Barack Obama

Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (born in Nyanza Province, Kenya) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas). Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party.

Obama grew up in culturally diverse surroundings. He spent most of his childhood in the majority-minority U.S. state of Hawaii and lived for four years in Indonesia. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while still an Illinois state legislator. Since announcing his candidacy in February 2007, Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War and implementing universal health care as campaign themes.

As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama co-sponsored the enactment of conventional weapons control and transparency legislation, and made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Obama's parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. His father went to Harvard University to pursue Ph.D. studies, then returned to Kenya, where he died in an auto accident when the younger Obama was twenty-one years old.

Google Blogs Alert for: barack obama

Fox's Hannity again smeared pastor of Barack Obama's church as ...
Barack Obama (D-IL) attends -- of holding "these black-separatist views, about the Black Value System." Following a trend from previous shows, Hannity did not mention Wright's explicit denial on the March 1 edition of Hannity & Colmes ...
Media Matters for America - http://mediamatters.org/

US Senator Barack Obama will speak at Essence Fest
By Keith I. Marszalek
US Senator Barack Obama has confirmed an appearance at the 13th Annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans on Thursday, July 5, 2007, it was announced today by Essence Communications, Inc. The Democratic presidential candidate will ...
Entertainment - NOLA.com - http://blog.nola.com/entertainment/

Senator Barack Obama's Releases Powerful Statement
By Vanessa Hernandez(Bob Holling)
WASHINGTON, DC - US Senator Barack Obama today released the following statement on the Supreme Court's diversity ruling. In it, he calls for Congressional Hearings to determine ways in which Congress can address the resegregation of ...
Supreme Court - School Integration - http://scintegration.blogspot.com/

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Obama later added three amendments to S. 2611, the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act," sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). In a nationally televised speech at the University of Nairobi, he spoke forcefully on the influence of ethnic rivalries and corruption in Kenya. His knowledge about his absent Luo father came mainly through family stories and photographs.

Obama also met with a group of Palestinian students two weeks before Hamas won the January 2006 Palestinian legislative election. Former presidential candidate Gary Hart describes the book as Obama's "thesis submission" for the U.S. presidency: "It presents a man of relative youth yet maturity, a wise observer of the human condition, a figure who possesses perseverance and writing skills that have flashes of grandeur.

Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while still an Illinois state legislator. After describing his maternal grandfather's experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the New Deal's FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama said: No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. In her January 2007 Salon article asserting that Obama "isn't black," columnist Debra Dickerson writes: "lumping us all together Zwith ObamaZ erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving the appearance of progress. If elected, Obama would become the first non-white U.S. president. The speech touched off a public debate among rival leaders, some formally challenging Obama's remarks as unfair and improper, others defending his positions.

US$24.8 million of Obama's first quarter funds can be used in the primaries, the highest of any 2008 presidential candidate. He is among the Democratic Party's leading candidates for nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law in October 2006, calling it "an important step toward immigration reform. During his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, Obama won the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose officials cited his "longtime support of gun control measures and his willingness to negotiate compromises," despite his support for some bills the police union had opposed. In the fall of 2002, during an anti-war rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza, Obama said: I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. US$24.8 million of Obama's first quarter funds can be used in the primaries, the highest of any 2008 presidential candidate. The speech touched off a public debate among rival leaders, some formally challenging Obama's remarks as unfair and improper, others defending his positions. In March 2007, speaking before AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby, he said that while the U.S. "should take no option, including military action, off the table, sustained and aggressive diplomacy combined with tough sanctions should be our primary means to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. "He was an early opponent of Bush administration policies on Iraq. In August 2004, with less than three months to go before election day, Alan Keyes accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination to replace Ryan.