Congress in No Rush to Return for ISIS War Authorization

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call By Matt Fuller.

The United States has begun a bombing campaign in Syria, but don’t bet on Congress returning to Washington to vote on a new war authorization anytime soon.

Shortly after airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria started, some lawmakers started pushing again for an authorization vote. But so far, leaders aren’t gearing up to bring their members back to town.

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted Monday night it was “irresponsible and immoral” that congressional leaders had chosen to recess for nearly two months instead of debating and voting on war. And the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, released a statement saying it’s “time for Congress to step up and revise the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force in a way that supports the targeted actions underway, but also prevents the deployment of American ground forces that would drag us into another Iraq War.”

Van Hollen tweeted that Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, should call the House back to debate a new Authorization to Use Military Force.

Boehner’s office deferred to the White House when asked about the issue.

Read more from this story HERE.

___________________________________________________________________

Pentagon: New airstrikes target refineries used by ISIS in Syria

By Chelsea J. Carter, Barbara Starr and Gul Tuysuz.

U.S. and coalition warplanes pounded ISIS positions in eastern Syria on Wednesday, targeting what a Pentagon official described as mobile oil refineries being used by the so-called Islamic State terror group to help finance its operations.

The latest round of airstrikes were aimed at cutting off money flowing to ISIS, which makes up to $2 million a day from oil produced by the mobile refineries, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, told CNN.

Fighter jets from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates flew alongside U.S. aircraft during the operation, hitting 12 locations, Kirby said.

While the U.S. military was still assessing the outcome of the attacks, Kirby said initial indications suggest the strikes were successful.

“We are very confident we hit what we were aiming at, and we caused the damage we wanted,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Awkward: Pres. Obama Has Bombed Seven Countries Since Accepting Nobel Peace Prize

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHallAn editorial published yesterday on CNN pointed out the irony of how Barack Obama, the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has bombed seven countries since receiving the award.

The seven countries are: Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. The airstrikes were carried out with both drones and manned aircraft.

Others have noted the hypocrisy of the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s decidedly unpeaceful activities throughout the years…

Read more from this story HERE.

PETA Urges Vegan Diet for Alleged Cannibal Killer

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Clark County (Ind.) jailAnimal rights group PETA has sparked fury from a local sheriff by demanding that an Indiana man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend and eating parts of her body receive a vegan diet while he is in custody, according to local media.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent a letter to Clark County Acting Sheriff Brian Meyer, encouraging him to provide a diet free of animal products for Joseph Oberhansley, reported the Jeffersonville News & Tribune.

Oberhansley, 33, is accused of breaking into the Jeffersonville home of ex-girlfriend Tammy Jo Blanton, 46, murdering her and abusing her corpse by eating parts of it. He was arrested on Sept.11 and arraigned on Monday. Jeffersonville is across the Ohio River from Louisville.

The letter, signed by Lindsay Rajt, PETA’s associate director of campaigns, said other prisons had seen a decrease in violence after switching to vegetarian meals.

But Meyer told Louisville TV station WHAS that he thought the letter was “a cruel joke,” he said, “When I realized it was real, my first thought was to not even respond because it’s ridiculous.

Read more from this story HERE.

Iran President Calls Coalition Airstrikes Illegal Without Syria Approval

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Behrouz Mehri / AFP / GettyBy Associated Press.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition’s airstrikes in Syria are illegal because they were not approved or coordinated with Syria’s government.

Meeting Tuesday with several news editors on the first day of the United Nations General Assembly gathering of world leaders, Rouhani stressed that Iran condemns the Islamic State group for trampling on human rights and torturing and killing civilians. He said Iran stands ready to help fight terrorism.

Rouhani said the U.S. policy is confused because it simultaneously opposes the militants while also trying to undermine the government of Syria’s President Bashar Assad.

“This is clearly nebulous and ambiguous at best,” he said. “This is a very confusing behavior and policy.”

Read more from this story HERE.

_______________________________________________________________________

ISIS posts second video purportedly showing British hostage

By Fox News.

Islamic State militants have posted a second video online purportedly showing captured British photojournalist James Cantlie, who states that the U.S. and Western nations have underestimated “the strength and fighting zeal” of the group.

In the 6-minute video, a man in an orange jumpsuit who identifies himself as Cantlie says he was abandoned by his government and is a “long-term prisoner of the Islamic State.”

The man quotes a post on a website by former CIA officer Michael Scheuer, who said that Obama does not have a solid plan to defeat ISIS.

Read more from this story HERE.

_______________________________________________________________________

Al Qaeda-linked target of strikes in Syria obsessed with next 9/11

By Benjamin Hall.

The U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria put a spotlight on the shady terrorist group known as Khorasan, a small but potent Al Qaeda offshoot whose sole objective is pulling off another 9/11 terror attack.

The 50 or so fighters hardened from battle in Afghanistan and Pakistan were dispatched to Syria by Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri not to topple Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad or help the Islamic State establish a caliphate, but to recruit foreign fighters and send them home to kill. With thousands of fighters from Europe and the U.S. drawn to Syria’s bloody civil war, Khorasan’s recruiters have a surplus of passport-ready jihadists to choose from.

“Their focus is recruiting those that hold Western passports so they can attack Western airliners,” said Ryan Mauro, national security analyst and adjunct professor of homeland security at the Clarion Project. “Since Al Qaeda is looking like a bunch of has-beens, an attack on Western airliners would be a way of restoring their credibility.

“It’s the jihadist equivalent of an old rock band launching a comeback tour,” he added.

The group takes its name from a Middle Eastern region that jihadists believe will be host to a final war that brings about the appearance of the Mahdi, the messianic “End Times” figure of Islam,” according to Mauro.

Read more from this story HERE.

Immigration News: A New Wave Of Central American Kids Will Reach The US Soon According To Experts

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: EFE/FileWhile the U.S. government acknowledges that there is still a lot to do about the crisis of Central American children entering the country, experts and activists believe that sooner rather than later a new wave of unaccompanied youngsters will arrive at the border with Mexico.
” The situation in Central America hasn’t changed, we have the same problems of insecurity and violence, the lack of governability continues and jobs are still a problem – there is no work for young people who are members of cartels or street gangs,” the director of the Americas Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Carl Meacham, told Efe on Thursday.


Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: APHouse GOP letter: Reveal exec orders

By SEUNG MIN KIM.

The latest group trying to claw information out of the Obama administration on its coming executive action on immigration: House Republicans.

GOP lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee fired off a letter to President Barack Obama on Monday, demanding that he “immediately” publicize all the recommendations he’s gotten on how to go around Congress on immigration.

The chances that Obama will unveil his recommendations from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder are close to zero, at best. The administration has held the range of policy options it’s considering very close to its vest, including in private sessions with lawmakers and advocates.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Single Trip for Obama to Play Pool, Drink Beer and Raise Money Cost Taxpayers about $700,000 (+video)

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP / Jacquelyn MartinTaxpayers had to cough up $1,159,823 in just one month to fly President Obama to New York and Denver to raise money for Democrats and attend an LGBT event, according to documents obtained by a taxpayer watchdog group.

Judicial Watch told Secrets that the Air Force just provided expense reports detailing the flight costs of Air Force One to the cities in July.

The documents show that president’s July 8-9 fundraising trip to Denver cost the taxpayers $695,894.10.

His July 17-18 fundraising trip to New York City cost taxpayers $463,929.40.

Travel costs are typically a small portion of presidential trips. Judicial Watch said that the U.S. Secret Service has not complied with a request to detail security expenses and the costs of housing and moving the president and his staff are also unknown.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Israel Shoots Down Syrian Jet Over Golan Heights

/7 Comments/in , /by

The timing of this incident is rather curious, to say the least. Israel announced today that a single Syrian Su-24 fighter jet crossed over into Israeli airspace over the contested Golan Heights, prompting the IDF to shoot it down with a Patriot battery. This apparently took place while the US and its Arab partners launched air strikes elsewhere in Syria:

The Israeli military shot down a Syrian fighter jet that infiltrated its airspace over the Golan Heights on Tuesday morning — the first such downing in decades, heightening tensions in the volatile plateau.

The military said a “Syrian aircraft infiltrated into Israeli air space” in the morning hours and that the military “intercepted the aircraft in mid-flight, using the Patriot air defense system.”

The military would not say what type of aircraft was downed and said the circumstances of the incident were “unclear.”

A defense official identified the downed aircraft as a Sukhoi Su-24 Russian fighter plane. Previously, it was reported to have been a MiG aircraft. He said the Syrian jet penetrated 2,600 feet into Israeli air space and tried to return to Syria after the Patriot missile was fired.

Read more from this story HERE.

Abortionist: Unborn Baby’s Soul Only Appears When His Mother Accepts Him

/7 Comments/in , /by

James McMahon, late term abortionist, now deceased, once said: “I frankly think the soul or personage comes in when the fetus is accepted by the mother.”

LA Times, The Abortions of Last Resort, 1-7-1990

McMahon performed partial-birth abortions when they were legal. It’s interesting what he says here – one wonders what gives a woman so much power that she can create a soul just by her attitude and opinion. If the woman never accepts the baby, if she still continues to reject the baby after he or she is born, does the baby still not have a soul?

Family Planning director’s “greatest fear”

“…one of the greatest fears I have is that we will not have doctors to provide care; will not have places and that this procedure will become more and more isolated from women’s health.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Publicly-Funded Library Bans Books for Being "Too Christian"

/10 Comments/in , /by

Pacific Justice Institute is warning a charter school in Southern California that it is violating the First Amendment by removing library books based on their perceived Christian content.

A parent of students enrolled at Springs Charter Schools recently was shocked to see some of the books being targeted for removal, including the well-known account of Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place. The parent contacted PJI after library personnel explained to her that they had been directed to remove Christian books, books by Christian authors, and books from Christian publishers.

PJI attorney Michael Peffer sent the school a cease-and-desist letter on Aug. 22, citing long-established Supreme Court precedent that strongly disapproves of school libraries removing books based on opposition to their content or message.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hypocrites: Speakers Fly More Than 1 Million Miles to Attend Climate Change Summit

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHallEnvironmentalists gathered in New York City on Tuesday for the UN Climate Summit 2014, which, according to its website, “will serve as a public platform for leaders at the highest level … to catalyze ambitious action on the ground to reduce emissions and strengthen climate resilience and mobilize political will for an ambitious global agreement by 2015 that limits the world to a less than 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperature.”

And to attend this important meeting, speakers from across the world flew a total of 1,036,537 miles. That’s awfully hypocritical considering environmentalists believe air travel to be the “most serious environmental sin,” don’t you think?

Read more from this story HERE.