Paris Hilton (originally aired February 5, 2005)
- American Idol opening segment (no footnotes)
- Weekend Update: State of the Union, draft, Michael Jackson trial, Iraq elections, Rwanda, same-sex marriage issue in Canada
| > | * Weekend Update: State of the Union, Draft. President George W. Bush called for Social Security reforms and praised the recent Iraq elections in his 2005 State of the Union address; a transcript of this speech is on-line here. In the speech, Bush did announce a new initiative headed by First Lady Laura Bush to help at-risk youth, with a proposed anti-gang component "to help organizations keep young people out of gangs and show young men an ideal of manhood that respects women and rejects violence."
As for the draft, the United States has not drafted any men into the military since 1973, but some, such as Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) and Representative Charles Rangel (D-New York), have called for a reinstitution of the draft given the current demands on the military, especially in Iraq, and the need to spread the burden among all citizens. "Decision-makers who support the war would more readily feel the pain of conflict and appreciate the sacrifice of those on the front lines if their children were there too," Rangel wrote in a January 7, 2003 op-ed piece (on-line here). "Minorities comprise 35 percent of the military and Blacks 20 percent, well above their proportion of the general population. They, along with poor and rural Whites do more than their fair share of service in our ground forces. Yet the value of our foot soldiers is demeaned by those who promote the unproven notion that high-tech warfare will bring a quick and easy victory in Iraq."
Administration officials have long denied the need for a draft, as Bush did when asked in the second presidential debate. "We're not going to have a draft, period. The all- volunteer army works," Bush said (transcript on-line here). "An all-volunteer army is best suited to fight the new wars of the 21st century, which is to be specialized and to find these people as they hide around the world."
| | > | * Weekend Update: Michael Jackson Trial. Jury selection began on Jan. 31 for the trial of Michael Jackson, who has pled not guilty to charges of engaging in lewd acts with a minor, administering alcohol to aid in the molesting, one count of attempted child molesting, and one count of conspiracy.
| | > | * Weekend Update: Iraq Election. Millions of Iraqi citizens came out on Jan. 30 to participate in national elections for the Transitional National Assembly, a legislative body that is to form an interim government, appoint a president, and draft a national constitution. The 275 seats of the Transitional National Assembly will be allocated among political entities according to the percentage of votes such entities receive; more than 233 political entities and 33 coalitions registered and submitted election lists by December 2004. Voters within Iraq also elected the Kurdish National Assembly and several Governate Counsels.
As the votes continue to be counted, a coalition of Shiite parties backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a Shiite religious leader who encouraged voter turnout, appears to have taken a majority of votes. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, an ally of the United States who was selected to head the interim government that took power in June 2004, supported another slate of candidates. How these and other slates of candidates do will help determine who will be elected president.
Up to 44 people died as a result of attacks on Jan. 30, though U.S. officials reportedly expected more violence than was seen. The number of U.S. forces in Iraq increased over the past two months from about 138,000 to about 150,000 in order to help provide security in advance of the election.
A democratic process resulting in the election of the Transitional National Assembly was originally expected to take place about eight months earlier. The non-elected Iraqi Governing Council and the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority agreed in November 2003 to a schedule that called for "a transparent, participatory, democratic process of caucuses" that would elect the transitional assembly by the end of May 2004; this transitional government was then to assume full sovereignty by the end of June. Instead, the United States returned sovereignty in June 2004 to an Iraqi government selected by a United Nations official with consultation from the Iraqi Governing Council and reportedly from the United States.
| | > | * Weekend Update: Reference to Rwanda. One of the worst massacres in modern history unfolded in the central African country Rwanda in 1994, in some part due to the United States' and the international community's failure to act more quickly and decisively. About 800,000 people died from April to July 1994, the result of a planned massacre by members of the majority Hutu tribe against the Tutsi minority, as well as the resulting civil war and social upheaval.
The Clinton administration, already reeling at the time from criticism of U.S. involvement in other countries such as Somalia, resisted calling the events genocide and did not take any immediate action except to safeguard the Americans then in the country. Years later, President Bill Clinton apologized in March 1998 for his handling of the crisis, saying that "we did not do act quickly enough after the killings began. We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe haven for the killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide" (his remarks are quoted in October 1998 remarks by Ambassador David J. Scheffer, on-line here).
For more on Rwanda, go here.
| | > | * Weekend Update: Canada's Same-Sex Marriage Law. Canada's Attorney General Irwin Cotler introduced on Feb. 1 the Civil Marriage Act that would permit same-sex marriages while re-affirming that religious officials can refuse to perform such marriages. "Extending civil marriage to same-sex couples does not take away the rights of any others, nor does it relate to religious marriage," Cotler said in a statement (on-line here).
Canada's highest court ruled on Dec. 9 that a draft version of the bill was constitutional. According to reports, the Civil Marriage Act is gaining political support in Canada and may become law by the summer of 2005.
By contrast, same-sex marriage has met with less support in the United States. Massachusetts is the only state to recognize same-sex marriages and many states have passed laws and constitutional amendments specifically forbidding the practice; voters in 11 states approved such measures in the November 2004 elections. Vermont and California also offer same-sex couples the same legal rights as married couples but under a different term. At the national level, President George W. Bush has called for a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples; this amendment failed to advance past the Senate in July 2004.
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