Compare this to the thousands of people Ron Paul continues to draw.

Two of the nation’s most high-profile Democratic candidates for Senate seats have parted ways over U.S. policy on Iran, which is a top national security issue this election year.

Bob Kerrey, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and two-term senator from Nebraska who is running to win back his former seat, released an ad on Tuesday strongly opposing an attack on Iran, which he said would be “a disaster.”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic Senate hopeful in Massachusetts, came under fire for a hawkish statement on Iran that contradicts intelligence assertions by senior U.S. defense officials. (Read more)

Atlas is shrugging.

In the local election of Innsbruck, the Austrian Pirate Party has sent shockwaves by taking its first Austrian seat, finishing at 3.8% in the election.

This caused frontpage news in Austria – the tweeter @Exiledsurfer was kind enough to tweet the pictured frontpage. Taking one seat in the city parliament of Innsbruck in a local election may not seem like much – but it’s large enough to make the front page story, heralding a strong trend all over Europe – you can almost read the strong headline (“Pirates Get Their First Seat”) as though it read “It Begins!”. It is also noteworthy that their election budget was a mere three thousand euros.

This is a common recurring theme across Europe right now. South America is coming along well too, but appears to have trickier party registration rules – in any case, the PPs of Brazil and Argentina have been frequently seen in the community. The United States is boosting its presence state by state as well, although they have a different political system and will have to work with a slightly different modus operandi.

As I just wrote on TorrentFreak, it’s important to understand that when you take 5% of the votes in Europe, you get 5% of the seats. (Read more)

The French public are resoundingly in favour of tightening the grip on the mega-wealthy. François Hollande, the Socialist frontrunner who polls say would win the second-round vote in May, has promised a 75% tax bracket on earnings after €1m. More than six out of 10 French people approve. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the fire-brand leftist backed by the Communist party, has surged to third place in the polls with his promise to cap fat cat salaries at €360,000 (£300,000), after which income tax would be 100% and the state would “take it all”.

Even Sarkozy, known as “president of the rich” for his generous tax breaks to the wealthy, has restyled himself as “president of the people”, offering to cut tax loopholes and make French tax exiles who flee abroad pay back the difference to the French state.

The French people are more distrustful of capitalism than the Chinese, polls show. Two-thirds agree with the concept that the state should take from the rich to give to the poor. But many question whether the election rhetoric will succeed in rooting out a deeply unfair French system where the super-rich often manage to pay barely any tax at all, conducting startling tax dodges by hiring top accountants to pick through the myriad legal loopholes in their favour. (Read more)

North Dakota Republican leaders force caucus goers to vote for pre-selected delegated on pre-printed ballot.