Yemen is claiming and Fox is reporting the son of a bitch Awlaki was killed today BY THEM
Hope this is correct
Happy Rosh Hashanah, prick
Friday, September 30, 2011
Excuse me, but did I just hear the the "ONE" give a malaise speech in which he blamed Clinton as well?
“I mean, there are a lot of things we can do,” Obama said. “The way I think about it is, you know, this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft and, you know, we didn’t have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades. We need to get back on track.”
You HAD to know as things got worse a man who blames everything around him, everything which made the job HE WANTED more difficult, would finally blame the american people as his Democratic predecessor of 1976 did, but to also say in the 90’s we lost that competitive edge as well…who was prez then, you dolt?
Every American president has trials.
THAT’S the job.
History makes and unmakes some men, and then some men make history. Mr. Obama found himself the first black man as prez, but then was unmade and revealed as unready, unsteady, and unable to separate his ideology from the practical needs of the moment, and the UNSHAKABLE need of the American people to have at the CENTER, free enterprise.
America Has Gotten A Little Soft?
Those are some pretty strong words coming from a man who has never raised a blister or callus on his hands, never held a real job and has rug burns on his knees from bowing to all those world leaders.
The only thing in America that has gotten a little soft over the years is the heads of the political elite, you dumbass wannabe punk.
The Weekly Standard
a little soft he says
The only thing in America that has gotten a little soft over the years is the heads of the political elite, you dumbass wannabe punk.
The Weekly Standard
a little soft he says
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Welcome to the American Islamic College Conference: ‘9/11…a Wonderful Opportunity’
From Big Government:
One week after the 10th anniversary of the September 11th World Trade Center attacks, carried out by Islamist terrorists, the American Islamic College and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation convened students, academics, and “intellectuals” in Chicago, Illinois, for its 2nd annual conference on “Islam and Muslims in America.” Rather than accepting the underlying facts that lead reasonable Americans to express concern about the spread of Islam in America, the conference chose to focus on Americans’ “racism and bigotry,” negativity, and the so-called “Islamophobia,” inherent in their opinions about the Muslim faith.
This perverse twisting of the post-9/11 environment in America, as well as the institution’s shady past associations with noted Islamist agitators, provides the context for an event of which all Americans should be aware.
The stated purpose of the conference was to promote awareness of the school, discuss the current affairs of Islam and Muslims in America, and confront ”Islamophobia.” However, events that unfolded reveal that the narrative put forth throughout the conference veered sharply from these goals, the careful review of which invites legitimate concern and even alarm*.
(*Notably, it was within this context that U.S. Congressman Mike Quigley found it appropriate in his official capacity, to apologize on behalf of America, seen here in our previously released footage from the event.)
The following video shows an opening statement from the event emcee, a Muslim/pro-Palestinian activist and host of the Rise Up Radio Show Rashid Darwish. While Darwishundoubtably came across as one of the more measured speakers at the event, and gave no reason for observers to conclude that he was of an unpeaceful character, he makes an alarming claim in his opening remarks:
Go read the whole thing.
One week after the 10th anniversary of the September 11th World Trade Center attacks, carried out by Islamist terrorists, the American Islamic College and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation convened students, academics, and “intellectuals” in Chicago, Illinois, for its 2nd annual conference on “Islam and Muslims in America.” Rather than accepting the underlying facts that lead reasonable Americans to express concern about the spread of Islam in America, the conference chose to focus on Americans’ “racism and bigotry,” negativity, and the so-called “Islamophobia,” inherent in their opinions about the Muslim faith.
This perverse twisting of the post-9/11 environment in America, as well as the institution’s shady past associations with noted Islamist agitators, provides the context for an event of which all Americans should be aware.
(*Notably, it was within this context that U.S. Congressman Mike Quigley found it appropriate in his official capacity, to apologize on behalf of America, seen here in our previously released footage from the event.)
The following video shows an opening statement from the event emcee, a Muslim/pro-Palestinian activist and host of the Rise Up Radio Show Rashid Darwish. While Darwishundoubtably came across as one of the more measured speakers at the event, and gave no reason for observers to conclude that he was of an unpeaceful character, he makes an alarming claim in his opening remarks:
“…This last week, we look back at 10 years of the 9/11 tragedy….I will tell you this, it gave us all a wonderful opportunity to now educate people about Islam….and really help define what Islam is all about.”
Go read the whole thing.
Crony Socialism: Obama Gives $737 Million to Solar Firm Linked to the Pelosi Clan
It’s as if Solyndra never happened.Read the full story here.
The Obama Administration is giving $737 million to a Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve. PCG is an investment partner with SolarReserve. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law happens to be the number two man at PCG.Team Obama is spending $737 million to create 45 permanent jobs.The Hill reported, via Free Republic:
The Energy Department announced Wednesday that is has finalized a $737 million loan guarantee for a Nevada solar project.
The decision comes several weeks after a California-based solar manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration in 2009 filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers, setting off a firestorm in Washington.
The $737 million loan guarantee will help finance construction of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a 110-megawatt solar-power-generating facility in Nye County, Nev. The project is sponsored by Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve.
Crescent Dunes is the latest solar project to receive a loan guarantee from the Energy Department in recent weeks. The department announced a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa Solar for a solar generation project in California and a $150 million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies for a Massachusetts solar manufacturing project earlier this month.
The Energy Department says the project will result in 600 construction jobs and 45 permanent jobs.
It looks like Rep. Allen West was right.
Obama IS trying to destroy the economy.
Smoking Gun In "Fast and Furious"? Is It 2nd Amendment Bomb, or a CIA Op Gone Bad?
From Ace:
Is anyone going to cover this?This just might be the smoking gun we’ve been waiting for to break the festering “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal wide open: the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives apparently ordered one of its own agents to purchase firearms with taxpayer money, and sell them directly to a Mexican drug cartel.
Let that sink in: After months of pretending that “Fast and Furious” was a botched surveillance operation of illegal gun-running spearheaded by the ATF and the US attorney’s office in Phoenix, it turns out that the government itself was selling guns to the bad guys.
Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy four Draco pistols for cash and even got a letter from his supervisor, David Voth, authorizing a federally licensed gun dealer to sell him the guns without bothering about the necessary paperwork.
“Please accept this letter in lieu of completing an ATF Form 4473 for the purchase of four (4) CAI, Model Draco, 7.62x39 mm pistols, by Special Agent John Dodson,” read the June 1, 2010, letter. “These aforementioned pistols will be used by Special Agent Dodson in furtherance of performance of his official duties.”
On orders, Dodson then sold the guns to known criminals, who first stashed them away and then -- deliberately unhindered by the ATF or any other agency -- whisked them off to Mexico.I think it was Dodson who specifically attempted to defy orders and surveil the safe-house where these guns were stored. But he was stopped.
This is the problem here, and this has been the problem from the start: This was not a "botched surveillance mistake" as the Administration is trying to peddle. The ATF goons in charge of this deliberately allowed the guns to be delivered into the hands of narcoterrorists with no surveillance whatsoever.
This is not a case where they watched 2000 guns, but lost 25 guns due to the inevitable problems with 24/7 surveillance. And that, oh bad luck, some of those 25 lost guns were used in crimes, such as the murder of Brian Terry.
They didn't watch any of them. Mexico wasn't even in the loop, so how the hell could they have watched where the guns went on the Mexican side of the border?
They didn't "lose" 2000 guns. They intended to let 2000 guns loose.
Why? This is the question, which the media does not seem interested in at all. And because the media isn't interested in asking why, the Administration gets away with the false cover story that this is just the story of a few guns going missing, while the other 1975 guns were always under the watchful eye of surveillers.
Why were all 2000 guns not lost but rather loosed?
What.
Was.
The.
Goal.
Because the goal was not to suddenly arrest dozens of narcoterrorists. How could they arrest them? They had no idea where the guns had gone.
The writer goes on to speculate about my "Moderate Iranian" theory:
There are two possible explanations. The first is that the anti-gun Obama administration deliberately wanted American guns planted in Mexico in order to demonize American firearms dealers and gun owners. The operation was manufacturing “evidence” for the president’s false claim that we’re to blame for the appalling levels of Mexican drug-war violence.
If this is true, then Holder & Co. have got to go -- and the trail needs to be followed no matter where it leads. For the federal government to seek to frame its own citizens is unconscionable.That latter theory would not be as bad as the first -- the first theory being essentially a criminal conspiracy against the Second Amendment, American citizens, and a sovereign neighboring nation to boot -- but it would still be plenty bad. Reagan was nearly impeached over Iran/Contra.
A second notion is that the CIA was behind the whole thing, which accounts for all the desperate wagon-circling. Under this theory, the Agency feared the los Zetas drug cartel was becoming too powerful and might even mount a coup against the Mexican government. So some 2,000 weapons costing more than $1.25 million were deliberately channeled to the rival Sinaloa cartel, which operates along the American border, to keep the Zetas in check.
But one theory we can discard is the Administration's -- the "just a mistake" theory.
There's more. Click here to read the rest.
Hey Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone
Teacher Punishes Students For Saying "Bless You" After Sneezes
From ABC:
From ABC:
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Northern California teacher says he doesn't want to hear a common courtesy in his classroom.He's even lowering students' grades if they say "bless you" after someone sneezes.
Steve Cuckovich says the practice is disrespectful and disruptive. He's banned saying "bless you" in his high school health class in Vacaville.
He even knocked 25 points from one student's grade for saying the phrase in class.
Cuckovich says the policy has nothing to do with religion, but says the phrase is just a outdated practice and disrupts class time.
"When you sneezed in the old days, they thought you were dispelling evil spirits out of your body," Cuckovich said. "So they were saying, 'god bless you' for getting rid of evil spirits. But today, I said what you're doing doesn't really make any sense anymore."
After parents complained about students losing points for saying "bless you", Cuckovich says he decided to stop the practice.
However, the teacher says he will just find another way to discipline students for saying "bless you" in class.
Creating Jobs, the Mayor says
Time was the Reading Eagle would have pages of new jobs available.
That was some time ago.
Still. both our Mayor and the President of the United States, Debbie Wasserman Schultz insist jobs are being created, the stimulus worked and for heaven's sake the Senate can take a vacation before even addressing the jobs issue.
Don't worry, be happy.
So, a quick perusal of today's Reading Eagle Help Wanted.
These are the jobs posted since yesterday
Automotive Repair Technician
Dental Assistant
Driver (for a boat and RV store)
Driver (unspecified)
Electrician
Finisher/grinder
Flower Shop (part time)
Temp Agency
Line Cook
Maintenance Manager
Night Watchman
Office Secretary
Parenting Educator
Parts Department Sales Position
Pub Chef
Receptionist
Short Order Cook
Now, of course, there are other jobs out there. But this is what the only newspaper in a city of 90,000 a county of 411,000 is advertising.
Number 1 indeed.
That was some time ago.
Still. both our Mayor and the President of the United States, Debbie Wasserman Schultz insist jobs are being created, the stimulus worked and for heaven's sake the Senate can take a vacation before even addressing the jobs issue.
Don't worry, be happy.
So, a quick perusal of today's Reading Eagle Help Wanted.
These are the jobs posted since yesterday
Automotive Repair Technician
Dental Assistant
Driver (for a boat and RV store)
Driver (unspecified)
Electrician
Finisher/grinder
Flower Shop (part time)
Temp Agency
Line Cook
Maintenance Manager
Night Watchman
Office Secretary
Parenting Educator
Parts Department Sales Position
Pub Chef
Receptionist
Short Order Cook
Now, of course, there are other jobs out there. But this is what the only newspaper in a city of 90,000 a county of 411,000 is advertising.
Number 1 indeed.
Infidel Bloggers Alliance Hunk of the Week
Per the request of one of our Anonymous commenters, here is Andy Whitfield
I note that Andy died just a few weeks ago:
I note that Andy died just a few weeks ago:
Andy Whitfield (17 July 1972 - 11 September 2011) was a Welsh actor and model. He was best known for his leading role in the Starz television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
Whitfield was born in Amlwch, Wales. He studied engineering at the University of Sheffield, England and worked in Lidcombe, Australia as an engineer before settling in Sydney in 1999.He attended Screenwise Film & TV School for Actors, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He appeared in several Australian television series, such as Opening Up, All Saints, The Strip, Packed to the Rafters and McLeod's Daughters.
Whitfield gained his first prominent role in the Australian supernatural film Gabriel. He also starred in the 2010 television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, which is filmed in New Zealand.[7] He played the part of Spartacus, a soldier condemned to fight as a gladiator and who ultimately leads a rebellion against the Romans (the Third Servile War).Whitfield also appeared in the Australian thriller The Clinic starring opposite Tabrett Bethell (of Legend of the Seeker fame) which was shot in Deniliquin.In August 2010, Whitfield teamed up with Freddie Wong and created a 2 minute long YouTube video named "Time Crisis", based on the game Time Crisis. Whitfield made a brief, uncredited voice-only appearance in the prequel mini-series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which premiered on 21 January 2011.
Meanwhile, our mayor, Tom McMahon (D-ummy) (and too many other politicians pundits and gadflies around this nation) is still trying to put a rosy spin on things.
Reading Eagle:
Mayor says progress made in job creation
McMahon acknowledges education needs
Dan Kelly
Mike Urban
As troubling as Reading's poverty rate is, the city is still moving in the right direction, said Mayor Tom McMahon.
"We've made a lot of progress," he said, referring to thousands of new jobs being created in the Reading area in the last several years. (oh really?)
McMahon acknowledged that Reading needs more of its residents to have some post-secondary education or at least high school diplomas.
But he said there are plenty of qualified workers in the Reading area looking for jobs, making the city a prime place for new companies to open. (looking, but not finding)
Lowering unemployment would cut the poverty rate, reduce the amount of petty crime and increase tax revenue, he said. (no shit knothead)
McMahon said he hasn't gotten a lot of feedback from city residents since the release of new census figures showing that Reading's poverty level has risen.
City officials remain optimistic, he said.
"We're fighting a lot of issues here, but I think we're going to win," he said.
Berks County Commissioners Kevin S. Barnhardt and Christian Y. Leinbach each pointed to the low cost of city housing and the wide availability of social services for poor and low-income families and individuals as contributing to the increase of unemployed and uneducated people in Reading.
Leinbach said the No. 1 poverty rating is a blow.
"It doesn't mean anything good," Leinbach said. "But, that said, it is just a continuum of what we've known for years. It's unfortunate, but that is our reality."
The county and city remain irretrievably linked, he said.
"We can't put a wall around the city," Leinbach said. "We have to find ways to address these issues: Why is housing so cheap and why are large numbers of people coming here from New York and other cities?"
Barnhardt said the No. 1 designation is the result of 30 years of commercial and industrial job flight from the city and that the influx of poor is partly to blame.
"The result has been the creation of a permanent underclass," Barnhardt said.
The only way out is to combine the resources of government, social service agencies and schools to create a more employable work force in the city, he said. (HEY! WE'RE HERE! WE'RE VERY EMPLOYABLE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT?!?!?)
Reading Eagle:
Mayor says progress made in job creation
McMahon acknowledges education needs
Dan Kelly
Mike Urban
As troubling as Reading's poverty rate is, the city is still moving in the right direction, said Mayor Tom McMahon.
"We've made a lot of progress," he said, referring to thousands of new jobs being created in the Reading area in the last several years. (oh really?)
McMahon acknowledged that Reading needs more of its residents to have some post-secondary education or at least high school diplomas.
But he said there are plenty of qualified workers in the Reading area looking for jobs, making the city a prime place for new companies to open. (looking, but not finding)
Lowering unemployment would cut the poverty rate, reduce the amount of petty crime and increase tax revenue, he said. (no shit knothead)
McMahon said he hasn't gotten a lot of feedback from city residents since the release of new census figures showing that Reading's poverty level has risen.
City officials remain optimistic, he said.
"We're fighting a lot of issues here, but I think we're going to win," he said.
Berks County Commissioners Kevin S. Barnhardt and Christian Y. Leinbach each pointed to the low cost of city housing and the wide availability of social services for poor and low-income families and individuals as contributing to the increase of unemployed and uneducated people in Reading.
Leinbach said the No. 1 poverty rating is a blow.
"It doesn't mean anything good," Leinbach said. "But, that said, it is just a continuum of what we've known for years. It's unfortunate, but that is our reality."
The county and city remain irretrievably linked, he said.
"We can't put a wall around the city," Leinbach said. "We have to find ways to address these issues: Why is housing so cheap and why are large numbers of people coming here from New York and other cities?"
Barnhardt said the No. 1 designation is the result of 30 years of commercial and industrial job flight from the city and that the influx of poor is partly to blame.
"The result has been the creation of a permanent underclass," Barnhardt said.
The only way out is to combine the resources of government, social service agencies and schools to create a more employable work force in the city, he said. (HEY! WE'RE HERE! WE'RE VERY EMPLOYABLE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT?!?!?)
No Depression
I post this article because yes, it's my hometown but more importantly it's happening in many other communities as well.
And as they run out of U.C. benefits and there are no jobs on the horizon it is only going to get worse.
The food banks are running out of food. Meanwhile at our local Giant in recent months I have noticed that what is selling out very quickly is the buy one get one stuff, the 10 for $10 yogurt or pasta etc.
Around here it seems people are beginning to stock pile food while they can. While they have the money. While it's still affordable. But even the deals aren't as good as they used to be.
But the other thing I've noticed -- and I've been doing the shopping for more than 2 years now -- is store employees pulling food that has expired from the shelves. It seems it is no longer moving fast enough to sell before expiring.
So, if the food is no longer affordable and the shelves are emt of the food that is. . .
And the food banks and pantries are running out on distributioon days. . .
Needy also reside in suburbs, rural areas
More non-Reading residents seek free Salvation Army food
When Reading was designated No. 1 in poverty nationally, some may have assumed poverty in Berks County is confined to the city limits.
The reality is that as poverty eats at the county seat it also gnaws at the suburban and rural communities that comprise most of Berks.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau's national American Community Survey, there are 35,000 residents living at or below the poverty level in Reading, giving the city a 44 percent poverty rating.
The survey also estimated another 20,000 residents of the suburban ring around the city and the townships and boroughs that make up the rest of the county also are living in poverty.
Mindy McCormick, director of social services at the Salvation Army of Reading, 301 S. Fifth St., said the pantry has been running out of food on distribution days this year for the first time in recent memory.
Although most of those seeking food and other assistance from the downtown center are city residents, increasingly people from communities in the suburbs are coming to Reading for food and other help, McCormick said.
"The need continues to grow," she said. "Exeter Township is now opening their own food pantry."
There were 16 families from the Exeter-Mount Penn area, four from the Temple area, and two each from Spring and Cumru townships and West Reading.
"Last week we had a family drive down from Pottsville after the food pantry there ran out of food," McCormick said. (midnight rider note: Pottsville is 35 miles north of Reading. Nearly an hour one way)
In addition, Ron Kratofil, president and chief executive of Keystone Goodwill Industries, said while the rest of the economy has been in recession the past few years, traffic and sales at Goodwill Thrift Stores in Reading, Muhlenberg Township, Morgantown and Robesonia has been steadily increasing.
Erica Hesselson, executive director of Friend Inc. in Kutztown, which serves the mostly rural northern tier of Berks, said 906 people received food from the pantry in 2010. The agency also provided cash assistance, employment counseling and other services to 1,066 last year.
"This problem is not confined to the cities; it is affecting the rural areas and the working poor," Hesselson said.
Hesselson said suburban and rural poverty also is borne out by the fact that some hard-working residents of the farm communities of northern Berks are coming in for help.
"This is a German, driven, private, independent culture out here," she said. "These are people who had the same job for 20 years and are now unemployed.
"Out here people have a harder time asking for help. They are coming here because they have absolutely no other choice."
Fox:
Course Instructs Journalists to Take Note That Jihad 'Not a Leading Cause of Death'
By Judson Berger
A new online journalism course on Islam appears to downplay the threat posed by global jihad groups, suggesting reporters keep the death toll from Islamic terrorism in "context" by comparing that toll to the number of people killed every year by malaria, HIV/AIDS and other factors.
"Jihad is not a leading cause of death in the world," the online course cautions studying journalists.
While that is technically true, researchers at the Culture and Media Institute who examined the online program took exception to that and numerous other claims made in the Poynter News University course.
Dan Gainor, vice president at the institute, said the course is sweeping these threats "under the rug," while watering down the section on jihad with inappropriate comparisons.
"Infectious disease, we have government structures to prevent that, and that's great ... in radical Islam we have not even one organization but several organizations that are constantly seeking to kill Americans and others too," he said. "It seems like journalists should not be involved in trying to downplay that."
Gainor's group released a report Thursday morning on the course.
The Islam reporting program is supported in part by a group, the Social Science Research Council, which has received funding from organizations backed by billionaire George Soros.
In the section on jihad, the course informs readers that the word merely means "struggle" in Arabic -- this is something White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan has sought to remind the public of in the past. The course notes that terrorism in the name of jihad has "failed to mobilize Muslims outside of a few territories."
But to illustrate this point, the course references the number of people killed by various causes, implicitly suggesting journalists change the way they report on jihad-related deaths.
"Of the hundreds of murders that occur each day, journalists are far more likely to report on jihad-related incidents than other violence. As a result, news consumers have developed a skewed impression of the prevalence of jihad, relative to other forms of conflict. Context is essential in covering this global story in a way that does not amplify fears of jihad," the course says.
The Poynter course estimates jihad groups have killed about 165,000 people over the past four decades, mostly in Iraq. It notes the biggest toll in the United States was the approximately 3,000 killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
"To give those numbers some context, the FBI reports that approximately 15,000 people in the U.S. are murdered each year. All around the world, more than half a million people are murdered annually, according to the World Health Organization," the course says. "At its peak, jihad organizations have accounted for less than 2 percent of this toll -- in most years, they account for well under 1 percent. (A half-million individuals die each year from nutritional deficiencies, more than 800,000 from malaria, and 2 million from HIV/AIDS.)"
Gainor noted that murder victims mostly are killed in separate incidents, whereas victims of Islamic terrorism often are killed in larger-scale attacks. Also, murder victims typically are not killed in the name of an ideological war against a country.
The online course, which is broken into several sections, also discusses "right-wing activists" bent on linking American Muslims to terrorism. The section includes the good-journalism tip that reporters should check to see if experts they're interviewing "have a bias or a stake in the story you are covering." But then it only cites examples of anti-Muslim groups.
The course also addresses Shariah law without including information of instances where the law is interpreted with harsh consequences.
"In countries governed by strict adherence to Islam, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, Shariah is the law of the land. But in many other Muslim countries, such as Egypt, there are separate civil and Shariah law courts, with the latter governing issues such as marriage and family law, while civil courts decide the rest," the course says.
But the Culture and Media Institute, part of the conservative Media Research Center, noted that in strict countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, people can be stoned to death or flogged for non-violent crimes. In Iran, a pastor who refused to renounce his Christian faith was facing execution after his sentence was recently upheld by an Iranian court -- though an attorney now says he is likely to be acquitted.
Representatives from the Poynter program and its supporters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Course Instructs Journalists to Take Note That Jihad 'Not a Leading Cause of Death'
By Judson Berger
A new online journalism course on Islam appears to downplay the threat posed by global jihad groups, suggesting reporters keep the death toll from Islamic terrorism in "context" by comparing that toll to the number of people killed every year by malaria, HIV/AIDS and other factors.
"Jihad is not a leading cause of death in the world," the online course cautions studying journalists.
While that is technically true, researchers at the Culture and Media Institute who examined the online program took exception to that and numerous other claims made in the Poynter News University course.
Dan Gainor, vice president at the institute, said the course is sweeping these threats "under the rug," while watering down the section on jihad with inappropriate comparisons.
"Infectious disease, we have government structures to prevent that, and that's great ... in radical Islam we have not even one organization but several organizations that are constantly seeking to kill Americans and others too," he said. "It seems like journalists should not be involved in trying to downplay that."
Gainor's group released a report Thursday morning on the course.
The Islam reporting program is supported in part by a group, the Social Science Research Council, which has received funding from organizations backed by billionaire George Soros.
In the section on jihad, the course informs readers that the word merely means "struggle" in Arabic -- this is something White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan has sought to remind the public of in the past. The course notes that terrorism in the name of jihad has "failed to mobilize Muslims outside of a few territories."
But to illustrate this point, the course references the number of people killed by various causes, implicitly suggesting journalists change the way they report on jihad-related deaths.
"Of the hundreds of murders that occur each day, journalists are far more likely to report on jihad-related incidents than other violence. As a result, news consumers have developed a skewed impression of the prevalence of jihad, relative to other forms of conflict. Context is essential in covering this global story in a way that does not amplify fears of jihad," the course says.
The Poynter course estimates jihad groups have killed about 165,000 people over the past four decades, mostly in Iraq. It notes the biggest toll in the United States was the approximately 3,000 killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
"To give those numbers some context, the FBI reports that approximately 15,000 people in the U.S. are murdered each year. All around the world, more than half a million people are murdered annually, according to the World Health Organization," the course says. "At its peak, jihad organizations have accounted for less than 2 percent of this toll -- in most years, they account for well under 1 percent. (A half-million individuals die each year from nutritional deficiencies, more than 800,000 from malaria, and 2 million from HIV/AIDS.)"
Gainor noted that murder victims mostly are killed in separate incidents, whereas victims of Islamic terrorism often are killed in larger-scale attacks. Also, murder victims typically are not killed in the name of an ideological war against a country.
The online course, which is broken into several sections, also discusses "right-wing activists" bent on linking American Muslims to terrorism. The section includes the good-journalism tip that reporters should check to see if experts they're interviewing "have a bias or a stake in the story you are covering." But then it only cites examples of anti-Muslim groups.
The course also addresses Shariah law without including information of instances where the law is interpreted with harsh consequences.
"In countries governed by strict adherence to Islam, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, Shariah is the law of the land. But in many other Muslim countries, such as Egypt, there are separate civil and Shariah law courts, with the latter governing issues such as marriage and family law, while civil courts decide the rest," the course says.
But the Culture and Media Institute, part of the conservative Media Research Center, noted that in strict countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, people can be stoned to death or flogged for non-violent crimes. In Iran, a pastor who refused to renounce his Christian faith was facing execution after his sentence was recently upheld by an Iranian court -- though an attorney now says he is likely to be acquitted.
Representatives from the Poynter program and its supporters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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