Hillary Clinton took her campaign to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation this afternoon, promising to be a champion for Indian Country if elected president. 350 people showed up for Hillary Clinton's appearance, which makes it her fourth visit to South Dakota. She states, "I will be your champion," Clinton told the crowd of mostly Lakota men women and children. "I will fight for you. I will stand up for you, and I will work my heart out for you." She spoke about a new G.I. bill because Native Americans have had a history of serving in the United States military.
Same-sex marriages legally performed elsewhere will be recognized in New York in response to a state court ruling this year, Gov. David Paterson's spokeswoman said Wednesday. State agencies, including those governing insurance and health care, must immediately change policies and regulations to make sure "spouse," "husband" and "wife" are clearly understood to include gay couples, according to a memo sent earlier this month from the governor's counsel. Gay marriage is not legal in New York, and the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, has said it can only be legalized by the Legislature. But the memo, based on a Feb. 1 New York Appellate Division court ruling, would recognize the marriages of New Yorkers who are legally wed elsewhere. Its still a large leap forward.
I was not sure what the surge was. So I finally went and looked it up. The "troop surge" is a phrase commonly used to describe U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to increase the number of American troops deployed to the Iraq War to provide security to Baghdad and Al Anbar Province. It entails more diplomatic communication as well, but these poor troops that keep getting deployed. The war in Iraq is a war that is going to be around for another 8 to 10 years at least. The reality of the situation is that we went into a territory where we were not familiar with, we were not prepared. We didn't realize are the negative that would come along with destroying Iraq.
Iraq is an extremely fragmented country with 15-20% of there population being Sunni Muslim, 15-20% being Kurds, and 55-60% being Shi'a Muslim. The majority has been extremely misrepresented. They have not been represented in government and have been treated as second class citizens. This is the reason for the civil war that is going on in Iraq after the invasion. The invasion prompted much of the instability to intensify in the country. Unfortunately more U.S. troops and innocent Iraqi civilians are going to have to pay the price for this unfortunate and mis calculated war. If the United State pulls out anytime soon it will just crumble the region. A presence of Iraqi authority and military force needs to be built before evacuating the country. Without that who knows what state Iraq could be in the next 8 to 10 years.
Public speaking might be one of the most difficult hurtles for many students to overcome. But speaking publicly when there are cameras around and possibly the next President of the United States can be extremely nerve wrecking. Barack Obama was watching students in the Denver area today while they were presenting their projects. Theodore Rodriguez, 13, got high marks for his warm personality but was advised to look at his audience more and make sure to finish his thought before moving on to the next point. "You got a little nervous. It's understandable. It's not every day you have to speak in front of the national press," Obama said. Barack Obama ended on, "This is really hard to do, by the way," Obama added. "Not only could I not have done it in eighth grade, I probably couldn't have done it just before I ran for president."
A report by the UN's Food & Agriculture Organizationvand the body for rich nations, the OECD, said prices will fall, but only gradually. Food has gone up 300% in the last 10 years. That is an outrageous number. It said that a recent price surge was the highest that it had been in many years. The price has risen because of horrible weather conditions for raising crops. Factors, such as rising biofuel demand, will keep future costs high. In its annual Outlook report, the FAO predicted beef and pork prices might be 20% higher by 2017, wheat could be up to 60% more expensive and the cost of vegetable oils might rise by 80%. World prices for wheat, maize and oilseed crops doubled between 2005 and 2007, and while the FAO expects these prices to fall, the decline may be slower than after previous spikes. "Biofuels are the largest new source of demand for agriculture and are causing higher prices," said Merritt Cluff, one of the authors of the report. "We are very worried particularly about biofuel policy. US government incentives for ethanol producers are distorting the market," he also said. "We are hugely concerned about the poorest and we expect the number of undernourished people to rise."
President Bush is helping John McCain raise money in the west. The two republicans have been getting closer and working more together. He is going to start in Arizona by holding a private fundraiser. This event will mark the first time Bush, whose popularity still at an all time record low, will appear with McCain since he endorsed him at the White House nearly three months ago. He is also going to hold private fundraisers in Utah as well. Lets hope he will help McCain instead of hurt him. Because of his large dislike rating who knows how this will pan out.
The talk show queen has announced she is going vegan for 21 days as part of a cleanse, on her official blog. After rereading the book, “A New Earth,” Oprah was inspired to remove meat and animal products from her life for a brief time. She writes on her blog: " I had recently come to the conclusion that after spending weeks reading and rereading A New Earth and being on line with Eckhart Tolle that bringing a higher level of awareness to my eating was the solution I’d been avoiding… How can you say you’re trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony? So this 21-day cleanse gives me a chance to think about it differently and see what my attachments are to certain kinds of foods—and what I’m willing to do to change." Oh Oprah lets see how long this lasts!
