only way to. be clear there you were county into those slogans man great of inner city schools are important able to schools actually heard the children to do think politicians say the darndest things don't they and yet despite so many political missteps they're the ones leading in the polls to become the next g.o.p. presidential contender meanwhile says we're going to war to prevent a nuclear weapon in the room you know it isn't worthwhile candidates like ron paul and jon huntsman are being overlooked in the republican three ring circus so in the contest between sirius and sideshow what will win out. quite frankly is they don't want to know that these people are here because they're ugly they're faceless their

neighbors say no evil hear no evil or in this case see no poverty here no problems this is more and more american families are left to sink or swim in a failing us economy one year later our team revisit a tent city on the outskirts of new york. it is wednesday december seventh seven pm in washington d.c. i'm christine friends out there watching our take. well i want to start with a look at what has become a rapidly changing landscape that of the g.o.p. presidential candidate field now we know over the weekend herman cain quote suspended his campaign so he is out but i want to talk about who is still in where they stand and what this all means for the future of our country so much to the dismay of quite a few people newt gingrich now has

a clear lead in the polls he leads with thirty seven percent of those republicans who were polled compared to mitt romney with twenty two percent and ron paul hanging in there with eight percent now we've gotten to the point in the campaign four weeks away from the iowa caucuses were all the candidates they're not all playing nice anymore and it's becoming clear that there are some market distinctions between them here's one thing all the republican candidates well all except ron paul do have in common they are all unwavering in their support for israel you see here they were in washington today addressing the republican jewish coalition ron paul was not there because while he wasn't invited due to his quote misguided and extreme views i.e. he doesn't support the u.s. relationship with israel in the same way the other candidates i'll just play you one of his recent comments on israel we don't need a treaty with israel why would why we have this automatic commitment that we're going to send our kids and our money endlessly to to israel. well this is not

a sentiment shared by others but there are plenty of ways in which the other candidates do differ and the surprising thing for many is just how much things can change michele bachmann remember won the iowa straw poll rick perry lead in the polls for a week or so romney was the assumed front runner and tell it was herman cain now it's newt gingrich this is the story on the surface but what are the deeper implications here it's one of the many questions i have and tell me answer them i'm joined in studio by heather ceremony conservative political commentator and strategist as well as daniel for achi director of grassroots political consulting l.l.c. and you guys i want to start out really simple this evening and just sort of ask what is. the ideal political candidate for the republican ticket how they're also with you or i think the ideal candidate would be somebody who is consistent which unfortunately two frontrunners do not have that on their resume they are both supposed flip floppers my favorite candidate actually did not run mitch daniels.

and also need to be a leader someone we can trust someone who we think actually believes what he says he believes and will lead this country in the right direction then i think someone who just disparages the difference between themselves and president obama and also has what congress is failing the president except in some backbone bold ideas and how to move this country forward beyond have a vision for where we're going to go with this country to get it back on the track especially fiscally to success and you know i showed you just a few minutes ago sort of the national polling results for this week i want to take a look now at the latest results in iowa the iowa caucuses of course less than four weeks away if you can believe it take a look at these numbers newt gingrich leading with thirty three percent and there romney and ron paul tied with eighteen percent now these figures have swapped a lot and some people who look at these numbers they say you know what the republicans are in the midst of an identity crisis what do i think about this. i

would just jump in and say i think the republicans are and i was also a mitch daniels or jeb bush person but the republican party is void of the conservative alternative in the selection and that's all there is to it you had bachmann who was inadequate perry who was not prepared cain who had his baggage and that simply is a simple explanation to the rise and fall of the candidates. who are an alternative to governor romney who the electorate is just not enthused about what do you think either of the voters flip flopping i don't think so i think this is a very normal situation where you know they're looking at the candidates deciding you know who they like and who they like more or less i mean it you know it's their it's our prerogative really to kind of you know be for one person this weekend for a different person next week but i will tell you that the republicans will unite behind whoever the candidate is because we are all united in our desire to see obama gone let's take

a look at some of the things as we know there have been so many debates and so i want to take a look at some of the things the candidates have said and i want to start with some of the past and present front runners. because you know we're counting and of those slogans man is great evidence in schools and poor neighborhood schools actually heard the children to do things what to say in that process were actually learning to work learning their own money they had money you know that enough to become a pimp or a prostitute or a drug dealer i believe it's absolutely essential africa was a country on the brink now with the president he put us in libya he is now putting us in africa the very founders that wrote those documents and worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the united states. the. commerce and let's see. i can i can.

all right the liberty or dad let's take our kids out of school and put them to work when they're twelve years old. you know some interesting things and these are coming out of the mouths of people who either now or at one or at one time were everybody's favorite real quick i want to play some things that are said by a couple other candidates these candidates are considered either to be. on the fringe or simply too low in the polls or torture is illegal. by our laws so if the illegal by international law is it's also immoral and i don't know that this country needs a trade war with china which is worth going to war to prevent a nuclear weapon in iran you know it isn't worth while i take a different approach on afghanistan i see it's time to come home. so i guess my question for you two is why are the candidates who want to end the war in afghanistan and not engage in iran consider to not have a chance in this race daniel well i would say i mean governor huntsman actually is one of the intriguing figures because he's one of the more credible candidates that

should be in the top tier i think he hired the wrong operatives which didn't help him it first and then on top of that having the resume of having served as ambassador for president obama is just not something this republican electorate can swallow but the ideas are provocative and he is right on track with where a lot of the primary electorate is as far as ron paul's case he has domestic fiscal intriguing policy that is causing a lot of people to follow him for twenty some odd years but once you go into the foreign policy arena drug legalization accent right he's just off the radar from any republican primary electorate voter so yeah i would definitely echo what he said i think kunsan has some great ideas that i hope are embraced by over the candidate is and i can see him in a cabinet position even maybe even a vice presidential contender and as far as paul goes i think you know some of his

ideas are fine but then they are completely undermined by a lot of it a lot about i mean i can see you know when we're talking about ron paul certainly people find it very hard to swallow the idea of getting rid of the entire department of education or legalizing all drugs but what about his stance on iran a lot of people have called it a sort of outrageous he simply doesn't want us to get involved with and he doesn't want us to fear monger about the nuclear threat there why is that such a contentious position and why is ron paul the only one with that position. we've very isolationist one thing i mean he really doesn't want to get involved in much at all and he so i think that you know at first that sounds great because in some ways the united states has gotten over involved you could argue but really when it comes down to it that's not realistic we have to have we have to make decisions on who we support and and how whether we get involved in certain conflicts and so i think it's just really unreasonable he's who he is and isn't off the mark on things

like that if i believe in iran the sentiment of most of the candidates now is that president obama missed an opportunity in the two thousand and eight to two thousand and nine use revolution to leave show verbally that the west was behind this revolution and we probably wouldn't be having the nuclear conversation now if there would have taken place and afghanistan going in today and overwhelming majority of the american public thinks we should drive down and pull back pakistan is another large controversy so i think he takes it a little too for his messaging is not consistent cohesive or coherent on his policies foreign policy wise but he's not dead for if you really dig into the details from where and i'm ok we can i think certainly when we talk about ron paul is certainly a least in many cases elevates the level of discussion and brings forth an outside perspective when when everyone else is agreeing i got to talk now about newt gingrich he's in the lead right now so we should talk about him

a lot of people worry a lot of conservative christians worry that if he becomes the republican nominee this could really change the future of how republicans identify it could mean some people are even calling it the death of christian conservatives and newt gingrich has been divorced twice he's been married three times you know he has gone after president clinton while he was having an adulterous affair and there are some groups who actually who say they will not stand for this i want to play you an ad put this is put together by iowans for christian leaders in government and they will talk about it. we don't always see eye to eye do we do know but we do agree our country must take action to address climate change should be on the couch with nancy pelosi is the dumbest single thing of the.

would you do a type of commercial like that with her again there are a chance to sure ok so we added this down a little bit but this is the gist of the ad put together by this group and there is a lot of speculation given these new poll numbers given herman cain dropping out that newt gingrich really does embody all those things that mitt romney doesn't and could actually become the nominee. in addition to newt's baggage though people worry that you know they worry about the religious aspect of this and it changing and not resonating with people who identify themselves as christians how they're talk about this well one thing i don't think that. you know newt is really advertising him self as a conservative christian candidate and i don't think they would be wise for him to do that it's becoming more and more apparent apparent that he's not even really that conservative as far as it being the death of conservative christian idea that he's that powerful to do that i think that you know people are going to make

a wise decision you know if it's mitt romney versus newt gingrich then i don't know where it's going to go but the reality is that people will rally behind it over the candidate is because people really do think that america is at a crossroads and we're going to go down the road that obama is leading us down which is more socialized government or are we going to go back to the what the founding fathers fathers and vision which is america that allows you to you know aim high and try to achieve the american dream again what do you think about this i mean when you you talk about mitt romney he doesn't have the kind of baggage but he's not a christian he's a mormon newt gingrich has baggage that many christians that would speak on the pope it out against. well this is a fluid conservative electorate in the middle of a social conservative early state that's all there is to it so these independent expenditure red zin other five zero one c three s. and everything else that's involved it's coming from other primary opponents who have seen the rise and fall of perry cain bachmann except for

a and are trying to play on vulnerability to speaker gingrich now the fact of the matter is i was not as significant to me as any of the others if newt is able to pull off south carolina and intensely competitive way in florida and hire a get a flood of money and get an apparatus around him he very well could be the nominee and i agree with heather i think whether it's him or mitt romney everybody will rally around one of the other i don't know if with all the changes we've seen who knows maybe there's a room for rick santorum or jon huntsman to slide on up there let's stay on gingrich for just a little longer though because it's interesting to just think about all the different parts of him and i want to show you something this is a quote said by one of his former aides he said he's a little bit like charcoal briquettes in the backyard when you first like them there's a lot of smoke and fire and a lot of stuff going on but you can't cook a steak on that was rich galen a former aide for newt gingrich what do you think he meant by that interpret that statement however well i think it's a very passionate person and i think once the smoke and fire exactly but as far as

getting things done that's where he kind of runs into some trouble and i think the real chance the real challenges for gingrich is that he does have quite a few enemies he's been in washington for a long time washington politics for a long time and that's another thing that romney does not have does not have the kind of baggage yes he has political you know opponents who didn't have those kind of intense enemies that gingrich has it's that gingrich is going to have to deal with and so and if you look at the polls too i think it's interesting to note that yes romney has kind of gone between first and second but he hasn't gone away down to five you know so i think that ca. kind of consistency is going to really play out favorably for him daniela you have the last word you see he's got an interesting history i mean having over twenty years in this town all the rest there is definitely going to be a lot of votes to leadership style opposition research however the ironic and most intriguing thing happening this week is the establishment is all coming out for

romney and they are not coming out for new it's a polar opposite but however all that does is show the electorate that romney is more the washington insider newt is more the outsider and that could create quite a narrative over the next few weeks i think it's hard to argue the new is not a washington insider though given all his experience here and all the major role he's played in washington the major ties with lobbying corporations certainly an interesting discussion and you know this is exciting that this political season we have another year little less than this to talk about this and see what happens see what kind of crazy ads pop that conservative political commentator and strategist as well as director of grassroots political consulting l.l.c. daniel for watching well a new chapter tonight in the occupy wall street movement as it moves closer to its three month anniversary can you believe it well here in washington today dozens of protesters were arrested on k. street they arrest came as demonstrators from across the country converged on k.

street historically home to america's lobbying firms the protesters marched across k. street which caused police to shut down some of the city's busiest thoroughfares some protesters trying to block rush hour traffic here in d.c. and that led to arrests of protesters were carried into police vans as demonstrators on the sidewalk jeered at officers many lobbying firms have extra security for today's event and buildings around the city were double checking security badges for employees as they entered the building that house that house lobbying firms the occupiers are also planning to protest this evening at the white house and the supreme court. still to come the great disparity here in the us tonight r.t. travels back to a tent city where those who hit hard times are now settling in for a long winter i had.

to leave the room. but what is the test nobody seems to know. that never a pepper sprayed the face of the argument that they're being overly dramatic. to the capital account of crime lauren lyster. well we are in the height of the

political season about to officially kick off primary season and there's no doubt one of the major cases whomever becomes the republican nominee will have to make is that he or she will implement policies that improve the economy more than president obama has been able to do during his first term in the white house for those out of work or about to lose their job but this is crucial a change any change at all for signs of hope won't come soon enough for the thousands of people here who have also not only lost their jobs but their homes as well now you may see them on the streets on your way to work if you live in a metropolitan area but there are many more you don't see living not into. but among the trees and bushes here's a look at one of those homeless camps people have erected tents or built teepee like structures to stay dry and spend the day gathering firewood to try to keep warm this is not a third world country this is new jersey and argy correspondent on a stasi a church going to has been there several times now but in her most recent visit she

discovered something that may surprise you there are more people there now than ever. tent cities of outrage popping up all across the u.s. over the last months list visible to the public eye and much quieter. this tent city of hopelessness around for half a decade this is our third time at the village tucked away in the woods in about two years the number of homeless turning to the camp for hospitality keeps growing these days the population of tent city has tripled compared to when it was first set up the place is home to about seventy homeless people who have nowhere else to go a third are women there shame to leave their tents in the presence of a camera the mood here has become increasingly politicized over the last year the politicians and the government has not protected the american people they've allowed outsourcing to run rampant you know and it's benefiting companies.

corporations are making more money than they've ever made before the average american worker and it's citizen suffering at the expense of the agenda of the politicians. forty six year old angelo villain whether with a love for confluence lost everything in the recession and has never found a full time job again it seems to be a growing trend unfortunately and you know the politicians better take note and freida stop their big touring and get to do something new to you know to stop this or to slow it down or to make it better a bricklayer for two decades angelo calls himself a victim of the economy and this place home as does charles homeless for the last two years. he used to play the harmonica but this is no longer there might be a certain degree of depression that might set in just the whole situation especially now where it's getting cooler out and the days are shorter as if the

sorrow of these people wasn't enough officials have been trying to evict the homeless out of the camp they try to force out the poor and i call it discrimination by design for the sake of keeping the pushing the poor out and encouraging the wealthier the people with money to you know to move into your town . wealth inequality has been at the root of the anger for occupy wall street protesters. but some of these homeless seem far from the demonstrators i support don't but i think our our situation's a lot different you know we're homeless we had one no we have no where to go to sleep i'm sure they have places to go when they're done the rally we've got our own occupy movement right here and in lakewood and it's more of an occupied movement out of necessity and those who volunteered to help at the camp are not wealthy like donald who's an artist on disability he was also broke the neglect of the homeless is no surprise to him quite frankly is they don't want to know that these people

are here because they're ugly they're faceless they're nameless many of the residents of tent city used to blame themselves for their misfortune but with three point five million americans experiencing homelessness every year or over seven hundred thousand people on any given night their message for politicians has changed open your eyes. you know i mean all those that we give out all over the world we go up here as night settles help was far from here all we have left are the roosters that live in their trees to keep them company each homeless resident pieces of her truth by himself and the. likud new jersey. so a lot of people seeing this would be surprised to know that just beyond the highway there are these camps and they exist not only were honest i was in new jersey but all around the country but i do want to talk about this. in new

york and i really want to ask you i know this is not your first time visiting this camp in lakewood new jersey talk to me about how things have changed well you know christine definitely the biggest change that we've seen is of course in the numbers sadly the first time we were at the camp the numbers were no more than thirty people then that has turned into forty and it is now at seventy we were really surprised to discover this considering all the talk of the recession ending and things getting better taking place in the united states it was really shocking to see how much the camp has really expanded since the last time we were there and in terms of the changes we have to see that visibly it has really turned into something a lot more organized than it used to be which is really also a sad example really because this means that people are there to stay and they understand that sort of a little community as it looks like i'm wondering i mean i didn't realize you said

it went from thirty to seventy people that's more than doubling the population of this little community i'm wondering if you recognize familiar faces people that were there last year and are still there now. christian you know i really was hoping that we wouldn't see the familiar faces but unfortunately we did we did show that one man in our report he's in his fifty's you know the change in him has really been drastic i remember this man the last time we were there several months ago and he was a very cheerful person played a little music for us and these days he's really transformed it looks like this particular man aged at least ten years there was another woman we talked to the previous times who was still there unfortunately even though she was one of the most hopeful ones that she would be leaving very very soon and she's still there this time around she didn't want to talk on camera and was quite disappointed by the fact that we had returned and still witnessed her there as well as a couple of other people but you know it's important that people some of the campers there they come and go but it has turned into somewhat of

a vicious circle for many because those who do leave unfortunately end up coming back. i'm wondering we saw in your report mostly men sort of on the young side and middle aged but what's the actual population i know a lot of people don't want to talk on camera that stay there i mean were there a lot of women there with their children. well christine the women there do make up as much as a third of the entire camp as you rightfully said and as we did point out of that report they did not feel good enough about their situation to talk on camera about it and really be shown to to the rest of the country in this particular case and there are no children at the camp we knew we do know that in the five years that it's existed there have been a couple of mothers with kids there but they didn't stay around long thankfully because there was shelters found for them and it would have really been a much bigger issues if children were staying at this camp obviously on an assessor you know about this camp others know about it as well how do the residents do they have to deal with police is there

a danger that they're going to be asked to leave at any point. yes you know apart from having a terrible life of struggle every single day just trying to sustain themselves in the middle of the woods really in the middle of nowhere with no jobs homes or family members these residents also go through a constant struggle with authorities some have really called it a war even because they do face constant eviction threats the community leader steve brigham who we saw in that report is being sued by local officials who want the camp shut down and this is something that they keep fighting they keep really protesting they were offered by officials to be taken to a psychiatric ward because there are no shelters available in the area but certainly this is something that they've refused a brother stay in the woods that go to you know a psychiatric ward understandably in this particular case certainly it's one thing to visit homeless people on the streets or in these kind of places but to go back repeatedly really gives a lot of perspective to see how much things have changed artie's honest in new york

when the capital punishment case against me abu jamal has finally come to an end he will now serve a sentence of life in prison prosecutors have called off their attempts of sentencing him to death after a thirty year high profile battles surrounding his case of boojum allah former journalist was convicted of fatally shooting police officer daniel faulkner doing it during a traffic stop back in one thousand nine hundred one in philadelphia the former black panther claims he is the victim of racist legal system he wrote a book called life from death row and the case has brought him international support you may have even seen bumper stickers or t. shirts on with free movie on them. well the decision comes two days before the thirtieth anniversary of the murder of officer daniel faulkner was originally sentenced to death his murder conviction was upheld through the three years of appeals but in two thousand and eight a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing on the grounds that the instructions given to the jury

were potentially misleading after the u.s. supreme court declined to weigh in two months ago prosecutors were forced to decide whether to pursue the death penalty again or accept a life sentence without parole over the years abu jamal challenge the predominantly white makeup of the jury the instructions given to the jurors and the accounts of the eyewitnesses he also said that his lawyer was ineffective that the judge was racist and that another man had already confessed to the crime and we have got worldwide support from the free movement a movement with hundreds of vocal supporters and death penalty opponents regularly turning out for court hearings in his case coming up on friday we're going to take a look at this an in-depth look of the movie abu jamal case right here on our t.v. . but for now this evening that is going to do it for more on the stories we covered go to our to dot com slash usa check out our you tube page youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter.