Obama courts Latino voters in L.A

Obama heads his attention to the people of East Los Angeles for campaigning. He was there to discuss inner-city education, immigration and diversity, in his luck, this basically targeted the Latino community here present on Southern California. He gained the support by, defending immigration reform

“and affirmative action and criticized Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto of a
measure to extend college scholarships to students in the country illegally”
(Decker).

He is trying to gain the care of the Latino community. He was in support of the Latinos considering some acts had been vetoed that were in favor of immigrants. To him diversity is a a great thing. Yes, we have an excessive amount of immigrants but trying to deport all those illegal immigrants would just take too much time and effort. We need to help them find a path way to citizenship or simply more funds or actions to help the immigrants of this nation. America is based on immigrants, basically, we need to help each other out. The California dream act was vetoed by the governor causing the immigrants to lose that opportunity of

“saying that he Cal Grant financial aid program and community college fee
waivers should be for legal residents, not illegal immigrant students” (Decker).

This opportunity could have been huge for the immigrants but that dream was quickly crushed with a veto. Obama tried to steer away from that connotation that he was there to take away their rights. He came there to show how much diversity is lively in our country and how this country thrives off diversity and without it, America would notbe what it is, the land of opportunity. Through his ways, he hoped to attain more supporters of his campaign by the end of his time spent in East Los Angeles. He wanted people to think that he was the most suitable Democratic nominee for president, to hopefully get ahead of Clinton.
In my opinion, I think what he’s doing is worthwhile. He is trying to reach out to people, in this case the Latino voters. He believes that Latinos in association with immigrants should have the opportunity to attain success through American Dream without the government interfering by labeling he/she an immigrant, making that person flawed for life because he/she is not an American citizen. He thought by coming to the west he also gets that mind set that Clinton will win the West. Within this campaigning in East Los Angeles, Obama started to address differences between Clinton and him, trying to gain support by conniving them to go on this side. He said,

“first of all, when you’re 46, you’re black and your name is Barack Obama,
you’re always the underdog, laughing, so nobody expected that this would be
easy” (Decker).

He portrays how determined he is to become the best possible candidate for president, by captivating his supporters into voting for him through his ways of reaching out to the people of America. The campaigning he did in California has proven to be a success through his powerful words of persuasion.

Works Cited: “Obama courts Latino voters in L.A.” (Front Section) by Cathleen Decker (LA Times Sunday Edition)

Bush Unveils Plan For Wounded Troops

The war has been an important topic to talk about since it started. The topic to talk about now is handling the wounded troops in the war. The article opens with,

"Calling the nation's system of caring for wounded troops an antiquated,
bureaucratic nightmare" (Gerstenzang).

I get this impression that the country doesn’t really want to help those wounded. Bush, although, came up to the plate and made a plan to benefit the families impacted by loved ones wounded. The responsibility has been shifting,

"those whose injuries prevent them from returning to active duty would be
assigned pensions and responsibility for their care would be quickly shifted
from the Pentagon to the Department of Veterans Affairs" (Gerstenzang).

Bush has proposed many new ways to help compensate those who are injured. It seems as if Bush is trying to clear his name. Bush as a Republican, does show much support to soldiers, so is this another way to just find ways to strengthen the troops because of the benefits they will receive if they were to get injured? He is calling for a new system to help care those injured and can no longer serve in the army. Bush only wants what’s best for the troops,

'Additional payments would be awarded to cover the losses of
potential earnings and quality of life as a result of service-related injuries"
(Gerstenzang).

I believe that, again, Bush is paying too much attention to the troops and its affecting everything else. Yes, I believe what he’s doing is a good thing but some that energy and effort could be put into other good uses such as Health Care towards children. We wouldn’t be in this situation of having many wounded soldiers if we have pulled out of the war sooner and stopped shipping more troops in the war.

Works Cited: LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-wounded17oct17,1,3587598.story?coll=la-news-a_section

Can Hugo Chavez help Americans?

The article that i found interesting was in the LA Times, titled "Can Hugo Chavez Help Americans?". The article dealt with how the President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela deals with the free American hostages in Colombia. Three of them are American defense

“contractors who were kidnapped in 2003 while working on an anti-drug program”
(Shifter).

There was an agreement between Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Chavez on the issue of a hostage-prisoner exchange between governments. Chavez now has custody of the hostages and the major question is if he is going to release them to aid the other countries. If the negotiations don’t follow through, Uribe would look bad because he would be obstructing the peace. All this pressure falls on Chavez if he should do what he desires such as aiding the FARC or freeing the hostages. If the hostages are free there can be a possibility in gaining a peace agreement with the FARC. I found interesting on this topic how the Americans are relying on Hugo for the release of the American hostages. There is so much pressure put on Hugo and if he doesn’t make a right choice he would be seen as the one who faulted. He has the opportunity to make peace with FARC and if he doesn’t approve of it, more issue will arise and the hostages will never be free. Another interesting thought was that there was a also a French person held hostage. The FARC uses these hostages for bargaining tools in order to have their way of things. In my opinion that seems inhuman to do because bargaining with people’s lives is very unethical. It doesn’t give them the right to gamble with people’s lives. I believe that the Americans should not rely all their hopes on Hugo because the worst case scenario make be accomplished.

Works Cited: LA Times Sunday Edition, "Can Hugo Chavez help Americans?" by Michael Shifter

The White House vs. Mother’s Milk

The Bush Administration has been supporting the idea that breast feeding has an considerable affect on infants. They strongly encourage mothers to breast feed their infants because it supposedly prevents illnesses to spring out as the baby matures in life. According to researchers,

“numerous studies suggest that breast milk protects infants from developing
certain illnesses and that formula-feeding increase their health risks” (Orent).

Bush Administration has support on that finding because they want healthy living future informed citizens of America that will vote. They say a healthy child starts from home showing that the Bush Administration wants the overall health of the future leaders of this country to be on top shape. There had been ads promoting the breast feeding of infants to over emphasize how it is truly needed. They also posted ads showing what will happen to their babies if they don’t practice this. Statistics say that

“Type 1 or insulin-dependent, diabetes occurs at significantly lower rates—the
percentage ranges from 19% to 40% among breast fed babies” (Orent).

The nutrients that a child receives from being breast fed helps the infant gain an immune system to certain diseases, creating a healthy baby as the baby grows up. Researchers say that there is something in the breast feeding that contributes to that factor.
I found it interesting how politics got into this fiasco of breast feeding vs. formula based milk. The Bush administration is trying to show how much they care about the citizens of America through their actions of supporting breast feeding. They believe a healthy baby would become a healthy voting citizen in the future. My mom told me that I was a breast fed baby but I personally don’t a hundred percent agree that breast fed babies are healthier than babies fed by formula based milk. It was interesting to see how the media is trying to get a hold of this issue because they want to enforce this onto the citizens of America. The idea of breast feeding, helping an infant become immune to certain diseases amazes me. I don’t see anything wrong with a baby drinking a formula based milk because it does have some nutrients to help the health of the baby. People always say that children are the future and by having healthy infants we can increase the chances of having healthy leaders of America who will become inform citizens. I am amazed on how politicians are actually caring about this small issue.

Works Cited: LA Times article “The White House vs. mother’s milk” by Wendy Orent. Sunday Edition September 30, 2007