Ron Paul wouldn't have gotten a fifth of the vote Romney got. He has a small but vocal fringe group of supporters and that's it.

I don't think he does either but the Paultards love grasping at straws.

I don't think he does either but the Paultards love grasping at straws.

Sen. Rand Paul strongly signaled Sunday that he's interested in running for president in 2016, saying the Republican Party needs something different than "cookie-cutter conservatives."

The Kentucky senator, who has been watching his star rise in the party and last weekend won the annual straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference, stressed in an interview with "Fox News Sunday" that he doesn't know yet whether he will run for president.

But asked about his plans, he said he's already talked with Republican National Committee leaders about the "things I think we need to do" to be competitive across the country. He said the party needs more libertarian policies -- which Paul is known to stand for -- in order to attract younger voters. Paul said it's important to have a candidate who "would appeal across the left-right paradigms."

"I've always said I wanted to be part of the national debate. I think the Republican Party needs to figure out how to be bigger, and I think I do bring some ideas to that," Paul said, adding: "We do need something new. The party needs something new to grow, and I want to be part of that."

The senator said he wants to be involved in helping the country recover economically.

Paul is among the crop of fresh Republican voices considered competitive in 2016, a group that includes Florida Sen. Marco Rubio -- who also received an enthusiastic response more than a week ago at CPAC. Paul, the son of former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, earlier this month drew national attention for his 13-hour filibuster in which he pressed the Obama administration for clarification on its authority to use drones to kill Americans.

Paul, while right of his party on some issues, also strays left on many other topics. Earlier this week, he gave a major speech in which he endorsed a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Paul clarified Sunday that conservatives still need to be reassured that the border is controlled.

"No immigration reform's going to happen unless Republicans in the House sign onto it," Paul said. A group of eight senators, four from each party, is trying to finalize the details of an immigration reform plan, with hopes of pushing legislation in the coming months.

Paul, who describes himself as a supporter of traditional marriage, also reiterated that he believes the states should have the right to decide the legality of gay marriage. This comes ahead of key Supreme Court cases that are being argued this week, one of which concerns the controversial Prop 8 measure which banned gay marriage in California.

Paul defended his stance on marijuana and other drugs as well, which is seen to be more lenient than the party's overall position. "The main thing I've said is not to legalize them but not to incarcerate people for an extended period of time," he said.

Paul said the prisons are full of "non-violent criminals" and that while he doesn't want to "encourage" marijuana use, that is something many young people do before abandoning it later in life.

"The last two presidents could conceivably have been put in jail for their drug use," Paul said. "They got lucky, but a lot of poor kids, particularly in the inner city, don't get lucky."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/24/rand-2016-sen-paul-signals-interest-in-presidential-run/?test=latestnews?test=latestnews#ixzz2OVqqJgIj

This guy is as nutty as his lunatic father. He is the same as his father, a law maker who accomplishes very little. If he manages to get the Republican nomination (which I doubt) I would leave the Party because he is not a Republican and some, well most of his ideas are reckless and dangerous.

Welcome!

That's not a poem.............

I don't agree with that Pedophile and criminal Senator from NJ Bob Menendez much, but if they even tried it would be suicide for North Korea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MECqDTFjy0&feature=youtu.be

He helped his people? The concentration camps for his political opponents I guess are helping his people?

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – As the Undertaker is making his annual return to the WWE just in time for Wrestlemania, the wrestling world mourns the loss of his long-time manager. William Moody, known to wrestling fans as Paul Bearer, passed away, the WWE announced. No cause of death was given.

Moody was also well known as “Percy Pringle,” was 59 years old.

Moody was known for his ghostly white skin, and bringing an urn to the ring while managing The Undertaker and Kane.

Wrestling legends took to Twitter to remember Moody.

Ted DiBiase said, “The wrestling world lost a good man today and I lost a good friend. Paul Bearer, rest in peace my friend.


Brian “Road Dogg” James said, “Today I pray for strength for the family of Paul Bearer or Percy. I pray they have precious memories! #talkingandrelaxing God bless you!”

Kofi Kingston said, “Very saddened to hear about the passing of Paul Bearer. What a good dude. Condolences to his family.”

Wade Barrett said, “RIP Paul Bearer. A legendary performer and a very nice chap.”

AJ Lee said, “#RIPPaulBearer When I first met Paul Bearer I completely marked out & and he was kind enough to humor me. So sweet & humble. Such a legend.”

Triple H said, “Rest in peace, Paul Bearer. You will never be forgotten. There will never be another.”

John Cena said, “I think most everyone in WWE has a great story about Paul Bearer. I have many, and I will always cherish them. #RIPPaulBearer.”

The WWE will induct members into its Hall Of Fame in April, the night before Wrestlemania. Many are speculating that Moody could be a late addition to the inductions. Mick Foley, Bob Backlund, Trish Stratus, Bruno Sammartino and Donald Trump are all scheduled to be inducted.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/03/06/legendary-wrestling-manager-william-paul-bearer-moody-dies/

They are already blaming the US. The guy was a pain in the a$$ but he was the least of our problems. Yes he was part of a new Axis of Evil, but I think if we were going to take someone out it would be the leaders of Iran, N. Korea and Syria not Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela's vice president announced that President Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday, ending 14 years of rule by the firebrand socialist but leaving his party firmly in control of the nation.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said that Chavez died "after battling a tough illness for nearly two years."

The death apparently sets up a presidential election to replace Chavez, whose illness prevented him from taking the oath of office for the term to which he was re-elected last year.

Under the constitution, the head of Congress, Diosdado Cabello, would assume the interim presidency.

The announcement came just hours after Maduro announced the government had expelled two U.S. diplomats from the country.

Maduro also said "we have no doubt" that Chavez's cancer, which was first diagnosed in June 2011, was induced by foul play by "the historical enemies of our homeland."

He compared the situation to the death of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, claiming Arafat was "inoculated with an illness."

Chavez's inner circle has long claimed the United States was behind a failed 2002 attempt to overthrow him, and he has frequently played the anti-American card to stir up support. Venezuela has been without a U.S. ambassador since July 2010.

Maduro is Chavez's self-anointed successor and has been taking on a larger role since the socialist leader urged Venezuelans to choose him as president before disappearing in early December to undergo a fourth round of cancer surgery in Cuba.

Venezuela's Constitution calls for snap presidential elections to be held if Chavez dies, and some analysts wondered whether Maduro's suggesting the country was under attack by U.S. subterfuge might not be an excuse to delay the election and tighten his grip on power.

The government announced late Monday that Chavez's condition was "very delicate" due to a "new, severe" respiratory infection threw an already anxious nation into even greater uncertainty

"We don't know if he's alive or if he's dead, because they are manipulating the public," Antonio Perez, a retired 60-year-old public servant, said of the government. "Everyone want to just see the president to know if it's true that he's still with us."

Supporters of the 58-year-old president prayed for Chavez on Tuesday at a chapel outside the military hospital where the government says he has been since Feb. 18.

Maduro aired his claim of an alleged attempt to destabilize "Venezuelan society" and the "political system constructed in recent years" before the nation's high command, and the governors of 20 of 23 states loyal to President Chavez, half of them former military officers.

He accused U.S. Embassy's Air Force attache Col. David Delmonaco of spying on Venezuela's military and seeking to involve officers in "destabilizing projects." Maduro gave Delmonaco 24 hours to leave, and U.S. officials said he had already departed the country.

Later Tuesday, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said a second U.S. Air Force attache was being expelled, also for alleged espionage.

"Let's remember that active participation of the United States in the fascist coup of 2002," Jaua said.

Chavez had neither been seen nor heard from, except for photos released in mid-February, since submitting to a fourth round of surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11 for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area. It was first diagnosed in June 2011.

The government said Chavez returned home on Feb. 18 and has been confined to Caracas' military hospital ever since.

Maduro said Tuesday that the government was "on the trail of other elements that figure in this entire venomous scenario and are seeking to stir up trouble."

The man Chavez defeated in Oct. 7 presidential elections, the youthful Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles, would be expected to represent the opposition in any new elections.

Maduro repeated government claims that Capriles met in the United States over the weekend with right-wing U.S. conspirators and was planning to meet over the weekend with Roberta Jacobsen, assistant U.S. secretary of state for the hemisphere.

One provocateur on state TV even accused the Capriles family of buying a New York City apartment with stolen funds.

Capriles responded via Twitter Tuesday by calling Maduro a liar.

"Lie after lie in every speech," he said.

According to Venezuela's Constitution, elections were to be called if the president could not be sworn in on Jan. 10, but a Supreme Court packed with Chavez loyalists said that wasn't necessary.

The campaigning, though undeclared, has nevertheless already begun. Maduro has frequently commandeered all broadcast channels, Chavez-style, to tout the "revolution" and vilify the opposition.

Chavez has run Venezuela for more than 14 years as a virtual one-man show, gradually placing all state institutions under his personal control. But the former army paratroop commander, who rose to fame by launching a failed 1992 coup, never groomed a successor with his same kind of force of personality.

Maduro said last week that the president had begun receiving chemotherapy around the end of January.

Doctors have said such therapy is not necessarily to beat Chavez's cancer into remission, but could have been palliative, to extend Chavez's life and ease his suffering.

Dr. Carlos Castro, scientific director of the Colombian League Against Cancer, said "it's difficult to predict" when Chavez might die, but he believes "it's a matter of days."

Castro said Chavez could face further respiratory complications if he receives more intense chemotherapy treatment.

If the president's medical team "gives him strong chemotherapy again, then it would not be surprising if some infections reappear," Castro said in a telephone interview.

While in Cuba, Chavez suffered a severe respiratory infection in late December that nearly killed him, Maduro said last week. A tracheal tube was inserted then, and government officials have said his breathing remained labored.

Libardo Rodriguez, a 60-year-old orange juice vendor, said he was very worried after Monday evening's announcement and the government should provide more information about Chavez.

"We are worried because he does not appear. The truth is that I don't know what's happening," said Rodriguez, who identified himself as a Chavez supporter.

"There are many rumors and nobody knows who to believe," he said. "We hope he's alive."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/05/venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez-dead-vp-says/#ixzz2Mi5Ou4xo

Good riddance!

More from the religion err cult of understanding, tolerance and brotherly love.

An Advanced Placement World Geography teacher at a Texas high school who encouraged students to dress in Islamic clothing also instructed them to refer to the 9-11 hijackers not as terrorists – but as “freedom fighters,” according to students who were in the class.

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Students at Lumberton High School were also told to stop referring to the Holocaust as Genocide – instead they were told to use the term “ethnic cleansing.”

John Valastro, the superintendent of the Lumberton Independent School District, told Fox News that the teacher did absolutely nothing wrong.

“What is more dangerous – fear and ignorance or education and understanding,” he asked. “From our standpoint, we are here to educate the kids.”

Valastro said the teacher involved is a 32-year veteran who was simply following state teaching guidelines.

“I don’t think my freshman-level teacher was trying to politicize radical Islam or anything like that,” he told Fox News. “I don’t think our teacher has..to my knowledge ever converted a single student to Islam.”

The Islamic lessons in the small public high school generated national attention after a photograph of four female students wearing burqas surfaced on Facebook.

April LeBlanc’s 15-year-old daughter was one of the students in the photograph. She told Fox News that many parents in the district feel betrayed by school officials.

“My biggest thing is not the burqa,” she said. “That was the key to opening up the rest. It’s scary how far they dove into the Islamic faith. It’s scary what they taught my daughter. Who’s in charge of this? How did our superintendent let this slip through the cracks?”

LeBlanc said the students were told that they could no longer use the terms suicide bomber or terrorist. Instead, they were instructed to use the words “freedom fighters.”

“This teacher taught her that a freedom fighter is when they give their life for the Holy War – and that they’re going to go to heaven,” she told Fox News. “They were saturating these kids in Islam and my daughter is an American Christian child.”

Madelyn LeBlanc told Fox News that it was clear her teacher was very uncomfortable lecturing the students.

“I do have a lot of sympathy for her,” the 15-year-old said. “At the very beginning she said she didn’t want to teach it but it was in the curriculum.”

Her mother added that it was her impression that the teacher did not agree with the quote about calling the terrorists freedom fighters and laced her lecture with sarcasm.

During a lesson on Judaism, LeBlanc said the teacher told the class, “Students, I’m supposed to be politically correct and tell you that the Holocaust was not Genocide. It was an ethnic cleansing.”

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/students-told-to-call-9-11-hijackers-freedom-fighters.html

If this were a Christian thing they would be all over it, American Athiests would be going nuts and the school district would can the teacher.

Welcome!

Saudi Arabia’s notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, swooped in on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians this month, shutting down their private prayer, and arresting the peaceful group of foreign workers for merely practicing their faith, FoxNews.com has learned.

The mixed group of men and women was seized in a private residence in the city of Dammam, the capital of the wealthy oil province in Eastern Arabia, and Saudi authorities charged three Christian leaders with seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of a brutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians, and drew a sharp rebuke from a U.S. lawmaker.

"Nations that wish to be a part of the responsible nations of the world must see the protection of religious freedom and the principles of reason as an essential part of the duty of the state," Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., who sits on the Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East, told FoxNews.com.

During Advent in 2011, Saudi authorities stormed a prayer meeting at the private home of one of the Ethiopian workers in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The Saudi mutawa imprisoned 29 women and six men for more than seven months in barbaric prison conditions, where the men faced severe beatings and the women were subjected to sexually intrusive torture methods. After Christian organizations and human rights groups, as well as the United States government, complained, the Saudis deported the 35 Christian Ethiopian workers in August 2012.

Last March, Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, the grand mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, declared it is “necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula.”

Still, Saudi officials claim to tolerate other faiths even as the mutawa, or Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, mount their crackdowns, said Dwight Bashir, deputy director for policy at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

"During an official USCIRF visit to the Kingdom earlier this month, Saudi officials reiterated the government's long-standing policy that members of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, also known as the religious police, should not interfere in private worship," Bashir said. "However, the past year has seen an uptick of reports that private religious gatherings have been raided resulting in arrests, harassment and deportations of foreign expatriate workers.

“The U.S. government and international community should demand that any expatriate worker detained and held without charge for private religious activity in the Kingdom should be released immediately,” Bashir added.

A spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington said she “is not allowed" to give her name and referred a FoxNews.com query to Nail al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington. He did not immediately return FoxNews.com telephone and email requests. Diplomats from Ethiopia’s embassy in Washington told FoxNews.com they are looking into preparing a statement about the arrests.

Nina Shea, the director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com that the arrests in Dammam are “part of Saudi Arabia’s policy to ban non-Muslim houses of worship and actually hunt down Christians in private homes.”

Shea, who was in the Saudi capital Riyadh as part of a U.S delegation two years ago, sharply criticized the Saudis for breaking their 2006 pledge to the U.S. government to not disrupt non-Islamic religious practices. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom termed in its 2012 report Saudi Arabia a “country of particular concern”-- along with other authoritarian states such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea, China and Sudan-- for repression of religious freedom.

The Saudi government adheres to a strict form of Sunni Islam called Wahhabism that has animated many followers to engage in terrorism across the globe. The 9/11 terrorists, 19 of whom were Saudis, followed the Wahhabi school of militant Islamic ideology.

Shea said “the U.S. government does not raise its voice in protest” as part of the U.S.-Saudi strategic partnership. She added the failure to push the Saudis to change their intolerant behavior “has taken the backseat to oil and the war on terror. The Saudis are playing a double game -- cooperating with the war on terror and working against the war on terror campaign.” A telling example, she stressed, involves the Saudi government sending text books around the world that contain extreme forms of Islam.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/21/saudi-religious-police-arrest-ethiopian-workers-for-practicing-christianity/#ixzz2LcRlSynq