Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Votes to Divest from Israeli Companies

What is happening to this church? It's like overnight they're taken hostage by radical leftists.

This was out yesterday, at USA Today, "Presbyterians in U.S. to allow gay marriage ceremonies," and the New York Times, "Presbyterians Vote to Allow Same-Sex Marriages":

The Presbyterians follow other religious groups that have taken similar steps, including the United Church of Christ, which affirmed “equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender” in 2005; Quakers; the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations; and the Reform and Conservative movements in Judaism.

Right. The Presbyterians are turning into a sadistic cult.

And now today, at the Los Angeles Times, "Presbyterians to divest from 3 companies to protest Israeli policies":

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA voted to sell its stock in three major companies Friday night in protest of Israeli policies in Palestinian-controlled lands.

During its national meeting, the general assembly narrowly voted to divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions by a vote of 310-303. Those three companies are said to supply Israel with tools used in building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem

Though advocates said the decision should not signal support for a broader movement aimed at taking action to encourage Israel to change its policies toward Palestine, there has been concern among Israeli supporters that a decision to divest could signal momentum for the movement. In the same meeting, the Presbyterian organization voted to reaffirm its stance that Israel has a right to exist.

“We recognize the complexity of the issues, the decades-long struggle, the pain suffered and inflicted by policies and practices of both the Israeli government and Palestinian entities,” the documents state.

That's a lie, of course. The Presbyterian Church has joined the push by the World Council of Churches to demonize and delegitimize Israel as an Apartheid state, as Melanie Phillips discussed in her must-read piece, "'Jesus Was a Palestinian': The Return of Christian Anti-Semitism." The Church has tacked leftward along with society's increasing abandonment of strong Christian values as the moral guide to life. It's not a good omen for the West, although fortunately the overall BDS movement continues to be widely repudiated.

VIDEO: BBC Crew Caught in Middle of #ISIS Gun Battle

Pretty intense, "Extended footage shows BBC caught in Isis gunbattle."

Secret Video of ISIS Jihadists Smuggled Out of #Iraq

From CNN's Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon:

Canadian Animal-Lover Convicted for 2 Deaths After Parking on Montreal Provincial Highway to Save Baby Ducks and 'Take Them Home'

Further proof that leftism's a narcissistic disease that puts regular people's lives at risk. And her defense attorney was "surprised" at the conviction. Yes, because parking in the middle of the freeway to save baby ducks is so compassionate. Seriously, another case of radical leftist anti-humanism. Thank goodness she's going to the slammer.

Via Blazing Cat Fur, "Canada woman stops for ducks; guilty in 2 deaths":

MONTREAL (AP) — A Canadian woman who parked her car on a highway to help a group of ducklings on the side of the road was found guilty Friday of causing the deaths of a motorcyclist and his passenger daughter who slammed into her car.

Emma Czornobaj was convicted by a jury on two counts of criminal negligence causing death, a charge that carries a maximum life sentence, and two counts of dangerous driving causing death, which comes with a maximum of 14 years in jail.

The 25-year-old was charged in the deaths of Andre Roy, 50, and his daughter Jessie, 16.

She wiped away tears when the verdict was delivered to a packed courtroom in Montreal. Quebec Superior Court Justice Eliane Perreault said the 12-member jury voted unanimously.

Czornobaj was released until her pre-sentence hearing on Aug. 8.

Roy's motorcycle slammed into Czornobaj's car, which was stopped in the left lane of a provincial highway south of Montreal in 2010.

Czornobaj, a self-professed animal lover, told the court that she did not see the ducklings' mother anywhere and planned to capture them and take them home.

Defense lawyer Marc Labelle said his client was stunned by the jury's decision. "The fact that she was involved in the accident in the first place was a hard experience for her," he said. "The fact that she had to go through a trial with a lot of publicity was tough and to be confirmed by 12 citizens, the jury, that the conduct was criminal is a hard blow."

Freakin' demonic people. Let's hope she's raped bloody in the slammer.

#WorldCup Player Álvaro Pereira Kept Playing After Being Knocked Out Cold During Uruguay's Game with England

He was out cold on the grass.

At the New York Times, "‘Lights Went Out,’ but He Kept Playing: Uruguayan Player’s Return After Head Injury Stirs Debate."

And watch it at the Sydney Morning Herald, "Alvaro Pereira, knocked out then raring to go."

Pereira was clearly - clearly - out cold on his back needing to be revived. Now he's playing. That is just insane.

— Sam Borden (@SamBorden) June 19, 2014

Hate seeing doctors overruled with Pereira coming back on. World soccer clueless on concussions.

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) June 19, 2014

Obama DHS Adviser Mohamed Elibiary’s Anti-American Tweets Celebrated by Brutal #ISIS Jihadists

Just mind-boggling.

At Freedom's Outpost.

This is the same guy who said the return of the Islamic caliphate is inevitable. Kinda like the EU or something, doh!

At Free Beacon, "Senior DHS Adviser: ‘Inevitable that ‘Caliphate’ Returns’."

@davereaboi #Silly. As I've said b4 inevitable that "Caliphate" returns. Choice only whether we support #EU like Muslim Union vision or not.

— Mohamed Elibiary (@MohamedElibiary) June 13, 2014

Rosie Jones' First-Ever Zoo 'Shoot

Love the accent.

Video at Zoo Today, "Rosie Jones is coming to ZOO! See her sexy topless shoot video!"

Secret U.S. Plan to Aid #Iraq Fizzled Amid Mutual Distrust

Isn't this just too typical of this administration. It's bad enough that Obama wants to weaken the U.S. and embolden our enemies. But this administration can't even handle the most basic alliance cooperation. No wonder Islamic jihad is on the march worldwide.

At WSJ, "The Obama's Administration Devoted Only a Handful of U.S. Specialists to the Task":

WASHINGTON—Amid growing signs of instability in Iraq, President Barack Obama authorized a secret plan late last year to aid Iraqi troops in their fight against Sunni extremists by sharing intelligence on the militants' desert encampments, but devoted only a handful of U.S. specialists to the task.

So few aircraft were dedicated to the program, which also faced restrictions by the Iraqis, that U.S. surveillance flights usually took place just once a month, said current and former U.S. officials briefed on the program.

Instead of providing Iraqis with real-time drone feeds and intercepted communications from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, the militant group that has overrun parts of Iraq, U.S. intelligence specialists typically gave their Iraqi counterparts limited photographic images, reflecting U.S. concerns that more sensitive data would end up in Iranian hands, these officials said.

Political and security sensitivities for leaders in both countries led the U.S. move cautiously to secretly set up the so-called fusion intelligence center in Baghdad. But Mr. Obama's announcement Thursday that the U.S. will deploy up to 300 military advisers and set up two joint operations centers shows the extent to which U.S. and Iraqi leaders are racing to catch up to an ISIS threat they had already identified but were slow to counter.

As Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, struggles with the Sunni insurgency and the sectarian divisions that spawned it, support for his own leadership came under fire on Friday by the country's most influential Shiite cleric. Mr. Maliki, who is trying to assemble a governing coalition following April elections, should consider stepping aside, a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said during a Friday sermon.

To battle ISIS, U.S. and Iraqi leaders are taking steps proposed but not taken over the past months and years, including setting up larger intelligence operations and deploying teams of special operations forces. The small team set up last year "wasn't a priority and nobody thought it was a serious effort," said a senior U.S. official.

Administration and congressional officials say the U.S. also miscalculated the readiness of Iraqi forces: The White House's limited investment in the intelligence center was driven at least in part by the assumption that Iraqi forces would be more competent, the official said. Then, at the end of April, the Pentagon dispatched a team of special-operations personnel to assess the capabilities of Iraq's security forces, a defense official said.

The assessment they brought back was bleak: Sunni Army officers had been forced out, overall leadership had declined, the Iraqi military wasn't maintaining its equipment and had stopped conducting rigorous training. The response in Washington, summed up by a senior U.S. official, was: "Whoa, what the hell happened here?"

More.

Liar-in-Chief Barack Obama Claims #Iraq Troop Withdrawal 'Wasn't a Decision Made by Me...'

He's such a freakin' liar.

So, he wasn't the "decider," huh?

Actually, he was.

Scott Wilson, at the Washington Post, does an unexpectedly good job of fact-checking the Liar-in-Chief, "President Obama took credit in 2012 for withdrawing all troops from Iraq. Today he said something different."

Read it at the link, but I went right to the source documents. Here's the transcript from yesterday's speech, "Remarks by the President on the Situation in Iraq."

President Liar called on CNN's Jim Acosta, who offered this follow up question, to which the president responded with a bald-faced lie:

Q Just very quickly, do you wish you had left a residual force in Iraq? Any regrets about that decision in 2011?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, keep in mind that wasn’t a decision made by me; that was a decision made by the Iraqi government. We offered a modest residual force to help continue to train and advise Iraqi security forces. We had a core requirement which we require in any situation where we have U.S. troops overseas, and that is, is that they're provided immunity since they're being invited by the sovereign government there, so that if, for example, they end up acting in self-defense if they are attacked and find themselves in a tough situation, that they're not somehow hauled before a foreign court. That's a core requirement that we have for U.S. troop presence anywhere.

Perhaps one could see how President Liar might have a little wiggle room with his response, considering Iraq's concerns on troop levels or what have you (although remember, once the administration lowered the residual force levels to 3 to 5,000 troops, Maliki just said forget it). But then, again, President Liar campaigned on keeping his 2008 promise to wind down the war. Here's the transcript from President Liar's speech at an Ohio campaign rally, at Bowling Green State University, September 26, 2012. See, "Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event -- Bowling Green, OH":

Now, obviously, Governor Romney and I have a lot of differences when it comes to domestic policy, but our prosperity here at home is linked to what happens abroad. Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did. (Applause.)

I said we would responsibly wind down the war in Afghanistan, and we are. You've got a new tower that's rising over the New York skyline, and meanwhile, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead. (Applause.) We made that commitment. (Applause.)

But as we saw just a few days ago, we still face some serious threats in the world. And that’s why, as long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we're going to maintain the strongest military the world has ever known. (Applause.) And when our troops come home and they take off their uniform, we're going to serve them as well as they’ve served us, because nobody who fights for America should have to fight for a job when they come home. I believe that. (Applause.)

My opponent has got a different view. He said the way we ended the war in Iraq was “tragic.” He still hasn't explained what his policy in Afghanistan will be. But I have, and I will. And one more thing, I will use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and to put more people back to work rebuilding roads and bridges and schools and runways -- (applause) -- because after a decade of war, it's time to do some nation-building right here in Ohio, right here at home. (Applause.)

So this is the choice that you face; it's what this election comes down to...

Well, clearly, the American public made the wrong choice. Of course, they were lied to throughout the entire campaign. That's the only way President Liar could possibly be reelected.

In any case, Scott Wilson has more examples at the Washington Post.

And the outstanding Noah Rothman had this story yesterday, at Hot Air, "Obama insists he is merely hostage to events in the Middle East."

Obama Administration Negotiating Legal Immunity for U.S. Troops with Iraqi Government

Now they're negotiating.

Mighta done that back in 2011 and we coulda avoided this complete cluster Middle East meltdown.

At Pat Dollard's, "Obama Regime & Iraq Negotiating an Immunity Deal for New U.S. Troops On the Ground."

Recall Max Boot on failed immunity negotiations, "Obama's Tragic Iraq Withdrawal."

Iraq's Top Shiite Cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Calls for New Government

At the Wall Street Journal, "Iraq's Top Shiite Cleric Calls for New Government: 'Effective' Government Needed That 'Avoids Past Mistakes'":

BAGHDAD—Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric called on Friday for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step aside, breaking ranks with the leader of the Shiite-dominated government after nearly two weeks of fighting with Sunni militants that has left the country's military humiliated.

In a sermon to worshipers in the holy city of Karbala, a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani didn't mention the prime minister by name. But Ahmed al-Safi said it was time for a different administration in Iraq, which is beset by a powerful Sunni insurgency led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

"It is necessary for the winning political blocs to start a dialogue that yields an effective government that enjoys broad national support, avoids past mistakes and opens new horizons toward a better future for all Iraqis," Mr. al-Safi said.

Were Mr. Maliki to heed the grand ayatollah's call, it would mark a stunning reversal of fortune for the Iraq's premier, who had been planning for a third, four-year term after his electoral coalition won a plurality of votes in parliamentary elections only a few weeks ago.

Friday's declaration by Ayatollah Sistani came one week after he issued a call to arms to defend Iraq against the Sunni rebellion and a day after U.S. President Barack Obama blamed Mr. Maliki and his sectarian policies for the two-week-old conflict that has eroded Baghdad's authority throughout the country.

In a speech in Washington on Thursday, Mr. Obama said only an "inclusive agenda" will end the crisis facing Mr. Maliki's government.

Iraq's pro-government satellite television station on Friday played up Mr. Obama's support for Baghdad's fight against Sunni Muslim militants but overlooked what the U.S. president suggested was the Iraqi prime minister's sectarian and authoritarian governing style.

Iraqiyya television, which was created by U.S. forces following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 but has since become an important mouthpiece for Mr. Maliki, cast the turmoil in Iraq as a religious conflict and focused its reports on the necessity to rise to the militant Sunni challenge to the Baghdad government.

Mr. Obama, in his speech on Thursday, signaled some limited support for Iraq's fight against Sunni rebels but made clear he wouldn't launch airstrikes against the insurgents or deploy U.S. ground troops to the country. He said, however, that he would send 300 military advisers to assist the Iraqi military.

More.

Boom! New Poll Finds 65 Percent of Americans Reject Obama on #Immigration

At Gallup, "Approval of Obama's Handling of Immigration Falls to 31%."

A full 65 percent of those polled disagrees "with the way President Obama is handling immigration."

Recent developments contributing to the ongoing debate about immigration include Obama's delay of a review of deportation policies by the Department of Homeland Security in the hope of striking a legislative deal on immigration reform with Congress. Also, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's recent primary loss was widely viewed as a defeat rooted in Cantor's perceived stance on immigration. The primary loss and subsequent shakeup in House leadership could spell greater challenges for Obama as he tries to work with Republicans. Additionally, the media has recently enlarged its spotlight on the increasing numbers of unaccompanied Central American children who have crossed the U.S. border, seeking their already immigrated family members and a generally better life.

Obama's approval on immigration has dropped since last August across all political affiliations, even among those in his own party....

Notice how Gallup is clueless on "the bottom line" at the entry.

The GOP doesn't need to approve "immigration reform." That's not the message coming out of these data. Americans are shocked that our borders are out of control and they want a clamp down. Seriously, people are seeing through this manufactured crisis. It's a threat to national security and the White House --- and the open-borders amnesty-shilling Democrat Party --- will pay the price.

Added: Linked by the Mad Jewess, "MANY Diseases That Are Horrible Come In to America From Mexico. Leftists LIE."

Thanks!

Britain's Michael Fabricant Apologizes for Saying He'd Punch Leftist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Here's the Guardian, which has the screencap of the offensive tweet, "Tory MP Michael Fabricant apologises for tweet saying he might punch female journalist."

It turns out conservative commentator James Delingpole joined the debate with an "inflammatory" post (which I like), "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH WANTING TO PUNCH YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN IN THE THROAT."

That got Louise Mensch's dander up and she defended Alibhai-Brown.

.@y_alibhai although #Delingpole is UKIP and not Tory, I am mortified by the abuse you are receiving from right-wing men #feminism
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) June 20, 2014

And here's the woman debating Rob Little on Channel 4, which is worth a look, heh.



In any case, I wouldn't make a comment about punching a woman (at least not so publicly), although I don't think you can ban emotional speech like that. Who knows, though. Feminists generate a lot of power with the "misogyny" meme. You have to push back and stand up for free-flowing speech.

#CNN Reporter Roughed-Up During #Hamas Protest

It's CNN's Ben Wedeman, who gets beaten-up by Hamas security agents:



More at Blazing Cat Fur, "IDF Troops Continue to Search for Kidnapped Teens #EyalGiladNaftali."

Calgary Police Service Issues Warning on Canadian Muslims Joining #ISIS Jihad in Iraq

Following-up from Wednesday, "Somali-Canadian Farah Mohamed Shirdon of Calgary Joins #ISIS Jihad in Iraq."

And also at Blazing Cat Fur, "Mosaic of Diversity Alert: Farah Mohamed Shirdon of Calgary fighting with ISIS, threatens Canada in Jihadi vid."

Here's the CBC with the warning on Canada's Islamic jihad from the Calgary Police Service:

Paul Ryan Eviscerates 'Lying' #IRS Commissioner John Koskinen

Whoa!

Paul Ryan gets fired up!

From Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "IRS Commissioner in the Hot Seat on Capitol Hill Over 'Lost' Emails."

And from Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "Videos: Paul Ryan, Kevin Brady expose holes in the IRS’s story."

Clayton #Kershaw's No-Hitter Was MLB's All-Time Best

At LAT, "NO ONE BETTER: Why Clayton Kershaw's no-hitter was MLB's all-time best":

Belly up and plant a flag, because there's no way of settling this debate. Still, it doesn't mean that an argument can't be made that Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday provided baseball with its greatest pitching performance.

Not this season, but ever. As in the history of the game. Impossible to prove? Sure, but not to argue. It's all subjective, especially when you mix eras and different ballparks.

But consider this: Kershaw no-hit the Rockies while striking out 15 and not walking a single batter.

There have been 283 no-hitters in baseball history, but Kershaw is the only one to have at least 15 strikeouts and no walks.

Only one other pitcher has even thrown a no-hitter with at least 15 strikeouts. Nolan Ryan managed it in three of his record seven no-hitters, but accompanied them with walks of four, eight and two.

Kershaw was a model of precision Wednesday. He needed only 107 pitches. He averaged less than four pitches per batter. Only one batter made it to a three-ball count...

Keep reading.

And be sure to watch the clip, which splices together Vin Scully's comments on Kershaw's no-hitter.

Plus, more on the bugaboo of the season, the cable blackout, from Chris Erskine, "Dodgers blackout should be lifted for Clayton Kershaw's no-hit replay."

America's Enemies in #Mosul and Tehran Spot Obama's False Commitment Right Away

The editors at the Wall Street Journal cut through the crap from Obama's press conference on Iraq yesterday. See, "Obama's Iraq Feint":

In international politics, influence is a function of power, and commitment is a prerequisite to achievement. If Mr. Obama were serious about the threat posed by ISIS and the possible breakup of Iraq, he would not be making the token commitments he made Thursday. It may take some of our liberal friends a while to understand that what the President proposed isn't a strategy; it is a feint. America's enemies in Mosul and Tehran will have spotted it right away.

Time Magazine Cover Story: 'The End of Iraq'

Yep, it's pretty much kaput as a viable nation-state.

This is nevertheless a dramatic cover feature.

From Michael Crowley, at Time:

The Sunni radicals’ dream of establishing an Islamic caliphate–modeled on the first reign of the Prophet Mohammed in the 7th century–has no place for Shi’ites. That’s why Iraq’s leading Shi’ite cleric responded to ISIS’s advance by summoning men of his faith to battle. So begins another Iraqi civil war, this one wretchedly entangled with the sectarian conflict that has already claimed more than 160,000 lives in Syria. Poised to join the fighting is Iran, whose nearly eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s cost more than a million lives.

To Americans weary of the Middle East, the urge is strong to close our eyes and, as Sarah Palin once put it so coarsely, “let Allah sort it out.” President Obama has kept a wary distance from Syria’s civil war and the turmoil of postwar Iraq. But now that the two have become one rapidly metastasizing cancer, that may no longer be possible. As long as the global economy still runs on Middle Eastern oil, Sunni radicals plot terrorist attacks against the West and Iran’s leaders pursue nuclear technology, the U.S. cannot turn its back.

“There is always the danger of passing the buck,” says Vali Nasr, a former Obama State Department official and an expert on Islam. “Not to say the region doesn’t have problems or bad leadership. It does. But these things won’t go away. They are going to bite us at some point.” What Leon Trotsky supposedly said about war is also true of this war-torn region: Americans may not be interested in the Middle East. But the Middle East is interested in us.

****

Barack Obama first ran for President, in large measure, to end the Iraq War, and he takes pride in having done so. It surely wasn’t easy, then, to announce that some 170 combat-ready soldiers were headed to Baghdad to secure the U.S. embassy. The White House insists that Obama won’t re-enter a ground war, though military planners are exploring possible air strikes. (For now, limited intelligence and ill-defined targets have put bombing on hold.) The likelier option is a small contingent of special forces to advise Iraq’s military. But Obama wants to leverage any possible U.S. help to force al-Maliki into major political reforms. A new governing coalition giving Sunnis real power could offer the country’s only hope for long-term survival. Whether something the U.S. couldn’t accomplish when its troops were still in Iraq is feasible now is another question.

Clearly, Obama was mistaken in declaring, after the last U.S. troops departed in 2011, that “we’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq.” But while Washington plunged into the blame game, fair-minded observers could see that the U.S.’s road through the region is littered with what-ifs and miscalculations. What if we had never invaded Iraq? What if we had stayed longer? What if Obama had acted early in the Syrian civil war to put arms in the hands of nonradical rebels? “We would have less of an extremism problem in Syria now, had there been more assistance provided to the moderate forces,” Obama’s former ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, told CNN on June 3.

Yet on a deeper level, the blame belongs to history itself. At this ancient crossroads of the human drama, the U.S.’s failure echoes earlier failures by the European powers, by the Ottoman pashas, by the Crusaders, by Alexander the Great. The civil war of Muslim against Muslim, brother against brother, plays out in the same region that gave us Cain vs. Abel. George W. Bush spoke of the spirit of liberty, and Obama often invokes the spirit of cooperation. Both speak to something powerful in the modern heart. But neither man–nor America itself–fully appreciated until now the continuing reign of much older spirits: hatred, greed and tribalism. Those spirits are loosed again, and the whole world will pay a price.

12 Suspected #ISIS Jihadists Detained in Beirut Hotel

In Lebanon.

Think about it. Right next to Israel. A hop and a skip from Jordan.

ISIS by definition is a region-wide movement for the caliphate.

At the New York Times, "A Dozen Men, Reportedly Islamist Militants, Detained in Beirut Hotel":

BEIRUT — Lebanese security forces detained 12 men in a Beirut hotel on Friday, in what local news media reported was a move to capture members of the Sunni militant group ISIS who were suspected of plotting to assassinate a leading Shiite political figure.

Security forces blocked off numerous streets in Hamra, the main commercial district of West Beirut, and surrounded the Napoleon Hotel. Outside the hotel, in a neighborhood of narrow streets full of shops, apartments and midrange hotels, dozens of armed security officers forced pedestrians off the streets, then led 12 men, their heads covered, out of the hotel.

According to Lebanese news channels, security forces were still hunting down other militants believed to be at large in the Hamra neighborhood. The channels said that the militant cell comprised mostly foreigners, including Syrians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and others, and that as many as 17 men had been arrested or were being sought.

Earlier on Friday, the Amal movement, a Shiite political party, canceled a conference at a United Nations building downtown, citing security concerns. NOW Lebanon, a local news website, reported that the ISIS members arrested were suspected of planning to assassinate Amal’s leader, the parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, and Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, the commander of Lebanon’s general security agency.

mal is an ally of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite party and militant group that has provided decisive military help to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria against insurgents, including Sunni jihadist groups.

More.