Free Republic

Announcing the 2013 Free Republic Meet & Greet It is that time of year again. Time to start planning for our annual meet & greet. After several weeks of planning, we finally have some details for this event. This year’s meet & greet will be the weekend of Friday, September 13th. We chose San Francisco this year due to some great sponsorship opportunities that will reduce the amount of money FReepers will need to spend. Friday’s events will begin with a dinner sponsored by Lou Malnati’s Pizza at the Bohemian Club, 624 Taylor Street, San Francisco, California. The Bohemian Club...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TivVcfSBVSM

"Weaving Spiders Come Not Here" is the motto of San Francisco's Bohemian Club. The motto is supposed to represent the club's edict against doing business during its annual Bohemian Grove retreat, which commences on Thursday on 2,700 acres, 75 miles north of the city. As club spokesman and member Sam Singer explained, "It's a group of gentlemen who are really genuinely interested in arts, theater, jazz and rock 'n' roll." The retreat gives members a chance to "get away from work. It's forbidden to talk about or solicit business at the club or grove." The "weaving spiders" motto also provides...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to address a throng of rich and powerful men on Friday under the towering redwoods at the Bohemian Grove as the annual encampment along the Russian River in Monte Rio enters its final weekend. No one other than Bohemian Club members and their guests will hear the governor's speech, which is — like everything that transpires during the 17-day midsummer enclave — done in absolute privacy. Plutocrats and powerbrokers, including former presidents, annually flock to the 2,700-acre wooded retreat where neither women, other than grove employees, nor outsiders of either gender are permitted. “It's a...

The Bohemian Club, the secretive, men-only society known for its annual bacchanal on a sprawling forest enclave in Sonoma County, has won state approval for a logging plan allowing the group to harvest as much as 1.7 million board feet of timber a year. The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's endorsement of the club's controversial permit essentially eliminates government oversight of its timber-harvesting practices over the next century. While the 130-year-old club, whose members are believed to have included every Republican president since Herbert Hoover, argues the logging plan will help reduce fire risk and restore its 2,700-acre...