Free Republic

Everyone wants to write their congressman (person) when they are displeased with the way things are going. When that does not work (and it won't) many choose to demonstrate at their local city offices or state capital. Others take the time to actually travel to the seat of the real problem - Washington DC. When that does not work (and it never does) what is left to do. Just do it all over again and again and again........ Let me tell you a tale of Bill Clinton, an ambassador buddy of his (that was one of his anti-Vietnam war buddies)...

"Only under the administration of a former 'community organizer,' a product of the corrupt Chicago political machine, who never served a day of his life in uniform, could a 20-year retired Marine Corps Officer be prohibited from visiting the Arlington National Cemetery resting place of his father, a 30-year retired Marine Corps Officer with distinguished combat service, on the most hallowed of days for our fallen and deceased military servicemen and women -- Memorial Day."

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama avoided a racial controversy on his first Memorial Day in office by sending wreaths to separate memorials for Confederate soldiers and for blacks who fought against them during the Civil War. Last week, a group of about 60 professors petitioned the White House, asking the first black U.S. president to break tradition and not memorialize military members from the Confederacy, the group of Southern states that supported slavery. "The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African-Americans by slave owners, Confederates and neo-Confederates, through the monument's denial of slavery as...

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2009 – More than 3,000 servicemembers officially kicked off the Memorial Day commemoration last evening as they placed more than 250,000 miniature flags at every grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Airman Jacob Proffer, a member of the Air Force Honor Guard, pauses to salute a grave after placing a miniature flag at its base during the “Flags In” tribute at Arlington National Cemetery, May 21, 2009. “When I do this, it makes me take a lot more pride every time I put on my uniform, seeing the measure of sacrifice so many have made,” he said....

 Photo credit: Marooned in Marin It's been six years since President Bush launched an attack on - not Iraq, not Bagdad, not a country and its people, but - Saddam Hussein -- Saddam Hussein and; those who would attack the U.S. And on this anniversary day, Brian Becker, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) or cANSWER ("CANCER") as we like to call it, organized his scruffy, useless, parasitic contingent to march on Washington once again. The DC Chapter has been there each time to counter protest. In the early years, cANSWER was able round up great...

PORTLAND — A former Washington state Transportation Department engineer yesterday has found himself, his imam and his mosque swept into an unfolding investigation by Portland's joint terrorism force led by the FBI. Farid Adlouni, a civil engineer and U.S. citizen who once worked out of the Vancouver office, was profiled in The Oregonian newspaper yesterday as a man with business ties to a top Osama bin Laden aide and who has attracted FBI scrutiny. Adlouni, 38, yesterday said he had "done nothing wrong." The imam, Mohammad Abdirahman Kariye, also a U.S. citizen, was recently charged with two felony counts of...

Here is video from this morning where President-elect Barack Obama and Vice-President-elect Joe Biden laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. . . . . (watch video)

Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden are getting trigger happy for the spot light. They are seen this morning in a surprise ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary, laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Not only is that the duty of the President on Memorial Day, it is an encroachment of the solemn respect earned by what the tomb represents. I resent it being used for a photo-op by two Senators who have voted against funding military.

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, at the request of a Hoosier who has served in The Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery, spurred the effort for all service members, regardless of rank, to receive full honor funerals. Beginning in early 2009, enlisted service members will receive the same funeral honors as officers at Arlington National Cemetery. In addition to the previous rule that offered a firing party, bugler and chaplain, they also will have a caisson, band, colors team and escort platoon. “I deeply appreciate Sergeant Durbin’s impressive service to our country and his tireless advocacy on behalf of his fellow...

The subject of the President’s weekly radio address was fighting substance abuse in America. TRANSCRIPT U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Iraq and spoke to the troops at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2008 – Volunteers will gather at noon tomorrow at Arlington National Cemetery to place holiday wreaths on veterans’ gravesites as part of the nationwide “Wreaths Across America” project. Volunteers fan out over Arlington National Cemetery, Va., to place 5,000 wreaths on the graves of veterans as part of the 2006 “Wreaths Across America” project. The wreaths, donated by a Maine businessman, attracted thousands of people to pay their respects to veterans. DoD photo by Jim Garamone  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Worcester Wreath Company from Harrington, Maine, has donated about 90,000 wreaths for the...

On this day in 1921, Sgt. Edward F. Younger, a U.S. Army veteran, decorated war hero, and recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, entered a hall in Chalons-sur-Marne, France carrying a spray of white roses. Before him were four identical caskets, each draped with an American flag and each cradling the body of a World War I American soldier. Younger circled the caskets three times and then placed the white roses on the third casket from the left. The selected casket was brought aboard the USS Olympia, which carried it across the ocean to the United States, where the soldier...

WMAL(Washington)has been reporting all day that Arlington County has 146,000 registered voters not including those that registered today. With a population "just over 200,000".

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is 2nd Lt. Howard C. Enoch Jr., US Army Air Forces, of Marion, KY. He will be buried on September 22 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Representatives from the Army met with Enoch's next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate internment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army. On March 19,...

9/11 steel poured for USS SomersetBy KIRK SWAUGER Published: August 06, 2008 11:35 pm SOMERSET — The old draglines that towered above the reclaimed strip mine where Flight 93 crashed near Shanks-ville almost seven years ago are gone. But their symbolic significance to the day average Americans fought back against terror will not be lost. Twenty-two tons of steel from one of the large cranes was melted and poured Wednesday for the stemhold of the USS Somerset, a Navy vessel being constructed in honor of Flight 93’s passengers and crew. “We’re going to be cutting the water for that ship...

A flap over an allegedly pervy state senator - and scathing columns by the Herald’s own Howie Carr - pushed some Arlington residents to bite back by embracing their inner moonbat. “I happily take the term moonbat and fly free,” said Menotomy Moonbats spokeswoman Deborah Butler, who was derided in one of Carr’s columns. “We’re looking for a way to put positive energy into the word.” The group ordered 60 T-shirts last week designed with a bat against a glow-in-the-dark moon backdrop. They’ll be on sale at the Arlington Farmer’s Market for $15 each as soon as Aug. 20. The...

ARLINGTON -- Two gunmen who forced their way into a southeast Arlington home Tuesday afternoon “blasted through the back door” with shotguns, tied up a couple and their adult son and took the woman’s jewelry, a 911 audio recording says.The female victim, who has asked Tuesday that her name not be used because the suspects are still at large, told the 911 dispatcher that the home invasion about 1 p.m. Tuesday was “unreal.”She said she was sitting reading in her home in the 500 block of Lemon Drive, her son was on the computer and her husband was getting ready...

ARLINGTON WEBSITE We must ask ourselves if we are living our lives to demonstrate that we deserve their sacrifice. Are we going to preserve that which they gave everything to defend?

Check out this amazing video of an Air Force funeral detail at Arlington National Cemetery. As a furious thunderstorm rolls in with blinding rain and enough wind to rip their hats off their heads, they don't move a muscle, and continue their watch over the departed. Simply amazing, and very moving.

ARLINGTON, VA., May 26, 2008 – A group of past and present military women gathered at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery here today to commemorate fallen comrades and celebrate women’s contributions to the nation’s defense. Retired Navy Master Chief Petty Officer Anna Der-Vartanian, left, shakes hands with retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeanne Holm during a Memorial Day ceremony held at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, Va., May 26, 2008. Defense Dept. photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. WIMSA’s annual...