O'Bama The First Gay President?...Not So Fast...

[Selene]

Another example of not knowing your history...James Buchanan beat O'biwan by a century and a half!

Newsweek Magazine Calls Obama 'The First Gay President'

Sunday, 13 May 2012 08:02 PM

President Barack Obama’s unplanned, sudden endorsement of gay marriage may pose potential political challenges for him in the upcoming months, but at least one news organization is proclaiming the married father of two the nation's "first gay president."

Newsweek on Sunday released the cover of their next issue, which features President Obama with a rainbow halo and the title of 'The First Gay President.' Not to be outdone, The New Yorker magazine's new cover shows the White House with a gay friendly rainbow column.

Tina Brown, who heads Newsweek, and its sister website The Daily Beast, is known for her appreciation of controversial covers to help boost public interest and sales, the Daily Telegraph points out.

The article accompanying the cover was written by the news magazine's nominally conservative blogger, Andrew Sullivan, who is an openly gay.

'When you step back a little and assess the record of Obama on gay rights, you see, in fact, that this was not an aberration. It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work,' Sullivan said in a statement about the article.

'He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family,' he wrote, describing the similarities between Mr Obama and the gay community.

Obama only made his move after his hand was forced by Vice President Joe Biden, who last week said he was quite comfortable with gay marriage. The next day, Education Secretary Arne Duncan seconded Biden with his own support.

Obama, facing a major series of fund raisers dominated by Hollywood liberals and leading members of the gay community, came out later in the week during an interview with ABC News.

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/BLCPOLELEC-BLCPOLSTL-BLCPOLWH-BNALL/2012/05/13/id/438910?s=al&promo_code=EE32-1

[Reidy]

The Diana-at-50 cover did not boost sales. I predict that this one won't either.

[Selene]

O'biwan is committed to not boosting sales anywhere in the United States...one of his great successes as the first half white, half black, gay, Anti-Constitutional, abusive and ignorant Presidents we have ever had.

What a complete disgrace. If I were black I would be completely humiliated that this half representative of my race was this incompetent.

[Selene]

Barack Obama: Our First Gay-Female-Hispanic-Asian-Jewish President

Eric Randall 1,985 Views 12:12 PM ET

Newsweek's cover this week declares that Barack Obama is the "First Gay President," playing on the reader's knowledge that Obama isn't himself gay, but his support for same-sex marriage earns him an honorary rainbow halo. The headline obviously calls back to 1998, when Toni Morrison declared Bill Clinton the first black president in The New Yorker, which at the time was edited by current Newsweek editor Tina Brown. "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas," Morrison wrote, laying out the formula for how to declare a President has attained the identity of someone else through actions and behaviors. Newsweek's cover has been called "controversial" and "pretty shocking," but it's merely the most recent in presidential firsts that weren't for the country's actual first black president.

First Female President: Perhaps Newsweek should have been more specific and declared Obama the "first lesbian president' because the magazine's already given him the honor of womanhood. During the 2008 campaign, Martin Linski wrote, "Obama doesn't play the sax. But he is pushing against conventional—and political party nominating convention—wisdom in five important ways, with approaches that are usually thought of as qualities and values that women bring to organizational life." The headline? "Obama: First Female President?"

In June 2010, The Washington Post's Kathleen Parker took the question mark out of the way. "Obama: Our first female president," her headline declared. Her column made the case that his crisis management style was more typically female.

First Jewish President: Like this week's issue of Newsweek, New York magazine went big on their Morrison reappropriation. Former White House counsel Abner Mikva told John Heilemann "When this all is over, people are going to say that Barack Obama is the first Jewish president." The magazine made it their cover.

First Asian-American President: In 2009, Associated Foreign Press ran with the headline, "Obama the first Asian-American president?" As evidence, the article notes that in his first hundred days, "Obama appointed a record three Asian-Americans cabinet members and quickly focused his attention across the Pacific. He invited Japan's prime minister as his first guest and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to Asia on her maiden trip."

First Hispanic President: Geraldo Rivera spoke in March 2009 about the hopes the Hispanic community had for Obama's immigration policies, alleging "Barack Obama is the first Hispanic president the same way Bill Clinton was the first black [one]."

George W. Bush, the only other president since Clinton, received comparatively few honorifics. Writing in Foreign Policy Suhail Khan did once write, "If Clinton was, as the author Toni Morrison once quipped, America's first black president, Bush was, at least momentarily, the country's first Muslim president." (Those on the far right who would give Obama that title should take note.)

But Obama's received the bulk of it. Perhaps that's because he did set an historic first as the first black president, Clinton be darned. Obama's supporters often see what they want to see in him. Just consider how many interpreted his "evolving" stance on gay marriage to be (as it eventually was) a closeted support. We love to break barriers in America, but we only get the chance every four years, so in the meantime, we work with the male Christian president we've got.

Newsweek's headline quickly grabbed the attention it was obviously seeking, but given this list, maybe we shouldn't have been surprised by it. Expectations were high that editor Tina Brown would do something typically attention-grabbing to mark this occasion, but this effort seems, well, cliché. It wasn't going to be long before someone outed our first black, female, Jewish, hispanic, Asian-American president as gay.

[caroljane]

Newsweek and Time are desperate to reclaim audience and stay viable.

To a Canadian, Barack O. just looks sort of normal.

[Selene]

Newsweek and Time are desperate to reclaim audience and stay viable.

To a Canadian, Barack O. just looks sort of  normal.

Time for Canadians to get an eye checkup, but you were close...

[caroljane]

For you at Election Party, a Stars and Stripes mural is commissioned, lots of firearms featured. For me and WSS a rainbow very misty and indistinct.

[Selene]

For you at Election Party, a Stars and Stripes mural is commissioned, lots of firearms featured. For me and WSS a rainbow very misty and indistinct.

Understood. Our firearms will protect your right to have your misty rainbow.

[william.scherk]

We have our own dang firearms, thank you very much (and with the exception of automatic/handguns) and we keep them safe and ready. Phil says -- Adam, Carol -- that you could compare firearms 'ownership' rates between Canada and the US. Surprises? Phil will not say.

Anyhow, when you cross the border, Yankees, do declare your guns. Don't try to hide them, or you will lose your guns and we will seize your car and sell it to pay for more guns for us.

If this degenerates into My Gun Is Bigger Than Your Tiny Cache, I will invoke Emergency Rules and bring up Laura Secord.

No one wants to hear the Laura Secord tale ever again, on either side of the border, so you two gun-slinging militarist windbags, the both of you, should make peace and get back to Party Planning. I hear Janet is going to try to barge in. Check under every mask, I say.

Edited May 15, 2012 by william.scherk

[caroljane]

More, merrier. est-ce pas? Well, maybe not Janet is not one of our jolliest companions.

For some true crossborder pujnacity let me recommend to you Duellin Doctors of Simcoe, in Toronto Star today in an article by Ricard rennan. Sorry not to link but I cant. I can barely type on my wretced contraption. Anyway it is a terrific article, please reproduce if you can.

[caroljane]

Brennan, I meant to write. Laura and 1812 ever live in memory of medical professionals of Ontario!

[Selene]

More, merrier. est-ce pas? Well, maybe not Janet is not one of our jolliest companions.

For some true crossborder pujnacity let me recommend to you Duellin Doctors of Simcoe, in Toronto Star today in an article by Ricard Brennan. Sorry not to link but I cant. I can barely type on my wretched contraption. Anyway it is a terrific article, please reproduce if you can.

Feuding Simcoe doctors swap stethoscopes for boxing gloves

Published On Sun May 13 2012

"The reason why we are fighting is because Paul Medve is a pompous person...and basically to tell you the truth it’s because he’s an American,” said Dr. Mark Miller, chief of family practice at Norfolk General Hospital in Simcoe.Glenn Lowson/For the Toronto Star

Richard J. Brennan National Affairs Writer

DELHI, ONT.—In a tiny boxing club behind a butcher shop on Main St., Dr. Mark “Mayhem” Miller is getting his hands wrapped and trash-talking his American-born friend and soon-to-be opponent Dr. Paul “Mad Dog” Medve. (See below for video.)

“The reason why we are fighting is because Paul Medve is a pompous person . . . and basically to tell you the truth it’s because he’s an American,” Miller said.

The two 50-year-old overweight (some say heavyweight) physicians from Norfolk County will climb into the ring July 14 in nearby Simcoe — where they are both valued members of the local hospital — and settle a simmering feud, dating back to Christmas, over who is the toughest medicine man.

The Philadelphia-area born Medve is the chief of emergency medicine at Norfolk General Hospital and Miller, who was born in Alberta but raised in North Bay, is the chief of family practice at the hospital, which will reap the monetary benefits of the Boxing Ontario-sanctioned grudge match.

His Under Armour shirt straining to contain his protruding stomach, Miller ramps ups the pugilistic hyperbole, comparing his first-time boxing match to the War of 1812 when he says Canadians/British showed the Americans a thing or two about fighting.

“Just like in 1812 I am going to defeat him, I’m going to burn his house down and I am going to change his anthem,” Miller says, referring to the British raid on Washington when the White House was torched.

It’s not long before sweat is running down his face and he’s struggling to catch his breath. Even so, Miller, whose foot work is nowhere near as fast as his mouth, continues to disparage Medve, promising to give him a lesson in humility.

Ninety kilometres away at the Steeltown Boxing Club in Hamilton, Medve, who is shy of six feet tall and more than 220 pounds, is down on one knee sucking air while Steven Wilcox, his trainer and a professional boxer, gently reminds him the ring is an unforgiving place where excuses have little currency.

Medve, wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and his stomach hanging over his shorts, moves like a middle age man estranged from exercise. His jabs and hooks lack crispness and often miss the mark. But his shaved head certainly lends to a don’t-mess-with-me persona.

Medve complained he was sick on the weekend and not himself but promises over the next eight weeks he’ll become a not-so-lean, mean fighting machine that will silence his biggest critic — Miller.

“We are not enemies by any stretch of the imagination but by the same token we would both like to beat each other,” Medve said, adding that he knows Miller has an injured right leg and will be playing to that weakness.

How did this all get started?

It really depends on who is telling the story, but the two agree it springs from a Christmas party the doctors and nurses from Norfolk General Hospital attended where Delhi mixed martial arts fighter Hugh Kelly (later to become Miller’s trainer) exhibited his stuff and invited the attendees to put on the gloves and try a little harmless sparring.

Medve, who couldn’t make the party, watched a video of the exhibition and the following participation. He claims that a female nurse complained to him the six-foot, 254-pound Miller took it a little too seriously. So, Medve told Miller that he was lucky he wasn’t there because he would have kicked Miller’s butt.

“One of the nurses said, ‘Dr. Miller, hit me pretty hard’ and I said it was a good thing I wasn’t there because I would have had to knock you out, jokingly of course,” he said.

Miller remembers things a little differently. “I sparred with some of the nurses and . . . we had a good time. But he (Medve) watched the video . . . and commented that I was slow, that I didn’t know how to box and that’s what started this.”

One thing led to another and the two — long before MP Justin Trudeau and Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau had their famous bout — decided to settle this war of words once and for all.

“I have a lot of colleagues who are saying ‘you are nuts, what are you doing this for? How could you ever contemplate doing such a crazy things. When this thing hit the media with Trudeau and Brazeau fighting at least I felt at little bit vindicated,” Medve said.

While wishing the doctors the best of luck, Norfolk General Hospital has distanced itself from the event.

“We understand their intentions are to help promote active men’s health. While the physicians have chosen to donate proceeds from the event to the hospital foundation, this is not a hospital foundation organized event . . . we do not have direct involvement,” hospital spokesperson Jason Harnett said.

One thing the two men agree on is that they were in the worst shape of their lives, letting medicine get in the way of an active lifestyle. And regardless of who emerges the victor, they promise they are committed to their staying active. Both were living off past glories when they were young men and active in sports.

“The biggest benefit, other than the fact I am going to defeat Dr. Medve, is that I get a chance to show my patients that no matter how old you are you can always improve your level of fitness,” says Miller, who was 254 pounds when he started out two and half months ago and now weighs in at 245. “My goal is to get down to about 240.”

Robert Wilcox, owner of the Steeltown Boxing Club, said when Medve first arrived he was pretty soft but “he’s been working like a dog I can tell you that.”

“I commend these doctors for what they are try in to because it is a lot of hard work. Within a month he’s gone up 70 per cent in cardio,” Wilcox said.

Miller’s trainer, Hugh Kelly, of the Epicentre training facility in Delhi, also says Miller has been dogged, showing up three or more times a week and pushing through the pain.

“I’m really happy with the progress. I am really interested to see how this turns out. It’s really an experimental thing for me, taking a middle-aged, out-of-shape individual right off the street and trying to quickly transform him into somebody that can physically compete at an athlete’s level.”

Billed as the World Physician Heavyweight Boxing Championship, the Medve-Miller clash will be the main event on a card featuring six other bouts at the Greens at Renton golf course. The battling docs will fight three two-minute rounds while the other amateur bouts, featuring men half their age, will be three three-minute rounds.

When these heavyweights finally touch gloves in the so-called “Fight of the Century” — and boxing replaces trash talking — the sleepy town of Simcoe may never be the same.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1177934--feuding-simcoe-doctors-swap-stethoscopes-for-boxing-gloves <<<<video in the link

[william.scherk]

I am such a racist. I assumed the black guy was the Yankee and the white guy the stern bureacratic monster. Black guy is from a small town with a French name in Alberta, of course. His kids for gawds sakes, his multicultural kids went through state-assisted French Immersion I bet you two to one.

Carol, is it time for Legislative Rioting, or what?

First contestant. From Taiwan, with love and bipartisan enthusiasm:

[william.scherk]

The team from Ukraine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?ah_QZtz4bMc#t=27s

[Selene]

Ah ha! "Proof" that O'bama was also the first Tea Bagger President also!

Barack Obama, left, marching in a July 4, 1997, parade in Chicago. Courtesy Breitbart.com

A 1997 photograph has been unearthed showing Barack Obama marching in a tea-party-style parade, long before the tax-cutting, patriotic movement began, and despite Obama’s apparent disdain for “teabaggers,” as he has termed them.

“Yes, that really is Barack Obama wearing a regimental coat and carrying a tricorn hat in his hand,” writes John Sexton of Breitbart.com, which is publishing the photo. “And that flag behind him really is a Gadsden flag, with its serpent and its ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ slogan.”

Sexton notes, “In 2009, President Barack Obama reportedly called members of the tea party ‘teabaggers.’ It turns out that our fourth greatest president, first in so many things, may have been the first ‘teabagger’ himself.”

Breitbart.com explains the forgotten photo has been in plain view for fifteen years, explaining it appeared on the front page of Chicago’s Hyde Park Herald on July 9th, 1997, snapped by photographer Nancy Campbell Hays.