The Col: It seems the far right is like a company I had to deal with. Despite a heavy reliance on technology as part of obvious computer systems...

.. They'd forgotten that modern technology (from postal services upwards) allows them to communicate with their other offices around the country, including the ability to forward a copy of a document!!

.. At least.. that was the excuse

Artful Dodger: Good point.

(V): I'm pretty sure the Obama admin, if not he himself are in pretty close contact with the situation (not the jersey shore dude)

He may not be making public statements, but that doesn't mean he's not engaged in the events as they transpire.Our Prime Minister hasn't taken to the airwaves regarding the situation (not the jersey shore dweeb) and our loyal opposition has refrained from taking him to task, as have our media

The Col: It's not as if the Japanese are amateurs at dealing with earthquakes. Their buildings are built to survive the effects, and their people are trained from an early age what to do in the event of one.....Just this one turned out to be very big.

If the Japanese government want more help I'm sure Obama (or the relevant official) will get a phone call.

(V): If Obama was too hands on, he'd get slammed for that too, the Democrats are no better, but it's far too predictable

rod03801: The people who need to be active have been activated.. ie the nuclear power experts. I don't think Obama (or Bush) would know their way around a reactor!!

rod03801: Bush took more time off than any President in history(look it up), and he was denounced for it, not by the Republicans though.I can do a March Madness bracket in an hour, is that too much spare time? I personally don't think the American President is the president of the world, but maybe that's just me

The Col: Come on! Libs would be all over Bush if he was president and was spending weekends golfing, playing hoops, worrying about his basketball brackets with everything going on in the world right now. He is useless. Hannity is right.

Following a campaign by a Republican state politician, Utah is now to have its own official ‘state gun’, the Browning M1911 automatic pistol, designed by Utah-born gunmaker John Browning.

But although America’s nutters are out there, right enough, the threat of former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the Alaskan moose-hunter so air-headed she must be tethered to stop her floating away, has receded out of sight.

Her hick followers still love her, but, the Lord be thanked, the White House now seems safe from her.

Americans who inhabit the real world - which means the majority - recoil from the Republicans’ excesses as much as we do from the extreme Right in Britain.

They look with gratitude upon a President who, whatever his limitations, never speaks or acts less than rationally.

But it is dismaying to see this brilliant man’s accomplishments fall so far short of the world’s hopes.

Obama secured a deeply flawed health reform package (which was passed in 2010 and promised to provide health care for more than 30million people who cannot afford insurance), and presided over the bank bail-out which averted global financial disaster. He has made some speeches marvellously articulating his nation’s hopes and fears.

But he flunks the other big ones; he shows no appetite to lead the West from the front. He refuses to respond to the need to fight and fight again to convince Americans how much they need to change to meet the epic economic challenge from Asia.

His country’s educational system is in worse shape than ours. Schools are woefully underfunded; American children’s maths skills were recently rated 25th in a ranking of 34 OECD countries.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365992/Barack-Obama-missing-action-Afghanistan-falters-Middle-East-burns.html#ixzz1GlmygUrV

Artful Dodger: He also says...

"America’s Republicans are displaying mulish hostility to economic and social measures America badly needs, but there is no sign the Democrats have any better ideas........ For all Obama’s failings and failures, he now seems overwhelmingly likely to secure re-election, because the Republican wannabes look either feeble or mad.

One prospective candidate, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, delivered a characteristically potty barnstorming speech in Iowa last week, littered with references to God and morality: ‘We need to be a country that turns towards God, not a country that turns away from God.’"

GT: ... Not quite. Would the changes in testing of beauty products count? Not quite a boycott but an outrage at animal cruelty.

... Furs????

Mousetrap: I agree... yet at least my tastebuds get to enjoy real chocolate.

(V): Not a scrap of difference

Artful Dodger: Maybe because a civil war where the people take power naturally would be great. But at the moment It's not just Obama, Nato and others have held back from initiating a no fly zone despite the UK PM trying to get one sorted.

... But the Arab League now supports the idea.

The only boycott I take part in is Cadbury's... I don't like the chocolate anyway as it uses veg fats (palm oil) instead of cocoa butter (cheaper) ... And that Kraft crapped on the workers by making a promise not to close down a certain factory in the UK when they were in the process of buying it... and now production is being moved so the factory is closing down.

I can understand them moving creme egg production, or just stopping the production of those vile 'eggs'.. but the rest of Cadbury's is a UK born and bred business.

So out of respect for my taste buds, our primate kin and annoyance at the breaking of a promise I don't buy Cadbury's... will it make any difference to them..

well, don't believe it all.. newspapers need to sell too... but don't believe them 100%.. every once in a while some jackass will get on a soapbox and say lets boycott this or that.. it never works

GT: Feel free to give your opinion.

GT: Yes.
I said it was an american reaction, because we often read in french newspapers : " American people do a boycott on this.... " and they give the name of a product.
Now, we are used to read this.

The post below was yet another one of my too numerous feeble attempts at levity or humor or humour. Please forgive me again

Mélusine: Actually, most people I know didn't take any of that boycott stuff seriously.In fact most Americans I know would buy anything from even invading Martians bent on destroying the Earth if it meant a better deal for themselves .. Anyways...Its not usually accurate to stereotype a nation of 300 million or so on their typical reactions. Nor is it usually accurate to take for granted what someone so anti American biased as one on this board to speak for a nation of 300 or so million. no offense intended to anyone.

Actually, French troops are in Iraq and soldiers risk losing their life. Do you think it's logical to do a boycott in these conditions ? The life of these soldiers have no worth ?
French consumers won't avoid US products as McDonald's and Coca-Cola, because for us, politics and consumption are two different things. This kind of reaction is typically American ; French people don't think like that : they like eating so they will avoid a product only if it's dangerous for the health.

Übergeek 바둑이: Chips here... Fish and Fries doesn't work

Artful Dodger: No they were not, they all have to be looked into. As to 400% more.. could be said that there are more extremists in the anti Obama camp.

(V):

No matter what they are called, I still love my "Freedom fries".

... that the death threats against Obama have gone up by 400% from the time of Pres Bush to about 30 per day?

.. They probably are all just stupid rants, but Obama's security has to check them out.

The anti-French boycott that bombed
By Nick Goodway, Evening Standard Last updated at 18:26pm on 11.04.03

".....From the start, the urge among jingoistic US consumers to boycott French and Germans goods because of those countries' opposition to the Iraq war has been a minefield, thanks to the complexities of the global economy.

War was unofficially declared when a New Jersey restaurateur ostentatiously poured his French wine stock down the toilet..... ...... 'We might be yellow, but we are definitely not French,' stormed the US subsidiary in a flagwaving Press release. Yet, in an interesting sidelight on the complexities of the global economy, the British parent company did not put that on its UK website. Maybe it did not want to upset European clients......

...... Even more confusing for many consumers, millions of Americans have their water delivered by French-owned groups such as Vivendi Environnement and Suez.

But there are two sides to this war. As Gallic activists urge French consumers to avoid US icons such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola, they should be aware that France's largest overseas investor is the US."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-4314064-the-anti-french-boycott-that-bombed.do

Politics (Artful Dodger, 2009-09-27 21:54:13)

[Artful Dodger, United States, Brain Rook (forever), Male] Artful Dodger (hide)
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Subject: Re:I will join the the thousands that are boycotting the boycotters
(V): You still don't get it. The way a boycott works is one group complains and the advertisers respond to the complaints. They are no responding to the show, but to the complainers. Two can play that game. Thousands more are boycotting the boycotters.

The law is on our side: Our right to boycott.
Reply (box)

"In the event that you cannot support this effort to save collective bargaining, please be advised that the undersigned will publicly and formally boycott the goods and services provided by your company."

Sounds like the people who said they would boycott France over NOT supporting the invasion of Iraq!!

... But then it was a WHOLE COUNTRY!!!!!

Tuesday: And we gave the USA the knowledge to break the sound barrier.

Thanks to some wise guys here cancelling the program and not wanting the Russians to do it first!!

Tuesday: Yep.... But us Brits then made it our own... I think we are the ones who invented 'Stadium Rock' through the likes of Led Zeppelin

Tuesday: Regarding Rock n' Roll ... you are right. As to Rock music.. that's was developed in the UK and USA.

Tuesday: Bluegrass maybe, but I'm talking about the Blues as copied from Black Americans. The music God plays (as in Eric Clapton)

Tuesday: I was watching a prog on the birth of the British Blues music era last night. Interesting fact that it took British folk to introduce the Blues to American white folk despite it being born in the USA.

Tuesday: I think because the extremism that many hold view wise on the right is dying a slow death..... and you know what they say about wounded animals!!

Artful Dodger: Not from what we experience of the likes of the BNP and other right wing marches here in the UK. Violence... insults, racism is what happens.

As for the G20.... I think you'll find a mix of views in such protests, especially as the definition of a conservative is dramatically different elsewhere in the world to the USA definition.