by Frank James
In case you haven't heard by this point (perhaps you were on another planet?) there will be a record amount of security surrounding the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama to go along with the record expected crowds.
The accompanying video news report gives a flavor of what the Homeland Security Department, police and U.S. military have planned for Tuesday. My favorite part is the police horses which will be wearing plastic eye-guards, apparently the latest fashion for equines involved in crowd control.
It sounds like the real concern is less for the president-elect/president and more for the crowds, an especially serious concern since, with an expected two million people, it will be impossible to use metal detectors on all but a fraction of the crowd.
So for those of you who plan on being in the teeming masses on or near the National Mall, keep your eyes and ears open for anything that doesn't look right.
Comments
We need to have security at the Inauguration like we do at the airports, making full use of the always effective tool of profiling. At airports all Muslims and Arabs are assumed to be terrorist until proven otherwise, with the vocal supports of the right thinking conservative people of this nation.
At the Inauguration we need to do similar profiling of the groups most likely to wish Obama harm: rednecks and southerners. Cloearly people in this grroup have belonged to violent organizations like the KKK, so we must assume all of them are until proven otherwise. People wearing t-shirts that reference NASCAR should be detained. Anyone with a southern accent should be strip searched. Anyone bearing any image of the Confederate flag should be sent to detention in Gitmo. I know this sounds harsh, but can we really risk our security to worry about the needs of these few americans? Just as we are perfectly willing to sacrifice our muslim citizens rights because of the actions of a few muslims, we should not flinch from doing what it takes to make sure some unreconstructed racist does not have a chance to harm Obama. If a few honest rednecks are inconvienced, isn't that a small price to pay?
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/01/muslim_familys_airline_saga_an.html
Posted by: J. Swift | January 16, 2009 2:42 PM
Where are all the critics about how much this inauguration is going to cost the American public? They sure didn't
hesitate when President Bush had his inauguration. Or doesn't it apply to Democrats.
Posted by: Paul | January 16, 2009 3:14 PM
Paul, you apparently haven't been reading the Swamp in the past month, or you would have seen those critics. Or perhaps you suffer from selective reading. There have been plenty of whiners; you're not alone.
Posted by: rupert | January 16, 2009 4:44 PM
J. Swift: I hope the same thing ...they can't help but be aware of all these LOONY TUNES out there!
Posted by: Mary | January 16, 2009 6:27 PM
Right wing apparatchiks;
One reason for the needed extra security are all the threats against Obama from the gun toting crowd.
This is not being regularly reported because it doesn't fit the American 'story line'. But unfortunately the USA is still very racist.
Posted by: C.Morrisā | January 18, 2009 7:47 PM