Islamists burn down 7 Nigerian schools leaving thousands of children without school in middle of term

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3/1/12, "Suspected Islamists burn down seven Nigerian schools," Reuters

"Arsonists suspected to be members of Islamist sect Boko Haram have burned down seven schools in northeastern Nigeria the past few days, authorities said on Thursday, a new twist in the group's increasingly violent insurgency.

Thousands of children have been left without schools in the middle of their term.

Boko Haram, an Islamist movement styled on the Taliban, is waging a low level insurgency against the government that is radiating out from its heartland in the remote northeastern city of Maiduguri right across the north.

Its name means "Western education is sinful", after the ant-Western teachings of its early spiritual leader Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in police custody in 2009.

Musa Inuwa Kubo, the commissioner of education for Borno state, of which Maiduguri is the capital, said the schools were attacked over the past few days, two of them on Thursday....

The group has been involved in almost daily shootings and bombings in northern Nigeria, mostly targeting security forces.

A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a church in the Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday, killing two people and wounding 38 in an attack claimed by Boko Haram." via Atlas Shrugs

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Kansas City, Missouri media keep news to themselves about why a 13 year old white child being set on fire was a 'hate crime'

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Update #2, 3/7/12, "Was Boy in K.C. Fire Attack a Victim of His School's Racist Teaching?" American Thinker, S. Duke

Update, 3/4/12, "'This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy.'" NY Daily News, "Teenagers poured gasoline on boy walking home from school and set him on fire: cops," M. Duerson

-----------------------------------

The article doesn't mention the 13 year old victim and his parents are white but that was seen in a local tv report. The mother said police told her it was a hate crime but media aren't interested in helping the community by finding out what kind of hate crime it was so another child might avoid being set on fire.

2/28/12, "Boy Set on Fire by Teens in East Side Neighborhood," fox4KC.com, Eric Burke

Kansas City, Mo. — "A 13-year-old spent some time in the emergency room on Tuesday night as a result of being burned. The boy was set on fire by a couple of older teens.

The victim is a student at East High School and regularly walks home after class. When he reached his porch, two older teens grabbed him, pinned his arms behind his back and then poured gas from a gas can on the boy. They then set the boy on fire.

The two boys ran and the teen ripped his shirt over his head and patted the fire out. His parents say they can’t believe it.

“We were told it’s a hate crime,” said the boy’s mother. “They essentially followed him home, they told him he got what he deserved. He’s 13 years old.”

The boy and his parents talked with Kansas City police detectives while he was being treated at Children’s Mercy. His parents hope someone at school will hear about what happened so they can find the teens that set him on fire. They plan to press charges.

The family says they’re not sure if or when their son will return to East High School."

====================

3/1/12, "The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name," American Thinker, Jack Cashill

"Without the mother's reference to the hate crime, the viewer/ reader would have no sense that the attackers were likely of another, unspecified race.

Not surprisingly, the racially squeamish Kansas City Star did not include this story in the "Start Smart 10 hot topics" it sent out on Thursday morning. Nor could I find it among the 50 or so stories posted on the front page of its web site, several of which had to do with fires, like "KC Man accused of setting fire to friend's Habitat House." Of course, had the victim been a racial minority or gay, this would have been headline news locally or even nationally....

Eager for change, many of my old neighbors voted for Barack Obama. They hoped that the unspoken divisions would mend. Alas, they have not. The discourse has grown more dishonest, the accusers more shrill, and "hope" has gone out the window."...

Ed. note, This post was defaced by a hacker. The bright white backgrounds inserted behind parts of the post were put there by a hacker.

Breitbart asks some leftists chanting 'stop the hate' to give one example of 'the hate' and they couldn't come up with one

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Leftist protesters outside a 2009 Chicago Tea Party gathering were chanting 'stop the hate,' so Breitbart asked them to give him an example of "the hate" they were talking about. They couldn't come up with one. Nothing. No one on the right had confronted these people before much less proved in short order they were all frauds. Public outrage was the exclusive domain of the left until Breitbart came along. Everything belonged to them. They defined the discourse and culture of the entire country. They hated Breitbart and hate tweets rolled in on news of his death beautifully proving him right yet again. The Arizona center for civility created after the Gaby Giffords shooting is no such thing. It's another effort to silence speech from the right. The left is 100% hate, 100% hypocrisy. After today we have all the evidence we'll ever need.

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Obama airstrikes in Yemen since Dec. 2009 have recruited thousands to Al Qaeda and inflamed hatred against the US-The Nation

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Obama is killing more people in more places and making the US more hated.

2/4/12, "Washington's War in Yemen Backfires," The Nation, J. Scahill (Mar. 5 issue)

"President Obama’s first known authorization of a missile strike on Yemen, on December 17, 2009, killed more than forty Bedouins, many of them women and children, in the remote village of al Majala in Abyan. Another US strike, in May 2010, killed an important tribal leader and the deputy governor of Marib province, Jabir Shabwani, sparking mass anger at the United States and Saleh’s government. “I think these airstrikes were based on false intelligence from the regime, because that is the nature of the contractor,” Qahtan charges. “The contractor wants to create more work in return for earning more money.”

The October drone strike that killed Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, a US citizen, and his teenage cousin shocked and enraged Yemenis of all political stripes. “I firmly believe that the [military] operations implemented by the US performed a great service for Al Qaeda, because those operations gave Al Qaeda unprecedented local sympathy,” says Jamal, the Yemeni journalist. The strikes “have recruited thousands.” Yemeni tribesmen, he says, share one common goal with Al Qaeda, “which is revenge against the Americans, because those who were killed are the sons of the tribesmen, and the tribesmen never, ever give up on revenge.” Even senior officials of the Saleh regime recognize the damage the strikes have caused. “People certainly resent these [US] interventions,” Qirbi, the foreign minister and a close Saleh ally, concedes.

Such resentments mingle easily with the political and religious message of Al Qaeda and with the growing radicalization of the religious landscape, particularly in impoverished areas neglected by the Yemeni government, like Abyan. “Of course, when people are in that kind of circumstance then they need to hold on to some kind of ideological banner, so they start talking about the Caliphate and all that stuff,” says Iryani. At large rallies held by opponents of Saleh’s regime in Sanaa, prominent conservative imams deliver stinging sermons denouncing the United States and Israel. The United States may see AQAP as a membership organization with a finite number of members who can be taken out through a drone- and Tomahawk missile–fueled war of attrition, but there are varying shades of support and involvement among broader segments of Yemeni society. While there are certainly some foreign operatives in AQAP, the majority of those described as “militants” are Yemenis who belong to powerful tribes. “In recent months, Ansar al Sharia appears to have attracted a number of new members,” says Johnsen, the Yemen scholar at Princeton. “The group has essentially attempted to flatten itself out in Yemen in order to appeal to as many people as possible, which means that it takes the popular parts of AQAP’s platform, while downplaying the more controversial sections.”

While General Sumali talks of the need to “cleanse” Abyan of the “terrorists,” it is hardly that simple. The US bombs and the Yemeni military shelling of Zinjibar have increased support for Ansar al Sharia, allowing it to fulfill its claim that it is a defender of the people in the face of an onslaught backed by America. The attacks also serve as hard evidence that, as Awlaki and the leaders of AQAP alleged, the United States intends to target Yemen as it has Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. “I wish to send a message to my brothers and the honorable people of Abyan,” declared Abu Hamza al Murqoshi, the emir of Ansar al Sharia, in a videotaped “Message to Abyan” posted in late January. “The entire world has united against us with this treacherous government, which has demolished your homes and destroyed the infrastructure. You have joined the fight against this state and its allies,

• the Americans.”"...(begin half way down page)
  

via WNYC

Eurozone unemployment hits another record high in Jan. 2012-BBC

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"For all the money the ECB is printing, there isn't yet a big boost for companies in terms of credit." Sounds familiar.

3/1/12, "Eurozone unemployment continues to rise," BBC

"The unemployment rate in the eurozone continued to rise in January, hitting another record high.

The jobless rate in the 17 countries that use the euro rose to 10.7% in January, while December's figure was revised up from 10.4% to 10.6%.

There are now 16.9 million people out of work in the bloc, Eurostat said.

In Italy, the unemployment rate rose to 9.2% in January, the highest since monthly records began, the national statistics agency Istat said.

Italian unemployment had stood at 8.9% in December, but it is now at the highest rate since the first quarter of 2001, as the country finds itself in a second recession in four years.

Spain continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the euro area at 23.3%, while Austria has the lowest at 4%....

But Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank, said: "Despite the euphoria in the banking sector following the ECB's loan programme, the real economy remains very depressed and the key factor is the unemployment rate, both socially and because of the damage to growth....

"There's a huge divergence between the feelgood factor in the stock market and what's happening in the real economy. For all the money the ECB is printing, there isn't yet a big boost for companies in terms of credit."

Meanwhile, separate data from Eurostat showed that inflation in the euro area rose to 2.7% in February, rising slightly from 2.6% in January.

It marks the 15th month in a row that inflation has been above the ECB's target of just below 2%.

Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight, said it amounted to a "double whammy of bad news" for the eurozone.

"This is particularly bad news for consumers, as they are not only facing high and rising unemployment, but also still squeezed purchasing power," he said.

"It had been hoped that eurozone consumer price inflation would be heading down markedly by now, but these hopes are being scuppered by high oil prices.""

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Obama could fix gas prices but he won't because his Wall Street pals wouldn't like it

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"There is plenty of oil and gas around....Wall Street traders are allowed to gamble on vital resources."

3/1/12, "Blame Wall Street for all your bad gas pains," NY Post, John Crudele

"But the truth is that Wall Street controls the price of gasoline. It has for a long time and, until someone does something about it, the financial community will continue to determine how much of your hard-earned money is burned in your car.

Wall Street has this control because it trades gasoline futures contracts, which are basically nothing more than a bet on where gas prices will be headed in the weeks and months ahead.

The gasoline futures contract that expired yesterday was pricing fuel about 18 cents to 20 cents lower than the new April contract that begins trading today.

And unless there’s some miracle — or government intervention — the price at the pump should quickly climb that extra 18 to 20 cents. (I would happily be wrong on this, but I did fill up this morning.)

There is plenty of oil and gas around. And more energy-efficient cars — not to mention the recession — have reduced demand worldwide.

If Washington ever gave the go-ahead on domestic energy projects, we’d be in even better shape.

The latest refrain in Washington is that nobody can do anything about rising gas prices.

• That’s crap!

Wall Street’s trading in futures contracts can be restricted or made more expensive. We are paying more

• because traders are allowed to gamble on vital resources."

====================

12/10/09, "Obama's Big Sellout," Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi

How Obama became the best friend Wall Street ever had and fooled most who voted for him.

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Occupy Rap Sheet of 417 arrests, crimes, endorsements thru Dec. 9, 2011

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"Susan Sarandon said Tuesday that Occupy Wall Street was “ridiculed, demonized, simplified, and distorted by the media in most instances.”"

3/1/12, "*UPDATED* #OccupyWallStreet: The Rap Sheet, So Far," Big Government, John Nolte

"New commentary has been added. Original commentary can be found below the Rap Sheet.

Don’t let the MSM get away with lying to you. Obama and the Democrats are all on record endorsing, embracing, encouraging and emboldening #OccupyWallStreet.

Obama on Occupy Wall Street: ‘We Are on Their Side’

House Democrats Endorse Occupy Wall Street

Top Democrats Endorse Occupy Wall Street Protests

Pelosi Supports Occupy Wall Street Movement

The plan was a simple one. The path to Obama’s second term requires that enough voters forget that our current economic woes are the fault of a failed President who enjoyed two years of having every single item on his wish-list passed by Congress. And so the idea was to create Occupy in order to give the MSM the cover they desired to spend every single day up until the election talking about greed and income inequality in order to blame both for the stagnant economy.

The hope was that by repeating this message incessantly, enough voters could be convinced that Wall Street, and by extension, evil Republicans, were to blame for our chronic unemployment, record deficits, and stillborn economic growth. President Obama who?

Fortunately for America, this plan has not only failed miserably it has backfired completely. Thanks to the rise of New Media and our unwillingness to let the MSM’s lies, bias, and cover ups stand for even one more day, Occupy is in its death throes and might take the President and Democratic party down with it. First and foremost, we uncovered the lie that Occupy was grassroots and then we exposed every Occupy rape, poop, death, overdose, old woman thrown down the stairs, attack on a police officer, and public act of masturbation. In the process, public opinion turned against the Occupiers and as a result these Leftists have started doing what the Left always does when they lose … have a tantrum:

1. NY: 10/1/2011 — Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge
2. Madison, WI: 10-27-2011 — Madison Occupiers Lose Permit Due to Public Masturbation
3. Phoenix: 10/28/2011 — Flier at Occupy Phoenix Asks, “When Should You Shoot a Cop?”
4. NY: 10/18/2011 — Thieves Preying on Fellow Protesters
5. NY: 10/9/2011 — Stinking up Wall Street: Protesters Accused of Living in Filth as Shocking Pictures Show One Demonstrator Defecating on a POLICE CAR
6. NY: 10/7/2011 — Occupiers Rush Police … More
7. Cleveland: 10/18/2011 — ‘Occupy Cleveland’ Protester Alleges She Was Raped
8. NY: 10/10/2011 — ‘Increasingly Debauched’: Are Sex, Drugs & Poor Sanitation Eclipsing Occupy Wall Street?
9. Seattle: 10/18/2011 — Man Accused of Exposing Self to Children Arrested
10. 10/12/2011 — Iran Supports ‘Occupy Wall Street’
11. Portland: 10/16/2011 –#OccupyPortland Protester Desecrates Memorial To U.S. War Dead
12. Portland: 10/15/2011 — #OccupyPortland Protesters Sing “F*** The USA”
13. Chicago: 10/17/2011 — COMMUNIST LEADER Cheered at Occupy Chicago
14. 10/15/2011 — American Nazi Party Endorses Occupy Wall Street‘s ’Courage,‘ Tells Members to Support Protests and Fight ’Judeo-Capitalist Banksters’
15. Boston: 10/14/2011 — Coast Guard member spit on near Occupy Boston tents
16. Boston: 10/11/2011 — Boston Police Arrest Over 100 from Occupy Boston"....(417 at link)

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53% of likely voters favor repeal of ObamaCare-Rasmussen

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2/20/12, "53% Favor Repeal of Health Care Law, 50% Say It's Likely," Rasmussen

"Despite the controversy over the Obama administration’s requirement that Catholic institutions provide free contraceptive coverage for employees, voters’ opinions on the health care law behind that requirement remain steady. Just over half of voters still want the law repealed.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows 53% at least somewhat favor repeal of the health care law, while 38% oppose repeal. These figures include 41% who Strongly Favor repeal and 28% who are Strongly Opposed. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on February 18-19, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology."

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