Free Republic

Rarely does an industry technical publication come out so strongly on a political issue. Publisher Dick Cowan does in the Oct issue of Vacuum Technology & Coating (not exactly a newsstand item). The end of Dick's conclusion states "I believe that the true answers to these questions will confirm my personal belief that electing Barack Obama to the presidency would have catastrophic consequences to our country, and our freedom, far beyond the consequences to our economy."

Important Vote in Maine Tomorrow! A key RLC race is tomorrow, so make sure to tell your friends and family in Maine to vote! Please support Charlie Summers in the Republican primary for Maine's first Congressional district. In the RLC's endorsement of Summers, Governor Christie Whitman said, "I am impressed with Charlie Summers' thinking on a number of issues - I know he will fight to end the tax-and-spend culture of Washington, and look for common sense solutions on issues such as alternative energy, health care and immigration. Charlie has the experience, the character, and the commitment to results to...

The get-out-the-vote effort in Maine broke new ground Wednesday when more than 200 inmates in the Maine State Prison registered to cast ballots. Prison officials said it was the first prisoner education and registration drive held at the facility. Deputy Warden Leida Dardis said the event, which was organized by Maine chapters of the NAACP, allowed representatives from the state Democratic, Republican and Green Independent parties to meet with prisoners in morning and afternoon informational sessions. Maine and Vermont are the only states that give people convicted of felonies the right to vote while in prison. Some states bar felons...

Each Sunday, worshippers file into the York-Ogunquit United Methodist Church beneath a cross and, since February, a symbol of another sort. The church's roof is now partly covered by an array of solar panels that make electricity to run the lights and heat inside the sanctuary. It's perhaps the most visible evidence yet of a growing environmental ethic spreading through Maine's religious communities. "Certainly we want to lower our power bill," said William Wieting, chairman of church's board of trustees. "But the enthusiasm didn't derive from the monetary value to the church as much as it was the right thing...

Paper carrier has a good tip: Flee that smoking car A woman in Harmony is urged to get out of her car moments before it bursts into flames. HARMONY — Doreen Bowley was feeling pretty lucky on Monday. Just minutes after she saw black smoke rolling out from under the hood and got out of her car Saturday, it caught fire and burned up. "It burned all the way back to the trunk," Bowley said. "It blew out the windows." Somerset County Sheriff's Deputy Niles Bowman said Bowley got out just in time. "She was an older woman, blinded by...

I'd like some advice and recommendations from the Freeper community. I have a technical/educational website and I'm thinking about adding a few RSS feeds for news headlines. (For those who don't know, RSS is "Real Simple Syndication" and what you see on a site is a box with scrolling headlines. You can click on a headline to open up a window with the original article.) Of course the news software that I have has prebuilt links to NYT, CNN, etc. Yuck. Since my site is physics related I'll have a feed or two from orgs like the American Ass'n of...

Democratic presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. pats a young cow during a campaign stop at the Hokinton Fair in Contoocook, N.H., Sunday, Sept. 2, 2007.

For all the trials that New Hampshire Muslims have faced in building the state's first mosque -- legal challenges, a granite-bound site, city ordinances -- they pale next to those of Imam Siraj Wahhaj. In 1981, Wahhaj bid $25,000 for a lot in Brooklyn, only to find it surrounded by blight and drug houses, he told members of the Islamic Society of Greater Manchester during a fundraising dinner last night. Gunshots rang out daily, with bullets sometimes striking the mosque. But he started working with police and held a 40-day anti-drug program. Now, he said, the neighborhood has turned around...

A woman's tearful plea to Barack Obama to end the Iraq war momentarily caught the Democratic Presidential candidate off guard during a public appearance in Nashua yesterday. "I can't breathe," said the woman......more at link

Over the past 28 years, Maine humorist Robert Skoglund has built a loyal following for his weekly music show on public radio, less for what he plays than for what he says: his stories, his anecdotes, his meanderings on everything from women's shoes to the Internet. But Skoglund, known as "The Humble Farmer," has kept mostly quiet lately because of a battle with the Maine Public Broadcasting Network over what the 71-year-old humorist can say. His show has continued airing at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, with Skoglund introducing old jazz records, as he always has. But since mid-November, it has aired...

A year and a half ago, Ray Sirois simply did not believe there was any truth to global warming. Last winter's mild weather and a lot of Internet research started changing his mind. By the time the film "An Inconvenient Truth" came out last summer, he was eager to go. And then there was no going back. Sirois, a Republican who voted for George Bush in 2000, traveled to Nashville, Tenn., in January at his own expense and became one of 1,000 people trained by former Vice President Al Gore, the Democrat who Bush defeated, to spread the word about...

By now, 20,000 liberty-minded Americans should have started packing their wagons to head east – to the new frontier of libertarianism in New Hampshire. But more than three years after the Free State Project announced it had chosen the Granite State as its home base for furthering bare-bones government, the movement has fallen way short on membership goals. The group had hoped that by 2006 it would have 20,000 like-minded people pledged to move here. Once that target was reached, the committed masses would have then hauled their families and furniture to New Hampshire, ultimately integrating into state culture and...

The owner of Cadillac Mountain Sports is closing his three downtown Portland stores, citing declining sales and little prospect for a turnaround because of the city's ban on chain store expansion in the area. Matthew Curtis said sales at his Portland stores ­ Cadillac Mountain Sports, Cadillac's Patagonia and Cadillac's The North Face ­ have been declining since he opened them in 2002. The city's "formula business" cap, Curtis said, represents "a slap in the face" that will prevent him and other retailers on Congress Street from creating the amount of foot traffic they need to increase sales. Curtis' decision...

The National Democratic Party has its rock star: His name is Barack Obama, and his New Hampshire coming-out party Sunday is already an unprecedented success. He’s got less than two years seniority in the U.S. Senate. He won the seat only after the leading Democrat in the race, Blair Hull, nosedived after charges of domestic abuse and the Republican nominee, Jack Ryan, dropped out after embarrassing sexual allegations from his ex-wife. So what about this good-looking, well-spoken 45-year-old makes his speech Sunday at the Center of New Hampshire Radisson Hotel in Manchester the hottest Democratic ticket in recent history? Does...

LEWISTON - School-age boys, whose classroom struggles have recently been the cause of much concern in education circles, are being hurt by an unwritten set of social rules that discourage them from showing their emotions, a Harvard psychologist told a group of teachers Friday. William Pollack, the author of "Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood," used a mix of anecdotes and statistics to argue that stereotypical images of manhood are detrimental to boys. "If a boy puts on a football helmet and cleats, then he's a real boy," said Pollack, co-director of the Center for Men...

It says something about a teacher, as well as his topic, when 19 teenagers are happy to show up and be reduced to first-graders – dyslexic ones, at that. “How do you write that letter? What animal does it look like?” Mohamed Eddefaa asked during a recent session of the only public-school Arabic class in New Hampshire. “Cat,” several students shouted, relieved after two weeks to remember one of the 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet, a series of beautiful swooping lines that neither look nor sound like anything in English. Eddefaa, a native of Morocco, nods and writes the...

AUBURN -- The man behind the wheel of the speeding vehicle thrashed in the throes of a grand mal seizure, but it seemed that only Jill Crowell recognized that fact. Early-morning traffic rolled en masse in both directions along the four lanes of Center Street as drivers scurried to their jobs, but the 2000 Chevrolet Blazer never slowed. Drivers pounded horns and wrestled with their steering wheels as the runaway vehicle tore into the roadway from a McDonald's parking lot. Crowell, one car back from the scene, heard the horns and saw the brake lights. But what she saw inside...

Copper, the common metal used in everything from cars to toasters, has become an attractive target for criminals, reflecting the fact that it has quintupled in value since 2001. A Peru man was charged Monday with felony theft and burglary in connection with the theft of copper and brass from Dielectric Communications in Raymond, which makes telecommunications equipment. Ralph Whalen, 50, a former employee, is accused of stealing almost $10,000 worth of the industrial metals. He was implicated after police in Mexico charged him with stealing copper scraps from outside a vacant commercial building there. Two weeks ago, the Cumberland...

A second legal complaint filed against the man accused of rolling a frozen pig's head into a Lewiston mosque is raising the question: Will there be a third? Thursday's decision by the Maine Attorney General's Office to prosecute Brent Matthews of Lewiston on civil rights violations has mosque members hoping that the federal government will follow. Local prosecutors at the Androscoggin District Attorney's Office first charged Matthews, 33, with the misdemeanor crime of desecrating a place of worship. The state, in its civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Superior Court in Auburn, claims Matthews broke the law because his alleged action...

The Portland City Council will have to ignore the recommendation of citizen advisers if it wants to accept a controversial gift of bronze statues from Portland Sea Dogs owner Daniel Burke. The Public Art Committee, an advisory group appointed by the council, voted 6-1 Wednesday to recommend that the council reject the statues, which depict a traditional family of four going to a baseball game. The vote came after Burke's attorney said no changes will be made to the sculptures. The statues generated heated public debate during the last week as issues of government intervention and family diversity clashed with...