2. micromoth2 November 2011, 13:32 GMT +01:00

Maybe Luke should ban President Obama from ever coming to see him. One little email to the White House should do the trick...

3. gesinek2 November 2011, 13:37 GMT +01:00

I think it comes all from the shock at 9/11. Bush abused the situation to get more and more power over the country. And most everybody agreed in a new dimension of controlling and punishing the public on every step they make.

I'm not sure that Obama alone can give his country more freedom back. I think meanwhile there is a big industry and a hugh administrative machinery which is hard to stop.

But another reason not to travel to US

4. crisderaud2 November 2011, 14:34 GMT +01:00

The president has a staff who's only job is to filter his thousands of emails a day. They must get hundreds of these kind of emails. Why they would single this guy out and make him the example is beyond me.

Seems to be an overly severe response to the e-mail. May be more to the story they aren't telling us.

5. weirdvis2 November 2011, 15:51 GMT +01:00

Well the Pres is a prick - just like every other politician stealing oxygen. So they can ban me too.

6. crisderaud2 November 2011, 19:16 GMT +01:00

Obama's Profound Disrespect For The Presidency
What do all these photos have in common?

http://www.rense.com/common.html

7. gesinek2 November 2011, 20:49 GMT +01:00

Maybe he has varicose veins?

Doesn't every president get his own furniture? I thought every first Lady may decorate the white house as she (and her husband likes it) So it belongs to Them. Their desk, his feet and if Mrs. Obama agrees? Maybe I'm not empathic enough for the situation - but so what?

8. crisderaud2 November 2011, 21:10 GMT +01:00

This is at the bottom of the page:

"The Resolute Desk was built from the timbers of the HMS Resolute and was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes.

It is considered a national treasure and icon of the presidency.
The White House belongs to the People of America and should be more revered than to use anything and everything for a foot rest!"

I believe this desk is in the Oval Office. She doesn't get to mess with that room. It's the business center for the president and his staff. She gets to decorate the living area of the white house.

9. gesinek2 November 2011, 21:14 GMT +01:00

Ok, than someone has to tell him to show a better behavior. He has agents for every purpose of life - what to wear, what to say. what to eat...

Can't believe no told him to get his smelly feet from that desk???

By the way... is there evidence that former Presidents treat the FURNITURE right????

Or are they to stiff to get their feets upon a table?

10. crisderaud3 November 2011, 1:10 GMT +01:00

When Clinton was president he and Hillary accepted a load of custom made furniture destined for the white house. According to the guy who made the furniture for them, his work never went to the white house. It was shipped directly to Arkansas where record of it has been lost since.

The maker of the furniture voiced his complaint on the internet that his load of furniture was routed straight to the Clintons but the media never picked up on the story.

You never really know what goes on at that level of government. All these candid photos we are seeing of Obama in the White House is new. Past administrations were careful with what pictures were released to the public and the press. Most of the photos were staged to make the president look good.

11. xymonau3 November 2011, 9:58 GMT +01:00

I don't persoanlly dislike Obama as such. It's the FBI who are playing 1984. What gets up my nose is the fact that a sovereign nation allows a foreign country to do this on their own soil. Australia would do it, too. Sod the gestapo imitators.

I like Kevin's response. I hope the poor boy bans Obama from ever entering his home. And blows a raspberry.

12. Stephen3 November 2011, 16:51 GMT +01:00

Chris's reference at 6 - "Mr. Obama, you are not in a hut in Kenya or Indonesia,
or public housing in Chicago .
With all due respect,
get your xxxxxxx feet off our desk"

says it all about the Obama critics as far as I am concerned

- "with all due respect" to those who live in 'huts' in 'kenya' or 'indonesia' or 'public housing' in 'chicago', what a farce, how abusive

seriously, this is absolute drivel brought on by a hysterically irrational bunch of black, left, women, gay, anti-gun, anti-you and me cretins who are happy to chuck him out at the slightest opportunity - hell yeah, let's go back to Bush 1, Bush 2, I'm guessing there's a Bush 3 - POWER!!!!! A tea-party, anyone? Sing to the Halliburton tune? No thanks!

13. xymonau3 November 2011, 23:18 GMT +01:00

It was reported in the general media. And if you are, by implication, calling me a cretin, then you are wasting your time. Your opinion means absolutely nothing to me.

14. Stephen17 November 2011, 14:53 GMT +01:00

15. Stephen17 November 2011, 14:53 GMT +01:00

Dez, I am clearly not calling you a cretin. Reading my comment at 12 you would see that I am referring to those who would try to make political gain (being the tea party set - I can't see you signing up!) from images of Obama with his feet on the revered oval office desk. Heaven forbid.

That isn't to say that I don't find your persistent use of terms like fascist and gestapo objectionable, I do. I think such terms are used far too lightly. So - great it's a forum, do I comment or just pull my head in?

Your opinions mean a lot to me as they are out there in the public domain.

16. Gramps18 November 2011, 9:37 GMT +01:00

Don't be s'daft the pair of you. Politics have now't to do with it, common sense has. A swift kick up the backside and a few days community service would have done it, just for being so stupid. It was, as stated, a bit of an over reaction. Bleeding 'eck, If we sent the police around to everyone that sent 'abusive' emails to our politicians (yes, even the PM) we would need to double the police force.

There's some good things come out of America; Disney, JD and...... and..... well JD. All they have to do is learn how to play proper football (you don't pick the ball up !! the clue is in the name) and not to make such a fuss over a bunch of lads playing rounders :0) After that the rest will come naturally and they will get back to being as normal as us civilised Brit's :0)

17. weirdvis19 November 2011, 11:10 GMT +01:00

I send abusive emails to my MP. I keep asking him to do the job he was elected to do (not by me though) and represent the interests of his constituents and not those of his boss, David Cameron who is a fanatical tranzie depite his absurd protestations of Euroscepticism. Unfortunately, he'd rather be Cameron's toady and toe the party line like the faithful, lickspittle sycophant he is. He has never once rebelled against the party whip in his entire political career. He voted to increase our contribution to the IMF by billions, using money the UK hasn't got and has had to borrow, taking us even deeper into debt. And for what? To bail out Greece, a country that surely will default on it's massive debt to the EU banks. The bailouts are illegal, supposedly not allowed under the Lisbon Treaty. But hey, the unelected Brussels eurocrats can flout the laws any time they want, okay? Meanwhile my local Tory toady MP witters on about cutting public and government spending(!). The man appears to have his swivelling eyes fixed firmly on that political greasy pole of promotion and to hell with the consequences.

The House of Commons is packed to the rafters with such vile, political creeps and retards. And that includes the so called Tory Eurosceptics because they are no such thing. They talk about reform and renegotiating our position within the EU when they know full well (but then maybe not because most of them come across as deeply stupid) there is little chance of renegotiatiating anything with an anti-democratic entity that is run by authoritarians not one EU member of the public has ever voted for. The same authoritarians who have just removed two democratically elected heads of state. Okay so Papandreou and Berlusconi totally sucked at their jobs but they were ELECTED and the Greek and Italian people should have been the ones to remove them from office via national elections. Instead the two were removed by the unelected European Council who replaced them with unelected Europhile placemen who will do their masters bidding whether the Greeks and Italians like it or not.

You see, if you accept an EU bailout you sell your national soul to the bloodsuckers in Brussels. That's what happened to Ireland which now has to do as it is fiscally told by the European Central Bank, pretty much like Greece is expected to. Or you could get a bailout forced upon you which seems to be the case with Italy. Berlusconi refused a bailout so he had to go because even he realised that making a deal with that particular devil wasn't a good idea. The grim faced EUSSR elite don't look the types to enjoy bunga bunga parties after all. Papandreou threatened a referendum so he had to go too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bdob6QRLRJU

The only hope is that this hideous takeover of European countries one by one, using debt as the weapon of choice, will implode under the weight of trilliions in Euro debt, corruption, hubris and criminal incompetence. Hopefully it will take the the EU Council (headed by Belgian bureaucrat Van Rumpuy - unelected president), the EU Commission (headed by a Marxist called Barroso - unelected president), the ECB and the whole EUSSR structure with it. It will be a cruel hard world following that aftermath but at least we won't have to worry about how bent our bananas are...

As for Obama, hasn't he just told Julia Gillard that she's doing the right thing driving Australian industry abroad with her Carbon Tax having failed to bring in the US equivalent? Perhaps he congratulated the wrong person because the power behind that throne is really Greens leader Bob Brown whose support Gillard is using to cling to power at any cost. I suspect the Carbon Tax was the price of his support for the Australian Labour Party. It'll work well as a mechanism for stealing money from hard working Australians and Australian industry. The UK's coalition government is just as destructive.

With (very) few exceptions our politicians are unfit for purpose. Their perpetual power grabs are an increasing burden upon us, regulating even the minutiae in our daily lives and dictating how we live, what we say and what we should think. Nanny State knows best! Don't drink! Don't smoke! Don't eat food Nanny disapproves of! Don't heat your homes otherwise you'll kill all those cuddly-wuddly, man-eating polar bears even though they survived the much warmer Holocene Climate Optimum that ended 5000 years ago. They managed to survive the Minioan Warm Period, the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period which were also warmer than the recent warming period, something the AGW alarmists and Nanny doesn't want you to know. Forget the extreme winters that are killing people who can't afford to heat their homes. We need windmills. Lots and lots of windmills that don't produce electricity when the wind doesn't blow. You know it makes sense, don't you? As your granny dies of hypothermia you will find joy in knowing that she's saving the planet.

The UK government uses special interest pressure groups and fake charities that lobby the government for change. The problem is that these oranisations are funded by government handouts. These organisations then lobby the government on issues that will enable even more draconian legislation to be passed, the latest being an attempt to prevent individuals and/or their passengers smoking in their own cars. We must think fo the chiiildren after all. It seems that thinking of the chiiildren is the emotional cosh of choice used by so many of these new puritans. Guilt trip is the new black.

Goodbye freedom of expression, freedom of religion (particularly if you are a Jew or a Christian) and the freedom to be an adult making your own decisions and taking responsibility for yourself. Your freedoms must be sacrificed on the alter of Equality because no minority or ethnic demos should be offended, ever. Not even if what you say is the truth or merely pointing out the blindingly obvious. Nanny will fine you and/or lock you up if you're naughty.

We have the freedom to do what we're told and to say what we're told to say. That isn't freedom, it's cynical oppression using useful, bought and paid for advocates as a blunt instrument. And we idiot taxpayers foot the bill for our own downfall. Worse, there are individuals who will report the unpolitically correct to the thought police in the mistaken belief they are being good citizens. Welcome to the police state.

Rant over.

18. Gramps19 November 2011, 23:59 GMT +01:00

Bl***y 'ell Lynne ! there woz me trying to keep it light hearted :0) You've just got yourself banned from the USA and any of their outlying states (like here) and the PC's will probably be knocking at the door as I type.

19. weirdvis20 November 2011, 9:40 GMT +01:00

Phil, they can send the PC's if they like but, because they've closed down all of the local nicks, and the fuzz have to come all the way from Lancaster and I live in the sticks, I'll have a twenty minute head start even if they put their sirens on and the pedal to the metal. :D

I'm afraid I let my blogging hat wear my head yesterday. I haven't blogged much recently because I don't have the time at the moment. This is a shame because it's very cathartic to apply a verbal razor to the people making our lives miserable for their own benefit. I tend to focus on politics, science and warbal gloming. Blogging is also highly addictive so I consciously have to pace myself because it can all too easily take over.

I must remember not to confuse letting the buggers have it blog posts with rgbstock forum posts. :0)

20. Stephen24 November 2011, 11:30 GMT +01:00

Lynne, whoever, whatever, maybe me, maybe not, lit that cracker it blew a banger half way across andromeda. I am still busy deciphering what I agree with and what I disagree with and feel a book is warranted on each topic you get into. And so I start to write and then think better and - like you - remind myself that this is a photography site and .... so flick me an email, I'd love to agree madly, bang heads (I am sure) probably quite frequently, and leave the good people at rgb to discuss f stops, dof and digital vs film

21. weirdvis25 November 2011, 9:30 GMT +01:00

Stephen, you are correct, so that's why I blog although I tend to make guest appearances these days because blogging takes a lot of time and research (something the media might consider doing from time to time) and my time is somewhat short right now because of family commitments. :0)

But what's this? The curtain has been raised on Climategate 2.0 and these emails appear to be even more explosive than those released two years ago. I've ordered an industrial quantity of popcorn so climate denier me (who on Earth denies the climate exists? Srsly!) can sit back and enjoy the show when I make time to view the spectacle.

When the politicians finally realise the game is up (no matter how many whitewashes they spread thick and fast) and begin spinning like crazy to try and inform us that there isn't anything to see so please move along, oh and keep paying your green taxes like good er... Green Britannia cash cows, I'm going to open a tumbril showroom. I anticipate that business will be brisk... :D