Operation Blue Gum Called Off

[jimmy olsen]

Damn. 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/operation-blue-gum-for-barack-obama-visit-gets-the-chainsaw/story-e6frgczf-1225843035250

Operation Blue Gum for Barack Obama visit gets the chainsaw

    * Hedley Thomas
    * From: The Australian
    * March 20, 2010 12:00AM

THE codename chosen for a secret policing operation to protect US President Barack Obama during his visit to Australia sounds innocuous enough.

But calling it Operation Blue Gum, after Australia's iconic native trees, almost caused an international embarrassment.

US consular officials were aghast when briefed by their counterparts in the NSW Police Force about the title, Blue Gum. In America, a "bluegum" is offensive slang for a lazy African-American who refuses to work.

And those in the small circle of officials who became aware of the operation's name were determined to abandon it, as quietly as possible, before Mr Obama heard about it.

Before the visit was called off, all references to Blue Gum were deleted and replaced. The new name is classified but sources told The Weekend Australian that it had been checked and re-checked for any cultural sensitivities. Australian officials have been at pains to stress that most NSW Police Force operation names are generated by a computer.

"Various groups of nouns belonging to a selection of themes are entered and the operation name is generated from an existing database," a spokeswoman said last night.

Police seeking an operation name ask the computer to provide one. "This was the case in this instance," she said.

"In discussing the operation with US Consulate officials, they made NSW Police aware of a difference in the interpretation of the original operation name. The name of the security operation was revised."

[Eddie Teach]

In America, a "bluegum" is offensive slang for a lazy African-American who refuses to work.

I've never heard that term and I doubt my parents have either.

[DisturbedPervert]

Never heard of that either

[Darth Wagtaros]

In America, a "bluegum" is offensive slang for a lazy African-American who refuses to work.

I've never heard that term and I doubt my parents have either.

Ditto.

[ulmont]

In America, a "bluegum" is offensive slang for a lazy African-American who refuses to work.

I've never heard that term and I doubt my parents have either.

Ditto.

Same.

[Razgovory]

I have.

[jimmy olsen]

Seriously? I'm surprised that so many of you have never come across it before.

[sbr]

I've never heard it.

[Malthus]

Must be the most obscure slang ever. Never heard of it (but then, I'm a Canadian, and even "Canadian" is a 'code word' for Blacks in America. Is there anything that potentially isn't?  )

[Razgovory]

I think it's more of a Hillbilly thing.

[Razgovory]

Gay Dutch Soldiers to Sue Sheehan?
By Advocate.com Editors


A Dutch political strategist has launched the Pink Army movement and is looking for gay soldiers to sue retired general John Sheehan, who last week blamed the Netherlands' inclusion of gays in the military for massive deaths during the war in Bosnia.

Peter Schouten put out the call for gay soldiers on the website PinkArmy.nl. He said he wants Sheehan to publish a full-page apology in the international press — and attend a course in "sensitivity training."

On Friday, Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende condemned Sheehan's comments, calling them "outrageous, wrong, and beneath contempt."

What is wrong with you?

[Martinus]

Wrong thread.

[Alcibiades]

Martinus is retarded.

Edit:  And I have never heard of it either.

[derspiess]

I think it's more of a Hillbilly thing.

First time I heard it was here a year or two ago, from Seedy.  They generally don't get too creative with racial epithets in West Virginia, so all I ever heard was the n-word.  I heard quite a few whenever we traveled down South, though they were so puzzling I usually had to ask someone what they meant.

[grumbler]

Never heard of it.

Probably no code phrase that lacks racial overtones is even possible.