Mitt Romney, the Probably 2012 Republican Presidential nominee, is reportedly “moving right” to fend off the challenge of surging poll numbers for Rick Perry.  He’s hitting Perry hard as a “career politician” and is now threading a needle on crackin’ down on immigration.
Interesting to note, the first auto-prompt you get when you type Romney into google… a sign of what the people have memed for him… “corporations are people”… I thought Soylent Green was.

Romney has been invited to one of the Tea Party organizations’ events — FreedomWorks objects.

Rick Perry is getting major mojo with the right wing base by killing people.
And just in case you’re wondering why corporate ceos walk up to Perry and tell them they’ll stoke him.  Yeah, like this doesn’t happen all the time.

Matt Taibbi has thrown his hand up with the reactions of Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul on Hurricane Irene.  Bachmann sees it as God’s punishment, Paul as something the state shouldn’t mess with — better dealt with the way it was in the pre-FEMA pre-Progressive Era of the early 20th century wipe-outs.  It is interesting to see Ron Paul supporters hammer around forums and blogs on this, declaring Ron Paul’s words out context — DEVOLVE, damnedit, STATES not the FEDS — as the state handled the hurricane that hit Galveston.  It gets whackier with this argument:
I’m certain, if voters of Galveston, Texas, who are part of Congressman Paul’s district, believed your words they would not have returned him to Congress TWELVE TIMES.
Words fail me.  God, Ron Paul fans are the worst sometimes.

Washington Post’s ombudsman argues that Ron Paul has been under-covered there, in part by comparing the amount of coverage paid to the campaign of one Newt Gingrich.  Well, one has a sense of continuity back to when Gingrich was Time Magazine’s Man o’ the year.   One thing to do with Ron Paul might be to add up the number of times he’s, er, heard, nodding his head in his appearances on the Alex Jones radio show — the Washington Post can do its “cover the Ron Paul campaign” job duty in noting things like that.

Makes more sense than covering the Bachmann Identity Politics push for her fictional Jewishness.

It’s interesting to compare Newt Gingrich’s comment — probably the only thing that anyone will remember from his campaign, “Any ad that quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood”.  (Well, that will reverberate in campaign lore alongside his memo.) with Rick Perry’s comments:
Now, however, just a week into Perry’s presidential campaign, his team is disavowing the book. “Fed Up! is not meant to reflect the governor’s current views,” says Perry’s communications director, Ray Sullivan. It’s a “look back, not forward” that is “not in any way a 2012 campaign blueprint or manifesto.” What should we make of Perry’s rapid about-face?

Jon Huntsman, Jr., the obstensible “moderate”, has come out for reducing taxes on the rich and raising taxes on everyone else, especially the free-loading poor.  I assume corporations — one set of people, you know, can keep their Cayman Island shelters.

It says on his wikipedia page that Thaddeus McCotter is a frequent guest on Dennis Miller’s radio show.  It might be useful for someone to do the due dilligence in Thaddeus McCotter coverage of seeing what string of obscure pop culture references he’s heard nodding his head in agreement at.  Meantime, people who have a clue who he is — people in his district — are protesting outside his office.

Herman Cain talked to the Georgia Legislature, for some reason.  Also the first google prompt you get when you type his name, and what his 2012 campaign will forever be known for, is “Pokemon”.

Rick Santorum has new office space!
Rick Santorum is moving into the New Hampshire office vacated by Tim Pawlenty.
Well, the space was available, I guess.
Also, he’s prepping for the Gay Jihad.

Roy Moore:  Roy Moore took less than 1 percent
Buddy Roemer is running around national embassies talking trash about them.  Or at least he is with China.  Yeah, try saying that in China — oh, wait.

What would Reagan do?  Allow Gary Johnson into his library to debate?
Well… rules show him out.  Rules also show Giulianai and Palin, both invited, out … and they’re not even running!

Fred Karger is in Iowa!  Pushing a wheel-barrel.  … The “Sam Yorty” of this 2012 Republican nomination.

Wikinews interviewed Any Martin.  Because someone had to.

I am sometimes surprised when someone posts a comment to an old post here.  I am more surprised when that comment has a sort of vehemence to it.

Donald Forbes Says: August 31st, 2011 at 7:30 am Who the hell are you?

To tell the truth, it’d come across as odd without the “hell” — I’d automatically end up emphasizing the “are” — Who ARE you — unspoken question … “kind of out of left field, isn’t this?”

I assume that the commenter has some involvement in something from that post.  One left-wing splinter group.  Probably around the hedges of “New England Party of Labor”.  Knew Gus Hall.  Something like that.

Or maybe he was involved with the Sino-Soviet split.

Hm.

retired railroad man with 6 grandchildren who keep me busy and interested. A Quaker but not a very good one. Very liberal on political issues especially social issues. I believe politics is the only way you can deal with morality. (real morality poverty and war) Otherwise religion is an obcenity.

Yalta: The Price of Peace (Hardcover) The book started out as a good objective description of the Conference, later especially in the last few chapters, he began to use the insulting language and denigrate the motives of the the Soviet leader like a typical right-winger. Stalin was protecting the interests of his country right or wrong and that should have been the basis for his analysis of what happened and why. I imagine many people who read the book will come away with a different understanding of Stalin’s motives and actions than what Plokhy intended.

Jane Fonda’s War: A Political Biography of an Antiwar Icon (Hardcover) A great woman and a great cause. Her courage is remarkable no matter which side you are on. History has proven her right.

And he Wrote what looks like a reasonably interesting memoir on his life working in the railroads.  More interesting than I, I suppose.

I will say that this is that sort of reason I tend to try to move a bit off the beaten track here.