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The thought that we count (When Barry met Gordy)
The London Guardian ^ | March 7, 2009 | Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Posted on 03/06/2009 8:25:26 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

When colonial mariners landed on distant shores to be greeted by "natives", the Europeans gave cheap glass beads or brass trinkets, and took gold and silver in return, not to mention slaves. When feudal tenants paid homage to their liege lords, they promised services to be rendered.

And when Gordon Brown pays his first visit to President Barack Obama at the White House, the prime minister gives his liege lord a present of great value, and receives a stack of DVDs. It was an exchange encapsulating the emptiness of that "special relationship" of which Brown still forlornly boasts.

Someone in Downing Street had come up with an imaginative gift for the president. A desk sits in the Oval Office made of oak taken from HMS Resolute, one of the ships with which the Royal Navy conducted its campaign against slavery. Last week, Brown gave Obama a penholder carved from the timbers of HMS Gannet, Resolute's sister ship.

Although the set of famous American movies on DVD that Brown was given at least includes things worth watching, from Citizen Kane to Raging Bull, what was so wonderfully pointed was the sheer off-hand casualness of a present that anyone could order online. Even the exchange of children's presents summed up the one-sided relationship. Young Sasha and Malia Obama were treated to outfits from Topshop; Fraser and John Brown got models of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, which must be worth several dollars each.

Nor was the penholder the only thing Brown presented in return for his trinkets. He also gave Obama Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, even though there's very likely a copy already in the White House, and it's very unlikely that the president will find time to read it.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: agenda; bho2009; bho44; gordonbrown; kenya; michelleobama; neophyte; obama
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Ouch!! And they have the nerve to claim President Bush was a moron!
1 posted on 03/06/2009 8:25:27 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Nor was the penholder the only thing Brown presented in return for his trinkets. He also gave Obama Martin Gilbert’s seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, even though there’s very likely a copy already in the White House, and it’s very unlikely that the president will find time to read it.”

Obama won’t read it because it was written by a great leader of men, something of course, which Obama is not.


2 posted on 03/06/2009 8:29:13 PM PST by txnativegop (God Bless America! (NRA-Endowment))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Guardian (source) called American voters in 2004 idiots for voting him in, and was the only known Brit newspaper which took 3 pages of ass-kissing propaganda when O won.
The article basically is a “buyers remorse’ read, even from these hardened lefties.


3 posted on 03/06/2009 8:30:25 PM PST by max americana
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Did Gordie get any discount video rental coupons?

You can imagine this scene....Gordie, for those who don’t know this...has lost about half of his vision and stumbles or bumps into doorways, furniture or people on a routine basis. He’s only able to be as good a speaker as he is....by memorizing the text and really delivering this entirely without any ‘help’. For this...I admire the guy because he’s doing pretty good with very limited vision.

So he’s got a bunch of videos that he probably can never watch and will likely toss into some waste basket.

You have to wonder...how Putin will handle his gift episode, and if he tosses the gift into a garbage can in the room...to make his point during their initial meeting?


4 posted on 03/06/2009 8:30:37 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

>Ouch!! And they have the nerve to claim President Bush was a moron!

President Bush respected people, you could tell from the way he conducted himself... before this presidential term is over, I think MANY people would agree that is far better to have in your president than the lack thereof which has been shown by the current president.


5 posted on 03/06/2009 8:30:46 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The world will come to miss George W. Bush more and more in a short time!


6 posted on 03/06/2009 8:33:46 PM PST by elpadre (nation)
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To: txnativegop
He won't read it because he can't read anything more difficult than his own speech on Teleprompter.
7 posted on 03/06/2009 8:36:10 PM PST by hinckley buzzard (uarter.</p>)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Whaddya want to bet those DVDs were NTSC format rather than PAL as is the standard for DVD players in the UK? Not to mention being Region Coded for the US. In other words, not just cheap, but trashcan material as well.

(As if the Prime Minister had time to sit around watching movies, anyhow).

Obama is doing the one thing no one would have dreamed he would do: he’s making George W. Bush look like a genius.

Now I see on Drudge that O wants to meet the Queen. Well, who really cares if he’s rude to her too?


8 posted on 03/06/2009 8:37:25 PM PST by bigbob (-)
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To: elpadre
Repeating from a similar thread...

Snub of snubs, the Obamas got the Browns a discount-table collection of DVDs as a gift to the head of state of our best ally.

(I wonder, after all this attention, if our alleged president Marxist Obama is wondering if he really should have gotten the Browns a set of Snuggies and a Sham-Wow.)

9 posted on 03/06/2009 8:37:57 PM PST by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why would Obama want a massive biography of Churchill, a man he hates. He already sent back the bust of Churchill that was on loan in the Oval Office.

For Obama, whose Kenyan ancestors were Mau Mau terrorists who fought against the British under Churchill, the Brits are colonialist oppressors, and that’s all there is to it.

End of story. The Guardian usually takes that point of view, too, so they have to focus on more trivial issues like the gift exchange.


10 posted on 03/06/2009 8:38:57 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: pepsionice
When Barry Met Gordon

[BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN IS SHOVED THROUGH OVAL OFFICE DOOR BY SCOWLING SECRET SERVICE AGENT]

Brown: Good lord! How very-- [STANDS UP STRAIGHT, ADJUSTS TIE & SMOOTHS OUT WRINKLED SUIT, WALKS TOWARD OBAMA SITTING AT DESK] I'm afraid I wasn't expecting such treatment. But no matter. Good day to you, Mr. President.

Obama: [STARES DOWN AT PAPERS ON DESK]

Brown: Uhm. [CLEARS THROAT] I'm very sorry to bother you, Mr. President, but--

Obama: What? What is it? [LOOKS UP, NOT QUITE MAKING EYE CONTACT] Oh. It's you. Great! [RETURNS TO STARING AT PAPERS]

Brown: Hurm. Yes. Well. Have a seat, should I? [INDICATES CHAIR BEHIND HIM, WAITS FOR SOME SORT OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT, FINALLY SITS DOWN ANYWAY] So. It's. Did you, did you get the gifts I brought? The pen set is composed of wood from the sister ship of the one that was used to make the desk you're--

Obama: [STILL NOT LOOKING UP] Yes. Yes, I saw it. Alright? Jeez... [UNCOMFORTABLE SILENCE] Oh yeah. Forgot. [DIGS THROUGH PAPERS, FINDS DVD CASE UNDER ONE STACK, TOSSES IT INTO BROWN'S LAP]

Brown: Oh! Very, uh, very nice. [PICKS IT UP, PULLS READING GLASSES FROM SHIRT POCKET] It's, let me... Yes We Can! The Barack Obama Story. Ah. That's. Uhm. Well, I certainly--

Obama: [SIGHING LOUDLY, STILL NOT LOOKING UP] Will there be anything else? I don't know if you noticed, but I'm kind of the President?

11 posted on 03/06/2009 8:39:05 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet ("To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering." Barry Goldwater)
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To: Seaplaner

a ticket to the NCAA finals would have really made an impression.


12 posted on 03/06/2009 8:42:11 PM PST by elpadre (nation)
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To: elpadre
The world will come to miss George W. Bush more and more in a short time!

Hell, I miss Bill Clinton.

13 posted on 03/06/2009 8:43:40 PM PST by fullchroma (I want my country back.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
And when Gordon Brown pays his first visit to President Barack Obama at the White House, the prime minister gives his liege lord a present of great value, and receives a stack of DVDs.......

Man O Man! Prez Zer0 has "Class"! I mean a "class act"! WoW! Color me impressed!
</sarcasm>

14 posted on 03/06/2009 8:43:44 PM PST by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m of two minds about this:

On the one hand, there’s some truth here.

On the other, just about anything that appears in the Guardian is designed to undermine America; from when they used to publish Soviet propaganda now to their Islamist propaganda and demonization of Israel.


15 posted on 03/06/2009 8:45:48 PM PST by Rob the Ugly Dude
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To: fullchroma

“Hell, I miss Bill Clinton”

best go to bed now and sleep it off!!

tomorrow will be a better day, I promise!!


16 posted on 03/06/2009 8:48:31 PM PST by elpadre (nation)
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To: Seaplaner

“(I wonder, after all this attention, if our alleged president Marxist Obama is wondering if he really should have gotten the Browns a set of Snuggies and a Sham-Wow.)”

LOL! When I heard about the DVD’s on Hannity, I didn’t think I heard it correctly. Add Michelle’s fashion choices to their gift choices, and I’m pretty embarrassed for our country....


17 posted on 03/06/2009 8:51:45 PM PST by Fu-fu2
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

18 posted on 03/06/2009 8:52:39 PM PST by woofie
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
And when Gordon Brown pays his first visit to President Barack Obama at the White House, the prime minister gives his liege lord a present of great value, and receives a stack of DVDs.

Wow, is every British paper whining about this? Who cares? Obama is stoking the banking and housing crises to disaster proportions while he undertakes radical transformations of the US economy and government to socialism. The man is shaping up to be a bigger threat to free markets and capitalism than Communism ever was - Communists never enjoyed anywhere near the kind of power in America that Obama now wields.

And the British are crying because their failure of a PM didn't get a nice present? Boo friggin hoo.
19 posted on 03/06/2009 8:53:41 PM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama is a pathetic, pathological, boy in man’s clothing fool. How disgustingly selfish of him to demean the office of the President and our allies like that. He’s certainly a moron in chief.


20 posted on 03/06/2009 8:57:42 PM PST by lefty-lie-spy (Stay metal. For the Horde \m/("_")\m/)
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