Free Republic

Betrayal: Who deserves the most blame for the wrecking ball that Congress and the president will soon take to the greatest health system in the world? The Republican who gave them her vote. 'When history calls, history calls," Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe said in October when she joined Senate Finance Committee Democrats as the lone Republican supporting their health care revolution. Sometime between then and now "history" hung up on her. With the vote 14-to-9 on that key panel, Snowe wasn't the deciding factor. But she gave Democrats something to use to optimal effect in the next two months —...

In this season given to tidings of comfort and joy, word has come that we New Yorkers are the sad sacks of the United States. This is something of a surprise. Sure, we complain a lot. Grumbling could qualify as the official state sport. But are we really the unhappiest of them all? It seems so, judging from a study by two economics professors, newly published in Science magazine. The academics — Andrew J. Oswald, of the University of Warwick in Britain, and Stephen Wu, of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. — examined piles of data, tossed them into a...

December 20, 2009 Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) released the following statement today on the status of the health reform legislation currently pending before the United States Senate: “Having been fully immersed in this issue for this entire year and as the only Republican to vote for health reform in the Finance Committee, I deeply regret that I cannot support the pending Senate legislation as it currently stands, given my continued concerns with the measure and an artificial and arbitrary deadline of completing the bill before Christmas that is shortchanging the process on this monumental and...

LEWISTON — In the early evening on the first day of summer, a large group of Somali boys approached a woman on the corner of Ash and Pierce streets. According to police reports, they intimidated the woman and slapped her in the back of the head before scattering into the downtown. Five days later, shortly after midnight, a man was accosted by a group of Somali boys outside the Big Apple on Main Street. Police reports say several members of the group punched the man and took money from him. They then fled in a car. Later that night, a...

BEAVER -- The Beaver County Sheriff's Office has arrested three men suspected in a series of burglaries. According to the Spectrum, deputies said Luis M. Lopez, Andy F. Lopez, and Oren T. Hounchell admitted to varying levels of involvement in a series of break-ins at homes, stores and the Beaver City Library. They were also found in possession of an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. All three face multiple burglary and drug charges. Deputies discovered a set of footprints left in the snow after one of the home burglaries. They followed those footprints to the Hounchell's home. The...

Reporter Fired Over Gay Marriage E-Mail Published : Friday, 11 Dec 2009, 9:30 AM EST WATERVILLE - Larry Grard, a veteran newspaper reporter at The Morning Sentinel in Waterville, says he was fired for sending an angry e-mail to a pro-gay marriage group. Grard says he was offended by an e-mail he received from the DC-based Human Rights Campaign the day after the November 3rd vote overturning Maine's same-sex marriage law. He fired off a response, which read, in part, "You hateful people have been spreading nothing but vitriol since the campaign began. Good riddance!" Grard says he was immediately...

A localized media frenzy has ensued after a Catholic reporter was let go from his 19-year position at a Maine newspaper for voicing his opinion against same-sex “marriage” and the campaign to legalize it in Maine. According to an article by the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Larry Grard, a former employee of the Morning Sentinel, was sent a mass email from the pro-gay rights organization, Human Rights Campaign (HRC), following the repeal of the same-sex “marriage” law in Maine during the mid-term elections on Nov. 4. In the email, Trevor Thomas, spokesman for the HRC, voiced his disappointment with the...

Pfc. De'Angello Robinson, 19, traveled seven hours by bus to place a single wreath on the tomb of a soldier whom he'd never met. For him, and the other Marines who took the trip from Camp Johnson in Jacksonville, N.C. to Arlington National Cemetery to decorate graves, the day was about paying tribute to men and women who once stood in their shoes. "In a few months, from where we are getting shipped out, this could be us," said Robinson of the fallen soldiers. "If it is us, I would want somebody to do the same for me so I'm...

AUGUSTA, Maine — It may seem early for the 2010 congressional campaign to start, but not for Jason Levesque. The Auburn businessman has been hitting fairs and factories for six months as the Republican sets his sights on Maine’s 2nd District congressional seat held by four-term Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud.

Olympia Snowe delivered a very good speech on health care shortly before Thanksgiving, not that the press corps noticed. With Majority Leader Harry Reid's announcement this week of a double-secret bargain that Democrats hope will squeeze ObamaCare through the Senate—after nine whole days of debate so far in the world's greatest deliberative body—the Maine Republican's words seem more pertinent than ever. Mrs. Snowe began by noting that this year's health debate is "one of the most complex and intricate undertakings the Congress has ever confronted," and that she, too, has devoted much of her three-decade political career to promoting cheaper,...

...Producer Miodrag Kolaric said that three of the four Belgrades in the United States were known to have been settled about 200 years ago by railroad workers from Belgrade, Serbia.....Curiously, Belgrade is the only southeastern European city other than Athens to have engendered namesakes in the United States, Kolaric said. He could not find a Sofia (from Bulgaria), for example, or a Zagreb (Croatia).....

Per Fox. Title says it all. Gonna happen in time for Christmas. Gutless conservatives have been rightfully excluded from government.

Grard was fired by Bill Thompson, editor of the Sentinel and its sister paper the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, shortly after the Nov. 3 election in which Maine voters repealed a same-sex marriage law approved by the Legislature. Grard said he arrived at work the morning after the vote to find an e-mailed press release from the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., that blamed the outcome of the balloting on hatred of gays. Grard, who said he’d gotten no sleep the night before, used his own e-mail to send a response. “They said the Yes-on-1 people were haters. I’m...

Over the weekend, the Senate continued debate on its version of the government takeover of health care with Republican “unanimous consent� cooperation on floor procedure.   Democrats fell into a rhythm of voting down Republican amendments to jettison the half-trillion dollars worth of Medicare cuts while passing their own -- garnering Republican votes (at times 100-0) on their amendments for political cover. As early as today, they will begin consideration of an amendment to bar abortion funding by or through any government-run “public option� insurance plan. This issue still may be the one that kills the bill for the year. ...

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power would be part of the mix, that clean coal would be part of the mix, that he’s for offshore drilling in a responsible way,” Graham said today in describing his Oval Office meeting with Obama. “But we have to have a price on carbon,...

As a local pastor, I watched, listened and read with amusement the comments of people about the role of the “church” during the recent same-sex marriage scenario. Many shared verbally on talk shows and by the written word in papers, blogs and so forth that the church had no right to be involved in politics during the same-sex debate. Albeit the Catholic Church received most of the criticism, I am sure those complaining wanted their comments directed to all churches that were against same-sex marriage. I found one item somewhat amusing. Those who were appalled at the Catholic Church being...

End of an era: Aircraft depart Brunswick Naval Air Station as Maine base readies for closing. The two last planes at Maine's Brunswick Naval Air Station lifted off Saturday in blustery winds, ending nearly 60 years of maritime patrol operations at New England's last active-duty military air base. The P-3 Orions of the VP-26 squadron lumbered down an 8,000-foot runway before heading off to a six-month deployment in Central America. After that, they fly to their new home at Florida's Jacksonville Naval Air Station. The planes took off without any speeches or fanfare ... Brunswick, once home to 4,000 sailors...

Senior citizens in Maine have greeted over 900,000 US troops at a tiny local airport. For the past five years, a group of senior citizens has made history by greeting over 900,000 American troops at a tiny airport in Bangor, Maine. Take an intimate look at three of these greeters as they confront the universal losses that come with aging and rediscover their reason for living. Link to video

Democrats Focus on G.O.P. Senators From Maine CARL HULSE November 22, 2009 WASHINGTON — Anxious about how little maneuvering room the weekend victory by Senate Democrats on health care provided, Obama administration officials and their Congressional allies are stepping up overtures to select Senate Republicans in hopes of winning their ultimate support. The two moderate Republican senators from Maine, Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, both say Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, reached out to them after he unveiled the Senate measure, encouraging them to bring forward their ideas and concerns. Ms. Collins also received a personal visit...

WASHINGTON — Anxious about how little maneuvering room the weekend victory by Senate Democrats on health care provided, Obama administration officials and their Congressional allies are stepping up overtures to select Senate Republicans in hopes of winning their ultimate support. The two moderate Republican senators from Maine, Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, both say Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, reached out to them after he unveiled the Senate measure, encouraging them to bring forward their ideas and concerns. Ms. Collins also received a personal visit from a high-level Obama emissary, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former senator...

The BDN’s recent series of stories on guns in Maine revealed, among other things, the chasm that lies between those who want to regulate gun ownership and use and those who believe gun ownership is as sacrosanct as the secret ballot and free speech. It’s unlikely the gap will be bridged in the near future, but both camps would do well to work at understanding that their extreme positions may undermine their goals. For the first 100 years of the nation’s history, the Constitution’s Second Amendment was generally understood as supporting the rights of states to keep militias. In 2008,...

A national Muslim civil rights organization has filed a formal request with the Lewiston School Department to allow a middle school student to pray on school property. The group also wants Lewiston to modify existing policy and provide "constitutionally protected religious accommodation," such as a designated prayer room. The group has also requested the school department institute diversity training for school staff, and to ensure the middle-schooler won't face retaliation because of her request to pray at the Lewiston Middle School.

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

Two weeks ago, just after the Maine’s successful reversal of the state legislature’s decision to sanction same-sex marriage, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer asked me a profound question: “Would Jesus have spent $550,000 to oppose same-sex marriage?” The question was exactly what many secular parties had been asking in Portland, Maine, where she was speaking to me by satellite. My answer was that Jesus would have given the money to oppose same-sex marriage. My reasoning was simple: Jesus would have upheld his own teaching; refusing to be a loving, permanent enabler of a misguided local government. I mentioned in the interview that...

In 1940, Lewis L. "Red" Millett, a 17 year old native of Mechanic Falls, Maine, dropped out of high school and joined the Army Air Corps in order to fight the increasing fascist threat in Europe. But when President Roosevelt stated that the U.S. would not be entering the war, Millett decided to become a deserter and head to Canada - not to avoid combat, but to seek it out as part of the Canadian army. He was sent to London where he served as an anti-aircraft gunner during the Nazi's "Blitz" bombing campaign. "I deeply believe that if you're...

Some members of local veterans groups who attended an Every Day is Veterans Day ceremony Nov. 8 in Berwick, Maine, said they were surprised to find it was a kickoff for a new Maine affiliate of the national Oath Keepers organization, which has been described as part of a rebirth of the nation's right-wing militia movement. An August report from the Southern Poverty Law Center describes the parent organization as a "particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival," involving groups with a virulent anti-government sentiment, though organizers of the newly formed Maine affiliate say they are far from being an...

... Maine is the Charlie Brown of health care. The state’s legislators have tried for decades to fix its system, but their efforts have always fallen short: health insurance premiums are still among the least affordable in the nation, health care spending per person is among the highest and hospital emergency rooms are among the most crowded. Indeed, many overhauls to the system have done little more than squeeze a balloon — solving one problem while worsening another. ... Maine’s history is a cautionary tale for national health reform. The state could never figure out how to slow the spiraling...

Opposing gay marriage is a losing proposition. That is, at least, what everyone seems to say, on all sides of the political spectrum. Everyone, that is, except voters. Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, has been my personal political hero for the last few election cycles, due to her tireless work in defense of the institution of marriage. It's a bit of a thankless, underappreciated task. Those who disagree with her are angry and hurting, and tend to lash out. Those who agree frequently just want to leave the issue to Maggie and not think about it....

The normal routine of the League was interrupted Friday afternoon, when an anonymous caller called to say he owned guns and his next target was the former director of the League, Mike Heath (above). The death threat was apparently related to the recent win on Question 1, which revoked the right of homosexuals to be married in Maine. The caller said the following: “I am calling about Mr. Mike Heath, the Executive of your Christian Civic League of Maine. He thinks that gay people should have our rights revoked that we already have. Well I can tell him this...

According to the Associated Press, November 5th — Maine has become the fifth state to allow dispensaries where marijuana can be distributed to medical patients. But medical marijuana advocates say Maine won't become like Los Angeles, where hundreds of dispensaries have popped up and come under critical scrutiny. Ethan Nadelmann of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance says Maine's law has stricter provisions than California's. He says "Maine dispensaries will be licensed by the state, unlike those in California, and that Maine narrowly defines medical conditions for which patients can be prescribed pot, while California allows doctors to recommend it...

Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, comments on Maine´s victorious Question 1, which repealed a legislative act legalizing gay ´marriage´ in the state.

It's now 31-0 in state marriage elections in favor of normalcy. (Are we starting to see a pattern here?) This was the big one! A win here was crucial and for a while it looked very shaky. But the pro-family forces pulled it off by 53%-47% -- a major loss for the homosexual lobbies that put an enormous amount of money and energy into this. A short time after the polls closed it became clear that our side would probably win by about six percentage points. After the liberal coastal cities quickly posted their numbers, one could calculate that they...

CNA STAFF, Nov 6, 2009 / 11:58 am (CNA).- Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, spoke to CNA about the victory of Question 1 in Maine, which repeals previous legislation legalizing gay ‘marriage.’ Gallagher said that the victory, which defies statistics and expectations, “is very heartening to marriage supporters and disappointing to gay ‘marriage’ advocates.” Noting that the supporters of same-sex marriage were surprised and upset by this victory, Gallagher analyzed the circumstances leading up to the election. “The gay marriage advocates,” she told CNA on Thursday, “had a three-year head start. They put millions into building...

Dear xxxx, The results of Tuesday's elections in Maine, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Washington were a mixed bag but there are some clear lessons we can learn. Voters rejected right-wing radicalism. Democrats who fail to stand up for Democratic and progressive principles fail in elections. The Right's lies still work. Despite the stinging loss for marriage equality in Maine, evidence elsewhere shows voters moving towards support of equality for all Americans. The Far Right strengthened its grip on the Republican Party. We have a lot of work to do to educate people, expose right-wing lies and counter the...

Largest Hate Group In America Unmasked Maine Voters Reject Gay Marriage Colin Tims A-CNN Staff Reporter The Mother of all Hate Groups: Voters! ALLIUM CEPA NEWS NETWORK: Now that Maine voters have overturned the state's "gay marriage" law Gerald Kapok, censorship chairman of Project Gag at the Southern Prosperity Law Center, announced that the watchdog group has sniffed out the largest hate group yet to be found in the West: voters!“There are many unenlightened voters out there who simply don’t know what is good for them and as a result cast ballots that do not accord with our agenda,”...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Maine voters upheld ‘the truth of marriage’ in Question 1 vote, archbishop says/div> Archbishop Joseph Kurtz Washington D.C., Nov 6, 2009 / 03:29 am (CNA).-  Responding to the successful passage of Maine’s Question 1, Archbishop of Louisville Joseph E. Kurtz has said that the people of Maine voted to “uphold the true nature of marriage as a union of one man and one woman.” Truth is inseparable from justice, he added, saying that society should strengthen marriage, not redefine and confuse it.Question 1, an initiative which overturned the Maine legislature’s decision to recognize homosexual couples as married, passed...

The Record The Christian Civic League of Maine has issued the following press release  on the success of the People's Veto of the same sex marriage law. The League thanks its faithful friends and supporters for all they have done to protect marriage  and the families of Maine.    The Christian Civic League of Maine welcomes the news of the win on Question 1. Shortly before the election, the League predicted that homosexual marriage would eventually be decisively and finally defeated. The League saw that the common sense of the people, combined with the Biblical truth about homosexuality would win out over any...

AUGUSTA -- A Waterville man will spend 45 months behind bars for molesting two girls: one over a period of years beginning in 2004, in Norridgewock; the other Nov. 29, 2008, in Waterville. Raymond H. Goghan, 43, was sentenced Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court on three separate charges of unlawful sexual contact. Two charges were from Kennebec County and the other from Somerset County. The judge imposed a longer initial period of imprisonment than recommended by attorneys after hearing from the victims in court. Deputy District Attorney Alan Kelley told Justice Nancy Mills the Norridgewock charge arose as police...

It is too hard for me to swallow the fact that a properly passed law in Maine was repealed in a public referendum. This just seems wrong. The proper course of action was to throw out the bums who passed the law in the first place and then have a subsequent legislature / Governer repeal the law. While the "outcome" in this case was favorable to conservative point of view, it is impossible for me to see how it benefits the conservative movement in the long run. Remember, gay marriage was made legal in Maine by the elected government -...

Andrew Sullivan: The truth about civil marriage - why it is the essential criterion for gay equality - is that it alone explodes this core marginalization and invisibility of gay people. It alone can reach those gay kids who need to know they have a future as a dignified human being with a family. It alone tells society that gay people are equal in their loves and in their hearts and in their families - not just useful in a society with a need for talented or able individuals whose private lives remain perforce sequestered from view. This is why...

In a stinging setback for the national gay-rights movement, Maine voters narrowly decided to repeal the state’s new law allowing same-sex marriage. With 87 percent of precincts reporting early this morning, 53 percent of voters had approved the repeal, ending an expensive and emotional fight that was closely watched around the country as a referendum on the national gay-marriage movement. Polls had suggested a much closer race. With the repeal, Maine became the 31st state to reject same-sex marriage at the ballot box. Five other states - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont - have legalized same-sex marriage, but...

Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads - and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement - for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate. Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage. "Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian...

Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate.

Those high-profile gubernatorial and congressional races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York got most of the headlines, but the genuinely revealing contests may well have been some of the down-ballot contests held in Maine, Georgia and Pennsylvania. In Maine, a referendum to repeal the state's recently enacted gay marriage law won 52-48 percent. despite a massive outpouring of resources by gay rights groups. Gay marriage advocates spent an estimated $4 milion defending the law, while opponents reportedly spent about $2.5 million. Turnout was higher than expected for an off-year election, according to Maine officials, and there were about 100,000...

Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate. Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage. "Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian...

PORTLAND, Maine — Voters on Tuesday repealed the state’s same sex marriage law after an emotionally charged campaign that drew large numbers to the polls and focused national attention on Maine. In a defiant speech to several hundred lingering supporters, No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly pledged that his side “will not quit until we know where every single one of these votes lives.”

A day after Tim Pawlenty took a few shots at Olympia Snowe, RNC Chairman Michael Steele came to her defense. Asked on Morning Joe whether there was room for the Maine centrist in the GOP, Steele responded "absolutely." Welcome! Welcome! Because--you know why that's important? Because every footprint of this party is different from region to region, from county to county. I can't win in the northeast with someone who'd be a better candidate suited in the south....So the reality of it is I'm looking to find my candidates where they are. And I want to lift them up because...

Cecelia Burnett and Ann Swanson had already set their wedding date. When they joined about 1,000 other gay marriage supporters for an election night party in a Holiday Inn ballroom, they hoped to celebrate the vote that would make it possible. Instead, they went home at midnight, dejected and near tears after a failed bid to make Maine the first state to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box. "I'm ready to start crying," said Burnett, a 58-year-old massage therapist, walking out of the ballroom with Swanson at her side. "I don't understand what the fear is, why people are...

The stars seemed aligned for supporters of gay marriage. They had Maine's governor, legislative leaders and major newspapers on their side, plus a huge edge in campaign funding. So losing a landmark referendum was a devastating blow, for activists in Maine and nationwide. In an election that had been billed for weeks as too close to call, Maine's often unpredictable voters repealed a state law Tuesday that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed. Gay marriage has now lost in all 31 states in which it has been put to a popular vote — a trend that the gay-rights movement...

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine voters have torpedoed a state law that would have allowed gay couples to marry. With 84 percent of the precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the vote Tuesday. The outcome amounts to a heartbreaking defeat for the gay rights movement — particularly since it occurred in New England, the corner of the country most supportive of gay marriage. At issue was a law passed by the Maine Legislature last spring that would have legalized same-sex marriage. The law was put on hold after conservatives launched a petition drive to repeal it in a referendum....