Since JDK 1.5, there are two simple ways to do what you want:
String safeRegex = Pattern.quote(literalString);
or
Pattern p = Pattern.compile(literalString, Pattern.LITERAL);
If you're still running JDK 1.4, the options are still relatively simple:
String safeRegex = "\\Q" + literalString + "\\E";
or
safeRegex = literalString.replaceAll("\\p{Punct}", "\\\\$0");
As for the double-backslashes-to-newlines thing, that's a stealth feature that was added to the forums couple of weeks ago. The only known way to circumvent it is to use another stealth feature: wrapping your code in [code][/code] tags before you post it.