The First Gay Mayor

Surprise! Mayor Rob Ford appears at gay event.

Obama: It Gets Better

Obama lifts ban on US entry for those with HIV

President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year.

The order will be finalized on Monday, Obama said, completing a process begun during the Bush administration.
The U.S. has been among a dozen countries that bar entry to travelers with visas or anyone seeking a green card based on their HIV status.
"If we want to be the global leader in combatting HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it," Obama said at the White House before signing a bill to extend the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. Begun in 1990, the program provides medical care, medication and support services to about half a million people, most of them low-income.
Read the full story

Metro Editorial Cartoon for October 13, 2009

Obama pledges to end 'don't ask, don't tell'

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military in a Washington speech Saturday but acknowledged to a cheering crowd that the policy changes he promised on the campaign trail are not coming as quickly as they expected.

"I will end 'don't ask-don't tell,"' Obama said at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay civil rights advocacy group.

Obama reaffirmed his commitment to end the ban but did not give a timetable or the specifics that some activists have called for.

Full Story at CBC.CA

I, like many others would like to see you do something for a change. Enough with the talk and promises, how about some actual action?

Praise, shock greet Obama's Nobel win

U.S. president Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.  
Full Story at The Toronto Star


Okay sure. I think I deserve a Grammy, after all I wrote a song once. It will be interesting to see if he actually completes any of the things he's been given this award for. 

Mulroney wades where Harper won't - in support of Obama in U.S. health debate

A Conservative prime minister has launched a stirring defence of universal health care, and lauded Barack Obama in his bare-knuckle political battle to extend benefits to all Americans.

But it's not the current Conservative prime minister.

Brian Mulroney used a speech to 1,500 Conservative supporters to wade where Prime Minister Stephen Harper has steadfastly refused to venture: the bitter U.S. debate over health reform.

The former prime minister drew parallels between Obama's uphill fight to reform health care to his own struggles as prime minister, which may have cost him popularity but benefited the country.

"Political capital is acquired to be spent in great causes for one's nation," Mulroney said Thursday.

"Prime ministers are not chosen to seek popularity.... They are chosen to provide leadership. . . President Obama is fighting for a form of universal health care and is encountering ferocious resistance.

"The attacks on President Obama are often bitter and mean-spirited and his approval ratings, his popularity, are sinking like a stone. Still, he fights on. . .

"Fifty years from today, Americans will revere the name, 'Obama.' Because like his Canadian predecessors, he chose the tough responsibilities of national political leadership over the meaningless nostrums of sterile partisanship that we see too much of in Canada and around the world today."

The vast, crowded hotel ballroom went silent at that part of Mulroney's speech. One woman was seen snickering.

It didn't take long for tongues to start wagging that Mulroney's speech -- which, in 40 minutes, mentioned old Liberal and NDP opponents but never once uttered the name 'Harper' -- was a craftily designed swipe at the prime minister.

Full Story Click Here

Source: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Obviously there is no love lost between Mulroney and Harper, but what strikes me the most about this is Mulroneys inflated ego. He sounds like George W. Bush when he says, " "Fifty years from today, Americans will revere the name, 'Obama.' Because like his Canadian predecessors, he chose the tough responsibilities of national political leadership over the meaningless nostrums of sterile partisanship that we see too much of in Canada and around the world today."

I take it that Mulroney means himself when he says 'Canadian predecessors', which implies that he expects us to revere him in the future, or at least my decendents will revere him. HA! Obviously this jerk wad hasn't changed much in the years since he was Prime Minister.

America: Not A Christian Nation

At a press conference in Turkey, President Obama casually rebuked the old chestnut that the United States is a Judeo-Christian nation.

"One of the great strengths of the United States," the President said, "is ... we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Source: The Huffington Post

Yo Liz, Your Poem Sucks!

This comes from the Canadian Press and Yahoo! News. I'm not surprised, even though I'm not a poetry fan, I think it is safe to say this poem sucked, and was one of the most dry and boring things I've had to listen to in quite some time.

Millions watched Elizabeth Alexander read a poem last month at President Barack Obama's inauguration. But few, so far, have wanted to buy it.

Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 75 per cent of sales, says Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day: A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration" has sold just 6,000 copies so far.

The poem was published Feb. 6 as a paperback by Graywolf Press with an announced first printing of 100,000 copies.

The inaugural reading by Alexander, a highly regarded poet, apparently lacked the spark of predecessor Maya Angelou, whose "On the Pulse of the Morning" - read at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inaugural - became a million seller.

Alexander was just the fourth inaugural poet, following Robert Frost, Angelou and Miller Williams.

Dear Mr. President

'Good Guy' Bush

BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio (CNN) -- After two years of traveling around the country and criticizing President Bush, President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that he "always thought [Bush] was a "good guy."

I say, "um, okay then..."  Full Story