Free Republic

Voters had their first opportunity Saturday to hear where four of the Democrats running or considering a run for governor in 2018 fall on some of the most pressing issues facing the state. For two hours, they spoke to a fullauditorium at Fair Haven School on economic inequality, the state’s over-reliance on the financial industry, police and criminal justice reform and sanctuary cities. The event, dubbed “the People’s Symposium,’’ featured Dan Drew, the Middletown mayor who is running to replace outgoing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and three potential candidates who have formed exploratory committees: Dita Bhargava, a former official with...

Together with Ultraviolet and the Working Families Party, we commissioned a painted banner that read simply, “Women Resist White Supremacy.” Through sheer luck, not only would Trump be in Trump Tower during my act of resistance, but he would be giving a news conference about 3:30 p.m. I knew from my previous work as a campaign advancer that the Secret Service would begin sweeps to clear the space about an hour before he spoke, so the best possible time for the action was 2 p.m.

**SNIP** “The people who are pushing this are from the Working Families Party. De Blasio is married to them.” The Cuomo ally noted the WFP is basically run by the most leftist leaders in the labor movement — the Transport Workers Union, the Communication Workers of America and United Federation of Teachers, among others. **SNIP De Blasio and his allies show no sign of backing down. A labor-backed “UPK coalition” met Friday and vowed to continue a campaign to push the mayor’s tax-the-rich initiative in open defiance of the governor, who opposes it.

EDITED......Albany pols are in a boiling dispute over who gets to spend a $600M housing foreclosure settlement from JP Morgan Chase. Sap-happy lefties want to help underwater homeowners victimized by the subprime debacle.....vote-crazed Gov Cuomo's infected with "higher office brain disease" -- plans $2 billion in tax cuts – though his plan doesn’t count on the $600M settlement money. Bertha Lewis, president of the Black Insitute and former head of ACORN, said, “What I want to know is WTF? Why take our funds? This settlement money was intended to help struggling homeowners in New York, too many of whom are...

As recently as 1998, New York State’s Republican party controlled the governorship, a United States Senate seat, and the mayor’s office in Manhattan. Today, it is greatly diminished, with its sole beachhead of influence in the state senate, where it shares a majority with four independent Democrats. In contrast, the Working Families party (WFP), a 15-year-old left-wing, union-fueled group with just 20,000 members, now holds the whip hand over much of the dominant Democratic party in New York — and is already spreading its wings to other states. The WFP not only was a major force behind Bill de Blasio’s...

His lame-duck status on the City Council certainly has not tempered the fiery Charles Barron. The term-limited Brooklyn Councilman blasted Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and the City Council’s Progressive Caucus in an interview on NY1′s Road to City Hall last night, accusing Mr. de Blasio of being a faux-liberal and the caucus of reinforcing a white male power structure. “We was sitting there for eight years. Did he ever vote against Mayor Bloomberg and Christine Quinn’s budget? No,” Mr. Barron told host Errol Louis of his former council colleague, Mr. de Blasio. “Did he ever vote against any development that...

Occupy Wall Street in New York City could run out of funds in the coming weeks.

Abraham Lincoln rightly denounced the “mobocratic spirit.” James Madison considered it the sa- cred duty of government to protect property rights from the violent whims of the mob: “That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.” Lincoln and Madison would not have looked kindly upon the pro-redistributionist political street theater under way in urine- and garbage-saturated urban parks across the nation. In an insult to the...

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/gov/2618821815.html The Working Families Party (WFP) (www.workingfamiliesparty.org) is New York's most energetic, independent and progressive political party. Formed in 1998 by a grassroots coalition of community organizations, neighborhood activists, and labor unions, we came together to build a society that works for all of us, not just Wall Street CEOs and the well-connected. WFP is independent from corporate and government funding and in-addition we are community based; community funded and equally uninfluenced by both major parties. Our agenda focuses on economic and social justice, corporate accountability, job creation, environmental protection, and investment in education and healthcare. For the past twelve...

The security of our nation is in danger as a direct result of the policies, ideology, and affiliations of our president. Those who clamor for socialism despite its miserable track record invariably defend it by saying it simply wasn’t implemented correctly. Perhaps those relying exclusively on historical accounts warrant a pass in light of a dynamic taking place between Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton right now. Back in April, the Los Angeles Times published the results of a poll that showed support for Hillary rising and support for Obama falling among voters. That trend appears to be continuing....

Who can forget the ”pimp/prostitute” videos filmed at ACORN offices across the nation by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles? Especially #3 from the Brooklyn office showing three ACORN workers advising a prostitute how to hide her illegal income from the government and use it to fund her pimp’s future political campaign. In case you missed it or would like to refresh your memory, the video’s below or you can read the full transcript at BigGovernment. Despite video evidence clearly showing ACORN workers aiding and abetting illegal acts, this week District Attorney Charles Hynes cleared ACORN of any criminality in the...

Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes has concluded his investigation into possible criminality on the part of three ACORN employees caught on video giving advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and companion. (Though the right-wing gadflies who made the hidden camera video edited it to suggest that James O'Keefe was posing as the woman's pimp, the couple actually told ACORN employees he was trying to protect her from the pimp [PDF].) Yesterday Hynes cleared ACORN of any criminality, while perpetuating the misconception that O'Keefe had posed as a pimp and worn a cliche pimp costume during the meeting...

Fearful that the party had almost no chance of winning the Nov. 3 New York special election after Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava abruptly announced Saturday that she was dropping out, high-ranking national Democrats immediately began working to secure her endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens, POLITICO has learned. On Sunday afternoon, their vigorous efforts paid off as Scozzafava bucked her own party and issued a statement supporting Owens over Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, a coup for Democrats who recognized that their best remaining chance of winning the Republican-leaning seat on Tuesday was to swing disaffected Scozzafava supporters their way. By...

In a conference call with reporters and bloggers, Doug Hoffman campaign spokesman Rob Ryan addressed his concern about the possibility of ACORN interfering in New York's 23rd district.

Many political observers saw the rise of the Working Families Party as the big story of this year’s primaries, which in New York City are effectively the general elections for most offices. That’s accurate, but only part of the story. It would be more meaningful to say that in New York’s left-and-lefter political environment, the once dominant Democratic Party fell victim to its own strategy of minimizing turnout to guarantee that their core constituencies carry the day. In the WFP, the electoral face of Gotham’s public-sector unions, the Democrats found that a party to their left could beat them at...

Newly discovered evidence shows the radical advocacy group ACORN has a man in the Obama White House. This power behind the throne is longtime ACORN operative Patrick Gaspard. He holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House. Evidence shows that years before he joined the Obama administration, Gaspard was ACORN boss Bertha Lewis's political director in New York. Lewis, the current "chief organizer" or CEO of ACORN, was head of New York ACORN from at least 1994 through 2008, when she took over as national leader of ACORN....

A special prosecutor is already being eyed amid a burgeoning scandal in Troy over the alleged forgery of absentee ballots in this month’s Working Families Party primary. The scandal is focused on suspicions people tied to the Troy Democrats forged ballots. News of the fakes surfaced in Saturday’s edition of the Times Union. The details were eye opening because so many voters interviewed by the Times Union said they didn’t vote despite ballots cast in their name. Voters said their signatures had obviously been forged and comparisons between their registration cards and the ballot applications showed distinctly different signatures. Today,...

From the New York Slimes (Times) Sept 15, 2009... With 100 percent of the vote counted, unofficial results showed that Mr. Liu had captured 38 percent of the vote, just short of the 40 percent he needed to win outright. Mr. Yassky took 30 percent, and Councilwoman Melinda R. Katz of Queens finished third, with 20 percent. David I. Weprin, a councilman from Queens, was fourth. The results set up a contest between two men who, over the course of the campaign, projected sharply different images to voters. Mr. Liu, a former actuary and an immigrant from Taiwan, struck a...

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

Much to the chagrin of candidates like Mr. Gioia, the still relatively little-known 10-year-old party [Working Families Party] had dispatched a small army in the weeks before the primary, selling voters on its candidates in the mayoral, City Council, public advocate and comptroller races. Organizers knocked on 227,928 doors and talked to 62,112 voters, a party official said. On Tuesday, more than 350 workers were stationed throughout the city, most working for a day rate of $100. Their efforts resulted in the party’s best electoral showing yet. In the public advocate’s race, the Working Families endorsed Bill de Blasio, a...