When you're in New-putt

As Obama and the rest start arriving in the dead posh golfing resort The Celtic Manor near my definitely-not-posh home town Newport [It's a city now. Fancy.] today, there is only one song I can play, really...

An old favourite, it's Newport State Of Mind!

Newport State of Mind

Newport locals unimpressed by the NATO summit

Wait till you see that sunshine place

Hearing the corny buzz-phrase used by President Obama on winning the American Presidential Election "The best is yet to come" reminds me, pure and simple, of this song. Take it way, Miss Peggy Lee!

Peggy Lee - The Best Is Yet To Come

I, for one, am glad the election's over. Let's get back to some UK news. Like Jimmy Savile, Nadine Dorries, the weather. That sort of thing.

Hope

At last!

In a ground-breaking move, the incumbent President of the United States has come out... In favour of gay marriage!

Presiding over a country where 31 of his own states have anti-gay legislation in place - not least North Carolina, which has just introduced its own ban on both equal marriage and civil partnerships - and fighting a battle for the presidency this year, it is a bold move.

However, we can but hope that this statement of support for equality will help influence the wind of change for the benighted "Land of the Free" [sic], and hopefully give some encouragement to people who struggle against even more fascist homophobic regimes across the world (such as in Russia, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East).

We can but hope...

Over at AllOut, there is a message of support for President Obama you can sign. I have.

Jimmy Somerville - From This Moment On

A momentous day.

It should never be a crime to be gay

Much to the horror of the fascist "Tea Party" Republicans in Texas and other American states with a fine history of supporting human rights causes [sic], President Obama has "come out" on the side of the gays in time for International Human Rights Day on 10th December.

From The Guardian today:

President Barack Obama has told US officials to consider how countries treat its gay and lesbian populations when making decisions about allocating foreign aid.

In the first ever US government strategy to deal with human rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens abroad, a presidential memo issued on Tuesday instructs agencies using foreign aid to promote such rights.

Gay and lesbian lobby groups have reported an increase in human rights abuses in Africa and parts of the Middle East.

President Obama is among international leaders who have condemned a bill proposed in Uganda which would make some homosexual acts a crime punishable by death. The Ugandan parliament has recently re-opened the debate on the bill, which had been abandoned after an international outcry.

In the memo, Obama said: "I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting LGBT persons around the world, whether it is passing laws that criminalise LGBT status, beating citizens simply for joining peaceful LGBT pride celebrations, or killing men, women and children for their perceived sexual orientation."

At the United Nations in Geneva, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented this message in a speech to delegates (including representatives of the very countries who have introduced homophobic legislation and committed or supported vile anti-gay propaganda).

"It should never be a crime to be gay," she said. "Gay people are born into and belong to every society in the world. Being gay is not a Western invention. It is a human reality."

Read Mrs Clinton's speech in full

It is about time the US took a stand against the many countries across the world where gay people are imprisoned, slandered, abused or even killed for their sexuality.

However, as many commentators have wrily observed, shouldn't the US put its own house in order now and repeal all the anti-gay legislation that some of its own States have introduced?

The caged bird sings

As the world's media goes into a frenzy over the inauguration of Barack Obama, and dear old Maya Angelou is wheeled out to give some pearls of wisdom (Read her Notes to a President on the BBC website), I feel it isn't my place go into the deeper significance of this momentous occasion. Many others will say it much better than I.

Suffice to say that the election of America's first black president is indeed a sea-change in the history of the so-called "Land of the Free". And this tiny example of the early career of Maya Angelou herself can only serve to illustrate the fact. For back in the 1950s, when Calypso music was a new craze, it is a little-known fact that Maya was a successful singer of that genre. I recently acquired her album Miss Calypso, and it is really good!

However, when it came to portraying this typically black style of music, what did Hollywood do? Why, produce a practically all-white film to celebrate it, of course... Shocking really, but it just goes to show how times have really changed:

Calypso Heatwave (trailer)