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.

Cool New Stuff: Improv, The Mall, Local Blogorama, Podcast Concert

A grab bag of cool new stuff: --We already knew Washington was perhaps the best city in the country for fans of choral music, with choruses large and small managing to survive even in this era of No Child Left Behind know-nothingness. But Washington's place in the worlds of experimental and contemporary classical music tends to get short shrift. Now comes a new blog to chronicle the experimental music scene here. District of Noise includes audio and video and takes you to some places you may never have known existed. --Remarkably, no one has ever bothered to put together a guide to recreation on the National Mall--until now. The National Mall Conservancy, a new group that grew out of Judy Scott Feldman's National Coalition to Save Our Mall and the growing movement to revamp the Mall for the next century, has created a guide that tells you about all