RNC warns Tenn. GOP on "Hussein"

[one...two...tree 2,762]

had a kid in school..named adolph/./////by his junior year, he went by steve ...i called him as everyone else did, ratman..had a face like a rodent

LOL...it's the nicknames that always stick.

[simple_male 1]

It is a shame that Barack doesn't have 'Washington' as a middle name. As some people seem to like using middle names so much, it would be nice to see him addressed as Barack Washington Obama. I mean, surely they would continue to do so, no? Or am I just politically naiive?

Christian, Western heroes have often been bequeathed Middle Eastern names. Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the medieval Spanish hero, carried the name El Cid, from the Arabic al-Sayyid, "the Lord."

Barack and Hussein are Semitic words. Americans have been named with Semitic names since the founding of the republic. Fourteen of our 43 presidents have had Semitic names (see below). And American English contains many Arabic-derived words that we use every day and without which we would be much impoverished. America is a world civilization with a world heritage, something Cunningham will never understand.

Barack is a Semitic word meaning "to bless" as a verb or "blessing" as a noun. In its Hebrew form, barak, it is found all through the Bible. It first occurs in Genesis 1:22 -- "And God blessed (ḇāreḵə) them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."

Here is a list of how many times barak appears in each book of the Bible.

Now let us take the name "Hussein." It is from the Semitic word hasan, meaning "good" or "handsome." Husayn is the diminutive, affectionate form.

Barack Obama's middle name is in honor of his grandfather, Hussein, a secular resident of Nairobi, Kenya. Americans may think of Saddam Hussein when they hear the name, but that is like thinking of Stalin when you hear the name Joseph. There have been lots of Husseins in history, from the grandson of the prophet Mohammed, a hero who touched the historian Gibbon, to King Hussein of Jordan, one of America's most steadfast allies in the 20th century. The author of the beloved American novel "The Kite Runner" is Khaled Hosseini.

But in Obama's case, it is just a reference to his grandfather.

It is worth pointing out that John McCain's adopted daughter, Bridget, is originally from Bangladesh. Since Hussein is a very common name in Bangladesh, it is entirely possible that her birth father or grandfather was named Hussein. McCain certainly has Muslim relatives via adoption in his family. If Muslim relatives are a disqualification from high office in the United States, then McCain himself is in trouble. In fact, since Bridget is upset that George W. Bush doesn't like her "because she is black," and used her to stop the McCain campaign in South Carolina in 2000, you understand why McCain would be especially sensitive to race baiting of Cunningham's sort. The question is how vigorously he will combat it; he hasn't been above Muslim taunting in the campaign so far. (And the McCains really should let Bridget know that she is Asian, not "black." The poor girl; Bush and Rove have done a number on her, and Cindy's confusion can't help.)

The other thing to say about grandfathers named Hussein is that very large numbers of African-Americans probably have an ancestor 10 or 11 generations ago with that name, in what is now Mali or Senegal or Nigeria. And since so many thousands of Arab Muslims were made to convert to Catholicism in Spain after 1501, many Latinos have distant ancestors named Hussein, too. In fact, since there was a lot of Arab-Spanish intermarriage, and since there was subsequent Spanish intermarriage with other European Catholics, more European Americans are descended from a Hussein than they realize. The British royal family is quite forthright about the Arab line in its ancestry going back to Andalusia.

Obama, being a cousin of ####### Cheney on one side and having relatives in Kenya on the other, is just more and more typical of the 21st century United States.

So, anyway, Obama's first two names mean "blessing, the good." If we are lucky enough to get him for president, we can only hope that his names are prophetic for us.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/02/28/hussein/

Good reading. Cindy McCain brought Bridget from an orphanage in Bangladesh, as the McCain couple adopted her. Unfortunately, there were imflammatory comments about McCain regarding Bridget apparently because of her dark skin.

Yes, both "Barack" and "Hussein" are semitic words.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Where is Obama on all this hub-bub? Does he care?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Where is Obama on all this hub-bub? Does he care?

Dunno - why don't you find out.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Where is Obama on all this hub-bub? Does he care?

Dunno - why don't you find out.

Got his number?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

There was actually a Saddam Hussein who played high school basketball in Michigan during the first gulf war - poor kid

[Ban Hammer 13,575]

True that. I got a funny name myself. I got a lot of "i'm sorry I just can't say your name" with angry looks on peoples faces as if it was my fault they couldn't say it, when I was down working in the carolinas in 2001. I never get that up here, which I like.

vj troll is difficult to say in carolina?