MadrasahMadrasah (Arabic:مدرسة) is the Arabic word for any type of school, secular or religious (of any religion). It is variously transliterated as madrasah, madrash, medresa, madreseh, madrassa, medrusha, or madressa.
In The News Barbra Streisand to Give Money to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama ... FOX News Obama makes push for his Iraq legislationWJBC News John Edwards touts health care plan while in Downs Clinton, Edwards and Obama: Strike Iran Barack Obama has also been upfront about how he would deal with Iran, arguing that he would not rule out the use of force and supports surgical strikes of alleged nuclear sites in the country if diplomacy (read: coercion) fails. In Honolulu, young Obama was part of a multiethnic existence The Southern one of the state's top private schools. .... Everybody in Hawaii is a minority. ..... At Punahou, Barack Obama was known primarily for his appealing personality, his honesty and his aggressive play on the basketball court. ...... In 1971, she sent Obama, then 10 ..... Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, a bank vice president, and grandfather, Stanley Dunham, a salesman ..... let his grades slip in his final years of high school. ...... friends and teammates said he didn't appear to be discontented and always seemed to fit in. .... "He never let that show, so maybe it was more of an internal struggle," said teammate Alan Lum, who now teaches at Punahou. ....... At school, Obama was surrounded by the island's richest and most accomplished students. America Online founder Steve Case, actress Kelly Preston and former Dallas Cowboys lineman Mark Tuinei, who died in 1999, attended the school around that time. Pro golf sensation Michelle Wie, 17, is a student there now. ...... A lanky, left-handed forward, Obama became known for his elusive moves on the basketball court. ........ As a backup forward, Obama helped Punahou win the state championship in 1979. Teammates described him as charismatic, a somewhat quiet leader and outspoken with coaches when he didn't agree with them or understand their methods. ....... "He wasn't afraid to challenge authority," Lum said. "Sometimes I couldn't believe he would say it, but I would be thinking the same thing. I remember him being honest and courageous. I respected him for that." ........ brought books to read on road trips, served on the school literary magazine's editorial board and sang in choir as a freshman and sophomore. ....... "He also told me to stick to my studies because they'll take me where I want to go. And I did, and I got to where I wanted to be." ...... even though Obama wasn't a straight-A student, they had high expectations for him. ....... His keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention prompted Eric Kusunoki, Obama's homeroom teacher for four years, to pull out a dusty maroon scrapbook stored away since 1979. ....... the teenage Obama _ carving pumpkins, volunteering for class activities, celebrating birthdays, even writing a nice goodbye note to his teacher. ....... "He was very gifted, and I knew he'd do great things. But this well? On this stage? I never expected that." ........ Obama still spends most Christmas holidays in Hawaii visiting old Punahou friends, his grandmother, 84, and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband. ...... "The opportunity that Hawaii offered _ to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect _ became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear." Rudy Giuliani - the GOP’s Barack ObamaMSNBC The six candidates who top the polls right now fall into three bipartisan pairings. I’ll call them the Charismatics, the Practicals, and the Base-Wooers. ...... Obama’s pitch is: Because of my background and my skills, I can bringing disparate peoples together. If the problem is that America is a pariah, I am, by my nature, the antidote. ....... I got on Facebook and saw the Obama action there. It was fast and furious - and utterly spontaneous Clinton and Obama offer contrasting political styles Bradenton Herald Clinton talks tough about Republicans. She went after President Bush by name in her kickoff campaign speech .... "I want to run a positive, issue-oriented, visionary campaign. But you can count on me to stand my ground and fight back." ....... "It's going to be cynicism that we're fighting against," he said to applause. ...... "Obama appears to be a compromiser," said Joan Bouchard of Davenport, Iowa. "As much as I'd like to knock down my opponents, I've learned in life that you have to work with people to get things done." ...... "She (Clinton) knows how politics works. She knows it's a knock-down, drag-out fight." Bush defends actions against Iranian agents Houston Chronicle NEWSWEEK POLL: Bush Job Approval at All-Time Low: 30 Percent Yahoo! News (press release) Bush critical of war critics Pittsburgh Post Gazette Dyer: China's satellite-killer test - should we be worried? Salt Lake Tribune Ex-Cheney Aide Shares Media Manipulation FOX News Rep. Rush Backs Obama For Presidential Nomination CBS2 Chicago Obama seeks health care for allJackson Hole Star-Tribune Obama said while plans are offered in every campaign season with "much fanfare and promise," they collapse under the weight of Washington politics, leaving citizens to struggle with the skyrocketing costs. ........ Americans pay $15 billion in taxes to help care for the uninsured. ...... Democrats "need to cling to the core values that make us Democrats, the belief in universal health care, the belief in universal education, and then we should be agnostic in terms of how to achieve those values." ...... she criticized Bush's proposal to make health care more affordable through tax breaks, arguing that it would lead to less funding for hospitals. ...... I'm going to send him a suit of armor because I know anybody who puts a foot in the health care debate is gonna need that. I've got the scars and experience to show for it Obama Vows Plan to Provide Universal Health Care By 2013International News Service Obama + Hillary = Ka-Ching!Broadcasting & Cable (subscription) after bringing in close to $15 million for his 2004 Senate bid, Obama now has a Murderers' Row of wealthy Democrats and independents falling all over themselves to fund his White House run. ..... Any K Street consultant will tell you that the entry fee to be taken seriously in the primary is $100 million. ..... In the 2004 primary race, Democratic candidates spent close to $400 million, with the lion's share—$235 million—coming from John Kerry. By the time George W. Bush won reelection, both parties had spent north of an astounding $1 billion, most of it in the primary season. It could easily be 50% higher this time around. ..... the Internet will no doubt play a part in everyone's campaign—it was on their respective Websites that Obama and Clinton made it official—most of the cash will be targeted at TV buys ........ Clinton and Obama, with their movie-of-the-week biographies ..... Both Clinton and Obama are as comfortable sitting across the table from Chris Matthews as they are sharing a couch with Oprah Winfrey. ..... Ever since John Kennedy brought the presidency into the TV age, we've had candidates who injected a little Hollywood into Washington. ..... no two candidates with this kind of spark have faced each other yet. I know I'll be watching. Sen. Barack Obama receiving Hollywood attentionToTheCenter.com • The Obama Madrassa Hoax Newsweek Barack Obama refutes Islamic claimsNew Zealand Herald (Subscription) Huge Fuss Over Obama's 'Ordinary' Public SchoolABC News Clinton Arrives in Iowa Washington Post Clinton Aiming To Overcome Iowa ObstaclesPlayfuls.com Hollywood stars choose between Clinton, ObamaReuters India Obama launched his exploratory committee 10 days ago, and Clinton quickly followed suit. ....... registered Democratic voters favor Clinton over Obama by 40 percent to 21 percent, though Obama drew far greater support across party lines. ...... Some Democratic activists have privately expressed anger at Clinton's early support for the Iraq war. They worry she may prove too divisive a candidate to win at election time or that some voters are facing "Clinton fatigue." .... Barack Obama is going to learn things about himself that he himself never knew Clinton, Giuliani Hit the Campaign Trial ABC News Hillary Clinton Wins Dinner Invite PollPost Chronicle Entertainers flock to Obama Bradenton Herald George Clooney calls him a friend. Halle Berry has said she'd "collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear." Oprah Winfrey says he's her man. ..... three of the most powerful men in Hollywood - Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen - have just invited Democrats to a truly high-profile fundraiser: a Feb. 20 reception for Obama at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, with a dinner later at Geffen's home for top donors...... it's Clinton who's the clear front-runner at this point, with the long-term relationships, the financing, the network of support dating to the early '90s ....... Spielberg isn't picking favorites yet. He and other major Los Angeles donors, including producer Steve Bing, media mogul Haim Saban, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and investment banker Sim Farar, will be co-hosting a fundraiser for Clinton in the spring ...... "If you could take Barack Obama's image, add Hillary Clinton's money and John Edwards' voice, that would be my candidate" ....... "What I'm finding interesting is that Obama is not the immediate favorite of a lot of African-Americans - he came up through the system, not the grass roots like Jesse Jackson. Did Microsoft want to 'whack' Dell over its Linux NewsForge company executives were swapping e-mails suggesting Dell deserved a beating for its growing interest in Linux Europe Not Friendly To Apple's Itunes Post Chronicle Google and YouTube: A Catch-22 BusinessWeek Google leads Apple in global brand ranking; YouTube, Wikipedia in ... Indiantelevision.com Google Wins as Top Brand in 2006, But is There More to the Story? AXcess News YouTube videos are part of picture in Google search Indianapolis Star Google Offers YouTube Video in SearchesInternational News Service Google Starts Integrating YouTube ContentAll Headline News online video-sharing service will remain the domain of YouTube while the Google Video shifts its focus to search. .... "Google Video will become even more comprehensive as it evolves into a service where you can search for the world's online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted" .... intends to put its resources and ad revenue-generating prowess to work for YouTube while leaving it free to operate independently. .... "YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and the rest of the YouTube team will continue to innovate exciting new ways for people to broadcast themselves." Yahoo`s new ad system to boost growth: AnalystsZee News its new system, dubbed Panama, would be fully introduced in the United States as of February 5 ...... The ad system brings Yahoo in closer league with Web search leader Google Inc. , honing the technology that allows advertisers to pay for search terms based on their popularity. .... Panama also helps advertisers target the ads sent to specific audiences on the Web or rotate ads based on their effectiveness, capabilities Google has offered for several years. ..... I do think they (Yahoo) will narrow the gap IBM, Intel pace each other with improved transistors Macworld Intel, IBM announce insulation "overhaul" for faster, cooler chips engadget IBM and Oracle Agreement Strengthens Mainframe Computing, IDC Says TechWhack Oracle Makes Another Blow At Red HatEFYTimes Oracle sneaks out E-Business Suite 12 Techworld.com Oracle's ‘Web 2.0’ interface coming this monthComputerworld Malaysia Oracle will release WebCenter this month, a tool for building user interfaces that include Web 2.0 tools like blogs and wikis. ..... an add-on to Oracle Application Server Enterprise Edition for US$50,000 per CPU. ..... WebCenter Services, for embedding services such as Oracle Enterprise Search, VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calling and wiki-building tools into the interface. ...... click on the employee's name and initiate a VOIP call ...... WebCenter's appeal lies partly in its close ties with Oracle's database and application server ..... Oracle customers can use those existing infrastructure products to deploy the blogs and wikis. .... the default interface for Oracle's Fusion applications, a merger of its Oracle, Siebel and PeopleSoft applications due in 2008. ...... WebCenter is essentially the opposite of a portal: It allows developers to put portal elements into an application (or application interface), rather than putting applications content into distinct portal product. ...... IBM also entered the game this week, announcing plans to bring Web 2.0 capabilities to its Lotus Notes collaboration software. ..... "Oracle WebCenter is the most ambitious attempt from a large established vendor to enable IT and end users to create mashups from any applications and information sources, not just Oracle's" ..... each of its applications suites -- the E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel. Sun Microsystems swings to profit The Brunei Times Observers wonder how Wal-Mart will regain edge Columbus Dispatch The world’s largest retailer is struggling ...... a disappointing 2006. The top question now is whether the company will continue an 18-month-old strategy of prying more money from affluent shoppers with trendier products or return to low-priced basics. ..... Efforts to improve its image with trendier fashion brands and home fashion accessories have fallen flat, although its push for higher-price electronics, such as flat-panel TVs, has done well. ...... Wal-Mart reported the worst holiday season on record even as the company started to reemphasize its low prices after months of playing down its discount strategy. That has left customers and observers confused about what Wal-Mart is trying to be. ....... They have to be crystal clear that they are a low-price leader ...... the retailer is starting a two-year effort to tailor its stores to local communities, offering different selections of merchandise to six target demographic groups, including Latinos and blacks. ....... Fleming, a veteran of fastergrowing rival Target Corp., will oversee the buyers who stock Wal-Mart in most of the categories the company considers key for growth: grocery, entertainment, apparel and home furnishings. ....... two new divisions, one aimed at improving the customer experience and the other focused on planning, pricing and replenishment. ....... "Conceptualizing is one thing, but executing is another thing" Iran installing 3000 nuclear centrifuges, MP says Reuters.uk WTO ministers pledged to put Doha Round back on track Xinhua 'Rush' for Windows Vista is more like a stroll Seattle Post Intelligencer YouTubers to get ad money share BBC News a mixture of adverts, including short clips shown ahead of the actual film. ..... The offer applies only to people who own the full copyright of the videos that they are uploading to the YouTube website. .... currently working on "audio fingerprinting" technologies to identify copyrighted material ..... YouTube was still working out the technology and processes involved - both for the rewards system and the video clip advertising system. ..... various features would be rolled out one by one over the next few months. ...... a clip of three seconds length was one of the options YouTube co-founder says site will begin sharing revenue with usersUSA Today YouTube to share revenue with users: APMarketWatch Intel, IBM separately reveal transistor breakthrough International Herald Tribune What You Need To Know About Windows Vista Playfuls.com Is Fox Preparing to Fight YouTube? Playfuls.com Spitzer: Reform NY health care now BusinessWeek State of the Union? Divided The Japan Times Freeways' tainted air harms children's lungs, experts say Los Angeles Times
Somewhere along the way, Barack is going to have to give a speech like this one.
'I Believe in an America Where the Separation of Church and State is Absolute'
September 12, 1960, address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association John F. Kennedy
While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that we have far more critical issues to face in the 1960 election; the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers 90 miles off the coast of Florida--the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power--the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctor bills, the families forced to give up their farms--an America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space.
These are the real issues which should decide this campaign. And they are not religious issues--for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.
But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured--perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again--not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me--but what kind of America I believe in.
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.
I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish--where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source--where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials--and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.
For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim--but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.
Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.
That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe--a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
I would not look with favor upon a President working to subvert the first amendment's guarantees of religious liberty. Nor would our system of checks and balances permit him to do so--and neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test--even by indirection--for it. If they disagree with that safeguard they should be out openly working to repeal it.
I want a Chief Executive whose public acts are responsible to all groups and obligated to none--who can attend any ceremony, service or dinner his office may appropriately require of him--and whose fulfillment of his Presidential oath is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual or obligation.
This is the kind of America I believe in--and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we may have a "divided loyalty," that we did "not believe in liberty," or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened the "freedoms for which our forefathers died."
And in fact this is the kind of America for which our forefathers died--when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches--when they fought for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom--and when they fought at the shrine I visited today, the Alamo. For side by side with Bowie and Crockett died McCafferty and Bailey and Carey--but no one knows whether they were Catholic or not. For there was no religious test at the Alamo.
I ask you tonight to follow in that tradition--to judge me on the basis of my record of 14 years in Congress--on my declared stands against an Ambassador to the Vatican, against unconstitutional aid to parochial schools, and against any boycott of the public schools (which I have attended myself)--instead of judging me on the basis of these pamphlets and publications we all have seen that carefully select quotations out of context from the statements of Catholic church leaders, usually in other countries, frequently in other centuries, and always omitting, of course, the statement of the American Bishops in 1948 which strongly endorsed church-state separation, and which more nearly reflects the views of almost every American Catholic.
I do not consider these other quotations binding upon my public acts--why should you? But let me say, with respect to other countries, that I am wholly opposed to the state being used by any religious group, Catholic or Protestant, to compel, prohibit, or persecute the free exercise of any other religion. And I hope that you and I condemn with equal fervor those nations which deny their Presidency to Protestants and those which deny it to Catholics. And rather than cite the misdeeds of those who differ, I would cite the record of the Catholic Church in such nations as Ireland and France--and the independence of such statesmen as Adenauer and De Gaulle.
But let me stress again that these are my views--for contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters--and the church does not speak for me.
Whatever issue may come before me as President--on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject--I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.
But if the time should ever come--and I do not concede any conflict to be even remotely possible--when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same.
But I do not intend to apologize for these views to my critics of either Catholic or Protestant faith--nor do I intend to disavow either my views or my church in order to win this election.
If I should lose on the real issues, I shall return to my seat in the Senate, satisfied that I had tried my best and was fairly judged. But if this election is decided on the basis that 40 million Americans lost their chance of being President on the day they were baptized, then it is the whole nation that will be the loser, in the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world, in the eyes of history, and in the eyes of our own people.
But if, on the other hand, I should win the election, then I shall devote every effort of mind and spirit to fulfilling the oath of the Presidency--practically identical, I might add, to the oath I have taken for 14 years in the Congress. For without reservation, I can "solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution...so help me God.
Some half a century ago another man stood to speak that this was a great country, and although a Catholic had not been elected to the highest office before, that his Catholic background should not be used against him, and he spoke forcefully to that effect.
I think this is a great country, and although we have had a chequered past, on race and gender issues and other issues of social importance, we have to renew our commitment to the basic principles, and we have to declare once and for all that neither race nor gender should be barriers to the highest office in the land, and the best qualified should win.
This is a brave, new century. We face enormous challenges as a country and so we deserve to throw the best at them. That applies to elected office as to any other endeavor.
We are engaged in a defining struggle with an Islamism that is an ideology perpetrated by a few thousand scattered in an ocean of hundreds of millions of desperately poor Muslims who just want the best by their families. Where military might shall be needed, we will fight hard and smart. We will do everything in our powers to protect this great country. We will foil any plans, disrupt any network. But at the end of the day, it is not about military conquests that necessarily kill innocent lives and offend the proud locals. Rather it is about spreading democracy the progressive way, through nonviolent movements perhaps spearheaded by those from those same countries who are already in America. War can also be waged with communications technology. War can be waged with human networks inspired by the ideals of democracy.
We face an energy crisis. If we went to the moon, we can solve the energy crisis. Optimism is a basic American trait.
Global warming is a looming threat, in the long run larger than the threats posed either by terrorism or nuclear proliferation. And this threat can only be tackled if all countries of the world come together and work together. The benefits of cross-cultural communication, empathy, and collaboration are today like never before tied to our very existence, as a country and as a species.
America has had its dark side, sure. One of them has been racism. Although not as virulent as it might have been 50 or 150 years ago, we as a country and a society still have a lot of work to do. If democracy is about equality, that equality must necessarily cut across racial, ethnic, and religious lines. If confronting racism were such a bad thing, the sky should have fallen for the white population after segregation was ended. The reverse happened. We all became better off. As we might struggle to take race relations in this country to a whole new level, we have to remember that lesson.
By birth I am half black, half white. By upbringing I am probably more white than black. But early in my teen years I learned to claim my black identity more fully for to the public eye I was unmistakably black. And I am proud of that. Yes, I am African American. I relate to the African American experience fully. And so should you claim your heritage, be it African, European, Asian or Latino. We are all better off for it. To those of you who are of European, and Asian and Latino heritages, I want you to know that I understand your heritage must mean much to you, because my heritage means much to me.
But I don't run as a black candidate. I am a candidate who happens to be black. To my mind, I run as the best qualified candidate, as the candidate best positioned to offer a generational change in leadership. The generation that was born right after World War II and came to age in the 60s has served, but for the new challenges we face, we necessarily need fresher perspectives.
There is talk of age and experience. John Kennedy was younger than I am when he was elected president, Abraham Lincoln had less experience. Noone was ready to be president before they became president. Only 43 individuals in history can truly claim to know what it means to be President of the United States. We can not go to them. A new age necessarily calls for a new leadership.
A country that is more comfortable with its racial and gender diversity will be a country more apt to the task of the enormous challenges we face. A multi-ethnic leadership is more suited to the challenges of a globalized world. A more tolerant country will be happier, richer, more productive, and will prove itself braver, bravery defined not only in terms when you flex your military muscle, but also bravery as when you decide not to flex that muscle because you judge military might will cause more harm than good, and in many cases will cause only harm.
The America that I know is the America that has brought me to where I stand, a black man running for the highest office in the land. That America has a good heart. That America will be willing to take a chance on me, although there might be elements in the media, and political spinmasters in the opposing camps who might muddy the waters, and make America look uglier than it is, I trust the American people to do right by me.
I am Barack Obama, a proud family man, and I want to be your president because together we can make a fundamental difference for the next generation to come.
Madrasah Madrasah (Arabic:مدرسة) is the Arabic word for any type of school, secular or religious (of any religion). It is variously transliterated as madrasah, madrash, medresa, madreseh, madrassa, medrusha, or madressa. 
