Free Republic

Ahead of a major gathering of Republican presidential hopefuls in New Hampshire later this week, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has put some distance between himself and the rest of the field, leading by 10 points against his nearest competitor in a new poll on the Granite State. Mr. Walker is the top presidential choice for 24 percent of GOP primary voters, according to the poll out Wednesday from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. Next was Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at 14 percent, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky at 12 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 10...

AVS WinVote machines used in three presidential elections in state ‘would get an F-minus’ in security, said computer scientist who pushed for decertification Touchscreen voting machines used in numerous elections between 2002 and 2014 used “abcde” and “admin” as passwords and could easily have been hacked from the parking lot outside the polling place, according to a state report. The AVS WinVote machines, used in three presidential elections in Virginia, “would get an F-minus” in security, according to a computer scientist at tech research group SRI International who had pushed for a formal inquiry by the state of Virginia for...

The leaders of the Legislature's budget committee on Wednesday abandoned Gov. Scott Walker's plan to strip the state Natural Resources Board and the state Agriculture Board of their policy-making powers. They also removed 13 other pieces of policy from Walker's budget, including one that would exempt research at the University of Wisconsin System from the open records law. Another one that was dropped would have had property assessment duties shifted from most municipalities to counties. In other action, the Joint Finance Committee voted to cut staff for Secretary of State Doug La Follette and reshape how courts are funded. Wednesday's...

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart said she is "offended by the behavior" of DEA agents who engaged in prostitution and sex parties while working on the taxpayers' dime. But Leonhart told the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday there's nothing she can do about it except to write memos stating that "these kinds of behaviors require significant discipline." If you can't fire the agents or even recommend that they be fired, "What the hell do you get to do?!" an exasperated Rep. Trey Gowdy asked her.

Pope Francis’ remarks urging the world to recognize the slaughter of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks a century ago as “the first genocide of the 20th century” drew unanimous praise Sunday from several prominent leaders of Fresno’s Armenian community. “Today’s papal remarks speak from our heart in not only advocating for Armenians but also recognizing that atrocities like genocide remain a point of concern,” said Berj Apkarian, who was named an Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia in October. “Denial of the Armenian genocide is the foundation for current and future genocides,” Apkarian added. “Genocide is continuing in the...

April 14, 2015 MONTICELLO, Iowa—Hillary Clinton may have been speaking to just 22 people here at her Iowa kickoff event, but the now-official 2016 candidate was looking far beyond the voters in the room when she outlined in the clearest terms yet the rationale for her campaign. "A lot of people in the last few days have asked me, 'Why do you want to do this?' and 'What motivates you?'" Clinton said at the event. "And I've thought a lot about it, and I guess the short answer is, I've been fighting for children and families my entire life. ......

Hillary Clinton has arrived at her first campaign stop, completing the 965 mile trip from Chappaqua, New York to Le Claire, Iowa in about two days time. Her choice of transportation? A Secret Service owned and operated van. The van, however, isn't an everyday minivan or even a full-sized van. It's a luxury vehicle outiftted with top amenities. Specifically: It's a limited edition Chevrolet Express van upfitted with a Limited SE packed by Explorer Vans company "It's very luxurious," a salesman who helped deliver this vehicle tells me on the phone. "I'd rank it up there with the best." The...

Today, a burrito bowl ... tomorrow, the Oval Office? Hillary Clinton made a Chipotle pitstop in Maumee, Ohio, on her way from New York to Iowa Monday, with security video showing her and longtime aide Huma Abedin sporting shades as they put in their orders. General Manager Charles Wright told the Daily News Clinton was in his restaurant at about 1:20 p.m. Monday, ordering a chicken bowl with guacamole, a chicken salad, and a blackberry Izze. Wright said Clinton did nothing to attract attention to herself — and it worked. "She wasn't, like, obvious and no one made a scene,"...

Hillary Clinton is reportedly traveling from New York City to Iowa, 1000 miles, in the back of a van. Seriously?… Hillary in a van? The woman has not even pumped her own gas in 20 years and we’re supposed to believe she’s in a van? Even CNN laughed while asking if Hillary pumped her own gas.

The TURN: Washington’s Spies Season 2 premiere airs this Monday, April 13 at 9/8c. Looking for ways to get ready? Here are 10 suggestions: 1. Catch up with a marathon of all 10 Season 1 episodes starting this Monday, April 13th at 10:30am/9:30c, leading directly into the two-hour Season 2 premiere event at 9/8c. You can also watch the cast and crew talk about where Season 1 left off. 2. Watch four sneak peek scenes from the two-hour Season 2 premiere. 3. View behind the scenes videos from Season 2 to get a preview of the upcoming season, meet this...

The newly released documents buttress a report issued late last month detailing how an immigration director was swayed with respect to hundreds of millions of dollars in film and TV investments under the EB-5 visa program. The U.S. Department of Homeland SecurityÂ’s inspector general has released hundreds of pages of emails plus other documents in support of its investigation of improper influence on the EB-5 immigration program. Many of the documents discuss hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for film and television productions from Sony Pictures and Time Warner with prominent politicians including former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendall and...

Hillary Clinton is expected to make her plans to run for president in 2016 official at any moment. And this week she's hitting the stage, with Bill by her side, for her debut in a new starring role, but not the one you think. These two Washington royals invite you to join them not for Hillary’s long-anticipated announcement, but instead to watch as they sing and dance their way through the drama of the infamously scandal-clad Clinton White House, laughing all the way. But don’t expect the real-life Hillary and Bill Clinton showing off their acting chops. In the new...

Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family. We saw this movie tonight and just loved it. The Austrian interiors were sumptuous, and Helen Mirren was outstanding -- approaching her role with tenacity and good humor. We give it 4 thumbs up and 5 stars. It's the best movie we've seen this year. Comments?

When Mary Kay Letourneau Fualaau was forced to go public in 1997 with an affair she was having with her former sixth grade student, Vili Fualaau, after she became pregnant with his child, it was the teacher-student sex scandal heard around the world. At the time, Mary was a 34-year-old, married teacher in Seattle, who already had four children of her own. Vili was just 13 years old. Mary was arrested and served seven and a half years in prison. Today, Mary is 53 and Vili is 31. The couple is still together and are about to celebrate their 10th...

The State Department’s inspector general has agreed to investigate the program that allowed former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton to hire one of her key advisors, Huma Abedin, for government work even as she was also employed by a private firm, a senator revealed Friday. Inspector General Steve A. Linick also said he wasn’t aware of Mrs. Clinton’s or Ms. Abedin’s use of a non-government email account to conduct official business, and said that’s generally been frowned upon at the department. He pointed to a 2012 report that instructed an embassy to stop using a commercial email system as evidence. And...

Hover over a line to see past, current and future relationships, drag dots to rearrange. Hillary Clinton is poised to announce her second presidential bid but questions about her ethically ambiguous blend of money, access and power will dog her through the campaign. The links between her Clinton Foundation charity, her work as secretary of state, and her political ambitions are multitudinous and tangled. Lurking behind the campaign launch is last month's stunning news that Clinton set up a secret email account and server to use for official business and has since destroyed emails on it that were wanted by...

Gov. Scott Walker heads to Europe this week on a trade mission featuring private meetings with business and government representatives in Germany, France and Spain, as he ramps up for a likely bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. The most high-profile event on Walker's itinerary comes Tuesday when he's slated to deliver a 15-minute speech titled "Opportunities for bilateral trade and investment" at the Hannover Messe trade show in Germany. That is the world's largest industrial fair, Walker's office said in the documents detailing the trip provided to The Associated Press. Walker's only other event that's open to...

Jeff Gerth and Sam Biddle explore an important sidebar both to the affair of the Hillary Clinton homebrew email server and to the Benghazi scandal: “Private emails reveal ex-Clinton aide’s secret spy network.” Long story short: enter Sid Blumenthal, one of the most unsavory characters of the Clinton era. Enter Sid Blumenthal along with Tyler Drumheller and Cody Shearer, that is. Mark Hemingway reviews the triumvirate in “Meet the men behind Hillary Clinton’s private ‘spy network’” Ed Morrissey finds NBC’s Chuck Todd commenting regarding Blumenthal that “nothing regarding Blumenthal surprises me,” but Blumenthal enters the story from left field. Gerth...

Revelations from emails purloined by a Romanian hacker show that Hillary Clinton was being secretly advised about Libya -- before and after the Benghazi terrorist attack -- by an off-the-shelf private spook group associated with controversial former Clinton confidante Sydney Blumenthal that claimed to be helping the Libyan opposition and considered placing ground operatives near the border. What's this all about? It's not completely clear, but apparently the goal of the rogue group, which included a former high level CIA covert operative and a former U.S. General, was, at the very least, to gather and provide sensitive reports to the...

Madison— A federal judge declined Thursday to put an immediate halt on an amendment to the state constitution adopted by voters this week that would allow the members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to choose the chief justice. The job of chief justice has automatically gone to the most senior member of the Supreme Court for the last 126 years. Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and her supporters sued to keep her position as the court's leader on Wednesday, a day after voters approved changing how the chief justice is selected. She argues the provision can't go into effect until her...