Its been a long, exciting day of dramatic change and optimism. Growing up in the South, as a Texan, I never ever dreamed that something so dramatic could happen in my lifetime. A Black man has become POTUS. But, beyond the color of his skin he is, quite simply, the best man for the job. I listened to Obama’s speech today and was duly impressed with his keen sense of understanding of where our nation is and what we need to do. More enticing to me is that Obama is one of my people. He came from a middle class family and was raised by his single mother and grandmother. I can completely relate to his experiences. He went to Harvard on his own merits, and appears to be a great orator capable of reaching across party lines to  make things happen. Only time will tell, but I believe in my heart that he is the agent of change this country needs. We need to face some very harsh realities and start living our lives according to those realities.

I can only hope he is as successful as his inauguration was today. The sense of pride and joy I felt that our country could put aside its differences and prejudices to elect Obama within a generation of MLK truly shows how much this country can do in such a short time. Compared to the Middle East, China or a 100 other countries where change is measured in centuries, rather than decades, this is truly a remarkable time in history. God bless our country.

Maybe I am missing something but I don’t understand why Hamas would provoke Israel into a full scale invasion. Are they dumb enough to think someone is going to come to there aid?  That most definitely is not going to happen when the US has close to 200K troops in 2 nearby countries. I don’t think Iran even has the cojones to try that.

They had a workable truce up until a few months ago and then deliberately opted to start launching homemade, tin can rockets into Israel. That is like jumping into the cage with the lion and poking him in the eye repeatedly, then expecting someone to come to your rescue.

I do understand their plight. They want their own homeland with no interference from Israel, but do they think this is the way to go about it? It just defies all logic.

I thought that it was very interesting that Estonia is going to allow voting via mobile phone in 2011. Apparently users will plug some sort of chip into their phone, verify their identity and then be able to vote. I have to wonder just how secure this is going to be. The head of security for this states

The system and software have proven effective and reliable in an independent security audit, Kaidro said. He dismissed security concerns, claiming the system “is the most secure way to authenticate digital signatures.”

Of course, what this doesn’t address is voter fraud. How exactly does this prevent people from selling their votes, or in this case, their chips? Yet, I have to wonder if something like this could be implemented here in the United States? It would definitely make voting easier and likely increase participation. Imagine being able to turn on your phone and vote in a few minutes from anywhere. The possibilities are endless, I can imagine myself on a remote beach and voting for my state Rep.

I have to question why the US has not tested a set up like this. It is interesting that we are so interested in preventing voter fraud but are more than willing to elect Governors and other politicians that flaunt the law and think they can get away with it. It seems to me they would be the ones most likely to try to manipulate votes, and yet they are in office already. Which begs to question, ” how much worse can a mobile phone voting system be?”