Free Republic

March 25, 2013 Are Benghazi Survivors Hiding In A Washington, D.C. Hospital? Richard Miniter For more than six months since the September 11, 2012 attacks on America’s diplomatic outposts in Benghazi, the Obama administration has been unwilling to turn over the names or whereabouts of any survivors. They may be hiding plain sight. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has learned that “as many as seven Americans have been or are currently being treated,” at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C.—less than 11 miles from the U.S. Capitol. Rep. Wolf cited two independent confidential sources for his information....

The State Department has told Senate investigators it cannot find backup copies of emails sent by Bryan Pagliano, the top Hillary Clinton IT staffer who maintained her email server but has asserted his Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer questions on the matter. State officials told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a recent closed-door meeting that they could not locate what’s known as a “.pst file” for Pagliano's work during Clinton's tenure, which would have included copies of the tech expert's emails, according to a letter Chairman Chuck Grassley sent to Secretary of State John Kerry that was obtained...

Tears flowed on both sides of a Spokane courtroom Thursday as a jury acquitted Gail Gerlach of manslaughter in the March 2013 death of Brendon Kaluza-Graham. Gerlach’s wife, Sharon, wept and embraced her family as the verdict, not guilty on both a first-degree and second-degree manslaughter charge, was read in open court. Ann Kaluza-Graham, grandmother of the man shot dead trying to steal Gerlach’s SUV, burst into tears as she said her grandson never got a chance to answer theft charges or prove himself a changed person. “This was a tragedy,” Gerlach said in a brief statement after the verdict...

Pennsylvania Rep. Jim Gerlach, one of a shrinking number of Republican moderates in the U.S. House, said Monday he will retire from Congress at the end of this term. Gerlach said it's "simply time for me to move on to new challenges and to spend more time with my wife and family." The six-term congressman's decision opens up a district anchored in Philadelphia's western suburbs and rural areas on either side of Reading, as well as a coveted seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Gerlach has routinely had relatively close elections, though the latest round of redistricting made...

Pennsylvania, the center of the political universe this week, will again garner outsized attention in this fall’s midterm elections. Though Tuesday’s House primaries were greatly overshadowed by the nationally significant victories of Rep. Joe Sestak in the Democratic Senate primary and of Mark Critz (D) in the 12th district special election, they did set up some key November matchups in the quintessentially competitive Keystone State. Click here to learn more! Roll Call’s current House race ratings include 10 of Pennsylvania’s 19 districts as among the 104 districts that will hold competitive elections this fall — the most in any state....

Pennsylvania Primary Predictions (?) Pennsylvania's primary election is fast approaching, with one of the nation's hottest special election occurring, the spotlight is on Pennsylvania on Tuesday.  As a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, let me share some insights on some of the races in Pennsylvania. Pat Toomey vs Peg Lusik:  In a nutshell, this is Toomey's race and I predict he will carry this primary election easily. Sestak vs Specter:  Rasmussen has Sestak moving slightly ahead of Specter in polling last week. Not surprising as Specter has the same dismal appeal to Democrats in PA as McCain had to Republicans in...

Explosion In The 6th Congressional District: Could The Implausible Occur? Is State Rep. Curt Schroder A Dark Horse For The Endorsement? BY CHRIS FREIND “FREINDLY FIRE” Hollywood couldn’t have scripted the drama any better in the GOP’s nomination race for Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District. Try to follow along: Four-term incumbent Jim Gerlach tells the world --- repeatedly --- that he would NOT seek re-election, opting instead to jump into the gubernatorial fray. Based on Gerlach’s word, popular Chester County State Representative Curt Schroder announces he would seek the GOP nomination for the open seat, raising nearly $200,000 in just a...

HOPE IS MAKING A COMEBACK IN PENNSYLVANIA!Look what arrived in my inbox today: SCHRODER ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR CONGRESS State Representative Curt Schroder running to serve the 6th Congressional District Downington, PA –State Representative Curt Schroder today announced that he is seeking the Republican nomination for the 6th Congressional District that includes portions of Chester, Berks, Lehigh, and Montgomery counties. “I have decided to enter this race to ensure that the values that built our country remain for our children, that we encourage the policies of entrepreneurism, limited government and to preserve the economic future of our nation,” said Curt Schroder....

For those writing Republican centrism’s obituary after Arlen Specter’s party switch, holster your quills. In fact, if the next few weeks go well for the GOP, it might pave the way for a whole new chapter in the left flank of the right-leaning party. The month of May will be huge, recruiting-wise, for Senate Republicans, with decisions expected from several big-name candidates, including Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, Rep. Mark Kirk (Ill.) and possibly Rep. Mike Castle (Del.). All would instantly be formidable — with Crist and Castle favored at the outset — and all are...

U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach might challenge Pat Toomey in the 2010 Republican Senate primary. A spokesman for the four-term Chester County Republican today said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, called Gerlach on to discuss a Senate campaign, in the wake of Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party. Cornyn, who had endorsed Specter over conservative challenger Toomey, could not be reached for comment. Gerlach spokesman Mark Campbell, however, said party officials were "very interested," in a Gerlach Senate candidacy. Campbell said Gerlach is considering it. "The congressman's decision is not going to...

Software engineer Jennifer Kolar is to be sentenced this week in federal court for her role in Earth Liberation Front arsons, including one at the University of Washington. Her time in prison will be reduced because she turned state's witness, but that doesn't mitigate the fact she is now regarded as a snitch by peers and could be labeled a terrorist by the government.By Kim McDonald "Don't hang up," FBI Special Agent Jane Quimby told Jennifer Kolar on Dec. 10, 2006. "There were arrests and there is a target letter for you." She gave Kolar the name and number...

She'll spend the next 9 years in prison for her role in the 1998 torching of Two Elks Lodge in Vail. Now she's 'back on the right path.' The federal law enforcement agents were stymied. For weeks they had been trying to break into computers and Palm Pilots confiscated from members of a radical environmental group known as The Family, a cell of the Earth Liberation Front. The computers were believed to hold GPS coordinates for caches of weapons and other information vital to the criminal prosecutions of 11 associates of the shadowy organization. But try as they might, the...

Members of the ecoterrorism gang that torched buildings on Vail Mountain in 1998 will be sentenced in April, a federal judge ordered today. At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., two key members of the gang formally pleaded guilty to federal arson charges, although they already had admitted their role in the multimillion-dollar fires. They destroyed several mountaintop structures including the popular Two Elk Lodge, a restaurant that has been rebuilt. During the 10-minute hearing, Chelsea Gerlach and Stanislas Meyerhoff, both 29, acknowledged their guilt when asked by Judge Ann Aiken. Gerlach responded "yes," and Meyerhoff said,...

Named one of the most vulnerable Republican members of Congress in this election... Gerlach defeated the odds. Here are the latest numbers.. 51- to 49-percent- just 3-thousand votes separating the two candidates. ...Today- Murphy has shied away from the media... but Gerlach says she did call his office this afternoon to concede.

Lawyer Accuses Murphy Of Fraud On Her Resume By: WILLIAM MULGREW, The Evening Bulletin 11/06/2006 A Villanova University law professor accused Democratic congressional candidate Lois Murphy of committing fraud on her professional resume by taking sole credit for the published works of other authors. Professor Patrick Brennan made the charges during a phone conference organized by the Jim Gerlach campaign, Lois Murphy's opponent in Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional District. On her resume, available on-line at her law firm of Heckscher, Teillon, Terrill & Sager, Murphy takes credit for a law journal article she didn't author, followed by three other publications that...

An op-ed piece and editorial in the Washington Times recently has highlighted the extreme anti-semitism that exists on MoveOn’s member-oriented message blogs, the same potential members MoveOn is asking to contribute to Lois Murphy’s campaign. A Washington Times op-ed said August 29th that “boy, do the MoveOn folks hate Jews,” and “perhaps hate is too weak a word.” A following editorial in the same paper September 13th said candidates should “renounce the support MoveOn is giving them.” Apparently, Murphy could care less.

1998 Fires At Vail Ski Resort Cost $12 Million In Damage. Two people accused of setting the 1998 fire at the Vail ski resort will be sentenced in December on eight counts of arson stemming from the blaze that caused some $12 million in damage. Chelsea Gerlach and Stanislas Meyerhoff, both 29, were arraigned Wednesday in federal court in Eugene. They are to enter pleas and be sentenced on Dec. 14, when they are also to be sentenced for other arson-related crimes to which they pleaded guilty in July. Under plea deals, both agreed to have the Colorado charges transferred...

The latest Keystone Poll finds incumbent Republican Congressman Jim Gerlach locked in a tight battle for re-election with challenger Democrat Lois Murphy. The poll of 431-registered voters conducted by the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College finds Gerlach with a 45-to-38 percent edge. When narrowed to likely voters, Gerlach's advantage is down to 44-to-41 percent. Gerlach scored a two point win over Murphy in 2004. Poll respondents list the war in Iraq, the war on terror and healthcare as the top issues. The sixth district covers portions of Berks, Montgomery and Chester counties.

3 more plead guilty in Oregon to ecoterrorism Trio were part of group that planted bombs around western U.S. July 21, 2006 EUGENE, Ore. - Three more people pleaded guilty Friday to being part of an ecoterrorist cell that planted fire bombs around the West. The trio are accused of trying to stop logging, wild horse roundups, genetic engineering of plants, sport utility vehicles sales and expansion of a ski resort into endangered lynx habitat. In pleading guilty, the three admitted they were part of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, loose-knit groups of environmental activists that claimed...

As the "Big Tent" collapses, make way for the true "third" party According to research that I conducted in 1998, there were more than 400 political parties in America. (That number has grown smaller in recent years, but is still over 200 — far larger than the "mainstream" media admits.) According to research by Richard Winger, the publisher of Ballot Access News, the third-largest political party in the United States is the Constitution Party. Thus, the CP is the true third party. Statistically, the CP has more members than any political party other than the Big Two. And, statistically, there...