Free Republic

AUGUSTA - A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage faltered in the Maine House Tuesday evening, falling well short of the two-thirds majority needed to send the matter to referendum and all but killing the controversial bill for this legislative session. The 88-56 vote against the plan came after a brief but impassioned floor debate in which opponents of LD 1294 denounced it as unfairly restricting the rights of gays by setting up an almost insurmountable barrier to marriage for decades to come. "Who are we to constitutionally freeze the legal definition of marriage so it can no longer evolve?" asked...

The Vietnam War rages on. Witness the barrages being fired by Viet vets on the right and the left: "George W. Bush is a draft-dodger"; "John F. Kerry isn't a war hero." Once again, that tragic war divides America – and this time around, it's vet pitted against vet. Sure, Bush dodged the draft, along with a reported 14 million other Americans with the savvy to work out that Vietnam was a no-win, sorry war. But although he had the luck and the connections to land a spot in the Air Guard, he did put his butt on the line...