Free Republic

Last night, by a comfortable margin of 53-47%, the citizens of Maine became the 31st state to vote down gay marriage (as has every single state that has given its citizens a chance to vote on the issue). Not surprisingly, the mainstream liberal press is beside itself with frustration, especially because it drives yet another nail in the "inevitability" and "wrong side of history" arguments we are often fed. As I wrote on National Review this morning, Maine voted for traditional marriage "despite it being a liberal state, despite a 2-1 funding disadvantage, despite aggressive legal action against traditional-marriage...

One of two women accused of scrapping with an anti-abortion protester in front of Flagstaff City Hall has decided to accept six months of unsupervised probation to make the charges go away. Denise Redsteer, 48, accepted a "deferred prosecution" Friday in Flagstaff Municipal Court, said City Prosecutor Lisa Stankovich. Deferred prosecution does not admit guilt, and if Redsteer successfully completes the terms of her probation, the charges against her will be dismissed. Stankovich said that Redsteer has also agreed to pay a $150 prosecution fee and not commit any criminal offenses during the probationary period. Flagstaff attorney, Mik Jordhal, who...

PORTLAND, Maine — Voters on Tuesday repealed the state’s same sex marriage law after an emotionally charged campaign that drew large numbers to the polls and focused national attention on Maine. In a defiant speech to several hundred lingering supporters, No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly pledged that his side “will not quit until we know where every single one of these votes lives.”

In the midst of New York's 23rd District race, a disturbing amendment allowing inmates to volunteer for non-profits was given the thumbs up from New York voters by an overwhelming 67 percent. According to the New York Times, The amendement would allow New York's State Legislature to write a law allowing prisoners to volunteer at churches, social service groups, and other nonprofit organizations. As of December of 2008, around 60,000 inmates are currently serving time in the state's correctional facilities, according to New York's Department of Correction

A Hoffman staffer tells NRO that a Hoffman supporter had his tires slashed this afternoon near United Methodist Church on Beakman Street in Plattsburgh. A police report has been filed.

Abstract: Supporters of Proposition 8 in California have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment, economic hardships, angry protests, violence, at least one death threat, and gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry. Arguments for same-sex marriage are based fundamentally on the idea that limiting marriage to the union of husband and wife is a form of bigotry, irrational prejudice, and even hatred against homosexual persons. As this ideology seeps into the culture more generally, individuals and institutions that support marriage as the union of husband and wife risk paying a price for that belief in many...

A think tank has compiled and analyzed reports of the harassment, intimidation, and “gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry” shown in reaction to the successful passage of Proposition 8. If partisans of marriage redefinition continue to increase in power, the analysis warns, those who seek the preservation of marriage as a union of man and wife may risk paying a price legally, socially and economically. The Heritage Foundation’s Oct. 22 report “The Price of Prop 8,” authored by researcher Thomas M. Messner, said that many individuals and institutions who defend the nature of marriage as a union between a man and...

On the eve of what organizers call a 'Big Ol' TEA Party', the Washington, D.C., offices of FreedomWorks were evacuated by DC Metro police on Friday afternoon after the conservative organization reported to authorities at 3:42 pm ET that it had received a bomb threat. At 4:48 pm ET, the organization put out a Twitter message saying that it turned out to be a false alarm but the organization is not happy about the disruption. My colleague, ABC News' Teddy Davis has the story: Tens of thousands of anti-big government activists are expected in Washington on Saturday as part of...

An opponent of government healthcare programs had part of a finger bit off during a fight at a pro-healthcare-reform rally this week in Thousand Oaks. William Rice, 65, of Newbury Park was with a small group of counter-protesters at a vigil Wednesday night organized by Moveon.org when a man bit off part of his left pinky finger during a scuffle, authorities said. Doctors were unable to reattach Rice’s finger. Sheriff’s detectives Thursday were still looking for the man who bit Rice. Investigators also were sifting through conflicting accounts of the incident, but Rice acknowledged that he threw the first punch....

THOUSAND OAKS -- A 65 year old man had his finger bitten off Wednesday evening at a health care rally in Thousand Oaks, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's investigators were called to Hillcrest and Lynn Road at 7:26 p.m. About 100 protesters sponsored by MoveOn.org were having a rally supporting health care reform. A group of anti-health care reform protesters formed across the street. When someone from the pro-reform side crossed over to the anti-reform side, a fist fight ensued, which resulted in the man's pinky finger getting bitten off. It's believed the man was on the...

In a crowd of peaceful anti-ObamaCare folks, one belligerent moron walks in with a sign and starts yelling, commits a battery on a bystander, and is escorted out by the police. After he gets outside, he tells the reporter what a "white, angry mob" it was, and of course, we can see with our own eyes that it was not white, angry, or a mob.

Ariel Attack, a Denver-based anarchist, was arrested at 2:27am Tues, 24 here in Denver for allegedly smashing 11 windows of the Democratic Party headquaters at 777 Santa Fe Drive. Right now we are trying to raise the bail money for her to get out of jail; her bail hearing will be tomorrow at 10am Denver time. Several lawyers have told us to expect anywhere from between $3,000 to $10,000 in bail, and due to the high publicity of the case here in Denver, we are expecting higher (lead story for most all local news outlets, and being picked up by...

A 24-year-old arrested this morning on suspicion of smashing 11 windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters tried to conceal his identity while allegedly committing the crime, according to police descriptions. Maurice Schwenkler wore a shirt over his face, a hooded sweat shirt and latex gloves before he and another man fled the scene on bicycles, police said. Schwenkler was apprehended after a short chase. The other suspect remains at large. While Schwenkler does not appear in the state's voter registration database, a person by that name in November 2008 received $500 from a political 527 committee called Colorado Citizens Coalition...

Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama, especially as the debate over health care intensifies and a pattern of threats emerges.

Showing once again that he is no statesman--let alone President of the United States--Dictator-in-Chief Obama told his Union thugs to “get out there” and fight back against any and all US citizens who oppose both him and his programs. So, at Town Hall meetings in both Tampa, FL and St. Louis, MO they did. In Tampa, Randy Arthur was shoved up against a wall by purported SEIU thugs resulting in Arthur suffering chest injuries and a ripped shirt. At the same meeting, a Democrat Party official--Karen Miracle--was photographed assaulting Barry Osteen who had disagreed with Miracle’s husband on ObamaCare. Note:...

Barack Obama told a crowd of supporters in Philadelphia back in 2008, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” He added, “That’s the Chicago way.” Last night in St. Louis, Missouri, a local conservative found out first hand about the “Chicago way.” Kenneth Gladney, a black conservative from the city, was handing out “Don’t Tread On Me” flags after a Russ Carnahan town hall meeting on health care in Mehlville. This didn’t go over well with the Obama supporters and union thugs who attended the meeting. They punched him in the face, kicked him in...

I have been periodically posting emails I get from moveon.org, as I am on their mailing list. I share them with my FReeper friends because I am sure you will find them as enlightening as I do. Notice that the last paragraph states: "This month could decide the future of health care and clean energy in America...". I posted another moveon.org email a few weeks ago that featured an offer for pre-orders for the latest Shepard Fairey poster of windmills because September was going to be the big push for "clean energy". This was set to kick-off before the Obama...

Check this out...

"Enough of the MOB" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtTBkxvBq88 Washington -- The Democratic National Committee today released a new web ad "Enough of the Mob" highlighting the angry mobs of a small number of GOP and special interest backed rabid right wing extremists who are disrupting thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in Congressional Districts across the country. "It's become clear that Republican leaders, having lost every major legislative battle on Capitol Hill, the confidence of the American people and two consecutive national elections, would rather incite angry, special interest funded mobs and disrupt and drown out legitimate...

For those of you who were wondering what lesson the members of the black hate group, the New Black Panther Party, took from the Justice Department’s dismissal of the voter-intimidation lawsuit against them that it had already won in Philadelphia, there is nothing more illuminating than the posted words of one of the defendants. . . . I has waited all my life for the day that Strong Black men could stand outside a voting poll in a Honk neighborhood and beat republiKKKan voters with a baseball bat to keep the mother*#^*@%s from voting for they racist candidate and walk...

We wrote here and here about the Justice Department's dismissal of a voter intimidation case against a group of armed Black Panthers who threatened would-be voters outside a polling place in Philadelphia. The Justice Department won the case after the defendants defaulted (a wise move by them, it turns out), but decided to give the victory away. This struck us as another instance in which the Obama-Holder Justice Department made its decision based on political considerations, rather than considerations of justice. This was a case in which members of a political organization showed up at a polling place in uniform...

Cavuto interviewing several tea party organizers. Cavuto says he has info that a well-organized and well-funded effort is underway to place Obamatrons inside tea party groups to then destroy the demonstrations when they occur through instigating violence and confusion. This in concert with the MSM to film only violence at such events so as to discredit anyone who opposes Obama. The guests are down-playing Cavuto's news, responding that the tea party movement is too large to be stopped in this way, estimating crowds of 10-15,000 at each demonstration on April 15.

New York, NY -- Chris Matthews has been on the pro-abortion side of the debate since before his time as a top Congressional aide for abortion advocates. Now the MSNBC host has gone overboard by referring to pro-life advocates who oppose pro-abortion Health Secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius as terrorists.

Colin Powell held a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, touting the launch of Barack Obama's new website, USAService.org, which allows Americans to find -- and to promote -- local service opportunities that are searchable by zip code. President Bush's former Secretary of State said he was on the site this morning and vouched for its usefulness. But here's betting that Powell didn't have time to go through all of the events on it.

Supporters of California's Proposition 8 say they are being harrassed by homosexual activists who use California campaign finance rules to get their names, addresses, and other personal information. (AP File Photo) (CNSNews.com) – Citizens who supported California’s Proposition 8 say they are being systematically harassed because of disclosures required by California campaign finance laws. A marriage protection group is now challenging the constitutionality of California campaign finance laws that compelled Prop 8 donors to submit personal information. Prop 8, a voter initiative that passed in November, amended the California Constitution to say, “Only marriage between a man and a woman...

San Francisco, Jan 6, 2009 / 05:49 am (CNA).- Opponents of Proposition 8 are suspected to have vandalized Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco over the weekend, spray-painting on the church black swastikas and the words “Ratzinger” and “Niederauer,” the respective last names of the Pope and the Archbishop of San Francisco. Most Holy Redeemer parish, located in the predominantly homosexual Castro District of San Francisco, has been billed as a “gay-friendly” church. It has previously participated in the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade and reportedly leased parish space to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of...

A Catholic church in San Francisco was defaced with spray-painted graffiti depictions of swastikas overnight, police said Sunday. A Most Holy Redeemer Church employee reported the incident at about 6:30 a.m. at 100 Diamond St., Lt. Neville Gittens said. The employee told police that when he left the night before, the church had not been defaced, Gittens said. Police are investigating the vandalism as a hate crime.

Social activist, organizer ... and FBI informant It was all about stopping violence, says Austin man who revealed alleged firebomb plot at GOP convention. By David Hanners ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS Saturday, January 03, 2009 ST. PAUL, Minn. — In a federal courtroom in Minneapolis this month, the public transformation of Brandon Darby of Austin will become complete. In four years, he has gone from a never-trust-the-government activist to the confidential informant who helped the FBI arrest two Austin men on suspicion of building firebombs during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September. "I feel like, as an...

The chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission says homosexual activists have launched a criminal attack on his ministry. Recently, Dr. Ted Baehr says he learned about the distribution of a number of emails and blog posts that were supposedly from him or his organization. However, the emails were links to pornography, including homosexual content.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are aiding the investigation of a fire that caused a reported $1 million in damages at the Alaska governor's church. . Federal officials say an accelerant was poured around the exterior of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's church, including by entrances at the 2 1/2-year-old building, which was partly gutted by a costly fire Friday night. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) joined an arson investigation at the Wasilla Bible Church Monday, where church officials say a fire caused $1 million in damage. The blaze was...

It’s a national turning point. A figurative call to arms for the queer community. The cross-country response to the passage of California’s Proposition 8 and other anti-gay ballot initiatives is among the greatest and loudest rallying cries for equality ever heard from the LGBT community. Journalist Rex Wockner is calling it “Stonewall 2.0” Others are talking about a new wave of inspiration and the death of a “passive era” of LGBT lobbying and advocacy. Writer Andrew Sullivan says groups like the Human Rights Campaign are becoming increasingly irrelevant in the face of the need to adapt to new realities and...

BEFORE Election Day, national media hand wringers forged a wildly popular narrative: The right was, in the words of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, gripped by "insane rage." Outbreaks of incivility (some real, but mostly imagined) were proof positive of the extremist takeover of the Republican Party. The cluck-cluckers and tut-tutters shook with fear. But when the GOP took a beating on Nov. 4, no mass protests ensued; no nationwide boycotts erupted. Conservatives took their lumps and began the peaceful post-defeat process of self-flagellation, self-analysis and self-autopsy. In fact, in the wake of campaign 2008 there's only one angry...

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said today she is "appalled" at the hostility that has been directed at African-Americans since the passage of Proposition 8. According to exit polls, 70 percent of black voters supported the gay marriage ban measure, which has caused friction between gays and blacks. But during a meeting with The Bee's Capitol bureau, Bass said that lost in the post-mortems over Proposition 8 is that black support for the measure was "a generational issue" that divided younger and older African-Americans. The Los Angeles Democrat, who is California's highest-ranking African-American elected official, said she was "really appalled at...

Days after Barack Obama’s Nov. 4 victory, Mohammed Razvi and Rabbi Bob Kaplan scheduled a conference call with community leaders to discuss concerns that hate crimes could rise. On election night, a black Muslim teenager was assaulted with a baseball bat by a group allegedly shouting “Obama,” and a New Jersey couple found a burned cross on their lawn. “The kids in Staten Island were on the prowl,” said Razvi, of the Council of Peoples Organization, echoing prosecutors. “How did they learn this?” Razvi, who advocates for South Asians and Kaplan, who works with the Jewish Community Relations Council, are...

For the past two weeks, Sacramento leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been on high alert. They are hiring extra security to watch over the Folsom temple, and asking members to drive by church buildings late at night. Mormons in law enforcement are keeping track of Internet chatter to find out where protests will be held. "Our members in law enforcement know where to look for this kind of stuff," said Lisa West, spokeswoman for the church in the Sacramento region. She added that they are doing this on their own time. "There's a lot...

An Augsburg College student and Sarah Palin supporter from Alaska was beaten on election night while walking to her dorm and was called a racist by a group of four young women because she had on a McCain/Palin presidential campaign button, authorities and the victim said. Annie Grossmann, a freshman on the Minneapolis college's hockey team, suffered blurred vision and is thought to have had a concussion from a punch in the eye, but declined medical attention, she said

A Carlsbad jogger was assaulted when he tried to prevent people from removing "Yes on 8" campaign signs Tuesday morning, police said. The man was in the area of Aviara Parkway and Cormorant Drive about 10 a.m. when he said he saw two men removing the signs, police said. The signs are in support of a California proposition that, if passed, would define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Police said the jogger confronted the men and was assaulted by one of them. The victim's hat and glasses were pulled off and his glasses were smashed on...

I just got home about 25 minutes ago from a frustrating afternoon to say the least. Long story short...my wife and I were leaving a restaurant late this afternoon after voting and as we were pulling out I noticed a very tall male between the ages of 18-20 yrs of age spray painting the huge McCain/Palin signs that were in front of the mall...he was putting the word "DON'T" in yellow spray paint with a nazi symbol on the bottom. He was doing this in broad daylight on a public road...so I turned my truck around and hauled it down...

I’m leaving blow-by-blow coverage of election results to the approximately one million sites that will be looking at them in detail all through the night, but in the true spirit of election day, here’s a really nasty trick to consider. As an article by Scott Berinato in this month’s Wired magazine describes, distributed denial-of-service attacks can shut down the web servers of companies and organizations within minutes, even if they’ve taken measures to protect themselves. How do they work? Hackers penetrate inadequately protected computers (yours?) and install software (a “bot”) that hides in the background until it’s triggered by a...

San Francisco liberal, gay-rights activist, and most importantly Obama sycophant confesses his true feelings for what he'd like to do to Joe the Plumber... ON THE AIR! (Click to view the video)

BREAKING: KGO / San Francisco libtalker / Obama supporter Karel has been caught on tape calling for the death of Joe The Plumber. According to a key industry source, this DID go out over the airwaves. Here's the clip (NOTE -- EXPLICIT LANGUAGE WARNING):

Unintentionally funny, yet sad. If Karl Rove or Steve Schmidt didn't put this he/she up to this, they should have. WARNING: Some profanity on video and comments.

Warning: Graphic language. Charles Karel Bouley is a weekend host on KGO-AM and a contributing writer for The Huffington Post.

Today, 05:17 AM Lynne Gold Member = >500 Posts Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Denton, TX near dallas Posts: 568 Poster Rank: #214 11/02/08 Car Window & 3 Tires Slashed Tonight, another Obama supporter expressed their spirit of non-divisiveness and the transformational essense of the ONE by smashing my rear car window and slashing 3 of my tires. My crime: I had NOBAMA and Clintons 4 McCain on my backwindow. I am not suprised or angry. I chose to have that on my car because I want people to know that I am not afraid nor will I be intimidated...

A sign in a pickup supporting the Nov. 4 proposition that would ban gay marriage apparently provoked a 15-year-old boy, who attempted to torch the vehicle and was later arrested for arson and vandalism Wednesday. Witnesses reported seeing juveniles throwing lit paper into the truck parked near the high school, LBPD Sgt. Jason Kravetz said. Police later learned the pickup's owner was visiting Laguna to watch his daughter in a sports event. Officers arrived to find the smoldering remains of a fire in the bed of a Ford 150 pickup. Firefighters made sure there was no further risk. "The responding...

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Just 5 days before the election, at 3a.m. on October 30th, all of the front windows of the Cindy Sheehan for Congress campaign offices were shattered. Although staffers had been in the office less than an hour earlier, no one was in the building at the time of the incident. No one was hurt and there were no witnesses. Cindy Sheehan is a candidate for Congress in California's 8th Congressional District race against incumbent Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

During this somewhat contentious election season, the point has been made that some parts of our country are more "anti-American" than others. I wholeheartedly agree. Particularly those parts where the population consists of so-called Americans who follow a doctrine of white supremacy that spreads hatred and promotes violence against African-Americans, gays, Hispanics or any groups they deem inferior. That would include the two men from Tennessee and Arkansas arrested over what federal authorities described as a fantastic plot to conduct a racial massacre that would have left dozens of African-Americans dead, including Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Daniel Cowart, 20,...

Toledo police clerk charged in Joe The Plumber snooping case; Update: Snooper was doing a favor for a reporter; Joe may sue By Michelle Malkin • October 28, 2008 04:49 PM Scroll for updates… Just in: The Toledo Police Department confirms that one of its records clerks has been charged with performing an unlawful search of Joe The Plumber’s records. That makes two Ohio government employees identified in the snooping case. (Obama donor Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, approved a separate search. More are being investigated.) WNWO reports: Toledo Police have confirmed that...

The Central Michigan University (CMU) administration charged the CMU Campus Conservatives hundreds of dollars for security the school provided to the lecture attendees and conservative author and activist David Horowitz, whom the group invited to speak on campus, despite threat of legal action from a national, legal advocacy group. CMU Campus Conservatives, an independent club, was founded with assistance from the Leadership Institute (LI) of Arlington, Virginia. LI helped the group to obtain a donor-supported speaker grant to bring Horowitz to CMU on Tuesday, October 14 in honor of Islamofascism Awareness Week. Horowitz delivered his speech, “Stop the Jihad on...