Sorry to mine this again, but Frei’s contribution is possibly the best yet. As far as I can tell, his job is to make Webb look impartial.
As Frei says, it’s impossible to know where to start – so how about with the kids (that’s worked for us so far): “Her five children? Unusual names: Track – apparently named because his mother is a keen runner – Willow, Bristol, Piper and Trig – the Nordic word for strength.” Very dubious.
“Or should we dwell on the fact that the woman who might one day command the most powerful army in the world, run three wars and fix the economic engine of the planet has only been abroad twice in her 44 years of life?”
Hard to say, but we certainly don’t want to miss the cliche that the “US needs to figure out how comfortable it is with Mrs Palin being a heartbeat away from the Oval Office”. Nor forget the American stereotyping: “Then there is the fact that Sarah has been hunting… ever since she could walk. Add the fact that her husband Todd – known in Alaska as the “First Dude” – was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in 1986 and you get the picture… They are real, unvarnished Americans.”
The conclusion is obvious to all: “Once again, the Republicans are asking the world to suspend disbelief. They did it with Ronald Reagan and George W Bush. Why not do it with a 44-year-old governor of America’s second most distant state, a very modern woman with very conservative values? Does America want to go along for the ride? The world is watching, reaching for the Prozac and wondering what other historic surprises are in store for the 2008 election.” Genius.
Here is a brief decoding of the Frei article:
First the text, then the code:
“Her FIVE CHILDREN with UNUSUAL NAMES: Track – apparently named because his mother is a keen runner – Willow, Bristol, Piper and Trig – the Nordic word for strength.
Or should we dwell on the fact that the woman who might one day command the most powerful army in the world, run three wars and fix the economic engine of the planet HAS ONLY BEEN ABROAD TWICE IN HER 44 YEARS OF LIFE? Once to neighboring Canada and last year to Kuwait and Germany for 36 hours to visit American troops.
Given the fact that John McCain, A CANCER SURVIVOR, is ALREADY 72, the US needs to figure out how comfortable it is with Mrs Palin being a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.
IN BERLIN AND BEIJING THEY ARE SCRATCHING THEIR HEADS but in much of Republican heartland America, Mrs Palin is seen as Mr McCain’s best hope for winning the White House.
This family could not be more different from stuffy Washington. They are REAL, UNVARNISHED AMERICANS
JAMES DOBSON, head of the conservative group Focus on the Family and perhaps the most influential EVANGELICAL in the nation, has led a chorus of CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS in congratulating Mr McCain on his choice.”
OK so here’s the code:
FIVE CHILDREN – no decent family should have more than two children
HAS ONLY BEEN ABROAD TWICE – She hasn’t yet met the master: Gordon Brown
A CANCER SURVIVOR – he’s gonna die!
ALREADY 72 – or become senile
IN BERLIN AND BEIJING – these people matter…after all they hate America and she should learn to do the same.
REAL UNVARNISHED AMERICANS – redneck hicks
JAMES DOBSON – the anti-Christ.
EVANGELICAL: Oh no, people with beliefs!
CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS: Definitely not Church of England, old boy.
How about a senator from its first most distant state?
“JAMES DOBSON – the anti-Christ.”
Word on the street is that Obama is the AntiChrist.
I don’t recall anyone at the BBC saying that the Dems are asking the world to suspend disbelief in the election of a guy with nil exec experience, nil significant achievement, a record of far-left voting, some very undesirabl;e associations, with his roots in a corrupt pliticl machine.
Oh – and he can’t shoot, doesn’t like guns, and can’t fly a plane.
Who used the phrase “Thriller from Wasilla” ?
Once again, the Republicans are asking the world to suspend disbelief.
No, Matt. Once again they’re showing you just how far you have your head up your ass.
All the utterly predictable stuff from Frei is BBC self-indulgence at its most extreme. The US electorate won’t be taking any notice of what he has to say. The few people in the UK who do listen to him don’t have a vote and the vast bulk of the people his employer serves are mainly interested in Eastenders, celebrity dancing, chat show hosts who make masturbating jokes, the lottery numbers and news items about murders in Shropshire mansions and Prince William’s love life.
Frei is talking to hardly anyone, so why do we have to pay his wages?
http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20102935&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8
I though Fred Thompson was great last night. Very moving in his descriptions of McCain’s Navy service and captivity. His sideswipes at Obama were good too.
And then Joe Lieberman called for putting country above party. Speaking to the wider audience. Again, he praised McCain’s record of substance, and virtually dismissed Obama as being wet behind the ears.
And here’s a comparison between Palin and Obama on experience and achievements. If it comes down to that being the comparison – doesn’t McCin win ? Obama is dragged down to the status of greenhorn. Or I prefer prsumptios young pup.
http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20102935&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8
I don’t trust anyone who gives their kids ridiculous names.
Bob Geldof
Geri Halliwell
Chris Martin
David Beckham
It’s an accident waiting to happen
Jordan and Peter
the list goes on….
On a personal level I find this woman quite appealing, at least she isn’t dull. And McCain has had the good sense to realise that no man can resist a chick with a gun.
It would be nice to see a bit of ‘well we all thought Regan was a B movie actor/cowboy but he did pretty well with the benefit of hindsight’ in the reporting though.
(Especially if it was balanced by being the son of a former President is no guarantee of approval ;-))
All parents of American golfers…
her husband Todd – known in Alaska as the “First Dude” – was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in 1986
Unlike Barack Obama who, 22 years ago, was snorting lines of blow (that’s cocaine for those unused to drug talk.)
Of course, he’s only running for President, unlike the husband of the VP candidate.
Cockney:
I don’t trust anyone who gives their kids ridiculous names.
You mean like CHELSEA Clinton.
Yep, naming your kid after a London Borough is at least as weird as naming your kid after a New York borough.
Frei is an arse (as is Webb). What pisses me off is the amount of fucking opinion these two twats put into their reports.
They are not there to give opinion. If they want to do that they should get themselves a job with Air America.
The BBC continually give out digs to the Republicans and again I draw your attention to the the comments from Webb who said he is sceptical of anything that the Bush (and American generally) says.
His digs at Cindy McCain (who comes across like Laura Bush as a decent woman)are pathetic. Has Webb or Frei ever interviewed Laura Bush, Cindy McCain or Sarah Palin?
Would it not make sense to have the decency to speak to them and let people make up their own minds instead of these two turd burglars simply ripping shite off the Daily Kos?
Did anyone hear the biggest wankstain (Ok I know there are lots of them at the BBC) Nicki Campbell this morning? He and that dopey cow he works with were taking the piss out of Palin over some photo showing some Bear covering in their house or something.
This just shows the mentality of your average camp beeboid.
People up in Alaska are hunters by tradition. Would wankers like Campbell have taken the piss out of someone in an African village who had an animal skin for decoration? I think not.
It’s about culture and tradition.
The only culture beeboids want is barebacking on hampstead heath, taking lots of cheap drugs and drinking expensive wine in Islingotn wine bars.
They were having a go at her as well for only having been away from America twice in her life. So what? America is as big as europe. I wonder how many Brits have never been beyond europe?
“the crowded Palin family will soon have another addition” snarks Matt Frei, father of 4.
I wonder how many beeboids have kids with unusual names?
Come on Martin – fess up – you’ve been reading Justin Webb’s new book haven’t you?
From an interview with The BookSeller:
He gets animated when refuting the contention that Americans are myopic and do not care about the rest of the world. Europeans, he says, always bring up the low number of Americans with passports, but he points out that Americans are on “this huge land mass” and until very recently didn’t need a passport to travel to Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico. He adds: “How many Brits use their passports only to go to France or Spain and eat chips in the Costa del Sol? If you look at it per capita in terms of adventurous travel, it is probably the same as us. It is just a false picture.”
Sarah Jane: Unless Webb’s book is called Andrex I’m very unlikely to handle it!!!
Webb makes a point so why does the BBC feel the need to highlight it as a weakness?
If you haven’t been to the Moon does that mean you’re not qualified to discuss if we should explore it in the name of science or commerce?
Note that the BBC refuses to discuss the things she is really strong on, like energy.
I heard part of an interview she was doing on Bloomberg where she was discussing energy and she really came across as knowing her stuff.
The only reason the BBC highlight this crap about foreign policy is because Osama has done a couple of trips abroad. Wow.
Oh and I see Osama was claiming he had more experience of executive management as he’s running his campaign!!!
What utter shite. He has a campaign manager does he not?
If that’s the best experience Osama can come up with, the man is a total joke.
What next with Osama? The fact he gives his kids pocket money makes him fiscally reliable?
“People up in Alaska are hunters by tradition.”
Same as Bush House,only they call it cottaging.
I emailed my friend who lives in Montana and asked him if he had ever listened to or even heard of the BBC. Of course he hadn’t. Nobody in the real US gives a toss about Webb, Frei or their opinions. I am sure Mrs Palin could not give a toss either. This vanity broadcasting is purely for our consumption and to advance careers. We should treat it as the rubbish it is and be content that it will have no influence on the way the US votes.
Justin Webb was just on PM getting very worked up about Sarah Palin’s failure to accept that climate change is man made and that she’s a creationist. On point one – all the more reason to like her. On point two –
“I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum… I won’t have religion as a litmus test, or anybody’s personal opinion on evolution or creationism,” Palin said.
Webb, who never asked difficult questions about Jeremiah Wright, is now pretty much using his position as the BBC’s North America editor to campaign against Palin.
‘I wonder how many beeboids have kids with unusual names?’
Not that many as its difficult conceiving a child by sticking your penis where most BBC employees stick theres.
Gaedeh Trash
That sent coffee all over my keyboard !
Oh by the way you missed one coded message.
‘Nordic name’.
Translation she’s a Nazi Aryan race surpremacist.
Never have the words ‘witch hunt’ been more apt. The outpouring of bile against Sarah Palin has been spectacular. The anti-hunting liberal left are thundering out in their pack lusting to kill their Republican prey.
What time is Palin’s speech tonight ? That is – if the audience stops cheering long enough to let her speak.
Disunited Dem party v totally united Repbs. Have Fre or Webb or anyone at the BBC reported that ?
The BBC line continues to be that this is esentially in the bag for Obama, steady as dshe goes and he wins. Just like they expected Kerry to win.
Bloody NIL reporting of some of the dirt swirling around about Obama and Biden, All they have given is a lot of claptrap about Palin/s background – mostly inaccurate or incomplete. The idea of Frei mentioning Todd’s DUI of 20 years ago is pathetic reporting.
The attacks on Palin have been highy sexist. I just heard Carly Fiorina being questioned on the Radio 4 PM prog, Justin Webb I think. he was pitching in with sexist questions about Palin, she swatted him by saying Palin has real exec experience and obama has bnever taken an exec decision in his life. He persisted “but she is a woman” “She roared back “You would never cricise her experience if he was a man” Bloody Webb kept on, sounded a total fool. Carly was Pres of Compaq / HP, could eat guys like Webb for breakfast (ewwww!).
But I am glad she was interviuewed. She will have reported back to base that the BBC needs fixing, bigtime.
Wanker Webb spouting shit on bBC 1 again.
It was Carly Fiorina and it was also the vile Justin Webb, whose interview was nothing but a Kos-inspired attempt to smear Sarah Palin.
I happen to share Webb’s dim view of creationists but, as I pointed out yesterday, it’s never a criticism when we are being exhorted by the BBC to admire Islam.
Moreover, Webb, entirely misrepresented Mrs Palin’s position on the subject, as JohnA shows, above.
For that alone he deserves to be sacked. He has crossed the boundary and is no longer a journalist. He is a propagandist for Left-wing liberal politics.
This travelling about lark (or lack of it).
Holidaying in tourist spots does not really extend your knowledge of people from other lands. Nor does visiting a country as a VIP and been given red carpet treatment while attended to by diplomats.
Original Robin: Spot on. Having had a job where you work with ordinary people such as Palin has had or having children serve in the armed forces is much more valuable than being a rich spiv lawyer from Chicago who has a queue of camp beeboids ready to wipe your arse for you.
Is it me or does that evil smirk Webb has on his face just beofre he starts talking about her makes him look like a freak?
On Justin Webb’s blog one of the Justin Webb / Dem groupies has said that Obama is home and hosed. I like that sort of overconfidence.
Home early today and watched the start of the Channel4 news. If you think the BBC news is biased then you missed a treat; could Sarah Smith’s piece on the Republican convention have been any more sneering?
Here is Justin Webb’s interview with Carla Fiorina :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/2008/09/carly_fiorina_on_sarah_palin.html
interesting comment by Hugh Hewitt at the RNC
“the mainstream media are interviewing each other.. NOBODY has come over here and talked to myself and the bloggers…”
says a lot about the Palin story doesnt it?
JohnA | 03.09.08 – 6:09 pm |
Here’s today’s convention schedule: http://www.gopconvention2008.com/schedule/wednesday.aspx
Great line-up, by the way:
8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Speaker: GOPAC Chairman Michael Steele
Speaker: Former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.)
Speaker: Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.)
Musical Performance: John Rich, Gretchen Wilson, and Cowboy Troy
9 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Speaker: Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (N.Y.)
Speaker: Gov. Linda Lingle (Hawaii)
Video: Sarah Palin
Speaker: Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin
ok – i’m paraphrasing a caller into Hugh Hewitt on his Day 2 podcast. but it kind of settles the Palin stuff once and for all in my mind…
ok. here’s the choices
1. Palin tells the kid to has an abortion.. bad move – and utter hypocrisy, and damages the kid big time.
2. The kid decides to have an abortion to help her mum out – BAD move. the guilt would be with that kid for the rest of her life.
3. The kid has the pregnancy , but they give it up for adoption on the quiet.
bad move again – damaging as hell.
and what do they do? go ahead and have the kid. and be damned with the consequences and sneering lefties.
now whats interesting is that McCain KNEW about all this – and STILL picked out Palin. Why? because she walks the walk and talks the talk. she’s a tough cookie.
And you know what that says to me – that Palin is something that the left utterly fears. BIG TIME.
i’m telling you – she’s the Thatcher that America has been longing for.
( ever notice how Maggie is utterly loved over there? )
sarah palin – she’ll be president , mark my words.
you heard it hear first.
do a google for “KLUP News Talk”
afaik, its LIVE denis prager from the RNC.
streaming it here in my kitchen at the moment.
does anyone know what time, british time, that palin or romney are due to make their speeches?
it 2pm in Arizona (according to my KLUP stream)…
the RNC is happening more in the middle – in St Paul..
anyone have a clue , roughly what british time they are on?
and another thing – i’m can guarantee that Palin’s speech will be utterly electric.
boy has she got them revved up over there…
one to watch or even to stay up for.
“John Bosworth | 03.09.08 – 3:50 pm | ”
wow. justin webb finally caught up with us – mentioning Focus on the Family.
i mentioned it and posted it on here.
maybe he just cuts and pastes from two day old LGF posts.
thats our £3 billion “news gathering” bbc for you.
you’ll get more news from the likes of us.
why? because we actually friggin LISTEN to what the conservatives in america are talking about. its called “podcasts”
i applaud you.
we need to do more of that.
top marks for picking out the hidden message – and you are DEAD right.
“FIVE CHILDREN – no decent family should have more than two children
HAS ONLY BEEN ABROAD TWICE – She hasn’t yet met the master: Gordon Brown
A CANCER SURVIVOR – he’s gonna die!
ALREADY 72 – or become senile
IN BERLIN AND BEIJING – these people matter…after all they hate America and she should learn to do the same.
REAL UNVARNISHED AMERICANS – redneck hicks
JAMES DOBSON – the anti-Christ.
EVANGELICAL: Oh no, people with beliefs!
CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS: Definitely not Church of England, old boy.
John Bosworth | 03.09.08 – 3:50 pm “
See my above posting, Archduke:
9 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Speaker: Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (N.Y.)
Speaker: Gov. Linda Lingle (Hawaii)
Video: Sarah Palin
Speaker: Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin
disillusioned_german | 03.09.08 – 7:58 pm | #
You can comment on “Is the media treating Sarah Palin fairly?” here: http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/09/03/palin-and-the-press-you-decide/
I never new this
“ABC’s Terry Moran Flub About Obama’s Parents on Nightline”
Nailster: how did I miss the coded implication of “NORDIC NAME”? Thank you. Soon the Matt Frei Dictionary will be available from “a good book store near you”.
Since my earlier posting I’ve been listening to people talking around me. So far the conservative base has been lukewarm to McCain and most likely would have sat the election out.
But you know what they say: never kick a sleeping dog. The energy is amazing. The expectation at Palin’s speech is palpable.
One nice joke I heard (attributed to Mrs Palin herself)
What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?
The hockey mom wears lipstick.
Let the games begin!
Webb, Frei et al should heed the words of Peggy Noonan from her superb article in the WSJ:
The mainstream media, which has been holding endless symposia here on the future of media in the 21st century, is in danger of missing a central fact of that future: If they appear, once again, as they have in the past, to be people not reporting the battle but engaged in the battle, if they allow themselves to be tagged by that old tag, which so tarnished them in the past, they will do more to imperil their own future than the Internet has.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122044753790594947.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
where are the usual beeboid defenders here? their silence speaks volumes
More code, this time from Justin Webb: today’s word is RATIONAL
“The RATIONAL side of the Republican Party” = Nutjobs
“Most RATIONAL people in the west” = sensible people like me and my fellow wankers back home at the bar in the BBC Club.
And here’s the killer: when Geraldine Ferraro said that Obama wouldn’t be the Presidential pick if he weren’t black, she was torn apart…now Justin Webb actually asks: “She wouldn’t be the vice-presidential pick, would she, if she weren’t a woman?”
Do these people think we are stupid???