Free Republic

Thousands of atheists are expected to attend the Reason Rally next month in Washington, D.C., an event that organizers hope will unify a large part of the secular community. On March 24, the National Mall will be populated by those who sympathize with atheist perspectives, generally defined by an absence in belief of deities or other religious icons. ...

Washington - The FBI and Capitol police arrested a man Friday who thought he was going to carry out a bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol but was in fact dealing with FBI undercover operatives for the past few months, federal officials told NBC News. The man, Amine el Khalifi, 29, who is from Morocco, was arrested about noon ET Friday near the Capitol after he received what he thought was a firearm and a vest containing explosives from people he thought were supporters of al-Qaida, sources told NBC News. In fact, the vest had inert material that wasn't hazardous,

Traveled by Native Americans, presidents, generals, gypsies and families seeking a new life in the west, “The Great Road,” known today as Frederick Road or Route 355, provided a path for both the adventurer and the entrepreneur. As the main route northwest from Georgetown, the last port on the Potomac River, it was heavily traveled from the mid 18th century until it was replaced by Interstate 270 in the 1960s. It began as an Indian trail leading from the Piscataway settlement at the mouth of Rock Creek to the great “Conestoga,” a trail that included footpaths and waterways (what we...

I didn't get to see this movie in the theatres, so just saw it on DVD. It was simply fantastic. If you watch one movie this year - watch "Courageous" - it is that impactful. http://www.courageousthemovie.com/ Here is an email I received from Restore America: ------------------------------------ God At Work In Washington, D.C. January 22, 2012 In the midst of all the news about our nations debt, unemployment, elections, and finger pointing, comes indication of a long overdue spiritual awakening on Capitol Hill. What follows here is from an email by a person named "Sarah". "I wanted to share some good...

FBI and IRS agents on Friday raided the Northeast home of D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr., a significant uptick in the pace of a criminal investigation into whether the council member used public funds for personal gain. Authorities arrived about 8 a.m. and cordoned off a wide area around Mr. Thomas’s 17th Street home. Agents in windbreakers and vests with FBI and Treasury Department markings could be seen going into and out of the house for most of the day. The most obvious things that were seized was a red motorcycle with yellow detailing and a Chevrolet Tahoe that...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has challenged the women conservatives love to hate — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — to a public debate next week. In a letter obtained by The Hill, Perry requested that the pair meet for a debate during Perry’s visit to Washington next week to compare the plan he rolled out this week to “Uproot and Overhaul Washington” with the current system. “I think it would be a tremendous service to the American public to see a public airing of those differences,” he wrote. “Let the people decide.” Perry’s challenge comes just days after his roll...

Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said Monday that her department is adjusting its tactics in response to Occupy D.C.’s “increasingly confrontational and violent” demonstrations, following the actions of other U.S. cities looking to evict — or at least crack down — on what officials are characterizing as unruly protesters. The chief’s tough talk changed the tone of what had been about a month of congenial relations between protesters and authorities. It came after a Friday night incident in which several people attending a downtown event where the protesters were demonstrating were hurt........... Protesters say police refused to arrest a...

DCRTV hears that DC area talker WTNT, 730 AM, will soon get an FM relay on 102.9. Bruce Houston, head of Vienna-based Metro Radio, tells us that he's got a contract to purchase the low-power license from Lynchburg's Liberty University. When launched in a few weeks from a tower off West Ox Road in Fairfax, the new FM signal should cover much of Fairfax County day and night, Houston says. While WTNT's Mount Vernon-based 730 AM signal is strong by day, it drops to a low-power level after sunset. WTNT runs "America's Morning News," Andy Parks' new Washington Times afternoon...

10 Mind Blowing Facts Which Show How Members Of Congress And Federal Employees Are Living The High Life At Our ExpenseOctober 19,2011 If you were asked to guess, what area of the United States would you say has the highest average income? New York City? Los Angeles? Silicon Valley? Well, would you believe that it is actually the Washington D.C. area? Median household income in the region is $84,523, which is the highest in the nation. One of the biggest reasons for this are the huge salaries being pulled down by federal employees in the Washington D.C. area. According to...

Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show. The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046. The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said...

New Census Bureau data show that Washington, D.C., is the wealthiest metropolitan area in America. This is nothing to be proud of. The report shows that the National Capital Region edged out Silicon Valley to become the most affluent U.S. metropolitan areas. The typical Washington metro household earned $84,523 in 2010, compared to a national median income of $50,046. Income in the D.C. area registered a 0.8 percent drop, but that didn’t faze government bureaucrats, who kept getting automatic raises. For federal workers, total compensation with benefits jumped 3 percent in 2010 to an incredible $126,369. A separate study showed...

The nation's capital has officially become the latest safe haven for illegal immigrants. District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray on Wednesday signed an executive order instructing police officers not to question people about their immigration status -- even people who are arrested on other matters -- unless immigration status is directly related to a criminal investigation. "This executive order ensures public safety by ensuring that our police resources are deployed wisely and our immigrant communities feel safe cooperating with those who are sworn to protect them," Gray said in a statement. "The district is home to thousands of immigrants," he...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A judge will decide whether a Virginia man accused of spying on U.S. citizens for Syria will remain jailed while he awaits trial.

This lackluster economy of the past few years hasn't been bad for everyone. Sure, millions of Americans have lost their jobs in manufacturing facilities, technology companies, and throughout a plethora of large corporations and small businesses. Yes, states such as Nevada and Florida have experienced atrocious declines in their housing markets, and many states have seen the incomes of their residents actually fall over the past few years. But not in Washington, D.C., as these are merry days under President Barack Obama. After all, according to Census data collected by CNN Money, it is none other than Washington, D.C. that...

Federal court weighs D.C.’s convoluted registration schemeWashington is doing everything it can to prevent residents from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. On Oct. 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the city’s ban on high-capacity magazines and firearms that happen to have a scary appearance. The judges left open the possibility that some of the other absurd rules - including the testing of a purchaser’s knowledge of local gun laws, vision tests, ballistics tests and fingerprinting - might go too far. A day after the ruling came down, The Washington Times’...

We need to start a camp, but in the right place and for the right reasons. Occupy D.C.!

I want a gun. I don't feel safe living in Washington, D.C. and want to protect myself. I'm starting today by going down to City Hall to find the gun permit office to tell them, "I want a gun." This series will follow me as I navigate the city bureaucracy and outdated rules in order to legally buy a firearm. My desire for a gun started when I had to face down over a dozen criminals on an empty cul de sac in Washington, D.C., armed only with a Blackberry. SNIP I was alone in an empty house with a...

The report said multilingual undercover NYPD police officers known as the 'rakers' would secretly monitor the Muslims living in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. They would detect the places where Muslims socialize, pray and eat. According to the report, the architect of the program, called the Demographics Unit, was a veteran CIA officer who also oversees the operations. Press TV interviewed Abdul Alim Musa, Imam of Masjid al-Islam in Washington, to discuss the issue. Press TV: It seems there is a very carefully orchestrated campaign against Muslims in America. The NYPD insisted that there is not special unit to...

Wall Street wanted to hear Ben Bernanke talk about cheap money today. Instead, the Fed chair offered no hint of any more easing of monetary policy, causing a slight decline in the stock market after his speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Bernanke told the audience that Washington needs to start finding ways to create jobs fast in order to repair the economy: Bernanke’s speech at a central banking conference appeared to disappoint some market participants who had hoped the Fed chairman would make a clear case for a further easing of monetary policy. The U.S. dollar strengthened and stocks added...

Gray spared, but he accepts ‘responsibility’ for misstepsThe administration of D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray engaged in cronyism, paid salaries above legal caps and illegally hired the children of senior officials, according to the findings of a D.C. Council investigation released Tuesday. While the draft report by the council’s Special Committee on Investigation of Executive Personnel Practices found “clear evidence” of such practices by the Gray team, the mayor was largely spared. The report states most of the blame for personnel errors “falls squarely” on the staffers who were responsible for hiring political appointees, then placing them in agencies: Judy...

Disgusted by late night text messages, embarrassing blow-offs, and never receiving the phone call you were promised? Leading dating site Chemistry.com has a list of the top ten cities full of romantic, expressive, “high estrogen” men who probably wouldn’t slip into cad territory. Though bursting with government employees, politicians, political journalists, and all things polarizing and serious, Washington, D.C. is tenth on the list, nine spots below perpetually romantic San Francisco. Asked how bureaucratic, soulless Washington ever earned a spot on a list of romantic cities, Chemistry.com’s Dr. Helen Fisher told The Daily Caller that D.C. draws a lot of...

The longtime host of "Grandy & Andy" on Washington, DC's WMAL-AM (630) left the news/talk station in March 2010, ending his 25-year partnership with former Iowa Rep. Fred Grandy after the station decided to go in a different direction in mornings. Parks, a well-known airborne traffic reporter before becoming the morning show co-host, has been off the air since his departure from the Citadel-owned station. Parks will now be heading across town in the Nation's Capital, joining WTNT-AM (730) for afternoon drive, becoming the host of his own show that will include Washington Times Columnists Jeff Kuhner and Jennifer Harper....

In the most recent of numerous scandals to rock the District of Columbia’s famously corrupt government, a councilman charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for youth programs has been let off the hook by the city’s attorney general and won’t be federally charged because the area’s U.S. attorney is a college fraternity brother.It marks the latest in a never-ending tale of the crooked officials who run D.C. and seldom face consequences. In this case D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas, who has represented Ward 5 since 2007, “diverted” more than $300,000 in public funds intended for children’s sports and...

Dear MoveOn member, In the last 24 hours things took a dramatic turn in the fight over whether we'll default on our debt. Progressives organized over 800 rallies nationwide that generated a flood of pressure on Republicans. The president's speech led to so many people contacting Congress that the switchboard jammed. And Speaker Boehner is struggling to get enough votes to pass his terrible proposal through the Republican House. Suddenly, there's a path to a deal that doesn't simply cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid to pay for tax breaks for the rich. But the next 3 days are crucial,...

Americans sweltered today in the scorching heat in what was officially the hottest day of the year in scores of cities across the country. The heatwave covered a million square miles, affecting 141million Americans. New York's Manhattan experienced the hottest ever July 22 recorded, with an overwhelming 104-degree temperature in Central Park. The Washington DC region continued to be smothered in heat and humidity with temperatures reaching 102 degrees but with a heat index of more than 120 - hotter than Death Valley at daybreak

WASHINGTON: Federal authorities on Monday arrested a prominent US-based pro-Pakistan activist associated with the Kashmiri separatist movement, accusing him of funneling money from the Pakistani spy agency ISI to lobby US decision-makers. In the process, the Obama administration's law enforcement brigade also blew open the Pakistan and its spy agency's two-decade long subversion of the so-called Kashmir cause. The FBI swooped down on the Virginia residence of Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, a well-known representative of Kashmiri separatists in the US and detained him on charges of ''participating in a long-term conspiracy to act as agents of the Pakistani government in...

NFL players were in Washington, D.C. Monday night for the Bodden For Bowling event, which is a mentoring program for inner city kids. The players spoke about the event and the latest on the NFL lockout.

At the White House Twitter Town Hall on July 6, President Obama reassured the nation that he and his staff share its pain. He said, "People who work in the White House, they've had their pay frozen since I came in, our high-wage folks. So they haven't had a raise in two and a half years, and that's appropriate, because a lot of ordinary folks out there haven't either." Unfortunately, the only thing the President was being economical with here was the truth. Most White House staffers have received substantial raises in that time. Sadly, that is symptomatic of how...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several members of Congress called Thursday for a presidential commission to study the formation of a "melting pot museum" in Washington to tell the history of immigration and migration that formed the nation. Democratic Virginia Rep. Jim Moran introduced legislation Thursday that calls for studying the creation of a National Museum of the American People without any federal taxpayer funds. The bill had 11 other co-sponsors. "The people of the United States do not have a comprehensive and accurate picture of all the peoples who created and continue to build the nation," the bill says.

The Money Pic? Several more beautiful photos, so please go to the link!

PALIN TO HIT THE ROAD Thur May 26 2011 Sarah Palin will hit the road this Memorial Day weekend on a tour of the Northeast -- with a stop in New Hampshire -- aboard a red, white and blue bus emblazoned with the words: "One Nation Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty & Justice For All." Developing....

Sarah Palin will hit the road this Memorial Day weekend on a tour of the Northeast -- and possibly New Hampshire -- aboard a red, white and blue bus emblazoned with the words: "One Nation Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty & Justice For All." The former Alaska govenor will began her journey Sunday from Washington, D.C., after she and husband Todd join a quarter-million motorcyclers in the Rolling Thunder event to support the troops. She'll leave the veterans and make her first stop at the National Archives, where she'll stop by to view the U.S. Constitution. Details on where she'll...

My apologies, first, for the hiatus in columns last week – I was moving from Vienna, VA., a suburb of Washington, D.C. to Poughkeepsie, a semi-suburb (it’s 73 miles away) of New York City. Many have clearly regarded this as an eccentric choice, and much of the motivation stems from things like hating the Washington summer more than the Poughkeepsie winter that are personal to each of us. Nevertheless, there is also a philosophical background for the move, in that I believe the rapid growth of the Washington area to be profoundly unhealthy. Washington’s unhealthiness has been highlighted during the...

Osama bin Laden's personal files revealed a brazen idea to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea last summer, creating explosions he hoped would rattle the world's economy and send oil prices skyrocketing, the U.S. said Friday. The newly disclosed plot showed that while bin Laden was always scheming for the next big strike that would kill thousands of Americans, he also believed a relatively simpler attack on the oil industry could create a worldwide panic that would hurt Westerners every time they gassed up their cars. U.S. officials said the tanker idea, included in documents found in...

Subprime Scandal: The left is unhappy that no high-profile bankers have gone to jail in the financial crisis. But the real culprits were - and still are - in Washington. They've gotten off scot-free. A growing chorus is complaining that federal prosecutors have dragged their feet in the aftermath of the mortgage mess. Despite a raft of referrals against financial giants alleging securities fraud and "predatory lending," no senior bank executives have been charged or imprisoned. The media elite demand to know why it is that almost three years after the meltdown, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, ex-AIG CEO Hank...

Too often, it seems city officials in Washington would like to forget they must operate under the Constitution. The District has gone out of its way to deny residents any meaningful ability to protect themselves at home with a firearm, prompting the Second Amendment Foundation to file a lawsuit on Tuesday to allow gun purchases in the nation’s capital. The landmark District of Columbia v. Heller case should have settled the matters like this three years ago. In its ruling, the Supreme Court smacked down D.C. gun-control measures and reaffirmed the constitutional protection for the individual’s right to own a...

    While the national seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate is 1.5 percentage points higher than during President George Bush’s last full month in office, life is surprisingly good for folks living near the Beltway. On an unadjusted basis and as of February 2011, the unemployment rate of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area was 3.6 percentage points lower than the national average. The gap between Washington’s local unemployment and the national rate is higher than it ever was during the Bush administration.National Minus D.C. Metro Unemployment Rates (Not Seasonally Adjusted), Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics According to The Economist, the Washington...

It was once a staple of public school cafeterias that blended the indulgent and the nutritious, satisfying parents and children both. But chocolate milk is uncontroversial no more. Dozens of districts have demanded reformulations. Others have banned it outright. At the center of these battles are complex public health calculations: Is it better to remove sugary chocolate flavorings at the risk that many students will skip milk altogether, missing out on crucial calcium and Vitamin D? Or should schools instead make tweaks — less fat, different sweeteners, fewer calories — that might salvage the benefits while while minimizing the downside?...

Washington’s representative to Congress said Saturday she feels like the city was the victim of a “sellout” by Democrats in Friday night’s spending negotiations after the District of Columbia was the focus for two of the biggest policy fights. President Obama signed off on restricting the city from using its own taxpayer money to fund abortions, and agreed to restore the city’s school voucher program, which is popular with parents but opposed by many elected officials. “We knew that the House Republicans were on the attack when they took our vote in the Committee of the Whole on the first...

Pavlov had a dog. The Organization of the Islamic Conference has the United Nations and President Obama. The OIC, the largest voting bloc at the UN, has an agenda. Their agenda is a one-two punch. First, don't say anything negative about Islam. Second, blame all of the world's problems on Israel, specifically the Jewish communities called "settlements." The UN's and Obama's conditional responses to all things Islam and Israel are helping throw the OIC's one-two punch at the world hard and fast.For over a decade, the OIC has systematically worked to criminalize the "defamation of Islam" and to protect Islam...

The Tea Party is coming to Washington to turn up the heat on the Congress — just as a new poll finds that public support for it has waned. Members of the conservative Tea Party movement plan to hold a rally on Thursday outside the U.S. Capitol, urging Republicans to stand firm in their showdown with Democrats over proposed spending cuts. While the Tea Party helped Republicans win power in last year’s elections, nearly half of all Americans now have an USA-POLITICS/unfavorable view of it, according to CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released on Wednesday. The Tea Party’s 47 percent unfavorablity...

The number of African Americans residing in the District plummeted by more than 11 percent during the past decade, with blacks on the verge of losing their majority status in the city for the first time in half a century. According to census statistics released Thursday, barely 50 percent of the District’s population was African American in 2010 — a remarkable shift in a place once nicknamed “Chocolate City.” The black population dropped by more than 39,000 over the decade, down to 301,000 of the city’s 601,700 residents. At the same time, the non-Hispanic white population skyrocketed by more than...

The Washington Times introduces an expanded edition Monday that restores coverage in sports, local news and the arts in a new design that showcases the newspaper’s signature content, photography and commentary. As part of the expansion, regional home delivery also has been reinstated.

I’ve just discovered that an important campaign is being launched to persuade our nation’s lawmakers to address the scandalous lack of immigration enforcement in this country. Here are the full details, courtesy of my good friend Gayle Kesselman: New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control will be participating in a nationwide lobbying trip to Washington, DC to lobby for secure borders and enforcement of immigration laws. This event is being organized by FAIR and will take place on April 6th and 7th. Interested in going? Contact info@njcic.com.

With Congress probing D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s newly-elected administration over accusations it paid cash and promised a job to a mayoral candidate who bashed incumbent Adrian M. Fenty, and with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI evaluating similar complaints, one District employee who also campaigned for Mr. Gray and received a city job has become somewhat of a mystery. Cherita Whiting, a “special assistant” at the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), told The Washington Times...

I arrived around noon, but patriots in support of the United States Constitution have been gathering since 10AM. Around 9:30AM, 630 WMAL, a local conservative radio station reported that the Sharia Law supporters had canceled their rally. Security concerns were mentioned in addition to insufficient SL supporters. But we stayed to continue our rally. If you want to hear to radical Anjem Choudary spew his reason for the cancellation, click HERE. Be aware that you go to his web site. Reports I heard from before I arrived were that a handful of Sharia Law supporters arrived, saw our gathering of...

ANSWER, Code Pink, IVAW, and others of their ilk are still protesting against our troops. We need to continue supporting our troops and defending their honor. We need to be a voice for them. Our soldiers still need the support we gave them in March, 2007 during the Gathering of Eagles Rally. BELOW: March, 2007 - The DC Chapter along with other FReepers and Vets held down the fort at the Arlington Memorial Circle WHERE: Washington, DC -- We have permitted FREEDOM PLAZA (Main gathering point) and the Arlington MEMORIAL CIRCLE (If the moonbats march to the Pentagon) DATE: Saturday,...

A D.C. police officer shot a dog in a gated community of Foxhall Crescents in D.C. Tuesday afternoon after it menaced the officer and a contractor, police said. The dog, a Chocolate Lab named Russell, left when the officer approached, police said, but returned as the officer and contractor were talking. The dog displayed an "aggressive posture" and the officer shot the dog, police said.

The first 75 teachers who former Chancellor Michelle Rhee fired must be given about $7.5 million in back wages and offered positions with D.C. Public Schools, an arbitrator ruled. "The [termination] process used in this case was so devoid of due process as to be arbitrary and capricious," arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum said in his verdict favoring the Washington Teachers' Union, which has been fighting D.C. Public Schools officials over the July 2008 dismissals for more than two years. Rhee fired 75 first- and second-year teachers after asking principals to recommend recent hires for dismissal. D.C. Public Schools officials told teachers...

Alleged Bank Robber Takes Hostage - Shot By Police After Slipping And Falling On Ice Updated: Friday, 28 Jan 2011, 10:18 AM EST Published : Friday, 28 Jan 2011, 9:53 AM EST by MYFOXDC TAKOMA PARK, Md. - Dramatic video shows an alleged bank robber being taken down by police after slipping and falling on ice. WARNING – GRAPHIC VIDEO The incident happened at the Capital One Bank in Takoma Park, Md. around 9:00 a.m. on Friday. Police had the bank surrounded when the alleged robber came out of the front door with what looked like a gun to the...