Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. Census worker found hanging from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment. The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official says the word "fed" was scrawled on his chest. The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. Investigators have said little about the case.

As reported in Politico last week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee's "handpicking" of electable candidates has riled some grassroots Republicans who would rather each state's primary decide the best candidate, and not the national party.

Congressional Republicans on Tuesday accused the federal government of unfairly targeting health insurance giant Humana ... for letters the company sent to Medicare Advantage enrollees suggesting that health-care legislation could lower their benefits. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a Sept. 18 letter to Humana, said it had started an investigation of the company's marketing practices. The agency ordered Humana to cease telling its enrollees to call their lawmakers about proposed cuts to privately-run Medicare plans, known as Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare officials pointed to letters from Humana to Medicare Advantage suggesting that, under health-care legislation pushed by Democrats, seniors and...

Republican lawmakers rebuked the Obama administration Tuesday for telling health insurance companies to stop warning elderly customers they'll lose benefits in health care legislation, which some equated to a gag order. At least one prominent insurer has misrepresented the pending bills to frighten older Americans, the administration says. But GOP leaders said the companies, whose income could be reduced by the legislation, are entitled to free speech and political debate. Tuesday's exchanges came as a Senate committee began debating a health care bill most Republicans oppose. President Barack Obama supports the bill's main provisions, and the flap over insurance companies'...

SOMERSET, Ky. (AP) -- A Somerset parent is upset because of a short film shown to his daughter's class at Pulaski County High School. Bill Cruey told WYMT-TV in Hazard the film "Fitna" blamed the Islam religion for the 9-11 attacks on the United States. The film was shown on Sept. 11. Cruey said his daughter is receiving counseling and has been pulled from the class after seeing images of beheadings, children being injured and dead bodies interspersed with readings from the Koran. The film is by Dutch anti-immigration lawmaker Geert Wilders. Pulaski County Superintendent Tim Eaton says the presentation...

No bridge was ever built with girders like this! The bones in our bodies aren’t just strong and flexible, they’re constantly building and repairing themselves. --snip-- Bones serve three kinds of critically important functions in our body—mechanical functions, maintenance of mineral levels, and blood production...

Nunn saga filled with irony, high drama By Ryan Alessi, Bill Estep and Ashlee Clark - ralessi@... The Feb. 17 fight that finally ended the stormy relationship between Amanda Ross and Steve Nunn started after Nunn blew off Ross' suggestion to go out for chicken wings the next night. The two exchanged blows, which was the fifth time Nunn had been violent toward her, Ross told Fayette Family Court Judge Tim Philpot in a March 4 court hearing. A sullen Nunn, who was trying to save his high-ranking state job, promised Philpot he wouldn't harm Ross. "We had a tumultuous...

Regulators close subsidiaries of Irwin Financial Corporation in Kentucky and Indiana at a cost of $850 million to the FDIC. BY BEN ROONEY NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Regulators closed subsidiaries of Irwin Financial Corporation in Kentucky and Indiana Friday, bringing the total number of bank failures this year to 94, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Get a haircut, get a chance on an AK-47 rifle; that's the offer from a Louisville barbershop. The shop owner said he's just trying to raise awareness to the right to bear arms, but the gun promotion is drawing fire. A customer at the Okolona barbershop will win a Romanian made AK-47. Everywhere you look around the shop, you can tell it is a pro-gun atmosphere, from the hats to the mounted heads. Bruce Gooden teaches gun safety. He's a certified concealed carry instructor, a lifetime member of the NRA and he cuts hair. The more involved...

By my estimation (purely anecdotal), Rand Paul is second only to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell among Kentucky politicians getting national press. McConnell is the highest ranking Republican in the country. Paul is a Bowling Green ophthamologist (who also happens to be the son of a cult hero Congressman). Rand Paul is scheduled to be on C-SPAN's Washington Journal on Wednesday, 9/16 at 9AM ET and MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday, 9/17 at 7:15 AM ET. Wednesday afternoon he will meet with the fiscal conservative thinktank, Club for Growth.

The 2008 presidential campaign may be over, but the "revolution" spawned by Rep. Ron Paul's candidacy continues to echo through the political world. Paul (R-Tex.), capitalizing on a healthy distrust of government and his strident opposition to the war in Iraq, became an Internet phenomenon -- using the Web to raise an astounding $35 million for his long-shot candidacy. The financial network Paul built during his campaign has, amazingly, continued to reap dividends for two men seeking to be the congressman's political heirs in the 2010 elections. Rand Paul, who is running for the Senate in Kentucky and is the...

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that 79 applications for surface coal-mine permits in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee might violate the nation's Clean Water Act and require closer scrutiny. Many of the 79 applications would remove mountaintops and dump debris in valley streams. The EPA's action was an abrupt shift from the last big batch of surface mining permits that it's considered during the Obama administration. In May, the agency said it had no concerns with 42 of 48 permits, and blocked six. The latest decision is in line with the Obama administration's call in June for a...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- State police charged a former GOP lawmaker on Friday with violating a protective order after his former girlfriend was found shot to death in downtown Lexington. Steve Nunn, who was being treated at The Medical Center of Bowling Green for undisclosed injuries, has not been charged with the slaying, said Lt. David Jude, a spokesman for the Kentucky State Police in Frankfort. He was listed in stable condition.

Energy Savings: Europe's ban on the incandescent light bulb began phasing in this month, and the U.S. will soon follow. Is Thomas Edison to blame for global warming? And why are we exporting green jobs?When the warm-mongers assemble in Copenhagen this December to hammer out a successor to the failed Kyoto Protocol, no doubt their work to save the earth from the carbon dioxide that gives it life will take place under the eerie light thrown off by compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) mandated by the European Union to fight climate change. The bulbs are more expensive, costing up to...

In an interview with POLITICO, Paul painted Grayson as a soft conservative, slamming him for once voting for President Bill Clinton and questioning why he accepted donations from senators who had voted in support of the Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout. “I just don’t think he has a lot of hard or strong beliefs,” said Paul.

If Republicans thought their headaches in the Kentucky Senate race were over when Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) announced his retirement, they were wrong. Rand Paul, the son of former presidential candidate and Texas GOP Rep. Ron Paul, has crashed the party for Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who is widely regarded as the establishment pick to succeed the 77-year-old Bunning. While Paul, an ophthalmologist, is a long shot, his presence in the contest all but guarantees that Grayson will be embroiled in an expensive and potentially damaging primary contest. It’s not the scenario the GOP was hoping for. Party...

A Kentucky high school football coach used a school bus to take about 20 of his players to his church to be baptized, school officials confirmed.

This comes from both the Courier Journal and USA Today so you will have to follow these links to read the stories: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090907/NEWS01/909070318/Mother+mad+coach+took+players+to+church++School+district+says+trip+was+voluntary http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-07-kentucky-football-trip-baptisms_N.htm

The Pro-life Debate Between Bill Johnson and Rand Paul-- 10:10am, EST 9.02.09Press release from Bill Johnson's Senate Campaign... The Bill Johnson for U.S. Senate Campaign continues to run a low cost and fiscally responsible campaign.  Rand Paul, a doctor, and Trey Grayson, a lawyer, are engaged in a battle about who can raise and spend the most money in a primary campaign.  This conflict is typical Capitol Hill politics where tax and spend is the norm.  How much money is enough?  Instead of focusing on bank accounts, Johnson is concerned about Mr. Paul’s position on abortion as stated at the...

Woo hoo!! The Freepmobile has been repaired and we drove all night to catch up to the Tea Party Express here in Memphis! We'll be rallying in Louisville, Kentucky at 5:30 pm tonight!! Next stop: Bloomington, Indiana tomorrow!! Woo hoo!! Thirty-five cities, thirty-five tea parties in sixteen days!! Be sure to check the tour schedule and join us when we get to a city near you: TeaPartyExpress.org!! And if you are going to DC for the big March on Washington and National Tea Party on 9/12, you won't want to miss our National Freeper Convention!! Click here to order your...

Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) leads both of his Democratic opponents in the battle to replace retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), according to a new independent poll. Though he is known by fewer Bluegrass voters than either Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo (D) or Attorney General Jack Conway (D), Grayson leads both by slim margins. Grayson outpaces Mongiardo by a 45-41 percent margin, while he leads Conway 46 percent to 40, according to the Research 2000 survey taken for the liberal Daily Kos website.

Plans by President Barack Obama to speak directly to the nation's schoolchildren Tuesday are sparking controversy in Kentucky. Fayette County parents will receive a note from Superintendent Stu Silberman Thursday explaining that their children will be allowed to opt out of the planned noon-time speech and that an alternate assignment will be arranged, provided that plans are made ahead of schedule. Other schools in the Bluegrass are following suit. There were "between 25 and 50 calls" Wednesday to the Fayette County school district, according to Superintendent Stu Silberman. "We want to respect the office of the president and to respect...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — An odd couple of Republican senators have hit the road, arguing for a go-slow approach to President Barack Obama's push to revamp health care. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and 2008 presidential nominee John McCain are headlining the GOP's answer to the raucous town hall meetings of August in which congressional Democrats had to shout over angry constituents about health care, growing deficits and the increasing role of the federal government. . . . . . Political recovery is an issue for McCain, too. . . . . . Health care also offers McCain a...

FRANKFORT — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul and a mysterious supporter are attempting to paint GOP front-runner Trey Grayson as a Washington, D.C., insider. Supporter Josh Manuel, whom Paul Campaign Manager David Adams said he doesn't know, has launched a Web site promoting a "Kentucky Fight" between Paul and Grayson on Sept. 23. The site, titled "Rand 'We the People' vs. Trey 'The DC Insiders,'" notes that 23 Republican U.S. senators, including Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, are to hold a $500-per-plate fund-raiser for Grayson's 2010 U.S. Senate campaign in Washington on Sept. 23. "This deck stacking favoritism in a highly...

Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) presidential campaign will live on in 2010 in the form of two of his closest devotees running in key Senate races. And they are starting to have a real impact. Paul’s libertarian-leaning presidential bid, while notable for its novelty and the amount of money he raised, was never given a chance. By contrast, his son Rand Paul and adviser Peter Schiff are starting to be seen and felt in two of the biggest Senate races in the country.

More Than 70,000 People to Attend Labor Day Rally in West Virginia As more than 70,000 people have signed up to attend the Friends of America Rally, Holden, WV, is likely to be home to America’s largest Labor Day gathering. The free event, to be held on a previous surface mine, will feature country music stars Hank Williams Jr. and John Rich; Sean Hannity, a nationally-syndicated radio host and Fox television host; and Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. American Legend Ted Nugent will emcee the event. Friends of America from 30...

U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul on Monday pledged not to accept campaign contributions from any U.S. Senator who voted for the bank bailout and challenged his opponents to follow suit. Dr. Paul issued this challenge after learning that Trey Grayson has scheduled a Washington D.C. fundraiser co-sponsored by several U.S. Senators, seventeen of whom voted for the so-called TARP bailout in 2008, which was then used to fund an auto industry bailout Congress rejected. "This isn't about holding politicians to an impossibly high standard of agreeing with everything one's supporters say or do," Paul said. "But a primary focus of...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Former Republican presidential candidate John McCain is coming to North Carolina to speak about health care alongside two other GOP senators. McCain will join North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell at event in Charlotte on Tuesday morning. McCain and McConnell are traveling around the country to discuss health care and take questions from those involved in the debate.

First up from the God Machine this week is a new push from evangelical religious groups to kill health care reform. Conservative Christian groups on Wednesday (Aug. 26) ramped up opposition to health care reform, saying the current system "has problems" but "it is working." Members of the newly formed Freedom Federation, comprised of some of the largest conservative religious groups in the country, say they oppose taxpayer-supported abortion, rationed health care for the elderly and government control of personal health decisions. Mathew Staver, who heads the legal group Liberty Counsel and is dean at Liberty University's law school, said...

TAKE BACK THE GOP! On September 23rd, twenty three Republican US Senators are holding a $500 per plate fundraiser in Washington DC for Trey Grayson - Rand Paul's opponent. This deck stacking favoritism in a highly contested GOP primary is unacceptable! Join in the fight and help Rand Paul deliver a knock out punch to establishment candidate Trey Grayson with a pledge to donate $100 on the same date! Read about the DC establishment's fundraiser for one of their own here. Our goal is to bring together 5,000 common people to donate $100 each creating a one day donation total...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Max Shireman says that when he looks in the mirror he does not see the monster the politicians have made him out to be. Sure, he could stand to lose a few pounds. And there was that speeding ticket last year for going 40 in a 30-mile-an-hour zone. But in his mind, he is just “a hard-working guy,” the son of an autoworker, who put himself through college, bought a house in the suburbs and occasionally volunteers at a local hospice. His indulgences, he said, are limited to sampling local microbrews and watching “Top Chef” with his...

RAYSON, Ky. (WSAZ) -- Democrat Robin Webb has won by a narrow margin the Kentucky 18th District Senate seat in Tuesday's special election. Webb was challenged by Republican Jack Ditty and Independent candidate Guy Gibbons Jr. Webb pulled in 48.1% of the vote, only 282 votes more than Ditty. In all, more than 18,000 votes were cast in the election, which was held in six Kentucky counties: Lewis, Robertson, Greenup, Bracken, Mason, and Carter. Here is a breakdown of the vote in each county:

ELECTION RESULTS [R] Jack Ditty: 8,402 (46.6%) [D] Robin Webb: 8,684 (48.1%) [I] Guy Gibbons Jr. 953 (5.3%) (6 out of 6 counties reporting) GRAYSON, Ky. (WSAZ) -- Democrat Robin Webb has won by a narrow margin the Kentucky 18th District Senate seat in Tuesday's special election. Webb was challenged by Republican Jack Ditty and Independent candidate Guy Gibbons Jr. Webb pulled in 48.1% of the vote, only 282 votes more than Ditty.

He is in charge of keeping our statewide elections fair and orderly, but now Kentucky's Secretary of State is in a contest of his own. Trey Grayson is officially entering the U.S. Senate race in Kentucky. When Senator Jim Bunning recently announced he would not be seeking re-election, that paved the way for Grayson to run in the republican primary. He's making that official by announcing his candidacy through several stops around the state this week, including several visits in eastern Kentucky. At the London-Corbin Airport Wednesday afternoon, Trey Grayson wasted no time in jumping into the health care debate....

Twenty-three GOP Senators — including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Bluegrass State’s senior Senator — are hosting a $500 per person fundraiser for Grayson at National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters Sept. 23. The NRSC has not officially endorsed Grayson but the location of the event and the fact that NRSC Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) is one of the hosts of the fundraiser is a good indication of where the committee’s loyalties lie in the race.

Rand Paul's Birthday Present to Dad Ron Paul By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers What do you give a congressman for his birthday? If you're Senate candidate Rand Paul and you're choosing presents for dad, Rep. Ron Paul, whose birthday was yesterday, you go for gifts that scream politics. "I gave him an original copy of Barry Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative that was given to me by the publisher," Rand Paul tells Whispers, adding that it was published in Kentucky, where he's running for U.S. Senate. He also gave his pop, who's a big fan of economics, some early 20th-century...

Rioting inmates set central Ky. prison ablaze By JEFFREY McMURRAY, Associated Press Writer BURGIN, Ky. – Rioting inmates set fire to trash cans and other items inside a central Kentucky prison, and damage to some buildings was so extensive that officials were busing many of the facility's 1,200 prisoners elsewhere, police said Saturday. By early morning, firefighters had extinguished the fires at the medium-security Northpoint Training Center in a rural area 30 miles south of Lexington, state police Lt. David Jude said. Eight inmates were treated for minor injuries, and eight staff were also injured in the melee, although none...

BURGIN, Ky. (AP) - Rioting inmates started several fires at a central Ky. prison, and damage to several buildings was so extensive that officials have to bus some of the facility's 1,200 prisoners elsewhere, police said Saturday. State police Lt. David Jude said firefighters had extinguished the blazes set at the medium-security Northpoint Training Center in a rural area 30 miles south of Lexington. Buses started to transport the first prisoners shortly after 6 a.m., but it wasn't immediately known where they were going and whether all the inmates would have to be moved. "To me it would seem like...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The Army has identified four soldiers killed in a helicopter training accident in Colorado. Those killed in Wednesday's crash were 40-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Terrance Geer, 41-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Robert Johnson, 33-year-old Staff Sgt. Paul Jackson and 28-year-old Staff Sgt. Chad Tucker. The soldiers identified Friday were all members of Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell. Army Special Operations Command officials say their MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed while conducting mountain and environmental training near Colorado's second-highest summit, Mount Massive -snip-

The money bomb is back. Borrowing a page from his father’s playbook, Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky raked in more than $430,000 during a Thursday Internet-based fundraising drive. Paul, a Bowling Green eye surgeon, is the son of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who gained attention in 2008 by running for the Republican presidential nomination on a libertarian platform.

LEADVILLE, Colorado — Four soldiers died after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training mission on Colorado's second-highest mountain, the Army's Special Operations Command said Thursday. The helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon near the summit of 14,421-foot Mount Massive. The Army initially said two were killed, one was injured and one was missing. The missing man was found dead late Wednesday, and the injured man died on the way to the hospital Wednesday, said Lt. Col. John Clearwater, a spokesman for the command at Fort Bragg, N.C. All were male soldiers from Fort Campbell, Ky., he said. Their names haven't...

U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky is reaping an online fundraising bonanza today, as a “money bomb” for his campaign efforts exploded from supporters of his father's 2008 presidential campaign. Organized by music promoter Trevor Lyman, the man who organized multimillion-dollar online fundraising efforts for the 2008 Ron Paul for President campaign, the campaign hopes to raise as much as $1 million during the day. Rand Paul is running as a Republican for the open U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Jim Bunning. The official Rand Paul for Senate website, http://www.RandPaul2010.com, reported as of...

PT 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7FIoVk36PE PT 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spI4Aetab3w&feature=related PT 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkBMe_7sRFw&feature=related PT 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkB4ZDWEOLA&feature=related PT 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcXTDoba-48&feature=related PT 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdJRDSTnaWw&feature=related

Attorney General Jack Conway is the fundraising frontrunner, but the WHAS11 Survey USA poll of Kentuckians over the last three days shows Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo with an eight point advantage over Conway in the Democratic primary, 39% to 31% -- a lead that Mongiardo will certainly trumpet in his fundraising efforts. For the republicans, Secretary of State Trey Grayson has been considered the presumptive nominee. But -- Bowling Green opthamologist Rand Paul is a wild card -- especially if he can tap into the national fundraising support of his father, former presidential candidate Ron Paul. So far -- Grayson...

August is a seminal month in the history of the airborne, and especially of the 82nd Airborne Division. Aug. 15, 1942, is the birth date of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions. "Airborne" was already well under way before the magic date 67 years ago when the War Department formally ordered the formation of two divisions of jumpers and glidermen. Battalions of jumpers had been training at Fort Benning, Ga., since 1940, and the high command of the Army was eager to grow the airborne force. By March, a new infantry division, the 82nd, was activated for training at Camp...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)—Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino told police he had sex and paid for an abortion for the woman accused of trying to extort him for $10 million, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported on its Web site that Pitino told police he had been drinking in a Louisville restaurant and had sex with Karen Sypher in August 2003. The police report said he denied allegations by Sypher that he raped her after the restaurant closed and at another time somewhere else. He said later he gave her $3,000 for an abortion. Sypher went to...

<p>LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A newspaper is reporting that Louisville coach Rick Pitino told police he had sex and paid for an abortion for the woman accused of trying to extort him for $10 million.</p>

<p>After months of planning, FR's DC Convention is coming together.</p> <p>Help make history, join in Free Republic's return to DC as a national group and help to herald in another wave of conservative activism Free Republic is famous for!</p> <p>“Reagan is good for business” was Andrew’s introduction to politics. “I was real little, but that’s what my dad used to say.” Andrew Wilkow began his radio career at the college radio station. Conservative leaning politics were always his heart and he expressed his views on the air regularly, much to the anger of his co-workers. “I was basically just anti-P.C. at first.” He broke out of music radio in 2002 when he was given a trial/fill-in slot for Mark Levin on his hometown station, WABC in NYC. “That was huge and that’s when I first met Sean Hannity.” Soon after that he earned a weekend slot then a full time job at an upstate station. I basically did a 300 mile roundtrip every weekend for over 3 years to do both shows. Wilkow’s move to SIRIUS brings his new sound of conservative talk radio to a national audience. To quote Andrew, “Now is the time for the new school of conservative voices with a whole new style and passion – moving to SIRIUS lets me take that style and passion nationwide."</p>