Guinness pulls sponsorship of New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade

(Fox News) – What’s a St. Patrick’s Day parade without Guinness? The organizers of New York City’s annual march down Fifth Avenue are about to find out.

The makers of the popular Irish beer announced over the weekend that they pulled their sponsorship of the parade due to organizers’ longstanding rule against gay and lesbian groups marching openly.

“Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all,” the company said in a statement posted on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation website Sunday. “We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year’s parade. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. We will continue to work with community leaders to ensure that future parades have an inclusionary policy.”

The move by Guinness follows similar moves by fellow beer companies Heineken and Sam Adams, the latter of which pulled its sponsorship from Sunday’s parade in the traditional Irish stronghold of South Boston. The decision also left Ford Motor Company as the only major U.S. company sponsoring the New York City parade, which dates back to 1762.

Companies aren’t the only ones conspicuous by their absence from city parades. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio will become the first mayor in decades to sit out the march due to the dispute. Boston Mayor Martin Walsh didn’t take part in his city’s parade, either, after talks broke down that would have allowed a gay group to march.

One leader who does plan to march in New York Monday is Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who defended himself against criticism over his decision earlier this week, saying “The St. Patrick’s Day parade (in New York) is a parade about our Irishness and not about sexuality, and I would be happy to participate in it.”

Parade organizers have said gay groups are not prohibited from marching, but are not allowed to carry gay-friendly signs or identify themselves as LGBT.

In Michigan, parades were Sunday held in Bay City and Detroit, and on Monday a St. Patrick’s Day Parade was scheduled in Cleveland. Cities from Savannah, Ga., to Montreal also hosted festivities over the weekend, and throughout the world landmarks were bathed in green floodlights.

Some LGBT groups were to protest the parade, while others had planned to dump Guinness from the shelves of the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the gay rights movement. That demonstration was canceled late Sunday after Guinness put out its statement yanking its sponsorship.

Despite the controversy, New York’s parade, a tradition that predates the city itself, is expected to draw more than 1 million spectators and about 200,000 participants Monday. It has long been a mandatory stop on the city’s political trail, and will include marching bands, traditional Irish dancers and thousands of uniformed city workers.

[H/T Foxnews]

Jihadi Lawyer Lynne Stewart Released from Prison

Terrorists and jihadists are celebrating her release everywhere, while Marxist/Communist Mayor DeBlasio is probably finding a position in his cabinet as well.

(CNN) — A former defense lawyer imprisoned for aiding a convicted terrorist’s communication from prison to his terrorist group was released from prison Tuesday evening, after a judge ordered the “compassionate release.”

U.S. District Judge John Koeltl granted a motion filed by federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reduce the sentence of outspoken lawyer Lynne Stewart, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2010.

Stewart’s “terminal medical condition and very limited life expectancy constitute extraordinary and compelling reasons that warrant the requested reduction,” Koeltl wrote in his order.

“… It is further ordered that the defendant shall be released from the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons as soon as her medical condition permits, the release plan is implemented and travel arrangements can be made.”

Stewart arrived in New York early Wednesday afternoon and is with her son and his family in Brooklyn, according to her lawyer, Jill Shellow.

“I know that she is very happy to be home,” said Shellow. “I believe her immediate plan is to seek medical attention at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.”

Stewart, who is 74 and has breast cancer, was known for representing poor and sometimes unpopular clients as a defense attorney. In 1995, she represented the blind cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted of a long list of terrorist activities, including his part in a plot to blow up American military installations.

Abdel-Rahman is serving life in prison.

The motion filed Tuesday asked the court to release Stewart from a Texas prison because her cancer has metastasized to the lung and bone, and oncologists estimate her life expectancy to be less than 18 months. The filing said her medical condition was “terminal and incurable” and cited the “relatively limited risk” of recidivism and danger to the community from her release.

Shellow told CNN her client’s supporters were “overjoyed that she will spend her remaining days with her family.”

In 2000, Stewart broke her agreement to abide by measures set by the Department of Justice and Bureau of Prisons. Those measures stipulated that Abdel-Rahman not be permitted any contact with his organization, Islamic Group. After visiting Abdel-Rahman in prison, Stewart passed on a message from him to his Islamic Group followers: that Islamic Group should reconsider a cease-fire in attacks against the Egyptian government.

Stewart was disbarred in 2007 and began serving her 28-month sentence in November 2009.

In 2010, Koeltl revised his initial sentencing of Stewart from 28 months to 10 years in prison.

Wearing navy blue prison garb and handcuffs, Stewart entered a crowded courtroom to a standing ovation.

“The pain is overwhelming” said Stewart, who paused to compose herself several times while speaking. “Prison has diminished me.”