Obama for America stiffing Durham, NH for… $30,000. Wait, WHAT?

You’d think that this would be chump change for them.

The very short version: President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a campaign speech on Monday, in the town of Durham, NH.  This will cost the town an estimated sixteen to thirty thousand dollars in additional overtime for cops and fire officials and whatnot.  The town is taking the position that while they’d be happy to eat the cost for a Presidential visit, a campaign stop by the President is a different story; the town also claims that they’ve asked previous campaigns to foot the bill for overtime/costs.  Obama for America has declined to do this, claiming that the Secret Service wants the extra security in place (this is fast becoming OfA’s favorite excuse for bad visuals); the town is now contemplating symbolically dis-inviting the President. If passed, then hi-jinks will then presumably ensue.

No, really, that was the really short version. Continue reading Obama for America stiffing Durham, NH for… $30,000. Wait, WHAT?

President Obama gives PM Brown… DVDs.

25 Classic American DVDs.

What did Brown give us?

Mr Brown’s gifts included an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President.

Mr Obama was so delighted he has already put it in pride of place in the Oval Office on the Resolute desk which was carved from timbers of Gannet’s sister ship, HMS Resolute.

Another treasure given to the U.S. President was the framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.

Finally, Mr Brown gave a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

I’ll be honest: I held off on this story (Via AoSHQ) because I was hoping that it was going to be debunked, preferably at high volume. Apparently not. This happened. So, two thoughts:
Continue reading President Obama gives PM Brown… DVDs.