Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Iran says invites UN nuclear agency to visit


VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has invited the U.N. nuclear watchdog to visit for talks, an Iranian envoy told Reuters on Tuesday, suggesting Tehran would be prepared to address concerns about its atomic ambitions.
Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran earlier this month sent a letter to U.N. nuclear agency chief Yukiya Amano, who last month issued a report which pointed to military links to Tehran's nuclear programme, a charge it denies.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

The letter, Soltanieh said, renewed an Iranian invitation from October for a team of senior International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials to travel to the country.
"I have also had discussions with the officials of the agency and we are planning for the visit," Soltanieh said.
Western diplomats tend to see such invitations as attempts by Iran, which is facing tightening sanctions, to buy time and ease international pressure.
Amano has made clear that any new visit to Tehran by senior IAEA officials must address its growing concerns about potential military aims of the nuclear programme, which Iran says is strictly peaceful.
Asked whether Iran would be willing to discuss such issues, Soltanieh said: "We are going to discuss any questions and to work towards removing the ambiguities and resolving the issue."
A senior Western diplomat earlier said Iran's offer of talks
included no promise that discussions would cover issues raised in the November 8 IAEA report, which suggested Iran had worked on developing the means to build a nuclear weapon.
"Apparently the Iranians have invited agency officials, but the offer is clearly just part of their amateurish charm offensive," the diplomat said. There is "no commitment to talk substance ... same old movie."
Western countries seized on the IAEA report last month to ratchet up economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic, one of the world's largest oil producers.
Previous visits by senior IAEA officials have failed to make significant progress towards resolving the long-running row over Iran's nuclear programme, which has the potential to spark a wider conflict in the Middle East.
(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Court Clerks Run Court While Judge Is Gone


By Joe Harris


ST. LOUIS (CN) - Court clerks apparently ran a city judge's court while she was on vacation, dismissing cases, refusing bond reductions and ordering that arrest warrants be issued.
     Clerks handled at least 350 cases while Associate Circuit Judge Barbara T. Peebles was on a 2-week vacation in China, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
     The newspaper's investigation found that clerks dismissed five cases, refused to dismiss at least one and decided that as many as 18 arrest warrants should be issued during Peebles' absence.
     Clerks also continued more than 300 cases, telling defense lawyers there would be no bail reductions while Peebles was gone - potentially adding weeks of jail time for defendants seeking release before trial, the Post-Dispatch reported.
     Many of the actions were taken using a stamp with Peebles' signature. Peebles presides in Division 25, which handles the initial stages of criminal cases.
     St. Louis Circuit Court Presiding Judge Steven Ohmer told the Post-Dispatch that Peebles' and her clerks' conduct was wrong, and blamed it on an overall lack of management and supervision.
     Ohmer said the Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline, which investigate complaints about judges, is aware of the situation.
     Peebles told the Post-Dispatch she could not comment.
     Judges usually schedule their cases around vacations and work it out with colleagues to handle matters that cannot be deferred. Peebles did get her fellow judges to cover part of her work - recently arrested inmates who must appear before a judge - while she was gone, but not the rest.
     Ohmer told the Post-Dispatch there may have been some animosity between Peebles and the other judges that made her reluctant to ask. Ohmer said he considered moving Peebles out of her position - such a move hasn't happened in 30 years - but decided against it. In January, Peebles will move on to a civil trial division as planned.
Source http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/12/20/42383.htm

Will Your Christmas Be White? Weather

abc gma weather map nt 111220 wblog Weekend Weather Scenarios: Will Your Christmas Be White?

Parts of the West have been hit by a deadly winter storm that has been blamed for at least six deaths, and a Nor’easter could threaten the East in the next several days.
A cold winter blast has pummeled the Great Plains. In the last 24 hours, 24 inches of snow was reported in New Mexico with winds gusting over 70 mph in the mountains. All major highways in New Mexico were shut down, but not before a car crash killed four and injured two others.
More than 100 car rescues were reported from the pan handle of Texas to New Mexico.
Kansas and Oklahoma have up to a foot of snow, as does Colorado, where 10-foot snow drifts are being reported.
Parts of southwest Kansas received half of their annual snow fall — 5-10 inches of snow — with gusty winds blowing the snow into 1-3 foot drifts.
As it moves east now, the storm is weakening and becoming mostly a rain maker, with some thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast. Some storms could produce heavy rain with minor flooding, gusty winds and hail.
Tomorrow morning, the storm will reach the East Coast in the form of rain from Atlanta to Boston. Airport delays are possible.
Thursday will be dry, but another storm system will bring rain to the major cities along the East Coast on Friday with temperatures near 50 degrees.
Saturday, a third storm could bring some snow to parts of the Northeast. Here are three possible scenarios for the Christmas weekend:
Scenario #1:  Mostly Snow just outside of major cities with rain changing to snow from D.C. to Boston.
Scenario #2:   All rain along the coast with snow inland in places like Poconos, Catskills and mountains of New England.
Scenario #3:  The storm will move south and miss the Northeast region altogether.

Against AFRICOM - Cynthia McKinney on GRTV

Was Jefferson a Socialist?


by Tom Woods
Someone on my Facebook fan page asked about a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison on October 28, 1785. The person said his leftist friends were waving this letter around as evidence that Jefferson was some kind of semi-socialist wealth redistributionist. I contacted my friend Marco Bassani, professor at the University of Milan and author of the excellent book Liberty, State, and Union: The Political Theory of Thomas Jefferson. One of the major points in that book is that Jefferson was in fact a Lockean natural-rights thinker who conceived of property rights as natural, not conventional (i.e., government-granted).
Here’s the letter in question, and what follows is Professor Bassani’s reply.
First of all one has to understand that Thomas Jefferson was not Locke, Hobbes, or Marx: inconsistencies are to be found here and there, especially in private correspondence. His correspondence with Madison in particular is full of these things. The letter is TJ to James Madison, 28 Oct. 1785, Papers 8:681-82.
He is writing from Paris to his friend Madison, whom he believes to be too conservative.
He meets a poor woman and gives her some money for telling him directions. “This little attendrissement, with the solitude of my walk led me into a train of reflections on that unequal division of property which occasions the numberless instances of wretchedness which I had observed in this country and is to be observed all over Europe” [emphasis added]. He is not talking about the U.S., or speaking in general. He just sees the Revolution coming and speculates about wealth. Thus:
The property of this country is absolutely concentered in a very few hands…. But after all these comes the most numerous of all the classes, that is, the poor who cannot find work. I asked myself what could be the reason that so many should be permitted to beg who are willing to work, in a country where there is a very considerable proportion of uncultivated lands? These lands are kept idle mostly for the aske of game. It should seem then that it must be because of the enormous wealth of the proprietors which places them above attention to the increase of their revenues by permitting these lands to be laboured.
Nothing socialist so far.
I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of every kind therefore to all the children, or to all the brothers and sisters, or other relations in equal degree is a politic measure, and a practicable one.
This is the only measure he actually always and consistently favored.
Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.
Jefferson is stating a means, not saying he agrees with such an extreme measure. In fact, he always opposed it, having written that the tax system must “be equally and fairly applied to all. To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare [give] to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, ‘the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.’ If the overgrown wealth of an individual be deemed dangerous to the State, the best corrective is the law of equal inheritance to all [of his kin] in equal degree; and the better, as this enforces a law of nature, while extra-taxation violates it. (Thomas Jefferson, Note in Destutt de Tracy’s Political Economy,1816.)
To continue with Jefferson’s letter to Madison:
Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour and live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed. It is too soon yet in our country to say that every man who cannot find employment but who can find uncultivated land, shall be at liberty to cultivate it, paying a moderate rent. But it is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.
All this is a revisit of John Locke, especially the “Lockean proviso” we find in Locke’s Second Treatise.  In the state of nature, Locke held, a stringent condition that must be met in order for the acquisition of previously unowned property to be considered just was that following the appropriation, there must be “at least…enough, and as good left in common for others.” Thus Locke:
As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property…. God and his reason commanded him to subdue the earth—i.e., improve it for the benefit of life and therein lay out something upon it that was his own, his labour. He that, in obedience to this command of God, subdued, tilled, and sowed any part of it, thereby annexed to it something that was his property, which another had no title to, nor could without injury take from him.
Taken at face value, the Lockean proviso would result in a complete prohibition of appropriation in the state of nature. As Murray Rothbard has pointed out, “Locke’s proviso may lead to the outlawry of all private ownership of land, since one can always say that the reduction of available land leaves everyone else, who could have appropriated the land, worse off.”
Jefferson’s assertions concerning land and the sovereignty of the present generation is nothing more than an extension of the limits on exploitation set by Locke. Putting property to good use (a prohibition against waste) and the Lockean proviso (appropriation of goods without causing a deterioration in the condition of others) are restrictions that hold in the relations between generations.
Generations stand facing one another, as do whole nations or individuals in the state of nature. Therefore, the law of nature regulates their relations. It is the duty of a generation to leave land “enough and as good” for the following generations. This is evidently an extension of the proviso, because the properties are the same. One’s own successors do not enjoy a generic right to unexplored lands, but to the specific property already owned by their parents. Just as the new generations have the right to get property that is not burdened with debts, so also the “others,” those who do not participate in that specific appropriation, have exactly the same right to enjoy land “enough and as good” in the Lockean state of nature. Similarly, property cannot be exploited and destroyed, jeopardizing the future of the coming generations. Waste is not countenanced by the law of nature.
The sovereignty of the present generation can thus be defined as the right to receive a world in which the present has not been mortgaged by the ancestors. Every nineteen years, according to Jefferson’s calculations (which were based on the mortality tables formulated by Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon), a generation comes into the world. This generation has the right to a fresh start, whereas the one that preceded it had the duty not to destroy the world in which the present generation must live. It is a radical Lockean outlook, not a pseudosocialist one.

TRN News Night with Jay Guests are Travinyle1 CT 12/20 by Truth Radio Net | Blog Talk Radio

TRN News Night with Jay Guests are Travinyle1 CT 12/20 by Truth Radio Net | Blog Talk Radio

North Korea Sealed Its Border With China Before Announcing Kim’s Death


(CNSNews.com) – During the two days that passed between Kim Jong-il’s death and the official announcement, the North Korean regime reportedly took steps to prevent a chaotic response to the news, apparently fearing a mass exodus across the border with China.
Announcement of the death came on Monday, at noon local time, when a black-clad, tearful news announcer on state television said Kim had died on a train during a “field guidance tour” from a heart attack triggered by “great mental and physical strain.” The death had occurred, she said, at 8.30 AM on Saturday morning — 51-and-a-half hours earlier.
Daily NK, a South Korean-based news hub focusing on the North, reports that, according to a military source, North Korean border guard units received orders at 1 AM on Sunday morning to seal the border immediately.

Nirvana - The Moon, New Haven 1991 (FULL)

Thanks a lot to all who sacrificed their lives for the corporate crime families


Missy Comley Beattie


December 19, 2011
A new day is upon us. And let us never forget those who gave us this chance: the untold number of Iraqis who’ve given their lives; more than one million Americans, military and civilian, who have served in Iraq; nearly 4,500 fallen Americans who gave their last full measure of devotion; tens of thousands of wounded warriors and so many inspiring military families. They are the reason that we can stand here today. And we owe it to every single one of them; we have a moral obligation to all of them to build a future worthy of their sacrifice.—Barack Obama, December 12, 2011
Thanks for your sacrifice, dead Iraqis.
Thanks, families of dead Iraqis, for your sacrifice.
Thanks, maimed Iraqis, for your sacrifice.
Thanks for your sacrifice, families of the maimed.
Thanks, babies born with two-heads, for your sacrifice.
Thanks, families of the genetically mutated, for your sacrifice.
Thanks for your sacrifice, all the displaced.
Thanks for your sacrifice, Iraq. Perhaps, if you’d had serious armaments, five or six nukes instead of frogs, snails, puppy-dogs’ tails, nails, shrapnel, and something to make them BOOM, we wouldn’t have used your landscape, airspace, and people for our WMD testing. Kudos, though, to you, because during nine years, you mounted a valiant an impressive fight against the U.S. military/industrial/security complex.
Sorry for your loss.
Thanks, dead "coalition troops," for your sacrifice.
Thanks, families of dead troops, for your sacrifice.
Thanks, maimed, traumatic brain-injured soldiers, for your sacrifice.
Thanks for your sacrifice, families of maimed and brain-injured soldiers.
Thanks, troops who’ve committed suicide, for your sacrifice.
Thanks, families of suicides, for your sacrifice.
Thanks, for your sacrifice, posttraumatic stress disordered troops.
Thanks, families of posttraumatic stress disordered troops, for your sacrifice.
Sorry for your loss.
Thanks, war criminal Henry Kissinger, for saying, years ago, that soldiers are "dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy."
Thanks, Congress, for your sacrifice in giving George Bush and Dick Cheney authority to invade and occupy a sovereign nation.
Thanks, those of you who shouted, "USA! USA! USA!" in support.
Thanks, Barack Obama, for reuniting military men and women for the holidays.
Thanks for your confidence, Mr. Obama, in saying that our (the U.S.’s) goal is a successful Iraq.
Thanks some more, Mr. Obama, for not wanting to "create big footprints in Iraq." The Iraqis must be grateful. And, maybe, at the end of December, finally, they’ll present those flowers.
Thanks, too, for saying that "history will judge the original decision to go into Iraq" when, Mr. Obama, you, while campaigning, called the Iraq war "dumb."
Thanks for not emphasizing the contractors who’ll remain to protect strategically (?) the Green Zone, the U.S.’s largest embassy.
Thanks, Mr. Obama, for offering an "enduring" partnership (?) with Iraq, based on "mutual interest (?) and mutual respect (?). Whatever this partnership of mutually exclusive mutual exclusivities is.

The war In Iraq will soon belong to history, and your service belongs to the ages. Never forget that you are part of an unbroken line of heroes spanning two centuries—from colonists who overthrew an empire; to your grandparents and parents, who faced down fascism and communism; to you—men and women who fought for the same principles in Fallujah and Kandahar, and delivered justice to those who attacked us on 911.—Obama, December 14, 2011 to military men and women at Fort Bragg, NC.
Troops, your service belongs not to the ages but, instead, to the corporate crime families.
And until there is a real, independent criminal investigation of the events of 9/11, there will be no justice.
There, also, will be no justice until those responsible for the collapse of the economy are held accountable.
Without justice, the bloodstained sacrificial altar of US foreign and domestic policy, presided over by Wall Street warlords, will continue to be bullish.
Missy Comley Beattie lives in Baltimore. She can be reached at:missybeat@gmail.com.


Source 

MSM: Ron Paul's Iowa Lead Downplayed

U.N. Adopts ‘Religious Intolerance’ Resolution Championed by Obama Administration

UN flags
(CNSNews.com) – The U.N. General Assembly on Monday adopted a resolution condemning the stereotyping, negative profiling and stigmatization of people based on their religion, and urging countries to take effective steps “to address and combat such incidents.”
No member state called for a recorded vote on the text, which was as a result adopted “by consensus.”
The resolution, an initiative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), is based on one passed by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council in Geneva last spring. The State Department last week hosted a meeting to discuss ways of “implementing” it.
Every year since 1999 the OIC has steered through the U.N.’s human rights apparatus a resolution condemning the “defamation of religion,” which for the bloc of 56 Muslim states covered incidents ranging from satirizing Mohammed in a newspaper cartoon to criticism of shari’a and post-9/11 security check profiling.
Critics regard the measure as an attempt to outlaw valid and critical scrutiny of Islamic teachings, as some OIC states do through controversial blasphemy laws at home.

Ron Paul Viral Music Video, The Death of Kim Jong-il & More: Infowars Ni...

Club Of Rome Calls For Global Government

The following is taken from the Club Of Rome's own website. Not a conspiracy theory message board.

If you are unfamiliar with the Club Of Rome Wikipedia describes the group:
The Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. Founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in RomeItaly, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and former Heads of State, UN bureaucrats, high-level politicians and government officials, diplomats, scientists, economists, and business leaders from around the globe.[1] It raised considerable public attention in 1972 with its report The Limits to Growth. The club states that its mission is "to act as a global catalyst for change through the identification and analysis of the crucial problems facing humanity and the communication of such problems to the most important public and private decision makers as well as to the general public."[2] Since 1 July 2008, the organization has its headquarters in Winterthur, Switzerland.



http://clubofrome.org/cms/?p=2107


The World in 2052

The root causes of the crises we are witnessing rest on outmoded theoretical concepts, values and institutions. The remedy lies in the formulation of a new theory appropriate to the radically different conditions of the 21st century, commitment to progressive values that integrate individual freedom and equitable cooperation to maximize the welfare and well-being of all, and establishment of more effective national and global institutions

There is a growing understanding and an increasing consensus of the kind of world we want to live in. A global society which has moved beyond hunger and suppression, a world that manages to live off the resources which the finite planet and the infinite human ingenuity provide, an equitable society which lives sustainably and is a lot better off and happier than today.

The world in 2052 can be a much safer and resilient place than it is today. Humanity has the opportunities, the tools, the science, technology and the insight to overcome the systemic crisis and to move into a better world. Whether we manage to do so will depend on each one of us.


China Openly Discusses Weather Modification Conspiracy

By Travinyle1
For anyone in the United States who has researched or talked about the known process of "geoengineering"  and the potential dangers of such, they are ridiculed and laughed at. This is despite the fact these operations have been in use for years all the way back to Vietnam and beyond.


There are to many links to openly admitted weather modification and geoengineering programs here. But here is another. Add China to the list of conspiracy theorist's.


http://why.knovel.com/all-engineering-news/1046-china-to-control-mother-nature-steps-up-man-made-rain-initiative.html
December 13, 2011
China is hoping to use its growing scientific prowess as it works to help fight drought conditions affecting parts of the country.

China is turning its attention toward the sky as it works to coax Mother Nature into being more agreeable. The world's second biggest economy is planning to begin a program that will artificially increase precipitation across the country before 2015, according to China Daily.

Countries all over the world have had to contend with fluctuations in temperature and weather patterns prompted by a changing global climate. With the worldwide population continuing to grow at a fast clip, officials in China have struggled to ensure demand for food does not outstrip supplies.

Droughts last year eroded stockpiles of exceedingly important raw materials, including grains, sending raw material prices surging. Chinese officials are hoping to forestall food crises in the future, and if the program is successful other countries that are also battling the whims of Mother Nature could employ it as a means of augmenting crop yields.
Popular Science reports that China is beginning four regional programs to increase precipitation across the country by 10 percent by 2015. China unveiled the new program when it revealed its latest Five-Year Plan, which is aimed at addressing issues the nation expects to confront over the coming half-decade.

In its rapid economic ascent, China took on the role as the world's factory, as companies flocked to the Asian giant to establish production plants and take advantage of its cheap labor. However, officials must now entice the country's expanding middle class to consume more. As countries mature economically, consumer spending becomes an increasingly large component of GDP, and China is hoping to spur its more than 1 billion citizens to increase their food and living expenditures.

The "Weather Intervention" program could result in such an outcome, according to experts. In total, officials said they hope the program will bring an additional 230 billion cubic meters of precipitation per year. China currently generates roughly 50 billion cubic meters of artificial precipitation annually.

Moreover, officials are hoping to take advantage of clouds holding approximately 3 trillion cubic meters of water that pass over the country each year. Only 20 percent of that water reaches the ground, according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), but scientists are confident they can greatly increase that figure by utilizing "effective weather intervention measures."

"Because clouds are boundless, weather control is boundless. The five regional weather control programs will coordinate the ground resources, such as the cloud seeding rockets and planes, across provinces to increase potential rain or snow," CMA emergency response deputy director Zheng Jiangping said.

Zheng asserted officials plan to focus their efforts on wheat-growing regions in northeastern China, which were significantly affected by droughts and flooding events last year. China also plans to establish a weather intervention and command center by 2015 where scientists will work to improve current techniques, according to China Daily.

China has also used so-called cloud seeding to clear pollution in the past. In the lead-up the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing, China fired silver iodide particles into the atmosphere to reduce smog and airborne pathogens. Cloud seeding has not always been successful, however, as critics affirm the country's use of the practice has resulted in unintended snowstorms and ice melting. Scientists say it is only effective in increasing precipitation by roughly 20 percent, but the country is moving forward with the bold program.

"The program in Jilin was finished late this year and is working well. The successful operation will accelerate the construction of the other four," according to Zheng.
Travinyle1 trying to explain geoengineering is not a conspiracy theory on local television

MISS. MAYOR REVEALS HE IS GAY…AFTER VISITING GAY SEX SHOP ON CITY’S DIME






“At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case,” Davis told the Commercial Appeal, a Tennessee-based publication. “While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual — and still continue to be a very conservative individual — I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay.”
Davis, a Republican, has been under criminal investigation for allegedly misusing $170,000 in city funds on both his city-issued and personal credit cards. According to the Commercial Appeal, an audit revealed he used city money to pay for thousands of dollars worth of liquor, expensive dinners, and a $67 charge at Priape, a Toronto store described by its website as “Canada’s premiere gay lifestyle store and sex shop.”
He told the newspaper he doesn’t remember what he purchased at the store, but said he visited it on a recruitment trip for the city.
Davis, who is divorced with three daughters, made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2008, running on a family values platform. He was first elected mayor in 1997, and said it‘s too early for talk about whether he’ll resign in light of the disputed expenses. He said he plans to take time off through the holidays to spend time with his family.
“The only apology I would make to my supporters if they are upset is the fact that I was not honest enough with myself to be honest with them,” he said. “But I have lived my life in public service for 20-plus years, and in order for me to remain sane and move on, I have got to start being honest about who I am.”

Why Doesn't the Tea Party Love Ron Paul?



Ron Paul won just 3 percent of the votes in the Tea Party Patriots' "tele-forum and straw poll" Sunday, a pretty poor showing for a guy routinely called "the godfather of the Tea Party." The straw poll was not a little poll on a blog post: four candidates* spent 10 minutes on a conference call answering questions, and then 23,000 Tea Partiers voted. Not only did Paul lose to Newt Gingrich, who got 31 percent, and Michele Bachmann, who got 28 percent -- but he came in behind Mitt Romney, who earned 20 percent. Worse, 64 percent of the patriots said they were "unenthusiastic" about voting for Paul -- only Jon Huntsman performed worse.
Here's how the Associated Press' Jay Root described Paul when he announced he was running for president in May:
Paul, a native of Pittsburgh, is both a spiritual father and actual father in the tea party movement. His son, tea party darling Rand Paul, won a Senate seat in Kentucky last year... As far back as 2007... Ron Paul was hosting a 'Tea Party Fundraiser' aboard a shrimp boat near Galveston.
In October, Paul said the difference between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party was that the protesters of the former are "Scared to death they won't get their handouts," while the latter are "sick and tired of paying for it,"  NBC News reported. "I’m on the side of sick and tired of paying for it," Paul explained. But the Tea Party doesn't want him on their side. While the Tea Party has an image of libertarian political novices spurred to action against government spending -- and not all that interested in social issues -- polls show that's not true.
 
In October 2010, a  Public Religion Research Institute study found that  more than half of Tea Partiers say America is a "Christian nation" -- more than the 40 percent of evangelicals who think that. They're social conservatives on same sex marriage. Another poll last year found that 88 percent of supporters of the Tea Party support Arizona's tough immigration crackdown. This fall, 60 percent of Tea Party Republicans said the best way to ensure peace was through "military strength" -- compared to 47 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of voters over all, the Pew Research Center found. The survey found that 81 percent of Tea Party Republicans want military spending to stay the same or increase.
 
Those positions are at odds with Paul's. He thinks government should get out of the marriage business altogether. He wants to cut military spending and engage Iran. In the primary debates,  Paul has said that if the U.S. tries to build a fence along the border with Mexico, it might be not so much about keeping illegal immigrants out, but keeping Americans in.
 
And yet weirdly, conservative bloggers are not going after Paul for his policy, but for some old newsletters that said racist stuff, as the Village Voice's Roy Edroso observes. Last time Paul ran for president, Jamie Kirchick chronicled problematic lines from the newsletters, like  "Order was only restored in [the L.A. riots] when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks." He brought the issue up again in the Weekly Standard this week. Angry conservative blog posts followed. William Teach of Right Wing News says Paul got a campaign donation from a white supremacist, and unsteady in his politically correct shoes, warns,  "Good luck explaining that away during a General Election with an opponent who is half black." Saying Paul could never stand up to the scrutiny of being a serious candidate, Dan Riehl, who has an extensive archive on the "race card," writes, "If he does want to be taken seriously, it's time for him to answer for this garbage."
 
Clarification: Ron Paul, Rick Perry, and Jon Huntsman weren't on the conference call.