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Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British.Barack’s mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton’s army. Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved west to Hawaii.It was there, at the University of Hawaii, where Barack’s parents met. His mother was a student there, and his father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America.Barack’s father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.Remembering the values of empathy and service that his mother taught him, Barack put law school and corporate life on hold after college and moved to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment.The group had some success, but Barack had come to realize that in order to truly improve the lives of people in that community and other communities, it would take not just a change at the local level, but a change in our laws and in our politics.He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for seven years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.It has been the rich and varied experiences of Barack Obama’s life – growing up in different places with people who had differing ideas – that have animated his political journey. Amid the partisanship and bickering of today’s public debate, he still believes in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose – a politics that puts solving the challenges of everyday Americans ahead of partisan calculation and political gain.In the Illinois State Senate, this meant working with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.In the U.S. Senate, he has focused on tackling the challenges of a globalized, 21st century world with fresh thinking and a politics that no longer settles for the lowest common denominator. His first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of their tax dollars are spent. He has also been the lead voice in championing ethics reform that would root out Jack Abramoff-style corruption in Congress.http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=BandPro file.convert

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As a member of the Veterans Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan. Recognizing the terrorist threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, he traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world. And knowing the threat we face to our economy and our security from America’s addiction to oil, he’s working to bring auto companies, unions, farmers, businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars.Whether it’s the poverty exposed by Katrina, the genocide in Darfur, or the role of faith in our politics, Barack Obama continues to speak out on the issues that will define America in the 21st century. But above all his accomplishments and experiences, he is most proud and grateful for his family. His wife, Michelle, and his two daughters, Malia, 8, and Sasha, 5, live on Chicago’s South Side where they attend United Church of Christ...OBAMA ON TERRORISM Legislation authored by U.S. Senators Dick Lugar (R-IN) and Barack Obama (D-IL) that will help keep weapons like shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles out of terrorists' hands has passed Congress and will soon be signed into law by the President. Lugar and Obama authored the legislation (S. 2566) and included provisions of the bill as part of H.R. 6060, which was approved by the Congress early Saturday morning.The Lugar-Obama initiative expands U.S. cooperation to destroy conventional weapons. It also expands the State Department's ability to detect and interdict weapons and materials of mass destruction."The United States should do more to eliminate conventional weapons stockpiles and assist other nations in detecting and interdicting weapons of mass destruction. We believe that these functions are underfunded, fragmented and in need of high-level support," said Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."The Lugar-Obama initiative will help other nations find and eliminate the type of conventional weapons that have been used against our own soldiers in Iraq and sought by terrorists all over the world," said Obama. "The Nunn-Lugar program has effectively disposed of thousands of weapons of mass destruction, but we must do far more to keep deadly conventional weapons like anti-aircraft missiles out of the hands of terrorists."------------------------------------------------ ----------- -US dependence on Foreign Oil (Middle East) U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today said that the opening of the first pumps in Madison County to offer E85 will help increase access to renewable fuels, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and support local farmers."Our energy future should lie in Illinois fields of corn, not in foreign oil fields," said Obama. "Increasing the production and availability of home-grown alternative fuels is an important step in showing that the United States Senate is serious about reducing our country's dangerous dependence on imported oil."E85 is a clean-burning blended fuel made from corn that contains 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. E85, a renewable fuel, can be used in Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs), which can also use conventional gasoline when E85 isn't available.Obama said that Ford Motor Company's and VeraSun's plan to add 50 more E85 stations along a 1,700 mile round trip route between Chicago and Kansas City will make alternative fuels more readily available to millions more Americans. The additional stations will be located along Interstate 55 in Illinois and Interstate 70 in Missouri.In Illinois, it's estimated that there are only approximately 120 stations that offer E85 as a gasoline alternative. Only 700 stations offer E85 nationally. It's crucial that access to E85 be increased as there are more than 5 million FFVs currently on the road, and U.S. automakers have committed to producing hundreds of thousands more.Services stations that install alternative fuel pumps would be eligible to receive a tax credit of up to $30,000 to offset the cost of installation. This tax credit was championed by Senator Obama and became law as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.- U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced legislation that would reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by nearly half a trillion gallons by 2028 and greatly decrease our dependence on foreign oil."The true danger of America's dependence on foreign oil is best explained not by politicians or energy experts here in the United States, but by our enemies abroad," said Obama. "'[Oil] is the umbilical cord and lifeline of the crusader community.' These are the words of Al Qaeda. 'Focus your operations on oil, especially in Iraq and the Gulf area, since this will cause them to die off [on their own].' These are the words of Osama bin Laden. It is clear that the Achilles heel of the most powerful country on earth is the oil we import and cannot live without.""Most of the world's oil is concentrated in places that are either hostile to American interests or vulnerable to political upheaval and terrorism," said Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "To the extent that we remain reliant on imported oil, we imperil our nation's economic health and our way of life.""If it was not clear before, it is now. Domestic energy policy is at the center of our foreign policy," said Senator Joseph R. Biden. "For our national security we have to begin the transition to alternative fuels. We can't do that without making progress on fuel economy by upgrading to a better system that combines protection for U.S. automobile manufacturing jobs with predictable increases in fuel efficiency standards for cars, SUVs and light trucks. ""Gas prices are skyrocketing but they're just the part of our problem," said Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-OR). "Importing so much oil leaves us vulnerable to some of the most unstable regimes in the world. Automakers have been too slow to change and we're risking damage to American security and the economy.""The U.S. passenger fleet alone accounts for 1/10th of world oil consumption," said Bingaman. "With oil and gasoline prices where they are today, it's hard to imagine a genuine discussion of our country's energy future without a significant effort to improve vehicle fuel efficiency. This moderate proposal to begin raising the standards for fuel economy deserves a serious look from the Senate. There are many good ideas out there and a healthy debate to be had about the best ways to do this. I hope the introduction of this bipartisan bill can spur the Senate to have this long-overdue discussion.""This sound approach to reducing gasoline consumption will help ensure our vehicles utilize improved technology to stretch how far Americans can drive on a tank of gas," said Harkin. "Our dependence on foreign oil not only hurts the budgets of American families, it threatens our economy and national security.""Our reliance on foreign oil is not only an economic strain, but also a threat to our national security," said Coleman. "It's time we take the decisions about our energy supply out of the hands of foreign nations. By coupling a sensible fuel efficiency standard that will push technology to the marketplace with strong tax incentives, we can put American in the fast lane to energy independence"

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Illinois Sen. Barack Obama made his first visit to New Hampshire yesterday, drawing the kinds of crowds and news media attention usually reserved for a sitting president or a presidential nominee. The trip fueled speculation of a possible 2008 presidential bid and showed the first-term senator's marquee appeal."I've never seen anything like it, " said Jim Demers, a lobbyist and former Democratic lawmaker who met Obama at the airport Saturday night and accompanied him throughout the events yesterday. "A lot of people have compared it to the days when Bobby Kennedy was running for president. I don't think we've seen it since."Addressing a crowd of more than 1,600 in Manchester, Obama urged Democrats to harness the momentum of last month's election and craft an agenda that reaches beyond party lines. After years of partisan bickering and "slash-and-burn politics," Obama said, Americans are yearning for a new style of leadership."There's no reason why we can't create a system where everybody has decent health care. There is no reason why we can't have energy independence in this country," Obama said. "There is no reason why we can't craft a national security strategy that is tough and smart, because what we've seen is tough and dumb."That's not a Democratic agenda or a Republican agenda," he said. "That's an American agenda."