Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

MSM is abuzz with the lipstick on pig comment made by Obama yesterday. At the very least it wasn't a smart analogy due to timing of Palin's lipstick/pitbull comment, but I'd like to poll here around your thoughts.

Do you think it was a direct insult to Palin?

Do you think it was not a direct insult of Palin?

not a direct insult.

and if so, mccain used the same analogy against romney and hillary earlier - so they should stop whining.
if mccain/palin cries about this.
imagine how much they would cry if putin or another world leader says something.

Well the comment was perceived as negative. Say what you want and try to say "Awww..He didn't mean it..." Once it's out there, it's out there and it cannot be taken back. I just watched the comments of a HRC supporter and she said she was offended.

Perception is reality again and again.

I think it's more fuel to the fire of the Obama-Biden melt down.

I say he meant as a direct insult -absolutely - all the way.

I agree with Metro, Obama is losing his grip.

Hey guys! I've been like a kid with my face pressed against a candy store window, unable to get in.  ::MonkeyHaHa::
Good to see you nonesuche!

welcome back metroguy and Memphis !!! Happy to see you both, we've missed you !!

 ::MonkeyWink::

Good to "see" you again tcumom   :smt039

none, I think it was just very poor timing for an over used phrase.  Every politician seems to put their foot in mouth these days.

I tend not to get too excited over comments made by any candidate when it comes to "garbage" type comments.

I'm not getting excited over anyones comments.
I do, however, think Obama is way too smart to have just accidentally used that phrase. Nope, it was directed at SP.

Memphis, I don't think it was a random faux pas either, the day after the RNC was over he referred to Palin as "that lieutenant governor". I'm not going to get outraged by single comments but my larger concern is what's motivating his comments.

I THINK BARACK IS SEXIST.

I may be calling him a pig soon but isn't it interesting that Sarah Palin flushed this out in him? Think about it, think about how many democrats were furious he didn't pick Hillary for his running mate?????

Now that we have this reaction to Palin, it all seems so clear.

Interesting angle and you may be right.

This is my take on things...

Obama and Co. thought they had the presidency in the bag. They were winning on the excitement of their history making black man as president - change, if you will. I think they picked Biden b/c he was an "old, rich, white guy" who's been around awhile. They picked Biden to balance the ticket. Hillary would have just been too much "history making". Plus, she may have taken the limelight off of Obama just a bit.

That's why I think the Palin pick was just brilliant. By choosing her, the pubs have stolen the excitement and focus from the Obama ticket. I think they were caught totally off guard and are furious. They thought they had the presidency in the bag.

snicker snicker ::MonkeyRoll::

I'll just add that I was blown away by Sarah Palin's first speech. I am very excited about her, and she has substance. She's capable. She's been a leader. She is more qualified to be president than Barack Obama.

To me, it is all perception and presentation with Barack Obama. He doesn't have much else to offer except his history making excitement, youth and glamour. It's all fluff - no substance. A sophisticated appearance and good oratory skills does not make you qualified to be leader of the free world.

moo ;)

I am no advocate for Barack Obama ... not by a long shot.  However ... on this issue I will give him the benefit of the doubt  To have purposely made a sexist statement like that would would have been political suicide. 

Janet.

Not a direct insult.

The MSM is always abuzz about something.  I am so tired of politicians' comments being taken out of context and scrutinized ad nauseum for subconscious content - both Dems and Reps.  We have a whole thread on this rather than issues.  When do we get to hear from Palin what she thinks about jthe economy, jobs, health care, etc. ?  She has become a huge distraction at this point.  Sheesh, it is going to be a loooooong two months......

Exactly! That's why I think he's losing his cool and loosening his tongue.
The lipstick comment was big news. Barack would know to stay away from any lipstick comments.

And hello Tamikosmom! I always love to read your thoughts.

Sorry to gush on your thread none, but I just love Sarah Palin.
I find her to be so refreshing, down-to-earth, smart, likeable, real, and someone who gets things done.

Loves her!

Insult.

Memphis we've had plenty of gushing over Obama this year, you're entitled to gush a bit also.

I think if one presses Obama too hard that his wicked side comes out, perhaps that's why he works overtime to appear oh so diplomatic. I think BOR said it best, he is an ambitious and driven man.

I watched the previews of the ABC Charlie Gibson interview with Palin scheduled to air on Nightline tonight, I think it should be interesting. I plan to tune in.

Obama had lunch with Bill Clinton today, he's courting his favor or wants to give the appearance of doing so. Kermit, what's your take on this? I have my own opinions but am interested in hearing yours on the latest Clinton connection.

tyler, are you tuning in tonight? I'd love to hear your opinion in this thread.

i think it is pretty obvious what's going on here.
every day the MSM doesn't talk about the political differences between Obama and McCain.
and the simularities between McCain and Bush.

that's a good day for McCain.

so they invent false uproars.
and the MSM takes the bait everytime.

but McCain can do this only once of twice more and then it is going to backfire huge.

Modified to correct spelling.

bair=bait

caesu - can you explain to me why Biden said Hillary would have made a better VP than he for Obama?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD3Yk9RZRF0 this is the first part of the interview that appeared last night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAlxUChYpj4&feature=related part 2

he said she is as qualified as he is.

and might have been a better pick as VP.
to win the election that is.

but Obama didn't choose a VP to win the election. that's what McCain did.

i wasn't too impressed by the ABC interview.
she didn't know what the Bush doctrine was for example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Doctrine

and no questions about the numerous controversies surrounding her.
but i believe the interview is split up over three days?

caesu, I can gtd you that the msm is biased towards Obama, not McCain.

Also, if you think Obama did not choose a running mate to win the election you are very naive.

Direst insult.

No way around that.  The expression is "Perfume on a pig" but he modified it to reflect Palin's statement about the hockey moms.  It is sort of sad to the the presidential candidate so concerned about the vice-presidential one. 

Hi Anna! I didn't realize that the phrase was actually "perfume on a pig". He really did intend to insult.
It is pathetic how they are so concerned with Palin, but I suspect the new strategy will be to ignore her and not mention her.

if Obama would have chosen a running mate to win the election, he would have chosen Hillary.

if the MSM is biased towards Obama.
they should call McCain/Palin on their lies.

for example this Bridge to Nowhere lie, and saying in an ad that Obama wants sex education for kindergarten kids - in fact it is to make children aware of sex offenders.

So, why do you think he picked Biden? Was it because Biden's thinking aligned so closely with his own?
I suspect Obama is regretting not picking Hillary now. Hence the big "buddy up" to Bill Clinton.
I guess he's just not as smart and savvy as everyone thought. ;)

Barack Obama picked Joe Biden to help him lead the country.
John McCain picked Sarah Palin to win an election.

with Hillary Obama would have a better chance of winning the election.
but Obama looks a bit more ahead than McCain.
who he actually wants as VP, not just running-mate.
not just a short-term strategy.

i've got a feeling that, if McCain wins (and i doubt that very much)
then after January he will let go of Palin soon.
and nominate Lieberman for VP.

Anna is correct, originally the term began as perfume on a pig, only in recent years did I begin to hear the morph into lipstick on a pig. I've used the term in business prior myself, not recently but years ago, typically when discussing an ugly business situation one has to fix or remedy.

In rambling around on MSN there was a feed of political cartoons - lipsticks on pigs.

The more I see, the more I think it's important we open our eyes to the impact of this. When McCain used the term it was not within a slam against another candidate but rather against a health program that had not panned out. Obama couched his lipstick on pig comment within direct criticism of his opponents in this race. That was his mistake, it was also his freudian slip.

The details matter, that's where the clarity emerges and the lessons are learned.

I am attaching a sampling of the cartoons, one might surprise you for the tables were turned on Obama, and yes by a male cartoonist. I saved that one for last.

caesu - one more point I'm not sure you would have heard if you don't live in the US, but Obama didn't want ANY VP who was interested in running in another 4 years for the presidency.

He backed himself into a corner with that one, his error.

Hillary will run against him in four years if he's elected, she will run against whoever is elected in 4 years. Now Obama's had to ask for more of their help and I really do not want the Clintons in office again but Obama has really opened that door wide now.

Glenn Beck of CNN presented this today, so like caesu's posts of rebuttals to slams against Obama, let's give Palin equal opportunity.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/11/beck.palin

Commentary: The Sarah Palin smear-fest

By Glenn Beck
CNN
     
Editor's note: Glenn Beck is on CNN Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET and also is host of a conservative national radio talk show.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Campaigns are ugly. Watching the way politicians act makes you long for the respect and self-control of the Sopranos. Throughout, there are legitimate attacks and outright lies.

Every once in a while, I get a call on my radio show from someone telling me that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim, who admitted it in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, and has a fake birth certificate. No, no, and no. As I tell them, there are legitimate reasons not to vote for Barack Obama, no need to make them up.

But the newest target is Sarah Palin. Let's take a quick look at just a fraction of what she has faced in her first few days as John McCain's choice for vice president. iReport.com: Do you think Palin is being treated unfairly?

"Sarah Palin believes God told her to go to war with Iraq!"

There has been some hard-core journalistic malpractice on this one. The Associated Press ran this headline about a speech she gave at her church: "Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'"

In the story, they omit the first part of the sentence they're quoting along with the entire previous sentence for good measure.

Here are her actual words: "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

Palin is clearly praying that we're doing the right thing in Iraq, something sensible for an introspective woman of faith concerned about the lives of our troops to do. She's not saying that she just received a text message from heaven's BlackBerry ordering her to launch missiles. Sorry to disappoint you.

And for those of you who think politicians asking God for guidance is offensive, might I remind you of this famous politician's prayer:

"Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will." --Barack Obama

"She has no experience!"

It's fair to assume that Barack Obama believed he was qualified to be in the White House when he announced he was running for president. At that point, he had been a U.S. Senator for 767 days. When Sarah Palin was announced as a vice presidential candidate, she had been the governor of Alaska for 634 days.

While I'm sure those extra 133 days were filled with personal discovery, I can't imagine anyone seriously trying to make the case that Obama is experienced and Palin isn't.

Unless, of course, you're Matt Damon, who said a Palin presidency would be a really "scary thing" because she has been "governor of Alaska for...for less than two years!" (Damon originally expressed his presidential preference for Obama in December 2006, when he had been a senator for less than two years.)

More importantly, Palin's career has been filled with executive experience. She's the only one of the four in this race who has run a business, town, and/or state (a state that gives her crucial energy experience in the middle of an energy crisis).

When Obama's campaign complains that Palin would be one heartbeat away from the presidency, they should consider that their candidate would be zero heartbeats away.

"But Obama is running a huge campaign -- Palin was just a small town mayor!"

Believe it or not, this one was actually trotted out by Obama himself.

"My understanding is, is that Gov. Palin's town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We've got 2,500 in this campaign. I think the budget is maybe $12 million a year. We have a budget of about three times that just for the month."

Apparently, Barack missed that she's become the governor of Alaska in the interim. Why would he compare his current duties with her former duties?

Well, since he announced his candidacy, Barack Obama has raised about $22 million a month. That's a large organization for sure, unless you are directly comparing it to Sarah Palin, who is handling state revenues that are about 61 times as large, or more than $1.3 billion per month.

"Palin only supports abstinence to be taught in sex-ed!"

This claim is usually followed by a super classy comment about her daughter and the use of contraception, but the premise is false. Palin hasn't said she doesn't want condoms discussed in sex-ed, calling their discussion "relatively benign."

"I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues. So I am not anti-contraception. But, yeah, abstinence is another alternative that should be discussed with kids. I don't have a problem with that," Palin said. Hers is hardly an extreme point of view in America today.

"If she cares about children with special needs, then why did she cut spending on them by 62 percent?"

Actually, Palin almost tripled their funding in only three years from $26,900 per student to $73,840 per student.

Incidentally, the amount of government money you spend on a specific group doesn't equal the amount you care for that group, but that's another story for another column.

All of these represent just a small percentage of the bizarre collection of claims being thrown at Palin by her opponents and some in the media -- who are desperately hoping something will stick. I leave you with my favorite so far: The Internet rumors that she harbors racism against Eskimos. If true, she sure has a strange way of expressing it -- her husband, Todd, is half Yupik Inuit Eskimo.

To balance that out, she must really love his other half.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

direct insult but I think Sarah or should I say the soon to be
Vice President Palin can handle it.   ::MonkeyWink::

yes she will snoopy, but I am very concerned about the sexist nature of Obama's insults now, particularly since he is a diversity candidate. He of all people should know the damage of that to the psyche of women and also it's impact on youth who are listening.

I learned something last year that supports some of this as a concern in our society. A team member went to HR to report an executive for "sexually harrassing" me. I thought I could handle it alone, had not even discussed it with others, just trying to manage through it. But I began my career in management straight out of college many years ago, and this was the first time I had experienced harrassment like this since the early 80's.

So how far have we really come? I think not very far in light of Obama's insults.

That truly disturbs me so I do welcome MSM slapping his hand or his mouth publicly for it.

"Lipstick on a pig" is, in fact, something of a well-known metaphor.  Nevertheless, it is obvious that Obama, through his remark, intended to ridicule Sarah Palin by drawing what he considered to be a witty parallel to Palin's lipstick on a pit bull line given during her triumphant televised address at the Republican National Convention.  Moreover, by continuing to defend his remark, he only digs himself into a deeper hole by allowing the public see him stubbornly defend a transparent lie.  He should have simply and quickly apologized for an "honest mistake;" (dishonestly) claimed that no disrespect was intended; and admit that in retrospect he can understand how his remarks could be seen as insensitive. 

This was a major political blunder for Obama.  For those who claim otherwise, consider this.  What if McCain had criticized Obama's new "Kill the Terrorists" policy using another well-known metaphor -- "Monkey see; monkey do?"  Does anyone in the World deny that it would have been a major story among the national media for weeks?  McCain would have been relentlessly criticized and denounced as a "racist."  What makes Obama's blunder, though, far more politically damaging to him than my hypothetical blunder would have been to McCain is the fact that Obama desperately needs the voters he chose to ridicule -- white females.  If Obama keeps this up, he's going to be buried in the November election, and deservedly so. 

There's no doubt in my mind it was a clever quip directed at undermining Palin's hocky mom remark. Watch the clip. Obama's audience took it that way, and that was the way it was intended.

I'm far more concerned with what None has brought up in the article she posted. Charlie Gibson's tone with Palin was WAY out of line, IMO, and I have never seen Obama or Biden interviewed with that "I'm the Principal and you're the student in trouble so you had better pass this quiz" attitude. PLEASE NOTE that the "Bush Doctrine" is NOT written anywhere. It is not a penned document from President Bush, or anyone else in President Bush's cabinet or administration and when she first answered "his world view", she was more accurate than when Charlie Gibson went on to define it. The only clue is that Gibson did caveat his definition with "MY UNDERSTANDING is............" I saw an Obama supporter, Washington Post reporter, that has covered Politics for 20 years say that the question was really ridiculous because the "Bush Doctrine" means a lot of things to a lot of people and it is, at best, a vague concept.

That interview went on to include this question to her: Do you think our participation in Iraq is a Holy War? Please, somebody tell me since when is it a social feaux paux to pray for our troops, or to actually attend a church where acknowledging God's Will is preferred over screaming racist's epitaphs and damning your country?

I'm asking: Has anyone ever seen Barbara Walters on The View, or ABC's Charlie Gibson conduct an interview with  Obama or Biden with the same dismissive annoyance and veracity as they approached Palin or McCain?

The Palin bounce ~



http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/15/musings-in-the-middle/ (http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/15/musings-in-the-middle/)

Sara Palin could be a member of my family, or my friend.  She is just a regular person.  She could even be a Democrat.  She almost reminds me of Jimmy Carter.  jmho

absoulutely 100% agree Memphis.  He knew what he was saying

Could have been a slip by Obama but it was taken by the audience who rose and cheered as a direct insult to Palin

Glad you weighed in with your first post, Bebesc! WELCOME TO SM !  ::MonkeyWink::

It was an insult.  He said it with that sh*t eating grin on his face to which the uneducated trolls bit hook, line and sinker and applauded loudly. 

He is very good at taking a lie and turning it on people.  Just like last night in the debates when he said he had "warned" Bush about FM/FM.  HE is a liar and the truth is not in his purple lips.

He was the biggest taker from FM/FM all through the time he was in the Senate and before he got there.  He was taking money from FM/FM for his pet project, ACORN which has had repeated criminal investigations but he's their attorney.

After 143 days in the Senate, his earmarks were $980,000,000.00, an all-time record, even for a senator of many years and most of that money went to questionable projects that involved Rezko, the hospital where his wife works, ACORN, his church and his law firm representing ACORN.  Get to know your candidate.

Then he said he has been warning Bush about Putin all these years.  WTH does he mean, he's been warning Bush.  Bush has been trying coyly to smooze Putin for years, knowing he was an old KGB, but trying to make him a decent man.  Obama is as big a fraud as Putin, or worse.

Now he is having people arrested who say anything bad about him.  He even has the Democrat sheriffs in Missouri spying on people and arresting them if they say anything bad about him.  You know what he is from that, he is a communist. 

He has worked with the likes of George Soros and Arianna Huffington to bring our economy to its knees in September/October, and worked with the Arabs to raise the price of oil and with the Chinese on many of his little pet projects through the Chinese Mafia.  Now, let that lizard sue me. 


If anyone gets dumped, it will be Joe Biden, who continues making public gaffes.  LOL>  There are numerous websites enumerating his gaffes and the fact that Obama had to call him in on the carpet and make him shut up, says more about the elder statesman not being able to control himself than antying else.  Biden stated FDR was president during the Great Depression.  He was not.  He further stated that he went on TV and explained the depression.  No TV back then.  Joe Biden obviously has a problem not only with plagiarism but with memory.

About the lies, the WaPost and NYT have suddenly become very irate at Obama for the lies he is telling on McCain.  Just Wednesday and Thursday (for the first time I can ever recall) were calling him on this and suggesting he learn to be more truthful.

Edited:  No personal attacks allowed.

That interview went on to include this question to her:

Do you think our participation in Iraq is a Holy War? Please, somebody tell me since when is it a social feaux paux to pray for our troops, or to actually attend a church where acknowledging God's Will is preferred over screaming racist's epitaphs and damning your country?

When you are muslim and are speaking of the Koran....Sorry I can't help playing the Devils Advocate sometimes, and being of a religion other than Christian which is "No Religious Preference" third largest religious group in the world, 1st being Christian, 2nd being Muslim, I can't help but sit back and observe how religion is portrayed by both sides in this political world.  We condemn Muslims for this exact thing, their god and bible tells them to perform Jihad on the West???  I personally wonder if the "Gods" didn't get together and throw a bunch of different bibles with religious ideaology down at the planets and than sit back and watch the performance, but this is my dark humor. 

As to the lipstick on the pig, if that's an insult, every woman out there better grow some thicker skin if we want equal pay for an equal day.... Just My Thoughts.  Holly

My apologies to Caseu.  Caseu, I am sorry you do not understand our system, but one does not become elected Vice President and be dumped by the country the next day.  You obviously have not studied Civics in America, but if you had, you would see those websites that make these inane statements either paid no attention to Civics in junior high or they are not Americans.

When anyone's religion includes the philosophy of world domination through annihalation for the sole purpose of dictaorship to impose your religion on those who choose otherwise, then that religion is no longer freedom to worship, but a political entity. My individual freedom has the same restrictions. I am free to behave anyway I wish, as long as that behavior does not inpede those same rights for other citizens.

Much harm has been done in the name of Christianity; history will bear that out. You will not find direction contained within book upon which Christianity is based, for that history. This country's best: mercy, altruism, generosity, respect for others, individual value, fairness, justice, responsibility, and love are the same cornerstones of Christian faith. That's quite a contrast to the teachings found in the Koran, yet as long as Muslim beliefs for world servitude are not given legs, my Christian beliefs can be respectful neighbors to that of Muslims. 

Fatcatlurker, I am afraid I do not understand the rant about religion but I am not one to argue religion as I was told as a child how blasphemous it was and I try to stay away from that, so not being the wonderful Bible scholar that our sweet CBB is, I just wear beige and sit in the back of the church when we discuss religion (note, duct tape over mouth).

However, I have to put on my cowgirl spurs and disagree with you on the "lipstick on a pig comment."  If Governor Palin had not make the comment about a hockey mom being a pit bull with lipstick just 4-5 days before that and it having gotten traction with the MSM, you could convince me of that, but I have friends on the other side, and they knew it was coming and it was planned.  They snicker and giggle about it and will not admit it, but they were aware of it in the planning stages, admonishing me that it was about to come back to haunt her, so while I will not go into religion, I will go into the religiosity of the MSM holding Obama's hand while he cavorts with nasty and smarmy remarks unfitting of a presidential candidate.

It was a direct insult, which worked as well as spitting in the wind.

Petty Politics.

I could never put it as succintly as CBB.  She is absolutely fantastic on religious matters.  I just know what I believe but it is difficult for me to articulate but I can figure out what this article, below, means and I think that ties in with what she is saying, though I might be wrong.

From The Sunday Times
September 28, 2008
Muslim gang firebombs publisher of Allah novel, Martin Rynja
David Leppard
SCOTLAND YARD’S counter-terrorist command yesterday foiled an alleged plot by Islamic extremists to kill the publisher of a forthcoming novel featuring sexual encounters between the Prophet Muhammad and his child bride.

Early yesterday armed undercover officers arrested three men after a petrol bomb was pushed through the door of the north London home of the book’s publisher.

The Metropolitan police said the target of the assassination plot, the Dutch publisher Martin Rynja, had not been injured.

The suspected terror gang was being followed by undercover police and the fire was quickly put out after the fire brigade smashed down the front door.

The foiled terrorist attack recalled the death threats and uproar 20 years ago following the publication of Salman Rush-die’s Satanic Verses, and the worldwide protests that followed the publication in a Danish newspaper in 2005 of cartoons deemed offensive to Islam, in which more than 100 people died.
Security officials believe Rynja was targeted for assassination because his firm, Gibson Square, is preparing to publish a romantic novel about Aisha, child bride of the Prophet Muhammad. The Jewel of Medina, by the first-time American author Sherry Jones, describes an imaginary sex scene between the prophet and his 14-year-old wife.

It was withdrawn from publication in America last month after its publisher there, Random House, said it feared a violent reaction by “a small radical segment” of Muslims. It said “credible and unrelated sources” had warned that the book could incite violence.

Random House reacted after Islamic scholars objected to its contents, saying it treated the wife of the Prophet as a sex object. One of them, Denise Spellberg, of the University of Texas at Austin, described the novel as “soft-core pornography”, referring to a scene in which Muhammad consummates his marriage to Aisha. She called it “a declaration of war” and a “national security issue”.

At the time, her warnings were dismissed by the author. “Anyone who reads the book will not be offended,” said Jones. “I wrote the book with the utmost respect for Islam.” However, Jones admitted receiving death threats after the book was withdrawn.

It was soon after this that the Met appears to have received a tip-off that the British publisher who had subsequently agreed to print it could be the target of an attack.

A Met spokesman said three men had been arrested in “a preplanned intelligence-led operation” at about 2.25am on Saturday.

Two of the suspects were arrested in the street outside Rynja’s four-storey townhouse in Lonsdale Square, Islington, while the third was stopped by officers in an armed vehicle near Angel Tube station.

They were being questioned yesterday on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, a spokesman said.

Rynja, 44, could not be contacted yesterday. He is believed to be under police guard.

Yesterday, Natasha Kern, Jones’s agent, said she was shocked to learn of the attack. She said the book had been misinterpreted by its critics and did not contain sex scenes, as had been alleged.

“I honestly believe that if people read the book they will see it is not disrespectful of Muhammad, and moderate Muslims will not be offended. I don’t want anyone to risk their lives but we could never imagine that there would be some madmen who would do something like this. I’m so sad about this act of terrorism. Moderate Muslims will suffer because of a few radicals.”

Kern said it was too early for her to comment on whether the book should be withdrawn. “That’s up to Martin, and I still need to absorb the fact that he was at risk. I’m just so glad he has not been hurt.”

Residents said they saw armed police break down the door of Rynja’s house, helped by firefighters.

Francesca Liebowitz, 16, a neighbour, said: “The police couldn’t get the door open so the fire brigade battered it down.”

Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said: “I was woken at about 3am and I looked out the window and I saw several unmarked cars with what I now think were police officers in them. These officers came out of the cars and there was huge screaming and shouting. Some of the police officers were carrying sub-machineguns.

“I then saw a small fire at the bottom of the door at the house. I heard the police officers shout and scream and try to get neighbours out of the house.”

The Jewel of Medina is due to be published next month.