General BBC-related comment thread!

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

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160 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread!

  1. will2001 says:

    I thought that was a subtle little stab at them from Phil.

    Or was Phil suggesting that to a person of colour all whiteys looked the same. That’s certainly what Phil has found in reverse.

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  2. pat mcgroin says:

    did anyone see waterloo road? trying to humanise pikeys, bull shit. liberal crap propaganda

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  3. anonimama says:

    well, I was reading this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7976083.stm and thinking “credit where credit is due, until I got to this bit: “They also report a trend developing where torturers who were themselves abused in Israeli prisons now act out that abuse on others” so as usual it’s the Israelis fault after all.

    The article did remind me of an very illuminating chat I had in Ramallah several years ago with a Palestinian human rights worker who told me quite frankly and openly that they were dealing with many more cases under the Palestinian Authority than under Israeli occupation.

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  4. Dave S says:

    Archduke . To be fair I thought Paxman knew he was not going to get any dissenting views from his “panel”. Utterly predictable and just a series of strident demands for more money and more state control.
    Who pays and who controls was never thought worth mentioning.
    Does any sane person really regard these set up “discussions ” as anything other than propaganda?
    It is the very predictability of mark Thomas and co that is so depressing.

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  5. Jon says:

    I thought the BBc said that there were only a handful of “troublemakers” in the G20 “protest”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1166349/Protesters-storm-RBS-office-thousands-anti-capitalists-ransack-City-G20-riot.html

    And trust the BBC for justifying the attack on RBS:

    “RBS has been in the spotlight after the £703,000 pension arrangement of former chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, sparked public anger.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7977489.stm

    What “public anger”? It was “media led anger” – I didn’t agree – but I didn’t go around vandalising banks. And I expect the majority of the British people didn’t either.

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  6. Martin says:

    Jon: the REAL public anger was aimed at a fat one eyed cretin called McSnot for getting us into this mess and refusing to take any blame.

    Not only that, he’s put this Country into so much debt we’ll be paying extra taxes for the next 20 years at least.

    Oh and the BBC forgot to mention petrol duty went UP today.

    But I guess Cocaine didn’t so all is well at BBC TV Centre.

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  7. Martin says:

    archduke: As the mincing Queen of radio 5 would say “You’re a fascist” for thinking the BBC is full of left wing twats.

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  8. archduke says:

    Jon | 02.04.09 – 12:25 am

    indeed. handful my arse.

    i went down to it to have a look before the riot kicked off , during lunchtime.

    lots of anarchists all itching for a fight.

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  9. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Justin Webb is in full asinine mode today. He makes one of his usual weak attempts at tongue-in-cheek humor. Or, should I say, tongue-up-ass humor? He thinks that by using light-hearted sarcasm he will appear more cynical and less like a teenage girl with a crush on a celebrity.

    Ol’ Justin is making a gesture towards admitting that the natives back home might be getting ever so slightly restless. But he links to an MSNBC article (the same news outlet that let one of their biggest names declare his devotion to President Obamessiah on air, on more than one occasion) which pretends to cast a critical eye but is actually in total support of The Obamessiah. He probably thinks it really is a straight-shooting critique.

    Even the New York Times – which lied, hid stories, and knowingly printed false rumors in order to get Him elected – is starting to see The Obamessiah’s inner authoritarian:

    We’re not keeping score, but…”

    Is President Obama trying to muzzle his press corps?

    Apparently, The Obamessiah didn’t like the way things were going.

    Mr. Obama even tried to cut off the press conference after six questions had been asked—most dealing with the growing rift between the United States and the rest of the world over how to fix the global economy. “All right?” he asked, in an “O.K.-we’re-done-I’m-outta-here” way.

    Oh, dear, Justin. When even your co-religionists at the NY Times aren’t so happy, it’s time to stop spinning. Of course, this isn’t the first time ol’ Justin has told a little white lie about The Obamessiah’s dealings with the press.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    This article here:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7977863.stm

    “Many were clearly enjoying the scenes – some told us they sympathised with the protesters, although, of course, they declined to go on the record.”

    This is technically true – we had a great laugh at the utter ineptness of the protest today. Nothing like the good old May Day rioters of 9 years ago, this lot were still a bit wet behind the ears and fairly useless. So yes, many were enjoying the scenes.

    Did ‘some’ sympathise? I know of none – not a single person working the City that I spoke with today. I’ll bet that someone somewhere did which makes the ‘some’ claim technically true as well, but people in four major banks I know were all 100% dead against the protests.

    Bad article – all pro, no con.

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  11. David Preiser (USA) says:

    I posted a comment about this the other day, but it’s worse than I thought.

    Remember how the BBC and certain defenders of the indefensible told us all that The Obamessianic Age would be great – a return to sanity, a return to the ways of freedom, an end to what Matt Frei referred to on air as “the grim last eight years of the Bush Administration”?

    They were mistaken.

    The House passed the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act on Monday. The bill includes language indicating young people will be forced to participate in mandatory national service programs. The bill also states that “service learning” will be a mandatory part of the youth curriculum.

    If you think that’s bad, try this:

    SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

    (a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:

    (1) Attempting to influence legislation.

    (2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.

    (7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.

    This is not cool. This is Communism.

    Is this the change you were hoping to document on your fucking Obama Diary, BBC?

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  12. Anonymous says:

    “After doing my usual scanning of a dozen or so websites which I commonly visit, something stood out. A magic number is on the horizon. After sitting in contemplative silence for a minute, I decided to pen together some thoughts that I have been having lately regarding the seemingly imminent “13,000”.”
    http://islammonitor.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2238&Itemid=96

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  13. Neil says:

    Anybody see the Ford at Dagenham program on BBC2 last night? About 1/2 way through the narrator suddenly announced

    ‘…during the 70s Ford started to employ more Black and Asian worker at Dagenham’.

    And that was it. Absolutley no relevance to the story of Ford at all. Pointless observations like this spoil what was an ok program but they seem to be happening all the more in BBC output.

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  14. frankos says:

    paxman with oxfam woman, mark thomas and some other guy with douglas alexander.

    So, overpaid arrogant loser with dreamy scrounger loser,talkshite loser
    and envirofascist loser with government –uh–oh thats it– loser.
    A good mix of envy and empty rhetoric all wagging their fingers at the evil capitalist system that pays their wages.

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  15. Susan Franklin says:

    Anon 7.54 pm
    The BBC lives in a Brown bubble and ignores Canada, didn’t even mention the election results. The Sky interview with Canadian PM was an illustration of reporting a different point of view to the BBC incestuous bubble

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  16. mailman says:

    Franko, I saw that last night.

    What struck me really was just how different the interviewing style is between us here in the UK and a media channel people actually trust (Fox).

    I wish someone would slap Paxo and tell him if he asks a question, at least have the decency to allow them to answer it without interruption.

    Mailman

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  17. Liquid P Gasse says:

    …hey..run into the nearest BBC studio and shout,…FOX NEWS ….theyll look at you like youre an agent of the devil….

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  18. Anonymous says:

    Communist states with optional id cards include:
    Austria, Canada, Finland, Iceland, France, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden

    Fascist states with compulsory id cards include:
    Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey.

    Obviously bringing them in here would end democracy just as it has there, right Davis and BBC?

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  19. frankos says:

    I wish someone would slap Paxo and tell him if he asks a question, at least have the decency to allow them to answer it without interruption.

    Oh, he does if he agrees with the answer- he is always very chummy with his charity and public sector paid mates and harsh with those of us who dare to cut our own career furrows.
    His ego takes up the whole studio and probably most of London.
    Sack him + get a neutral or at least a politically honest interviewer.
    Are you listening BBC???, after all “it’s our BBC!!””

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  20. Twizzle says:

    Anonymous 9.57 pm

    I have no problem with having a form of identity. I have a passport that proves who I say I am. But with that passport something useful is achieved – I can go out of the country and gain entry to another.

    I have a driving licence. But that, too, gives me the right to drive a car.

    If I don’t want to travel and I don’t want to drive, i have the right not to apply for either.

    But an identity card? Tell me – what does that actually entitle me to? Breathe? Walk the pavement?

    And, please, the UK has been a haven of democracy (‘has’ being the operative word, now) for over 300 years. Why should we be following such bastions of democracy such as Latvia, Slovakia and South Africa?

    What can they really teach us about democracy and freedom?

    It helps when you can think for yourself and not simply believe the tripe that’s fed to you.

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  21. archduke says:

    this video made my day – riot police beating up ecofascist greenie moonbats

    https://london.indymedia.org.uk/videos/993

    awesome..

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  22. Fat Face Penguin Seal says:

    I loved the irony of the anti capitalist protestors filming every step on their digital cameras – Japanese or Korean made, cheap as a result of free trade and globalisation….

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  23. The Beebinator says:

    http://london.indymedia.org.uk/videos/993

    no s after the http

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  24. archduke says:

    heres another vid – taken from a rooftop – showing a line of riot police charging on their crustie taunters and beating the crap out of them..

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  25. mailman says:

    Its funny how the police suddenly find their backbone when its not moslims rioting isnt it.

    Mailman

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  26. mailman says:

    Further on that paxo interview.

    The bint that was banging on about billions going to African nations who need it the most…if I was interviewing I would have asked her about sorting out corruption in those countries that creates a lot of the problems we see today.

    Sort corruption out and you wont need to invest 20-30 billion poinds more aid in those hell holes.

    Mailman

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  27. Liquid P Gasse says:

    fabulous point Fat Face

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  28. archduke says:

    mailman | 02.04.09 – 12:16 pm

    the latest estimate is that since WW2 around £35 TRILLION has been given to Africa in aid.

    but then again the neverending aid gravy train means jobs for life for Oxfam bints like her.

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  29. archduke says:

    Fat Face Penguin Seal | Homepage | 02.04.09 – 11:36 am

    and lets not forget – all those digital cameras are uploading content to the internet , which utilises a network infrastructure that was built by venture capital during the uber-capitalist 90s dot com boom.

    oh the irony…

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  30. will2001 says:

    BBC Working Lunch programme (not for workers, more a mini Watchdog) discussing house purchase. Fat Beeboid presenter waxes enthusiastically about HIPs.
    The guest/practitioner responds “You sound just like the government. (how odd!)
    “Complete rubbish!”.

    Beeboid persists “Well the buyer’s agents just want to duplicate the work & charge more”

    It then has to be explained that the buyer’s agents can’t rely on the HIP reports.

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  31. frankos says:

    the latest estimate is that since WW2 around £35 TRILLION has been given to Africa in aid.

    but then again the neverending aid gravy train means jobs for life for Oxfam bints like her.

    compare aid given to South America with Africa and their respective financial positions. Africa has suffered even more heavily then South America from terrible governance and Marxist interference.
    Sort out the govts and then give aid to the real victims not to friends of regimes

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  32. frankos says:

    another good laugh
    listen to the fatty scroungers on Radio 2 Vine show –makes my breast swell with pride to think we have such as this in our fine Country..
    Of course Beeb gives them the usual armchair ride reserved for chavs and scum.

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  33. Fat Face Penguin Seal says:

    Do these ‘capitalism is bad’ protesters even believe we have true capitalism in the West anymore? The state takes over banks and companies all over the place. Is that true capitalism? How come none of the news presenters asked the protesters about that?

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  34. deegee says:

    I have no problem with having a form of identity.
    Twizzle | 02.04.09 – 10:37 am

    “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
    Hillel the Elder (1st century B.C)
    Pirkei Avot 1:1

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  35. will2001 says:

    A fine example of the shenanigans of the BBC’s beloved international institutions:-

    Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has refused to call explicitly for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to be put on trial in The Hague.

    The UN chief appeared in the same conference room with the indicted war criminal at the Arab League summit on Monday in Qatar

    Mr Ban has avidly sought to distance himself from the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Mr Bashir.

    Sudan is legally obliged to turn over indicted suspects for trial in the Hague by the provisions of a mandatory Security Council resolution.

    Following the ICC’s arrest warrant for Mr al-Bashir, however, a UN spokesman tried to argue that this was not the case and that compliance was merely voluntary.

    Somewhat improbably, he has urged Sudan to mount its own legal proceedings against Mr al-Bashire to forestall the need for an international trial.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6018413.ece

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  36. PeterN says:

    Anyone wanting some real comic relief on the BBC could do worse than listen to ‘You & Yours’ R4 12.
    Todays a real corker. Item on the ability for sponsors to name new Metro stations in Dubai. Anyone not sensitive to attitudes at ‘auntie’ as raised here would be completely baffled as to the reason for the item, peppered with phrases like ‘unbridled commercialism’. Advertising even on bridges etc Tut, Tut. Anchor determined to find some way to criticise stations named after shopping centres etc pressing on regardless to the point of asking whether population aggrieved at lack of historic references – only to be told what everybody knows – that just a few months ago some of these areas were just desert! Lots of whistling in the dark to justify a thinly veiled anti capitalist chortle.
    Another ‘item’ mirrored one I heard a couple of weeks ago. Music hall northern accent rambling on about proliferation of mobile roadside greasy spoon cafes – not seen by the ‘raconteur’ since the depression of the 80’s. Redundant workers flocking to set up shop at every available lay-by – so many that even competing outlets in same place – where will it all lead to etc etc. Highly exaggerated piece of mock working class folklore – amusing never the less for it’s echoes of 60’s barricade sentiment.
    Different speaker some weeks ago on Y&Y’s on how wonderful was life in his rural idyllic commune(ity). For the purposes of the piece he had taken up driving again after 30 years -it was all there – his green credentials, references to the miners strike etc . Point of story – surprise, surprise the only hostility to his self acknowledged lack of skills came from ‘a middle class women in a 4 by 4’ The verbatim quotation and whole thing sounded highly dubious. Deliverery and content in quarter speed yorkshire(?) accent made Noddy and Toytown appear rawly realistic – only on R4.
    I sometimes think that there are moles amongst the producers that are reminiscent of 60’s republican journalists in the popular press who at face value were serving their masters but fawned over the royal family in such OTT fashion in order to produce a counter reaction from readers. Maybe there’s hope after all.

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  37. Martin says:

    So lets get this right. ‘I’ a citizen of the UK will need an ID card to walk around my Country, but a bushy bearded Muslim over here for a holiday won’t.

    Just how does that help crime and terrorism?

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  38. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Martin | 02.04.09 – 4:51 pm |

    Just how does that help crime and terrorism?

    It permits you to travel to a free country if you want to debate the connection between the bushy-bearded Muslim and terrorism.

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  39. anon126 says:

    like the majority here I’ve always been struck by the bias of the BBC, but as I’ve said elsewhere, see http://anon126.blogspot.com/2009/04/from-ascent-of-man-to-descent-of-bbc.html , I’ve always found it equally shocking how dumbed down the Beeb has become. For a broadcaster funded by the taxpayer because they can do quality programmes it is shocking….why pay a special tax if they are not keeping their part of the bargain?

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  40. AndrewSouthLondon says:

    Whats an ID card for? Well one use might be for entitlement to NHS treatment. I was in my GP surgery yesterday. Unbelievable. Turks, Africans, Russians, Iraquis, general EU East Europeans, the bloody United Nations. I think I was probably the only residentially entitled person in the surgery.

    I especially liked the Russian couple. Waltzed and asked for an appointment. “Is it an emergency?” asked the receptionist. “Of course” the lady smiled, and sat down. For these chancers the truth is irrelevant, you just say what to your advantage.

    My missus does an AIDS clinic – her entire list last week was Africans. Ah the benefits of mass migration.

    NHS: the worlds favourite health service.

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  41. TheBias Must End says:

    Compare the tone of reporting of the G20 protests with the oil refinery “British Jobs For British Workers” protests in February. Back then I don’t recall any beeboids exitedly reporting on how the refinery protests had a “picnic” atomosphere etc. The tone of the reporting was very downbeat and like an angry teacher telling off naughty children. The difference being that the refinery protests were from working men fighting for the survival of their own jobs and families, whilst the G20 protests are just a bunch of hippies moaning about the weather climate.

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  42. Martin says:

    AndrewSouthLondon: ID cards would make no difference. The NHS would still treat them. It would be against their ‘uman rites’ not to do so.

    ID cards is just another excuse to be abl eto issue £60 on the spot fines and the polds to drag off old white ladies whilst bushy bearded Muslim scum would still be able to call for the death of our soldiers on our streets.

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  43. Anonymous says:

    AndrewSouthLondon, I imagine that the government know everything about you and me already!.

    The stalinist tendencies of Labour make me believe that a ID card would actually save the taxpayer money, it would allow the government to stop paying for replacement data discs after losing the original ones,

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  44. archduke says:

    i see from channel 4 news this evening that Michelle Obama visited a London school that has been ethnically cleansed of white English kids.

    so now we know.

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  45. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s another little white lie from the BBC, in their never-ending effort to discredit George Bush and anything to do with the War on Terror.

    Apparently some dopey beauty queen did a PR trip to Guantanamo to visit the soldiers – the usual celebrity cheesecake drop-in at a military base. She wrote some vacuous blog entry about how nice the beach was and how well everyone treated her.

    Of course, anything even remotely positive connected to one of the BBC’s most hated shibboleths deserves their scorn.

    Guantanamo ‘fun’ – Miss Universe

    Seizing the opportunity to attack, the BBC News Online subeditor slips in this lie:

    Former detainees and human rights groups have alleged that torture – including “waterboarding” (simulated drowning) – took place at the camp.

    The BBC has now declared that “waterboarding” is torture. There is no international law defining it as such, and even The Obamessiah has left the door open for its use. But it makes the Beeboids feel bad, so it must be torture.

    Other than that, what other allegations of real TORTURE are there? It says “including”, which implies that there were other forms of torture used at Guantanamo. Which ones, BBC? What other forms of torture actually happened? Not “mistreatment”, or sleep deprivation, or cold showers, or forcing the cavemen to look upon the uncovered face of a white woman, or dogs barking at them, or restricted communications, or being made to stand up almost as long as a Palace Guard, but actual torture Anyone?

    The BBC is basically laying it out like other forms of torture went on there. This is a lie.

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  46. Roland Deschain says:

    Just turned on the television. On BBC1 is a programme about a former Woolworths manager re-opening the store as “Wellworths”.

    The narrator states “Woolworths survived the Great Depression… and even [his emphasis] survived through Thatcher’s Britain.”

    And people pretend the BBC has no agenda?

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  47. adam says:

    i came to post about that Deschain.

    couldnt survive the fat loony jock though could it

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  48. frankos says:

    once again Obama stumbled incoherently over a simple question from the press.
    Why is this allowed in his case but not Bush’s?
    BBC just gave him a little benevolent smile as if to say “well; he’s probably tired”
    Yeh tired out wasting American tax dollars.
    When will America see through this man of paper?

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  49. Martin says:

    frankos: America already is. His ratings are going down. The only success he has is Iraq and that was down to the surge which he opposed.

    Afghanistan is just a slaughterhouse, the US economy is down the pan and Obama goes on TV promising to honour your GM car exhaust warranty.

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  50. frankos says:

    but surely I heard that awfully nice chap Matt Frei (suspiciously Nazi name that) say that he was the world’s most popular president?
    Perhaps Obama and Brown will have a gay wedding + live happily ever after off the trillion dollars they’ve squeezed out of us poor suckers

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