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.
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More Bang for Stimulus Cash
The slump in the construction industry has helped officials get bargains, freeing up millions for extra projects.
Read original story in USA Today | Wednesday, 26 Aug 2009
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California's "Garage Sale"
The latest chapter in California's seemingly eternal quest to balance its budget involves selling some unwanted state property.
Read original story in Los Angeles Times | Wednesday, 26 Aug 2009
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Your Kid Isn't on Twitter
Twitter's popularity is exploding, but no thanks to teenagers who wouldn't touch the microblogging service with a 10-foot pole.
Read original story in The New York Times | Wednesday, 26 Aug 2009
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Supporters and critics have likened Obama's popular image to a cultural Rorschach test, a neutral persona on which people can project their personal histories and aspirations.
I can say what I want without censorship or without having to pay a special charge.
In the same week, Zogby International reported that Obama leads all prospective Republican opponents in polling for the 2008 general election.
He received his B.A. degree in 1983, then worked for one year at Business International Corporation.
ABC News 7 (Chicago) reported Obama telling the students that "the U.S. will never recognize winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounces its fundamental mission to eliminate Israel," and that he had conveyed the same message in his meeting with Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
His knowledge about his absent Luo father came mainly through family stories and photographs.
" But in an October 2006 article titled "Obama: Black Like Me," British columnist Gary Younge describes Obama as "a black man who does not scare white people.
President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law in October 2006, calling it "an important step toward immigration reform.
We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States.
In a public gesture aimed to encourage more Kenyans to undergo voluntary HIV testing, Obama and his wife took HIV tests at a Kenyan clinic.
In Chapter 6 of the book, titled "Faith," Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household.
" Reviewer Michael Tomasky writes that it does not contain "boldly innovative policy prescriptions that will lead the Democrats out of their wilderness," but does show Obama's potential to "construct a new politics that is progressive but grounded in civic traditions that speak to a wider range of Americans.
In Chapter 6 of the book, titled "Faith," Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household.
His first bill was the "Higher Education Opportunity through Pell Grant Expansion Act.
"The announcement followed months of speculation on whether Obama would run in 2008.
The bill did not progress beyond committee and was never voted on by the Senate.
The Rasmussen polling organization reported in May 2007 that 49% of Americans consider it "somewhat likely" or "very likely" that Obama will be elected.
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.
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today's papers Question Time for the CIA? By Kara Hadge
Posted Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009, at 6:08 AM ET The Los Angeles Times leads with the news that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is likely to appoint a criminal prosecutor to look into abuses committed during CIA interrogations of terrorism suspects. The prosecutor will evaluate whether the CIA employed tactics not authorized by Bush administration memos, not the legality of the controversial, so-called torture memos themselves. The New York Times leads with yesterday's plane crash over the Hudson River, in which a small plane collided with a tourist helicopter, killing nine people. Three of the bodies have been recovered so far. The Washington Post leads with the news that Metro's crash-avoidance system had malfunctioned three months before this summer's deadly collision, when a train operator had to apply the emergency brake so as not to overshoot a station platform on Capitol Hill. Metro officials failed to report this incident and the ensuing investigation to federal officials investigating the June red line crash. Officials are almost certain that Holder will choose a special prosecutor from a shortlist recently assembled at the Department of Justice at his request. But the LAT exclusive does not make clear whether this will be a hard-hitting investigation or an ineffectual gesture at duty by the DOJ. The investigation will be narrow in scope, and one former Justice Department official thinks it's doomed to fail, arguing, "[I]t would go on forever and cause enormous collateral damage on the way to getting that unsuccessful result." It will be difficult to obtain good evidence, and the case would lack precedent. Waterboarding is an obvious practice that would come under fire, as would other previously undisclosed incidents, including the time a CIA official brought a gun into an interrogation room to intimidate a prisoner. To continue reading, click here. Kara Hadge is a former Slate intern.
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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 the memoir, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's American middle class family.
Obama took an active role in the Senate's drive for improved border security and immigration reform.
Questioning the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War, Obama spoke of an enlisted Marine, Corporal Seamus Ahern from East Moline, Illinois, asking, "Are we serving Seamus as well as he is serving us?" He continued: When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never, ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.
In a nationally televised speech at the University of Nairobi, he spoke forcefully on the influence of ethnic rivalries and corruption in Kenya.
The family moved from their Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a nearby US$1.6-million home in 2005.
He was also criticized by a rival pro-choice candidate in the Democratic primary and by his Republican pro-life opponent in the general election for having voted either "present" or "no" on anti-abortion legislation.
"Lugar-Obama" expands the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, including shoulder-fired missiles and anti-personnel mines.
The first such poll, taken in November 2006, ranked Obama in second place with 17% support among Democrats after Sen.
In 2000, he made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush.
Enthusiastic crowds greeted Obama's public appearances.
"President Bush signs the "Coburn-Obama" Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.
