Free Republic

News that a Washington, D.C., television station, WTTG, is cutting costs by teaching its anchors to operate their own teleprompters prompts me to wonder if such an initiative will spread across town.

Who’s behind the White House war on Fox News? By Michelle Malkin  •  October 14, 2009 05:06 AM President Obama with Anita Dunn, David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, and Robert Gibbs (via White House Flickr stream) My syndicated column today follows up on yesterday’s Fox News Derangement Syndrome post. Who has Obama stocked his communications shop with, you ask? Beltway flacks for corruptocrats. Meet some of the key people behind the White House war on Fox News. Birds of a feather…****Who’s behind the White House war on Fox News? by Michelle MakinCreators SyndicateCopyright 2009 White House interim communications director Anita Dunn assumed the...

Ann Curry she has no intention of recycling those "Make History!" presidential campaign buttons wasn't the only headline Hillary Clinton made this week. On Tuesday, Clinton emerged from her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisting that Russia and the U.S. were united on Iran's nuclear program even though Lavrov dismissed joining the U.S. in threatening Iran with sanctions as "counterproductive" at this point. The secretary of state called the position of Russia and the United States on Iran a "very strong, united approach." Clinton said that the United States had "always looked at" potential sanctions against Iran if...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - President Barack Obama meets with his national security council on Wednesday, hosting the fifth of a series of top-level discussions on how to move forward in Afghanistan, an eight-year war that officials have warned may soon fail without the proper action. The meeting comes amid criticisms that the decision on troop levels is taking too long, and a day after the White House denied sending an unannounced 13,000 additional troops. Obama hosts the strategy session in the Situation Room of the White House. Joining him are Defense Sec. Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm....

ABC News’ Yunji de Nies and Sunlen Miller report: She’s back and this time, she’s here to stay. Cindy Sheehan says she is moving to Washington. The anti-war activist was outside the White House for the second day in a row, with a bullhorn and a handful of protestors, shouting against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantanamo and calling for “health care not warfare.� Sheehan became a prominent voice against the Iraq war after her son Special Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq 2004, and spent years hounding George W. Bush. Now, she’s turned her attention to President Barack...

Just heard on WMAL that Chris Plante is returning to the WMAL lineup in his old spot...he will return to WMAL next Monday!

I've received dozens of emails forwarded to me in the past month, with the senders' grave concern over an alleged U.S. Senate bill, SB2009, that would require gun owners to list all their firearms on their tax documents and pay upward of $50 per gun owned, annually. While this bill is very believable, considering President Obama's rabid, unjustified and foolhardy anti-gun/anti-hunting administration, it's another urban legend, at least for now. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) wishes to be perfectly clear on this matter: "There is no such bill," the NSSF stated in a news release. "And if the NSSF...

M.O.M. for America Washington, DC Rally - Saturday, August 14, 2010 OUR PERMIT APPLICATION IS BEEN CONFIRMED, WE SHOULD BE RECEIVING THE PERMIT NEXT WEEK! (10/9/2009 - 12:23 p.m.)

WASHINTON, D.C. - Members of the nonprofit organization LUPE are in Washington lobbying for immigration reform. Members from the Alton office traveled to Washington, D.C. over the weekend and will be at the capital for the rest of the week. They will speak with lawmakers and meet with legislators to push for an immigration reform bill. Last week, the group's Alton offices were robbed. Police say thieves stole the organization's air conditioning unit for the copper and aluminum. The thieves are still wanted at this hour.

EL PASO -- Cities across the nation are gearing up for a rally in support of immigration reform and a Borderland organization plans to join nationwide efforts. Officials with the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) will be in Washington D.C. next week to educate officials about what they feel are necessary immigration policies. "If [reform] doesn't happen between now and March, it's probably not going to happen until 2011," said Zelene Pineda, with BNHR. "Since next year is an election year, we need to put pressure on D.C. now." It's been several months since president Barack Obama really pushed...

But that was then, and this is now. As the historian Robert Dallek told Obama recently, "War kills off great reform movements." As the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne reminded the president, his supporters voted for him not to win a war but to win a victory on health care and other domestic issues. Obama's priorities lie not in the Hindu Kush but in America: Why squander your presidency on trying to turn an economically moribund feudal backwater into a functioning nation state when you can turn a functioning nation state into an economically moribund feudal backwater?

I can’t have any more bills. I’m out of checks.” It is a joke we used to hear all the time, back in the days before credit cards made it even easier to run up bills we can’t or won’t pay. Like all good jokes, it has a kernel of truth: a truth about the human mind’s capacity for self-delusion. In his important new book, Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West, Michael Ledeen describes this capacity as “that part of the spirit that shelters active thought from unpleasant truths.” Rarely has the talent for self-delusion been...

WASHINGTON - SNIPPET: "Black had started a summer internship in Council member Jim Graham's office four days before the June 18 shooting, and Graham went with Black when the teenager turned himself in to police." SNIPPET: "Officials say Black was riding the Metro at about 3 p.m. when he saw a person he had a fight with about a month before. According to prosecutors, Black and his friends followed the person up the escalator, where Black shot him in both legs. One of the bullets also struck a bystander in the leg."

Nothing follows ... As usual ...

Unbelievable, just unbelievable. The nominations were due to the committee on Feb. 1, and the president took office on Jan. 20. Did our president do enough for world peace in 264 hours to deserve even nomination let alone the win the award? I guess he can check this one off the bucket list. From Breitbart…

KABUL — The Taliban Friday condemned Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, saying rather than bring peace to Afghanistan he had boosted troop numbers and continued the aggressive policies of his predecessor. "We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP. "We condemn the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for Obama," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location. "When Obama was elected president, we were hopeful he would keep his promise to bring change. But he brought no change, he has continued the same...

"Muslim in Washington, DC: "I'm not scared to die! I will kill you! I will blow people up and the Metro!"" SNIPPET: ""Three blocks of Wisconsin Avenue Northwest were cleared of cars and pedestrians. Adjacent buildings and restaurants were evacuated..." "DC Security Scare Becomes Federal Case," by Bob Barnard for MyFoxDC, October 8 (thanks to Heidi): WASHINGTON, D.C. - A man who was arrested in a security scare in Northwest D.C. on Tuesday night threatened to blow up the Friendship Heights Metro station, according to a criminal complaint in the case. It was a chaotic scene Tuesday night in Friendship...

President Obama's school age daughters have not been vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the vaccine is not available to them based on their risk. The Centers for Disease Control recommend that children ages 6 months through 18 years of age receive a vaccination against the H1N1 flu virus.(continued)

The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to block Ximena Hartsock from becoming the next director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, aggravating the tension between the council and the mayor and casting fresh doubt on the future of the troubled agency. After a long debate, the council voted 7 to 5 to reject Hartsock and remove her as the head of an agency that has had seven permanent or interim directors in the past decade. It was the first time since Fenty took office in 2007 that the council had rejected one of his nominees ...The vote followed a contentious...

The Armed Forces recruiting center located at 14th and L Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., will be targeted by the SDS tomorrow afternoon as part of their 'Funk the War' protest aimed at undermining support for America in the war on terror.The demonstration will mark the eighth anniversary of the opening Afghan front in the global war on terror. SDS protesters have targeted the 14th and L recruiting center many times before, usually with rocks and paint bombs. At one protest they stormed and ransacked the front part of the center.This is what happened on March 19 last year:DC Recruiting Center...

Reporting from Washington - Despite months of outward ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to get divided Senate Democrats to take up some version of the idea for a final vote in the coming weeks. President Obama has cited a preference for the so-called public option. But faced with intense criticism over the summer, he strategically expressed openness to health cooperatives and other ways to offer consumers potentially more affordable alternatives to private health plans. In the last week, however, senior administration officials have been holding private meetings almost...

GOP leaders, in a private meeting last month, delivered a blunt and at times heated message to RNC Chairman Michael Steele: quit meddling in policy. The plea was made during what was supposed to be a routine discussion about polling matters and other priorities in House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office. But the session devolved into a heated discussion about the roles of congressional leadership and Steele, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting. The congressional leaders were particularly miffed that Steele had in late August unveiled a seniors’ “health care bill of rights” without consulting with them. The...

Gun Control: The Supreme Court agrees to decide if the Second Amendment applies to all of us, or just Washington, D.C. Why would the Founders put in the Bill of Rights something applying only to a federal enclave? In a 5-4 decision last year written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court overturned a draconian District of Columbia gun ban enacted 32 years ago that barred private ownership of handguns at all. Scalia wrote that an individual's right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted. The court ruled that...

(Corrected) Gun Control: In a case headed for the Supreme Court, a three-judge panel rules Chicago's gun ban constitutional since the 2nd Amendment doesn't apply to states and cities. High court nominee Sonia Sotomayor concurs.Those Pennsylvania townsfolk bitterly clinging to their guns may have been premature in celebrating the decision in D.C. v. Heller that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does indeed guarantee an individual right to keep and bear arms.

WASHINGTON — There was no trip to New York and no fancy outing as the Obamas celebrated their first wedding anniversary since they moved to the White House. Instead they kept it simple, with a dinner out Thursday at an elegant, American-fare restaurant near Georgetown. The evening was balmy and the moon almost full. President Barack Obama stayed in all day before taking a motorcade with Michelle Obama to the Blue Duck Tavern to mark their 17th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Obama stepped into the restaurant wearing a backless knee-length dress while the president wore a dark suit.

A massive layoff of teachers and support staff at D.C. public schools triggered chaos outside of McKinley High School Friday afternoon. The melee happened after school let out, as students and parents filled McKinley's parking. Many were upset about the layoffs of 388 school employees, including 229 teachers. "The students were emotional, you know, they were upset to see their teachers being escorted by the police officers, knowing that they did nothing," said Saymendy Lloyd, a parent activist. "Why do you choose to do it at the time the children are out there and you do not expect to have...

Federal law-enforcement authorities Friday unsealed indictments against 39 D.C. taxicab drivers, charging them with conspiring to bribe the head of the city's taxicab commission in a widening criminal investigation into the industry. The indictments come just over a week after the chief of staff for D.C. Council member Jim Graham was charged with accepting bribes from a person with a financial stake in the taxicab industry to promote favorable taxicab legislation. * * * The indictments unsealed Friday charge that the men attempted to bribe Taxicab Commission Chairman Leon J. Swain Jr., who is identified by title but not by...

Ten years ago, the subject of a news photograph - a 21-week-old fetus - reached his arm outside his mother's womb during prenatal surgery. A photographer captured the image of a tiny hand grasping the gloved hand of a surgeon. In the months that followed the publication of his photograph, Michael Clancy, a freelance photojournalist, found himself deeply committed to the fight to end abortion and having to choose a new career. For Clancy would end up in the middle of a heated political controversy and instead of reporting news, he suddenly became the news. On Sept. 18, Clancy shared...

D.C. Council member David A. Catania will introduce legislation Tuesday to allow same-sex couples to marry - a bill virtually assured passage by the council and unlikely to generate enough opposition to be overturned by the Democrat-controlled Congress. The bill, which could be given final approval by the council as early as December, would expand current laws that recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions to allow such marriages to be performed in the District. Currently, four states perform same-sex marriages. New Hampshire is scheduled to begin performing same-sex marriages in 2010, and Maine voters will consider the issue in...

Hundreds of doctors took their health care fight to Capitol Hill Thursday. They deal with patients and insurance companies every day and now they want their voices heard. They called it the "Million Med March" but admit they didn't have that many doctors on Capitol Hill. In fact, doctors point out fewer than one million doctors practice nationwide. But those who did march on the Capitol say even fewer will go into medicine if Congress allows the government to take over health care. After nearly three decades of delivering babies, Dr. Joel Match no longer does so. With malpractice premiums...

About a thousand parents, students and teachers gathered outside the Capitol on Wednesday morning in support of the D.C. school voucher program, which is up for reauthorization in Congress. Chants of "put kids first" floated toward Senate office windows as students waved signs that said "School Choice Now" and "Save Our Scholarship." "We're still here, and we're not going away!" said former education secretary Margaret Spellings, who spoke in front of the crowd along with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and others. The federally funded voucher program provides scholarships to low-income...

Woman Finds Officer in Her Bed A U.S. Capitol Police officer was arrested Sunday morning in Arlington County when a woman came home and found him passed out drunk in her bed, police said. The two had never met. The officer, Thomas Patrick McMahon, 34, was charged with unlawful entry. Police say they are perplexed as to why McMahon picked the apartment, in the 1000 block of North Randolph Street, to sleep. He lives in Reston. "I don't know if it looks similar to his apartment in Reston or what," said Arlington police spokeswoman Crystal Nosal. "Thankfully, nobody was hurt."...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The beautifully ornate Catholic church in the nation's capital has seen its share of history and controversy... But the church is also the site of an annual Mass that has drawn criticism for what many see as an unhealthy mix of politics, the law and religion. Washington's annual Red Mass, which celebrates the legal profession, will be held this year on Sunday, October 4 -- the day before the Supreme Court begins its new term. Several justices traditionally attend, along with congressional leaders, diplomats, cabinet secretaries and other dignitaries. Past presidents have also attended, though there is...

If you have been following the Senate Finance Committee meeting on the amendments to the Health Care Bill you know that every single Republican amendment is defeated with unanimous vote by the Democrats and every Democrat amendment is passed by unanimous vote by the Democrats. This is a waste of time and money and America will suffer. However, there is a way to stop this dead in its tracks. Rule 4 of the Rules of Procedure for the Senate Finance Committee reads: "Rule 4. Quorums. - (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) one-third of the membership of the committee,...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV) has canceled a week-long recess beginning Columbus Day, citing work on a healthcare bill. Democrats had failed to pass a measure before the month-long August recess and are pushing hard to to pass a bill this year. Speaking on the floor, Reid announced on Wednesday that Senators would have the holiday, which falls on a Monday, and the Friday of that week off. "With all the things going on here, it would not be right for us to take that week off," the Democratic leader said. "It is a long period...

This week on Uncommon Knowledge, the man who saved the Second Amendment. In 2007, Judge Laurence Silberman, senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, wrote a decision overturning the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns. The following year, the Supreme Court agreed with him.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Monday he can't think of any reason he would stop the execution of Washington, D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad. Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Nov. 10 for the October 2002 killing spree that left 10 dead in the nation's capital, Virginia and Maryland. "I know of nothing in this case now that would suggest that there is any credible claim of innocence or that there was anything procedurally wrong with the prosecution," Kaine said on his monthly call-in radio show on WTOP. Kaine said he would review Muhammad's petition for clemency when he...

The Senate debates whether to give D.C. stimulus money to fight forest fires that it doesn't have. California has been burning up as result of raging forest fires, but Congress doesn't seem to know that. The Senate was all set last week to award $2.8 million of stimulus money for forest fire management to . . . the District of Columbia. Hold on! Washington, D.C. doesn't have any forests, let alone forest fires. So Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming brought an amendment to the Senate floor to wipe out the funds and reassign the money to the U.S. Forest Service...

At a Columbia Political Union event last semester, Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Senator from Minnesota, was reminiscing about a Halloween costume she wore in high school. Her Purple Rain outfit inspired by musician Prince was great, Klobuchar explained, but she lost the costume contest to someone dressed as a bathroom wall. Klobuchar’s legislative director, sitting in the front row, shook her head at the digression. “No?” Klobuchar asked, turning to the staffer, who kept shaking her head. The Senator changed the subject. Moira Campion, the woman who intervened to avert the anecdote, is a former employee of New York Senator Chuck...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Usual Suspects Attack Wicker Amendment   Friday, September 25, 2009   Last week, we reported on the Wicker amendment—a NRA-backed amendment to H.R. 3288 (the FY 2010 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill) that would reform policies regarding the transportation of firearms on Amtrak trains.  The measure was adopted by the Senate on Wednesday, September 16, by a vote of 68-30, and would allow law-abiding Amtrak passengers the ability to securely transport firearms in their checked baggage while traveling by Amtrak train. Currently, passengers who choose to travel by passenger...

Friday afternoon was supposed to be a big day for America’s Muslims. For months they planned to rally in Washington before their “big” day. They would meet on the lawn in front of the Capitol building. Naturally the media took dictation from the organizers and dutifully reported “It was estimated that the nation’s capital hosted some 50,000 Muslims for a traditional Friday prayer ritual.” “Our time has come.” Organizers billed it as a gathering of moderate Muslims coming together for a “Day of Islamic Unity” to “inspire a new generation of Muslims.” The said “our time has come.” So how...

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The national health care debate took the spotlight in the Triangle Friday when about 70 medical professionals and patients rallied at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill to support of a comprehensive overhaul. The independent group of mostly health care workers, Health Care for All N.C., wants reform that gives health care to everyone and transfers coverage without exclusions for pre-existing conditions. It favors a public option. Some medical professionals, however, said they would prefer a single-payer system, without private insurance companies, that would be an entirely run government health care program. Dr. Charlie Van der Horst...

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The city of Boston spent $431,000 on overtime costs to deploy 629 police officers, 48 firefighters, and a raft of other workers for the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, according to information released to the Globe yesterday under a public records request. City officials said a federal grant for “urban areas security’’ would cover $400,000 of the cost. According to the city’s tabulation, Boston spent $359,714 on 629 police officers, $36,748 on 48 firefighters, $29,572 on 55 public health and emergency medical workers, $4,350 on 27 transportation workers, and $1,293 on six public works employees. The city workers were...

WASHINGTON — More than a thousand Muslim men and women gathered Friday outside the US Capitol to hold a prayer meeting and demonstrate against prejudice against Islam. With men on one side, and women on the other, the crowd prayed on lawns outside the building in an event organized by the Dar-ul-Islam Elisabeth mosque, in northeastern New Jersey. "In addition to being an historic event I think it's just a matter of all the Muslims coming together in one location to perform what is our obligation for the Friday prayer," said one of the participants Lonnie Shabazz. "The message was...

Their Time Has Come...Muslims in DC Their time has come…Muslims in DC by Bill Randles Today September 25, 2009 tens of thousands of Muslims are expected to gather in Washington DC for prayers on Capitol Hill and on the national Mall. Billed as “Islam on Capitol Hill” by it’s organizers, the event will feature an official banquet, tours of the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court and Muslim prayers which organizers hope will be heard “echoing off of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and other great edifices that surround Capitol Hill.” The stated goal of this gathering, according...

Forget all the drama with Republicans and President Obama. The most tumultuous relationship in Washington right now is playing out in the House, between the Blue Dog Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On pretty much everything this year, the Blue Dogs have pushed back against Pelosi—the stimulus, energy, health care. This week there’s been a whole new round of anti-Nancy grumbling among conservative Dems, as Pelosi tries to finalize details of the House’s version of the health-care bill. Among other things, she’s still angling for the much-debated public option—even though, by the White House’s own admission, it will never pass...

Experts say the insects are from Asia and first appeared in Allentown, Pennsylvania back in 1996. They then spread throughout our area and beyond. There are no known predators, so the bugs continue to creep into homes through cracks and crevices. Experts say while last year was bad, this year will be worse. "I thought I heard something rattling in the baseboard and there were hundreds in one window," Wade added. Residents say they are under attack inside and outside of their home. "I was battling them out of the way," Milhaupt said. Milhaupt says she snags them with tissue,...

A funny thing happened on Sonia Sotomayor's drive to Washington to be announced as President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee: She got lost. The Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice told C-SPAN that a friend drove her from New York City to the District of Columbia the night before her appearance at the White House with Obama. She was furiously working on her speech during what is normally a four-hour drive when a torrential rainstorm enveloped the highway. "It knocked out our GPS, and so we got lost," she said. "And all of sudden I'm in Virginia and looking up...

Federal authorities Thursday arrested the chief of staff to D.C. Council member Jim Graham and charged him with two counts of accepting bribes. In an indictment unsealed Thursday, authorities say Ted Loza, 45, received cash payments on two separate occasions in exchange for agreeing to promote legislation favorable to the taxicab industry. Mr. Graham is chairman of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, which oversees and regulates the city's taxicab commission. Mr. Graham is not mentioned by name in the indictment.