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.

Inner Loop Alert

After I did some traffic advisories for this week, a reader commented: "Dr. Gridlock, you've missed the new road construction on the inner loop after Old Georgetown Rd. Could you tell us what MD SHA is doing this time around?" Chuck Gischlar, spokesman for the Maryland State Highway Administration, says workers had inspected the trees and brush along the Beltway between Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike, and they realized they needed to do some trimming for safety's sake. The left lane on the inner loop is blocked for this work between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.. This portion of the job should be completed by tomorrow. But then the work zone will shift to the left lane of the outer loop in the same area, as well as to the ramp lanes in the Rockville Pike and I-270 interchanges with the Beltway, Gischlar said. This maintenance work will continue

washingtonpost.com Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:11:05 EDT

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/07/31/BL2007073100914.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
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Obama has divested US$180,000 in personal holdings of Sudan-related stock, and he has urged divestment from companies doing business in Iran. In September 2006, he was the featured speaker at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry, an event traditionally attended by presidential hopefuls in the lead-up to the Iowa caucus.

He spent most of his childhood in the majority-minority U.S. state of Hawaii and lived for four years in Indonesia. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings. Beginning in 2005, he co-sponsored the "Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). He spent most of his childhood in the majority-minority U.S. state of Hawaii and lived for four years in Indonesia. Obama has encouraged Democrats to reach out to evangelicals and other religious people, saying, "if we truly hope to speak to people where they’re at—to communicate our hopes and values in a way that’s relevant to their own—we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse.

Following Obama's statement, opinion polling organizations added his name to surveyed lists of Democratic candidates. "Obama has authored two bestselling books. " Replying to an Associated Press survey of 2008 presidential candidates' personal tastes, he specified "architect" as his alternate career choice and "chili" as his favorite meal to cook. President Bush signs the "Coburn-Obama" Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

Obama spoke out in June 2006 against making recent, temporary estate tax cuts permanent, calling the cuts a "Paris Hilton" tax break for "billionaire heirs and heiresses. In July 2005, Samantha Power, Pulitzer-winning author on human rights and genocide, joined Obama's team. 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. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we got some gay friends in the Red States.