Free Republic

JACKSON, Miss. - Former Rep. Gillespie V. “Sonny” Montgomery, who during his 30 years in Congress pushed through a modernized GI Bill that boosted recruiting for the all-volunteer force, died Friday. He was 85. SNIP On Thursday, the House voted to name a national defense authorization bill in his honor. A conservative Democrat, Montgomery represented an east-central Mississippi district in Congress from 1967 to 1997, and for 13 years chaired the House Veterans Affairs Committee. He himself was a 35-year military veteran, serving in the Army in Europe during World War II, then returned to active duty during the Korean...

Iraqi General Georges Sada has an incredible story to tell. A passionate evangelical Christian, he once served as a top advisor to Saddam Hussein. Today, he serves as a senior advisor to Iraq’s President and is the author of Saddam’s Secrets: How One Iraqi Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein. Come hear him take you inside his world – where Jesus is drawing Iraqis to Himself in the most amazing way. Monday, May 22, 2006 7:30pm Smith Center McLean Bible Church McLean, Virginia General Sada be interviewed by Joel C. Rosenberg, the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Jihad,...

ROANOKE, Va. - The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism urged evangelical Christians on Wednesday not to compromise church-state separation as a quick fix to the "disturbing collapse of public morality." Prayer in the schools is not the answer to moral decline in America, Rabbi Eric Yoffie told a chapel service at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg. Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, has publicly criticized the Christian right in the past, drawing the distinction on issues such as abortion and gay marriage, both of which evangelical Christians oppose. "But as significant...

College students are becoming more religious, and it's affecting their political views.... < snip > The Harvard study advises political parties to woo the spiritually inclined, a demographic that the popular press mostly deemed the exclusive territory of the "religious right" in the past two presidential elections. "This analysis foreshadows the 2008 general election campaign for president where religious centrists, nearly a quarter of the student vote, will be the critical swing vote ... and likely the most influential group in American politics for years," according to the survey. Attracting the elusive youth vote with hip text messages and celebrities...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner showed off his presidential credentials in the Show Me State on Friday. Warner told an overflow crowd of 700 Missouri Democrats that the Democratic Party should stand for opportunity rather than an extreme ideology. "I think we've got to change the whole debate in this country from liberal versus conservative, left versus right, to the future versus the past," he said at the Jackson Day dinner. He brought his message of "the sensible center" to one of the most conservative areas of Missouri, a bellwether state that has correctly chosen the...

WILLIAMSBURG (AP) -- Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor traded judge's robes for an academic gown yesterday as she was installed in the honorary post of chancellor of the College of William & Mary. < snip > Mrs. O'Connor succeeds former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, who was appointed in 2000 to replace former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. William & Mary was chartered in 1693 by King William III and Queen Mary II. The chancellor serves as an adviser to the president and an advocate for the school and meets occasionally with students and faculty. Until...

WASHINGTON -- Surveys in Iowa and New Hampshire found that former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner appealed strongly to stalwart Democrats as a potential presidential candidate, a GOP pollster says. "Mark Warner was the big star" in the surveys this month of likely Democratic caucus and primary voters in the two states, pollster Frank Luntz told reporters yesterday. The two states are first in the nation to hold nominating contests. Warner "ought to frighten Republicans if he were ever to get the nomination -- because he could win" in 2008, Luntz said.

George Mason's Sammy Hernandez (50) and Tony Skinn celebrate their overtime victory over Connecticut during the fourth round of the NCAA basketball tournament in Washington, Sunday, March 26, 2006. George Mason defeated Connecticut, 86-84 to advance to the Final Four. (Gerald Herbert/AP Photo) Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage, the much-maligned NCAA Tournament selection committee chair, stood up to observe George Mason's on-court celebration Sunday afternoon and said, "Maybe we seeded them too low." He was kidding. But even if George Mason was a single-digit seed instead of a No. 11, that probably wouldn't matter for historical purposes. This was...

WASHINGTON - The cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin will be getting plenty of attention this week, especially if the weather gets warmer. The blossoms are supposed to hit peak bloom Monday, and the National Park Service's chief horticulturist said it should last for about 10 to 14 days. The National Cherry Blossom Festival started Saturday, and is expected to bring about one million people to the city. The festival runs through April 9. This marks the 94th anniversary of Japan's gift of the trees to Washington

Pick up popcorn and a soda at the concession, settle back in a comfy seat and look up at the big screen. What's coming up is not the latest release from Hollywood, it's a video sermon. Welcome to Velocity Church. No ticket needed and there's even a choice of music: rock'n' roll or pop country. Velocity is the area's newest congregation, and it meets at the Short Pump Regal Cinemas, 11650 W. Broad St. The nondenominational church will hold its first worship services tomorrow at 8:30 and 10 a.m. "It's a fun church done just outside the box," said Tim...

Black churches are not doing enough to stop abortion, speakers at a conference said yesterday, some comparing the number of black babies aborted annually to genocide. "We are no longer the largest minority in this country. That is due, in fact, to abortion," said Day Gardner, national director of Black Americans for Life, an arm of the National Right to Life Committee. "We have allowed abortion to become a kind of birth control for many of us. . . . Many pastors are afraid they will offend women if they talk about it." Gardner was among more than two dozen...

WASHINGTON - The building is far from finished, but Newseum curators installed their first artifact Wednesday _ an item so big they'll put up the rest of the museum around it. The world's first news satellite truck was gingerly lowered by a crane into what will be the new home of the museum dedicated to journalism and the First Amendment. The CONUS 1 satellite truck transformed local television news in 1984 by allowing stations to cover national stories without depending on the major networks, said Newseum curator Carrie Christoffersen. Hubbard Broadcasting and CONUS Communications used the first satellite truck. Four...

Sixty years ago this Wednesday, Winston Churchill addressed the General Assembly and urged the citizens of the United States and Great Britain to stand together. * snip * .... posthumously make Britain's prime minister during World War II an honorary citizen of Virginia. * snip * Only three other notables hold honorary state citizenship - the Marquis de Lafayette, the Revolutionary War hero; John D. Rockefeller, the oil baron who underwrote the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg; and Margaret Thatcher, another former British prime minister who also once served as chancellor of the College of William and Mary. She joined the...

* snip A house of worship such as FLM creates not merely a megachurch, but potentially a mega-experience well beyond the Sunday-morning services. It addresses the needs for nearly every stage of life between womb and tomb. Why, though, do members seek out services such as career advice or soccer games from a church, when secular society provides them in abundance? Clearly, FLM supplies something people want -- a fact that holds true for most of the nation's megachurches, which make up only 10 percent of the country's congregations but claim roughly half of all parishioners. PARADOXICALLY, perhaps, the small...

RICHMOND, Va. - Voters in Virginia's fastest-growing region cast ballots in a special election Tuesday as Republicans struggled to hang on to a state Senate seat in a district where GOP dominance was once unchallenged. Democrat Mark Herring and Republican Mick Staton focused on issues of unchecked suburban sprawl and traffic congestion that costs commuters in the Washington, D.C., exurb hours of time weekly. Both are members of the board of supervisors in Loudoun County, the nation's fastest-growing county. While Staton battled to retain the GOP's 24th seat in the 40-member senate, Herring and the Democrats hoped to pick up...

The Washington region's emergency managers are looking to experiment with sirens to alert them to terrorist attacks. Under a federally funded pilot program, Arlington County and Alexandria will each buy as many as 15 sirens to mount on telephone poles, buildings and other structures in several neighborhoods. The locations will provide a test to see whether sirens can alert people that cell phones, radio stations and other devices can't. An engineer and siren expert for the Department of Homeland Security John Fuoto says people who are outdoors during an attack are most at risk because they're least able to find...

WASHINGTON - Low-flying fighter jets and other military aircraft are scheduled to run a series of training exercises around Washington Sunday tonight and early Monday morning. The North American Aerospace Defense Command is conducting the training exercises over the Potomac River and around the city. The exercise is designed to test NORAD's ability to intercept and identify aircraft that could pose a threat to the nation's capital. It involves several small Cessna aircraft and Learjets as well as an F-16 fighter jet and a Blackhawk helicopter. NORAD has conducted such exercises throughout the U-S and Canada since the September Eleventh...

GLORY ROAD tells the true-life story of the 1966 Texas Western basketball team’s arduous and inspiring season that culminated with an NCAA championship. With convincing acting and a redemptive message, GLORY ROAD is a winner, full of teamwork, drama, heart and soul. If you liked REMEMBER THE TITANS, you will love this movie. I (Ted) wept and cheered GLORY ROAD. Josh Lucas plays Coach Don Haskins, a Southern-drawled flame-thrower determined to find success on college basketball’s grandest stage. After spending several years working with high school teams, Haskins finds his big break when offered the head coaching position at...

Patrick and Katherine Stethem have forsaken their quiet life in a Loudoun [Virginia] suburb to call for justice. They don't relish the spotlight. But they'll go there if it will get the job done. The job is to get the U.S. government to use its influence to get Mohammed Ali Hamadi into a U.S. courtroom. To get the Lebanese government to turn Hamadi over. To get Hezbollah to assume the mantle of a legitimate political party. It's been 20 years since Hezbollah terrorists – two on a hijacked plane and two on the ground -- murdered Patrick Stethem's older brother,...

In the race for governor, the Times-Dispatch today endorses Jerry Kilgore. Contrary to the too-usual sentiment on the part of voters contemplating an election, this is not a lesser-of-two-evils decision but a positive endorsement of Kilgore.Why? Two principal reasons. Issues Because Kilgore's views are in the mainstream of Virginia's voters, he holds the advantage on key issues.For instance:< SNIP > Finally, Kilgore is right on these issues: (1) As a law-and-order guy, former prosecutor, and former Virginia public safety secretary (under Governor George Allen), he is tough on crime. (2) He supports genuine merit pay for teachers. (3) He...