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Huckabee says Iran nuclear deal 'marching the Israelis to the door of the oven'

WASHINGTON –  GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is sticking with his controversial criticism of the Iran nuclear deal as "marching the Israelis to the door of the oven," a reference to the Holocaust.
The former Arkansas governor made the tweet Sunday, a day after first making the comparison when denouncing President Barack Obama for his role in the agreement reached by the United States and other world powers.
Responding, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Huckabee's statement was "grossly irresponsible" and called on him to apologize.
But a Huckabee spokeswoman said Sunday his comments reflect a longstanding position that "the Iran deal is a bad deal, bad for America and bad for Israel." Huckabee's tweet called on Congress to reject the nuclear deal.
"This president's foreign policy is the most feckless in American history," Huckabee said in an interview with Breitbart News broadcast on Sirius/XM radio Saturday. "He's so naive he would trust the Iranians and he would take the Israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven."
Huckabee said that "this Iran deal should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans."
"We forget Iranians have never kept a deal in 36 years under the ayatollah. There's no reason to think they will suddenly start doing it."
Huckabee said of the deal: "I read the entire thing. We gave away the whole farm. It's got to be stopped."
Huckabee's comments come as the GOP presidential candidates struggle to break through with 16 presidential candidates already in the GOP field, and one of those, New York businessman Donald Trump, getting more attention than most.

Satanic Temple unveils goat-headed statue in Detroit

A crowd of several hundred gathered Saturday night to see Detroit’s newest resident: A 9-foot, 2,000-pound statue of a goat-headed occult idol named Baphomet.
The Satanic Temple unveiled the bronze figure to an estimated 700 attendees at an undisclosed location. The group’s initial venue canceled after local religious groups protested.

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A statue of occult symbol Baphomet was unveiled at a Satanic Temple event in Detroit on July 25. (Chris Switzer)

The group’s approach to secrecy with the second venue led to little opposition on Saturday, Director of the Detroit Satanic Temple chapter and national spokeswoman Jex Blackmore told Fox News.
“Protesters arrived for a short time at our first ticketing location, but retreated after only about 30 minutes,” Blackmore said. “One woman attempted to block the event entrance and was removed by the police in cooperation with the building's owner. “
Guests were washed in red light shining down from the rafters at the venue as “dark punk” bands played and DJs performed from a stage located beneath a lighted, upside-down crucifix. Satanic Temple officials delivered speeches and a pair of shirtless men held candles on either side of the statue, prior to its unveiling.

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The Satanic Temple wants to place the Baphomet statue next to a monument of the Ten Commandments. (Matt Anderson)

Despite the dark pageantry, however, the Temple says its concept of Lucifer is as a literary figure. “The mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people,” the group’s website states.
The statue will now be stored out of public view until the Temple can find it a permanent home. The group hopes to display it at the Arkansas State Capitol, next to a monument of the Ten Commandments.

Senate takes rare Sunday votes, but real drama is GOP leaders' rebuke of Cruz

The Senate held a rare Sunday session to cast key votes, but the real drama was several of the chamber’s senior Republicans chastising fellow GOP Sen. Ted Cruz for criticizing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and John Cornyn of Texas each rose to counter a stunning floor speech Cruz gave on Friday accusing McConnell, R-Ky., of lying.
Cruz, from Texas and a 2016 presidential candidate, was never mentioned by name but was clearly the focus of the senators’ remarks.
"Squabbling and sanctimony may be tolerated in other venues and perhaps on the campaign trail, but they have no place among colleagues in the United States Senate," said Hatch, the Senate's president pro tempore.
Cruz then defended himself for making the accusation that McConnell had lied when he denied striking a deal to allow the vote to revive the Export-Import Bank.
"Speaking the truth about actions is entirely consistent with civility," he said while also acknowledging that he agreed with Hatch's calls for civility and that he was "not happy" about giving the floor speech Friday.
The drama preceded the upper chamber defeating a procedural vote to repeal ObamaCare and taking a step toward reviving the federal Export-Import Bank, both amendments on a must-pass highway bill.
Cruz also reiterated his complaint about McConnell.
"No member of this body has disputed that promise was made and that promise was broken," he said.
Cruz's floor speech Friday had brought nearly unheard-of drama and discord to the Senate floor. But the responses to it were just as remarkable, as senior Republicans united to defend an institution they revere and take down a junior colleague of their own party whom the appear to think has gone from being an occasional nuisance to a threat to the Senate's ability to function with order.
Another one of the votes Sunday defeated Cruz’s attempt to overturn a ruling made Friday that blocked him from offering an amendment related to Iran.
McConnell has said that given support for the Export-Import Bank, no "special deal" was needed to bring it to a vote.
The little-known bank is a federal agency that helps foreign customers to buy U.S. goods. Conservatives oppose it as corporate welfare and are trying to end it. They won an early round, when congressional inaction allowed the bank to expire June 30 for the first time in 81 years.
But on Sunday, senators voted, 67-26, to advance legislation  to revive the bank across a procedural hurdle, making it likely that it will be added to the highway bill.
The bill was introduced by GOP Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk and North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. A vote on final passage could come as early Monday.
On a separate vote, the legislation to repeal ObamaCare failed to advance over a procedural hurdle. Sixty votes were needed but the total was 49-43.
The action came as the Senate tries to complete work on the highway bill ahead of a July 31 deadline. If Congress doesn't act by then, states will lose money for highway and transit projects in the middle of the summer construction season.
With the Export-Import Bank likely added, the highway legislation faces an uncertain future in the House, where there's strong opposition to the bank as well as to the underlying highway measure.
The Senate's version of the highway bill sets policy and authorizes transportation programs for six years.
The House has passed a five-month extension of transportation programs without the Export-Import Bank included, and House leaders of both parties are reluctant to take up the Senate's version.
Complicating matters, Congress is entering its final days of legislative work before its annual August vacation, raising the prospect of unpredictable last-minute maneuvers to resolve the disputes on the highway bill and the Export-Import Bank.

Judge orders Obama administration to release illegal immigrants from 'deplorable' facilities

A federal judge in California has ruled that hundreds of illegal immigrant women and children in U.S. holding facilities should be released, another apparent setback for President Obama’s immigration policy, according to The Los Angeles Times.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee said Friday that the conditions in which the detainees are being held are “deplorable” and violate parts of an 18-year-old court settlement that put restrictions on the detention of migrant children.
The ruling also raises questions about what the administration will do with the estimated 1,700 parents and children at three detention facilities, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
Last year, tens of thousands of women and unaccompanied minors from Central America arrived at the Southwest border, with many believing a rumor that unaccompanied children and single parents with at least one child would be allowed to stay.
More than 68,000 of them were apprehended and detained while officials decided whether they had a right to stay.
Many were being released and told to appear at immigration offices until the administration eventually opened new detention centers.
Gee said in her ruling that children in the two Texas facilities had been held in substandard conditions and gave the administration until Aug. 3 to respond.
“We are disappointed with the court's decision and are reviewing it in consultation with the Department of Justice,” Marsha Catron, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in a prepared statement given to The Times.
Many of the Central Americans who crossed the Southwest border illegally last summer said they were fleeing poverty and escalating gang violence.
The Texas facilities are run by private companies, while the one in Pennsylvania is run by a county government.
In February, a federal judge blocked Obama's 2012 executive action to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from being deported.
And a federal appeals court in New Orleans refused three months later to allow the program to go forward, denying an administration request to lift the lower court decision.
Gee’s decision is also seen as a victory for the immigrant rights lawyers who brought the case.
The ruling upholds a tentative decision Gee made in April and comes a week after the two sides told her that they failed to reach a new settlement agreement as she had requested.
The 1997 settlement bars immigrant children from being held in unlicensed, secure facilities. Gee found that settlement covered all children in the custody of federal immigration officials, even those being held with a parent.
The Justice Department had argued it was necessary to modify the settlement and use detention to try to deter more immigrants from coming to the border after last year's surge. The department also said it was an important way to keep families together while their immigration cases were being reviewed, but the judge rejected that argument in her decision.

White House says Turkey has right to defend itself after Kurdish attacks

The White House said late Saturday Turkey has the right to defend itself against terror attacks by Kurdish rebels, after bombing Kurds in northern Iraq.
For months, Turkey had been reluctant to join the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State terror group despite gain made by the group on Turkey’s doorstep. Now, Turkish warplanes are directly striking ISIS locations, which started Saturday in Syria and continued with a bombing run against Kurds in northern Iraq.
The strikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, muddle the U.S.-led right against ISIS. The U.S. has relied on Syrian Kurds affiliated with the PKK to carry out attacks against ISIS militants.
National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks by the PKK, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist group, and said the PKK should renounce terrorism and resume talks with Ankara.
"We urge de-escalation by both sides and encourage everyone to remain committed to the peaceful ‘solution process’ to bring about a just and sustainable peace for all Turkish citizens,” said Pentagon spokesman James Brindle.
Turkish jets hit shelters and storage facilities belonging to the PKK in seven areas in northern Iraq, including Mount Quandil where the group’s headquarters are located, authorities said. It was Turkey’s first aerial raid in northern Iraq against the PKK since Turkey brokered peace talks with the Kurds in 2012. The PKK declared a cease-fire in 2013.
Turkey’s recent shift in policy toward the fight against ISIS also comes amid a closer cooperation between Iran and the U.S. following the recent nuclear agreement. An analyst told The Associated Press the agreement threatened to lessen Turkey’s strategic importance, prompting it to cooperate with the U.S.-led strikes against the extremists.
Turkey conducted raids on the Islamic State following a suicide-bombing by the terror group, which killed 32 people, and an ISIS attack on Turkish forces, which killed a soldier. IT also declared that it had reached an agreement with Washington to open up its southern air bases to coalition aircract, giving itself a front-line role in the fight.
A senior Obama administration official said there was no connection between the move to deepen U.S.-Turkish cooperation against IS and the airstrikes that Turkey is currently carrying out against the PKK. The official wasn't authorized to comment by name and requested anonymity.
Fadi Hakura, a Turkey analyst at the Chatham House in London, said Turkish leaders feared that increased cooperation between Tehran and Washington in the battle against ISIS could sideline Turkey from U.S. calculations, providing impetus to allow U.S. fighter jets to use Turkish air bases near the Syrian border.
In addition, Islamic State has grown substantially more powerful in the last year, and controls a wider swath of the Turkey-Syria border, leading Turkish intelligence to change its assessment so that it now views the militant group as an imminent threat to Turkish security, said Hakura.
"The use of the Turkish air base is extremely important," he said. "Before, the U.S. had to traverse 1,000 miles to target IS in Syria. Now it will be much less, so naturally the air campaign will be far more intense and far more effective."
The attacks against PKK positions in Iraq comes amid signs of trouble in the peace process, with Turkey accusing the Kurdish rebels of not keeping a pledge to withdraw armed fighters from Turkey’s territory and to disarm. Turkey is also concerned that Kurdish gains in Iraq and in Syria could encourage its own minority to seek independence.
Tensions between Turkey and the Kurds have flared in days following the ISIS bombing in Suruc on Monday. Kurdish groups have blamed the government for not doing enough to combat ISIS. On Wednesday, the PKK claimed responsibility for killing two policemen in the Kurdish majority city of Sanliurfa.
The PKK said the strikes spelled the end of the peace process aimed to end three decades of conflict in Turkey's mainly-Kurdish southeast that has killed tens of thousands of people.
"Turkey has basically ended the cease-fire," Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesman, told The Associated Press.
Turkey's pro-Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party, also said the strikes amounted to an end of the two-year-old truce. It called on the government to end the bombing campaign and resume a dialogue with the Kurds.
While conducting raids, Turkey has simultaneously been clamping down on suspected IS and PKK militants and other groups inside the country. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday nearly 600 suspects were detained in two days of raids in 22 provinces.
"Turkey's operations will, if needed, continue until the terror organizations' command centers, all locations where they plan (attacks) against Turkey and all depots used to store arms to be used against Turkey are destroyed," Davutoglu said.
On Friday, three F-16 jets struck Islamic State targets that included two command centers and a gathering point near the Turkish border in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine Islamic State militants were killed in the raids. The extremists have yet to comment on the strikes.
The Syrian government has so far refrained from commenting on Turkish strikes inside Syrian territory, but Syria's main political opposition group, which is backed by Ankara, welcomed Turkey's move.

Naked Tree Huggers Mount Eucalyptus Trees

There's only one thing worse than a tree-hugger -- and that's a nude tree-hugger.
About 75 folks at the University of California, Berkeley disrobed over the weekend and mounted eucalyptus trees.
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All part of a protest directed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- they say the trees pose a fire hazard and need to come down.
“This is a war on trees,” wildlife activist Jack Gescheidt told Campus Reform.
The demonstration was organized by a group Gescheidt founded -- The Tree Spirit Project. Their mission is “to raise awareness of the critical role trees play in our lives, both globally and personally.”
And part of their schtick is to commune with nature while frolicking buck naked in the wilderness.
The federal government doesn’t seem to be swayed by the protest.
BerkeleySide.com reports that FEMA provided $5.7 million for California to remove the trees as part of a fire hazard abatement in Claremont Canyon.
That region was devastated by a deadly fire in 1991. Twenty-five people were killed, 150 injured and more than 3,300 homes were incinerated.
But Gescheidt doesn’t believe trees cause forest fires.
“The claim about trees being flammable is nonsense,” he told Campus Reform. “All living trees and forests are fire resistant.”
So how does he roast marshmallows without a campfire? Maybe he uses tofu and wheatgrass. I hear that stuff is pretty combustible.
Reaction to the nude protest was muted. One critic said the protesters were “about as hot as you’d expect.”
I heard about a guy from Yazoo City, Miss., who was into that tree hugging malarkey. He dropped his drawers and high-tailed it up an oak tree covered in kudzu.
There was one problem, though. That poor fellow couldn't tell the difference between kudzu and poison ivy.
It proves my theory that there are just some things you should not do if you're buck naked -- like shimmy up a tree -- or fry bacon.

Marines killed in Tenn. shooting eligible for Purple Heart if gunman had terror ties, report says

The four Marines who were killed when a gunman opened fire at a Navy Operational Support Center reportedly will only be eligible to receive a Purple Heart award if the FBI declares the shooter had ties to a terror organization.
The Marine Corps Times reports Purple Heart packages are being prepared for the Marines who lost their lives in the shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The FBI has only referred to Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez as a “homegrown violent extremist.”
 “Determination of eligibility will have to wait until all the facts are gathered and the FBI investigation is complete,” Marine Corps public affairs officer Maj. Clark Carpenter told the Marine Corps Times.
The Marine Corps is also looking into the requirements for awarding a Purple Heart to Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley, who was injured in the attack, said Capt. Alejandro Aguilera, a spokesman for the 6^th Marine Corps District told the Marine Corps Times.
Cheeley was shot in the leg after Abdulazeez pulled up to his recruiting office and opened fire through the storefront window.
To receive the Purple Heart, it must be demonstrated that active-duty troops were killed or wounded by someone in contact with or inspired and motivated by a foreign terrorist organization.
Marines Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" Wells, Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, from Hampden, Mass., Sgt. Carson Holmquist, of Polk, Wisc., and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, of Burke, N.C. were all killed in the July 16 attack. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith also died in the attack.
Federal officials are still working to determine whether Abdulazeez had been radicalized to attack the recruiting centers.