CoffeeHousers' Wall, 8 September - 14 September

Archbishop Cranmer

Alas, His Grace has been a little bored today. He looks forward to fellowship with other Coffee Housers.

His Grace notes obsessions with such trivia as Obama's faux pas in speaking of 'my Muslim faith', but then wonders why such an issue has become a globally-viral blogging phenomenon. Would it be such a problem having a professing Christian with a Muslim background in the White House? Of course it would not. Indeed, it is verging on 'racist' to say so. For, let us face it, 'Muslim', for many, is indeed fused with issues of race. Yet it is not the hue of Obama's skin that is the principal block to many Democrats voting for him, but the penumbral Muslim background tinged with regret that Senator Clinton did not make it.

Never mind.

Since Senator Obama will not make it to the White House this year, His Grace looks forward to an all-woman Clinton-Palin contest in 2012, to bring even more tinsel and glitz to the year of the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Augustus

Your Grace, it has occurred to me that Senator Obama could have scotched any rumours of his affiliation with the Muslim faith by nominating Senator Hillary Clinton as his running-mate. Because, are women not considered unequal to men in the Muslim faith?

SUSAN HILL

Can someone not train Andy Murray not only out of his anti-English attitudes but out of that deeply unpleasant feral snarl ?

Tim Hedges

Their problem is separation of Church and State. Speaking of which, but closer to home, can anyone remember whether Brown has cancelled for ever the appointment of bishops by the PM or whether it is just for him? If I were PM (alas less than likely now) I should want to appoint the bishops. And perhaps to be able to sack a few. Oh yes.

Joe Camel

Shrewd old cleric that he is, His Grace will have appreciated the significance of Mrs. Roberta McCain's presence at the Republican convention. She is 96. A tendency to longevity is known to run in families. In four years' time President McCain will, in all likelihood, be fit enough to run for a second term if he chooses to.

jon dee

Rumour that Gordon Brown has added an acting coach to his retinue may frighten Conference delegates.Being trained to replicate humility and other real life emotional conditions may cause him to give a realistic performance of a Prime Minister.It will be false of course but the shock may still be too much for many.

David Duff

"Since Senator Obama will not make it to the White House this year"

I am humbly grateful, your Grace, to have my rash political forecast blessed from on high. I went public, as it were, on my blog last Friday with a post entitled "President McCain". My prognostications are known in political, horse-racing and football circles as 'the kiss of death'!

Joe Camel

One good-humoured U.S. reaction to the sour-faced British reaction to Sarah Palin:

http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2008/09/08/furry-little-heads/

Joe Camel

Tim Hedges, sorry to hear the bad news about your political prospects. On the other hand, even if you should be successful, I very much doubt whether you or any other future PM will have any say in appointing bishops. In the afermath of the coming implosion, the rump of the poor old C of E will be taken under the accommmodating wing of the Vatican and from then on, of course, appointing bishops will be a strictly papal prerogative.

Verity

Palin-Clinton will not happen. Hillary will be four years older and four years further away from her time in the White House.

Bill will look even more sleazy by then, and she will look stale, like someone who's hung around too long. Especially against the beauty and vivacy and real achievements of Palin. What has Hillary ever achieved? What has she ever actually done? More than Obama, to be sure. She's at least served her constituents well, but she has no record of achievement of any kind. Compare with Palin.

Not going to happen. Her only hope is if Joe Biden mysteriously drops out for family or health reasons and the promise of a large wadge of untraceable cash. Even then, Obama taking Hillary at that point, who he rejected to start with, would look too desperate for what is already a desperate man.

For anyone interested in a vivid, clear-headed, engagingly written and informed look at Sarah Palin, may I recommend James Bennett in today's Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/09/do0904.xml

Anglica

Joe Camel @ 11:15 p.m.
Your pseudonym suggests that you're American or in America. If so, then I think you're unusual in seeing the deconstruction of Britain so clearly. I think it's wonderful that you're telling us about it - and I hope you're raising awareness in the US too. As you surely know - the fascists aim for Britain first, and then they have a clear run at the US [Across the Atlantic, over the pole, up from S. America...].

In any case, we all know that the US has no established religion - but of course the principal religion is still Christianity. Also, Anglicans and Episcopalians are already splitting enough for the RCs to gain ground. I've also seen that immigration of Hispanics increases the RC base. Quite how the Marxists and Moslems plan to handle this Christian consolidation in both europe and the US remains to be seen; although Rome will clearly dominate [hmmmm, + the Treaty of Rome]. Do you have some insight on that?

Anglica

PPS: Yippeeee! My FRY THE euFLAG T-shirts have arrived!!!!
Well, it's one way of protesting. I post that logo on every public computer I can, as well.

For any who'd like but don't already have it, the link is here if the Speccie allows:
http://www.bant-shirts.com/eu-burning-flag-t-shirt.htm
Sizes run a bit small.

Hereford

Very little MSM coverage of Senator Obama's fluff on his Muslim/Christian Faith I see.

Let me be clear, I don't much care what his religion is, but I bet if Palin made a fluff of this sort it would be all over every media channel within seconds.

Gotta love our media haven't you?

Tim Hedges

Joe Camel: still, better than Gordon Brown doing it. Will Blair be Pope by then?

Kenneth Hesketh

James Bennett in todays' Telegraph is a 'must read'.It is .dynamite

But why was it suddenly demoted from Page one within hours to the 'Comment'column

Joe Camel

Tim Hedges, we are privileged, it seems, to have a professional tipster in our midst (David Duff, yesterday at 10:07 p.m.) He will be better placed than I am to assess Monsignor Lynton-Blair’s chances at the next conclave. For my part, and for what it’s worth, a couple of Ratzinger clones to keep an eye on are Dominique Mamberti and Rino Fisichella. Mamberti is an Arabic speaker, born and brought up in Morocco where his parents were French settlers. Both of them, curiously, are about the same age as Blair. Neither is yet a cardinal.

Joe Camel

Anglica, thank you for your flattering interest in my name. I attempted to post a fuller reply earlier today but evidently it got filed in the round file. It happens to us all from time to time. Mustn't grumble.

Pete Hoskin

I've just posted a few Sarah Palin-themed bumper sticker/number plate/t-shirt designs at the top of this post. Many thanks to Verity for sending them in.

Augustus

His Grace "looks forward to a an all-woman Clinton-Palin contest in 2012..." In that event, with four years as VP under her belt, Sarah Palin will make mincemeat of Hillary. And I am sure that a modest measure of her success will be due to her charming husband Todd Palin.

It has always struck me as particularly difficult to play the role of a Dennis Thatcher, or a Herr Merkel. To be the husband of someone to which the world suddenly pays all its attention. Isn't that a lot harder than vice versa? Behind every successful woman stands a man... who finds himself most astonished to be there! In any event, Todd Palin has to accept that his wife Sarah has been projected into the full glare of publicity, and all the signs are that he is well able to cope. He projects an image of perfect calm and composure. The First Dude, as he likes to call himself, projects a sort of unpretentious homeliness. If McCain wins the election, Todd will accompany Sarah to Washington. When world leaders come to visit, they are bound to want to take tea with Sarah. Todd will think himself lucky not to be taken for one of the staff. Should Trig start crying when President Sarkozy visits his mother, it will be Todd who rushes upstairs. You've got to be cut out for this sort of thing, but Todd, that rough and tumble dude from Wasilla, looks like he might be.

Verity

I believe the residence of the Vice President of the United States is a fair-sized mansion with ample quarters for staff. This isn't Doris Day. The Vice President will be occupied with her job and will spend a fair amount of time on foreign trips.

The First Dude of Alaska has a huge fish processing company on Bristol Bay. I guess he'll have to find someone to run it for him or be a commuter dude.

Verity

Augustus - I believe the Vice And Sarkozy would be visiting President McCain, not the Vice President.

Verity

Post got chopped off in the middle. I had written, 'I believe the Vice Presidential residence in Washington is large enought to accommodate live-in staff.

Verity

Sarah-mania is sweeping the US and it's a surge that will carry Palin into the second top spot in the US.

Make no mistake: she's there on merit. When she was at high school, her ruthlessness on the basketball court earned her the soubriquet Barracuda (and Americans have recently started calling her 'Cuda. So she's now got a nickname.) Being mayor of Wasilla is sneerworthy to those sophisticated British readers who are under the control of plastic bobbies, snooping council workers and, the latest assault on reason, pregnant police women - but it's the fifth largest city in Alaska and thus well-known, and she turned it around and caused an outbreak of prosperity.

She has fought the oil companies for Alaska. She has fought to get drilling rights in previously ecologically forbidden areas to free America of dependence on foreign fuel. She has a son going to Iraq this week.

In other words, Sarah Palin is a patriot and America has fallen in love with her. (Read Jim Bennett in yesterday's Telegraph for an unemotional and knowledgeable look at Palin's career from American writer Jim Bennett.)

Meanwhile, the Sarah surge gathers momentum and, at latest report, hardcore feminists and Hillary supporters have been detected sneaking across the enemy lines in the dead of night.

Meanwhile, you cannot get hold of a pair of Sarah spectacles for love nor money (despite the price of $795 a whack just for the frames) and the country is awash in bumper stickers, t-shirts and other manifestations of Sarah-ana.

Verity

My absolute hero on my favourite female columnist:

"Ann Coulter to me is someone who says things that I say all the time, but I say them at three in the morning when I’m drunk as a monkey. She says them at three in the afternoon stone sober in bright daylight."
— P. J. O’Rourke

Frank Pulley

Sorry to break into mundane gripe. But can somebody explain to me why Setanda (or Setanda or Sendauntie or whatever the name of this upstart sports TV channel are named) have been granted the rights to broadcast two England soccer world cup qualifying matches on the trot?
WTF is going on and why has there been no outcry in the MSM about this? How many feckin' licence fees do we have to pay before we can watch our own country play in international tournaments? Is this why the FA boss got the tin-tack? I hope so.

Tiberius

Never mind all that - England have stuffed Croatia 4-1 away and Capello is a genius!

Theo Walcott scores a hat-trick, and this is Croatia's first competitive home defeat.

Waiting for Stephen's view...

Austin Barry

I see that Israel's PM Olmert, Defence Minister Barak and Foreign Minister Livni had urgent discussions yesterday on Iran. Further, that four US battle groups are now on station in the Med, Gulf and Arabian Sea "in support of maritime security". It may be an interesting Autumn.

Frank Pulley

Tiberius

Quite! And the vast majority of UK football fans didn't have access to TV coverage to watch Enland's first good performance they stuffed Germany about seven years ago, without having to submit to the Setander scam (three month's subscription minimum just to see our national team). Aaahhgggrrr!

Frank Pulley

Austin Barry

"It may be an interesting Autumn." Oh, I do hope so. On the other hand they may just have been meeting to rig up a rock solid defence to resist Olmert's corruption indictments. :-)

Paul B

Vaughan given a central contract!! Why, what for? Yes we are grateful for the Ashes win of 4 summers ago, but thats ancient history now. We have the next series of the greatest cricket competition coming up next summer and MV has done nothing for years ti be in line for a place in the side. I would it rather have gone to the young Kent opener(whose name escapes) who looks a real prospect.

Well done England & Theo Walcott & Capello, great win.Pity about Setanta having the rights, but they have obviously paid the most and being a believer in the free market.. They will now be rubbing their hands together in the expectation of increased take up.

Austin Barry

Frank Pulley

On Olmert you may be correct, but with the rhetoric heating-up (it was amusing to hear Israeli Pensions Minister and ex-Mossad agent Rafi Eitan propose kidnapping the mad homunculus Ahmadinejade) and with the last window of Bush's opportunity approaching (between 4 November and 20 January) I suspect it will, in footie hooligans' argot, all kick off. I'm sure though that we can rely on Able Seaman Arthur Batchelor and his comrades to protect our navigation routes.

On football, last weekend I surrendered and subscribed to Setanta. The presentation is poor, Chris Waddle's colour commentary is almost incomprehensible and, when some English does escape the Geordie, full of commonplace observations. He is no Andy Gray.

Austin Barry

Vaughan has got a central contract because, well, nice chap...agreeable cove...lovely technique...reminds members of Peter May..good sort..looks nice in whites..sterling qualities..form is temporary, class is, er, you know...and what a nice chap, oh, yes, lovely chap.....

Paul B

Austin Berry...agree about Waddle, talks Twaddle. Surprisingly on R5L, Stan Collymore is rather good imo & I like radio coverage of footbal and Alan Greens perpetual outrage at referees.

Verity

Reporting from the front - the front of my monitor, that is - on Governor Palin's return to Alaska last evening after two weeks on the lower 48.

The - I think 737 - long, sleek and white with McCain/Palin painted on the sides, landed in Fairbanks and taxied up to the gathering - and it was a quite a crowd to greet her.

There was a podium for her to address the folks and I was impressed to see that this is no amateur. She doesn't need a prepared speech altlhough, as we saw at the Convention, she can certainly deliver one with elan. Impromptu, she hit the right button after the right button - bzzz "bingo!"; bzzz "bingo!".

Energy independence. Slashing the cost of big government dramatically, which she illustrated by mentioning that she had returned Alaska's surplus in the form of a cheque for $1,200 to every citizen, "Because you know how to spend your money better than I do!" Yaaaaaay! Applause.

No more dependence on foreign energy and hosing tens of billions of dollars into countries that hate us and our way of life. Yaaaaaaay! Applause! "Energy independence and keep those tens of billions of dollars in the United States to help our own economy." Yaaaaay!

"I told the voters in the cities we stopped in how we had handled these issues in ALASKA!" YAAAAAAAAAAY!

This gal is thinking every minute. She looks good natured and she's very attractive, but I do see that she is a barracuda. Good!

She also continually emphasized that John McCain was a maverick and didn't march to Washington's drum. Yaaaaaaay! "John McCain is an independent thinker and he is not beholden to any interest group and he is going to help you - the people of America!" Yaaaaaaaaay!

Every sentence a winner. She introduced her husband to the crowd, "And here's the First Dude ...!" Yaaaaaaaaaaay! He was up on the little platform waving to the crowd, tall, imposing, clearly his wife's number one fan.

She looked great. I finally switched it off after 10 minutes of her watching her try to make her way through the crowd to her car. She is already surrounded by FBI bodyguards. I spotted, I think, four of them mingling in the crowd but staying within arm's length. There were probably more.

It's rolling.

The Shadow Chocolate Orange Inspector

Rare footage from Swedish TV archives on John McCain and his follow prisoners of war being returned home after 5 1/2 years in captivity. The plane probably stopped over in Sweden.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

As of this posting, it's the second item down the site.

Paul B

Thanks Verity,

In the immortal words of Little Richard

"The Gal can`t help it, if she was meant to pleas"

She Rocking.

Austin Barry

What happened to the wonderful Cockney accent exemplified by Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday? It seems to have eroded into some awful patois of which "Don't mess wid da Moozlims innit" is a typical example.

Edward McLaughlin

What is it with the psyche of the English football fan?

This bi-polar lurch from extreme despondency to unbridled glee, on the merest of performance trends.
The second that we get a good result, the media switch to portray the national side as supermen.

Even worse, they home in on a single player as if he is the key to success. All the hopes are heaped onto his shoulders making it impossible for him to operate in the natural manner which first brought him to prominence.

Walcott looks now to be the victim. Latest in a line going back to the Keegan mania of the Seventies. I can't recall the condition going back before that time

Tiberius

Edward: England football fans are just hopeless romantics. We've demonstrated time and again we can't win a tournament because we don't have the application.

But it's harmless fun to keep trying.

stereoviewer

As a long standing Liberal I wondered if I might ask in a totally non partisan spirit what Conservatives think of Nick clegg's new position on cutting tax and public spending. there doesn't seem to be much chatter about this for whatever reason and i would be interested to know what people think.

TGF UKIP

Frank Pulley and Austin Barry, I've been a Setanta subscriber since the start of last football season and believe me they yank their subscriptions up and own faster than the barmaid's proverbials. They do have to be watched like hawks.

However, I'm tossing my sub in tomorrow because of constant failure of signal. I've missed the PGA golf for most of the last few weeks and nearly all the England game and when I did ring up to get it sorted all I got was a snotty, ill mannered agressive young shit - huge contrast with Sky customer Services.

All in all, my conclusion is that Setanta is cheapskate, half assed, low budget operation by a gang of Irish cowboys who expected to be able to scalp English sports fans.

Not this one no more though.

Edward McLaughlin

Hmmm. This anti-Setanta groundswell - I did wonder earlier and TGF's post above seems rather to confirm my suspicion that there might be a bit of an upstart bogwog sentiment behind all this.