Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (US ⁱ/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician serving as the 44th President of the United States, the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, and ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 against incumbent Bobby Rush.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his inauguration, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

1912 Democratic National Convention

The 1912 Democratic National Convention was held at the Fifth Regiment Armory off North Howard Street in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912. It proved to be one of the more memorable United States presidential conventions of the Twentieth Century.

The Convention

The 1912 Democratic National Convention was held at the Fifth Regiment Armory, (massive stone castle-like hall with barrel-vaulted roof, built 1900 for the famous "Dandy Fifth", 5th Maryland Regiment of the old Maryland state militia - now the Maryland National Guard) off North Howard Street in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912. As the first national political convention to be held in the old "Monumental City", which was the site of the first presidential nominating session in 1831 and of many later conventions of political parties during the mid-19th Century as a "Border City", the last in 1864 with the renomination of President Lincoln. It proved to be one of the more memorable United States presidential conventions of the Twentieth Century.

1968 Democratic National Convention

The 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968. As President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek re-election, the purpose of the convention was to select a new presidential nominee to run as the Democratic Party's candidate for the office. The keynote speaker was Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii).

Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine were nominated for President and Vice President, respectively.

The convention was held during a year of violence, political turbulence, and civil unrest, particularly riots in more than 100 cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4. The convention also followed the assassination of Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, on June 5. Both Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota had been running against the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Speech

Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. It is based upon the syntactic combination of lexicals and names that are drawn from very large (usually about 1,000 different words) vocabularies. Each spoken word is created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech sound units. These vocabularies, the syntax which structures them, and their set of speech sound units differ, creating the existence of many thousands of different types of mutually unintelligible human languages. Most human speakers are able to communicate in two or more of them, hence being polyglots. The vocal abilities that enable humans to produce speech also provide humans with the ability to sing.

A gestural form of human communication exists for the deaf in the form of sign language. Speech in some cultures has become the basis of a written language, often one that differs in its vocabulary, syntax and phonetics from its associated spoken one, a situation called diglossia. Speech in addition to its use in communication, it is suggested by some psychologists such as Vygotsky is internally used by mental processes to enhance and organize cognition in the form of an interior monologue.

Public speaking

Public speaking (sometimes termed oratory or oration) is the process or act of performing a presentation (a speech) focused around an individual directly speaking to a live audience in a structured, deliberate manner in order to inform, influence, or entertain them. Public speaking is commonly understood as the formal, face-to-face talking of a single person to a group of listeners. It is closely allied to "presenting", although the latter is more often associated with commercial activity. Most of the time, public speaking is to persuade the audience.

Overview

In public speaking, as in any form of communication, there are five basic elements, often expressed as "who is saying what to whom using what medium with what effects?" The purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act, to simply telling a story. Good orators should not only be able to engage their audience, but also able to read them. The power of a truly great presenter is the ability to change the emotions of their listeners, not just inform them. Public speaking can also be considered a discourse community. Interpersonal communication and public speaking have several components that embrace such things as motivational speaking, leadership/personal development, business, customer service, large group communication, and mass communication. Public speaking can be a powerful tool to use for purposes such as motivation, influence, persuasion, informing, translation, or simply ethos.

Speech (rapper)

Todd Thomas (born October 25, 1968), better known by the stage name Speech, is an American rapper and musician. He is a member of the progressive hip hop group Arrested Development and has released a number of solo albums.

Background

He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States and spent his childhood years there and in Ripley, Tennessee, before relocating to Georgia in 1987 to attend the Art Institute of Atlanta. He attended Rufus King High School.

Music career

With Arrested Development

In 1987, Speech joined with fellow DJ Headliner to form the group Arrested Development. After over three years together, the group released their inaugural album, 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of..., which produced several hits and sold very well. Speech performed lead vocals, and produced the group's tracks. The group's follow-up album, Zingalamaduni, fared poorly by comparison, but was critically acclaimed. Speech would later go on to pursue his solo career. Speech also started Vagabond Productions since 1994 – Vagabond started as a vehicle for Grammy winners Arrested Development and their business dealings and became a promoter of neo soul, hip-hop, and rock concerts in Atlanta. The company then switched to representing artists in U.S. and Japan. Since then, Vagabond has become an all around production house that presents music to various labels and on-line outlets across the globe.

President of Angola

The President of the Republic of Angola (Presidente da República de Angola in Portuguese) is both head of state and head of government in Angola. According to the constitution adopted in 2010, the post of Prime Minister is abolished; executive authority belongs to the President who has also a degree of legislative powers, as he can govern by decree.

The position of President dates from Angola's independence from Portugal. Agostinho Neto held the position when his then Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) won control of the country from the Portuguese. When Neto died in 1979, José Eduardo dos Santos succeeded him.

Under Dos Santos's leadership, Angola became a multi-party state, although controlled by Dos Santos. The most recent elections, held in 1992, reelected Dos Santos with 49% of the votes. Dos Santos's opponent, Jonas Savimbi of the National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) party, claimed that the elections were fraudulent.