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News of the Week


Andrew Breitbart, R.I.P.

Andrew Breitbart, R.I.P.


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Andrew Breitbart, R.I.P.

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In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart’s Enemies React to His Passing (Updated w/ Ugliness from Slate’s Matt Yglesias)

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Andrew Breitbart: Coroner wants to 'cover all the bases'
The Los Angeles County coroner's office said it is awaiting the results of toxicology tests before releasing an official cause of death for conservative author and activist Andrew Breitbart, who died unexpectedly Thursday at age 43.

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Andrew Breitbart's Unfinished Quest for a Punk Rock Republican
To understand Andrew Breitbart's legacy, you first need to understand what he set out to do. If you happened to encounter him in Los Angeles during the middle of the last decade, when he was transitioning from Matt Drudge's anonymous No. 2 to building his own web empire, he would happily tell you, in a long, not easy to follow monologue, about the terrible creeping forces of "cultural Marxism."

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Andrew Breitbart's death to be reviewed by L.A. County coroner
The Los Angeles County coroner's office will review the death of conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who collapsed and died Thursday while taking a nighttime walk near his Westwood home.

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An Army of Andrew Breitbarts
"She just paints whoever inspires her," twittered Mandy Nagy — aka Liberty Chick — last summer, referring to her mother's expressionistic portrait of Andrew Breitbart (detail above). "This is my war cry for 2012. You need to join me in my war against the institutional left. This is not your mother's Democratic party. Duh!" the social-media provocateur extraordinaire told a CPAC12 audience recently.
"We've lost our Samuel Adams," twittered Mark Tapscott midmorning. "Thoughtful, passionate, complicated. Actually challenged liberals to be better at arguing for what we believe in" said liberal FoxNews contributor Sally Kohn. Back to blogging!" admonished comrade-in-arms Susie, aka Stoutcat, adding her tears to the torrent of heartbreak, fond memories and renewed resolve that drowned out all else in our twitterstream and on Fox as word emerged, disbelieveing tweet by tweet, of Andrew Breitbart's untimely death at age 43 from natural causes. Susie's hashtag, a play on Glenn Reynolds' Army of Davids, resonates:
An Army of Andrews [#armyofandrews]

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There’s an Andrew Breitbart in Each of Us
Andrew Breitbart pulled off one surprise we didn’t expect when he passed at age 43. But his life serves as a lesson and inspiration to continue the restoration of Liberty.

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The Million Breitbart Project
I mourn the death of Andrew Breitbart. I didn’t know the guy personally, aside from the exchange of a few mutual admiration emails, so I have no further insights into the man or his personality beyond what his many friends and colleagues have already written.

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Breitbart: “Wait ‘Til They See What Happens March 1st”

Breitbart died hours before planned release of damning Obama footage

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Breitbart's Tapes of Obama At Harvard To Be Released In 7-10 Days

What'll be on them? I don't know.
Breitbart had no "5" setting. It was always "11." One of the fun things about him was that everything was The Greatest Thing In The World. Or, the Worst Possible Thing In The World.

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With Breitbart gone, what becomes of his empire?

Can you have Breitbart.com without Andrew Breitbart?
The death Thursday of the combative online blogger and publisher leaves open the question of what will become of a thriving colony of conservative websites for which he was owner, prolific contributor and relentless salesman.

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Election 2012

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Con-fusion
Rick Santorum strains the libertarian-conservative alliance.

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Why Ron Paul supporters may be to blame for Olympia Snowe’s exodus
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe’s announcement yesterday that she would not seek re-election shocked even close insiders.

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Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe to retire in blow to GOP
Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe will not seek reelection in 2012, she announced Tuesday.

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Snowe Storm Implications: The Art Of The Possible

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Baldacci, Michaud, Pingree take out papers for Senate seat
PORTLAND — Former Gov. John Baldacci and U.S. Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree, all  Democrats, have become the first of what is expected to be a flood of candidates rushing to get into the race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe.

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Bob Kerrey changes his mind, will run for Senate, source says
Former senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) has changed his mind and plans to run for the open Senate seat in Nebraska, according to a senior Democratic aide.

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Clarence Thomas Is a Long Shot for President, But His Candidacy Makes a Lot of Sense
Call it a longshot if you like, but in this anything-can-happen political year, the Supreme Court justice has qualities to recommend him to a broad spectrum of voters.

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Occupy Wall Street

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Read the DHS report on Occupy Wall Street
In an exclusive, Rolling Stone magazine teams up with Wikileaks to release the report on Occupy Wall Street from the Department of Homeland Security.
"The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is a loose coalition of ongoing peaceful protests taking place in cities across the United States," begins the report.

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Woodruff Park to close for repairs of protest damage
Woodruff Park will be closed next week for work crews to repair damage that city officials said was done by Occupy Atlanta protesters.

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Occupy London Camp at St. Paul's Dismantled

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#OccupyPhoenix demands that their class enemies be "re-educated" in work camps

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Leftist "intelligencia" fool pines away for #Occupy to get violent

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Occupiers foreclose on Wells Fargo’s CEO John Stumpf, auction off his home


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Three Occupy Oakland Protesters Arrested and Charged with Robbery and Hate Crimes

On March 2, 2012, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged three Occupy Oakland protesters with felony counts of robbery and hate crimes.

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Occupiers Arrested for Arson of Green Mountain Falls Town Hall
Green Mountain Falls is a small town near Colorado Springs, CO. Last week arsonists burned down the local Town Hall.

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Psycho Occupier Threatens to “Put Down” Cops Like “Dogs”
The Denver Occupiers who participated in this “f@ck the police” march posted this clip intending to show the outrageous violence of police arresting one of their own. Actually it looks like a professional arrest. But what this clip actually does show is one of these turds make terrorist threats toward cops and their families. Think that’s an unfair description? What do you call it when someone suggests retribution will come to your house and your family?'
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Obamacare

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House subcommittee votes to repeal healthcare reform law's 'death panel'

Bipartisan legislation to repeal the healthcare law's cost-control board sailed through a House panel on Wednesday, raising pressure on the Senate to take up the bill and dealing President Obama a political blow.

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Poll: 63% say no to free health care

The voting public apparently agrees that nothing in life is free, especially health care. A new Rasmussen poll finds that 51 percent oppose free universal health care and a whopping 63 percent reject it if required to change their current insurance coverage to a free government plan.

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Obama to cut healthcare benefits for active duty and retired US military
The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers’ benefits untouched. The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare’s state-run insurance exchanges.

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"Hide The Decline"

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EPA ‘Stalinizes’ JunkScience FOIA request about Gleick
The EPA digs itself into a deeper hole.

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War & Terror

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U.S. court approves warrantless searches of cell phones
U.S. police can search a cell phone for its number without having a warrant, according to a federal appeals court ruling.

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Why U.S., China Destined to Clash
Forty years after Nixon’s extraordinary visit to China, a clash of political systems exists that not even shared economic interests can mask.

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Homeland Security Warned of Tea Party Extremism But DHS Report Called #Occupiers Peaceful Activists

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Vatican Attack Provides Insight Into Anonymous


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Osama bin Laden 'was in routine contact with Pakistan's spy agency'
Osama bin Laden was in routine contact with several senior figures from Pakistan's military intelligence agency while in hiding in the country, according to a large cache of secret intelligence files.

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Russia’s top secret bases
Over 400 modern ground- and sea-based ICBMs, 8 ballistic missile submarines, about 20 general purpose attack submarines, over 50 surface ships and some 100 military-purpose spacecraft, over 600 modern aircraft, including fifth-generation fighters, more than a thousand helicopters, 28 regimental sets of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, 38 division sets of Vityaz air defense systems, 10 brigade sets of Iskander-M tactical missile systems, more than 2,300 modern tanks, some 2,000 self-propelled artillery systems and guns, and more than 17,000 military vehicles. These are the figures of the massive rearmament program announced by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin in an article published on February 20 by state-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

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US Pentagon preparing for Syrian intervention
Washington, Asharq Al-Awsat- with the crisis in Syria escalating on a daily basis, a US military source has stated to told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US Department of Defense, is preparing a scenario to intervene in Syria, based on NATO’s 1998 plan of intervention in Kosovo after the UN Security Council failed at the time to pass a resolution to halt the Yugoslav Government's acts of killing there because Russia objected to the draft resolution and China abstained from voting.

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Navy Testing The Railgun

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'US to announce aerial blockade on Syria'
US readies for possibility of intervention without UN resolution, Asharq Al-Awsat reports, citing US military official; plan to include humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees on Turkey's border

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National

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Gibson Guitar Raid Update
Remember the DOJ Raid on Gibson Guitars last August? Well, there still are no charges,  actually there are still no charges from the original raid two years ago, either, but the Gibson guitar company is out tons of money, lost production, lost product, lost materials seized - and the government still has not acted?

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James Q. Wilson, 80, co-author of ‘Broken Windows’ community policing strategy, died today
James Q. Wilson, a political scientist who coauthored the influential “Broken Windows” article in The Atlantic Monthly in 1982, which became a touchstone for the move toward community policing in Boston and cities across the country, died early this morning in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

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Colo. gov. accidentally calls lt. gov. 'sex star'
DENVER (AP) — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's flattering comments about Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia turned into a bit of a flub.
The governor mistakenly referred to Garcia as a "rising sex star" Wednesday. He made the remark while introducing him at a childhood literacy event attended by about 40 children at a Denver elementary school.

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Monkees Singer Davy Jones
Dead at 66
From Heart Attack

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U.S. Rule Set for Cameras at Cars’ Rear
On average, two children die and about 50 are injured every week when someone accidentally backs over them in a vehicle, according to KidsAndCars.org, a nonprofit group that pushed the government to begin tracking such tragedies. And more than two-thirds of the time, a parent or other close relative is behind the wheel.

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Obama: I’ll veto bill that will provide water to California’s Central Valley
I’ve called the judicially-imposed drought in California’s Central Valley “the Dust Bowl Congress created” through its creation of the Endangered Species Act, invoked in this case by the Delta smelt, a fish that’s not suitable for eating.  Once a breadbasket for the nation, the cutoff of irrigation water to the Central Valley has destroyed agriculture and tens of thousands of jobs as a tradeoff for the endangered fish.

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House Democrats leave Iowa Capitol in protest of gun bills
Iowa House Democrats this morning left the Capitol in protest of two gun bills the Republican majority had planned to debate today that critics contend would make the state part of the “Wild, Wild West.”

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Duplicity and Diversity in Higher Education
Two years ago, in his annual State of the Union address, President Obama publicly upbraided the Supreme Court, six of whose members were seated immediately before him in their robes, alongside chiefs of the military.

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LA Gov. Bobby Jindal Eviscerates Obama Administration On Energy
This is great. A reporter asked Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal a question which was obviously designed to absolve President Obama of any responsibility for skyrocketing gas prices and his failure to enact any sort of coherent energy policy. She even tries to employ some tired White House talking points in her question. Jindal wasn’t having any of it.

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Nevada’s only liquor distillery offers unique drinking experience
George Racz, owner of the Las Vegas Distillery, describes the process of opening Nevada's only liquor distillery, has been "very complicated."

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One small step for porn: Playboy to plan a strip club in space
It would certainly be the club all men would want to go to.
Playboy have teamed up with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic in designing a futuristic gentleman's club that literally is, 'out of this world'.
In the March issue of the iconic magazine, readers will be treated to a sci-fi themed depiction of fun and games aboard a space station.

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55% Oppose Affirmative Action Policies for College Admissions
The U.S. Supreme Court last week agreed to hear a case involving the use of race as a factor in college admissions. Most voters oppose the use of so-called affirmative action policies at colleges and universities and continue to believe those policies have not been successful despite being in place for 50 years.

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Is The IRS Attempting to Intimidate Local Tea Parties?

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Jesse Jackson declares that Obama should be proud to be "food stamp president"

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Doctors call for HPV shots for boys
Despite lackluster acceptance among girls for a vaccine to prevent cancer-causing sexually transmitted viruses, the American Academy of Pediatrics is fully recommending that boys get the shots as well.

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Connecting the Dots on Fast and Furious

When Eric Holder testified last December before the House Judiciary Committee about the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, he proclaimed in his opening statement that the Justice Department had been "fully cooperative and responsive in its dealing with Congress."

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A Broad-Based IRS Assault on the Tea Party?

In the last 24 hours, my colleagues at the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) have been in contact with literally dozens of tea-party organizations that have received intrusive information demands from the IRS, demands that seriously implicate their First Amendment rights

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Planned Parenthood Sells Condoms With GPS Showing Sex Location
Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion business, makes no bones about crossing the line in an attempt to generate publicity and attention and it is at it again with condoms that allow wearers to advertise where they had sex.

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Economy & Taxes

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Rotten Economic News Continues to Stream Out of India
Adding to the “new normal” of global economic gloom, India’s growth has slowed to its most tepid pace in three years, according to Reuters. High interest rates, rising inflation, and a manufacturing sector hampered by expensive inputs and high borrowing costs mean that India is doing worse than other Asian economies, which are themselves slowing down amid global deleveraging and structural shifts.

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Only 54% Of Young Adults In America Have A Job


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This Is The Economy On Stimulus

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Foreign Central Banks To Begin Buying US Stocks Outright Starting Today

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Greek Colonization 102: Europe Calls For Reconstruction Commissioner In Athens
First they force now officially defaulted Greece to bailout European banks courtesy of a Greek funded Escrow package, then they make Greek pays for the privilege of having a job, then they send in German tax collectors, and finally they prepare to pilfer the gold. And simply because nobody is home, the colonization continues, with the formal take over of the country by a "Kommisar"

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Iran Moves Further To End Petrodollar, Announces Will Accept Payment In Gold Instead Of Dollars
Much has been spun in recent weeks to indicate that as a result of collapsing trade, Iran's economy is in shambles and that the financial embargo hoisted upon the country by the insolvent, pardon, developed world is working.

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VAT: The Nightmare Tax Gets Proposed, Again
Former Senator Hollings floats the idea, which Obama has considered before.

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Durable Goods Demand Falls Most in 3 Years; Down 4%
New orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell in January by the most in three years as demand fell across the board from machinery to aircraft, suggesting the economy started the year on weaker footing than expected.

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The Perfection Of Crony Capitalism: Use Regulation To Destroy Competitors
Crony capitalism uses its wealth to impose government regulations designed to hinder, cripple and destroy small business competitors.

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Stimulus ‘Success Story’ Lays Off 125 Workers and Posts $172 Million in Losses
The latest taxpayer-funded clean energy debacle–A123 Systems, an electric car battery company–” has laid off 125 employees and had a net loss of $172 million through the first three quarters of 2011,” reports the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

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Student loan bubble

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Spanish revolt brews as national economic rearmament begins in Europe

Spain's new prime minister has looked into the abyss and recoiled.

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George Osborne: UK has run out of money
The Government 'has run out of money' and cannot afford debt-fuelled tax cuts or extra spending, George Osborne has admitted.

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Americans Will Need “Black Markets” To Survive

As Americans, we live in two worlds; the world of mainstream fantasy, and the world of day-to-day reality right outside our front doors.  One disappears the moment we shut off our television.  The other, does not…

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Inflation: Not as low as you think

Forget the modest 3.1 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, the government's widely used measure of inflation. Everyday prices are up some 8 percent over the past year, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.

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International

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Saudi, Qatari plans to arm Syrian rebels risk overtaking cautious approach favored by U.S.
The administration is considering providing the opposition with nonlethal training and assistance, including communications equipment, similar to what it gave the Libyan opposition ground forces.

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Saudi Arabia's Eastern Revolution hits the oil sector: pipeline under fire

For the first time in decades, the Eastern Saudi Arabian volatile situation has reached the vital oil sector. A pipeline between Awamiya and Safwa has been reportedly targeted, and is under fire. Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority, mostly residing in the oil rich east, has been protesting for years against State sponsored discrimination. They are treated as second class citizens, denied public sector jobs, and vital development for their oil rich areas. Saudi Arabia's powerful Wahhabi religious establishment considers Shiites heretics, and constantly incites against them.

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EU causing very hostility it was meant to prevent
YOU can smell the anger on the streets of Athens as vividly as the pungent whiff of burning cars and buildings.

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Are Newborns People? Australian Ethicists Say No
The Blaze notes the publication of a journal publication by two Australian ethicists which argues that infanticide should be legal. Hard to believe this is legit, but it appears to be.

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WikiLeaks: Doctors of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez disagree over his health
Doctors from Russia, Cuba and China have been bickering over the president of Venezuela’s health and are at odds about the leader's prognosis, according to a confidential email published by WikiLeaks.
According to the report, Cuban doctors thought Chávez had two years to live, while the Russian team gave him one year.

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Saudi Arabia bans women from its Olympic team
Saudi Arabia has been accused of breaking the spirit of the Olympics by refusing to bring a female team to compete in the London games.

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Nigeria unrest: Suicide bomb targets church in Jos
A suicide car bomber has killed at least three people at a church in the troubled central Nigerian city of Jos, sparking reprisals by Christian youths.

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Desecrated: The shocking video of Churchill's Desert Rats' graves being smashed to rubble... by the Libyans we helped liberate
Headstones torn down and crucifixes smashed with hammers by extremists
More than 150 graves of British serviceman systematically desecrated
Attack carried out over two days with footage posted online
Members of mob heard repeatedly calling dead servicemen 'dogs'

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Putin wins back Russian presidency
Vladimir Putin triumphed in Russia's presidential election on Sunday and, tears rolling down his cheeks, called his victory a turning point that had prevented the country falling into the hands of enemies.

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Dutch mobile euthanasia units to make house calls
New scheme called 'Life End' will respond to sick people whose own doctors have refused to help them end their lives at home

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Irony: 'I've had death threats,' says academic who said doctors 'should have the right to kill unwanted or disabled babies at birth'

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The picture that shames Britain: As a man's body floats in three feet of water, 25 emergency workers stand and watch because they aren't 'trained' to go in water

MoS investigation into park pond tragedy and emergency services’ response reveals:
Rules that stopped firemen entering water were meant for fast-flowing rivers
Coalition ‘common sense’ report gives green light for heroes – but was ignored
Our reporter, in pair of waders, took two minutes to reach spot where body floated

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Opinion

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History Never Quite Ends
Whatever else changes, human nature does not.

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The State of the Anglosphere
The decline of the English-speaking world has been greatly exaggerated.
The world financial crisis has provoked a stark feeling of decline among many in the West, particularly citizens of what some call the Anglosphere: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In the United States, for example, roughly 73 percent see the country as on the wrong track, according to an Ipsos MORI poll—a level of dissatisfaction unseen for a generation.

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#SCoaMF: "The Con Artist"

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Whom Despots Fear

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It’s time to fix the Bill of Rights

So the Senate has voted down the effort to undo President Obama's quite reasonable mandate that all employers have to pay for their employees' contraception. I was shocked that there was a dispute about this — especially because of “religious objections.” Who knew that was still a thing?

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America: The Turnaround Client
America is in need of a turnaround.
Perhaps more to the point, the Republican Party is in need of a turnaround. Desperately.

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