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MONTREAL - A "Brokeback Mountain" parody airing on Canadian television depicts an unusual type of summit between President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In the sketch based on the acclaimed film about a love affair between two cowboys, Harper and Bush are portrayed naked from the waist up in a tent. Images of their faces are pasted over actors' bodies.
At one point, Bush throws cherries at Harper's nipples, which are covered with whipped cream. After the cherries land, separatist politician Andre Boisclair, who cooperated with filming of the spot, is seen opening the tent flap and stiffly saying that Quebec won't get involved "in something like that."
The sketch was filmed for the MusiMax music and entertainment channel but has leaked out to French-language TV stations, upsetting members of the provincial Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest.
"I leave it to Mr. Boisclair to defend his judgment," said Quebec's education minister, Jean-Marc Fournier.
Boisclair, who is gay and the leader of Parti Quebecois, later said he regretted the entire episode: "It's quite obvious I wouldn't do it again."
from The Associated Press
LONDON, ENGLAND - Irish anti-poverty campaigner and rocker Bob Geldof Wednesday hailed as "highly effective" the abstinence initiative spearheaded by US President George W Bush in the fight against Aids in Africa. Live Aid founder Geldof, guest speaker Wednesday at Britain's Labour Party conference in Manchester, northern Britain, said the controversial Pepar programme gave women "a weapon" for protecting their health.
The Bush administration launched the 15-billion-dollar President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief in 2003, which has been criticized for diverting a third of the funds to faith-based groups that preach abstinence.
Opponents protest that it smacks of Christian fundamentalism and endangers lives by failing to place sufficient emphasis on condoms.
Geldof, stressing that he was an atheist, told the conference that Aids had stabilized in Africa - partly because of condom distribution.
But he added: "Pepar, which is Bush's almost personal response to the Global Fund, is a highly effective Aids combatant mechanism. It works. It's uncomfortable for people to speak these unspoken truths but a lot of that stuff is working."
from The Raw Story
BARCELONA, SPAIN - A giant inflatable dummy representing George W. Bush and an English bulldog representing Tony Blair were displayed as a political statement showing the artist's opposition to the US/UK's led war in Iraq.
British singer and composer George Michael kicked off his first tour in fifteen years in Barcelona Saturday.
The artist staged a two-hour-long concert in which he included all his past and present hits from the times he was the lead singer of Wham! in the eighties until his last album Patience in 2004.
Right before a twenty-minute break, a giant inflatable dummy representing US president George W. Bush and an English bulldog representing UK's prime minister Tony Blair were displayed as a political statement showing the artist's opposition to the US/UK's led war in Iraq.
George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in Bushey, North London, in 1963. During his student years, he played and sang for several musical bands until 1982, when he and Andrew Ridgeley formed Wham!
In 1987 he launched his solo career with the album Faith, followed by commercial flaw Listen Without Prejudice in 1989, Older (1996), the compilation Ladies and Gentlemen (1998), Songs from the last century (1999) and Patience (2004). He is set to release a new album later this year.
During his 2006 tour will George Michael will visit many European countries, including Italy, Belgium, France, Germany and the UK.
from eitb24
