British boy gets US ban for calling Obama a ‘prick’

British boy gets US ban for calling Obama a ‘prick’

Rachel Helyer Donaldson
TheFirstPost.co.uk
Sept. 14, 2010

A British boy has been banned from America for life after he sent an email to the White House calling Barack Obama "a prick". Seventeen-year-old Luke Angel, from Silsoe in Bedfordshire, sent the expletive-laden message to the White House after watching a TV programme about the 9/11 attacks.

Unfortunately for Angel, the FBI intercepted the email and contacted police in the UK. No criminal action will be taken against the teenager, but he has been placed on a list of people banned from entering the United States.

Bedfordshire police spokeswoman Sarah Wilkinson said the email "was full of abusive and threatening language" but added that the incident was basically a case of a boy "being silly".

"We were informed by the Metropolitan Police and so we went round to see him," she added. "He said 'oh dear, it was me'."

Angel, who admitted he was drunk when he fired off the email, told police that he could not remember exactly what he had written. Speaking to the Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper about the ban, he said: "I don't really care. My parents aren't very happy about it."

One wonders if he would have been banned had he sent the same letter to Bush?

dblboggie wrote:One wonders if he would have been banned had he sent the same letter to Bush?

We'll let Matt sort this one out. He's up on Brit laws.

TexasBlue wrote:

dblboggie wrote:One wonders if he would have been banned had he sent the same letter to Bush?

We'll let Matt sort this one out. He's up on Brit laws.

I don't think it is Britain that banned him from traveling to the U.S. It seems like it was the FBI that put him on the list. I could be wrong as the article doesn't really say who actually banned him from the US, but it does seem to imply that it was the FBI.

dblboggie wrote:

TexasBlue wrote:

dblboggie wrote:One wonders if he would have been banned had he sent the same letter to Bush?

We'll let Matt sort this one out. He's up on Brit laws.

I don't think it is Britain that banned him from traveling to the U.S. It seems like it was the FBI that put him on the list. I could be wrong as the article doesn't really say who actually banned him from the US, but it does seem to imply that it was the FBI.

My question is why Brit authorities even bothered with this to start with (dealing with FBI).

Oh gee. I'm defending Obama by proxy.

This all seems a little silly to ban the kid for expressing an opinion.

As the articles says, our Police did nothing. It was the FBI that intercepted it and contacted his (presumably) local Police force who chose to take no action. Clearly the FBI have now banned him from entering your country.

I think it was dumb. If he actually threatened Bama, then i wouldn't have a gripe.

I am surprised the FBI don't have better things to do than get shirty over the drunken ramblings of a silly drunken British boy. Hmm...I predict a small flurry of similar emails from other drunken adolescents. Tis the British way.

Remember you can prick your finger but don't finger your prick

Yeah, countries can only ban you from entering their own country, not from entering other countries. Even the US can't ban you from entering Cuba, they can only get you in trouble for spending money there since that's considered trading with the enemy.

Hence why Americans in the northern states travel to Canada to get their Cuban cigars

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:Hence why Americans in the northern states travel to Canada to get their Cuban cigars

And why Canadians come here for health care that they have to wait for in Canada.

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:Hence why Americans in the northern states travel to Canada to get their Cuban cigars

Yeah, but it's really not worth it anymore, Cuban cigars have seriously deteriorated in the last 10 years or so and are no longer the best to be had... sadly.

TexasBlue wrote:

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:Hence why Americans in the northern states travel to Canada to get their Cuban cigars

And why Canadians come here for health care that they have to wait for in Canada.

Or can't get at all.

dblboggie wrote:Yeah, but it's really not worth it anymore, Cuban cigars have seriously deteriorated in the last 10 years or so and are no longer the best to be had... sadly.

Never had a Cuban cigar. What makes (or made) them special compared to others?

TexasBlue wrote:

dblboggie wrote:Yeah, but it's really not worth it anymore, Cuban cigars have seriously deteriorated in the last 10 years or so and are no longer the best to be had... sadly.

Never had a Cuban cigar. What makes (or made) them special compared to others?

The care taken in growing, harvesting and aging of the tobacco, the quality of the tobacco, and the extreme skill in blending the fillers, binders and wrappers, and in rolling the cigars. One could study under a journeyman roller, called a torcedore, for years before they were allowed to roll on their own. The best cigars were totally wrapped by hand. Way back when I could afford it, I would buy Cuban Montecristo #1's... absolutely heavenly with a nice 18-year-old single-malt scotch.

Well, maybe after Fidel croaks, we can enjoy the fruits of those cigars because i sincerely believe that when that fool dies, Cuba will abandon socialism... much to the Hollywood freaks' dismay. Then maybe they can get them back to what you described.

Are they still truly a Communist state? I'm only asking because I don't know. There seems to be a growing business/middle class (as there is in China) which really goes against what Communism was supposed to be in the first place according to Marx and Lenin.

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:Are they still truly a Communist state? I'm only asking because I don't know. There seems to be a growing business/middle class (as there is in China) which really goes against what Communism was supposed to be in the first place according to Marx and Lenin.

Technically they are.

Not really in China. I read a story somewhere that gave the stats on Chinese poverty. Yeah, there's more people doing better but there's still a majority who have nothing as before.

I know they are technically, I was just wondering whether they were just a semi-capitalist totalitarian regime in the way that China is.

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:I know they are technically, I was just wondering whether they were just a semi-capitalist totalitarian regime in the way that China is.

They may end up that way. The recent revelations of them lowering the gov't employment is a step but i haven't read anything yet of implementation. If they did embrace a form of capitalism and got rid of the "state crimes" issues with all the people they've imprisoned, then they might see the US embargo lifted (which i think should be since it never worked).

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:I know they are technically, I was just wondering whether they were just a semi-capitalist totalitarian regime in the way that China is.

They are still a Communist state. Though private sector employment has grown over the last several years, it is still less than a quarter of the size of the public-sector economy. And even at that, capital investment is very restricted, and any company employing a Cuban has to pay the government, which then pays the employee in Cuban pesos.

The only reason any free market was allowed at all in Cuba was to the prevent starvation of their people.