Maine Allows Gay Marriage

So goes Maine so goes the nation, oh I hope not.

The Associated Press has reported that Maine Governor John Baldacci has signed a bill approving gay marriage, making it the fifth sate in the nation to approve the marriage of homosexuals.

The New Hampshire legislature is also poised to send a gay marriage bill to their governor. John Lynch, a Democrat. If New Hampshire approves homosexual marriage, Rhode Island will be the only state in New England opposing gay marriage.
The Maine Senate voted 21-13, with one absent, for a bill that authorizes marriage between any two people rather than between one man and one woman, as state law currently allows. The House had passed the bill yesterday.

Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, who hadn't previously indicated how he would handle the bill, signed it shortly afterward. In the past, he said he opposed gay marriage but supported civil unions, which provide many of the benefits of marriage.

Debate in the Maine Senate was brief. Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell, a Democrat, turned the gavel over to an openly gay legislator, Sen. Lawrence Bliss, also a Democrat, to preside over the final vote.

Sen. Debra Plowman, a Republican, argued that the bill was being passed "at the expense of the people of faith."

"You are making a decision that is not well-founded," warned Plowman.

Senate Majority Leader Philip Bartlett II, a Democrat, said the bill does not compel religious institutions to recognize gay marriage.

"We respect religious liberties. ... This is long overdue," said Bartlett.

Maine is now the fourth state in New England, to allow same-sex marriages. Connecticut enacted a bill after being ordered to allow gay marriages by the courts, and Vermont passed a bill over the governor's veto.

Massachusetts' high court ordered the state to recognize gay marriages. In Rhode Island, a bill to legalize same-sex marriage has been introduced but is not expected to pass.

Outside New England, Iowa is recognizing gay marriages by court order. The practice was briefly legal in California before voters banned it.

Marriage between men and women has existed since the beginning of civilization and has always been viewed as the union of male and female.



Shame on Gov. John Baldacci and the Democratic Party.

The American Conservative Republican is strongly opposed to this reckless experiment of redefining marriage and the family. Homosexuality is a life style choice and a perversion. The Democrats that support gay marriages are merely pandering for votes and campaign contributions from the gay community at the expense of the foundation of American society, which is the traditional family.

Arpaio To Use Armed Volunteers To Bolster Budget Cuts

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced today plans to significantly increase the number of armed volunteer posse as a way to bolster public safety after a 17% budget cut.

Arpaio says the move is needed to combat the potential ill effects of the recent actions by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to cut his budget, resulting in a hiring freeze of patrol deputies and a mandate that all deputies take furlough days.

Nineteen new qualified armed posse volunteers will graduate today from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Training Academy in Phoenix.

Arpaio says he plans to step up his recruiting methods to attract more men and women to join his volunteer armed posse through more public outreach.

"The public has a desire to help local law enforcement when times are tough. I am banking on their generosity of time and energy to help my deputies keep our communities safe," Arpaio said.

Arpaio is seeking primarily those who wish to be trained and qualified to carry and use a weapon. Currently there are about 300 qualified armed posse members in a volunteer force of nearly 2,600, the largest volunteer posse in the nation.

The Sheriff says to be armed qualified volunteers must supply their own weapons and graduate from training class consisting of 160 hours law enforcement instruction, including 60 hours of shooting range practice.

"We are not simply gathering people off the streets, giving them guns and telling them to go out and arrest bad guys, " Arpaio said.

"Our armed posse volunteers receive the same amount of firearms training as our deputies," Arpaio says. "They are and will continue to be an instrumental force behind public safety in Maricopa County."

The Sheriff will be attending their graduation today to address the newly trained volunteers and to give them direction on their responsibilities as armed posse members.

Mexican Drug Smugglers Ordered to Use Deadly Force against U.S. Law Enforcement.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The reputed head of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel is threatening a more aggressive stance against U.S. law enforcement, instructing associates to use deadly force, if needed, to protect increasingly contested trafficking operations, authorities said.

Such a move by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted man, would mark a turn from the cartel's previous position of largely avoiding violent confrontations north of the border - either with American law-enforcement officers or fellow traffickers.


Local police and federal agents in Arizona said they recently have received at least two law-enforcement alerts focused on Guzman's reported orders that his smugglers should "use their weapons to defend their loads at all costs."


Guzman is believed to have delivered the message personally in early March, during a three-day gathering of his associates in Sonoita, a small Mexican town a few miles south of the Arizona border, according to confidential U.S. intelligence bulletins sent to several state and federal law-enforcement officials, who discussed them on the condition of anonymity.


The Sonoita meeting is one of several signs that Guzman is becoming more brazen even in the face of a Mexican government crackdown on his activities and continued turf rivalries with other traffickers.


American Conservative Republican asks, Do you think we should put the U.S. military on the border now?

Or should we wait until more of our law enforcement officers are murdered?

Michael Savage Banned from UK

By Beverley Rouse, Press Association

Talk show host Michael Savage - real name Michael Weiner - is on the banned list


Sixteen people banned from entering the UK were "named and shamed" by the Home Office today.


Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she decided to make public the names of 16 people banned since October so others could better understand what sort of behaviour Britain was not prepared to tolerate.

The list includes hate preachers, anti-gay protesters and a far- right US talk show host.


"I think it's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country," Ms Smith told GMTV.

"Coming to this country is a privilege. If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country and, what's more, now we will make public those people that we have excluded.

"We are publishing the names of 16 of those that we have excluded since October. We are telling people who they are and why it is we don't want them in this country."

She said the number of people excluded from Britain had risen from an average of two a month to five a month since October.


The list of the 16 "least wanted" includes radio talk show host Michael Savage, real name Michael Weiner.

"This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country," Ms Smith told BBC Breakfast.

Also named are American Baptist pastor Fred Waldron Phelps Snr and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, who have picketed the funerals of Aids victims and claimed the deaths of US soldiers are a punishment for US tolerance of homosexuality.

"If people have so clearly overstepped the mark in terms of the way not just that they are talking but the sort of attitudes that they are expressing to the extent that we think that this is likely to cause or have the potential to cause violence or inter-community tension in this country, then actually I think the right thing is not to let them into the country in the first place. Not to open the stable door then try to close it later," Ms Smith said.

"It's a privilege to come to this country. There are certain behaviours that mean you forfeit that privilege."

Hamas MP Yunis Al-Astal, Jewish extremist Mike Guzovsky, former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black and neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe are also on the list released today.

Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, the former leaders of a violent Russian skinhead gang which committed 20 racially motivated murders, are also banned from coming to Britain. Both are currently in prison.

Making up the rest of the 16 named by the Home Office today are preachers Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi and Amir Siddique, Muslim activist Abdul Ali Musa (previously Clarence Reams), murderer and Hezbollah terrorist Samir Al Quntar and Kashmiri terror group leader Nasr Javed.

Senate Republicans launch new caucus website

(STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX) – Today, with the Launch of the Republicans’ new caucus website www.azsenaterepublicans.com, the public has another way to find out what is going on at the state Capitol. The caucus will use the site to enhance transparency and communicate with the public on important legislative issues through the use of articles, images, video, and other multimedia content.



“In this day and age, virtually anyone across the state can stay in touch with what we are doing at the Legislature. Now more than ever, we can use technology to communicate with Arizonans. This website is just one more example of how we are opening up the process to the public,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Gray, R-Mesa. “We hope people can find accurate information on the budget process, watch video clips, and hear from members of our caucus on a variety of topics that affect Arizona families.”



Add www.azsenaterepublicans.com to your bookmarks. We look forward to becoming a resource for you.





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For more information, contact:

Sarah Dodge, Communication Coordinator

Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus

Office: (602)926-3796, e-mail: sdodge@azleg.gov



Laura Devany, Communications Advisor

Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus

Office: (602) 926-3972, e-mail: ldevany@azleg.gov

Poll: Most Americans Don't Want Gay Marriage in Their State

By Nathan Black

Christian Post Reporter



A recent poll released this week shows that the majority of American voters do not want their state to allow gay marriage.



Fifty-five percent of voters oppose a law in their state allowing same-sex couples to marry, according to an April 30 poll of more than 2,000 registered voters by Quinnipiac University.



Moreover, half of American voters support the federal law allowing states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.



The 1996 Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), enacted under the Clinton administration, provides that states need not recognize same-sex marriages from another state.



Fewer Americans, however, support the second DOMA provision which defines marriage as between one man and one woman and bans the federal government from recognizing gay marriage for any purpose, including eligibility for federal benefits.



Fifty-four percent of voters say the federal law denying federal spousal benefits to gay and lesbian partners should be repealed.



Also, 57 percent support same-sex civil unions and 53 percent favor allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.



"Americans have nuanced and at times inconsistent views about gay rights issues," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in the report.



"In general, Americans tend to be more supportive when it comes to narrow equity questions like serving in the military or collecting federal benefits," he noted. (Fifty-six percent of voters say the ban on openly gay men and women in the military should be repealed.)



"But they are less accepting of more philosophical issues such as equating gay rights with civil rights for blacks and the belief that people are born gay rather than it being a choice," said Brown.



According to the Quinnipiac poll, half of surveyed voters say ending discrimination against homosexuals is as necessary today as ending discrimination against blacks was in the 1960s. But less than half (45 percent) agree that not allowing same-sex couples to get married is discrimination.



Also, 42 percent of American voters say people are born gay or lesbian while 36 percent say it is a choice. And according to Brown, 65 percent of those who think people are born gay support legalized gay marriage compared to 15 percent among those who say being gay is a personal choice.



In other findings, 39 percent of American voters say same-sex marriage is a threat to traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Evangelicals (57 percent) and Protestants (47 percent) were the only religious groups more likely than the total surveyed Americans to say it is a threat. Catholics (34 percent) and Jews (8 percent) were less likely to agree.





When it comes to who should decide whether same-sex marriage should be legal, 43 percent of voters say their state legislature should decide and 25 percent say the courts should. Only 16 percent say neither should make the decision.



Vermont became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage last month through legislative action. Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa were legalized through the state courts. More recently, Maine's and New Hampshire's Senates passed gay marriage bills this week.

Specter Double Talk

The following, are statements made by now Democrat Senator Arlen Specter, concerning his switching parties which proves with his own words that he is a; cheap, pandering, politician, who stands for nothing.

In March:
"I am staying a Republican because I think I have an important role -- a more important role -- to play there. I think the United States desperately needs a two-party system. It is the basis of politics in America. I think each of the 41 Republican senators, in a sense, and I don't want to overstate this, is a national asset, because if one was gone you would only have 40. The Democrats would have 60 and they would control all of the mechanisms of government." --Sen. Arlen Specter

In April:
"Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans. ... Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right." --Sen. Arlen Specter