Free Republic

enate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) are taking the lead on talks to raise the debt limit and reopen the government, according to senators. Reid and McConnell are working off a six-point proposal sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would fund the government for six months and raise the debt ceiling until Jan. 31, 2014. Senators view discussions between the two leaders as a promising sign of potential bipartisan compromise. “Reid and McConnell are talking now and those discussions continue so I see that as progress,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas)....

People in Ohio, Michigan and several other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit cards on Saturday, after a routine check by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure. Shoppers from Maine to Oklahoma had to abandon baskets of groceries because they couldn't access their benefits.Ohio's cash and food assistance card payment systems went down at 11 a.m., said Benjamin Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Ohio's cash system has been fixed, however its electronic benefits transfer card system is still down. All states that use Xerox systems are affected...

A trio of centrist Senate Republicans is pushing a plan to reopen the government for six months, extend the debt ceiling until Jan. 31, 2014 and make reforms to ObamaCare. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is spearheading the proposal along with Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). It would address Tea-Party conservatives concerns over Medicare by delaying the medical device tax for two years and creating an income verification program under the Affordable Care Act to ensure only eligible individuals receive subsidies on the insurance exchanges. The delay of the Medical Device Tax would be paid for by extending...

Sen. Angus S. King Jr., Maine independent, said in an interview with Salon magazine that conservative groups campaigning against Obamacare are “guilty of murder.” .... “That’s a scandal — those people are guilty of murder in my opinion,” Mr. King said Friday. “Some of those people they persuade are going to end up dying because they don’t have health insurance. For people who do that to other people in the name of some obscure political ideology is one of the grossest violations of our humanity I can think of. This absolutely drives me crazy.” .... “The bottom line for me...

In which we award today's King Canute Award to that famous pillar of Jell-O, Susan Collins of Maine, useless walking pile of abject irrelevance. "I voted against Obamacare and have repeatedly voted to repeal, reform, and replace it, but I disagree with the strategy of linking Obamacare with the continuing functioning of government-a strategy that cannot possibly work. Instead, I urge the President and congressional leaders to sit down immediately and negotiate at least a stopgap funding measure to avoid a disruption in many vital programs on which our citizens rely. I also call on the President to resume the...

Conservative groups advising Americans not to sign up for the Obamacare exchanges “are guilty of murder,” according to Maine independent Sen. Angus King. King, who caucuses with the Democrats, told Salon in an interview published Monday that efforts to dissuade young people from signing up is a “scandal,” and a deadly one. “That’s a scandal — those people are guilty of murder in my opinion,” King said in a Friday interview with Salon’s Brian Beutler. “Some of those people they persuade are going to end up dying because they don’t have health insurance.” “For people who do that to other

Maine law allows police to arrest victims to make sure they testify http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/m...-they-testify/ CHELSEA, ME — A battered woman was arrested by police in an effort to force her to testify against her abuser. She was detained without charges, locked in a cage, and a bail was set. The startling practice of arresting the victim is actually legal in Maine, thanks to a seldom used statute. Jessica Ruiz, 35, was the alleged victim of domestic violence at the hands of 45-year-old Robert Robinson, Jr., in an April incident. On September 17, police arrested Ruiz to make sure she testified against...

<p>Another prominent Republican has come out in support of same-sex marriage — or at least, in support of one particular same-sex marriage.</p> <p>Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara served as an official witnesses Saturday at the Maine wedding of Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen, co-owners of a Kennebunk general store. Thorgalsen posted a photo on Facebook of the 41st commander-in-chief signing a set of documents for them at an outdoor celebration: “Getting our marriage license witnessed!”</p>

Fox confirms Vice President Joe Biden will have dinner Sunday night with a group of GOP Senators who could be swayed on Syria. The topic of conversation is expected to be what the President needs to say in his Tuesday address.

In a letter dated August 18, 2013, 13 members of the Maine Republican Party have resigned and/or unenrolled from their political party. The letter outlines many grievances. “Therefore, for the above-stated reasons, we can no longer allow ourselves to be called nor enrolled as Republicans; we can no longer associate ourselves with a political party that goes out of its way to continually restrict our freedoms and liberties as well as reaching deeper and deeper into our wallets.” Full text of letter: August 18, 2013 To Maine State GOP Secretary Chuck Mahaleris: There are times in your life when you...

Gregory Hodge, of Jefferson, is urging people on the political left and right to look critically at their party affiliation. Hodge was the state committeeman for the Lincoln County Republicans until he and 11 other Republicans unenrolled from the Maine Republican Party and resigned related positions this week, Hodge joined five other state committee members, Republican National Committee member Mark Willis, and five other registered Maine Republicans in writing a letter outlining their disaffiliation and the reasons behind it to Maine GOP Secretary Chuck Malaheris. The Aug. 18 letter criticizes a number of people, actions, and groups, including rule changes...

Gov. Paul LePage told a group of Republicans last week that President Obama "hates white people," according to two state lawmakers who say they heard the remark directly. The governor made the comment during a Maine Republican Party fundraiser on Aug. 12 at the home of John and Linda Fortier in Belgrade. According to the invitation, the fundraiser was a "meet and greet" for LePage and first lady Ann LePage, and an opportunity to meet Rick Bennett, the new party chairman. The lawmakers, both Republicans, confirmed the comment when asked by a Portland Press Herald reporter but asked that their...

Alorah Gellerson loves her three-month-old son. "He's a really good baby. He's always happy. He likes to eat," she said. But what baby Carson eats has caused a lot of trouble for this 17-year-old mother. When the baby didn't take to breastfeeding, Gellerson started feeding him homemade goat milk formula. "Oh, he loved it," Gellerson said. "We put celery juice in it, and he just loves that, and it worked really well with his body, and he grew like a weed." But when her doctor reported this to the Department of Health and Human Services, things got messy. "She came...

Maine man badly injured in Torngat Mountains National Park. A U.S. hiker vividly recalls the night one of his fellow campers was pulled from his tent and attacked by a polar bear in Torngat Mountains National Park in northern Labrador. Matt Dyer, a lawyer from Maine, was badly injured during the attack at around 1:30 a.m. AT on July 24. Richard Eisenberg was with Dyer and six other hikers as part of a Sierra Club hiking trip to the remote park. He said the group woke up to the sounds of Dyer screaming as he was dragged from his tent....

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Bosnian immigrant accused of lying to U.S. immigration authorities by denying involvement in war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia two decades ago pleaded not guilty on Friday. Prosecutors allege Edin Sakoc, who has been living in Burlington, the state's largest city, was involved in war crimes against a civilian Bosnian Serb family in 1992. An indictment says he raped a Serb woman and aided in the killing of the two elderly people she was caring for and the burning of the house they were staying in. ... Vermont has a sizable Bosnian community. Between 1993...

A pair of hikers who had been rescued after getting lost in the fog and rain inside a Maine state park drowned on Tuesday night when their car plunged into the water off a boat launch as they were trying to leave. Amy Stiner, 37, and Melissa Moyer, 38, were found dead inside a minivan in 20 feet of water about 175 feet from the boat ramp on the edge of Roque Bluffs State Park, the Washington County Sheriff's Department said. A dog, a pit bull mix who was with them, also drowned. Officials say the women, who had just...

ROQUE BLUFFS, Maine (AP) — A pregnant Maine woman and her friend visiting from Pennsylvania got lost hiking and were rescued but died later that evening, authorities said, when they accidentally drove their car into the ocean in the nighttime fog.

Liz Cheney has not made a case for her challenge to Mike Enzi in a Wyoming Republican primary next year, former Sen. Olympia Snowe told POLITICO. The Maine Republican senator said the decision by Cheney to take on the genial third-term senator is “unfortunate,” given that Enzi travels home often and reflects his constituents’ conservative beliefs while also working “to do the right thing for the right reasons” legislatively. “There is no reason to challenge him. What is the basis? That he’s not working hard enough? He’s working very hard,” Snowe said. “That he’s not conservative enough? I think it’s...

BANGOR, Maine — A 43-year-old man in a Park Street residence who fired 70 or more rounds from a gun was taken into custody unharmed early Thursday afternoon, according to police. Perrin Oliver of Detroit, Mich.,