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.

[1]U.S. Kills a Leader Of Al-Qaeda in Iraq

A senior leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq responsible for bringing foreign fighters into the country and seizing and executing U.S. soldiers in 2006 was killed Monday in an American airstrike, the U.S. military said yesterday.
[2][3]

link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092800674.html?nav=rss_print/asection

Ann Scott Tyson Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

[1] <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092800674.html?nav=rss_print/asection>
[2] <http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/print/asection;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=392942723664>
[3] <http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/print/asection;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=392942723664>

"I've quit periodically over the last several years. Speculation intensified in October 2006 when Obama first said he had "thought about the possibility" of running for president, departing from earlier statements that he intended to serve out his six-year Senate term through 2010. The bill did not progress beyond committee and was never voted on by the Senate.

" During his first two and a half years in the Senate, Obama received Honorary Doctorates of Law from Knox College, University of Massachusetts Boston, Northwestern University, Xavier University of Louisiana, and Southern New Hampshire University. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction, as a strategic first defense against the threat of future terrorist attacks. Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 from the state's 13th District in the south-side Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park. An October 2005 article in the British journal New Statesman listed Obama as one of "10 people who could change the world. In Chapter 6 of the book, titled "Faith," Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household. After the visits, Obama traveled to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. 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.