President Clinton Becomes An Advocate for Native Americans

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 Marriage To Be Recongnized In New York

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.

"The Surge"

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.

Obama Gives Advice On Public Speaking To Young Students

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."

Higher Prices On Food!

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."

Bush and McCain Are Working Together

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.

Oprah Becomes A Vegan For 21 Day's

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!

Ann Coulter Comes To UCI

Ann Coulter’s visit to UCI mirrored many of her other visits to Universities. The audience was split between students and conservative adults. Her conservative speech was filled with jokes about all the presidential candidates. She kept refferring to Barack Obama as “Borock” Obama or B. Hussien. She called Hilary Clinton's ankles fat which had no relevance to anything. She also brought up John McCain's age and how she hopes he passes away so that a stronger more conservative republican can take over the White House. She spoke about how keen she is on former republican candidate for presidency, Mitt Romney.

Her speech progressed into her speaking about how the invasion of Iraq has been a “humanitarian war” and how because this administration cared about the civilians, this is going to be a long war now. She explained that they should not have cared about civilians, because the war would have been over much faster. She goes on to speak about how young republicans should not go into politics and instead go into the education system. She believes that the education system has become to liberal and is putting a spin on history. She goes forth and states that Nancy Pelosi, the house majority leader is the dumbest person ever and that if terrorist took her then they wouldn’t need to blind fold her. Who knows if this woman is for real or not. I find it very hard to believe that anyone could be so ignorant.

Finally Gay Marriage Is Recognized

Finally Gays are allowed to marry in the state of California. How does it affect anyone if two people of the same sex want to get married its their business not anyone else's. All those religious fanatics and closed minded people that tried banning gay marriage have lost there momentum. Gays are already segregated in many ways, not allowing them to marry is ridiculous. It is 2008 and everyone should be able to love who they want and be able to get marry and make it official. Love is love even if it between two men or two woman or a man and woman. This is a great move towards progression in the United States.

Children Caught In The Iraq War

The innocent children that have been affected by the Iraq war are the worst casualties. Iraqi children's lives have been turned up side down. I thought I would blog about this because it is so horrible what is happening to these children. Pictures that have surfaced show what these young children are suffering. Any war turns lives upside down and destroys infrastructures of the country that is being affected. All over the world there are injustices but some of the pictures I found are horrific and are beyond injustice. These are pictures of lost innocence and lives.

Blackwater Should Be Ashamed

Blackwater is a private security force in Iraq along side the U.S. troops. Who privatizes security? A nine year old boy was killed in a shooting that involved blackwater. They claim that when the shooting took place it was a "terrorist crime scene" when they were questioned in congressional hearings. Blackwater is a force that cannot be questioned and only responds to there own corporation. The Idea of privatized security is insane. Why privatize something that is so important and should definitely be nationalized. Sure privatize the inefficient DMV or the slow postal service, but security, thats just insane. Leave it to the Bush administration to hire security forces to help destroy a country and its infrastructure.

Rev Jerimiah A. Wright!

I think this guy is hilarious and actually gutsy. I usually do not like over the top religious leaders or any religious leader for that matter, but he has a certain charm as weird as that might sound. The clips that are all over youtube are so amusing to watch. He goes on to talk about the injustices that have occurred in the United States and what the United States has done to other countries all around the world. He might be extremely detrimental to Barack Obama's image and campaign, but I think that he will overcome it. Here are some clips of what this Rev Jerimiah A. Wright is about:

Why Does Obama Not Have Many Jewish Supporters?

“The people here, liberal people, will not vote for Obama because of his attitude towards Israel,” said Ms. Weitz, 83 and elderly Jewish lady. “They’re going to vote for McCain,” she goes on to say. This has been echoed throughout the Jewish community. Many do not approve of Barack Obama's stance on Israel and Palestine. There are two views that American Jews have about Barack Obama, first is the view him as an educated scholar that is fighting for social justice and someone who feels for Israel's problems and circumstances. Then they also see him as someone who was so close to a man like Rev. Jerimiah A. Wright Jr.

Many rumors have been said about senator Barack Obama, but none of them are true. He is a versatile and amazing candidate that is about equality. He has been attacked and accused of being pro Palestine, but these are just accusations. Barack Obama is the new face of equality and is an advocate for social justice and society as a whole.

The Devestation In Myanmar

The crisis that is going on in Myanmar is devastating. The killings of the monks and innocent protesters by the government is horrific. What has this world come too? The atrocious events that are taking place all over the world are so horrible. Everywhere from the invasion of Iraq, the crisis in Darfur, and now the crisis in Myanmar. This crisis has affected an entire population of monks. It all started when Myanmar raised the price of oil to an extreme. The monks started to protest and brought together mass amounts of people. Some of the demonstrations were the largest that Myanmar has ever had.

The government poured out police officers into the streets to brutally harass the civilians and round up the monks. They started beating and torturing monks and not allowing them to take part in their everyday rituals. The interesting part about this is that the religion aspect plays such a large role in this crisis. The religion of Buddhism played a large role in centralizing the demonstrations and bringing people out to demonstrate against the current issue. The United Nations needs to place more pressure on the issue at hand and stop the human rights violations that are taking place against innocent Civilians and religious leaders such as the monks.

Who Will Barack Obama Chose As Vice President?

If Barack Obama wins and becomes the presidential candidate against John McCain, who will he chose as his running mate? This is a question that has been brewing. He might chose someone like former Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia. Or he could turn to delegate-rich states where he lost primaries and go with Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, or Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. These potential candidates are Hillary Clinton supporters and this could draw appeal. John McCain, on the other hand, is likely to be at a significant disadvantage to Obama in raising campaign cash, so a mega-rich running mate might be in order, campaign watcher Norma Ornstein said. "When I look at the short list of vice presidential candidates for John McCain, I've got 450 million reasons to put Mitt Romney at the top of that list. Several billion reasons to explain why he (McCain) had breakfast the other day with Mike Bloomberg, and why Carly Fiorina is not the woman on his list, but Meg Whitman." Who knows who Obama will chose, but it would great if he would chose Hillary Clinton because of her experience and the fact that they would make and excellent team in the White House.

Who Is Going To Be President In 2008?

The presidential race this year is becoming one of the most interesting ones to date. John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are all unique candidates in their own right. John McCain is a republican that started the campaign finance reform, which was a great decision and he is known to be against torture. Both issues are against republican ideals. Hillary Clinton is the first woman to ever achieve running so successfully for the presidency. Her experience in senate and as the first lady of the country has proven her capability to become an amazing president. And Barack Obama is also another first. He is the first African American to ever come this far in the race for the presidency. He has brought out voters that have never cared before, including students and many swing voters. All three haven proven themselves and deserve to be where they are. But the question is who will be the next president?
"I am fully prepared to be commander in chief... I don't need on-the-job training. " John McCain
"The American taxpayer should not be treated more shabbily than debtors from other nations and we should be encouraging other nations to help rebuild Iraq's economy. " Hillary Clinton
“Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.”
Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton Goes On The Colbert Report

I finally got around to watching the clip of Hillary Clinton on The Colbert Report and it was pretty funny and amusing. It starts off with a technical difficulty and then Senator Clinton walks in and says she can fix the problem. She proceeds to talk "Jimmy" the tech guy through the problem and she resolves it. Then she tells Stephen Colbert that he has a shiny forehead and needs the makeup team to fix it. Then he replies and says that she can fix any problem. The best part was when she started making fun of her own ad by saying you can call me anytime, call me at 3 A.M. Hillary Clinton's move to go on The Colbert Report I think shows her versatility. She is known to be the candidate that is not as likable, but I think she was actually pretty funny on The Colbert Report.