Free Republic

Not only are some federal employees working without knowing whether we’ll be paid, we’re also doing it without union representation on the job. -.....(The horror) So we find that Congress, besides possibly creating a new class of involuntary servitude for federal employees, has also acted to attempt to bust our union. (Seriously?)

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (O-Okla.) has launched a probe into potential Hatch Act violations by the White House in its climate agenda advocacy. Inhofe today sent letters to EPA Administrator Curt Spalding and White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Nancy Sutley probing apparent coordination between CEQ and the Organization for Action (OFA) on events today pushing the president's climate change agenda and the potential violation of the Hatch Act. According to the Hatch Act, federal employees in the executive branch, except certain designated officials such as the President or Vice President, are prohibited from engaging in political campaign...

Filing papers at the Circuit County Clerk’s Office can be a boring, and tedious task, but one young attorney, Thais Alvarez, observed something quite out of the ordinary that made that day’s filing anything but mundane. What sparked her interest was an elect “Obama 2012” bumper sticker, clearly visible hanging on the wall behind the protective glass window in bold view. The election had long passed. Ms. Alvarez wanted to know why the Circuit Clerk’s Office of Broward County, Florida was allowing an employee to display their personal political bumper sticker?

“There are legitimate questions to be asked about political groups that are hiding behind a 501(c)4 status,” Nyhart said in a statement provided to ABC. “It’s unfortunate a few bad apples at the IRS will make it harder for those questions to be asked without claims of bias.” Visitors to the 1133 19th St. NW office floor shared by Common Cause and Public Campaign are greeted at the sign-in desk for Common Cause, with Public Campaign’s office located to the visitors’ left-hand side. Nyhart described the close relationship between the groups in his April 23 eulogy for Edgar on the...

“For me, it’s about collaboration.” — National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley on the relationship between the anti-Tea Party IRS union and the Obama White House Is President Obama directly implicated in the IRS scandal? Is the White House Visitors Log the trail to the smoking gun? The stunning questions are raised by the following set of new facts. March 31, 2010. According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that...

Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas. Today in the Rose Garden you dismissed the idea of a Special Counsel to investigate the IRS scandal. With that, your galling political hubris shined bright in the midst of today’s dark clouds. Mr. President, how can we trust your Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation when there is a systemic violation of the Hatch Act throughout your administration? Surely you are aware that the Hatch Act prevents certain federal employees from engaging in political activity. Specifically, it’s illegal for these federal employees to engage...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will soon be back to doing what she does best — campaigning for President Obama. Sebelius will travel to New Hampshire this weekend for a swing of “grassroots events” with Obama, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. The campaign trip comes after the Office of Special Counsel found that Sebelius had violated federal campaign law by campaigning for Obama during an official event. “OSC concluded that Secretary Sebelius violated the Hatch Act when

The Hatch Act’s prohibition against campaigning on the taxpayers’ dime didn’t stop Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from making a pitch for President Obama’s reelection at a Human Rights Campaign Event in Charlotte, N.C. “Strictly speaking, what she did was against the law,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz acknowledged. “But we also need to take into consideration her intent and prior record. Secretary Sebelius is a highly respected member of this Administration with no previous criminal record. Further, it is clear that her intent was admirable. An effort to help reelect the President serves a higher purpose. The...

The White House indicated that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would probably not be punished, after federal investigators determined she had violated the law when she campaigned earlier this year for President Obama. Sebelius broke the law by making "extemporaneous partisan remarks" during a speech in February at a Human Rights Campaign Event in Charlotte, N.C., according to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). She made the comments in the city that would later host the Democratic National Convention. White House spokesman Eric Schultz explained in a statement that the administration has already taken action on the matter,...

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel informed President Obama yesterday that it found his controversial Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius violated the federal Hatch Act back in February. ABC News's Jake Tapper noted the finding in a September 12 Political Punch blog post at ABCNews.com, but World News editors apparently thought the matter unworthy of coverage last night. The story was also unreported on NBC's Nightly News and CBS's Evening News.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law when she campaigned this winter for President Obama, federal investigators announced Wednesday. Sebelius broke the law by making “extemporaneous partisan remarks” during a speech in February at a Human Rights Campaign Event in Charlotte, N.C., according to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). She made the comments in the city that would later host the Democratic National Convention. ... The agency said Sebelius’ comments violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits public officials from campaigning in an official capacity. The agency said the Department of Health and Human Services after the...

Independent federal legal officials have concluded that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law by conducting political activity at an official (and hence taxpayer funded) event, according to a statement released on Wednesday. “Sebelius violated the Hatch Act when she made extemporaneous partisan remarks in a speech delivered in her official capacity on February 25, 2012,” the news release from the U.S. Office of Special Council states. "The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority or influence to affect the outcome of an election. A federal employee is permitted to make partisan remarks when speaking in their...

A government accountability group is accusing supervisors at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of urging the agency's employees to vote for President Obama and other Democrats in November. The Washington, D.C.-based Cause of Action, which identifies itself as nonpartisan, said Wednesday that FAA officials at a Seattle office told employees that the agency’s funding would be more secure if Obama defeats Mitt Romney to win a second term. The allegation, if true, would be a violation of the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits government agencies from getting involved in partisan activities.

New documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent over one million taxpayer dollars promoting Obamacare in coordination with the 2010 mid-term elections. The documents include correspondence between HHS officials and representatives from The Ogilvy Group, the public relations firm hired to drive web traffic to an HHS site promoting Obamacare as "the Affordable Care Act." On October 25, 2010, HHS New Media Communications Director Julia Eisman sent an email to Ogilvy Senior Vice President Imani Green, reading, "Given the high performance, we're wondering if...

During the 2006 midterm elections, White House political aides to President George W. Bush engaged in widespread violations of a federal law which limits partisan political activity by government employees, a long-running federal investigation has found. A report issued Monday by the little-known Office of Special Counsel cites numerous violations of the Hatch Act and concludes that federal taxpayers ended up footing the bill for activities that were intended

When the administration slapped the wrist of one of its top technology officials this spring for violating Barack Obama’s ethics pledge, a spokesman claimed the breaches were isolated incidents. But a Daily Caller investigation reveals a cavalier attitude at the Obama White House toward longstanding safeguards designed to prevent abuses of the Presidential Records Act and other laws – including acts that carry serious legal implications. Two sources say a top White House technology official, Chief Information Officer Brook Colangelo, routinely asked technology vendors for special deals based on his position as a public official.

Whitehouse.gov Uses Taxpayer Dollars to Endorse Democratic Candidates, Touts Partisan Barackobama.com The President is, as the head of his party, certainly entitled to give campaign speeches on behalf of Democratic candidates such as Martha Coakley: an individual who advanced her career by keeping an innocent man (Amirault) in prison. We suspect, however, that he cannot legally use taxpayer money for this purpose. Whitehouse.gov, as the property of the United States Government, is the property of America's taxpayers. Several pages at this Web site endorse the election or re-election of Democratic candidates, and one recommends that people visit Organizing for America...

The Committee on Education and Labor released the following: Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, is calling for a congressional oversight hearing into allegations that officials with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the White House inappropriately used federal resources to promote a political and legislative agenda. Kline made his request in a letter delivered yesterday to the committee’s Chairman, Rep. George Miller (D-CA).

Press release from U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee: Enzi Leads GOP HELP Committee Inquiry Into Alleged NEA Political Activity WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today led his fellow Republican HELP Committee members in requesting an explanation regarding possible violations of federal law at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Enzi and his colleagues sent the request to NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. In the letter delivered today the Senators questioned the possibility of “taxpayer...

Alexandria Democrats Allegedly Pledging Vengeance Ms. Hughes is a federal employee who ran as an independent. An African-American non-democrat with tax lowering sensibilities drives the local Democrats bonkers. Democratics are gearing up to attack her election as improper under the Hatch Act which would go to the Obama Office of Special Counsel.