Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- A quiet transformation is taking place in the Republican Party, which has begun to embrace openly gay candidates - and among gay Republicans, who now feel more comfortable speaking out in a party that may have accepted them but didn't always show it. While differences still exist, the party is on the cusp of a generational shift in which the longtime foes of gay rights are replaced by younger party leaders who are more accepting. "It's an exponential change from a few years ago," said former Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe. "It's happening, and it's going to continue to...

Audio and transcript at link. Also coverage by O'Reilly.

President Obama has hired Michael Wear,an apostate Catholic who belongs to a ‘nondenominational,evangelical-style church in Washington’,to counter the Bishops campaign to protect religious freedom in the US. CNN reports: ‘Michael Wear,who currently serves as executive assistant to the executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,will join the Obama campaign in Chicago as faith vote coordinator,a campaign official said.’ Wear,who was raised a Catholic but now attends a nondenominational,evangelical-style church in Washington,has spearheaded White House outreach to evangelicals and has focused on policy issues like adoption throughout Obama’s first term. A source close to the campaign...

The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to perform ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In a policy statement released Wednesday, the OMB outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning...

Joseph Curl's analysis in Sunday's Washington Times on Barack Obama's gay marriage flip-flop nicely sums up the president's motive. Actually, the headline sums it up: "Team Obama panics, and it's only May." That's right. President Barack Obama -- that Everest of integrity -- and his paid hacks are in full panic mode. As Curl observes, it's mid-May, and the president is focusing on shoring up what should be a base constituency -- gays. Previously, Mr. Obama was trying to drive wedges between the GOP and women, Hispanics, and young voters to shore up support from these cohorts. A president up...

Presbyterian church representatives refuse to rebuke former San Rafael pastor in gay marriage dispute In an unprecedented defiance of a church judicial commission, representatives of Northern California Presbyterian churches Tuesday refused to rebuke a retired pastor for marrying 16 same-sex couples when gay marriage was legal in California in 2008.The 74-18 vote on a motion opposing the censure of the Rev. Jane Spahr came at a meeting of the Presbytery of the Redwoods at the First Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo."Love and justice have come together here," Spahr, 69, said after the vote. "I think this is going to help...

Suze Orman, personal finance guru and Chancellor Of Extremely Tough Love, stopped by The View today for a wide-ranging discussion that included, unsurprisingly, a conversation about President Obama’s recent announcement in support of gay marriage. Orman, herself openly gay and happily married, shared her reaction to Obama’s statement — and gave an emotional plea for more support for gay marriage. The segment, of course, was not without some awkward moments. The worst of which, perhaps, was when Barbara Walters choked out the sentence “you are married to your [insert 5-second pause here] wife?” with the same tone with which someone...

Update, 8:30 p.m.: Pacquiao is "not welcome at The Grove and will not be interviewed here now or in the future." Full statement at the bottom. ==================================== Update, 6:50 p.m.: "We're canceling the event," says Grove spokesman Bill Reich. "Manny Pacquiao is not coming to the Grove." And thus the backlash begins. ==================================== Professional boxer Manny Pacquiao and "Extra" host Mario Lopez were blowing up Twitter today about their 3/3:30 p.m. interview at the Grove on Wednesday. But mall executives tell LA Weekly that the event may be called off. Pacquiao told the National Conservative Examiner over the weekend that...

The LAUSD Superintendent is calling on Calif. voters to approve new taxes on the November ballot to safeguard education spending. How do you plan to vote? Yes No Don't know Vote

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview that Republicans have a “two out of three” chance of winning not only the White House in November, but the Senate and House as well. The reason, he says: President Obama “doesn’t have a clue about what he’s doing” and Americans can’t afford four more years of this “disaster.” Gingrich suspended his presidential campaign on May 2 and has endorsed Mitt Romney. The veteran Georgia lawmaker was first elected to the House in 1978 and served as speaker from 1995 to 1999 before announcing his retirement.

A city in Kansas, divided over a proposed ordinance that would bar organizations, including churches, from discriminating against same-sex couples, has backers saying gays deserve the protection as critics warn against the government going too far. The Hutchinson City Council voted 3-2 to add sexual orientation to the city's anti-discrimination ordinance, which covers churches, as well as employers, restaurants and other local businesses. However, the measure was scaled back in an effort to win enough votes for passage. The revisions to the ordinance will only prohibit firings or evictions based on their sexual orientation, while a provision was cut that...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The New York Times/CBS poll is so bad for Obama. They are really worried in the White House, and it's not new. They have been worried for a long time. This is not the first CBS/New York Times poll that has bad news for Obama. People have forgotten, two months ago, on the same day, the Washington Post and New York Times both came out with polls, and Obama was at 41% approval in one of them, and he was not doing well with women I think in the Washington Post poll two months ago. And this...

The celebration clamoring of the radical homosexual Left has reached an ecstatic, fever pitch since last Wednesday when Barack Obama (or whatever his name is) made history with his shameful pronouncement that he believes people of the same sex should be able to get “married.” Never mind that a marriage union between people of the same sex is impossible in every way. Just the fact that he made this wicked declaration should be enough to make even the most strident Obama supporter say, “Huh?” Well, in theory it should, but I do not underestimate the density of the mind of...

J.C. Penney Co., which is making major pricing and merchandising changes, said Tuesday that it swung to a first-quarter loss that was larger than expected and that it no longer expects to meet its previous profit forecast for the year. -snip- The net loss was $163 million, or 75 cents a share, compared with a profit of $64 million or 28 cents a share a year earlier. Sales in the quarter ended April 28 fell 20% to $3.15 billion.

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Job Creation: With just 7% of Americans considering gay marriage the top issue, the presumptive GOP nominee asks: What about the 23 million Americans who are out of work, underemployed or have simply given up? The battle of the steel ads between venture capitalist Mitt Romney and venture socialist and incumbent President Barack Obama has ended with the advantage going to Romney. The Obama spot dubbed "Steel," but which perhaps could have been labeled "Vampire," will be run once during the evening news on Wednesday in five key battleground states and then be withdrawn while people stop laughing. Such ads...

He’s back, people! First, President Obama made the amazing and inspiring move last week to finally support gay marriage. Have you see the latest New Yorker cover? Is this beautiful or what? How could anyone not feel happy looking at this image? The whole idea that gay marriage is “anti-family” or threatens “traditional” marriage is such an inane, warped, self-defeating argument. “Traditional” marriage was, of course, created as a financial contract to control the means of reproduction, that is, women. When women had no social, political, or financial power, when they were not allowed to own property and only valued...

Joe Biden will be staying in the city in which I live and work, Steubenville, Ohio. My firefighter husband will even be on duty that night. Interestingly, Slow Joe will not be staying at our local bed and breakfast, owned and operated by a gay couple. Joe "The Villages" Biden will be staying at the Hampton Inn, no doubt owned by eeeeevil straight, white one percenters.

The Washington Blade, D.C.'s main LGBT news outlet, is reporting that Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has placed Chief of Staff Murat Gokcigdem on leave following questions about a 2010 e-mail... staffer Chris Crowe was seeking a letter of recommendation from Johnson for a position in Obama's Treasury Department...."It is my personal belief that he has contacts there," Gokcigdem wrote. "And they, as a group watching and supporting each other if you know what I mean."

OTTAWA, May 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A sex exhibit opening this week at the Canada Science and Technology Museum is receiving heat from conservative commentators, who say that, despite its claims of being “scientific” and objective, it is disturbingly explicit and promotes a vision of sexuality that is anything but moral. Conservative journalist Patrick Meagher, who recently attended a preview of “Sex: A Tell-All Exhibition,” told LifeSiteNews that included in it are graphic presentations of masturbation, nudity, and condom use. “The exhibit includes nude images and an animated video of masturbation. Other videos include a woman who says she...