Free Republic

New documents obtained by Judicial Watch, proves that the Obama administration continued to fund ACORN after all funding was banned for that organization. ACORN Housing changed their name to Affordable Housing Centers of America. All the top officials at ACORN Housing retained the same positions at AHCOA. They also retained the same tax number. Snip Since there was a federal ban on public funding of ACORN by the federal government, they should not have received a federal grant. NeighborWorks America, a public/private entity, funded by the taxpayers of the United States, determined that was a violation of federal law. Judicial...

The Obama Administration has given a $200,000 Housing Grant to rebrand an ACORN affiliate despite a Federal Ban on funding ACORN. Judicial Watch reports the following: Judicial Watch, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) revealing that on February 12, 2013, HUD Assistant Secretary for Office of Housing Counseling Sarah Gerecke may have violated federal law by requesting that $201,222.07 be transferred from the account of the defunct Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), an ACORN spin-off, to HUD intermediary Mission for Peace “to specifically pay for the activities of former...

More than 100 groups will split $67 million to help people “navigate” the new Obamacare health insurance exchanges — more money than the administration initially said would be available but short of what advocates say will be needed to help people sign up, especially in states where the governors are hostile. The grants announced Thursday will go to 105 organizations, including community groups, health care providers, business groups and a handful of Planned Parenthood affiliates. The program, which got an extra $13 million from the health law prevention fund, is for those states that refused to set up their own...

Not a single person showed up at the Georgetown waterfront Tuesday for a climate change agenda event put on by Organizing for Action, the shadowy nonprofit advocacy group born out of President Obama’s 2012 campaign, the NRCC wrote in its blog. The event page for the “Climate Change Day of Action Rally” disappeared after rainy weather appeared to drive away whatever people planned to attend.

Not a single person showed up at the Georgetown waterfront Tuesday for a climate change agenda event put on by Organizing for Action, the shadowy nonprofit advocacy group born out of President Obama’s 2012 campaign, the NRCC wrote in its blog.The event page for the “Climate Change Day of Action Rally” disappeared after rainy weather appeared to drive away whatever people planned to attend. The embarrassing showing follows the news that only one volunteer stayed for an OFA Obamacare event in Centreville, Va., last week to work the phones: ZERO PEOPLE at the OFA rally at the Georgetown Waterfront this...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is proposing that the national labor union become partners with the Sierra Club and the NAACP, even accepting their ranks as members of the AFL-CIO. "What we've been doing the last 30 years hasn't worked real well," Trumka said on Capital Download. "We need to do things differently... None of us are big enough to be able to change the climate out there, whether it's economic, political or legislative. And all of us realize it takes all of us working together to get it done." Trumka has said of the labor movement, "We are in crisis."...

Tens of thousands of ObamaCare navigator jobs are opening up as part of the health insurance exchanges that are being constructed around the country. It is reported that these jobs will start around $20 per hour and go all the way up to $48 per hour for the federal exchange. The states that are creating their own exchanges will be responsible for hiring and training their own navigators and assisters so details of what they may be paid are hard to find. ObamaCare Navigator Job Qualifications You will not have to have a college degree to have this job but...

CENTREVILLE, Va. — A race to define Obamacare to the masses began today between the stacks at the Centreville Library. Over pizza in Decatur, Texas. And with a glass of wine in Naples, Fla. Dozens of communities around the country hosted pro-Obamacare events, convened by the president’s foot soldiers at Organizing for Action. The series is the first salvo in what is fixing to be a month of high-stakes health care spin. When Congress returns from its summer recess in early September, there will be less than a month until Obamacare’s most sweeping coverage programs start signing up customers in...

A race to define Obamacare to the masses began today between the stacks at the Centreville Library. Over pizza in Decatur, Texas. And with a glass of wine in Naples, Fla. Dozens of communities around the country hosted pro-Obamacare events, convened by the president’s foot soldiers at Organizing for Action. The series is the first salvo in what is fixing to be a month of high-stakes health care spin. When Congress returns from its summer recess in early September, there will be less than a month until Obamacare’s most sweeping coverage programs start signing up customers in new health insurance...

With tea party Republicans threatening to shut down the government in an effort to roll back President Obama's healthcare law, several progressive groups are teaming up in a new effort to convince skeptical voters of the benefits of the new law. During the August recess, Americans United for Change and Protect Your Care plan to counter efforts by Republicans to disparage the law. The groups will stage protests at GOP events, organize their own town halls to publicize its perks, and provide “air cover” to the law’s defenders. Republicans “have overplayed their hand and that gives us the opportunity to...

So I guess going to a New York McDonald’s isn’t a good idea right now. Videographer and conservative blogger Adam Sharp of SharpElbows.net attended one such demonstration and interviewed an SEIU member, easily identifiable as such by his purple shirt. When asked whether the union member supported the $15 per hour wage increase the McDonald’s workers were demanding, he admitted, “I’m not sure.” He also said he was there to show his support for the workers rather than the company and expressed a fear that, “if they’re [the McDonald’s employees] pissed off, they could be doing something to that food.”...

Staff at well known chains including McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Wendy's were due to walk out on Monday in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St Louis, Kansas City and Flint, Michigan. They are calling on fast food restaurants to pay $15 per hour, which compares to the New York state average pay of $8.25 per hour and the minimum wage of $7.25. The action is being organised by Fast Food Forward, a movement of employees from fast food outlets in New York City aimed at raising wages and increasing workers' rights

“We’re building a movement of fast food workers in a way that has never really existed in the fast food industry,” said Jonathan Westin, an organizer for New York Communities for Change, who noted that this week is the first time the strikes have been coordinated across cities... The Congressional Progressive Caucus launched a campaign called “Raise Up America” which has taken efforts to associate itself with the fast food workers. Several members of the caucus, including its co-chair, Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, were present at Monday’s actions in New York... Similarly, Brooklyn-based McDonald’s employee Kareem Starks...

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver Speaking at a podium set up on the Troost sidewalk, Terrance Wise, who works two part-time jobs at a Burger King and Pizza Hut, said the rally was organized because “these billion-dollar companies aren’t magically going to make our lives better overnight.” Nationally, protest organizers are calling for pay of $15 an hour, which would be more than double the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. . . U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who spoke at the Kansas City rally, said it was unlikely that the current Congress will vote to raise the minimum wage, but...

Tallahassee, Fla., July 28 — In response to the freeing of George Zimmerman, the killer of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was stalked and shot to death simply because he was young, Black and male, the students of color group — the Dream Defenders — have been sitting in and sleeping over in the Florida Statehouse here since July 16. Initially calling this action, #takeovertuesdays, the Dream Defenders seized the outer office of Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s 12 days ago. They are calling on Scott to convene a special session of the Florida Legislature, “to repeal the state Stand Your Ground...

Tempers flared on social media Saturday as hungry Dream Defenders in Tallahassee complained about officials blocking after-hours food deliveries to Florida's Capitol, where roughly 100 protesters are staging a sit-in. Protesters are calling for a special session to repeal stand-your-ground laws in the wake of the controversial not-guilty verdict in George Zimmerman's murder trial in Sanford on July 13. They remained peaceful, but posts on Twitter and Facebook show that the Dream Defenders' supporters were enraged by the discomfort. But Gretl Plessinger, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the denial of the food delivery was not an...

Noted American terrorist and left-wing radical Bill Ayers is among the signatories of a letter calling on the United Nations to probe the closing of 49 Chicago elementary schools based on claims that it is causing massive human rights violations. ... In 2009, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution adopting the international body’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, notes WBEZ. The resolution instructed all city agencies to develop policies consistent with it. Kalantry told the public radio station that the nation and the city must now act in accordance with these covenants. ... The Chicago Teachers Union,...

The Obama Administration will hire tens of thousands of health care professionals, union workers and community activists as “navigators” to help Americans choose Obamacare options. The “navigators” will be paid $20 to $48 per hour plus benefits. The Washington Examiner reported, via I Own the World: Tens of thousands of health care professionals, union workers and community activists hired as “navigators” to help Americans choose Obamacare options starting Oct. 1 could earn $20 an hour or more, according to new regulations issued Wednesday. The 63-page rule covering navigators, drawn up by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, also said...

TALLAHASSEE -- When the young activists known as the Dream Defenders marched into Gov. Rick Scott’s office last week, few observers expected the group to attract much attention. But seven days later, the Dream Defenders have proven hard to ignore. What began as a modest protest has morphed into a week-long occupation of the Florida Capitol. The organizers, most of whom are college students and young professionals, say they are prepared to stay for weeks or even months — as long as it takes for Scott to call a special session on racial profiling and the state’s controversial Stand Your...

Here’s a video documenting how the U.S. Dept. of Justice helped the Dream Defenders — a bogus “student group” run by paid activists with links to ACORN and Occupy — target George Zimmerman and the Sanford police chief in April, 2012. It includes excerpts from an 82-minute audio recording of an April 19, 2012, meeting headed up by the DOJ official................. Highlights: 1. The DOJ official called Dream Defenders a “student group” and referenced the “students” talking at the meeting. (5:45 to 6:10) Yet none of the three members of Dream Defenders who were at the event is a student....