Wonder how much it cost the taxpayers for the President to have his precious Blackberry?

No more than it cost us originally for that Sectera, which was obviously developed for some other top official before Obama.

Unfortunately our government is full of excess. Did you know the Air Force is tasked with flying Nancy Pelosi and other politicians around on official business? How about every time you see your governor or mayor driving around in a new car? How about when they take a state police detail with them on Vacation? How about when congress votes themselves a new pay raise, even when the economy is tanking and millions are losing jobs and homes? How about the $700billion bailout and the additional trillions the Fed has loaned out?

Sorry to say, but Obama's blackberry isn't even a dimple on the government bloat.

It was his stimulus plan to himself. He is giving money to everyone else might as well help out numero uno.

@hellwig,

You've forgotten the TRILLIONS in defense spending.

Cool... but can the NSA pimp my iPhone too?

Who cares, he wants a blackberry that's secure that he can use. Everyone has come up with all these ideas of he has it how he got it....Just give up with the Obama and government bashing its really getting old around here. Theres thousands of other pages to do this on. This is a Tech site not a Political site....

I meant who cares how he got.

Could you imagine the scene at the NSA?

OBAMA: "Hey, ummm... I want a few trained professional NSA employees to stop their special projects and national defense work for a few months so that they can work on a Super Blackberry for me."

NSA DIRECTOR: "Sir, it is extremely risky for a President to use a blackberry even if it is fully encrypted.

OBAMA: "Oh don't worry, I will only use it for personal use such as checking basketball scores"

NSA DIRECTOR: "Sir, do you think this is a wise use of our resources at this time?"

OBAMA: "I won"

(For those who don't know, "I won" is something Obama actually said to Republican lawmakers who were not onboard with his stimulus package, implying to them that he should get his way because he won the election. What a great uniter!)

I care because it's needless spending. There was already a phone that had been developed that would have worked just fine. It reminds me of a little kid who already has a Wii and Xbox 360, but throws a fit because he wants a PS3.

If you watched the news and payed attention. He didn't Use those exact words....So you saying that he did is untrue. He just said in a more polite way to the Republicans. So if he really said that in those exact words then yes I would of that he was an asshole, but he didn't and that makes all the difference.

I wonder if Xzibit came to the White House and dissed Obama's regular BlackBerry first?

The event was NOT televised, not was audio made available. There are however dozens of articles from MSNBC, CNN, ABC, FOX, CBS, Politico, etc that confirm the quote. Google "I Win says Obama" and see for yourself. Don't tell me I didn't pay attention when you obiously fantasized a scenerio in which he said something different.

The nicest variation of the quote I have found says something along the lines of "the issue is settled because I won the election". Still not very classy.

Correction: Google "I WON says Obama", not "Win"

hmmm Crackberry 2.0

There is no such thing as a secure Blackberry. His Blackberry will always be vulnerable due to the nature of the device. Anything that transmits data can have that transmitted data tapped into. Its quite possible to track and even ease-drop into every conversation he has to anyone not connected on a secure line. Glad the Secret Service knew this could only be used for personal use.

Any one care to guess how quickly this thing can be hacked?

Great, so he can continue destroying our country in private.

Umm it's on the site.

lol an apple fan boy and an obama hater at the same time i kinda figured u'd be like that camaro

i find it funny that racist people hide behind these facades to display their prejudice if he was white or indian you probably wouldn't have thought of the xzibit joke goes to show how some people really are

dude do you really want to go into the nitty gritty of how the bush administration spent america's money? last time i checked we got into this mess because of republican ideology "tax less and spend more"

He said he was not going to use this for sensitive communications and he wanted to keep the Blackberry for normal communications. Kind of odd now that it has to be made secure for what he said are non-sensitive communications. There should be nothing that needs this level of encryption communicated over a blackberry.

And to the person who said it already is developed... why is it "in the final stages of development by the NSA"?

This is just ridiculous - many wondered if he was the going to be the president as the person he campaigned as, or as the person who's record was one of the most liberal in the Senate (I think 3rd?). Question answered - solution to everything is spending and rhetoric.

You may want to check the time before last. Most of the problem stems from gore in a temple with china diplomat's getting campaign donations. Clinton won and most of the business's started outsourcing in the mid 90's. I wonder why most of the outsourcing went to china! I wonder why China is now an economic power!
OPEC started cutting barrels of oil over a year before bush took office. Gas went from under a $1 to over $2 before bush took office.

I'm not pro bush but anti stupid government.

riiiiight...and maybe clinton and gore also had secret dealings with emperor palpatine and darth vader and plan on using america's money to fund an ultra liberal space ship over san francisco lol dude look at the facts at hand not some conspiracy theory the bush administration mishandled so many things and got us into an unnecessary war with the wrong country you think i care about clinton talking to some chinese dude? bush was best friends with the saudis too u know?? lol like i said a racist person would use any excuse to justify their prejudice.

and the hacking starts... poor blackberry doesn't stand a chance with this kind of press.

Everything I stated was fact other than maybe I should have said trying to get donations. The only question is did he receive donations? On the flip side we have little down side to being friends with the saudi's because they have what we need. China needs our market to sale their goods.

A profiler trys aimlessly to justify them self by call others racist. Which is worse the racist or the profiler?

Last time i checked, Bill Clinton admitted that the Democratic Party has more than its fair share in this economic mess. In fact he said the democrats were resisting efforts by the republicans to do something about the problems associated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Ever heard of them?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel- [...] ton-agrees

I see that you are blaming the Republican ideology of taxing less. So can you explain to me how putting more money into the government's hands would have stopped this problem from happening? How is letting the government throw around trillions of dollars going to solve our problems, especially when people that made mistakes are getting bailed out. You see, by bailing those people out, they don't learn anything from their mistakes, because they did not have to endure any loss. This is what most people's parents tried to teach their children while growing up. You have to be punished for your mistakes so that you are less likely to make them again in the future.

And who started all of these mistakes? Who brought about people buying houses that they couldn't afford? Well the foundation was set with Jimmy Carter. He created the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act). Bill Clinton strengthened it. He made revisions to substantially increase the number and amount of loans to low and moderate income people. You can google Clinton's input into the CRA, but it comes down to eliminating the qualities a bank looks for (good credit, good savings history, income) when handing out a loan. Instead, banks were told that taking part in a "credit counseling program" qualified someone for a loan. George Bush tried to offer a solution to this failing program, but he was blocked by Democrats, and i am sure a few republicans as well.

So what happens after that? Well anyone and everyone can get a loan now and buy their hearts desire. Then they end up not being able to make payments. Then the government wants to help all of those people out. How do they do that? They take (tax) from the people that saved instead of spent, and then give it away to all of the people and corporations that simply bit off more than they could chew.

I do not find George Bush perfect in any way. Nor do i think that his presidency was ran quite like it should have been. There are both Republicans and Democrats responsible for this mess. But if you want to start pointing fingers, i suggest you try and point them back a little farther along the time line.

sorry for the double post but i have too.....

(obligatory)

yeah, but can it run crysis?'

lmfao

Lets see, how about we do this back in the old days where we would use a sticky note or a sealed envelope with a stamp on it. Better yet, make all presidential communication word of mouth.. Yea those methods were far more efficient and secure.

I'm actually surprised this presidential blackberry wasn't around long before. Hey Russia called, Iran is launching nukes, how did previous administrations get the message? OH yea, one of the SS guys had either a cell phone or a text message. Perhaps if Bush carried a blackberry, it would have probably rang when the towers were being hit rather than waiting for the message to go down the chain of command to a SS guy and then whispered in Bush's ear.

u didn't need to write a book for your reply however i hate it when people talk as if republicans did not have a part in this mess and start screaming "obama this,obama that" this guy hasn t even been prez for 8 months we just endured 8 years of bush give this guy a break.

lol i am not looking for justification i am calling you out on your BS if i wanted to sit down and carefully pick apart your argument and expose you for what you really are i could i am a law student thats what i am studying to become but i prefer to cut the BS and expose clowns like you for what they are from the get go. That s why i appreciate the kkk at least with them i know who i am dealing with but clowns like you annoy me because you act as if we don't see through your bs we elected the guy you guys supported and 8 years later look at where we are. go away and convinve someone else with your empty rhetoric.