Free Republic

Today, HUD Secretary Julian Castro announced the finalization of the Obama administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule. A front-page article pre-emptively defending the move appears in today’s Washington Post. The final rule is 377 pages, vastly longer than the preliminary version of the rule promulgated in 2013. AFFH is easily one of President Obama’s most radical initiatives, on a par with Obamacare in its transformative potential. In effect, AFFH gives the federal government a lever to re-engineer nearly every American neighborhood—imposing a preferred racial and ethnic composition, densifying housing, transportation, and business development in suburb and city alike, and weakening...

--snip-- About 84 percent of students in city’s public schools receive free or reduced-price lunches, according to the school district’s website. The closings mean that these students were unable to access these lunches, and churches and community centers have been scrambling to fill the gap. That’s why it was so shocking to hear that Whole Foods and Five Guys had taken the initiative to provide free food for National Guard soldiers instead of for thousands of high-need children.

The “refundable portion” of Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) payments hit a record $56,189,578,000 in 2012, the latest year for which the Internal Revenue Service has made data available. A total of $64,128,627,000 in Earned Income Tax Credits was claimed in 2012. Of that, $56,189,578,000 was the “refundable portion”—paid out if the Treasury in excess of the net taxes the recipient owed. That means that only $7,939,049,000—or 12.4 percent—of the total Earned Income Tax Credit amount in 2012 was used for a tax reduction. […] “The EITC expansion is garnering some Republican support, but I think that is a big...

Americans’ views of President Barack Obama have improved slightly in the past two months, and opinions are more positive about the direction of the country and the health of the economy, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds. A slim majority now approves of the way Obama is handling unemployment, according to the poll, conducted before Friday’s release of a surprisingly strong jobs report. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed approve of how Obama is doing his job, compared with 41 percent in December, and 51 percent approve of his handling of unemployment, compared with 44 percent before. Nearly half say the economy...

“She is my hero,” Nugent said of the former half-term Alaska governor. “Sarah Palin is the perfect example of what our Founding Fathers envisioned for an experiment in self-government.” http://radio.foxnews.com/2015/02/06/ted-nugent-sarah-palin-perfect-example-of-what-founding-fathers-wanted/

It wasn’t a goal-line interception, but it was a game changer. Just one week in to our Fox News First Power Index and we already have a major overhaul after frontrunner Mitt Romney’s unexpected departure. (Though his conditional statement to supporters left enough doubt to still be “on the radar” until he makes a more Shermanesque statement.) Not only did the frontrunner self-deport, but several second- and third-tier competitors showed surprising strength to make substantial strides. We would expect to see the field unsettled a year out from the first nominating contest, but as you’ll see below, the tumult is...

The last program that passed through Congress to demonstrate their belief that Obama knew better than anyone what the nation needed was nicknamed Obamacare. You can always count on our President, Barack Obama, for some gimmicky giveaway idea that will appeal to the nearly untutored who don’t understand the one simple fact that is never, ever discussed when Obama unveils his latest brainstorm. They never seem to be able to understand the simple idea that NOTHING IS FREE. Ever. Obama has proposed that if you are still breathing, you ought to be able to get an Associate’s Degree from any...

WATSONVILLE >> Forty cents might not seem like much, but multiply it by two or three kids and fork it over daily for school lunch and it begins to add up — especially for families struggling to get by in Santa Cruz County. That's why Pajaro Valley Unified School District officials have decided to stop charging families who are eligible for a discounted meal under the federal school lunch program.

Wintershall's head of exploration and production warned Thursday that Germany's 'Energiewende' (or Energy Transition) dream of pursuing an economy powered by the wind and the sun is in danger of turning into a nightmare. Speaking to energy journalists at the ONS exhibition in Stavanger, Norway, Wintershall Executive Director Martin Bachmann said he was concerned about figures recently published by Statistics Norway that showed overall investment in Norway's petroleum sector will drop by EUR 6 billion ($7.9 billion) next year. "That is actually bad news for Europe's security of supply and I think Germany – as the biggest market in Europe...

More than half of the country has a message for former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin: enough. That's the result from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Annenberg poll in which 54 percent of voters say they've heard enough from Palin and would prefer that she be less outspoken in political debates. That includes nearly two-thirds of Democrats, a majority of independents, and even nearly four-in-10 Republicans. And the results come as Palin has called for President Barack Obama's impeachment. (VIDEO-AT-LINK)But Palin isn't the only former politician voters wish would stay away from politics. Fifty-one percent of voters say they've heard...

PM’s hostility to president is ‘endangering Israel’s security,’ claims Labor’s Isaac Herzog, in rare confirmation of long-rumored strained ties between ‘Bibi’ and ‘Barack’Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “loathes” Barack Obama, and his hostile attitude to the US president constitutes a danger to Israel’s well-being, the head of the Israeli opposition charged on Friday night, in a highly unusual acknowledgement of the long-rumored strained personal ties between the two leaders. In a bitter verbal assault on the prime minister, Labor party chairman Isaac Herzog slammed Netanyahu for failing to listen to the international community, failing to present peace proposals of his own...

The City Council’s proposed budget to be unveiled Wednesday will push for two big priorities: free lunch for all public school kids and 1,000 new cops. The Council is asking for $24 million to provide lunches regardless of how much money kids’ families make. They’re also seeking $94 million to boost the police force to more than 36,400 cops, among other changes proposed to Mayor de Blasio’s budget. …

The corrupt American media is lying for their president Barack Obama again. Our economy is not improving – it is getting worse. Unemployment is not falling – it is rising. Americans are not feeling good about the future – we are suffering from Jimmy Carter-like misery, a new report from a respected Wall Street adviser tells us. According to the calculations of David John Marotta our effective unemployment rate is not the 6.7% as reported by Obama’s apparatchiks in media, but a staggering and more believable 37.2%. Moreover, the Misery Index we are suffering under is...

At the end of September, the federal government's fiscal year was drawing to a close, the threat of a shut down was increasing, and the State Department was shopping for art. Four contracts were awarded in the last two weeks of September, including $1,000,000 for a granite sculpture by Irish-born artist Sean Scully to be installed at the new U.S. Embassy in London. Notice of the awards was posted Sunday afternoon of Thanksgiving weekend on the Federal Business Opportunities website.

A major GOP donor who told Breitbart News Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made disparaging remarks about the Tea Party movement and about Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) continues to stand by his original story after claims that the reports were not accurate. This individual reported that on the Oct. 30 fundraising call American Crossroads’ Karl Rove and Steven J. Law held with McConnell, “McConnell specifically talked about Mike Lee by name, specifically talked about Ted Cruz by name, and he specifically talked about the Tea Party by name,” the donor told Breitbart News in response to...

Mary Margaret Penrose, a full time professor of Law with Texas A&M University, has called for the full repeal of the Second Amendment. Utilizing her unquestioned exercise of the First Amendment, the Texas Professor insisted the Constitution was outdated, and needed some substantial re-writing. Penrose was speaking in Connecticut (at a gun-control symposium) when she launched into her misinformed explanation of the Second Amendment; implying that our enumerated right to possess a firearm is largely responsible for the mass shootings that have cropped up in recent years. Her argument, and blatant contempt for the Constitution (which she admits to describing...

Americans love fine-sounding expensive social welfare programs. In New York City, where I live, it is almost axiomatic that government should build ever more affordable housing, force "greedy" landlords to subsidize tenants, supply shelters for the homeless and just about any nostrum that would somehow "help" the needy. Such addiction is even worse nationally where the public clamors for "free" medical care, non-stop "investing" in children, and guaranteeing millions of children free meals no matter how obese. Economists insist that there's no free lunch but don't broach that unpleasant reality to millions of American parents.The key to understanding this rapacious...

Americans For Tax Reform Tax Policy Director Ryan Ellis said on Wednesday night that he's starting to think tea party activists are "freaking retarded."

Complete Title:Alan Greenspan: What Went Wrong The Former Fed chairman on Where the Economy Went Wrong, Where He Went wrong—and Ayn Rand. Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, goes to a lot of parties. He and his wife, the TV journalist Andrea Mitchell, "sort of get invited everywhere," he says, sitting in front of the long bay window in his office on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. Lately, though, cocktails and dinners seem to have guest lists drawn almost exclusively from one political party or the other. "It used to be a ritualistic 50-50 at parties—the doyennes...

Health plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies. The main reason insurers offer is that the policies fall short of what the Affordable Care Act requires starting Jan. 1. Most are ending policies sold after the law passed in March 2010. At least a few are canceling plans sold to people with pre-existing medical conditions. By all accounts, the new policies will offer consumers better coverage, in some cases, for comparable cost --...