Free Republic

The House ethics panel has not released its findings into the behavior of Mark Foley, the Florida Republican who left Congress in disgrace, despite looming adjournment and an October promise that the probe would conclude in "weeks, not months." Speculation was raised that a report on the Foley scandal would be issued this afternoon, but staffers for the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct did not respond to rumors sweeping through Capitol Hill. Mr. Foley resigned Sept. 29 when it was revealed that he sent sexually explicit messages to teenage boys who had served as congressional pages. That day, House...

[excerpted] ...."Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters," the Illinois Democrat said in remarks prepared for delivery to a conference of Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement to overcome poverty. "It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase `under God,"' he said. "Having voluntary student prayer groups using school property to meet should not be a threat, any more than its use by the High School Republicans should threaten Democrats." ..... Obama said millions of Christians, Muslims...

On Monday, a celebration of a Senator's swearing in will have some international representation. Kenya is planning on sending a delegation of politicians and relatives to the ceremony. Obama will be visiting Nairobi in May of 2005 and speak at an international media conference. Even though the Senator has never lived there, Kenyans consider Obama a local and celebrated as he easily won his first election and became the only African American in the 2005 Senate...

This week multiple news organizations honored Obama. In his hometown the Chicago Sun Times named him on of the "Year's Biggest" local stories... "Obama charged onto the national stage at the Democratic National Convention in July with an acclaimed keynote speech declaring "in no other country on earth is my story even possible.'' When his campaign to get to Washington was beginning, Obama himself joked about his name, which he received from his Kenyan father, calling it a possible political liability. But behind the jokes, Obama ran a serious, textbook-perfect campaign. And on the campaign trail, he appealed to...