The Mitt Romney Deception
Geolibertarian:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/federal-records-show-romney-campaign-bought-and-paid-for-by-big-banks.html
Federal Records Show Romney Campaign Bought And Paid For By Big Banks
Ron Paul’s campaign financed by active duty servicemen and women, grassroots supporters
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
October 19, 2011
A new independent analysis of 2012 presidential candidates’ campaign contributions confirms that Mitt Romney is the banksters’ choice for the GOP nominee, and indeed for President.
Records of campaign contributions based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically this past weekend, reveal that Romney’s top 20 donors are made up almost exclusively of the biggest private banks on the planet.
Among Romney’s top twenty donors are Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo and Citigroup Inc.
By far and away Romney’s largest campaign contributions have emanated from employees and officials at Goldman Sachs, with a total of $354,700 donated.
The donations are tallied from the organization’s PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families.
Remember that the limit on donating to candidates is $2,400 per person, as per the Federal Election Campaign Act.
In stark contrast to Romney, and every other candidate for that matter, the top three organizations that employ Congressman Ron Paul’s supporters are the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Navy.
Indeed, the latest figures once again show that the Ron Paul 2012 Campaign has raised more donations from active military than all other presidential candidates—Republican or Democrat.
Paul tallied more than $75,000 from servicemen and women in the third quarter.
Paul also raised more from active military than all other GOP competitors combined, and more than incumbent President Barack Obama.
Unlike the majority of the rest of the field, Ron Paul’s donations have come solely from individuals and not from the use of PACs, bundling, subsidiaries and the like – indicating that the Congressman is the only candidate with purely grassroots support.
“This fundraising analysis confirms Americans’ beliefs about Ron Paul and their suspicions about Mitt Romney.” said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton in a statement.
“It is that Dr. Paul is extraordinarily popular and accepted by the everyman and by everyday heroes, while Romney relies almost exclusively on his big-business ties,” Benton added.
[Continued...]
Geolibertarian:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/16-reasons-why-mitt-romney-would-be-a-really-really-bad-president.html
16 Reasons Why Mitt Romney Would Be A Really, Really Bad President
The American Dream
October 31, 2011
At this point, it appears very likely that Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. He has raised far more money than any of the other candidates, he is leading or is near the lead in all of the early states, the mainstream media have anointed him as the frontrunner and a number of recent polls show that most Republicans fully expect Romney to win the nomination. So will Mitt Romney be the next president of the United States? Well, he certainly fits the part. He looks like a president and he speaks very well. But when you look at what he really stands for that is where things become very troubling. The truth is that Mitt Romney is either very wrong or very “soft” on every single major issue. It would be a huge understatement to refer to Mitt Romney as a RINO (“Republican in name only”). When you closely examine their positions, there is very, very little difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Sure, Romney and Obama will say the “right things” to the voters during election season, but the reality is that a Romney administration would be so similar to an Obama administration that you would hardly know that a change has taken place. What you are about to read about Mitt Romney should alarm you very much. Mitt Romney would be a an absolute disaster for this country, and America cannot afford another disastrous presidency.
The fact that Barack Obama looked sharp and could give inspiring speeches helped him go a long way back in 2008. Well, it is the same thing with Romney. The guy looks very presidential and he sounds very presidential. When backed into a corner, he is extremely slick. He rarely makes mistakes and he is very polished.
Mitt Romney is a “politician” in the worst sense of the word. As his past has demonstrated, he will do and say just about anything in order to get elected. The positions he has taken during this campaign season have been carefully calculated to help him win both the Republican nomination and the general election.
That is why so many call Mitt Romney a “flip-flopper”. Romney will take just about any political position if he thinks that it will help him. Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann Romney, once made the following statement about her husband….
“He can argue any side of a question. And sometimes you think he’s really believing his argument, but he’s not.”
So keep that in mind while reading the following information. Mitt Romney is trying to claim that he is a “conservative” and that he is looking out for the American people, but those claims simply are not true.
The following are 16 reasons why Mitt Romney would be a really, really bad president….
[Continued...]
Catalina:
In a blockbuster that may potentially doom the frontrunner for the Republican nominee for the presidency, it was reported today that, “Mitt Romney, his son Tagg, and Romney’s chief fundraiser, Spencer Zwick, have extensive financial and political ties to three men who allegedly participated in an $8.5 billion Ponzi scheme. A few months after the Ponzi scheme collapsed, a firm financed by Mitt Romney and run by his son and chief fundraiser partnered with the three men and created a new ‘wealth management business’ as a subsidiary.”
Mitt Romney, his son Tagg, and Romney’s chief fundraiser, Spencer Zwick, have extensive financial and political ties to three men who allegedly participated in an $8.5 billion Ponzi scheme. A few months after the Ponzi scheme collapsed, a firm financed by Mitt Romney and run by his son and chief fundraiser partnered with the three men and created a new “wealth management business” as a subsidiary.
In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress, Tagg Romney confirmed their business relationship, but falsely claimed that the men were cleared of any wrongdoing associated with the Ponzi scheme. Tagg Romney told ThinkProgress that his three partners collected about $15,000 from their involvement in the Ponzi scheme. Court documents obtained by ThinkProgress show that the legal proceedings are ongoing and the men made over $1.6 million selling fraudulent CDs to investors.
The Ponzi Scheme
In 2009, prosecutors announced charges against the Stanford Financial Group, which managed a portfolio of $8.5 billion, for running a “massive, ongoing fraud” against its investors. The Ponzi scheme bust was one of the largest in recent history, second only to Bernie Madoff, who perpetrated a fraud estimated to be around $17 billion. The Stanford Ponzi scheme wiped out the savings of thousands, including many American retirees across the country. In Texas, 1290 people lost their retirement savings because of the Stanford Ponzi scheme; in Louisiana, several hundred reportedly suffered the same fate.
The Romney Business Connection
Launched in 2008 by Romney’s son Tagg and a few others, including Mitt Romney’s chief fundraiser Spencer Zwick, Solamere Capital is a “fund of funds,” meaning that it primarily invests in other investment companies, like private equity groups.
Mitt Romney himself made a $10 million initial seed investment in Solamere Capital and his personal financial disclosure forms reveal that he has received between $100,000 and $1 million in returns from his stake in Solamere. Romney has come under fire for refusing to release his tax returns, which would likely reveal additional details about his financial relationship with Solamere Capital.
After news of the Ponzi scheme precipitated the collapse of Stanford in 2009, Tagg partnered with several of Stanford’s North Carolina executives to start a firm called Solamere Advisors. At least three prominent brokers who had worked for Stanford — Tim Bambauer, Deems May, and Brandon Phillips — joined Tagg to help run Solamere Advisors, a wealth management business located in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We are excited to be associated with such a highly capable group of financial advisors with a proven track record of meeting the needs of their clients throughout the Southeast,” said Tagg in a press release announcing Solamere Advisors, which borrows its the name from its parent company, Solamere Capital.
The Romney Campaign Connection
The Romney campaign and the Romney family investment company are deeply entwined. A recent Boston Globe investigation found that top donors to the Romney campaign have invested into Tagg’s firm, and that Romney’s star campaign fundraiser, Spencer Zwick, doubles as a managing partner for Solamere Capital. The Romney campaign has paid Zwick’s firm, SJZ LLC, over $2 million in fees this year alone. Mitt Romney’s brother Scott Romney is listed as a senior advisor to Solamere Capital.
Tagg Defends Partners, Falsely Claims They Were Cleared Of Wrongdoing
In an interview with ThinkProgress after the CNN debate in Las Vegas, Tagg said he was proud of his investment with Solamere Advisors, the wealth management firm now run by Stanford’s former executives. “They’re friends of ours, they use the [Solamere] name, we own a piece of them,” he said. “We helped them get started.” Romney’s son said he owns a minority stake in Solamere Advisors, but noted that they operate with some level of independence. “We don’t control them at all, we just own them,” he explained.
The Solamere Advisors website lists Bambauer, May, and Tagg Romney among the directors of the firm (Eric Scheuermann, a managing partner for Solamere Capital, is also a director of Solamere Advisors). The Solamere name comes from “a private community in Deer Valley, Utah, where [Mitt] Romney owned a ski mansion,” reports Globe writers Michael Kranish and Donovan Slack.
“Did you know that some of those guys were in with, there were allegations that some of those guys were involved with the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme?” ThinkProgress asked. “Before we invested in them, they were in that. But they were cleared of that before we made our investment,” replied Tagg, who spoke to ThinkProgress for a few minutes while walking around the Venetian hotel after the debate.
ThinkProgress also asked about the allegedly fraudulent profits made by his partners in helping orchestrate the Stanford Ponzi scheme and the current effort by Stanford’s victims to retrieve their money. In response, Tagg claimed that his colleagues are also victims: “They probably made, their pay there was like $15,000 total. Those guys got totally screwed by the whole thing. It almost ended their whole careers because they moved all their clients over [to the Stanford Financial Group], and then the place was shut down two months after they moved their clients over. They hadn’t made any money yet. They had bonuses and everything promised to them, but they didn’t make any of their money. So they made no money.”
Tagg’s assertions, that his Solamere Advisors partners who were employed in the Stanford Ponzi scheme didn’t make “any money,” and that they their involvement in the Ponzi scheme has been “cleared,” contrasts with court documents obtained by ThinkProgress. According to documents reviewed by ThinkProgess using the Pacer search engine, charges against Tim Bambauer, Deems May, and Brandon Phillips have not been dropped. A recent court filing shows May requesting the court for arbitration instead of going to trial. ThinkProgress also spoke to the deputy clerk for the federal District Court in Dallas, and confirmed that the three men are still defendants in the lawsuit to recover the Ponzi scheme money.
Moreover, a court-appointed audit of the Stanford Financial Group found that several of the former Stanford brokers made far more than what Tagg claimed:
– Solamere Advisors managing partner Tim Bambauer made $1,143,392 in incentive pay selling fraudulent CDs to investors.
– Solamere Advisors partner Deems May made $465,000 in incentive pay selling fraudulent CDs to investors.
– Solamere Advisors operations manager made Brandon Phillips $70,000 in incentive pay selling fraudulent CDs to investors.
The lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission claims the Stanford Financial Group built its Ponzi scheme by incentivizing brokers to sell fraudulent CDs with an array of bonuses. A document filed in the District Court of North Texas says that Stanford “used an elaborate and sophisticated incentive program” to encourage brokers, like Bambauer and others, to lure investors into the Ponzi scheme. A suit to recover money for Stanford’s victims declares that Stanford’s former brokers are not entitled to their performance pay because those funds were made in “furtherance of the Ponzi scheme.”
Despite Tagg’s assertion that his partners were innocent and had no idea what was going on, representatives for Stanford’s victims differ. San Antonio attorney Edward C. Snyder, an attorney representing Stanford’s investor victims, scoffed at the notion that Stanford’s brokers did not know what they were getting into. They were “making outrageous fees and commissions from selling and promoting CDs,” said Snyder in an interview with ThinkProgress, adding, “no one makes that kind of money doing that.” As the litigation continues, Synder said he is confident that all of Stanford’s brokers that received performance pay selling CDs “are going to give the money back.” Snyder told us that many of Stanford’s brokers have made the argument that they had no idea what was going on, but he isn’t buying it. “Anyone that was selling a related-company offshore bank CD to his clients, and making such a large percent of commission, should have their license revoked,” wrote Snyder in an e-mail.
Bambauer, hired by Tagg in July 2009 as the managing partner for Solamere Advisors, left the firm two months ago, according to Deems May, who spoke to ThinkProgress last week. Bambauer was a higher level executive at the Stanford Financial Group. The Solamere Advisors website still lists Bambauer as a director of the firm along with Tagg. A message left with the Bambauer household has not been returned.
Asked about the current effort by the court-appointed receiver to retrieve the commissions received in selling Stanford Ponzi scheme CDs, May said he “can’t comment on anything like that.” Tagg told ThinkProgress that he now only owns a 5 percent stake in Solamere Advisors, but May said to check with Eric Scheuermann, Tagg’s business partner, about the extent of Solamere Capital’s ownership holding in Solamere Advisors. Mays also referred ThinkProgress’ other questions to Solamere Capital, but the firm has not responded to ThinkProgress’ request for comment.
ThinkProgress compiled a chart illustrating the financial connections between Mitt Romney, the Romney for President campaign, Tagg Romney, and the alleged Ponzi scheme brokers:
Despite Ponzi Business Connection, Romney Promises To Repeal New Investor Protection Laws
The revelation about Romney’s ties to the Stanford ponzi scheme unmask the risks associated with removing new investor protections. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform law, a reform Romney says he will repeal if he wins the presidency, attempts to address future Ponzi schemes by enacting new protections for whistleblowers to alert authorities when they find evidence of fraud. The law also creates a new Investor Advocate and Investor Advisory Committee within the Securities and Exchange Commission to detect and investigate future Ponzi schemes.
Mike Hudson, a reporter with iWatch News and author of a new book about how predatory Wall Street practices created the financial crisis, told ThinkProgress that Dodd-Frank “could be a game changer that helps the SEC identify and shut down Ponzis and Ponzi-like schemes.” But on the campaign trail, Romney, a fierce critic of efforts to reign in Wall Street practices, has called new investor protections like Dodd-Frank “extraordinarily burdensome.”
When ThinkProgress spoke to Tagg in Las Vegas, the last question about the Stanford Ponzi scheme was this: “How do you prevent a Ponzi scheme like that?” “Hey guys, we’re done,” Tagg said before taking off.
[Update]In an e-mail to National Journal’s Chris Frates, the Romney campaign attacks ThinkProgress as “a left-wing blog with a highly partisan agenda.” The Romney campaign did not directly dispute any of our assertions. Rather, the Romney spokesperson called our story “false material.” The Romney campaign has not backed up Tagg Romney’s assertion that his Solamere Advisors partners were “cleared” of wrongdoing in connection to the Stanford Financial Group Ponzi scheme. We stand by our reporting.[/update]
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/01/316040/romney-solamere-ponzi/
Jordan:
You Don’t Know Mitt: 99 Facts About Mitt Romney
1. As head of the investment company Bain Capital, Mitt Romney laid off thousands of workers.
[CBS News, 01/28/2008]
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2. Mitt Romney's advice on the foreclosure crisis: “Don't try and stop the foreclosure process.”
[Mother Jones, 10/18/2011]
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3. The former Bain Capital managing director said of Mitt Romney's tenure: "We had a scheme where the rich got richer."
[Los Angeles Times, 12/16/2007]
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4. Mitt Romney set up shell companies in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda to avoid U.S. taxes.
[Los Angeles Times, 12/19/2007]
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5. Mitt Romney calls Obama’s payroll tax cut that would save middle class/lower income families $1,500 a year “temporary little band aids.”
[Yahoo! News, 10/18/2011]
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6. Mitt Romney's first budget as governor included $240 million in fee increases.
[Meet the Press, 12/16/2007]
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7. As governor, Mitt Romney made it more expensive to use an ice skating rink, register a boat, take the bar exam, and transport hazardous waste.
[Associated Press, The Boston Globe, 08/28/2007]
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8. Mitt Romney's plan for a “middle class tax cut” would provide zero benefits to 73.9 percent of the middle class.
[ThinkProgress, 10/14/2011]
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9. In 2008, Mitt Romney proposed a $233 billion "stimulus package" to boost the economy.
[USA Today, 01/20/2008]
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10. Under Mitt Romney's leadership, Massachusetts ranked 47th among the 50 states in job creation.
[ThinkProgress, 06/2/2011]
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11. During Mitt Romney’s tenure, Massachusetts’ job growth was at 0.9 percent, far behind the national average of over 5 percent.
[ThinkProgress, 06/2/2011]
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12. A Northeastern University economist found that Massachusetts lagged on virtually every economic indicator while Mitt Romney was in office.
[ThinkProgress, 06/2/2011]
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13. Mitt Romney has proposed tax cuts for the rich and corporations that would cost $7.8 trillion over 10 years.
[ThinkProgress, 09/7/2011]
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14. Mitt Romney boasts a record for creating private-sector jobs, but as governor, state employment grew twice as fast as the private sector.
[ThinkProgress, 09/6/2011]
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15. Mitt Romney called the Occupy Wall Street movement "dangerous."
[ThinkProgress, 10/4/2011]
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16. Mitt Romney's top economic adviser Greg Mankiw said the "offshoring" of American jobs was a good thing.
[Washington Post, 02/11/2004]
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17. Mitt Romney called for taxes on the poor, saying low-income Americans having no income tax liability is “a problem” that will “kill the country.”
[ThinkProgress, 09/21/2011]
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18. Mitt Romney called the auto bailout "tragic." After it succeeded his campaign claimed he "had the idea first."
[ThinkProgress, 05/25/2011]
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19. Back in 2002, a spokesman for Mitt Romney derided an anti-tax pledge as “government by gimmickry.” He signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge in 2012.
[ThinkProgress, 06/29/2011]
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20. Mitt Romney admits he couldn't reduce Massachusetts’ multi-billion dollar budget deficit without new revenue.
[The Boston Globe, 04/6/2003]
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21. Mitt Romney would repeal the Dodd-Frank bill, which regulates the risky practices that led to the 2008 crisis.
[ThinkProgress, 08/25/2011]
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22. Mitt Romney, who lambasts the “failures” of government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, profits from investments in the firms.
[ThinkProgress, 09/20/2011]
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23. Mitt Romney: “Corporations are people, my friend.”
[ThinkProgress, 08/11/2011]
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24. In 1996, Mitt Romney called the flat tax a "tax cut for fat cats." In 2011, Romney said "I love a flat tax."
[New York Times, 10/24/2011]
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25. Mitt Romney supports privatizing Social Security.
[ThinkProgress, 09/8/2011]
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26. Mitt Romney defended his belief that we “should consider a higher retirement age” for Social Security and Medicare to preserve tax breaks for corporations.
[ThinkProgress, 08/11/2011]
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27. Mitt Romney signed a budget that cut K-12 spending by $181.6 million (4 percent) and higher education spending by $100 million (10 percent).
[The Boston Globe, 10/24/2005]
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28. Mitt Romney said he wants to “get the federal government out of education.”
[ThinkProgress, 09/23/2011]
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29. As governor, Mitt Romney vetoed a minimum wage increase to $8 an hour.
[The Boston Globe, 08/1/2006]
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30. Mitt Romney said he "cannot see that a Cabinet position would be justified" for an American Muslim.
[Politico, 11/27/2007]
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31. Mitt Romney opposes troop withdrawal from Iraq.
[ThinkProgress, 10/21/2011]
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32. Mitt Romney says the U.S. should cede humanitarian aid and global leadership to China: "We ought to get the Chinese to take care of the people."
[ThinkProgress, 10/19/2011]
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33. Mitt Romney vowed to increase the size of the military by 100,000 troops.
[Associated Press, 10/8/2011]
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34. Mitt Romney said that catching bin Laden would be "insignificant" and it's "not worth moving heaven and earth."
[New York Times, 05/3/2007]
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35. Mitt Romney wanted "bombardment" of Iran.
[New York Times, 10/26/2007]
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36. Mitt Romney advocated doubling the size of Guantanamo.
[ThinkProgress, 08/22/2011]
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37. Mitt Romney says Obama’s worst foreign policy mistake is the START treaty, a modest treaty originally negotiated by Reagan to ensure nuclear stability between the U.S. and Russia.
[ThinkProgress, 07/6/2010]
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38. Many of Mitt Romney’s foreign policy advisers helped push the U.S. into war with Iraq.
[ThinkProgress, 10/6/2011]
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39. In 2008, Mitt Romney said if a Democrat won the White House it would mean "attacks on America."
[ThinkProgress, 02/7/2008]
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40. Mitt Romney says it was "entirely possible" that Saddam did have WMDs.
[ThinkProgress, 05/8/2007]
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41. Asked if Iraq was a mistake, Mitt Romney said “Well, the question is kind of a nonsequitur.”
[Media Matters, 06/6/2007]
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42. Mitt Romney named Walid Phares, a radical Islamophobe tied to a militia that committed atrocities, to his foreign policy team.
[The New Republic, 10/24/2011]
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43. Mitt Romney won't say whether he thinks waterboarding is torture.
[Democracy Now, 11/29/2007]
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44. Mitt Romney criticized President Obama for a nearly identical green energy program Romney set up in his state. Three of the six companies the Massachusetts fund invested in are now defunct or struggling.
[Politico, 10/26/2011]
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45. Mitt Romney opposes regulating carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change.
[ThinkProgress, 08/26/2011]
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46. Mitt Romney supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.
[The Boston Globe, 12/13/2005]
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47. Mitt Romney considers liquid coal a “clean” technology, though it emits more greenhouse gasses than oil.
[USA Today, 09/27/2007]
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48. Mitt Romney stalled and eventually withdrew from a multi-state “pollution pact” that would cap plants’ carbon emissions.
[The Boston Globe, 12/10/2005]
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49. Mitt Romney said the Clean Air Act doesn’t apply to carbon emissions.
[ThinkProgress, 07/18/2011]
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50. Today, Mitt Romney says a cap and trade program would have “devastating results for people across the planet.” In 2005, Romney said he was “convinced” that cap and trade was “good business.”
[ThinkProgress, 05/20/2011]
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51. Mitt Romney's energy policy adviser works for a lobbying firm for a major coal company.
[ThinkProgress, 09/12/2011]
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52. Mitt Romney supports unlimited coal and oil production.
[ThinkProgress, 05/20/2011]
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53. Mitt Romney supports penalties for doctors who perform an abortion.
[ThinkProgress, 10/3/2011]
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54. Mitt Romney wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned.
[Meet The Press, 12/16/2007]
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55. Mitt Romney used to say he was pro-choice, and now he's "avidly pro-life."
[Sioux City Journal, 12/27/2007]
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56. Mitt Romney would “absolutely” support a state constitutional amendment to define life as beginning at conception, which would restrict women’s right to an abortion.
[ThinkProgress, 10/3/2011]
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57. In 2005, Mitt Romney vetoed a measure that would have increased access to emergency contraception by allowing pharmacists to provide the pill without a prescription.
[ThinkProgress, 07/29/2011]
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58. Mitt Romney pledged to expand a Bush-Era policy of permitting doctors to deny women access to contraceptives.
[ThinkProgress, 09/6/2011]
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59. Top Mitt Romney legal adviser Robert Bork said women "aren't discriminated against anymore."
[ThinkProgress, 10/17/2011]
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60. Mitt Romney drafted a bill to exempt a religious group from nondiscrimination rules, allowing it to ban gay couples from adopting children.
[Associated Press, 03/14/2006]
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61. In the 1990s, Mitt Romney told the Log Cabin Republicans that he'd be better than Ted Kennedy on gay rights.
[ThinkProgress, 06/8/2011]
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62. Mitt Romney has signed the National Organization for Marriage anti-gay campaign pledge, calling for a federal amendment outlawing same-sex marriage.
[ThinkProgress, 08/4/2011]
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63. Mitt Romney on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’s end: “I believe it should have been kept in place until conflict was over.”
[ThinkProgress, 06/13/2011]
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64. Mitt Romney refused to condemn the booing of a gay soldier at a GOP debate.
[ThinkProgress, 10/4/2011]
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65. Mitt Romney suggested the government should continue to subsidize religious organizations that discriminate against gay couples in the adoption process.
[ThinkProgress, 09/6/2011]
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66. Campaigning in 1994, Mitt Romney said "I don't line up with the NRA." Today, Mitt Romney is a lifetime member of the NRA.
[Time, 05/10/2007]
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67. Mitt Romney criticized Ted Kennedy for not being tough enough on guns.
[The Boston Globe, 08/27/1994]
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68. Mitt Romney falsely claimed he was endorsed by the NRA in 2002.
[Washington Post, 12/16/2007]
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69. Mitt Romney blamed pornography for the Virginia Tech shooting.
[Fox News, 07/5/2007]
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70. Mitt Romney’s former health care consultant, an MIT economist, claimed the former governor is being “dishonest” when he says he didn’t have to raise taxes in order to pay for Romneycare.
[ThinkProgress, 10/14/2011]
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71. Mitt Romney said he supported the Ryan Republican budget plan that would effectively end Medicare.
[ThinkProgress, 04/25/2011]
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72. Mitt Romney’s first act as president would be to allow all states to opt out of health reform through executive action, which would be illegal.
[ThinkProgress, 03/23/2011]
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73. Mitt Romney would repeal the broad prohibition against denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions.
[ThinkProgress, 05/13/2011]
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74. Mitt Romney claims Massachusetts is not a model for health reform, after saying in 2009 his state “is a model for getting everyone insured.”
[ThinkProgress, 04/8/2010]
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75. Mitt Romney criticizes “Obamacare” but it is functionally identical to Romneycare.
[ThinkProgress, 01/19/2010]
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76. Mitt Romney reversed his campaign position, enacting abstinence-only sex education in schools.
[The Boston Globe, 06/30/2007]
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77. Mitt Romney’s health care advisers played a key role in drafting the Affordable Care Act.
[ThinkProgress, 03/5/2010]
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78. Mitt Romney: “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake, I can’t have illegals.”
[Politico, 10/19/2007]
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79. Mitt Romney initially supported the Bush plan for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He later denounced it.
[Washington Post, 02/4/2008]
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80. Mitt Romney was endorsed in 2008 by radical anti-immigrant activists like Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
[ThinkProgress, 03/5/2010]
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81. The landscaping company Mitt Romney used to tend his mansion for 10 years employed illegal immigrants.
[ThinkProgress, 04/26/2011]
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82. Mitt Romney criticized Rick Perry for providing government benefits to undocumented immigrants, but Romneycare provided free health care to undocumented immigrants.
[Los Angelus Times, 10/23/2011]
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83. As of October 2011, Mitt Romney has raised more than five times as much money from Wall St. employees as Obama, raising $1.5 million.
[ThinkProgress, 10/16/2011]
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84. A leaked strategic document from Mitt Romney’s 2007 campaign lists “perfect hair” among the candidate’s flaws.
[The Boston Globe, 02/27/2007]
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85. Mitt Romney said he finds “it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh on topics.”
[ThinkProgress, 03/9/2010]
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86. Mitt Romney in 2004: "From now on, it's me me me."
[The Boston Globe, 06/30/2007]
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87. Whenever the Massachussets House challenged Mitt Romney, they overrode his vetoes 99.6 percent of the time.
[The Boston Globe, 06/30/2007]
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88. Mitt Romney in 2008: I "love" George W. Bush.
[ThinkProgress, 01/3/2008]
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89. Mitt Romney refused to pardon an Iraq war veteran's BB-gun conviction but called Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence "reasonable."
[ThinkProgress, 07/4/2007]
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90. Tea Party billionaire David Koch hosted one of Mitt Romney's first fundraisers for his 2012 campaign.
[ThinkProgress, 03/15/2011]
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91. Mitt Romney considers himself “in sync” with the Tea Party.
[Reuters, 08/18/2011]
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92. Mitt Romney’s beach house has a “nonliving area” that is twice the size of the average American home.
[ThinkProgress, 08/29/2011]
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93. Mitt Romney plans to bulldoze his 3,000-square-foot $12 million home in California to replace it with one four times its size. Romney also owns a $10 million estate in New Hampshire.
[ThinkProgress, 08/21/2011]
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94. Mitt Romney feels Americans’ pain because he’s “also unemployed.” Romney was worth $250 million in 2008.
[ThinkProgress, 06/16/2011]
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95. Mitt Romney’s Olympics office refused to give free or discounted tickets to family of firefighters who died in 9/11, though it provided tickets to Utah legislators.
[The Boston Globe, 06/28/2007]
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96. Mitt Romney made millions investing in companies that did business in Iran.
[CNN Money, 07/12/2007]
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97. Mitt Romney falsely claimed he saw his father march with MLK Jr.
[The Boston Phoenix, 12/21/2007]
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98. In 2007, Mitt Romney briefly declared his favorite book was Scientology classic Battlefield Earth, though he quickly changed it to Mark Twain’s Hucklebery Finn.
[ThinkProgress, 07/5/2011]
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99. Mitt Romney won't release his tax returns.
[ThinkProgress, 10/11/2011]
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http://thinkprogress.org/romney-facts
Jordan:
Before leaving office, Romney staff wiped records
Just before Mitt Romney left the Massachusetts governor’s office and first ran for president, 11 of his top aides purchased their state-issued computer hard drives, and the Romney administration’s e-mails were all wiped from a server, according to interviews and records obtained by the Globe.
Romney administration officials had the remaining computers in the governor’s office replaced just before Governor Deval Patrick’s staff showed up to take power in January 2007, according to Mark Reilly, Patrick’s chief legal counsel.
As a result, Patrick’s office, which has been bombarded with inquiries for records from the Romney era, has no electronic record of any Romney administration e-mails, Reilly said.
“The governor’s office has found no e-mails from 2002-2006 in our possession,’’ Reilly said in a statement. “Before the current administration took office, the computers used during that time period were replaced and the server used during that time period was taken out of service, all files were removed from it, and it was also replaced.’’
Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, said the governor’s aides did nothing wrong.
“In leaving office, the governor’s staff complied with the law and longtime executive branch practice,’’ she said. “Some employees exercised the option to purchase computer equipment when they left. They did so openly with personal checks.’’
She accused Patrick of “doing the Obama campaign’s dirty work’’ and called it one in a series of “political attacks to distract from Obama’s horrible record on jobs.’’ Patrick, a Democrat, is a close friend and supporter of President Obama, and is expected to play a prominent role in his reelection campaign.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who oversees the state Public Records Law, said it appeared odd that state property - in this case, hard drives - was essentially being sold to private individuals.
“I don’t sell things to people who work for me,’’ said Galvin, a Democrat. “I’ve heard of people getting their chair or something as a gift. But generally if you work for me you don’t take your laptop with you when you leave.’’
Galvin pointed out that, in 1997, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that “the governor is not explicitly included’’ in the Public Records Law. He said that means that e-mails don’t have to be released to the public, but the governor’s office still has to preserve them and turn them over to the state archivist.
“They have an obligation as a public official to preserve their records,’’ Galvin said. “Electronic records are held to the same standard as paper records. There’s no question. They’re not in some lesser standard.’’
Officials from the two prior administrations, of governors Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift, could not be reached last night, leaving it unclear whether their aides took similar actions regarding hard drives, e-mails, and computer servers.
Just before leaving office, Romney’s staff went before the Records Conservation Board, which is made up of appointees from various state agencies and reviews public record retention. In some cases, the Romney administration was given permission to destroy records, Galvin said, oftentimes because they were redundant.
“I know that all of the Romney materials were dealt with by the public records board,’’ Galvin said. “That doesn’t mean that what was portrayed to the records board was a complete and accurate summary. I don’t know that.’’
Mark Nielsen, who was Romney’s chief legal counsel, bought his hard drive on Dec. 12, 2006, just over two weeks before Patrick administration officials took over the governor’s office.
“The longstanding practice in the governor’s office was to give employees the option to buy old equipment when they were leaving office, and certain employees, including me, did that,’’ Nielsen told the Globe. “But those purchases were in conformance with the law and with longstanding executive branch practice.’’
“I’m confident that we complied with the letter and the spirit of the law,’’ he added. When asked why he would want to purchase his hard drive, he said, “Employees were given that option and it was my understanding that it was a longstanding practice in the governor’s office.’’
When asked about replacing the remaining computers and wiping the server clean, he said, “All I can tell you is we fully complied with the law and complied with longstanding executive branch practice. Nothing unusual was done.’’
Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, said Romney administration officials may not have violated the letter of the state Public Records Law, but may have run afoul of its spirit.
“Information that was generated in the administration belongs to the people of the Commonwealth, unless it was personal in nature,’’ she said. “There is a place for purchasing of surplus property, but there are procedures to do that. And it seems that we are, as a Commonwealth, losing something if all records were deleted.’’
All told, 11 Romney administration officials bought 17 hard drives from the governor’s office, paying $65 for each one, according to copies of canceled checks that they wrote and members of the current administration. Many of the aides wrote “equipment’’ or “hard drives’’ in the memo space on their checks.
Beth E. Myers, who was Romney’s chief of staff, bought her hard drive on Aug. 18, 2006, the same month that she left state employment.
She later became Romney’s campaign manager.
Peter G. Flaherty, who was Romney’s deputy chief of staff, bought the hard drive from his computer on Nov. 3, 2006, four days before Patrick was elected, defeating his Republican opponent, Kerry Healey, who was Romney’s lieutenant governor. Flaherty later became the Romney campaign’s chief liaison to social conservatives.
The rest of the hard drives were bought in November and December of 2006 by other aides.
While Patrick aides said they do not have any electronic records of Romney administration e-mails, Galvin said there are 700 to 800 boxes of paper records from the Romney era at the state archives in Boston.
In 2009, Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston was embroiled in controversy after one of his top aides, Michael J. Kineavy, acknowledged that he had deleted nearly every e-mail he sent or received over the previous five years.
The law requires municipal employees to preserve e-mails for at least two years, even if they have “no informational or evidential value,’’ and provides for penalties of up to a year in jail.
A nine-month investigation by Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office concluded, however, that the destruction of the e-mails was not a crime because Kineavy was not willfully attempting to hide the correspondence from the public.
http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2011/11/17/before-leaving-office-romney-staff-wiped-records/xIVEQd87zi0X0tl8KrXKYM/story.html
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