Obama’s fiery boxer shorts and suspected bow ties
“Never trust a man who wears a bow tie”–so advised Father H to a young Julian H. Not sure why; maybe he forgot that I was a boy, a boy who likes girls.
Anyway…
….Barack Obama doesn’t wear a bow tie, but he bloody well should.
During his campaign he promised that the public would have five days to look online at new Bills before he signed them off. Last month it was reported that this was a great fat lie. He’s signing off all kinds of stuff without posting it online at all.
And today, of course, we have this little matter of a complete u-turn on the publication of photos showing the abuse of prisoners in Iraq.
“Politicians just get elected then break all their promises bla bla bla”.
Well yes, actually, they do.
Now click here to look at more bad paintings of Barack Obama.
May 14th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
And how does this relate to us exactly?
I know he’s a socialist. But he is an American socialist. And we have our own loons to deal with.
May 14th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I don’t restrict my views according to boundaries drawn up by governments.
Or seas.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Well, given the vast amount of documents a President signs in a day is anyone really surprised? A five day gap would grind the government to a halt.
Look, we’re not stupid. He’s an impressive man and fundamentally quite honest and well meaning but he is still a politician. Let’s not forget what that means, right?
May 14th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
It’s more relevant than you think. A large chunk of Lib Dems are obsessed with Obama – and are pretty interested in how he’s doing. Yes We Can is turning into Yes we Might.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Personally, this post provoked all sorts of profound cross-cultural musings, e.g. wondering when anyone last produced a ‘bad painting’ of one of our own prime ministers, at least in the sort of naive devotional image idiom seen here – back in the days of Mrs T, presumably – or have I forgotten the full giddiness of the early Blair era?
As for those photos, though, I’d be amazed if they don’t come out anyway – or if something doesn’t come out that’s passed off as those photos, if you see what I mean.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Sarah, this isn’t about any old “documents”, it’s about Bills. As I understand it, that means new laws. So the President typically does not sign more than one and day – and neither should he! At least not unless he wants to rival British NuLabour for record levels of wrapping a country in needless legislation.
And of course I don’t mean to suggest that Americans are stupid. While you’ve had Bush and Obama, we’ve had Blair and Brown – and now, probably, Cameron! Not sure who’s worse off.
Bunny, dare I suggest that a certain youth of our own shores, with American parentage, might like to suggest to his art teachers that such portraits of British politicians are attempted?
May 14th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Off topic, but the youth to whom you refer, Julian, has already seen fit to amaze his teachers by telling them – in a point that may sound oddly familiar to at least one contributor to this thread – that – and I’m quoting his actual words here – ‘the Emperor Palpatine would make a better leader than Gordon Brown’. Fortunately, everyone seemed to think this was fair comment, although whether that says more about the school, or Mr Brown, or indeed the Emperor Palpatine I shall leave to your imagination.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Ahaha.
I see he’s preparing for his summer internship.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
If someone’s knocking on your door, Ms Gore, do check whether it’s Westminster Social Services before you answer!
May 14th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Oh dear. Can I expect such a visit?
May 14th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Actually, I now recall that it was Stu who nominated the Emperor Palpatine – you mentioned David Cameron, which was frankly so far-fetched that I forgot it immediately.
Consider yourself blameless in the matter of my son’s ideological formation – Stu, however, guilty as charged.
Back on topic, though – I was rather shocked to learn that there are some 2,000 photos involved in the Supreme Court decision. People who are interested in that sort of thing make a great fuss about how investigative and campaigning photo-journalism changed the way war is waged in democracies, e.g. post Vietnam, but that now seems rather modest next to the impact of technological innovations whereby the participants themselves can not only compose and create images, but propagate them so widely that it’s almost impossible to hide or destroy them. Odd times, indeed.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Not to mention the copyright treaty he signed which is kept secret on national security grounds (except the RIAA and co get to know what’s in it, probably because they drew it up).
I’m not sure how you’re meant to know if you’re breaking the law if the law is secret.
I’ve seen Obama as being described as the greatest bait and switch in history, I’d disagree with that (the Russian Revolution stands higher) but his office is resembling that of George W. Bush more and more…
May 14th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
“It’s more relevant than you think. A large chunk of Lib Dems are obsessed with Obama”
Exactly. It’s not just Lib Dems either. Obama has bee held up as some sort of paradigm of political perfection, a model to be emulated, the saviour of the free world no less. It’s almost impossible to not hear the name ‘Obama’ even in context of British politics.
Dianne Abbott mentions him at least once every Thursday night (along with a feint, but perceptible grimace from Portillo).
Many Lib Dems see the American Democratic party as ideological twins (a unilateral opinion I’m sure) and Obama as Lib Dem guru in chief.
Time will expose that fallacy and we need to highlight this fact to the fawning British Obama acolytes. In particular we should focus on the folly of Obamanomics and avoid treading the same booby trapped path.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
That’s my fear, too – as politicians and activists, it’s tempting to look at Obama’s electoral success and want to emulate that – but it doesn’t automatically follow that it is Obama’s politics that won the day. It certainly doesn’t seem that way to me.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Tristan, are you referring to ACTA?
May 15th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Latest news is that Obama has today announced that he will revive (and modify) military trials at Guantanamo Bay. There are still 241 detainees tho they say that only around 20 of those are expected to be tried. Back in January he halted proceedings there. Even with the promise of “new safguards” – this is still a huge disappointment.