I'm going to put on my conspiracy hat, because the information I am reporting about appeared on the FoxNews website. My gut tells me there is something within the article that coincides with impressions and observations from other sources. There was a documentary that came out about the Tea Party. I'm sorry I don't know the name of the documentary, since I only heard a segment of it on a radio program. I believe the documentary was directed by Nancy Pelosi's daughter. In the documentary, a woman is asked about Obama and she feels, as predicted, he sounds a bit like Hitler. She goes on to explain she is a bit afraid at the youth that follow him, because in her opinion they are as enthralled with him as the young people were with Hitler.

Her comment can be looked at with pity. While there are some in the Tea Party movement that have that opinion, we would love to believe that notion is rejected by many. You have people that hate Obama because of his race and you have others that hate him because of policy. Any small excuse, any slight by him, is fuel to their own prejudices. There is so much piling on that at some point people are going to reject rationalization and just accept anything being said. That's why the new wrinkle in the Obama conspiracy has legs. A hug after introducing a professor at Harvard in the 1990s has right wing Republicans in a tizzy. Many of us might think this is much ado about nothing, but ask if a hug means something to Senator Crist of Florida. Oh, never heard of Senator Crist? Well, you never heard of him because the popular former governor ran for the Senate, and was expected to win, until a picture was taken with him hugging President Obama. While this probably would have helped him in the general election, in the Republican primary it was poison and Marco Rubio and other conservatives were able to use the photo to illustrate how the former governor wasn't fully a conservative and defeated him in the primary. That is why Marco Rubio is the Senator of Florida.

Little things have a way of having meaning far beyond the obvious.

A few months ago, well before the Iowa primary began, Ron Paul was beginning to catch on with some Republicans. I know someone who is still a Paul supporter. Just as a side note, what surprises me about Paul supporters is they will take some of his rhetoric and cling to that like a life vest, but some of his more controversial and troubling statements are brushed aside. If you mention the newsletters published under his name in the 90s, the one with the racist comments, they believe Paul's assertion that he didn't write the statement nor did he know they were in the newsletters. The question doesn't go into their heads that on the one hand it's disturbing he might have those sentiments and on the other that those things could be written by someone for his newsletter and he didn't know about them. Either way it is a valid question to wonder if this might be an example of how he might govern.

Into the debate strode Kelly Clarkson. Clarkson sent a tweet expressing her like for Paul, also adding if he won the nomination she would vote for him, but that he probably wouldn't get it. I want to say to celebrities everywhere, put down the phone when you have the urge to tweet. You only have 100+ characters, not words, to express your opinion and you aren't going to get the nuance in that format. When Clarkson sent out the tweet, she had many fans upset with her. They questioned if she knew about his policies and his past. Clarkson, in later interviews, claimed her tweet wasn't really an endorsement and she said she only got her information from an appearance she saw of Paul on TV.

When I saw the article on the FoxNews website I wondered why it was published. The information in the article was months old. Clarkson hadn't said anything recently about Paul. The reason I had gone to FoxNews was I wanted to see the take they might have on the Kony2012 debate. The Clarkson thing caught my eye because of the Paul angle and once I read it, the conspiracy part of me took over. The Kony2012 event has gotten millions of people, mostly young people, to sign petitions, pledge support and give money to an organization looking for this warlord. In less than a week, 40 million plus people have gone to the YouTube 30 minute video. Who knows how much money has been raised. Questions have been raised, from left, right and center, about the need for this campaign. I have wondered about the urgency of the campaign since stories about the war in Uganda and the children's army have been around for years. I can remember at least three prominent stories about this on Law and Order: SVU in the past few years, even to the point at the end of one episode there was a PSA about how people could help stop it. Another episode had a minor character leave the show to help the effort. So the effort has been out there for a while but it has been shocking to see so much movement in the past week.

With my conspiracy hat on, I think there have been some who are worried, rightfully so, about youth power. Just like the movie Wild in the Streets, older people are afraid of the energy and the movement of youth, but their biggest concern, the demon they love to throw out there, is that youth can be swayed by dark forces. A Pied Piper might come along, mobilize them, and before you know it some leader is in power who will not have the best interest of the people, the 'real' people, at heart.

Not to pick on Clarkson in particular, but she illustrates in the mind of many older, conservative Americans the problem with youth today. Admittedly she had no idea of the principles of philosophy of Ron Paul. She saw him in a few debates, heard him on an interview and in a few seconds sent out a message to her millions of fans through twitter that this man is someone she likes. No matter if she meant it as an endorsement or not, that is the interpretation many got. While her message didn't seem to sway a lot of young voters, the millions who have gravitated to the Kony2012 campaign means there are issues which can mobilize young people in large numbers, even if there are facts that might be in question. So if you are a conservative and you see where the youth have come out in the tens of millions for this viral project, when you think about what happened four years ago and the election of Obama, you are probably going to worry.

That's why I believe the article about Clarkson was published. I think there will be many reminders about how youth voters might be swayed with educated words and little substance, in their minds. Social media works so fast because when the Kony2012 story broke many in the mainstream media were flatfooted on the story and the activist right media was eager to condemn it. Like the Occupy Movement, the people behind the Kony2012 were naïve enough to think their good works would be enough to look over their shortcomings, but with some irregularities that have been found by the mainstream press, questions have been raised and by Monday there are scheduled to be a number of news specials on the movement. This all may end as much ado about nothing, but it gives fodder to the right wing critics who worry about 'their children' being too naive to be strong against manipulation.