Section: Business News, Gadgets / Other
While we were longing for the weekend to arrive, President Obama was making his rounds in Europe. Since the president was out of the country, he could not physically sign his name on the document that would renew the Patriot Act before it expired. To solve this little problem, the president authorized the use of the autopen, a device that signed the president’s name for him.
The autopen can perfectly duplicate the president’s signature by basically tracing an outline of his signature. This technology is not new, as other political figures have used this technique before for various reasons for decades before now. It may seem as if utilizing the autopen to renew a bill as important as the Patriot Act is a bad idea, but it’s perfectly legal.
Not everyone approves of the president’s authorization to use the autopen in his stead. Tom Graves, a republican from Georgia, questions the safety of the autopen when used in this way.
"For example, if the president is hospitalized and not fully alert, can a group of aggressive Cabinet members interpret a wink or a squeeze of the hand as approval of an autopen signing?”
We won’t get caught up in all the politics here, but we will use this as another occasion to reference Skynet.
Read [CNN]
Full Story » | Written by Jeremy Hill for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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