Free Republic

According to the Associated Press, November 5th — Maine has become the fifth state to allow dispensaries where marijuana can be distributed to medical patients. But medical marijuana advocates say Maine won't become like Los Angeles, where hundreds of dispensaries have popped up and come under critical scrutiny. Ethan Nadelmann of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance says Maine's law has stricter provisions than California's. He says "Maine dispensaries will be licensed by the state, unlike those in California, and that Maine narrowly defines medical conditions for which patients can be prescribed pot, while California allows doctors to recommend it...

CNA STAFF, Nov 6, 2009 / 11:58 am (CNA).- Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, spoke to CNA about the victory of Question 1 in Maine, which repeals previous legislation legalizing gay ‘marriage.’ Gallagher said that the victory, which defies statistics and expectations, “is very heartening to marriage supporters and disappointing to gay ‘marriage’ advocates.” Noting that the supporters of same-sex marriage were surprised and upset by this victory, Gallagher analyzed the circumstances leading up to the election. “The gay marriage advocates,” she told CNA on Thursday, “had a three-year head start. They put millions into building...

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...

It is too hard for me to swallow the fact that a properly passed law in Maine was repealed in a public referendum. This just seems wrong. The proper course of action was to throw out the bums who passed the law in the first place and then have a subsequent legislature / Governer repeal the law. While the "outcome" in this case was favorable to conservative point of view, it is impossible for me to see how it benefits the conservative movement in the long run. Remember, gay marriage was made legal in Maine by the elected government -...

Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate. Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage. "Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian...

On Nov. 3, 53 percent of Maine voters rejected a six-month-old law redefining the state’s definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. The next day, an AP article about the vote read more like a direct mail appeal for the Human Rights Campaign than a news piece. Headlined “Maine Voters Repeal Law Allowing Gay Marriage,” the article called the repeal of the legislation that granted marriage for same-sex couples a “stinging defeat” for the gay rights movement and focused almost exclusively on the reactions of gays and lesbians. Framed around the thwarted wedding plans of a lesbian couple, the article...

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.”

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action, issued the following statement on news that the voters of Maine have rejected counterfeit “same-sex marriage” by 53% - 47%. "...even in one of the most liberal States in the Union, Maine, the people have once again rejected the ridiculous and oxymoronic notion of ‘same sex marriage.’ The momentum has again shifted – hopefully for good this time – in favor of protecting legitimate marriage. A counterfeit is a counterfeit. An orange is an orange no matter how much you want it to be a turnip....

In a stinging setback for the national gay-rights movement, Maine voters narrowly decided to repeal the state’s new law allowing same-sex marriage. With 87 percent of precincts reporting early this morning, 53 percent of voters had approved the repeal, ending an expensive and emotional fight that was closely watched around the country as a referendum on the national gay-marriage movement. Polls had suggested a much closer race. With the repeal, Maine became the 31st state to reject same-sex marriage at the ballot box. Five other states - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont - have legalized same-sex marriage, but...

PORTLAND, Maine — Cecelia Burnett and Ann Swanson had already set their wedding date. When they joined about 1,000 other gay marriage supporters for an election night party in a Holiday Inn ballroom, they hoped to celebrate the vote that would make it possible. Instead, they went home at midnight, dejected and near tears after a failed bid to make Maine the first state to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box. "I'm ready to start crying," said Burnett, a 58-year-old massage therapist, walking out of the ballroom with Swanson at her side. "I don't understand what the fear is,...

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine voters have torpedoed a state law that would have allowed gay couples to marry. With 84 percent of the precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the vote Tuesday. The outcome amounts to a heartbreaking defeat for the gay rights movement — particularly since it occurred in New England, the corner of the country most supportive of gay marriage. At issue was a law passed by the Maine Legislature last spring that would have legalized same-sex marriage. The law was put on hold after conservatives launched a petition drive to repeal it in a referendum....

28% Reporting, rejection of Gay Marriage up 50.51%

Yes on repeal of gay marriage 51% No on repeal of gay marriage 47%

Maine voters narrowly favor Question 1, which would reverse the state's law legalizing same sex marriage. At 51-47 it's within the margin of error but there has been slight movement in support of the question since a PPP poll two weeks ago showed it knotted up at 48. The measure's fate could be determined by the age composition of the electorate on Tuesday. Senior citizens support it by a 59-40 margin while voters under 30 oppose it 51-48. Last year exit polls showed more voters under 30 turning out for the Presidential election than ones over 65 but we expect...

Raleigh, N.C. – Two weeks out from election day Maine voters are divided right down the middle when it comes to whether they will reject the state’s law allowing same sex couples to marry. 48% say they will vote to over turn the law while 48% say they will vote to keep it with only 4% of the electorate still undecided. Opinion on the issue predictably breaks heavily along party lines. 74% of Republicans are planning to vote yes while only 25% of Democrats are. Independents may end up deciding which way it goes- presently 50% of them support rejecting...

(CNN) -- Voters in Maine will decide next week whether to overturn the legislation signed by Gov. John Baldacci nearly six months ago that allows same-sex couples to wed. Baldacci, who originally opposed the legislation, said upholding the bill comes down to a fundamental understanding of equal protection and constitutional responsibility. "Initially, I had the opinion for several years that civil unions were the limitations of what I was willing to support," Baldacci said. "But, the research that I did uncovered that a civil union didn't equal a civil marriage." On May 6 when Baldacci signed the legislation, he did...

The lone Republican senator to back any Democratic healthcare proposal says she could support a filibuster When it comes time to pass a final healthcare reform bill, Senate Democrats may need help from Maine's Olympia Snowe, the only Republican senator thus far to vote for a Democratic proposal. And if they do, that could spell doom for the public option. Snowe was asked Thursday whether she'd vote for cloture -- that is, to end a filibuster -- on a bill that includes a provision for a government-run insurer. "I'd say I'm against a public option, so yes," she replied. Pressed...

<p>There are 18 states, as columnist Mark Shields recently pointed out to me, that have gone Democratic in each of the last five presidential elections.</p> <p>Of the 36 senators who represent those states, only two are Republicans. Both are from Maine, one of the last, storm-lashed, surf-pounded footholds of the Yankee GOP. So it is hardly shocking that the lone Republican supporter of Democratic health reform on the Senate Finance Committee should be Maine's Olympia Snowe.</p>

ST. STEPHEN - The RCMP bomb squad stood by in St. Stephen Sunday night as American authorities questioned five people who attempted to enter the United States. The Canada Border Services Agency closed the Ferry Point Bridge from St. Stephen to Calais, Maine, shortly after 6 p.m. and asked the RCMP to divert traffic. Police at the Calais end of the bridge did the same. Not only did the police not allow traffic across the bridge but, at the St. Stephen end, they did not allow motorists to drive up Milltown Boulevard past the end of it. Traffic coming one...

WASHINGTON – A second Republican senator signaled Wednesday she's open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year, putting President Barack Obama closer to a historic achievement that has eluded generations of Democratic leaders...

WASHINGTON – A second Republican senator signaled Wednesday she's open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year, putting President Barack Obama closer to a historic achievement that has eluded generations of Democratic leaders. But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told The Associated Press that the bill approved Tuesday by the Finance Committee needs substantial improvements to make coverage more affordable, contain costs, and protect Medicare. Nevertheless, she joined her Maine GOP colleague Sen. Olympia Snowe in endorsing the goal of far-reaching changes.

Snowe's vote isn't all that popular in Maine, assuming these are all Maine votes.

WASHINGTON - Nobody knew for sure what Senator Olympia J. Snowe would do yesterday when the Finance Committee gathered to vote on its health care bill - not even Snowe. Chairman Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, had been courting her vote for months, investing long hours in closed-door negotiations with her and the other members of the “Gang of Six.’’ In the late summer and early fall, President Obama spoke with her on the phone and invited her to the White House to address her concerns.

Sweeping Health Bill Passes Senate Panel The $829B plan would require most Americans to purchase insurance Oct. 13: Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe announces in the Senate Finance Committee debate that she will vote for the heath care bill, telling her colleagues she has misgivings about the bill, but "when history calls, history calls." WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's vow to overhaul the U.S. health care system has cleared a key hurdle with a Senate committee passing a bill. The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation Tuesday that meets most of the requirements set out by Obama for expanding coverage and cutting...

NEWRY, Maine — A Maine couple has taken the crown in the North American Wife Carrying Championship over a course that featured a muddy water hole and two log obstacles. Dave and Lacey Castro of Lewiston beat a field of 41 teams to win the competition Saturday at Sunday River ski resort in Newry. They covered the 278-yard course in 54.45 seconds. For their effort, the couple won Lacey's weight in beer and five times her weight in cash — $485. In all, teams from 11 states competed in the 10th annual race in which a man has to carry...

Every now and then, you stumble upon a town that's gotten everything right—great coffee, food with character, shop owners with purpose. These 10 spots have it all, in perfectly small doses.

A Christian organization in Maine has filed a lawsuit to challenge a bureaucratic decision to impose a $4,000 fine for its "criticism" of Islam, expressed in a mailing to supporters. The issue developed following a Christian Action Network fundraising letter several months ago. The letter exposed "how some public schools were promoting Islalm by providing instruction on the Five Pillars of Islam and the Quran," according to the complaint against the state.

Time for September’s Terrible Liberal of the Month: Olympia Snowe! Though, a more appropriate title for this week’s column may be Biggest Liberal of the Month. Despite the “R” that appears next to her name, there is little proof that the Maine senator is actually a Republican. Snowe may as well have admitted she was a Democrat ten years ago when, in 1999, she and her colleague Susan Collins (also “R”-ME) both voted to acquit Bill Clinton, saying that perjury wasn’t a grave enough charge to warrant impeachment. No, breaking the law and lying outright before a grand jury isn’t...

I was in Maine on the day that marriage qualified for the ballot this November. I went to Maine as president and founder of the National Organization for Marriage, which helped local groups organize the signature drive in Maine, as we did in California for Proposition 8. Most of the people in Maine were enthusiastic, but one clergyman asked me, "Shouldn't we live with our neighbors in peace?" His question haunts me for its debased presumptions: Is using democracy to fight for shared values somehow an act of war against our neighbors? "Agree with me or you're a hater" is...

Here is video of a citizen of Maine calling for the resignations of Maine GOP Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and Rep. Michaud because they voted for President Obama's Stimulus Bill. He made the statement at a Town Hall Meeting with a lot of people - but with no Senators or legislators present. Instead, participants had put chairs at the front with pictures of their legislators in the chairs! The man talked to the pictures in calling for their resignations! That's what itis has come to. The people are so fed up with what is happening they will find...

In a last effort to give the Senate a bipartisan health care bill, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee circulated a comprehensive proposal on Sunday to overhaul the health care system and proposed a new fee on insurance companies to help pay for coverage of the uninsured. ... The proposal by Mr. Baucus does not include a public option, or a government-run insurance plan, to compete with private insurers, as many Democrats want. ... It remains to be seen how Mr. Baucus’s plan might mesh with any proposals Mr. Obama lays out as he tries to pump up support...

MATINICUS ISLAND, Maine (AP) -- Life here is defined by the ocean. It's the ocean that feeds the livelihoods of the lobstermen. It's the ocean that dictates the weather. And it's 20 miles of ocean that separates Matinicus from the mainland and makes it a world apart.

Yesterday at monument square in Portland, liberal envirowackos from all over Maine rallied to shrill for lower standards of living for Maine residents in the name of the greenhouse myth, not to mention helping the government grow bigger and take away more of our hard earned money. The rally, which featured city council members, teamsters, America hating communists and others also circulated petitions calling for green energy in Maine, cap and trade and green jobs. The truth is that Maine is already strangled by environmental regulations against the economy. WE told you a year ago about a plan to build...

Olympia Snowe, the "Republican" who voted with the Democrats on the stimulas is now in negotiations with the Whitehouse over a public option "trigger" in the healthcare bill. It seems she is willing to vote with the Democrats again. When will the Republican party TOSS HER OUT? I can't believe freepers give me schtick for admiring someone like Ron Paul and yet tolerate the REAL traitor Senator Snowe. THROW HER OUT, MCCONNELL IS WEAK

In recent surveys on economic and personal freedom, conservative states such as Texas, Kansas and so on have scored high marks while liberal states such as California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York has scored low. New Hampshire scored big on both economic and personal liberty proving once again the power of private sector and low taxes against socialist oppression. California, that socialist paradise that liberals love ranked rock bottom on nearly all the surveys. Where does Maine stand? Not surprisingly Maine scored very low on economic liberty. Maine as you all remember is the worst state to set up a...

BREWER, Maine — An estimated 450 people from throughout Maine’s 2nd Congressional District and beyond gathered in Brewer Tuesday night to give their elected representatives a piece of their minds. The problem was U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud were no shows. Instead the dozens of people who traveled from such places as Washington County, Casco, Saco, East Millinocket, Orrington, the St. John Valley, Bangor, and York County, had to make due by addressing blown up photographs of the three propped up against three empty chairs that had been reserved for them at the...

Want a preview of ObamaCare in action? Sneak a look at what has happened in Maine. In 2003, the state to great fanfare enacted its own version of universal health care. Democratic Governor John Baldacci signed the plan into law with a bevy of familiar promises. By 2009, it would cover all of Maine's approximately 128,000 uninsured citizens. System-wide controls on hospital and physician costs would hold down insurance premiums. There would be no tax increases. The program was going to provide insurance for everyone and save businesses and patients money at the same time. After five years, fiscal realities...

Maine lobstermen are cutting competitors' trap lines, sinking boats and, in one case, shooting each other. Law-enforcement officials and people in Maine's tight-knit coastal communities say economic pressure on the state's 5,000 active lobstermen may be fueling the tension. With prices for the state's crustaceans at the lowest level since the early 1990s, lobstermen are having trouble covering bait, fuel and equipment costs, they say. Lobsterman Keith Simmonds, of Owls Head, Maine, suspects rivals sank his boat, First Light, on Aug. 5. In the hours after midnight, vandals slashed the boat's pipes and flooded it with salt water, damaging its...

OTISFIELD, Maine, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Officials in Otisfield now say residents get to keep the small Maine town's sole mailbox after the U.S. Postal Service had announced it would be removed. The officials said they have struck a deal to allow the town, which does not have a post office, to keep the only mailbox available to residents, WMTW-TV, Auburn, Maine, reported Thursday. The decision made last month to remove the box triggered multiple complaints from residents. One woman threatened to chain herself to the mailbox to keep it from being removed. The Postal Service initially said the box...

PARIS — Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School will be the site of a National Guard riot control drill Thursday morning to prepare in the event of a panic over distribution of serum to treat the swine flu. The school on Route 26 at the Paris-Norway town line has been designated by state officials as a distribution site for the H1N1 flu vaccine. The drill is to prepare for a worst-case scenario should the serum have to be transported from Augusta and people rush to get it. On Thursday morning, four or five National Guard Humvees will travel from Augusta to...

Apparently people in Washington think we pay no attention to what happens in our neighboring states. The President decided to speak on government health care plans in New Hampshire because each of the neighboring states has had a failed experiment with exactly the kind of changes Washington wants to bring to all of us. None of the rhetoric in the President's speech was new to New Englanders. All of it is eerily reminiscent of the hopes and dreams of Dirigo Choice in Maine and Commonwealth Care in Massachusetts. Both of those plans went into effect, and neither has proved effective,...

This Joker poster has gone viral. It began in LA but now it's nationwide!Some Right-Wing activists are plastering Main St & the UMPI campus with these stickers shown in the photos accompanying.I wonder who they can be???

“These bogus charges and fines the State of Maine has imposed are nothing but an attempt to stifle our free speech and silence our organization from speaking out about the steady creep of radical Islam in America." -president of the Christian Action Network

It's all in the name of research on finding a better way to tax motorists, and the pay is $895. Wanted: 250 Maine drivers willing to let a stranger put a black box under their dashboard. The reward: $895 and the opportunity to speak their minds about the highway tax experiment to a researcher. University of Iowa researchers are seeking 250 motorists in Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc counties willing to have a computer tracking system installed in their cars for 10 months. The system could someday be used to tax drivers according to the number of miles they drive, rather...

Rory Holland, the man charged with killing two brothers in Biddeford Tuesday morning, made his initial appearance in York County Superior Court in Alfred this morning. Holland was formally charged with two counts of murder in the killing of Derek Greene, 21, and Gage Greene, 19. He was not asked to enter a plea and was held without bail pending a hearing next week Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese said the state will fight to keep Holland held without bail. Holland is being represented by Clifford Strike of the Portland law firm Strike, Goodwin and O'Brien. Strike asked the court...

Over the past year I have been going over articles about Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's syndrome is considered to be a highly functioning form of autism yet it is also considered to be a disability. Members of the autism community have worked for years trying to downplay the severity of the disorder. I first heard about Asperger's in 1998 while watching a documentary. Asperger's disorder was first invented by a German doctor named Hans Asperger. (the disorder was named after him.) Asperger did study on children who though they were bright were considered awkward. The world health organization began to use...

STANDISH, Maine -- Justin Denney's family watched as he ascended the Cumberland County Civic Center stage during graduation Friday night to accept his diploma, but the superintendent told him to return to his seat. The Bonny Eagle High School senior's mother said she can't believe her son's taking a bow and blowing a kiss on stage led was grounds for the superintendent to withhold his diploma. Mary Denney wants an apology, and her son wants his diploma, reported WMTW-TV in Portland, Maine. "I'm like, 'Did she not hand him his diploma?' I'm like, 'What's going on?'" Mary Denney said.

MACHIAS, Maine - After being told by her daughter that a man in their home was an armed intruder, a 77-year-old woman pulled a gun on him and sent him running, according to court documents. The Bangor Daily News reported that family members have been referring to Doris Gatchell of Princeton as "Annie Oakley" after she confronted the man Friday. Suspect Dean T. Moore made his first appearance Monday in Washington County Superior Court. The newspaper reported that he faces up to 30 years in jail and fines of up to $50,000 on each of the two most serious charges...

BANGOR, Maine – A British woman has pleaded guilty in Maine to assault after being accused of downing prescription drugs, wine and lavatory soap, then scuffling with flight attendants. Galina Rusanova pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts in U.S. District Court in Bangor. The Bangor Daily News says she was sentenced to the 21 days she had already spent in jail. A charge of interference with a flight crew was dropped. Prosecutors say the 54-year-old woman punched and kicked attendants on a United Airlines flight April 29. They say she tried to bite one while snapping "like a dog."

Catholic officials have launched a fresh initiative to influence secular law according to the religious teachings of the Catholic Church, with marriage equality firmly in their sites. Church officials in Maine, the fifth and most recent state to offer marriage equality to gay and lesbian families, seek to bring those families’ rights to a popular vote, in hopes of seeing marriage equality repealed, as happened in California last year when, after a bruising and extremely expensive campaign to rescind family rights for gays and lesbians, voters narrowly passed Proposition 8. An Associated Press story from May 10 quoted Maine’s Secretary...