Here are some excerpts from the speech:
For over half a century, the success of America has been built on the success of our middle class. It was the creation of the middle class that lifted this nation up in the wake of a Great Depression. It was the expansion of the middle class that opened the doors of opportunity to millions more. It was a strong middle class that powered American industries and propelled America’s economy and made the 20th century the American century….

Because of the Recovery Act, we’re keeping a promise I made to give all of you — 95 percent of working Americans — a tax cut — a tax cut that will benefit nearly 5 million families in Pennsylvania. We increased and extended unemployment insurance to 12 million Americans — including hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians. We made sure that they could get health insurance if they were looking for a job, because COBRA was too expensive; reduced the cost of it by 65 percent. So a lot of families out there were able to hang onto their health care even during the downturn.

We’re putting Americans to work across this country rebuilding crumbling roads and bridges and waterways with the largest investment in our infrastructure since Eisenhower created the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s. (Applause.) All in all, many middle-class families will see their incomes go up by about $3,000 because of the Recovery Act, helping them get back much of what they’ve lost due to this recession.

And, yes, we’ll grow our middle class by finally providing quality, affordable health insurance in this country. Health care can’t wait. (Applause.) It can’t wait. Few have fought — few have fought for this cause harder, few have championed it longer than you, our brothers and sisters in organized labor. You’re making phone calls, knocking on doors, showing up at rallies — because you know why this is so important. You know this isn’t just about the millions of Americans who don’t have health insurance, it’s about the hundreds of millions more who do; Americans who worry that they’ll lose their insurance if they lose their job; who fear their coverage will be denied because of a preexisting condition; who know that one accident or illness could mean financial ruin.

In fact, a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation was released today showing that family premiums rose more than 130 percent over the last 10 years — three times faster than wages. They now average over $13,000 a year, the highest amount on record, which is why when you go in to negotiate, you can’t even think about negotiating for a salary — a wage increase because the whole negotiation is about trying to keep the benefits you already have…

The plan I announced will offer more security and more stability to Americans who have insurance. It will offer insurance to Americans who don’t. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.

If you already have health insurance through your job — and because many of you are members of unions, you do — nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change your coverage or your doctor. Let me repeat: Nothing in this plan will require you to change your coverage or your doctor.

What this plan will do is make your insurance work better for you. It’ll be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a preexisting condition. (Applause.) It will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick, or water it down when you need it the most. (Applause.) They won’t be able to place some arbitrary cap on how much coverage you can receive in a given year or a given lifetime. (Applause.) We’ll place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses — because in the United States of America, nobody should go broke just because they got sick. (Applause…)

And because there will be one big group, these uninsured Americans, they have leverage and they can drive down the cost of care and get a better deal than they’re getting right now. That’s how large companies and government employees get affordable insurance. It’s how everybody in Congress — including those who are always critical of government — get their insurance. (Applause.) It’s time to give every opportunity to Americans that members of Congress give to themselves. (Applause.)

I’ve also said that one of the options in this exchange should be a public option. (Applause.) Now, let me be clear. Let me be clear, because there’s been a lot of misinformation out here about this. This would just be an option. Nobody would be forced to choose it. No one with insurance would be affected. But what it would do is offer Americans more choices, and promote real competition, and put pressure on private insurers to make their policies affordable and treat their customers better. (Applause.)
Check out the full speech at WhiteHouse.gov.

President Obama meets with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday before heading to the G-8 in Italy. Obama delivered a commencement speech Tuesday at a Moscow graduate school.

“America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia,” he told a large crowd at the New Economic School. “This belief is rooted in our respect for the Russian people, and a shared history between our nations that goes beyond competition.”

He repeated the message in a meeting later with Russian business leaders, but also said Russia has to do more to fight corruption.

“We have to promote transparency, accountability, rule of law on which investments and economic growth depend,” he said. Watch Obama discuss thoughts on Kremlin visit »

“We want Russia to be selling us goods and we want Russia to be buying goods from us,” he said. “Total trade between our countries is just $36 billion. Our trade — America’s trade with Russia — is only about 1 percent of all our trade with the world — 1 percent — a percent that’s virtually unchanged since the Cold War.” Watch Obama’s full opening statement »

Obama later met Russian opposition leaders, speaking of the importance for the country to “not simply tolerate dissenting voices but also to respect and recognize dissenting voices.”

Obama also spoke to civil society leaders, promising the United States will support universal values and human rights such as the rights of people to live as they choose, to have a free press and to speak their minds.

On Monday Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and discussed a series of agreements — including one on nuclear-arms reduction — as part of an effort to strengthen ties between the one-time Cold War rivals.

The two signed a deal on parameters for negotiations to replace the START agreement, with the goal of reducing nuclear weapons. START expires December 5. Watch Obama discuss arms control pact »

Under Monday’s agreement, Russia and the United States will reduce their strategic warheads to a range of 1,500 to 1,675, and their strategic delivery vehicles to a range of 500 to 1,100. The numbers would be a reduction from the expiring START, which allowed 2,200 warheads and 1,600 launch vehicles.

The two-day summit in Moscow was to help refocus a relationship that, according to Obama, “has suffered from a sense of drift” in recent years. The president reiterated that in his speech Tuesday.

“That is why I have called for a ‘reset’ in relations between the United States and Russia,” Obama said.

“This must be more than a fresh start between the Kremlin and the White House, though that is important,” he said. “It must be a sustained effort among the American and Russian people to identify mutual interests and to expand dialogue and cooperation that can pave the way to progress.”

Obama met with Medvedev again Tuesday and with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin before heading to Italy for the Group of Eight summit. The G-8 agenda is packed with issues, including Iran, the global financial crisis, climate change and eradicating world poverty.

Putin said his meeting with Obama was “very good and substantive.”

“We also talked about how we will be improving our relations in the near- and medium-term. It was a very well-intentioned and substantial conversation in many concrete fields. We have many points we agree on,” Russia’s prime minister said.

After his speech, Obama sat down with Ed Henry, CNN senior White House correspondent, for a brief interview.

The president spoke about a wide range of issues, including how much his daughters were enjoying Moscow, his impressions of Putin, relations with Iran and Michael Jackson.

On Iran, Obama reiterated recent statements about the post-election protests there.

“Events in recent weeks have disturbed the world. They are not only heartbreaking, but raise questions over where leaders want to take the country,” Obama said. “We have to wait and see how the dust settles. But we have to speak out and say that the Iranian people have to be treated with justice.”

“No doubt he was one of greatest entertainers of our or any generation. Like Elvis, Sinatra, the Beatles, he became core part of our culture,” Obama said. “His extraordinary talent and music was mixed with big dose of tragedy in private life. It is important for us to affirm the best of him.”

Mr President wants you to join National Online discussion on Health Care reform. Record your video , upload it to YouTube and wait for the answer. Be clever and understandable.
Barack Obama Blog Crew.

Stirred by the President’s unprecedented remarks, Muslims across America say they stand poised to help their country forge a new and better relationship with the Islamic world.

President Obama in Egypt. White House photo

(LONDON) – “Say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors.”

President Obama delivered his most extensive remarks to date about American-Muslim relations this week in Egypt.

Referring to the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, and the Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, President Obama delivered his most extensive remarks to date about American-Muslim relations.

His efforts to build bridges between the West and the Islamic world clearly have paid off.

Stirred by the President’s unprecedented remarks, Muslims across America stand poised to help their country forge a new and better relationship with the Islamic world.

“As American Muslims, we support President Obama’s vision to meaningfully partner with the Islamic world,” said Wasim Malik, National Vice President of AMC USA. The AMC is an international organization, and is also well-established in over 70 chapters across America.

If you would like comments or reactions from local Muslims, please contact our offices to be directed to Muslims in your area.

=========================================================

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMC) is a dynamic, reformist and fast growing international movement within Islam. Founded in 1889, AMC spans over 190 countries with membership exceeding tens of millions. AMC USA, established in 1921, is the first American-Muslim organization.

Video and speech
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/NewBeginning/

First, last fall, there were all kinds of people, a number of them Ron Paul supporters, dashing from Internet site to Internet site suggesting that John McCain could not serve as president of the United States.

That was because he was born outside the United States and, therefore, not native-born, as presidents must be constitutionally.

McCain was, in fact, born in a U.S. military hospital in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was serving in the Navy. That was, in fact, American-controlled territory at the time.

More importantly, his parents were both American citizens, so he could have been born on Mars and still been an American at birth. And a sense of the Senate resolution took care of any lingering doubts.

Now come the rumors about Barack Obama’s birthplace, that he was really born in his father’s native Kenya, so like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, he can’t become a U.S. president.

Same rule would apply as for McCain. Obama’s mother was an American. So is her son.

The Obama campaign has provided at The Ticket’s request what it says is a copy of the Illinois senator’s official birth certificate, reproduced here, showing he was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, at 7:24 p.m., which means he was late for dinner, just like a politician. Click on the photo to enlarge for reading.

Now, about the citizenship of all those people planting these rumors.

(UPDATE: In reaction to some of the comments left below challenging the veracity of the document, Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, sent the following reaction to The Ticket: “I can confirm that that is Sen. Obama’s birth certificate.”)

–Andrew Malcolm

That summer, he was invited to deliver the keynote speech in support of John Kerry at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama emphasized the importance of unity, and made veiled jabs at the Bush administration and the diversionary use of wedge issues.

“We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states,” he said. “We coach Little League in the blue states, and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”

After the convention, Obama returned to his U.S. Senate bid in Illinois. His opponent in the general election was suppose to be Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, a wealthy former investment banker. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June 2004, following public disclosure of unsubstantiated sexual allegations by Ryan’s ex wife, actress Jeri Ryan.

In August 2004, diplomat and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, who was also an African American, accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. In three televised debates, Obama and Keyes expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion, gun control, school vouchers and tax cuts.

In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes’s 27%, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. Obama became only the third African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction.

Sworn into office January 4, 2005, Obama partnered with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. Then with Republican Sen. Tom Corburn of Oklahoma, he created a website that tracks all federal spending.

Obama was also the first to raise the threat of avian flu on the Senate floor, spoke out for victims of Hurricane Katrina, pushed for alternative energy development and championed improved veterans´ benefits. He also worked with Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by lobbyists to members of Congress.

His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, was published in October 2006.

In February 2007, Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with former first lady and current U.S. Senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton until he became the presumptive nominee on June 3, 2008.

Obama met his wife, Michelle, in 1988 when he was a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin. They were married in October 1992 and live in Kenwood on Chicago’s South Side with their daughters, Malia (born 1998) and Sasha (born 2001).

© 2008 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved

Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In February 1990, he was elected the first African–American editor of the Harvard Law Review. Obama graduated magna cum laude in 1991.

After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer, joining the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also taught at the University of Chicago Law School. And he helped organize voter registration drives during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.

Obama published an autobiography in 1995 Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. And he won a Grammy for the audio version of the book.

Obama’s advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat. He was elected in 1996 from the south side neighborhood of Hyde Park.

During these years, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics, expanded health care services and early childhood education programs for the poor. He also created a state earned-income tax credit for the working poor. And after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

In 2000, Obama made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U. S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush.

Following the 9/11 attacks, Obama was an early opponent of President George W. Bush’s push to war with Iraq. Obama was still a state senator when he spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq during a rally at Chicago’s Federal Plaza in October 2002.

“I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars,” he said. “What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.”

“He’s a bad guy,” Obama said, referring to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. “The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.”

“I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U. S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences,” Obama continued. “I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.”

aka Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.

(1961–)

Breaking News: In a historic presidential win tonight (November 4, 2008), Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, addressed the nation for the first time as President Elect. He will become the nation’s first African American president when he is sworn into office on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009.

During their third and final presidential debate, Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain clashed sharply over tax policies and some of the heated rhetoric that had been tossed between their campaigns.

The debate was held October 15, 2008, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, on Long Island, with CBS’ Bob Schieffer moderating.

Obama and McCain also held debates on September 26 in Oxford, Mississippi, and October 7 in Nashville, Tennessee. The vice presidential nominees, Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden, met for their only debate on October 2 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Voters turned out in record numbers to cast their ballots on Election Day, November 4, 2008.

Biography: Barack Hussein Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. He grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British. Although reared among Muslims, Obama, Sr., became an atheist at some point.

Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he signed up for service in World War II and marched across Europe in Patton’s army. Dunham’s mother went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G. I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved to Hawaii.

Meantime, Barack’s father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya pursue his dreams in Hawaii. At the time of his birth, Obama’s parents were students at the East–West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Obama’s parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. Obama’s father went to Harvard to pursue Ph. D. studies and then returned to Kenya.

His mother married Lolo Soetoro, another East–West Center student from Indonesia. In 1967, the family moved to Jakarta, where Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro–Ng was born. Obama attended schools in Jakarta, where classes were taught in the Indonesian language.

Four years later when Barack (commonly known throughout his early years as “Barry”) was ten, he returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and later his mother (who died of ovarian cancer in 1995).

He was enrolled in the fifth grade at the esteemed Punahou Academy, graduating with honors in 1979. He was only one of three black students at the school. This is where Obama first became conscious of racism and what it meant to be an African–American.

In his memoir, Obama described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He saw his biological father (who died in a 1982 car accident) only once (in 1971) after his parents divorced. And he admitted using alcohol, marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years.

After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science.

After working at Business International Corporation (a company that provided international business information to corporate clients) and NYPIRG, Obama moved to Chicago in 1985. There, he worked as a community organizer with low-income residents in Chicago’s Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the city’s South Side.