Free Republic

McConnell is always eager to do the right thing in the Senate…so long as the outcome is no longer in contention and he won’t actually have to fight for the cause he espouses. Yesterday, McConnell filed cloture on amendments that would prohibit Obama from lifting Iran sanctions until they recognize Israel’s right to exist and release the American hostages. McConnell is threatening to vote on more amendments that embarrass Democrats and put them on the record as siding with Iran against Israel. Does this sound like a tough GOP leader? Think again. Forcing Democrats to take tough votes is a...

Multiple House Republicans want Senate leaders to “go nuclear” over the Obama administration’s deal with Iran now that Democrats have stymied efforts to derail the accord by conventional means. A small but growing number of GOP lawmakers say that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should invoke the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules and prevent a filibuster on a resolution to kill the deal. Their angst is intensified by their belief that Democrats will likely be able to block legislation withholding federal funds from Planned Parenthood, a standoff that increases the chances of a government shutdown. Less than two...

SIMI VALLEY, California — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is aiming his guns at GOP frontrunner billionaire Donald Trump ahead of the second presidential debate. While shooting a rifle, shotgun and pistol at Taran Tactical Innovations here, down the street from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Paul told reporters he’s gunning for Trump. Paul fired at targets including a big stack of paper file boxes labeled the “IRS Tax Code” and at a bulletproof vest.

Wednesday on CNN’s “Wolf,” Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said if his rival Donald Trump was to become the GOP nominee for president, the Republican Party would lose as bad as it did in 1964 when the Democratic candidate President Lyndon B. Johnson won 61 percent of the popular vote against the Republican candidate, then-Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ).

Embattled Kentucky clerk Kim Davis "has not demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success" in her legal bid to exempt her office from licensing same-sex marriages, a federal appeals court reiterated Tuesday. One day after Davis returned to work following a stint in jail for defying a federal judge, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals shot down another of her requests to delay issuing the licenses. After four couples sued Davis for refusing them licenses, she filed a counter lawsuit against Gov. Steve Beshear, alleging that he improperly instructed clerks to abide by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's poll numbers went down after he attacked presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in the first GOP debate, but Paul says he'll hit Trump even harder at Wednesday's second debate.

LOUISVILLE — The three candidates for governor met Tuesday night at Belleramine University in an hour-long debate where social issues took a sharper focus. Democratic candidate Jack Conway, Republican candidate Matt Bevin and independent candidate Drew Curtis shared the spotlight on Tuesday night in Louisville at the debate sponsored by The Courier Journal, WHAS-TV, WKYT-TV and the Lexington Herald-Leader. Bevin and a visibly sweating Conway exchanged barbs over state pension plans and same-sex marriage from the stage as a crowd of 300 people watched on from the Cralle Center. All the while Curtis slipped in and out of the wider...

When Obama was speaking to environmentalist supporters in 2008 regarding his plans to address “climate change,” he candidly revealed, “Under my plan, electricity costs will necessarily skyrocket.” Obama’s White House Science Advisor John Holdren later elaborated, “We need to de-develop the United States to bring our economic system into line with the realities of ecology and the global resource situation.” The so-called Clean Power Plan proposed by Obama’s EPA is well-designed to do precisely that -- de-develop the United States. A new study from the National Black Chamber of Commerce estimates the regulation will cause job losses reaching 7 million...

CINCINNATI – A commercial released Tuesday that poked fun at the recent same-sex marriage fight in Rowan County, Kentucky using Tide products will not air on television. The commercial, which was not backed by home goods giant Procter & Gamble, was a “spec spot,” said director Mark Nickelsburg...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) slammed Democrats and President Obama ahead of a second vote on the Iran deal, saying they are okay with "winning ugly" and that they are "ignoring reality" on the agreement. "How could [Obama] justify blocking a vote now on an issue of such immense magnitude as the Iran deal? It's part of a larger retreat to campaigning instead of engaging on this important issue. ...Simply ignoring reality when it becomes inconvenient," McConnell said. "This is clearly a case of winning ugly." The Kentucky Republican was referring to a Washington Post fact check of Obama's...

Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder was gunned down Monday in Kentucky by Black Lives Matter activist. The suspect Joseph Johhson-Shanks fled the scene on foot and later died after his capture. Johnson-Shanks was from Florissant, Missouri outside of Ferguson. Joseph Johnson Shanks was an Obama supporter, a Black Lives Matter activist and attended Mike Brown’s funeral in Ferguson. The Daily Caller reported: A Missouri man who shot and killed a Kentucky state trooper during a traffic stop Sunday was an apparent Black Lives Matter sympathizer who protested in the days after the shooting death of Michael Brown last year and attended...

A Black Lives Matter supporter was killed by police yesterday after he shot a rookie Kentucky State Trooper to death following a high speed chase. This murder is the latest in a series of cop-killings nationwide committed by aggrieved African-Americans who falsely claim blacks are perennial victims of racial discrimination at the hands of law enforcement.

The Republican Attorneys General Association is launching another ad attempting to connect the dots between Democratic attorney general candidate Andy Beshear and President Barack Obama. The ad is beginning to run as the campaign for Beshear launched the first two ads of their advertising campaign, totaling more than $1 million. A search of FCC documents shows that RAGA purchased $100,000 worth of ad time over the course of a week in the Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati television markets. RAGA never returned multiple calls from Pure Politics seeking comment on the ad on Monday. The ad from the group says that...

The suspect wanted in the fatal shooting of a rookie Kentucky state trooper this weekend has died after being shot by authorities, state police said on Monday. Kentucky State Police found the suspect, Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks, 25, of Missouri, in a wooded area close to Interstate 24, near where he allegedly shot the trooper after a car chase, police said. Johnson-Shanks had aimed his gun at troopers and refused to drop it, leading one to shoot him, officials said. Johnson-Shanks died at a medical center in Princeton, Kentucky.

The Kentucky county clerk at the center of a national firestorm over her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses vowed Monday -- just days after her release from jail -- that she would not prevent her office from issuing such licenses but would not personally authorize them either. Kim Davis, the clerk for Rowan County, detailed what she described as a "remedy" during a brief press conference as she returned to work for the first time since her jailing. Whether that "remedy" satisfies the courts -- or undermines the legal validity of the licenses -- remains to be seen. Under...

Just Breaking.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis says she will not personally issue any marriage licenses although she will not interfere with other deputy clerks in her office if they choose to do so. Davis addressed the media around 7:45 a.m. outside the courthouse before resuming her duties after being jailed last week by Judge David Bunning. During her remarks, Davis said she was in a difficult spot: "it's my conscience or my job." "I don't want to have this conflict. I don't want to be in the spotlight. And I certainly don't want to be a whipping post," Davis said, reading...

shots fired officer down! KSP officer was just shot on I24 2 gunshots wounds (officer is in full arrest cpr in being done) Foot pursuit now in the woods with the shooter, In Lyon Co they are shutting the interstate down at the 45 mile marker

...Nobody can doubt that virtually all of the president's political enemies would vehemently defend themselves against a charge of racism. Virtually all of them observe the forms and taboos of political correctness. If any very visible one of their own should insult the president by a recognized racial slur, they would all join in the predictable outrage. But the paramount fact of this moment in the history of racism is that you don't have to denominate the president by a recognized racial slur when his very name can be used as a synonym. This subtilized racism is not only a...

MOREHEAD, Kentucky — When the Rowan County clerk's office opens at 8 a.m. ET Monday, Kim Davis will have a decision to make. In her absence, her subordinates have been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Does she stop them? If so, how? Call a staff meeting? Fire them? Or stay silent? "We hope Kim Davis will follow the law and obey court orders," said Amber Duke, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. "If she doesn't, our attorneys will meet and decide our next action." Even Davis' lawyers at Liberty Counsel, the Florida-based group that has...