Free Republic

Majorities of American voters think Republican front-runner Donald Trump lacks the knowledge, temperament, and the likeability to be an effective president. On the other hand, majorities feel Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Ted Cruz do possess those traits. Most voters believe Clinton (63 percent), Sanders (58 percent), and Cruz (55 percent) have the “knowledge” to serve effectively, according to a new Fox News national poll. In contrast, 60 percent say Trump doesn’t.

Monday, April 18 is the filing deadline for federal income taxes. ItÂ’s a day where we all are reminded how much of a pain our 70,000+ page tax code inflicts upon us every year. For those of you who hire accountants, alla salute youÂ’re done and you donÂ’t have to go through the headache of filing your own taxes. Of course, thatÂ’s dependent on whether you gave your accountant all the proper documents and receipts. To those who wanted to file on their own, youÂ’re gluttons for punishment. Regardless, theyÂ’re due next Monday, and every identity thief out there...

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that it expects to surpass last year's record number of uncovered welfare fraud. "We're seeing an awful lot of welfare fraud," Director of Fraud Operations Tom Roth told WCSH-TV. "We definitely have more calls coming in than we have people to handle. Having the support from the state and the public is paramount, I think, to our success."

Hillary Clinton minion David Brock told a secret cabal of liberal donors on Monday that he and his team of opposition researchers have enough derogatory information on Donald Trump to “knock Trump Tower down to the sub-basement.”

(FOX19) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is back on track after winning the Maine caucuses. What the headlines haven't told you is that what happened in Maine is the messiest caucus Republicans have had so far, and it may not be over yet. Maine, is not a major state during national primaries. Only 24 delegates come out of Maine to the national convention. But what happened there over the weekend does more than raise eyebrows. It is enough to make you question, was the caucus fixed? Saturday night, February 11, the head of the Maine GOP, Charlie Webster, announced...

<p>The integrity of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has been questioned repeatedly on the campaign trail. In fact, his chief presidential rival Donald Trump has taken to calling him “Lyin’ Ted” at every opportunity.</p> <p>And it doesn’t look like things are going to get any easier for the Cruz campaign.</p>

Investigators identified nearly 2,000 cases of potentially phony disability claims stemming from a massive Social Security fraud scheme, but three years after the scam was first exposed, the government says it’s still struggling to stop the payments. Only slightly more than 300 cases have been disqualified, and Social Security is still “in the process of effectuating those terminations,” the agency told The Washington Times just days after the accused ringleader and two lead accomplices were indicted on federal fraud charges. Despite three investigations into suspicions of massive fraud, Social Security officials say they are assuming all of the applications are...

DONALD J. TRUMP’S VISION for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American. It is easy to find historical antecedents. The rise of demagogic strongmen is an all too common phenomenon on our small planet. And what marks each of those dark episodes is a failure to fathom where a leader’s vision leads, to carry rhetoric to its logical conclusion. The satirical front page of this section attempts to do just that, to envision what America looks like with Trump in the White House. It is an exercise in taking a man at his...

“In 2 weeks the North American Law Center will release proof that Ted Cruz is a fraud. They have issued his campaign a warning that if Cruz doesn’t tell the truth and step down they will release their proof – the truth that so many refused to believe or listen to.” – Karen Bracken The North American Law Center issued this stark notice to the Cruz campaign on their latest podcast on April 3 (19:00 mark) – “We’re talking about American citizens (who) think a guy who’s Canadian-born is eligible to be a U.S. president – without any documentation whatsoever....

BETHESDA, Md., April 8, 2016/PRNewswire/ — Ted Cruz risks primary disqualification in New Jersey resulting from charges of ballot access fraud. A primary ballot disqualification hearing is scheduled by the Secretary of State for Monday, April 11 at 9:00 a.m. in Mercerville, New Jersey. Washington D.C. Law Professor Victor Williams charges that Ted Cruz fraudulently certified his constitutional eligibility for office to gain ballot access. Williams demands that Cruz be disqualified from several late-primary ballots: “Cruz committed ballot access fraud in each state when he falsely swore that he was a ‘natural born’ American citizen.” Cruz was born in Calgary,...

The Federal Communications Commission has announced plans to fine a mobile provider $51 million for defrauding its Lifeline program, which subsidizes wireless service for low-income Americans. The FCC accused California-based Total Call Mobile of fraudulently enrolling tens of thousands of duplicate and ineligible consumers in the Lifeline program. The company received an estimated $9.7 million dollars in improper payments since 2014, according to the FCC. In the fourth quarter of that year, 99.8% of the company's enrollments allegedly involved overriding a system designed to stop the registration of duplicate customers.

MADISON, Wis. - The voter ID melodrama in Wisconsin has opened right on cue. And the overblown "tragedy" takes place, as it always does, stage left. Despite historically high voter turnout in Tuesday's presidential primary election, liberals inside and outside Wisconsin are crying foul over the full-scale implementation of the state's photo ID law. The Huffington Post published a breathless piece headlined, "Dear Scott Walker: Wisconsin's Photo ID Law Did not Work 'Just Fine.' " Wisconsin's Republican governor on Wednesday tweeted: "Huge turnout yesterday shows that photo Id works just fine. Easy to vote hard to cheat." HuffPost drove its...

Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed By MIKE McINTIRE APRIL 5, 2016 For Donald J. Trump, it is a long-held legal strategy, if not a point of pride, to avoid knuckling under to plaintiffs in court. “I don’t settle lawsuits — very rare — because once you settle lawsuits, everybody sues you,” he said recently. But Mr. Trump made an exception when buyers of units in Trump SoHo, a 46-story luxury condominium-hotel in Lower Manhattan, asserted that they had been defrauded by inflated claims made by Mr. Trump, his children and others of...

New Top Cop's Fiancee Under Investigation For Alleged Police Exam Cheating By Mark Konkol and Heather Cherone Updated April 5, 2016 THE LOOP — Mayor Rahm Emanuel's newly appointed top cop Eddie Johnson's fiancee is a Chicago Police lieutenant named in an ongoing investigation into alleged cheating on the department's lieutenant's exam, DNAinfo Chicago has learned. It's the same cheating probe that sources said helped derail Deputy Chief Eugene Williams' chances of being promoted to police superintendent. Now the allegations are part of a separate probe, this one by Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson, sources said. Williams, one of the...

Saying Texas Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is more Nixon than Reagan, Donald Trump ally Roger Stone spoke with Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle. "Having worked very hard to collect evidence of voter fraud and irregularities in Oklahoma, Kansas, Utah, Hawaii and Texas, frankly, they ought to put the handcuffs on him," said Stone, referring to Ted Cruz, "because the Trump people can go to credentials and challenge the seating of hundreds, literally hundreds of Ted Cruz's delegates who were fraudulently elected." Asked to elaborate, Stone said, "Go to StopTheSteal.org. For over a month we have had an 800...

The Saint Bernard was wearing a service vest and tearing into a quadriplegic woman’s golden retriever on the floor of the mall food court. Both dogs were allegedly service animals. But after mall security tore the Saint Bernard off, its owner blamed the other dog owner’s disability. “He said his dog was startled by her wheelchair,” Angela Eaton, one the golden retriever’s trainers told the Daily Beast. “Well service dogs should be growing up around a wheelchair.” Service animal fraud is a growing problem in dog-friendly Colorado, says Eaton, who has been training service dogs for 35 years. State legislators...

CHICAGO — Thousands of Chicago teachers plan to walk off the job for one day on Friday, shutting down schools in the nation's third-largest district in what could be an early glimpse of a more prolonged strike still to come. Some 27,000 Chicago Teachers Union members have been working without a contract since June. They've overwhelmingly authorized an open-ended strike like the one that closed schools for more than a week in 2012, though that would still be weeks away. The union and its allies say Friday's action is an attempt to draw attention to their fight for a new...

Nothing matters more to leadership in a democracy than support for an open, honest government in which citizens are informed and in charge. It is the foundational building block of the republic upon which all else rests. And any candidate vying for the votes of the American people needs to have demonstrated a firm commitment not only to the ideal but to the reality of open government. As we noted Tuesday, Republican front-runner Donald Trump is not one of those candidates. But neither is Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Her horrible track record on transparency raises serious concerns for open government...

Marquette University has moved to suspend and then fire Professor John McAdams for backing a student who tried to defend man-woman marriage when a leftist teaching assistant shut the student down. In the fall of 2014, junior faculty member Cheryl Abbate told a student, who secretly recorded the exchange, that his defense of man-woman marriage was an unacceptable topic in her ethics class and compared his views to racism. She said, "You can have whatever opinions you want but I can tell you right now, in this class homophobic comments, racist comments, and sexist comments will not be tolerated." And...

A federal science agency is “seriously” interested in reviewing tens of millions in taxpayer-funded grants awarded to a university professor who wants President Obama to prosecute those who don’t share the administration’s view that mankind is changing the world’s climate. The National Science Foundation’s inspector general appears poised to look into Jagadish Shukla’s management of federal grant money, much of it from the science agency itself.