Free Republic

In an example of how government at every level wastes tax dollars, one U.S. county is spending around $4 million in combined federal and local funds to house a dozen homeless people in an affluent community.That translates into more than $330,000 per person, which means that Uncle Sam might as well buy them each their own, fully furnished house. After all, the median single-family home in the U.S. costs around $172,000 so the government could also throw in a few years worth of utility bills and even groceries.Instead officials in Bethesda Maryland will spend the money to operate a three-story...

Sarah Palin in Bethesda MD April 30th Join us for "Heroes Among Us" featuring keynote speaker Gov. Sarah Palin and special guest Lila Rose. Governor Palin will speak about the heroism of motherhood and how to empower women to make the courageous choice for life.... (See Link for more) NEW ADDITION TO THIS EVENT: A FREE RALLY TO WELCOME SARAH!! NOTE: There will be a FREE outdoor Rally to welcome Sarah Palin to Maryland. Show up outside the hotel at 5:00 PM with a Sign and a Smile!! WELCOME SARAH PALIN TO MARYLAND! ADDED ExTRA!! - Win prizes (Run Sarah...

The 27-year-old co-worker of the woman killed at a Bethesda yoga store, who originally was portrayed as a victim in the violent outburst, has been charged in the killing, three sources familiar with the case said late Friday. Montgomery County police have called a 7 p.m. news conference to announce an arrest in the case. Three sources said police have arrested the co-worker of the victim. Police originally said she was attacked and raped in the store along with the slain woman. But as detectives continued to speak with her this week, her story didn't line up with forensic evidence...

Police are investigating a homicide inside the Lululemon store in Bethesda.Saturday morning, an employee opening the fitness clothing retailer discovered two of her co-workers inside the store. One woman, Jayna Murray, was declared dead at the scene, and the other victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Both had been beaten. Police determined the two victims closed the store at nine o'clock Friday night, leaving a shortly after. One of the employees realized that she had left something in the store, but she did not have the keys to re-enter. She called her coworker, who had a set...

Please offer up prayers of support to our wounded warriors. A Marine from the 3/5 (Darkhorse) - a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom (first push across the border in 2003) - was severely injured while re-deployed in Afghanistan. He received excellent treatment and is at Bethesda Naval Hospital now. A group of 3/5 Marine veterans are taking turns traveling out to to support him and his family. While they are there, they are assisting other families, have canceled their own hotel rooms, and are drawing "Fire Watch" overnight to talk to, console, and "be there" for what they call a...

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - Police say a Maryland man accused of firing a high-powered rifle at his ex-girlfriend in a suburban Washington, D.C., apartment complex garage has surrendered to authorities in Pennsylvania. Montgomery County, Md., police say the man fired at least one shot Tuesday morning at the woman as she left for work. The woman was not hit and fled to a nearby apartment in Bethesda.

Last summer, several students at the all-boys Landon School in Bethesda hatched what sources later described as a twisted idea for a fantasy league: They would draft girls onto teams and then tally points based not on sports scores but on sexual conquests the boys would make at a series of parties. The boys were caught before the first party took place, according to several sources. Asked about the incident, a school official said Wednesday that three rising freshmen received in-school suspensions at the beginning of the school year.

Helen Thomas, who was caught on video saying the Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine (Israel)" is going to be the speaker at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD on June 14, 2010. Thomas also was a speaker at a 2006 fundraiser for the pro-Hamas, pro-Islamofascist terrorist "peace" group Code Pinko. According to WTOP radio, where I first heard of this speech this afternoon, the principal was "aware" of the controversy but knows of no plan to cancel her speech.

<p>Veteran journalist Helen Thomas agreed Sunday not to appear as commencement speaker at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, after she was captured on videotape saying that Jews should leave Israel and go "home" to countries like Germany and Poland.</p>

President Obama will be at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland Sunday morning for “a routine physical,” according to the White House’s weekend guidance and press schedule. After, he’ll spend a bit more than an hour visiting with wounded troops who are being treated there. The check-up and the visit are both closed to the press.

Asked about his morning checkup, the president signals a thumbs-up. President Barack Obama got a physical examination this morning at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He arrived there by helicopter at about 6:40 am EST. The physical was performed by Dr. Jeff Kuhlman, a Navy captain and head of the White House medical unit, according to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Some preliminary testing had taken place earlier, and the physical lasted about an hour and a half. Kuhlman had this recommendation for Obama, according to Gibbs: Come back for another physical in August 2011 -- when...

A day after Rep. John Murtha passed away following gallbladder surgery at a leading Navy hospital, it has emerged that the Congressman’s large intestine was damaged during the procedure and the complications led him to be re-hospitalized n a civilian hopital before he died, according to another Pennsylvania Congressman and longtime friend. Gallbladder removal, or cholecystectomy, is considered “routine” surgery but the truth is, no matter how common the procedure, we should never consider surgery “routine.” Dying from gallbladder surgery — although not common — can happen. If at some point during the surgery, an inadvertent perforation is created in...

CNN) -- Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a longtime fixture on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending, died after complications from gallbladder surgery, according to his office. He was 77. The Democratic congressman recently underwent scheduled laparoscopic surgery at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to remove his gallbladder. The procedure was "routine minimally invasive surgery," but doctors "hit his intestines," a source close to the late congressman told CNN.

The suspect, a Virginia Tech graduate and one-time Vinton resident, was shot but survived at Fort Hood, Texas. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of shooting 12 people to death and wounding 31 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, was the son of Roanoke merchants and restaurateurs, lived in Vinton and graduated from Virginia Tech. Hasan was born in Arlington to Palestinian immigrants from near Jerusalem who later settled in Vinton. Neighbors on Vinton's Ramada Road remembered him as a "studious" boy who went by "Michael." While his brother Eyad -- "Eddie" -- would play football with...

Consider nature...as Tennyson saw it, "red in tooth and claw." To glimpse a state of nature as Hobbes imagined it, where human life is "nasty, brutish and short," visit the Whole Foods store on River Road in Bethesda...you will see proof of this social equation: Four Priuses + three parking spaces = angry anarchy. Anger is one of the seven deadly sins. Therefore advanced thinkers are agreed that conservatives are especially susceptible to it. As everyone knows, all liberals are advanced thinkers and all advanced thinkers are liberals. And yet... Recently Paul Schwartzman, a war correspondent for The Post, ventured...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 29, 2009) -- Wounded Soldiers sent home from overseas are greeted by their own before they are even off the plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. The Army’s wounded are welcomed back to the country by a team of three Soldiers from the U.S. Army Military District of Washington: the Medical Evacuation to CONUS Hospitals team. Col. James Conaway, Master Sgt. Jon Taylor and Master Sgt. Juan Reyna act as advocates and liaisons for wounded Soldiers transitioning back to the United States. “We help to coordinate, communicate and just take care of all the...

David Borden Jr. was wounded in Iraq on January 19, 2008. A suicide bomber rushed him and detonated, and Borden was hit by over 200 pieces of shrapnel. He lost right leg (below the knee) and his left arm was severely damaged. He was in a coma for over a month. He's inspired more than a few people while recovering. The NY Giants football team reports that he's the grandson of a NY Giant. According to the email below from his father, David Borden (Sr.), David Jr. had an uninspiring visit from the President of the United States: Since Dave...

PITTSBURGH -- Target 11 has learned a Cranberry company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks discovered what it said is a potentially serious security breach involving President Barack Obama’s helicopter. Tiversa employees found engineering and communications information about Marine One at an IP address in Tehran, Iran. Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, said, ”We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One,which is the president's helicopter." The company was able to trace the file back to its original source. "What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had a file sharing program on one of...

Today the President attended the groundbreaking ceremony at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The nearly one billion dollar project will expand the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, and lead to the closure of the current Walter Reed Army Medical Center just five miles away in Washington. In the afternoon he went for a bike ride at Bethesda. Pray for President Bush -- Day 2850

BETHESDA, Md., April 3, 2008 – Two Marines who were injured in Iraq praised the medical care they’ve received at the National Naval Medical Center here during interviews yesterday in conjunction with a grand re-opening ceremony for their newly renovated outpatient quarters. Wounded Iraq combat veterans Marine Cpl. Daniel B. Nicholson, left, and Marine Lance Cpl. Michael S. Stilson attend a reopening ceremony for newly renovated Mercy Hall, an outpatient quarters for injured troops on the National Naval Medical Center campus in Bethesda, Md., April 2, 2008. Both Marines praised the quality of medical care provided at Bethesda. Defense...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (March 10, 2008) -- He faded in and out of consciousness. He knew his legs were injured, but he did not know to what extent. Capt. Ray Baronie, the executive officer for the Wounded Warrior Battalion-East, Wounded Warrior Regiment, Manpower and Reserve Affairs, has few clear memories of his hospital stays overseas. One of the things he remembers is watching the doctors cut off his boots, as they talked about amputation. Baronie, at the time, a liason officer between the Iraqi Security Forces and the Marines of II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was on...

WASHINGTON – Sgt. Klay South with help from this mother Janet launched Veterans of Valor on October 4, 2007. South was wounded November 2004 and spent a long recovery process to reconstruct his face and jaw after being shot in the face with an AK-47. Veterans of Valor visited Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed Army Medical Center January 17 to give backpacks and words of encouragement to wounded service members. BETHESDA, Md. – Cpl. Jimmy Kinsey receives his backpack from Sgt. Klay South, founder of Veterans of Valor. Veterans of Valor visited Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed...

The day got off to an interesting start when a fire broke out at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, located across the street from the White House. Press Secretary Dana Perino: Today, at 9:15 a.m., the D.C. Fire Department received a call about smoke in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building -- that's also known as the EEOB. Firefighters arrived and found that the second floor through the fifth floor of the EEOB was fairly filled with smoke.... They were able to identify, isolate and … put out the fire within 30 minutes. The Vice President's Ceremonial Office received smoke and...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 1, 2007 CONTACT: Gary Becks (619) 334-1655 San Diego, CA – Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) today recommended to President Bush a proposal to replace State Department personnel who refuse to be deployed to Baghdad with wounded veterans from military hospitals at Walter Reed and Bethesda . Hunter, who is currently running for President, went to the White House earlier today and met with President Bush to outline and detail his "Wounded Warrior" project. "My recommendation to the President was simply that we need people in these positions whose top priorities will be to get the job...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2007 – For volunteers with South Riding, Va.-based Operation Pinecone, Halloween is over and the Christmas rush has begun. “We have 25 camps, four hospitals (and) two humanitarian aid contacts,” said Mary Hacker, who founded the group two years ago after deciding to super-size a care package originally planned for one family friend deployed to Iraq. “A neighbor came by, saw what I was doing, and said she had wanted to do something to help the troops but that she didn’t have a contact over there,” Hacker explained. Word spread through Hacker’s rural Virginia neighborhood and,...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2007 – Children of servicemembers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here have a new recreation option thanks to the team effort of three nonprofit groups and a defense contractor. The Yellow Ribbon Fund dedicated a playground at Walter Reed’s Mologne House yesterday. The facility was constructed primarily for children staying at the residential facility for recovering servicemembers and their families. “This playground fills a longstanding need for children staying at our facility who, until now, had very limited recreational opportunities,” said Peter Anderson, Mologne House’s general manager. “We are extremely grateful to the Yellow...

The family of U.S. Marine Sgt. Samuel Nichols is urgently requesting prayer support as they surround Sam, age 23, at Bethesda Naval Hospital. He is in a coma after having suffered a brain injury due to an IED on a mined road in Iraq. The explosion killed three of his men. Sgt. Nichols was so gravely injured that when he arrived at Bethesda last week, doctors initially held out little hope; but his family began praying immediately and are seeing improvements and hopeful signs this week. Sgt Nichols' family are believing Christians who are in prayer constantly over him, believing...

President Bush visited soldiers, sailors, Marines and their families today at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. There he awarded purple hearts to the patients, then spoke briefly to the press outside. (Transcript) The president and first lady will spend Memorial Day weekend at Camp David. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Thank you America for Supporting Strikeouts for Troops! In April 2005, I asked several of my fellow players from around Major League baseball to take a bold step and help me launch Strikeouts For Troops™ -- a unique program to help our wounded men and woman of the military with some “comforts of home” as they go through their rehabilitation process. The players responded by pledging money for the 1,438 strikeouts they threw, 740 hits they had (including 86 home runs) and 362 runs they drove in. We also saw great contributions from you, the fans, not only with your...

Singer Steve Nicks is doing her part to support U.S. troops by donating hundreds of iPods to soldiers wounded in Iraq. The former Fleetwood Mac star regularly visits soldiers at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She explains, "I refuse to be pulled into the politics of war. But once these soldiers sign up, go to war and come back to a hospital, I will do whatever it takes to make them better." Nicks has provided iPods loaded with her music, along with fellow artists Aerosmith and Elvis Presley. She has also sent baby clothes to war widows,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2006 – Over the past two and a half years, about 500 severely wounded servicemembers and their families have enjoyed 5,000 free dinners out on the town thanks to Hal Koster and Marty O’Brien. “Some of them have come to multiple dinners because some of them are here for years,” Koster said Aug. 18, as he looked over the 60 or so guests dining on the rooftop of The Exchange restaurant here. About 20 servicemembers, many in wheelchairs and prosthetics, family members and other guests dined overlooking a panoramic view of the U.S. Capitol, and the Washington...

Two Potomac teens were arrested for flashing a toy gun at a woman last week... (snip) At about 9:55 p.m. on Thursday, a 29-year-old Rockville woman reported that two boys had aimed a gun at her while driving near the intersection of Westlake Drive and Tuckerman Lane in Bethesda... (snip) The brothers were arrested and charged as juveniles with first-degree assault and released to the custody of their father, police said. Under state law, first-degree assault is a felony that can carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. Using a toy weapon in a crime carries the same...

This morning President Bush traveled to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland for his annual physical. He was declared in good health, but has gained a bit of weight (four pounds) which he attributed to 'too many birthday cakes.' Doctors put him in the superior category of fitness for men his age.Some of the fun details.........(excerpted from Reuters......)The nearly 6-foot Bush weighed in at 196 pounds, up from around 191.6 pounds last year.A fitness enthusiast, Bush rides his mountain bike several times a week and also does elliptical training, free-weights, stretching and low-impact workouts on a treadmill.Mountain biking...

Corporate Hillton Apparatchiks have given credence to the old adage, “No good deed goes unpunished” by their not renewing Fran O’Brien’s renewable lease. Since October of 2003 Hal Koster, a two-tour Vietnam veteran and Jim Mayer, a combat injured Vietnam veteran and long time advocate for veterans and a small group of volunteers have been hosting a dinner each and every Friday night for the severely injured patients of Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Ward 57 and severely injured sailors and Marines at Bethesda Naval Medical Center and their families. This was begun as part of a promise to insure...

Thanks to alert FReepers who heeded the call to action, Phelps' Phreakshow did not go unopposed this Saturday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.FReepers in attendance: Kristinn, Cindy_True_Supporter, Trooprally [Mr. and Mrs.] who brought James and Nancy, Albion Wilde, DollyCali with FReepups Josie and Toby, Wheelbarrow, BufordP, Sauropod, Helllinahandkart, Bill from MD*, Bert, Mindi (PW), IraqiKurd and friend Samir, Exit148, ProtestMania, BStein80, Laruen (PW), BillF, Hoodlum91, RockInRight, and PleaDeal.I counted 19 members of Rolling Thunder headed by our good friend Smitty, but I think there were a few more.The plan was to be there before the devil...

The D.C. Chapter of Free Republic invites all FReepers and lurkers in good standing to join us this Saturday outside Bethesda Naval Hospital as we defend the honor of our sailors and Marines from the despicable Fred Phelps and his traveling freak show laughable called the Westboro Baptist Church.A report about the last time we encountered the Phelps Freak Show can be found here (graphic heavy).The Montgomery County police will be there to make sure everyone's rights are protected. The Phelps crew will do their schtick from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. We'll be there early to set up and...

Calling on Hilton to be the kinda corp it claims to be. Few Americans would argue that American soldiers should not receive the thanks of our nation for their service, and fewer still would argue that, if returning to our country less than whole and in need of help, soldiers should not receive the support of America's corporate giants. Hilton Hotel Corporation, then, has something to answer for. Every Friday is Veterans' Day at Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., where owners, Hal Koster and Marty O'Brien, bring soldiers — primarily amputees — recovering from their wounds at Walter...

The steaks are great, of course. But it isn't the T-bones, the porterhouses or the rib-eyes that will be sorely, even painfully, missed when Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse loses its lease and closes its doors this month. The downtown D.C. restaurant, which has hosted a decade's worth of power lunches, political dinners and salacious hookups, is more poignantly known for its Friday night steak dinners for severely wounded soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "It looks like they're kicking us out," sighed Marty O'Brien, son of the late Redskins offensive lineman Fran O'Brien, before closing the restaurant yesterday...

<p>A two-year tradition for wounded war vets is about to go by the wayside. A downtown DC steak house that’s catered to injured troops every Friday night is about to close.</p> <p>Fran O’Brien’s landlord [Hilton] is forcing out the steakhouse of the same name.</p>

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2006 – Award-winning satirist Garry Trudeau of "Doonesbury" fame visited the Pentagon today to meet with troops wounded in the war on terror and present them autographed copies of his book featuring the healing process of a comic character he said they inspired. Army Spc. Joey Kashnaw, a 4th Infantry Division soldier who lost his leg after being wounded in Taji, Iraq, in September 2003, meets with Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau at the Pentagon. Photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time," tells the story...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2006 – Wounded servicemembers have an extra helping hand thanks to Operation First Response, a group specializing in providing them supplies and funds during their recuperation. Peggy Baker of Culpepper, Va., founder and president of the all-volunteer nonprofit, answered questions from interested troops Jan. 19 at the Washington Capitals' "Salute to the Military Night" at the MCI Center here. While thousands of servicemembers and their families enjoyed free tickets to the hockey game against the St. Louis Blues, Baker took the opportunity to offer assistance. "We're kind of an extension. Where somebody will fall through the loops,...

The following article appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on December 22, 2005 Here's a Yule Story That Ought to be a Movie By Ronnie Polaneczky AND NOW, in time for the holidays, I bring you the best Christmas story you never heard. It started last Christmas, when Bennett and Vivian Levin were overwhelmed by sadness while listening to radio reports of injured American troops. "We have to let them know we care," Vivian told Bennett. So they organized a trip to bring soldiers from Walter Reed Army MedicalCenter and Bethesda Naval Hospital to the annual Army-Navy football game in...

Online Auction of the 50,000th copy of Military Salute to benefit Operation First Response The Minnesota Platoon, a group of five disabled Vietnam-era Veterans that distributes “Military Salute” at no charge to active-duty Military units, Veterans groups, family support groups, public safety organizations, church groups, school districts, and students working on patriotic projects, is now conducting an online auction of the 50,000th copy of the video to benefit Operation First Response. Operation First Response ... http://www.operationfirstresponse.org ... sends backpacks to Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and visits Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the...

Bush visits Idaho track star who lost legsTWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush personally awarded a Purple Heart to a former Idaho high school track star who lost both his legs in an explosion in Iraq.Marine Cpl. Travis Greene, who graduated from Twin Falls High School in 1999 and was given a track scholarship to Boise State University, received the medal last week at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he is being treated.Greene's parents, Terry and Sue Greene, have been visiting their son daily since mid-December. Terry...

BETHESDA, Md. - Since the Iraq war began in 2003, it has become an annual pre- Christmas rite for President Bush to personally comfort wounded soldiers. He continued that tradition Wednesday, going bed-to-bed in an intensive care unit and handing out Purple Hearts to the valiant. Bush was visiting with Marines wounded in Iraq and the medical staff treating them at the National Naval Medical Center here. Before going behind closed doors to spend about two hours with servicemen and women, Bush spoke briefly to medical care givers and troops able to leave their rooms.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2005 – President Bush traveled today to the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., near here to thank an "incredible team of healers" whom he said bring comfort, aid and solace to those who have been hurt on the battlefield, as well as their families. The president recognized the military medical caregivers' "decency and compassion and skill" that assures military members that, if hurt, they will receive the best medical care possible, he said. "And so we're here to thank the nurses and the docs and the healers and the volunteers who put the smile on...

President and Mrs. Bush visited wounded military personnel recovering in the National Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, also thanking caregivers there. He signed the "GO Zone" Gulf Opportunity Zone Act, providing nearly $8 billion in tax breaks for Gulf Coast businesses, as part of the government's plan to help the region rebuild from destructive hurricanes. The Vice President cast a tie-breaking vote as president of the US Senate, enabling passage of a $39.7 billion deficit-reduction bill, the first of its kind in more than ten years. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is in Pakistan. Saddam Hussein Trial Discussed: Christopher Reid, Regime Crimes...

BETHESDA, Md. - This is not how congressional wives are supposed to act. They are not supposed to curse at Pentagon officials, write angry letters to President Bush or say that members of Congress take bribes. But Beverly Young, the wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores, doesn't play by those rules. Spend a day with her visiting wounded Marines at the National Naval Medical Center and you'll hear a few expletives. When she sees a photograph of a former hospital official, Beverly says: "See this b----? If she were here, I'd deck her." But mostly what you...

Today President Bush traveled to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he outlined his strategy for the administration's pandemic influenza preparations and response at the William Natcher Center. The strategy is designed to meet three critical goals:" to detect and contain outbreaks before they spread across the world, to protect the American people by stockpiling vaccines and antiviral drugs and accelerating the development of new vaccine technologies, and to ensure that Federal, State, and local communities are prepared for potential domestic outbreaks. " He also met with Donald Powell, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp in...

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- Among the casualties treated aboard the hospital ship USNS Comfort in the early weeks of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a civilian shot multiple times while caught in crossfire. The patient was seriously wounded, but stabilized after emergency surgery. But 24 hours later, the Iraqi was dead after bleeding uncontrollably from his wounds, his blood poisoned by an unknown infection that didn't respond to antibiotics. Within a week, about a quarter of the injured troops on the ship in the Persian Gulf had the same bacteria. Soon, another Iraqi in the intensive care unit died....