this situation with Michael Phelps as a PR stunt to get his name in the public eye and so he could also talk about no special treatment for American heroes during his campaigning this fall. This attention seeking Sheriff from South Carolina comes about two years after a similar situation (seeking re-election, wanting to look good to the public) cause a North Carolina District Attorney to file false rape charges against everyone on the Duke Lacrosse team, including the mascot, well that might not be true, but he filed on a lot of players.

Now, please understand that I am not condoning what Michael Phelps did. However, anyone that has spent more then a few days working or visiting a Courtroom will now that the only thing they could have charged Michael Phelps with was Possession of Drug Paraphernalia which in the state of Ohio at least is only a minor misdemeanor and about a $40 dollar fine. If the over zealous Sheriff and accompanying District Attorney would have tried to charge Phelps with anything else, here is how it would have transpired in Court.

Phelps' attorney: "Sheriff Lott, were you at the party in question"

Sheriff Lott: "No"

Phelps' attorney: "Sheriff Lott, did you recover any evidence from the party over 4 months ago"

Sheriff Lott: "No"

Phelps' attorney: "Sheriff Lott, do you even know if it was indeed marijuana in that pipe"

Sheriff Lott: "No"

Phelps' attorney: "No further questions, your Honor"

Judge: Case dismissed.

Now it might not be that simple, but you get the jist. There has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It would have been impossible to get any other kind of conviction. Basically, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott was going to drag the most recent American Hero through the mud for a minor misdemeanor for a possession of paraphernalia charge. Fantastic.

Yet they wonder

2009-02-09T17:14:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the couples days off from posting, I guess nothing out there really peaked my interest. With that being said, please read this article from Fox Sports where Alex Rodriguez "A-Rod" admits to using performance enhancing drugs from 2001-2003 which he claims he did because of the pressures of being the highest paid player in Baseball. For the past couple of years there has been a discussion about why the popularity of baseball is in such rapid decline, despite attendance records being broke nearly every year. Steroids might be one of the major factors in the decline. There are no more heroes in the game of baseball, all we have now are Roided up jerks and Manny who turned down 25 million to play baseball THIS SEASON for the L.A. Dodgers.

For those of you that read my earlier post blasting Governor Ted Strickland for freezing college tuition for the generation behind me, you'll know that I'm not a senior citizen that is always bantering about the good old days of Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Hank Aaron. I'm a 27 year old sportsaholic. However, as I think back, I really can't recall any true "good guy" to excel in Baseball. The star players when I was just getting into baseball; Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, wow, lucky me.

Maybe Major League Baseball should think about that when they are trying to come up with reasons for their decline in popularity. Those of us born in the late 70's and early 80's who are just about 30, can not think of any true heroes we cheered for haven't later been linked to steroids.

Sure, go ahead and close Gitmo

2009-02-06T08:25:00.002-05:00

In the past couple of months I've developed a number of counter-terrorism and emergency management blogs that I read daily through Google Reader. This entry from the Counter-Terrorism blog really caught my eye this morning (click here) This is an entry that discusses the NEFA (Nine Eleven Finding Answers) foundation obtaining a report from the Pentagon Admistrative Review Board about a terrorist named Al-Ajmi who was released from Gitmo in April 2008 and then conducted a suicide bombing in Mosul (Northern Iraq) killing 12.

Please read the very brief article and look at some of the statements Al-Ajmi makes with regards to him being a jihadist....... yet we want to close Gitmo. I still haven't heard where we plan to put these terrorists????

How do I spell idiots? ------ CONGRESS

2009-02-05T09:12:00.003-05:00

Well as was expected, the House of Representatives passed a bill to delay the D-TV transition from February 17th (under two weeks from now) to June 12th. You can read the article from Fox News here. I'm just utterly speechless, I really don't have anything else to say on the topic but WOW, we have become a country of idiots.

An eye opening story

2009-02-04T09:02:00.003-05:00

There was a story (click here for the story) in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that was written by Judea Pearl, who is the father of the late Daniel Pearl. For those of you that don't remember, Daniel was the WSJ journalist who was beheaded in 2002 for the world to see.

The article discusses how there has been a transformation in the American psyche in the past couple of years that is no longer offended by the barbarian antics of the terrorists.

I usually like to summarize these stories but I'm afraid I can't with this one. Please just click on the link above and read the story for yourself. Mr. Pearl made great effort in producing this well written article.

2009-02-03T08:23:00.004-05:00

My Favorite Super Bowl Commercial

2009-02-02T09:07:00.004-05:00

Well, despite the outcome, the Super Bowl was once again an exciting game. That's twice though in 2009 that the team I was pulling for was beaten by a last minute touchdown (Ohio State vs. Texas).

However, the more important stuff, the commercials. The price that these companies pay to advertise during the Super Bowl is borderline crazy, but they came up with some good ones this year I think. Here is my favorite though, its from Career Builder and I think we all have been in this situation at least once in our adult lives.

Yes Yes Yes!!

2009-01-29T19:12:00.001-05:00

Click on the title of this entry to read an article from Government Technology. The House of Representatives has finally done something wonderful! The failed to pass the extension on the Digital TV switch that I discussed earlier in the week. I'm sure this will not be the last time we hear about an extension, but at least it is a good start.

Really???

2009-01-29T19:02:00.002-05:00

Just read this article (click here for article) on Politico.com that Ken Blackwell, yes that Ken Blackwell, is one of the 5 finalists to be the next Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Are you kidding me? Coming off two beat downs in the 2006 and 2008 elections, including Blackwell's own loss to Governor Strickland, the RNC is going to possibly pin their hopes of a turn around on Ken Blackwell?? I truly wonder if there is any competent leadership in the GOP anymore. It was a mistake for the Ohio GOP to nominate Blackwell in the 2006 gubernatorial election and now the national committee is thinking about making him Chairman. I truly wonder if we, the GOP, will have rebound from the past 8 years. Certainly not with the likes of Ken Blackwell running the ship.

Cavs @ Magic tonight

2009-01-29T18:26:00.002-05:00

I'm not a big fan of previewing games, whether it be Football, Basketball or Baseball but tonight's Cavs game is a big one. The one knock against the Cavs is that they have not beaten a quality team on the road. Tonight is their chance. A couple of big things to watch tonight. There was hope that Z would be back in the line up tonight, well he's not going to play. That is a huge loss because the Magic have the most dominant force inside in the NBA today, Dwight Howard. The Cavs were exposed inside by the Lakers and I'm worried that the Magic will do the same tonight. We will need big performances from Andy, Ben and JJ to pull out tonight's victory.

On a smaller note, not only can the Cavs make a statement with a victory tonight, but they can also clinch the best record in the East leading up to the All-Star break. You might be asking why that is important? Well its important because in the NBA, the team with the best record in their respective conference sends their Head Coach to coach the All-Star game. Phil Jackson will Coach the Western Conference no matter what. But with a win tonight, the Cavs can send Mike Brown to the All-Star as the Eastern Conference Head Coach, a deserving reward for an extremely underrated Coach.

Go Cavs!

Napolitano visits DHS blog

2009-01-28T15:58:00.002-05:00

Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano posted her first blog today on the DHS' website. She discusses the excitement and joy in which she comes to the Department (see post here). I have stated publicly many times that Secretary Napolitano was the best choice to run Homeland Security. Her track record dealing with immigration issues as Arizona's Governor is second to no one. I spent a great deal of my Graduate school classes researching the many different programs Arizona implemented under Janet's watch to help curb the problem of illegal immigration. I feel that now that she is in Washington D.C., you will see a significant change in the illegal immigration fight.

The most Northern Southern City in the U.S.

2009-01-28T09:45:00.003-05:00

I have officially granted this title to Columbus Ohio. I truly believe that Columbus feels it is a Southern city. Yesterday morning, it took my wife nearly an hour and half to get onto SR 315. The problem with that statement is that we live 5 miles from 315. As of yesterday morning we had received maybe an inch of snow. The highways were jammed with fools who had no idea how to handle and automobile in less then perfect conditions.

At this time, I would like to publicly apologize to all of the O-DOT workers from Northeast Ohio that I criticized for years because they could keep up with all of the snow that was coming down. Those O-DOT workers are the best of the best. If you still live in N.E. Ohio, consider yourself lucky that you have fantastic O-DOT and local Street Department workers.

Yesterday was the first and only time that I've missed N.E. Ohio. Today should be great, we are supposed to get up to 9 inches, I'm sure the roads will be a parking lot.

Unbelievable!!!

2009-01-28T09:31:00.002-05:00

I first heard this on the 11 o'clock news a couple nights ago. I had hoped that I was dreaming but it turns out to be true. In today's Canton Repository there is an Associated Press article (see it here) that discusses a bill that has already passed the Senate and is expected to pass the House as early as today that will delay, for FOUR MORE MONTHS, the switch from analog to digital. I can't believe this! We have been seeing those cheesy commericals about the Feb 2009 switch since late 2007! It has been well over a year and half. The idea that these Democrat lawmakers are worried about people being blacked out is comical! Only those who have lived underneath a rock since 2007 will have not heard about the Feb 2009 switch.

Granted this is not as big of a deal as the current economic problems or the United States stature in the World. What this is though, is another example of the American people needing a bailout. "Oh you haven't prepared yourself for the digital switch that we've been talking about for 20 months, that's ok, we'll just postpone a little longer." You know whats going to happen come June, there will be another postponement. How is it that Congress has attacked this fast in making sure no one will blacked out of T.V., but yet the economic stimulus plan is collecting dust.

New Pentagon Report

2009-01-25T10:44:00.003-05:00

I posted earlier about President Obama's plan to close Gitmo within the year. Well Newsweek is reporting (see article here) that the Pentagon is planning to declassify portions of a report that states up to 63 former detainees at Gitmo having to identified by intelligence professionals to once again be taking part in terrorism. It will be interesting to see how the main stream media reports these declassification's.

A new Saturday Night Live member?

2009-01-25T09:10:00.003-05:00

I just noticed that I'm starting to post a lot of videos on here, not something that I want to do a lot of. But this video is too good to pass on. You would have to have some sort of knowledge of Beyonce's new song entitled Single Ladies (look it up on You Tube, I'm not posting two videos). Well this video is a spoof on that song, with an impersonator that does by far the best Barack Obama I've seen. His dancing his hilarious. If Loren Michaels is smart, this guy will be on the next season of Saturday Night Live.

LeBron's Buzzer Beater

2009-01-24T09:28:00.002-05:00

As one of my previous entries mentioned, I hate West Coast trips. Honestly, I bet there were only a few people in N.E. Ohio that saw LeBron's buzzer beater, it took place at 1:30am!! With that being said however, last nights game against Golden State was one of the most exciting endings to a Cavs game I've seen this season. Both teams hit every shot they looked at in the 4th quarter. However, the team with the last shot was Cleveland, and I think everyone knew who was getting the ball, take a look (video quality isn't the greatest, but it'll do)

Kind of cool

2009-01-24T09:17:00.002-05:00

I found this on Kenny Roda's blog from WKNR 850 in Cleveland. This is kind of neat for Buckeye Fans, I'm surprised no one else has thought of this. Enjoy

I'm back

2009-01-24T08:57:00.002-05:00

I'm sure my one fan has missed me these past couple of days. Was out of town and didn't think my patience would allow me to post from my parents antique that they call a computer. Not a whole lot going on for me to talk about, but I'll try anyways.

President Obama is set to begin the process of closing the Camp Gitmo in Cuba. He passed an Executive Order on Thursday (click here to read that order). I just read the order and I'm still not sure what I think about it. He opens the order by citing passages from the Geneva convention discussing the treatment of P.O.W.'s. While I understand his point, I'm not sure if terrorists would fall under the protection of the Geneva convention, since they are not part of a countries armed forces. Perhaps an attorney would be able to interrupt this for us. Anyways, his plan is to have Gitmo closed no later then January 22nd, 2010. He states that any detainees at Gitmo that still have not be adjudicated on that date will either; "they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the nationals security and foreign policy interests of the United States." So it appears there are plenty of provisions in place to allow the most dangerous of detainees to be kept, it just won't be at Gitmo after January 2010.

Mark Kriegel Hates Ohio

2009-01-21T22:34:00.003-05:00

Enough is enough. I know I only have one follower on this blog. There may be a number of people who read this blog and have no idea how to "follow" me. But as long as I get this off my chest, I'll be able to sleep better tonight.

If you click on the title of this entry, it will take you to a story from Fox Sports, written by the most clueless idiot in the world of journalism, Mark Kriegel. When you were watching your local Ohio news leading up to the BCS game with Texas a few weeks ago and your local sports anchors were talking about all the disrespect the Ohio State was getting, well, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present exhibit A, Mark Kriegel. He said that it was a mockery that Ohio State was even in a BCS game (when their two loses were to the #1 and #3 ranked teams).

Well the above article, despite its misleading title, continues his assault on the Buckeye State. Hammering the Cavs for having a poor roster and its just another example of how wonderful LeBron is. Granted LeBron is the best basketball player in the world right now, but to sit there and say that the Cavs are nothing after LeBron is straight foolish.

So this may have been one of my weaker blogs when it comes to discussing something relevant, but I needed to get it out there, and hopefully when Kriegel gets into his office tomorrow and Google's his name (which you know the egotistical jerk does all the time) maybe, just maybe this blog entry will pop up.

I hate West coast trips

2009-01-21T14:07:00.002-05:00

Yes, I'm east coast biased, I said it! I can't stand it when my favorite team takes the dreaded "west coast" trip. Not only does it usually not go well for my team because of reasons unexplainable to the common man (different atmosphere, the Santa Anna trade winds, west coast liberalism, what have you) but the games start after 10pm on the east coast! And heaven forbid that it be a marquee game like Monday nights Cavs vs. Lakers contest that started at 10:30pm on the East Coast!! I mean, it was 12:30am and we are only starting the 4th quarter!

Anyways, the Cavs continue their west coast trip this evening in Portland. Hopefully they can bounce back after a poor second half against the Lakers. For those of you remember, Greg Oden was Portland's 2007 first round pick out of The Ohio State University. With Z out of the line up, I'm not liking this match up. Also missing again will be Delonte West, this injury could end up being worse for the Cavs then Z. D West brings a great deal of intensity on both the defensive and offensive sides of the ball.

My prediction, Cavs bounce back and pull out a victory against the young, up and coming Trailblazers. After tonight's game, the Cavs are off until Friday when they head to Oakland to take on the Warriors.

PGA is 5 rounds!

2009-01-21T13:14:00.001-05:00

For those of you that care, don't forget that this week's PGA tour stop at the Bob Hope Classic is a 5 round event! Coverage of round 1 begins today at 2:30pm EST on the Golf Channel. No Tiger is not in the field, but with every passing week, we get closer and closer to his return!

Finally, a different subject

2009-01-21T08:55:00.004-05:00

Beer!! Click on the link above to read about Great Lakes Brewing Company's newest award, they have been ranked #10 for "all time top breweries on plant earth"! A great accomplishment for a fantastic product.

Obama's Homeland Security Agenda

2009-01-21T08:24:00.002-05:00

I watched all three debates. I kept waiting to hear what Obama's plan was for Homeland Security, but I never did. However, in the first full day of his Presidency, his Homeland Security blueprint was put on whitehouse.gov this morning. If you click on the title of this blog, you will be taken to that plan. In just briefly reading over the plan, I'm shocked at how little it will actually change. The two major differences is that President Obama plans to "responsibly end the war in Iraq" to focus all attention on "the right battlefield in Afghanistan." The National media will interrupt it this way, that Bush's policies in Iraq have failed and that the only course of action for President Obama is withdrawal from Iraq. When in reality, the surge has worked. Over the past couple of months there has been more and more articles on the Homeland Security blogs talking about the Iraqi security forces taking more and more responsibility about their own security (all good signs!)

The other bullet point in Obama's Homeland Security plan deals with updating the dangerously old Critical Infrastructure in the U.S. Obama plans to develop a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank. The reinvestment bank will be responsible for repairing and protecting the Nation's transportation sector (highways, aviation, rail). However, it appears that all Infrastructure sectors will be address, as they should be.

As a whole, this plan looks solid. President Obama has kept a number of Bush's policies regarding Homeland Security but has also added a few new points that went without attention under G.W. Bush.

Finally, I'm sure some of you are wondering about Immigration. Well you might be waiting for a while. Border security has a small two line statement under Critical Infrastructure (which, is categorized improperly). However, with that being said, I would expect some changes to come about in Obama's border policy, his Homeland Security secretary has a little bit of experience in dealing with Border security issues.

One more of the Inauguration

2009-01-20T23:33:00.002-05:00

Ok, I swear that there will be other posts in the near future pertaining to issues other then Politics. But I wanted to send a few "shout outs". Being a security guy I look at situations like today's inauguration and think to myself "the logistics of this must be impossible". Many kudos are in line for the security personnel on the Mall and throughout the Capital today. Also, props to the American public, it amazes me and astounds many across the world that we can continue this tradition of transferring power from one ruling body to another without a single drop of blood. This is a very difficult time in our Country's history, with unprecedented bi-partisan bickering, but the ability to put all that aside and come together for the changing of power is what truly makes the United States the greatest Country in the world.

Tiger's Speech during Inauguration

2009-01-20T23:23:00.002-05:00

Not sure if there is anything better then this, combining two of my favorite past times, golf and politics.

Tiger Woods has done a great job not mixing his fame with politics. Even this speech, as you can see really isn't

a ringing political statement. He just discusses how the Military has impacted his life. Its only two minutes long, enjoy!

Bush's Last Act

2009-01-20T22:32:00.002-05:00

If you click on the title of this blog entry, it will take you to an article discussing one of President Bush's last duties as President. He issued a pardon of the 11 and 12 year sentences currently being served by Ex-Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. Seems like Bush used his pardons with a little more discretion then former President Clinton.

Obama and Technology

2009-01-20T22:06:00.002-05:00

The man is not even 12 hours into his Presidency and a change for the better has happened. The White House's new website went into effect today. In the first blog entry after Obama's oath, they discuss that the WhiteHouse.gov will be a new avenue for Barack and his administration to connect with the American public and the world. The term "Social Media" is becoming a strong buzzword in the Federal Government. The use of Twitter has exploded (you can find FEMA, Homeland Security, FBI, Treasury and even the White House on Twitter now). The days of having to search through page after page of whitehouse.gov to find the latest Presidential Directive seems to be over. The newest blog post from the White House discusses how all of these documents will now be easily available from their "briefing room" section. We will wait and see, but so far so good.

Bush's "Welcome Home Address"

2009-01-20T21:54:00.002-05:00

Something that will be lost in today's inauguration will be an interesting tid bit that I took from Ex-President Bush's welcome home speech in Midland, TX today. He is writing a book! Granted, I voted for the man twice, I question SOME of his decisions, I do not think that his legacy will be defined for at least another decade (or more). But I can hardly wait until this book is published! Hearing what actually happened from the man himself. The intelligence on Iraq, his initial thoughts during 9/11, his plummeting approval ratings. He will finally get an opportunity to set the record straight. Time will only tell

Hey There

2009-01-20T21:48:00.000-05:00

So in my boredom over the past couple of months, I've really gotten into blogging and following various blogs. My favorites deal with sports, politics and Homeland Security. I figured that I might as well start my own blog. No idea if anyone will even follow it, but hopefully my parents will at least. I'd love to have comments and discussions about my topics, gives me a reason to check my e-mail! So basically I'll try and update this as much as I can with what I hope are interesting topics. Obviously today's historic events will be a good starting place.