Free Republic

Deval Patrick flatly refused to take a side on whether the Pledge of Allegiance should be banned in schools, dodging questions on Brookline’s controversy over patriotism yesterday. The proposal by a group of Brookline peace activists to ban the pledge in town schools — proposed the week of the anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — has outraged the families of both 9/11 victims and soldiers killed in action. More traditional residents of Brookline were shocked by the latest evidence of how far left their leafy suburb has lurched. “It’s the most asinine thing,” said Frances Greenleaf Hall...

Days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11 a leader from a group in Massachusetts is calling on public schools in one town to ban students from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, saying it has no educational value and the pressure it places on children to participate makes his “skin crawl,” The Boston Globe reported. Martin Rosenthal, the co-chair of Brookline Political Action for Peace, or Brookline Pax, told the paper the pledge puts “kids in an uncomfortable situation” and doesn’t belong in schools. The group, therefore, will ask town meeting voters in November to pass a nonbinding resolution on the...

WASHINGTON – The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) released the following statement today announcing that Gov. Rick Perry has signed their marriage pledge: "Kudos to Gov. Rick Perry for making it clear: he's a marriage champion!," said Brian Brown, president of NOM. "The purpose of NOM's Marriage Pledge is to move from vague values statements to concrete actions to protect marriage. Gov. Perry joins Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum as a signer of NOM Marriage Pledge. By doing so, Perry makes crystal clear that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, gay marriage is going to be a bigger issue...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has joined Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Sen. Pennsylvania Rick Santorum in signing a pledge to oppose same-sex marriage on a number of specific fronts. The three candidates signed the pledge advanced by the National Organization for Marriage, which has led national and state campaigns to limit marriage to a man and a woman. The signature of the front-runner, Romney, is a bit of a coup for the group, as he's been careful about committing to other pledges, including a broad promise to a socially conservative Iowa group that caused trouble for other candidates....

It now appears that the ACLJ has less than two weeks to file a legal brief backing the cross at the new Ground Zero Museum. This is being challenged in court by the American Atheists. It is their view (the ACLJ) that the lawsuit is without merit. The cross was formed by two intersecting steel beams that survived the Twin Towers collapse on 9-11. According to the radio station that I heard this information, you can sign the petition at 1-877-989-2255 OR you can log onto Aclj.com and look under "Radio Årchives". ** I apologize if this format is incorrect...

Mitt Romney did the right thing by rejecting a social conservative group’s repulsive “marriage pledge.” Will he explain his reasoning? As Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum bent over backward to endorse a right wing document pledging allegiance to conservative values, the Romney campaign says that while their candidate supports “traditional marriage,” he finds some of the pledge’s “references and provisions [to be] undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign.” The pledge, put out last week by right wing activist Bob Vander Plaats and his group, The Family Leader, reads like a hit list on American freedoms. One of the document’s...

The Brody File has learned that The Family Leader, an influential pro-family group in Iowa will ask each of the 2012 presidential candidates to sign a marriage pledge that professes everything from marital fidelity to embracing a federal marriage amendment. The document, which has a total of fourteen points is called, “The Marriage Vow-A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family”

An unexpected battle over the minutes of the Bowie County Commissioner’s Court meeting erupted at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, June 27. At the last meeting on June 13, the commissioners approved the minutes of May 23 but in doing so set off a firestorm of controversy because in an amended version of the minutes, the court voting 3-1 with Pct. 3 Commissioner Kelly Blackburn absent, the voted to remove the prayer and the pledge of allegiance from the minutes. From the official minutes of that meeting, Pct, 4 Commissioner Pat McCoy said “he did not approve of the...

Bachmann won't commit to 'Cut, Cap and Balance' pledge By: CNN Political Reporter Peter Hamby Rock Hill, South Carolina (CNN) - Nearly every Republican presidential candidate has pledged to sign the "Cut, Cap and Balance" pledge to slash government spending, but U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is not ready to commit. Her reason? It doesn't go far enough. The pledge, backed by more than 150 conservative groups and a dozen GOP Republican senators, demands that Congress not raise the debt ceiling unless it passes "substantial" budget cuts and spending caps along with a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Former...

An Oregon town's City Council voted down a proposal to say the Pledge of Allegiance before every council meeting, but later passed a compromise that seemed to make no one happy. The approved measure allows the pledge to be recited at just four Eugene City Council meetings a year, those closest to the Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Flag Day. It was supposed to be simple, but Councilman Mike Clark soon found out when you’re dealing with God and country, nothing in Eugene is easy.

Mark this up as yet another knock against the pledge, which seems to be happening frequently as of late and particularly within the mainstream media. In Oregon, the Eugene Town Council voted 5-2 against a motion to recite the pledge at the opening of every town meeting. There was a compromise allowing the pledge to be said 4 times a year but only on certain holidays. One council member who voted for the ban said reading the pledge was like reading the Communist Manifesto before every meeting. Yes, you read that correctly on both counts. The compromise struck allows the...

  One Nation Under…What? David C. Stolinsky June 23, 2011 While broadcasting the U.S. Open Golf Tournament, NBC ran a segment showing schoolchildren reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. But the words “under God” were omitted. NBC claimed the omission was accidental, and apologized to anyone who was offended. Note that NBC apologized for giving offense, but did not apologize for editing out part of what actually happened. That a “news” organization does not believe altering facts deserves an apology is revealing indeed. What else does it alter, but we don’t know? Interestingly, “indivisible” was also omitted. Does someone at...

On Sept. 7, 1965, I stepped into an American classroom for the first time. I was nervous, but in that the Beatles had been on the Ed Sullivan Show just before that and I had a similar English accent (Sheffield, not Liverpool), I was quite a novelty and the nerves soon went away. Then, without warning, I was asked, along with all of the other kids in Mrs. Imhoff’s sixth-grade class at East Elementary in Tillamook, to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I didn’t know the words, but Debbie Johnson, standing next to me, did. And she was proud to...

What do you think of NBC's decision to cut the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance during a patriotic video aired for the network's US Open coverage? It's offensive! It's not patriotic if the network is rewriting the Pledge! It was the right thing to do, since there should be true seperation (sic) of church and state! It's not a big deal either way

Listen to the pledge of allegiance that runs alongside the patriotic images, and later to the one that overlays video of previous U.S. Open winners: (VIDEO)

Michele Bachmann Bashes Romney for Not Signing Pro-Life Pledge by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 6/19/11 3:36 PM Congresswoman Michele Bachmann today bashed Mitt Romney in what could be the first of many Republican presidential clashes over the issue of abortion. Bachmann cicatrized the former Massachusetts governor for not signing a pro-life presidential pledge. As LifeNews.com reported, the Susan B. Anthony List unveiled the pledge on Friday and indicated Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul signed it. The pledge has the candidates promising to support only judicial nominees who won’t interpret the Constitution...

The U.S. Supreme Court Washington D.C., Jun 16, 2011 / 06:08 am (CNA).- On June 13, the Supreme Court ruled against atheist activist Michael Newdow's latest attempt to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.“Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court has again rejected the argument that saying the Pledge of your own free will creates an official state religion,” said attorney Eric Rassbach, litigation director at the religious liberty defense group the Becket Fund. “The words 'one nation under God' make clear the bedrock American principle that our rights come not from the State, but are endowed...

Kids refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT4FHUet988

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) talks about how he enjoys hearing the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of the Senate session, however does not say "under God." Instead, he says "one nation, indivisible."

So to get to $100 billion, House Republicans are using a gimmick. They're measuring their cuts not against the actual level of spending. What they're doing instead is cutting against the airy fairy numbers in President Obama's proposed fiscal 2011 budget. That budget was never passed. It might as well be a unicorn because it doesn't really exist.