Obama 2012 and the Gay Rights Movement: Opinion

Obama annouces his decision on ABC News

I have numerous discussions with people in recent days about the impact or lack there of of President Obama's recent declaration of support for full same sex marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in America. While listening to major American news outlets people were hailing it a brave decision, his support was never doubted but to fully come out in favour of the proposition will undoubtedly lose some of his support in key swing states not least of all North Carolina, a state which repealed all legal rights between same sex couples to marry or engage in any civil partnerships on the 8th of this month.

However, many of my friends have chosen to take this decision cynically, saying it was needed to shore up the gay vote and that it will result in an influx of money into the campaign from gay rights backers. Let me address why I think both of these points are flawed.

American Politics and the Word Rhetoric

The word rhetoric is one which I had never encountered in my life up until I first began to take a deep interest in American politics just over four years ago yet one cannot have a serious discussion about the role of the media in American politics without using it. At the time of writing this, Tuesday March 6th2012, the possible Republican presidential candidates are preparing for the most hyped night of their race for the nomination so far. From where I am in France watching the major news outlets in America covering the race is has it has always been fascinating.

While I have already covered this topic in an earlier post I feel like the time is right to re-visit this issue given the historically low approval ratings of the American people in their congress and the hype surrounding the Republican race at least in the news media, if not in the general public.

Weekend Randomness: The Domino Mattress World Record

Usain Bolt is crazy jelly!

Since the dawn of time people have worshipped at the altar of their favourite sports stars, from the great legends of folklore to modern sporting icons such as Christiano Rinaldo or Usain Bolt. Every one probably has one moment in their lives where sport played a major roll, where you watched mouth open as the worlds most impressive athletes shaved a few precious seconds off of that world record, claiming a gold medal and glory for the nation. 

The people who I am writing about today are not those kind of people yet they did manage to smash a world record this past weekend in New Orleans. 850 Americans broke the world record (as approved by an on site adjudicator from the Guiness World Records Group) for the longest chain of mattress dominoes. The preious worldrecord was 550 which had been achieved by a group in Belgium last year. The donated mattresses will now be given to various charaties.  A video of the group can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCVi6JjVaaA . 

Nuclear Freeze in North Korea?

Earlier this year one of the world's most despised dictators Kim Jong Il passed away leaving his son Kim Jong Un to take his place. Little is known of the country's new leader, he is thought to be in his late 20s and is the youngest son of the late Supreme Leader, who himself inherited the title from his own father in 1994.  The edited footage of the funeral ceremony viewed in the West was a rare glimpse into the seldom seen North Korean society, even if it was a highly staged and orchestrated one.

However, as the memory of the former Supreme Leader faded the world wondered how the young incumbent would deal with power and more importantly the perceived nuclear ambitions of his country. Having been inundated with fresh sanctions following nuclear tests in 2009 the country revealed its ambitions to enrich uranium to a visiting delegation of Americans in 2010.

The Republican Presidential Problem

Mitt Romney 

While I am not American I tend to follow political events in the worlds most powerful nation with interest as a citizen of an increasingly globalized world. As always I try to keep Junction News a non bias outlet but it appears to me and indeed even several conservative pundits such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh (as summarised by  Ann Coulter that the Republican party's most likely candidate (in my opinion) Mitt Romney has serious issues to overcome if he is to become the next president of the united states.

Few can remember a contest as fluid as the current war between the 4 remaining potential Republican nominees. While Romney has always been touted by many as the eventual nominee the popularity of the other nominees is constantly changing.  Michelle Bachmann, an early favourite among the ultra conservative tea party movement bowed out after a crushing defeat in the first in the nation caucuses in Iowa.  Hermain Cain also found himself riding high in the polls but was forced to end his run without having ever faced the public, following a number of claims he had  been unfaithful to his wife.

The Death of Osama Bin Laden

Obama watches real time footage of the attack

The internet and media outlets will no doubt be abuzz with the aftermath of the death of Osama Bin Laden for the coming weeks and months. His killing on the night of Sunday the 1st of May in Abbottabad has been welcomed by massive celebrations at the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and by public representatives of all political denominations across the world. 

The death raises a number of questions. Firstly, there will be retaliation from Al Qaeda, it is a question of when, not if. It is up to security forces to foil attempts as successfully as they have many times in the past. Osama Bin Laden has undoubtedly become a martyr for the cause of Islamic Fundamentalism and indeed for many he had become a spiritual figurehead for many extremists in the Church. The second question is a little more complex.

Tornadoes Ravage the South of America

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

As the world *sigh* celebrated the Royal *sigh* wedding on Friday the people of the Southern states in America were dealing with the aftermath of a multitude of terrifying tornadoes in concentration across 6 states. As of today the lives of some 340 people were claimed by the extreme weather conditions, the majority of which some from the State of Alabama.

The city of Tuscaloosa was badly effected with officials reporting 1,600 people were treated by medical personnel. 31counties among the state's  67 were effected by the storms. President Obama signed the State's state of emergency act and has ordered the mobility of federal services to supplement the local efforts.

Weekend Randomness: The Tattoo and the Murder Conviction

Anthony Garcia

Tattoos are something that often polarizes opinion. While some consider them a beautiful form of body art, others consider them a  painful laser surgery waiting to happen ( or at least something to be regretted down the line). Few, I would be willing to bet, would consider them possible evidence in a murder trial.

This weeks Weekend Randomness deals with the case of one Anthony Garcia who hails from the city of Los Angeles, California. In 2004 Garcia was arrested regarding driving offenses and while in custody had his tattoos photographed by the police.  Fast forward 4 years and LA Sergent Kevin Lloyd was searching through a mugshot book when he happened on the picture of a bare chested Garcia.

President Obama's Birth Certificate

Barrack Obama

In the past few hours President Barack Obama has released the long form copy of his birth certificate confirming he is in fact an American Citizen. Perhaps the headline should have read "Hussein" in American birth shocker or maybe another obvious choice would have been "PresidentTtakes Bizarre Decision to Prove he is American".

Numerous people have questioned the President as to his nationality since he began the race for the White House as far back as the last Democratic Caucases.  One of the most notable of these critics is business tycoon and presenter of the US version of The Apprentice, Donald Trump. He has humbly stated his personal pride in "accomplishing someting no-one lese has accomplised. I am really honoured to have played such a big role in hopefuly getting rid of the issue". President Obama's comments on the issue were more dismissive of Mr. Trump's "achievement". He claimed, " We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We've got better stuff to do".

The Great and Ridiculous "Ground Zero " Mosque Debate

A fervent debate has gripped the citizens of New York over a  proposed Islamic Cultural Centre on the site of an old factory a couple of blocks away from the site of Ground Zero. Recently, the opposition of the proposal was dealt a blow when officials in the East Coast city declared that the old coat factory was not worthy of historical landmark status and was free to be demolished.

Some major figures in America have weighed in on both sides. Sarah Palin sided with the opponents dubbing it "An Intolerable Mistake on Hallowed Ground" on social networking site facebook, while the Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg stated that any opposition to the proposal was "un-American". A New York fireman has stated he will launch legal action against the proposal.

The Iraq Inquiry

Today all eyes in Britain were on Hans Blix as he made his appearance before the chairs of the Iraq Enquiry. For those of you who may have forgotten (or who haven't yet seen Team America) Blix worked for the UN as chief weapons  inspector at the time George W Bush threw charges at the administration of Saddam Hussein of harbouring nuclear weapons, or what have now become known as Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Of course we now know that Blix found no such ammunitions but the US swears by its belief stating that they were concealed from the inspector. However, later reports confirmed that Iraq had abandoned its weapons programme many years ago. Blix has since become a staunch opponent of the Iraq war. he claimed that the U.S. was "high on military" at the inquiry saying it believed it could get away with anything.

BP Crisis: End in Sight?

Undoubtedly the biggest international story of yesterday was that the oil leak had finally stopped for the first time since the 20th of April, almost 3 months ago. While they have plugged the leak celebrations are muted as the relief effort is still in its early stages and a permanent solution is still a long ways off.

The team first needs to measure the pressure in side the well of oil on which their cap was placed. If the inside pressure is high that is a good sign. However, low pressure means that there is a leak somewhere else on the ocean floor releasing oil and therefore lowering the pressure in the well. This operation will be completed, it is expected in the next 48 hours.If this is successful the team will then turn its attentions to the construction of two relief wells, the first of which will not be completed until mid-August.

Do as we Say and as we Do

Site Note: Hey again guys. I'm back home from my couple of days at the beautiful house of a great friend so this post will be out live. I apologise for some of the recent quality issues with some of my posts. They have been edited. But now back to the news

As a very willing student of socio-linguistics the story I am writing about today is something somewhat close to my heart.The persecution of people and discrimination against certain languages is something that I am must staunchly against.

According to our lecturer it was the policy of the former Republican administration to ensure the workplace remained a place of English only.  The treatment of four Philipino nurses in Baltimore. The group of 4 allege that the sole reason for their April 16th was the that they were heard speaking in their native Tagalog tongue while on a lunch break in the ER in which they were working.

BP: Crisis in the Gulf

With my break from the site starting tomorrow I thought I should make this entry before delaying it any further. Indeed the BP oil crisis has almost been going on for almost two months now and is threatening the reputation of BP and of course the President himself with many claiming he hasn't been hard enough on the organisation.

BP has stated it will harness all its resources to help solve the crisis and plug the leak and was spending somewhere in the region of $7 million daily on trying to do just that. However, if we take into account that the companies daily profits for the first quarter of this year were in fact $61 million we see that this figure may not be as large as it seems in perspective.