Free Republic

He prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md., a devout Muslim who, despite asking to be discharged from the U.S. Army, according to his aunt, was on the eve of his first deployment to war. On Thursday, authorities said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Arlington, Va.-born psychiatrist, shot and killed at least 12 people at Fort Hood.*** Nidal Hasan spent much of his professional career at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., caring for the victims of trauma, yet he spoke openly of his deep opposition to the wars in Iraq and...

The fight over Robert E. Lee's beloved home—seized by the U.S. government during the Civil War—went on for decades Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Battle-of-Arlington.html#ixzz0UvYZZAfo

By his own estimation, the Rev. Mark Batterson has preached about 1,000 sermons in his makeshift sanctuary at Union Station's Phoenix Theatres, where his congregation has met for the past 13 years. Last week's was one of the most difficult: In his remarks he told his congregation it would be the final service at their unconventional church. The train station's movie theater closed abruptly last week. Mr. Batterson said that for the past two years he had been hearing rumors the theater would close, but he had been assured they were not true. So it came as a shock when...

ARLINGTON, Va. - There's a new turn in the debate over high occupancy toll lanes or HOT lanes. A lawsuit filed by Arlington County last month claims the lanes benefit wealthy white people and discriminates against minorities. While the only rule to get in the HOV lanes on Interstate 395 is you must have three people in the car, Arlington claims adding HOT lanes would cut out poor and minorities by defacto. That claim doesn't sit well with Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield). "I don't think race or class warfare has any standing in this argument," Herrity said. Buried...

ARLINGTON, Va. - There's a new turn in the debate over high occupancy toll lanes or HOT lanes. A lawsuit filed by Arlington County last month claims the lanes benefit wealthy white people and discriminates against minorities. While the only rule to get in the HOV lanes on Interstate 395 is you must have three people in the car, Arlington claims adding HOT lanes would cut out poor and minorities by defacto.

Irving Kristol, 89, a forceful essayist, editor and university professor who became the leading architect of neoconservatism, which he called a political and intellectual movement for disaffected ex-liberals like himself who had been "mugged by reality," died Friday at the Capital Hospice in Arlington. He spent much of his career in New York but had for the last two decades lived at the Watergate apartments in the District. He died of complications from lung cancer, said his son, William Kristol, the founder and editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine.

Washington, D.C. Favorite Area For Wealthy Young By Patricia Reaney – Sep 16 NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Washington, D.C. has become the favorite area for wealthy young adults, with the nation's highest percentage of 25-34 year-olds making more than $100,000 a year, according to a new analysis. Sixteen of the top 50 counties in the United States with the highest share of wealthy young people are in the Washington, D.C. area. Loudoun county, which is part of the Washington metropolitan area, has 10 percent, or 10,327 young adults, making more than six figures -- more than San Francisco and...

A new school year in the United States has begun with a touch of controversy. It surrounds a welcome back speech to students from President Barack Obama that was seen in classrooms around the country. In some communities, parents staged a boycott of the president's address - an example of how politically divided the nation has become. The president's message to students was simple: study hard, pay attention in class and embrace the opportunity to learn. "We can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world. And none of it will make...

Odagma greeted by Patriots with sign stating, "Mr. President, stay away from our kids." This follows Dept of Ed retracting controversial materials that they admitted were of questionable intent. Wow this guy is tone deaf to what currently people want.

Friend of the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com, Eugene Delgaudio of Public Advocate, will be holding a freep of Obama outside Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA, tomorrow morning. He's inviting Freeepers in the Northern Virginia-D.C. area to join him.He'll be there from 10 a.m. onward through the 12 noon scheduled speech at the edge of the security perimeter at Dinwiddie and Geo. Mason. Look for the Gadsden flags and the angry Arlingtronians trying to run Eugene out of their liberal haven :-)

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama Back to School Event Arlington, Virginia September 8, 2009 The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today. I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous....

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2009 – A granite monument dedicated to 40 U.S. servicemembers who perished in an air crash in Australia during World War II has found a permanent home at Fort Myer, Va. Left to right, retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Bruce A. Wright; Australian Air Vice-Marshal Kym Osley, head of the Australian embassy’s defense staff; U.S. Army Secretary Pete Geren; Harry McAlpine, president of the Returned and Services League’s Washington, D.C., sub-branch; U.S. Army Col. Laura J. Richardson, garrison commander of the Fort Myer Military Community; Robert S. Cutler, executive director of the Bakers Creek Memorial...

Fearing the next terror attack could emerge from America's growing Somali refugee population, federal authorities have stepped up surveillance in Somali communities – including a large enclave just outside Washington. In fact, WND has learned that the Baileys Crossroads area of Northern Virginia – about 10 miles from the capital – was a critical focus of security investigations in advance of the presidential inauguration in January. Investigators say a troubling number of the area's Somali men hold "militant" anti-American views and sympathize with al-Qaida. They typically work as taxi drivers, gathering at local coffeehouses during their breaks, as well as...

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., joins scholars and policy experts next week near the nation’s capital to discuss the future of U.S.-Muslim relations. The nonprofit Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy is celebrating its 10th anniversary with an academic conference Tuesday titled, “How to Improve U.S.-Muslim Relations: Challenges and Promises Ahead.” The conference in Arlington, Va., among other things, will take up the Obama administration policies and what role Islam will play in developing democracy in the Muslim world. During the gathering, Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed will receive the “Muslim Democrat of the Year” award for his work...

President Obama and Vice President Biden visited popular Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Va. for an informal and relaxed lunch. Both men ordered and paid for themselves. Obama left a $5 tip to avoid be called "freeloaders" as Obama says! Of course, we have no proof they actually used their own money. Somehow I highly doubt it.ss I threw up a little in my mouth when Obama stands on the edge of his Limo to wave to his adoring fans like he's a rock star or something. Hmmm.... Pardon me, but would you have any Grey Poupon?

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A former high-level aide to Sen. Barbara Boxer has been sentenced to five years in prison on child pornography charges. Jeff P. Rosato, 32, of Arlington, was sentenced Friday in a hearing before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III. He received the minimum sentence allowed under federal guidelines and will have to register as a sex offender.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With its party struggling to define itself, a group of prominent Republicans launched a listening tour Saturday in a bid to boost the GOP's sagging image and regroup for future elections. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., held a town-hall style meeting at a pizza restaurant in the Democratic suburb of Arlington, Va., to hear about people's concerns on issues from the economy and health care to the rising costs of college tuition. "You can't beat something with nothing, and the other side has something," Bush...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said it's time for Republicans "to listen a little bit, learn a little bit." He advised Republicans to work on the party's message and "not be so nostalgic." "I would say you can't beat something with nothing. The other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it," said Bush, who praised President Obama's tactical approach to politics and commended his 2008 campaign as "forward-looking." Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney compared the GOP to Americans fighting the British during the Revolutionary War. "We are the party of the revolutionaries, they [Democrats] are the...

Arlington County in Northern Virginia will try to maximize its population number in the 2010 Census by counting illegal immigrants, and part of the reason for doing so is to capture some of the $300 billion in federal funds distributed to local governments each year based on census numbers. That’s what local officials, Census Bureau officials and documents, and Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) indicated at a meeting on Wednesday. Moran and Census officials told CNSNews.com they are preparing to reach out to illegal immigrants by emphasizing that they have nothing to fear from the census because it does not differentiate...

Star Lobbyist Closes Up Shop as Criminal Inquiry Heats Up By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and CHARLIE SAVAGE Published: March 29, 2009 WASHINGTON — For most of the last three decades, the lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti might have been mistaken for an owner of the Alpine, a wood-paneled Italian restaurant across the Potomac River from Washington where he routinely presided over boisterous tables of lawmakers and their staff members. “Get me some oysters! Get me some steamed crabs! Get me a rack of lamb!” Mr. Magliocchetti would tell the cooks, strolling into the kitchen. “Every day a different thing,” the chef and...

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said his young daughter will attend public school in Northern Virginia. In an interview, Duncan, 44, said he was attracted by both the quality of Arlington County schools and the diversity of the student body. He said his 7-year-old daughter, Claire, will enroll in first grade at a county elementary school. Duncan and his wife, Karen, also have a son, 4-year-old Ryan. Both children sat quietly during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, reading books and drawing. Their behavior earned them praise from several senators.

ARLINGTON, Virginia, December 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bishop Paul Loverde of the diocese of Arlington weighed in on the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) last week, saying that if he oversaw a Catholic hospital he would neither close the facility nor allow it to perform abortions if FOCA were to become law.Though there are currently no Catholic hospitals in the Arlington diocese, the bishop spoke defiantly against FOCA, which would force all health care providers to procure abortions at any stage of development, regardless of their moral or religious objection.“I would say, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to close the...

Several priests and parishes in Northern Virginia's Arlington Diocese balked Sunday at taking up a collection for the much-criticized Catholic Campaign for Human Development, whose contributions to the voter-registration group ACORN got a dose of bad publicity this fall.  "I personally haven't given a dime to the Campaign for Human Development in years," the Rev. John DeCelles told parishioners during his Sunday homily at St. Mary's Church in Alexandria.  "Over the years, including last year," he continued, "the campaign has given millions of dollars to very questionable groups, including groups that actively support and campaign for so-called 'abortion rights.'" Mary...

In this socialist rant which could have been a page right out of the Communist Manifesto, Moran says: “It hasn’t been shared and that’s the problem. Because we have been guided by a republican administration his simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it, and they have an antipathy towards the means of redistibutive wealth.” See the Video here.This is the same Jim Moran who said “When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee], I’m going to earmark the sh*t out of it.”

It’s this type of political rhetoric that brings out the “Joe the Plumber” in all of us. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., thinks it’s a “simplistic notion” for people who are successful in their bid to become wealthy to hold on to that wealth and not have it “redistributed” by the government. “Now in the last seven years we have had the highest corporate profit ever in American history,” Moran said in a video posted to YouTube on Oct. 31. “Highest corporate profit – we’ve had the highest productivity. The American worker has produced more per person than at any time,...

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".

At 9:37 a.m., on 9/11, those aboard Arlington Fire Department Engine 101 were headed north on I-395 for a training session near the Pentagon. Firefighter Jamie Lewis saw the American Airlines Flight 77 first. “Hey, look at the plane!” he shouted. “What’s he doing?” Nearby, on the Columbia Pike, Paramedic Claude Conde was loading a stroke victim into an ambulance when a plane roared overhead. “He had never seen a plane so close. Something wasn’t right. The airport wasn’t far away, but the plane was already at treetop level, well below the glide path it should be on for National...

Arlington authorities are searching the banks of the Potomac River below the George Washington Parkway for a motorcyclist that may have driven off a cliff. ABC 7/NewsChannel 8's Scott Thuman reports the GW Parkway is closed in both directions. United States Park Police are assisting in the search which is centered near the Spout Run Parkway. A park police spokesperson said they got a report that a motorcycle drove off the GW Parkway around 6:15 p.m. near the first overlook. -snip-

Fresh Air from WHYY, May 22, 2008 · After American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, it took firefighters three days to extinguish the flames. Firefighter Patrick Creed and journalist Rick Newman join Fresh Air to talk about the Pentagon blaze and the book they wrote about it, Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11. Firefight tells the stories of the people inside the Pentagon when the plane hit, the rescue efforts that followed the attack and the three-day battle to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters faced unique circumstances, Creed and Newman write,...

An Arlington attorney was arrested and accused of soliciting a minor for sex on the Internet. Ronald Cohen, 57, was arrested Thursday and charged with soliciting sex on the Internet with a girl under the age of 15, but the girl was really a police officer. "They decided that they would set up a meeting. Mr. Cohen went through with the meeting and that's where he was met with detectives and state troopers," said Crystal Nosal, of the Arlington County Police. Cohen is a prominent attorney in Arlington, working largely in real estate. He is one of five directors of...

An Arlington man was in stable condition yesterday in Inova Fairfax Hospital after reaching into his luggage and being bitten by a snake. Officials have not determined how the reptile — preliminarily identified as a juvenile canebrake rattlesnake — got into the luggage. The man, identified by authorities only as a coach at Yorktown High School, told fire and rescue personnel that he felt a sharp pain upon reaching into his luggage after returning from a team trip to South Carolina. Upon seeing the nearly foot-long snake, the man quickly slammed shut the luggage with the snake inside, said Chief...

McLEAN, VA (NBC) - A Virginia man is recovering after finding a deadly surprise in his luggage. Andy Bacas was hospitalized after a snake he said he found in his suitcase bit the palm of his hand. Arlington County Fire and Rescue was called Bacas' home after the snake bite. Bacas, an Arlington County Public Schools coach, was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he spent the night. He is in fair condition. Bacas had just returned from a bus trip to a camp in Summerton, South Carolina with the Yorktown High School boys' crew team he coaches, and the...

There will be a joint Arlington County – Pentagon Force Protection Agency Test in Crystal City in early March,weather dependent. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Explosives Directorate (PFPA-CBRNE), in cooperation with Arlington County, will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of a simulated chemical release in an urban area. This cooperative test – to be conducted in the Crystal City area – will provide valuable information for both Arlington County and the Pentagon’s response to a chemical attack. The Crystal City Urban Transport Study (CCUTS) will involve releasing a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and inert tracer gas that poses...

A Howard University soccer coach and charter school math teacher was arrested in Louisa County, Virginia as part of an online sex sting. Authorities took 40-year-old Joseph E. Okoh into custody Friday after he drove from his Arlington, Va. home to meet who he believed was a 13-year-old girl that he had been talking to over the internet. Louisa County sheriff's office said the coach was talking in a Yahoo Instant Message chat room and that they were "shocked" by how quickly the suspect wanted to meet with the girl after just striking up a conversation. Okoh was arrested on...

WHEN THE new chairman of the Arlington County Board, Walter Tejada (D), announced the items on his 2008 agenda earlier this month, much attention was paid to his diversity initiative and his call to ban smoking and trans-fats. But when all is said and done, the most substantial – and possibly most controversial – part of Tejada’s agenda may end up being his support for a change in the County’s laws to allow homeowners to rent out parts of their house. "Houses can sometimes renovate their basements to turn them into a living area," he said in an interview. "Because...

ARLINGTON, Va. - A high school teacher has been arrested for soliciting sex with a minor on the Internet, according to Arlington County Police. Matthew McGuire, 29, of Alexandria was arrested Wednesday night at his home on West Myrtle Street. John Lisle, spokesman for the Arlington County Police Department, says McGuire "made contact with someone who he believed was a young girl on the Internet, and during the course of this contact, he engaged in sexually explicit communications." McGuire, a teacher and coach at Chantilly High School in Fairfax County, is being held without bond on charges of using a...

Keeping Arlington a welcoming place for immigrants is one of the top priorities of new County Board Chairman Walter Tejada (D), the first chairman of a local government in Virginia to be Latino. Tejada, himself an immigrant who moved to the U.S. from El Salvador as a teenager, laid out his agenda for 2008 earlier this week and the issue of racial and ethnic inclusion took center stage. He highlighted a pro-immigrant resolution the Board passed in 2007 and said that, as chairman, he will continue to pursue this policy of cultivating the county’s diversity. "While others were making scapegoats...

Arlington (Map, News) - New Arlington County Board Chairman J. Walter Tejada stressed broad initiatives on affordable housing, public health and inclusiveness of immigrants — legal and illegal — as he began his term Tuesday, while other board members warned of a budget crunch ahead. It is not merely enough to preserve existing affordable housing, Tejada said, but imperative to expand the programs so that more residents can live in the high-priced enclave outside the District of Columbia. “Arlington is a highly successful community where many people want to live,” said the county’s first Hispanic chairman. “I am committed as...

12/18/2007 - ARLINGTON, VA. (AFPN) -- Members of the Civil Air Patrol paid their respects to fallen Airmen at a wreath laying ceremony at the Air Force Memorial here Dec. 15. CAP Brig. Gen. Amy Courter, national commander, joined the Hagerstown, Md., unit at the memorial to "offer support in the spirit the Civil Air Patrol always has." "We came out here to honor Airmen at their memorial," General Courter said. "Of our 23,000 cadets across America, to bring some of those cadets here is just a terrific honor." The ceremony included several members of the unit's honor guard, a...

American Thinker has extensively covered the troubling links between Ron Paul's campaign and neo-Nazis. For our trouble we were blasted by some critics, and subjected to a torrent of abusive letters from Ron Paul supporters. But now, an apparently genuine Neo-Nazi, Bill White, Commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party is fed up with the campaign's mild distancing and disavowal, and claims on a neo-Nazi website, the Vanguard News Network, that he has attended meetings with Paul at both a Thai restaurant in Arlington, and in his official office. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs has picked-up the story...

Both Congressman Paul and his aides regularly meet with members of the Stormfront set, American Renaissance, the Institute for Historic Review, and others at the Tara Thai restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, usually on Wednesdays... I have attended these dinners, seen Paul and his aides there, and been invited to his offices in Washington to discuss policy.

Arlington County's chief deputy sheriff has died in a car crash. Fifty-three-year-old Dennis Webb died Saturday afternoon in Prince William County when an out of control Jeep hit an SUV then returned to the road and hit Webb's car. Police say that 47-year-old Scott Edgell of Stafford was charged with reckless driving. They say that speed was a factor in the accident. No one else was hurt in the crash. Arlington Sheriff Beth Arthur says that Webb was one of the greatest guys you'd ever want to meet. She says he joined the department after retiring from a 22-year career...

Big Government: Washington pundits moan about the "rich getting richer" on Wall Street. But new census data reveal the seat of wealth in this country has shifted to their own backyard. The nation's capital has replaced Silicon Valley and the New York area as the center of affluence in America. The wealthiest Americans are no longer just investors and entrepreneurs, but federal workers and contractors. There's something really rotten about this trend. How can the seat of government in a capitalist society double as its seat of wealth? The late Milton Friedman, who warned about the growing mix of government...

In a letter to the Pentagon, Republicans Frank R. Wolf and Thomas M. Davis III and Democrat James P. Moran Jr. said they had been contacted by “numerous constituents gravely concerned” about their 2008 pay raise under the new program, called the National Security Personnel System or NSPS. “We must keep our promises to our employees,” the three wrote in the letter, sent last week. “It would be difficult if not impossible to recruit or retain employees if they knew they could not rely on their promised salaries.” The Pentagon, in a memo last month, said that about 110,000 employees...

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - Elected officials in northern Virginia's most famously liberal county have strongly criticized their counterparts elsewhere in the region over efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. Tuesday's rebuke from Arlington County came as Prince William County considered how to implement an anti-illegal immigration resolution passed over the summer. Prince William Police Chief Charlie T. Deane presented the county board with his plan for checking the immigration status of people detained by police for misdemeanors and traffic violations. The Prince William board passed a resolution in July instructing police to check the immigration status of all violators...

Resolution Supporting Arlington's Newcomers

Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) has died. Details on his passing have not yet been made public. Check RollCall.com for further updates.

Here is a photograph of the Ron Paul 2008 national office in Arlington, Virginia. We have the entire second floor; about 3,000 square feet. The photograph was taken around 6:00 o'clock this morning.

ARLINGTON, Virginia, August. 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Angry homosexual activists harassed and assaulted ex-homosexuals at the Arlington County Fair last week, according to an ex-gay educational and support group. Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) reports its volunteers were distributing education materials on same-sex attraction and awareness of ex-homosexuals at their fair booth. Homosexual activists approached them and created a disturbance, spewing obscenities and dashing materials from the exhibit table. The group demanded that PFOX leave the fairgrounds, recognize "same-sex spouses" and rejected arguments that homosexuals could change their sexual orientation although they admitted they knew heterosexuals who had done...

Saying Hail Marys over a pint of Guinness has become a popular happy hour activity for some local Catholics. More than 200 people in their 20s and 30s packed into Pat Troy's Ireland's Own pub in Alexandria to eat, drink and pray alongside friends Monday night. Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, 68, who recently was named archbishop of Baltimore, led a dialogue about the mystery of evil at the kickoff session of this summer's "Theology on Tap" sessions. The Catholic Diocese of Arlington brings priests and lay speakers to local bars once a week to attract young Catholics eager to converse...