Kontan.

BBC NEWS | Americas | US Elections 2008 | Obama allowed to keep BlackBerry

President of the United States and he is worried about being “connected” to people who can text/email/whatever when he does something stupid?  Really? 

“If I’m doing something stupid, somebody in Chicago can send me an e-mail and say, ‘What are you doing?’”

Because Chicago is the authority these days…Do we really need the President of the United States addicted to his crackberry?

Under the post-Watergate Presidential Records Act, most correspondence from the White House apart from that classed as “strictly personal” is recorded in the national archives.

So what is stopping President Obama from conducting non “strictly personal” correspondence with his crackberry?  Not that he would stoop to such communication, but what is stopping it?  What about the GPS feature?  Isn’t that a security risk as well?

Curious of the safeguards in place, I looked for more information on this issue.  UK news, NZ news and gizmodo are the only places I can easily find mention, but I soon stumbled across a story on MSNBC:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28780205/.  They are THE news source for all things Obama and it was actually a thorough write-up that explains some of the safety measures in place, but it still seems like a security risk.  The GPS chip will have to be removed, but what about triangulating the cell signal?  Wasn’t his cell service compromised pre-election?  It was not clear about the Presidential Records Act requirements. 

I can’t imagine giving up my phone, laptop, and email…but it seems that national security should/would take precedent over my gadget addiction.  Here’s hoping for good encryption, unbreakable code, and safe cell surfing.