Romney

[Magda Hassan]

Mitt Romney Was Arrested For Disorderly Conduct In 1981

The charges were dropped after Romney threatened to sue. "I was not a disorderly person," Romney said.
Andrew KaczynskiBuzzFeed Staff

Posted May 7, 2012 5:30am EDT

It's a [url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/"]little reported anecdote[/url], but in 1981 presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney was arrested for disorderly conduct. The issue of Romney's arrest first came to light during his 1994 Senate run against incumbent Senator Ted Kennedy, appearing at an unfortunate time while Romney was running ads talking to police officers with sirens in the background, promising to be tough on crime
According to what Romney told the Boston Globe in 1994, he had taken his family off to Wayland, Mass.'s Lake Cochituate, about an hour outside Boston, for a summer excursion. As Romney prepared to put his family boat into the water, a park officer told Romney not to launch because his license appeared to have been painted over. The officer told Romney if he put his boat into the water he would face a $50 fine.
Romney felt that his license was still visible and decided to ignore the order from the officer and pay the fine.
"I figured I was at the state park with my kids. My five kids were in the car wondering why we weren't going out in the boat, so I said I'd launch and pay the fine," Romney said in 1994.
Romney said the officer didn't tell him not to launch his boat, just that he would face a fine for doing so.
"I was willing to pay the fine. But if he had said don't launch the boat and not mentioned the fine, I would not have done it," Romney said.
After Romney put the family boat into the water, the officer reappeared visibly angry and arrested Romney for disorderly conduct. Romney was handcuffed on the scene, taken to the local police station, and booked.
"There I was, dripping wet in a bathing suit," Romney told the Globe. A magistrate let him go without bail.
Several days later, Romney appeared in Natick District Court and threatened to sue the arresting office for a false arrest. The charges were dropped and sealed at Romney's request.
"He did not have the right to arrest me because I was not a disorderly person. This was an obvious case of false arrest," Romney said. "The officer obviously agreed because he agreed to dropping the case."
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/...nduct-in-1

[Adele Edisen]

Magda,

He should have been arrested and fined for putting his dog on the roof of his car. And then there's gross dishonesty to the American people during the campaign.
Oh, well. The election's over, thank goodness.

Adele

[Seamus Coogan]

This just in from Teddy Rubinstein.

Ted Rubinstein
"Ok...Hankey was interviewed by F. one wk before election day. He was talking about Romney having to "make his bones" to Mafia don Karl Rove to secure the nomination. So Romney engineered 2 murders, one was a guy who died in a car crash in France who had some Bain Capital link to Romney. The other was Ariz. rep. Gabrielle Giffords (ostensibly killed by the guy in Ariz. who looks like Glenn Beck).







07:59
Ted Rubinstein
I might have garbled the car crash guy info"

Strewth these two can talk some shit. Best comedy you'll here on the internet. How low will Fetzer stoop? It's hilarious, their discussion is akin to a turd in a punch bowl.

http://radiofetzer.blogspot.co.nz/2012/1...html:nono:

[Peter Lemkin]

Florida Republicans Admit Suppression of Democratic Votes Was Goal of New Law


Former Republican officials in Florida have admitted a controversial new law that helped fuel massive lines on Election Day was intentionally created to suppress Democratic votes. Republican leaders had claimed the law was aimed at stopping voter fraud. But former Republican officials, including former Florida governor Charlie Crist, told the Palm Beach Post that alleged fraud was used as a cover to conceal the main goal of Republicans curbing Democratic votes. In particular, Republican officials were apparently concerned about the impact of early voting by people of color. The Palm Beach Post cites an anonymous Republican consultant saying: "I know that the cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that's a big day when the black churches organize themselves." President Obama ultimately won the battleground state of Florida, but the state's voting restrictions caused a spike in provisional ballots, which are used when a voter's eligibility is in question.

[Peter Lemkin]

Author Thomas Ricks: Fox News "Was Operating as a Wing of the Republican Party"

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Ricks is drawing attention for his criticism of Fox News over its coverage of the deadly attacks on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi. The veteran military reporter made the comments against Fox News during an interview with the network Monday.

Thomas Ricks: "I think that Benghazi generally was hyped, by this network especially, and that now that the campaign is over, I think [Senator John McCain] is backing off a little bit. They're not going to stop Susan Rice from being secretary of state. I've covered a lot of fire-fights, it is impossible to figure out what happens in them sometimes. And second, I think that the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox News was operating as a wing of the Republican Party."

[Jan Klimkowski]

Florida Republicans Admit Suppression of Democratic Votes Was Goal of New Law


Former Republican officials in Florida have admitted a controversial new law that helped fuel massive lines on Election Day was intentionally created to suppress Democratic votes. Republican leaders had claimed the law was aimed at stopping voter fraud. But former Republican officials, including former Florida governor Charlie Crist, told the Palm Beach Post that alleged fraud was used as a cover to conceal the main goal of Republicans curbing Democratic votes. In particular, Republican officials were apparently concerned about the impact of early voting by people of color. The Palm Beach Post cites an anonymous Republican consultant saying: "I know that the cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that's a big day when the black churches organize themselves." President Obama ultimately won the battleground state of Florida, but the state's voting restrictions caused a spike in provisional ballots, which are used when a voter's eligibility is in question.

Shucks. There was lil' ole me thinking that the Republicans could rely on the votes of pissed off white men and bigoted old white women to guarantee another victory.

To overcome the "demographic timebomb", it looks like the Republicans are going to have to go the whole spit roasted hog and disenfranchise blacks, hispanics and native Americans....

[Keith Millea]

To overcome the "demographic timebomb", it looks like the Republicans are going to have to go the whole spit roasted hog and disenfranchise blacks, hispanics and native Americans....

Yeah,they already have the plan.The students at this school seem to be mostly Hispanics and Native Americans.They are aiming at our youth..

Published on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 by PRWatch.org

Private Prison Company Used in Drug Raids at Public High School

Corrections Corporation of America used in drug sweeps of public school students in Arizona

by Beau Hodai

In Arizona an unsettling trend appears to be underway: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.

Below is part of the longer article,which can be read HERE.

Profit-Driven Roadmap to the Present: "Tough-on-Crime" Mania and the Introduction of the "War on Drugs" to the Classroom.

As some opponents of prison privatization attest, CCA embodies the worst pitfalls of public-private partnerships, in that the corporation has worked in the past to advance criminal justice legislation that has contributed to both a swell in U.S. prison/detention center populations and, consequently, CCA's bottom line.

For example, CCA was active (both as a co-chair and member) in the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) Public Safety and Elections Task Force (formerly the ALEC Criminal Justice Task Force) through the 1990s, to the end of 2010.

ALEC bills itself as "the nation's largest, non-partisan, individual public-private membership association of state legislators," working toward the advancement of the "Jeffersonian ideals" of limited federal government. In reality, ALEC is almost entirely funded by corporations and sources other than legislative dues, and it is overwhelmingly comprised of Republican state lawmakers and an untold number of large corporations and influential law/lobby firms (although at least 41 companies have announced they have stopped funding ALEC in the wake of public exposure of its activities). ALEC's primary objective is to adopt and disseminate "model legislation," much of which is drafted entirely by its private sector members. ALEC boasts that nearly 20 percent of this "model legislation" introduced in state legislatures nationwide is passed into law annually.

In the wake of reporting outlining CCA's involvement with ALEC and the spread of immigration law based on SB 1070, CCA told the Arizona Republic, in September 2011, that the corporation left ALEC at an undisclosed time in 2010.
[URL="http://dbapress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ALEC-AZ-Ash-Farnsworth-Tobin-Lesko-Kavanagh-Smoldon-Leal-2011.pdf"]
Records obtained by DBA Press[/URL] show the direct sponsorship of both CCA and of Management and Training Corporation ("MTC," currently the nation's third largest for-profit prison/immigrant detention center operator) of the August 2010 ALEC Annual Meeting, as well as the likely involvement of lobbyists employed by both CCA, MTC and GEO Group in the December, 2010 ALEC "States and Nation Policy Summit".

Arizona lobby reports also show clear GEO Group involvement with ALEC during the December, 2009 ALEC States and Nation Policy Summit -- the meeting at which then-Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce introduced legislation (that would later be introduced in the Arizona legislature as SB 1070) for adoption as a piece of ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force "model legislation." Subsequently, copycat legislation similar to this ALEC model bill -- the "No More Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act" -- began appearing in state legislatures throughout the nation.

Furthermore, the ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force was instrumental, during the years of CCA's membership and leadership, in proliferating such 'tough-on-crime' legislation as: "three strikes," "truth in sentencing" and "mandatory minimum" sentencing guidelines.
And ALEC also advanced the model "Private Correctional Facilities Act," which allowed private corporations to operate state prisons.

These guidelines and pieces of "model legislation" (including the "Private Correctional Facilities Act") were advanced by ALEC in partnership with CrimeStrike, a division of the National Rifle Association ("NRA," a longtime ALEC private sector member), throughout the first half of the 1990s. Critics of this effort saw CrimeStrike largely as a response to the Clinton administration's desire to strengthen firearms violence prevention laws. As such, the CrimeStrike campaign spawned the saying, "guns don't kill people, people kill people"-- and posited that the solution to crime would be found through the use of greater criminal penalties. This strategy took advantage of, and perpetuated, the "tough-on-crime" sentiments of the day.

Largely as a result of model laws/sentencing guidelines advanced by the ALEC/NRA CrimeStrike partnership, the United States experienced a boom in the number of incarcerated individuals (in state and federal prisons, as well as in jails)-- from just over 1.1 million incarcerated in 1990, to nearly 2.3 million in 2010.

During the years of CCA's Criminal Justice/Public Safety and Elections Task Force involvement, ALEC also advanced and advocated "model legislation" that not only resulted in greater drug law enforcement presence on public school campuses, but that also mandated tough sentencing enhancements for drug offenses committed in "drug-free school zones."

The ALEC "Drug-Free Schools Act" called for the use of federal funds provided through the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act of 1986 for "enhanced apprehension, prevention and education efforts" in joint cooperation between law enforcement agencies and local school districts.

Multiple ALEC publications (including the ALEC "Sourcebook for American State Legislation 1993-94," which lists CCA among the organization's private sector members and advisors), along with the ALEC "Use of a Minor in Drug Operations Act" reference the "model Drug-Free School Zone Act," although it is unclear whether this "model" bill originated with ALEC.

It is clear, however, that the model "Drug-Free School Zone Act," which establishes "drug-free school zones" and carries sentencing enhancements similar to the enhancements codified in Arizona law, was promoted by a broad coalition of public interests groups during the 'tough-on-crime' fervor of the early-to-mid 1990s. The model bill enjoyed such support that the 1992 National Office of Drug Control Policy (NODCP) established federal assistance in establishing "drug-free school zones," as well as mandatory sentencing enhancements nationwide.
Interestingly enough, this NODCP initiative, which was set forth in a report discussing the agency's "national priorities" for 1992, advocated state adoption of several other known pieces of ALEC model legislation, such as the "Use of a Minor in a Drug Operations Act," as well as other ALEC "models" calling for the suspension or revocation of occupational licenses for professionals convicted of drug crimes, the eviction of drug offenders from public housing, and the use of "mandatory minimum" sentencing guidelines.

Not surprisingly, ALEC, along with several other public policy groups, was credited by the NODCP as having been "especially helpful in the formulation of this strategy."

In April of 2012, following widespread criticism and loss of corporate sponsorship due to such pieces of "model legislation" disseminated by the Public Safety and Elections Task Force as the "Stand Your Ground Act," the "Voter ID Act" and the "No More Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act," ALEC announced that it would disband the task force (an announcement that PRWatch has critiqued as a "PR" maneuver).

Unfortunately, as the October 31 Vista Grande High School drug raid illustrates, the purported discontinuation of this task force comes only after the damage of two decades of private prison industry influence in the legislative process has taken its toll.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Keith - your eyes remain wide open.