Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO — A federal judge in San Antonio has declared Texas' ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, however, also issued a stay, meaning the ban stays in effect for the time being. One lesbian couple had to go to Massachusetts to get married, and they want Texas to recognize the union. A second gay couple have a courtship of 17 years and want to get married here in their home state.

Americans may not be able to agree on immigration reform, or education policy, or military spending — but on gays, they’re speaking loud and clear: More and more are approving of same-sex marriage than ever before, Pew Research found. Between 2003 and 2013, overall support for gay marriage has risen by 21 percentage points — from 32 percent in 2003 to 53 percent in 2013, Pew’s Public Religion Research Institute found, in a survey released on Wednesday.

Arizona has resisted national pressure before to its controversial laws. But this time leaders are urging Gov. Jan Brewer to veto a bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to gay patrons. TUCSON — When Arizona took controversial stands in the past — refusing to create a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and enacting a tough anti-illegal immigration law — state leaders shrugged off the criticism from out of state as the meddling of outsiders. But now, after the Legislature passed a measure to bolster the rights of business owners to refuse service to gays and others on the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Mitt Romney on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of Republicans urging the Arizona governor to veto a bill that would allow business owners to cite their religious beliefs in refusing service to gay people. The former Massachusetts governor tweeted at Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), saying it “is right” to veto the bill passed by the state legislature last week. Mitt Romney ✔ @MittRomney .@GovBrewer: veto of #SB1062 is right. 3:41 PM - 25 Feb 2014 1,578 Retweets 831 favorites Brewer has not said whether she will sign or veto the measure. However, a number of media outlets have reported...

For the first time, support for gay marriage in Ohio has reached the 50 percent threshold in the Quinnipiac Poll, a new survey released today shows. Led by support among young voters, exactly half of Ohioans back same-sex marriage, compared to 44 percent who oppose it. The new findings, which mirror public opinion shifts across the nation, represent a reversal since December of 2012, when 47 percent of Ohioans opposed gay marriage and 45 percent supported it. The change comes almost entirely from independent voters; Democrats support and Republicans oppose gay marriage by about the same percentages as before. …

Slowly but surely President Obama is unwinding, rolling back, and even cancelling his very own Obamacare. A couple of years ago he told Republicans not to mess with his plan. He said he’d veto any changes. But now, in substantial ways, he’s messing with his own plan. By various counts, the president has made 25 to 30 key changes to the Affordable Care Act. They all violate the legislation passed in 2010. Many believe Obama’s executive actions are unlawful or unconstitutional. Whatever the case, at this rate, there may not be much if any Obamacare in the next couple of...

Let it be known! Just as Karl Rove did in 2010 and 2012, this festering wart is working behind the scenes to destroy any hopes of grassroots victory in 2014, even if it means destroying any hopes of GOP victory in 2014. It's a small price to pay for money-grubbing uber-RINO, Karl Marx Rove. There are three races in which the grassroots is energized to win the Republican primary with a fresh face. Kentucky, North Carolina, and Mississippi And aside from that, there are seven other states in which the campaigns have not been managed as well, have been divided,...

Virginia’s chief lawyer said he won’t defend the state’s law. Eight of his peers in other states could soon join him. When Mark Herring, the attorney general of Virginia announced on Wednesday that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and that he will not defend the law in court, he was hailed by marriage equality activists as a hero. Herring put a handful of his fellow attorneys general in a tough spot though. There are currently eight states that have some kind of law against same-sex marriage on the books and have a Democrat as the chief lawyer...

PARK CITY -- The Sundance premiere for Ryan White and Ben Cotner's Proposition 8 documentary The Case Against 8 at Temple Theatre on Saturday afternoon drew one of the most enthusiastic audience responses of the festival to date. OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS Sundance: Zach Braff Was Warned 'People Will Go Apes--t' Over Kickstarter Campaign Sundance: Kristen Stewart on 'Camp X-Ray's' Haunted Set, Meeting Robert Redford (Video) Daily Warm Up: Aaron Paul Talks Sundance Drama 'Hellion,' 'Breaking Bad' Spinoff Sundance at 30: Vintage Photos of Park City's Biggest Stars Lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies, who successfully fought to overturn California's Proposition...

Utah took its fight against gay marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking the high court to suspend same-sex unions that became legal when a judge struck down the state’s voter-approved ban. The heavily Mormon state wants the marriages to stop while it appeals a judge’s decision, which said banning gay couples from marrying violates their right to equal treatment under the law. In papers filed Tuesday, the state asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor to overturn a decision that has led to more than 900 gay marriages in Utah. Sotomayor handles emergency requests from Utah and other Rocky Mountain...

Romney 2012 campaign manager Matt Rhoades keeps such a low profile that he once nearly made his career disappear. -snip- Rhoades is the organizing force behind Romney’s safe and smooth campaign. An expert at manipulating the news cycle with a coveted connection to the elusive media power broker Matt Drudge, Rhoades is particularly well suited to run a campaign that Romney himself characterized this weekend as employing a “confidentiality of strategy.” -snip- He then joined the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign as research director and ran its bruising rapid-response operation with communications director Steve Schmidt, -snip- Griffin, who was leaving the RNC,...

Just happened, goes to rubber stamping in Senate where it was already passed and on to supportive governor. Hawaii is 16th state +DC to legalize this sin(also Oregon and New Mexico have functional same sex marriage because they recognize out of state marriages).

With Obamacare shaping up as a public policy disaster that is the equivalent of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the Hindenburg, the Bay of Pigs, and Desert One combined, perhaps we should go back and take in Ronald Reagan’s warning about this back in 1961.  Reagan said that socializing health care would require socializing the patients, and voila, we have Obamacare canceling insurance plans previously agreed to between consenting adults.But Reagan also warned that doctors would come to be regulated, too: Today, the relationship between patient and doctor in this country is something to be envied any place. The privacy, the...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election to President Barack Obama, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he believed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could “easily” become the GOP presidential nominee in 2016 and “save our party.” Christie most recently made national news when he decided to drop a legal challenge to rulings in New Jersey state courts that declared same-sex marriage legal there. And not long before that, he changed his position on the question of whether illegal aliens should get in-state tuition rates at New Jersey state colleges. Now he backs legislation...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returned to the Sunday shows almost exactly one year since he lost the election to Barack Obama, only to attack the President and call his second term into question. The former Republican politician wasted no time attacking the President over his rocky Obamacare roll out during his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. "The president failed to learn the lessons that came from the experience in Massachusetts," Romney said, repeating that he thinks a state-by-state healthcare plan would work better. Romney then launched into a greater attack on the President's "you can keep your...

MISSPEAK 1: to speak (as a word) incorrectly 2: to express oneself imperfectly or incorrectly [e.g., claims now that he misspoke himself] In an editorial of today, the New York Times couldn't bring itself to say the simple truth: that President Obama lied when he repeatedly assured Americans that, under Obamacare, if they liked their healthcare insurance policies they would be able to keep them. The most the Times was able to admit was that [emphasis added throughout] "Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that." Misspoke. Yes, of course. As you see from the Merriam Webster definition above, the...

<p>Nearly 26,000 New Mexicans are having health plans terminated at the end of the year because the insurance policies fail to provide expanded benefits and other coverage mandated by a federal health care law, according to insurance industry officials.</p> <p>State Insurance Superintendent John Franchini estimates most of those individual policyholders will pay an average of 35 percent more for new coverage, but will have plans with more health care benefits.</p>

Obama's aides would not speak to the Trib with their names used for this story. The White House emailed transcripts of press conferences to defend the president's position, attributing the remarks to Obama: “The majority of people in the individual market today qualify for discounted or free health coverage when signing up for coverage through the Marketplace. One study found that 48 percent of people who buy insurance through the individual market will get a tax credit that averages at over $5,500. And 1 million in the individual market today will qualify for Medicaid in states that choose to expand...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney passed on Chris Christie (R) as his vice presidential running mate in 2012 partly because the New Jersey governor failed to provide all background information requested by his vetters, according to a new book. According to "Double Down," which was obtained by The New York Times on Thursday, Christie’s dossier was “littered with potential land mines.” The fundraising limitations imposed on Christie as governor of New Jersey also played a part. But Christie left a number of questions asked of him blank, more than other potential candidates, according to the book, written by Mark Halperin...

Fellow Conservatives, the time has come. The time has come to free ourselves from the lackluster idiocy of the Republican't party and go our own way. The time has come to tell the political operatives like Tokyo Rove to shove it. The time has come to turn off FOX Snooze once and for all. The time has come to tell the crony capitalists on Wall Street to earn a living in an actual free market instead of leeching off the besieged American taxpayer. In short, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for a third party. It's time for a third party...