Is Mr. Romney a Serial Liar – Part 2

October 26, 2012

 Is Mr. Romney a Serial Liar – Part 2

Did Mr. Romney serve his country during the VietNam War?  No!

A look at Romney's relationship with Vietnam offers a window into a 1960s world that allowed him to avoid combat as fighting peaked. His story also demonstrates his commitment to the Mormon Church, which he rarely discusses publicly but which helped shape his life. He said in 2007 – his first White House bid under way – that he had "longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam." But his actions, Selective Service records and previous statements show little interest in joining a conflict that ultimately claimed more than 58,000 American lives. Huffington Post, June 5 2012

“I was supportive of my country," Romney said in 2007. "I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam."

"It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft," Mr. Romney said. Source: nytimes.com

This is absolutely untrue.

Mr. Romney received his first deferment for "activity in study" in October 1965 while at Stanford. And, while in his first year at Stanford and when his father was governor of Michigan, he was anointed as a Mormon “minister of religion” and went to France for 31 months.  This was considered a missionary deferment. After returning from serving the people of France, he received at least 2 more student deferments.

"I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there….” .My question to Mr. Romney is: Then why didn’t you just join the military and serve?

But the frustration and longing he recalled in 2007 do not match a sentiment he shared as a Massachusetts Senate candidate in 1994, when he told The Boston Herald, "I was not planning on signing up for the military."

"If it wasn't a political blunder to move into Vietnam, I don't know what is," a 23-year-old Romney would tell The Boston Globe in 1970 during the fifth year of his deferment.

But while telling the truth about his lack of “desire to go off and serve” in 1994, Romney lied again, telling the Boston Herald he didn’t “...take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft.” While posing as pro-draft and pro-war, he was evading the draft with an “activity in study” and “missionary” deferments.

It is worth noting that Mitt Romney’s father did not serve in the military either, along with his 5 sons. The candidate says his sons are serving their country by supporting his candidacy and helping him run for the Presidency. That is 3 generations of Romneys who have not served in the military.

And that’s not all folks.

Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are considering $11 billion in cuts for the Veterans Administration. He is a proponent  of “privatizing” our beloved veterans’ care.  Mr. Romney said, “Sometimes you wonder, would there be some way to introduce some private sector competition, somebody else that could come in and say, you know each soldier gets X thousand dollars attributed to them and then they can choose whether they want to go on the government system or the private system and then it follows them, like what happens with schools in Florida where they have a voucher that follows them, who knows.” Washington Monthly, Nov 2011

Yes, the taxpayer-financed, government-run V.A. hospitals are some of the finest medical facilities in the country. That is, by the way, as it should be — men and women in uniform put their lives on the line for us, and providing them with world-class medical care and facilities is the least the country can do in return. In this case, it just so happens that world-class care comes in government-run facilities.

So what lies behind the Republican obsession with privatization and voucherization? Ideology, of course. It’s literally a fundamental article of faith in the G.O.P. that the private sector is always better than the government, and no amount of evidence can shake that belief. It also serves the interest of the health insurance industry and that of “oh so sorry to bring this up again” corporate greed.

Is Mitt Romney a Serial Liar? Part I

August 22, 2012

Is Mitt Romney a Serial Liar? Part I

By now, most of us are familiar with the term “flip-flopper” and “etch-a-sketch” as it applies to Mr. Romney. I am not against people changing their minds. I admire when people think, and re-analyze, and ponder issues and decide to take a new stance on an issue. I have to wonder, tho, if Mr. Romney is actually exercising his intelligence when he changes his mind or is just plain manipulating the electorate.

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I include an article previously written by an author who writes for  US News and World Report.

On Abortion:
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has a reputation for holding positions that are politically malleable, from abortion to gun rights. That is to say, when he was running for Senate against Ted Kennedy in liberal Massachusetts in 1994, he said he was pro-choice, and as governor of the Bay State a decade ago he signed gun control laws. News accounts detail instances where Romney, in his role as a bishop in the Mormon Church, helped counsel women against getting abortions except in extreme circumstances, in accordance with his religion.
But while his personal opinion on abortions may have been unwavering, his public position hasn't.
Since laying the groundwork to run for the Republican presidential nomination for the first time in 2008  Romney's positions changed as he courted a new voting base. In selecting Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate, Romney doubled down on his pro-life position. The devoutly Catholic Ryan has consistently been pro-life throughout his political career, even co-sponsoring legislation that would endow "personhood" status to just fertilized embryos. While he personally opposes legal abortion in the case of rape, the Romney-Ryan ticket supports such exceptions.

Here's a look at how Romney's views on abortion transformed over the years:

1994 – Debate with Sen. Ted Kennedy
"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country," Romney said at the time. "I have since the time my mom took that position since she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe vs. Wade has been the law for 20 years that we should sustain and support it and I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice. And my personal beliefs, like the personal beliefs of other people, should not be brought into a political campaign."
Kennedy responded, "I am pro-choice, my opponent is multiple choice."
Romney asked for rebuttal time and said, "I have my own beliefs and those beliefs are very dear to me. One of them is that I do not impose my beliefs on other people. Many, many years ago I had a dear, close family relative that was very close to me that passed away from an illegal abortion. It is since that time that my mother and my family have committed to the belief that we can believe as we want but we will not force our beliefs on others on that matter and you will not see me wavering on that or be a multiple choice.”
2002 – 2006
Romney performed as promised as Massachusetts governor and did nothing to threaten existing pro-choice rights in the Bay State. But in 2005 he penned an op-ed in the Boston Globe to explain his decision to veto a bill that would have widened accessibility to emergency contraception.
"Signing such a measure into law would violate the promise I made to the citizens of Massachusetts when I ran for governor. I pledged that I would not change our abortion laws either to restrict abortion or to facilitate it," he wrote. "I understand that my views on laws governing abortion set me in the minority in our commonwealth. I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view."
2007 – Presidential Republican primary debate
"We should overturn Roe v. Wade and return these issues to the states," Romney said during a debate on CNN. "I would welcome a circumstance where there was such a consensus in this country where we said we don't want to have abortions in this country at all. Period. That would be wonderful. I'd be delighted to sign that bill, but that's not where we are. That's not where America is today. Where America is today is ready to overturn Roe v. Wade and return to the states that authority. But if the Congress got there, we had that kind of consensus in the country, terrific."
Rebekah Metzler is a political writer for U.S. News & World Report. You can contact her at rmetzler@usnews.com or follow her on Twitter

Did Mitt Romney Make Millions from Abortion?

This column is not about how much money Mr. Romney makes, how out of touch he is with ordinary citizens, or how aborted fetuses should be disposed of. It asks questions about Mitt’s honesty, his integrity, how his business investments reflect his social issues platform, and how in control he is of his own statements.

Stericycle is a public company that specializes in medical waste disposal and management including the disposal of aborted fetuses. Mr. Romney, through Bain Capital and other Bain-related legal entities, invested $75 million dollars in Stericycle in 1999. SEC filings and other business papers related to Stericycle filed in November 1999 list him as CEO of Bain, and the “only executive to share voting and dispositive power with respect to 2,116,588 shares of common stock in Stericycle”.  The problem is that Romney claims to have left Bain Capital in early 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Olympics.   SEC papers with Mitt’s signature on them conflict with that statement; in fact, his signature appears on legal documents related to Stericycle as late as November of 1999. Seems that Mr. Romney is trying to create distance from Stericycle.

So the question I ask is: did Republican candidate Romney have full knowledge that his $75 million dollar investment would fund the removal of dead fetuses? If so, it is abhorrent to me that a candidate running for the Presidency of the US, whose stance on abortion (changed from pro-choice) is pro-life, who considers abortion murder, whose Vice-Presidential running mate wants to make abortion illegal, can push aside such strong moral convictions for profit. The hypocrisy is simply stunning.

We all know that removal and disposal of aborted fetuses is a necessity, and as a Republican friend of mine said “someone has to do it”. This is true. There seems to be incredible compartmentalizing of conflicting beliefs existing  in Mr. Romney’s mind and conscience.  If abortion is murder, and you are anti-abortion based on moral principles, should those beliefs not stop you from helping a dead fetus removal company grow and to become personally VERY profitable from that same company? Would the fact that you were a public servant who wants to form anti-abortion policy for women stop you from making the investment in Stericycle? Is there not something in your conscience that loudly and clearly says No to such an investment? If abortion is so heinous to you, how could you even consider making millions from it? Aren’t you a proponent of human life beginning at the moment of conception, and the belief of “personhood” status of a fetus? Isn’t a fetus, to you, a person?

Ironically, part of Stericycle’s mission statement is “Protecting People….”

Mr. Romney…where is your integrity? And I mean integrity as defined by Webster:  Moral soundness; honesty; freedom from corrupting influence or motive….

And BTW, it seems that Mr. Romney profited about $49 + million from this investment.

Todd Akin - WTF?

Americans are intelligent, spirited, and free-thinking. We respond and react to all kinds of news everyday. Let's all take a deep breath and THINK, really think, about what our candidates and legislators are saying and doing.

Thank you, Congressman Akin, for informing me, as a woman, that I have a little trap door inside my reproductive system that will shut if I am being raped....legitimately raped, that is, and prevent conception. I am grateful that you serve on the House Science Committee in Washington and have learned and shared this tidbit of biological science with me. Just think, I'm 61 years old and I never knew that!

I am also grateful to learn that there seems to be a difference between legitimate rape and I guess I will call it illegitimate rape. I always thought rape was RAPE, was never legitimate, legally and morally speaking, and that it was a criminal act of sexual intercourse or other sexual acts perpetrated upon a woman against her will. Please educate me as to the definition of "legitimate rape". BTW, I do understand that rape is, rarely, committed on men.

I think, sir, that you are at the very least, terribly misinformed, and at worst, a misogynist whose medieval taliban-like thinking came out of the closet oh-so-publicly yesterday. I hope you are finished as a politician and a "leader".

I think Republicans and anyone who espouses their views on human sexuality, abortion and birth control need to let some light and air actually circulate in their heads. Let me give you an example to help you think this through....

I am raped. I become pregnant as a result of this rape, because my magical little trap door doesn't shut. I am wounded mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and perhaps develop PTSD. My Republican government has made it illegal for me to have an abortion (this is what the Repubs are really after - reversal of Roe v. Wade), and so I carry and birth this child. I am single, and now I am a single mother - another social identity the Republicans frown on. I cannot work, because I have a baby to care for and raise. I am emotionally and mentally damaged from the experience of legitimate rape. I have no money to care for myself and this child. I know!!! I'll ask my government for help; after all, they made me keep the pregnancy. I'll apply for welfare......oops, just remembered, ALL GONE. So is Medicaid, Food Stamps, and child care. My Republican government has eliminated these help-the-needy programs to reduce the national debt and to shrink government, and to reduce their own taxes. What do I do now? This is a serious question  I would like any Republican to answer.....perhaps Todd Akin will dig into his own pocket to help me out, putting his money where his mouth is. You may call yourself pro-life, anti-abotion, some even anti-birth control, but you are not supporters of this life once it is in the world needing care and support.

And now, since children carry the DNA from the 2 people who conceived them and tend to actually look like their egg and sperm donors, I get to look into the face of my rapist for the rest of my life.

I am a victim of a hate crime, a crime of rage, a crime committed on my body, and that's the key here that the religious right and Republicans seem to ignore...MY BODY.  Anti-abortion legislators  are mostly men, and you have absolutely not one clue about the experience of conception, pregnancy and birth, and never will.

As a thinker, I respectfully ask Republicans to take religion, and all its inherent shame, blame, and guilt about sexuality (I should say female sexuality), out of politics. Whatever happened to Separation of Church and State? I respectfully ask you to get out of my vagina, my uterus, my whole sexual nature, and to rethink your solutions of vaginal probes,  forced pregnancy, legitimate rape, magical trap doors. I ask you to consider the reality that you have absolutely no right to commandeer what choices a woman makes about her own body.

I also often think about the fact that in all the insanity around the issue of  SEX and women, I have never heard one word about sperm, forcing a MAN to look at sonograms of fetuses, asking men to pay for abortion of fetuses they have created, legislating that a man who created the fetus also be considered a murderer. Really, what's up with that? How did they become exempt?

Just think about it....use your intelligence, and if that's too big of a request, use your common sense.

Tomorrow's blog: Mitt Romney and Stericycle. How he made millions of dollars on abortion.