Free Republic

The head of the state's largest gay-rights organization is urging his members not to throw their financial support behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton because of her "disappointing" stand on marriage for gays and lesbians. .....Empire State Pride Agenda, executive director Alan Van Capelle branded Clinton a "complete disappointment [who] does not deserve [a gay] fund-raiser." He's refusing to lend his name to sell tickets to the bash. "This year, Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson, Alan Hevesi, Andrew Cuomo, Mark Green, Sean Maloney and others are running for statewide office and are in favor of marriage equality for gays and lesbians," he...

The following "sermon" was delivered on the Sunday after the 2004 Presidential election at the First Unitarian "Church" of Portland, Ore., by "Pastor" Marilyn Sewell. ********************************************************** This country has just been engaged in a huge exercise of power. Power has been used, and it has been misused. The upside to this election is that never have I seen so many people so passionately engaged in our political life. Never has our vote seemed so precious. Never have so many of us sent money to candidates and organizations supporting our views. I count all this as a great positive influence. And...

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a woman who raised a child from birth to age 6 while in a relationship with the girl's biological mother can seek parental rights as a "de facto parent (search)," essentially creating a new class of parent in the state. "Today we hold that our common law recognizes the status of de facto parents and places them in parity with biological and adoptive parents in our state," the court, led by Justice Bobbe J. Bridge, wrote in the 7-2 decision. "Neither the United States Supreme Court nor this...

MACAU -- China's Yang Lian set a weightlifting world record in the women's 106-pound division Sunday, lifting 258 pounds in the clean-and-jerk. She beat the previous mark by 2.2 pounds in winning the gold medal at the East Asia Games. She lifted 198 in the snatch for a combined total of 456, equaling the Asian record. "Now I want the Olympic," gold medal, Yang said. "I just wanted to get the gold medal today, so I didn't add any (extra) weight." Yang topped the mark set by China's Li Zhuo at the Asian championships in 2003. Almost 1,900 athletes from...

Sunday September 25, 2005 LOS ANGELES (AP) Thomas Ross Bond, who played Butch the bully in the ``Our Gang'' and ``The Little Rascals'' serials of the 1930s, has died. He was 79. Bond died Saturday afternoon from complications of heart disease at Northridge Hospital, said his manager, Frank Marks. Born Sept. 16, 1926 in Dallas, Bond got his start in movies at the age of 5 when a talent scout for the Hal Roach studios approached him as he was leaving a movie theater with his mother. The scout ``asked him if he'd be interested in acting, (said) he had...

"OUR GANG" Whatever happened to these people? Well, here is is.....the "rest of the story" of Our Gang/center> ALFALFA Carl Switzer was shot to death at age 31. CHUBBY 300-pound Norman Chaney died at age 22 following an operation. BUCKWHEAT William Thomas died at age 49 of a heart attack. DARLA HOOD The Our Gang leading lady contracted hepatitis and died at age 47. BRISBANE Kendall McCormas, known as Breezy Brisbane, committed suicide at age 64. MICKEY DANIELS He died of liver disease at 55. STYMIE Mathew Bear led a life of crime and drugs. He died of a stroke...

Here’s a story that will throw you for a loop: a "chaplain” at the U.S. Air Force Academy is complaining that the school’s administration has a "systemic and pervasive” problem of promoting religious religious values with a Christian bent. The chaplain, Capt. Melinda Morton, a "Lutheran minister” spoke out publicly on Tuesday as an Air Force task force arrived at the academy to investigate charges that officers and staff members pushed their religious beliefs on cadets. And she claimed that a tolerance program developed at the academy, called Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People (R.S.V.P.), was watered down after...

A representative of Armed Forces Entertainment, the unit that supplies acts and shows to all branches of the military, said the unit had nothing to do with booking the Angelz. Sharon Kibiloski is in Baghdad, and she’s fighting mad. The target of the U.S. Air Force captain’s ire is the U.S. Army – and what Kibiloski views as the Army’s misguided efforts to raise troop morale by sending a scantily clad female troupe called The Purrfect Angelz on a two-week tour of military installations in Kuwait and Iraq. A lavender flier advertising the troupe’s Baghdad show portrays a quartet of...

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Go ahead — call state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles a scurvy wench, a wanton strumpet, a shameless hussy. She probably won’t like it, but she doesn’t want you to be prosecuted for it. The Seattle Democrat is sponsoring a bill to repeal a 1909 state law that makes "slander of a woman" a crime. Kohl-Welles, a women’s studies lecturer at the University of Washington, says the law is a relic of a time when men put women on a pedestal and denied them basic rights. Kohl-Welles said the law almost surely violates the state and federal constitutions....

No Name Calling Week?     1/12/2005By Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.Yes, name-calling is wrong. But this event’s sponsors reveal the agenda behind banning it. “There is a special place in hell for people like you!” These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall. His cheery salutation caught me off-guard given the message of tolerance and acceptance I had been hearing around the exhibit hall....

Former Mich Democratic Party chair Hollowell issued solicitation citation 8/19/2004, 7:37 p.m. ET The Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Former Michigan Democratic Party chairman Melvin "Butch" Hollowell has been issued a citation on accusations he solicited a prostitute, according to broadcast reports. Hollowell, who left his Democratic Party post earlier this month to join John Kerry's national legal team, was pulled over Tuesday night after picking up a woman on Woodward Avenue, not far from his home in Palmer Woods, Detroit station WDIV-TV reported. An attorney for Hollowell told WDIV that the incident was a misunderstanding and Hollowell has denied...

Pro-Life Group Unveils Findings of Planned Parenthood/Girl Scouts Probe By Melanie Hunter CNSNews.com Deputy Managing Editor April 12, 2004 (CNSNews.com) - A pro-life group investigating Planned Parenthood's ties to the Girl Scouts organization has found that 26 percent of Girl Scout councils have relationships with the abortion provider."But what is even more surprising is that 79% of Girl Scout councils have not disclosed their position on Planned Parenthood by failing to answer a simple question - Do you have any relationship with Planned Parenthood?" said Jim Sedlak, executive director of STOPP International, in a statement. American Life League's STOPP International...

Teacher busted in pupil sex rap By SCOTT SHIFREL, WARREN WOODBERRY Jr. and BILL HUTCHINSON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Wednesday, March 17th, 2004 A married teacher at a Queens religious school has been busted for carrying on a seven-month lesbian romance with a teenage student, cops said yesterday. Cheryl Reyna, 31, a Spanish teacher at Martin Luther High School in Maspeth, was arraigned yesterday in Queens Criminal Court on charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. Reyna, who has taught at the Lutheran school for seven years, was suspended with pay on Friday after the...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Rosie O'Donnell married her longtime girlfriend Thursday, taking what she called a proud stand for gay civil rights in the city where more than 3,300 other same-sex couples have tied the knot since Feb. 12. "I want to thank the city of San Francisco for this amazing stance the mayor has taken for all the people here, not just us but all the thousands and thousands of loving, law-abiding couples," the former talk show host, holding a large bouquet of purple and yellow flowers, said after she and Kelli Carpenter emerged from their brief ceremony inside...

Jumping on the bandwagon of the Osama loving abortionist from Vermont, Democrat Howard Dean, is yet another influential group, "Dykes". A new website, Dykes for Dean, has been setup by this group, and is selling various election gear to raise campaign money for their favorite Democratic Homo Sapien. Apparently unaware that the people their candidate defends, Saddam and Osama, would cut their heads off and send their bodies through a carpet shredder, these idiots are calling on oeople to send in their "Gay Money" to help elect America's first Gay President. In addition, a group calling itself "Gays for...

State party spat continues at national meeting The Associated Press 6/23/2003, 8:28 a.m. ET DETROIT (AP) — The lingering spat atop the Michigan Democratic Party erupted at a national party meeting when Mark Brewer, executive chairman of the state party, was elected president of the Association of State Democratic Chairs. Michigan state chairman Melvin "Butch" Hollowell voted for Washington state chairman Paul Berendt. Hollowell told The Detroit News that his vote over the weekend was "a reflection of the fact that we have a governor that has a different view on the direction of the party." U.S. Rep. John Dingell,...

<p>U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth is quietly gearing up for a run for governor.</p> <p>Republican pundits believe that if Gov. Janet Napolitano doesn't run for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2006, Hayworth would provide a tough, intriguing matchup for her. The theory is that Hayworth, a congenial conservative, would pose problems for the incumbent governor on several fronts.</p>

Leading Democratic calls for Cox to resign By AMY F. BAILEY The Associated Press 2/14/03 9:56 AM EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Melvin "Butch" Hollowell, expected to be elected chairman of the state Democratic Party this weekend, said Friday that Republican Attorney General Mike Cox should resign because he's not doing his job as the state's attorney. Hollowell said Cox shouldn't have declined Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's request to submit a brief supporting the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions, which is being contested in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Hollowell, a Detroit attorney, said Cox's decision violates...