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UK Teen Banned From US Over Obscene Obama Email

British teenager Luke Angel has been banned from the US for sending an email to the White House calling President Obama an obscenity. The 17-year-old says he was drunk when he sent the mail and doesn't understand what the big deal is. "I don't remember exactly what I wrote as I was drunk. But I think I called Barack Obama a p***k. It was silly -- the sort of thing you do when you're a teenager and have had a few," he said. The FBI contacted local police who in turn confronted Luke and let him know that the US Department of Homeland Security didn't think his email was funny. "The police came and took my picture and told me I was banned from America forever. I don't really care but my parents aren't very happy," Angel said.

11 of 555 comments (clear)

  1. America...FUCK yeah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    The guy should feel lucky that a drone didn't drop a hellfire missile on his ass, because that's how Team America does it baby!

    America, fuck yeah! Comin' again to save the motherfucking day, yeah!
    America, fuck yeah! Freedom is the only way, yeah!
    Terrorists, your game is through, 'cause now you have to answer to
    America, fuck yeah! So lick my butt and suck on my balls!
    America, fuck yeah! What you gonna do when we come for you now!

  2. So says the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Shenanigans!

  3. Re:Now that's just stupid. by Pharmboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Or do we believe that people in other countries shouldn't be able to express negative opinions about our leaders?

    Of course we believe other countries should have freedom of speech, which is why we invade them. Obviously, it is even worth killing thousands upon thousands of people (or more) for it. Me thinks that this won't last, as any court in the US would see this as problematic. The 1st Amendment *clearly* is not limited to citizens.

    --
    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  4. He THINKS he knows by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "I don't remember exactly what I wrote as I was drunk. "

    He said he thinks that he called the president a prick. If the provider didn't delete the email (I doubt it), I bet he knows EXACTLY what he wrote since he can look up the damned thing. Probably made some comment like "If I ever see you I'm going to..." but decided not to 'remember' that part in order to not have the rest of the world respond with, "What did you THINK would happen?"

    Personally, I can think of a lot more worse things that could happen, especially if instead of the president, I emailed my boss while drunk.

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  5. Where is the entire e-mail? by Blindman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From the article, it seems that he might have said a little more than the one sentence quoted above. Not that he is an American citizen, but calling the President names should qualify as protected speech, albeit juvenile protected speech. However, if he also made threats against the President, then that is an entirely different matter.

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    I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person that I'm preaching to.
  6. Re:What did he call him? by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I suspect he actually called him a nigger, and just doesn't want to admit it publicly. And that's pretty ignorant. He obviously doesn't even know that Obama is half white.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  7. rupert murdoch by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Interesting

    has successfully repackaged propaganda as news, and has done untold damage to the civil discourse in half a dozen nations

    why is this guy allowed to continue publishing under the guise of being a news source?

    of course you shouldn't stop publishing him, its free speech. and of course the retards who unquestioningly trust this filth (obama is a "secret muslim!") share the blame

    but doesn't society have a duty to clearly delineate fact from fiction? to, for example, insist that what this man publishes is "for entertainment value only, not to be confused with news"

    the man is damaging western civilization by driving the topic of mass conversation into the area of political spin and smearmongering. surely we have a duty to insist that what is presented as news be news. otherwise, this man is assembling the riff raff into an angry stupid propagandized fountain of ill will eating at society

    label the shit this man publishes, mark it clearly as fiction. let him have his corporate agenda-funded propaganda, its free speech. but i don't want to pay this cognitive tax on the stupid when it comes to civil discourse in my country any more

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  8. Re:Now that's just stupid. by lgw · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And that's the screwy thing here. If it had been the Secret Service here, I'd had been willing to accept that his drunk rant contianed a threat, and the Secret Service must take all such things seriously. But it wasn't, it was the FBI, which suggests there wasn't any threat, just displeasure expressed. Sounds to me like the FBI overstepped.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  9. Re:Now that's just stupid. by vertinox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But it's not all doom and gloom...I'd much rather live here than dozens of other countries.

    As an American citizen here is the following list of countries I'd rather live in than here first (in order of preference):

    Japan
    Sweden
    Norway
    Netherlands
    Canada
    Iceland
    Switzerland
    Czech
    France
    Germany
    UK

    and then the USA

    Why? I'd probably do Japan first because of their public transportation and culture of being nice and polite (couldn't feel that every time I've been) and everyone else on the list in order of their quality of socialist programs.

    I don't care what you say... If Socialism creates hell holes... Then I really don't know why Sweden and Norway aren't hellholes they should be. Quite the opposite.

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  10. Re:Now that's just stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    So all i have to do is forge an email from somebody else threatening the president and they'll get all kinds of special treatment...

    If all email threats get investigated,the potential for abuse is raised due (in part) to the limitations of email and the internet for identifying individuals.

    And even if an investigation concludes that a forgery had taken place, it could really inconvenience someone in a big way. Consider preventing someone flying in to the country for a speaking engagement by forging an email from them threatening the president shortly prior to their visit. It may not even be permanent, but it could damage someone's reputation or, at the very least, delay them for a considerable amount of time while things get sorted out. Something to think about.

  11. Re:Now that's just stupid. by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The way Obam's White House acted in this case (and many other cases) reminds me of how Mussolini acted in his "white house".

    Do you really think someone in the White House specifically directed this, as opposed to someone lower down the chain of command?

    You don't think that maybe, there might be an old policy already in place that people who make threats against U.S. government officials are banned from entering the U.S.?

    Let's be aware that the TFA linked to is from The Sun, which is a Rupert Murdoch mouthpiece -- it's less reliable, and its target audience several IQ points lower, than Fox News.

    There was, by Angel's admission, more to the note than calling Obama a prick:

    He said that he had called President Obama a 'p***k' but when asked if the action taken to ban him from going to America 'forever' was extreme, Mr Angel said he had been more abusive than that.

    The teenager added that he had been watching some conspiracy theory programmes such as the ones about 9/11 and had been researching the Illuminati - a lot of which he believed in.

    If this doofus is a 9/11 "truther" and a conspiracy theory nut, I have no problem believing that there was much more threatening content than just calling Obama a prick.

    Of course, if you really think Obama is comparable to Mussolini, you and Angel would probably be fast friends.

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    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
    You cannot wash away blood with blood