Thursday, April 29, 2010

Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Pink Piggy Banks, Mitt’s Book – Another Romney Deception?

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference was held on April 8 - 11, 2010 in New Orleans. Romney was a no-show at the convention, but David and Nancy French from “Evangelical’s for Mitt”, were in an all out tactical assault to win over the Southern leadership convention attendees. The French’s came armed with pink piggy banks reading “Elect a president who won't break the bank", and free copies of Romney’s book, “No Apology”. The French’s, no doubt, felt the ‘free goodies’ would be the deciding factor in winning southern republicans hearts.

As many reader’s know, Romney won the Southern Convention straw vote by ONE vote. Not exactly a land-slide victory for all the free-bee’s Romney’s man and woman of the hour, David and Nancy French, were handing out.

Nancy French, a long time avid Romney supporter, had another tactic up her sleeve. French sent out letters to ‘Fellow Mitt Supporters”. Daily Paul obtained a copy of the letter sent out by Nancy which read:

Subject: Calling All Socially Conservative Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, and Jews
Hey Fellow Mitt Supporters,

I’m the co-founder of an organization called “Evangelicals for Mitt” which is a grass roots political organization that supports Gov. Romney for President in 2012.
I’m writing because the Southern Republican Leadership Conference is the kick-off of the 2012 Presidential election, in New Orleans in April.

“Evangelicals for Mitt” is trying to get people there who would vote for Gov. Romney in a straw poll there. It is customary for potential Presidential candidates to make an effort to get friendly people at the conference to help their showing in the straw polls, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

If you have politically minded friends who’d be interested in the largest gathering before 2012 voting, please tell them about this offer. So far, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, and Newt Gingrich have confirmed as speakers. Sadly, Gov. Romney is not a confirmed speaker — but all the more reason to show up and send him a message: Southerners Love Mitt!

A good time will be had by all, and it’s always a great deal of fun to participate in the democratic process in a small yet meaningful way. In addition to voting in the straw poll, we’ll provide tickets that will enable you to get into all of the speakers if there’s room. Also, you’ll have access to all of the break-out sessions, and a large Friday night party called The Taste of Louisiana. We’ll also have free autographed copies of Gov. Romney’s book “No Apologies” and tee shirts there, and there will also be plenty of great food!

Anyway, please fill out the below form and we’ll get you registered. Also, if you think you’d be able to help us find people to go vote for Mitt in the straw poll, or if you would be interested, please call or e-mail. I’m attaching the info that I’ll need from you below.

Thanks!
Nancy


CBS News’ Brian Montopoli, interviewed an attendee, attending on behalf of Romney, who ininvertely spilled the beans on Nancy French’s feint maneuver.

“I spoke to a young female delegate who said she planned to vote for Romney in the poll. I asked her how she had ended up at the conference.

“She said Evangelicals for Mitt had contacted her and offered to pay for her to have a limited-access ticket — as long as she agreed to vote for Romney in the straw poll.”

“Asked how Evangelicals for Mitt got her name, she said she didn’t know. But she said that she was on the e-mail list for Romney and speculated that the Romney team had given out their e-mail list. “


What did the attendee’s get from Evangelicals for Mitt for attending on behalf of Mitt Romney? ---

“Evangelicals for Mitt” is offering tickets to the SRLC for FREE (normally $119). Here is what attendees receive:

1) Access to the main sessions via live simulcast television. As space allows, during any session, you’ll have access to the main ballroom.
2) Great food and hospitality at the Taste of Louisiana Party on Friday night. Trust me – you will experience some great food!

3) Complete access to breakout sessions, the exhibit hall, and the straw poll.

4) Not only will you have the opportunity to see many Conservative notables speak in person, but the Conference shares the weekend with the French Quarter Festival, where you can enjoy over 150 musical performances, as well as the cuisine and culture of the Big Easy. It’s guaranteed to be a terrific weekend!


According to Mitt Romney’s people "Evangelicals for Mitt" is not affiliated with Mitt Romney and his staff.

Of course, people are asking how David and Nancy French came by hundreds of autographed copies of Romney’s book, and where the mailing list was obtained the French’s used. Despite Romney’s people saying “Evangelicals for Mitt’ have no affiliation with Romney. David and Nancy French are racking up a long history with Romney and his wife Ann. According to Nancy’s own bio:

“In the summer of 2007, Nancy became involved in a book project with Ann Romney. Nancy was also hired as a consultant for the campaign from October until December of 2007, working to get Governor Romney on the primary ballot in her home state of Tennessee. EFM disclosed both developments immediately.” Nancy also runs a website Tennessee for Mitt.

References located on comments section.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Mitt Romney at Senator Bob Bennett’s Side During GOP Conference – Mitt will be tied to the Senators Hip

According to Mormon Church owned Deseret News, Mitt Romney will be Senators Bob Bennett’s big weapon during the GOP convention. Jim Bennett, the senator’s son said Romney is to be standing by Bennett’s side through-out the convention, in an attempt to strengthen Bennett’s lagging support in Utah. The senator has been under attack by ultra-conservative Club for Growth, in the Beehive State. A blog piece regarding Romney and Senator Bob Bennett’s son Jim’s controversial statements at a Utah meeting, were run as an attack ad by Club for Growth. More can be read on the controversy on a March blog piece titled:

“Could Trouble Be Brewing For Romney In Utah?” can be linked to by clicking on the March blog list located on the side bar of this blog.

Thursday, March 18, 2010 10:57 p.m. The Deseret News reported the Club for Growth has complained that Utah Senator Bob Bennett’s son has told people to be ‘deceptive’. Bennett is a family friend and a long time backer of Mitt Romney’s. Mitt Romney at the same meeting told people to vote more than once. Club Growth seized on the statements by the two good friends, Mitt and Bob Jr. on their website complaining of the two encouraging deceptive tactics.



Another good friend of Senator Bennett’s son’s is Karl Rove. Rove along with Romney are out on the campaign trail for Bennett. Yes, Bennett’s son is friends of both Mitt Romney and Karl Rove. This is not the first time Rove has made appearances in Utah for Bennett, All Business in 2009 reporter on Rove, when Karl was in Utah for his 40th High School reunion took time during his visit to campaign for the Senator. All Business, felt Rove’s appearance on behalf of Bennett odd writing: “Perhaps this odd partnering will prove a plus for Bennett among next year’s delegates to the state Republican convention (Imagine! Karl Rove!).”

Is Rove an “odd partnering” with Senator Bob Bennett? Not at all, Bennett groomed Karl Rove. Senator Bennett and Rove have a long history together. Wikipedia sheds light on Bennett/Rove ties.

“In December 1969, the man Rove had known as his father left the family, and divorced Rove's mother soon afterward; it later became known he was homosexual.[8][9] After his parents' divorce, Rove learned from his aunt and uncle that the man who had raised him was not his biological father; both he and his older brother Eric were the children of another man. Rove has expressed great love and admiration for his adoptive father and for "how selfless" his love had been.[10] In 1981 Rove's mother committed suicide in Reno, Nevada.[10]”

“In the fall of 1969, Rove entered the University of Utah, on a $1,000 scholarship,[11] as a political science major and joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. As with many others of his generation, enrollment in college protected him from being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Through the University's Hinckley Institute of Politics, he got an internship with the Utah Republican Party. That position, and contacts from the 1968 Bennett campaign, helped him land a job in 1970 on Ralph Tyler Smith's unsuccessful re-election campaign for Senate from Illinois. Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson III won.”

“In the fall of 1970, Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Democrat Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead, printed fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing", and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon's rally. (Dixon eventually won the election). Rove's role would not become publicly known until August 1973.”


Roves antics didn’t end with the fake campaign fliers in 1970, Rove is later linked to:

“Sources quoted by Time magazine and CBS' "60 Minutes" maintained that Rove used his influence with a U.S. attorney to get a bribery conviction against former Democratic Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.”

Rove has also been implicated in several U.S. attorney generals firing, the leaking of CIA agent Valarie Plame’s identity, and involvement in Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.


Outside of both Romney and Rove campaigning for Bennett, the two also share other similarities according to journalist Mark Halperin --

“Over the years, I have covered and interviewed both men and admittedly have found them rather difficult to decode, personally and sometimes professionally.”
Rove and Romney connections and similarities do not end with Bob Bennett, or being difficult to ‘decode’.

Beth Myers, a Rove protégée, was Mitt Romney’s campaign manager in Romney’s 2008 presidential run and Rove became a strong voice in promoting an M&M ticket (McCain/ Mitt) after Romney bowed out of the GOP presidential race after Super Tuesday.

HANNITY: We continue with our friend, FOX News contributor Karl Rove. All right Karl Rove, I never, ever doubt my good friend Bob Novak, and he's saying that you're suggesting that Mitt Romney would be a good VP choice for John McCain.

ROVE: Well, I talked with Bob recently, and we got to talking about the vice-presidential choice, and I shared with Bob, I've been traveling around the country recently — in fact, tonight I'm at the University of Pittsburgh where I'm a guest of the Pitt Program Council. And as I go around the country, I'm hearing a lot of conversation about VP, and I told Bob I was surprised by how often I was hearing the name Mitt Romney, and there seems to be some level of enthusiasm for the M & M ticket, "McCain & Mitt."

HANNITY: All right, but is that Karl Rove's choice?

ROVE: I'm going to try to remain to be a little objective and detached. I'm just reporting to Bob what I heard. And I was in Florida, southwestern Florida on Friday night. I heard it there. I mentioned it tonight; I met with the Pitt College Republicans before the speech I'm going to make later on tonight. I met with the Pitt College Republicans earlier this evening. They asked me the question of what I was hearing about it. I shared with them the M & M ticket, and there was a lot of enthusiasm there for it.

Robert Novak wrote:

“Former White House political guru Karl Rove is urging that Sen. John McCain pick Mitt Romney as his running mate, writes veteran Washington columnist Robert Novak.”
“According to Novak, Rove and other GOP bigwigs want Romney in the No. 2 spot despite the bad blood that exists between the former Massachusetts governor and McCain, an enmity that grew out of their heated rivalry during the Republican presidential primaries.”


Sen. Bob Bennett of course, was a big backer of Mitt Romney during Romney’s 2008 Presidential run.

Bob Bennett for Mitt Romney


And Romney of course is backing Bob Bennett in his re-election efforts –

Mitt Romney for Bob Bennett



Don’t You feel a bit hypocritical Romney?



Karl Rove stomping for both –

Roves appearance on the campaign trial for Bennett lead one journalist to write:

“With Karl Rove stumping this weekend for Sen. Bob Bennett's re-election campaign, should Bennett's Republican opponents -- Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Cherilyn Eagar and, possibly, Tim Bridgewater -- worry about going to jail anytime soon?”
“It's a tongue-in-cheek question, I admit. Rove's “


“But the fact that the opponents of Rove's clients tend to get indicted, and convicted, on what many critics have called dubious charges and questionable evidence, brings into question what Bennett hopes to accomplish in terms of his sketchy image with the party's right wing.”

“He is accused in the book Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove… with having used his friendship with an FBI agent to get corruption indictments against two state bureaucrats”


“It's a tongue-in-cheek question, I admit."


References found in comment section:

Friday, April 16, 2010

Romney the Torture Supporter- Mitchell and Jessen show up in Thailand

I wonder if Romney will re-think his support for enhanced torture?

I was to be off today, but the breaking story of newly released CIA documents regarding the destruction of the CIA tapes in Thailand and Harriet Miers quoted as being “livid”, deserved a departure from my hiatus ---

“Former CIA Director Porter Goss agreed with a 2005 decision to destroy interrogation videos showing waterboarding, but nobody told White House counsel Harriet Miers, who was "livid" to find out afterward, newly released CIA documents show.”

“The tapes were destroyed in Thailand.”

It just so happens, Mitchell and Jessen was in Thailand
. And they have a history of destroying tapes of abuses done in America in the prison systems they ran.

“(Mitchell) he and Bruce Jessen offered to run for the CIA as private contractors, to be paid "more than $1,000 a day" plus expenses, tax free. In April 2002, when an al Qaeda prisoner being held at a CIA safe house in Thailand began talking to FBI interrogators, contributing "actionable intelligence" about al Qaeda personnel and activities, the CIA took Mitchell up on his offer and invited him to try his methods on the prisoner, Abu Zubaydah. Mitchell showed up in Thailand, announced to FBI interrogators that he was taking over, with the blessing of top officials in Washington, and ordered that Zubaydah be confined "like a dog"

See blog piece below of April 12, titled: "Romney Is For Enhanced Interrogations Techniques" for more background on Mitchell and Jessen.

Washington torture memos aimed specifically at protecting Mitchell"

His work with Zubaydah and apparently also with a second prisoner preceded official legal clearances for torture. Paperwork associated with the legal maneuvering suggests that some of the lawyers and other top-level officials were familiar with Mitchell's program and wished to establish it on secure legal footing. The firm Mitchell Jessen and Associates still operates out of Spokane, Washington, It advertises its expertise in "understanding, predicting and improving performance in high-risk and extreme situations."

"According to CIA officials, "Mr. Rodriguez did not consult him or the C.I.A.'s top lawyer [or Goss] before giving the order for the tapes to be destroyed." --- Mr. Rodriguez, worked with Cofer Black who brought Mitchell and Jessen into the CIA. Cofer Black who later wound up on Mitt Romney's presidential committee in his 2008 run.

And who did the torture memos’? Many of Mitchell and Jessen fellow LDS church members. Like Harry Reid said of Judge Bybee.. "Judge Bybee has a good professional reputation in Nevada". Wonder if these guys all meet in the Mormon Temple for special ceremonies?

Mormons sure do protect each other against cases of child sexual assault in the Mormon church -- women and children get mobbed and battered, guess it carries over in their jobs in the secular world.


Reference on comments page.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Romney Has A Terrorist Problem –

Steve Hindi, and his video streaming, super duper terrorist van, wasn’t the only “terrorist” Romney has been up against. Romney had another terrorist alert a few years after Hindi the rodeo hating “terrorist”. I was watching the evening news while enjoying a cup of hot coffee, with my handy-dandy channel switcher sitting on the table by my side, when a news piece came on reporting Al-quida aligned Chinese Nationals were heading to Boston. I spilt my coffee… and burst into laughter! Thinking, “Who in the heck, is going to believe that!” “Mittens sure does come up with some good ones!” –

The news reported on two fearsome National Chinese men and two fearsome National Chinese women aligned with Al-quida were going to terrorize the good people of Boston. It can’t be, I said. Chinese Nationals wouldn’t align with Al-quida and attack America, and they would go after China. Muslims from China hate their government and America isn’t a concern to them. I wondered if the good people of America were going to realize they were being played.

If one cannot control people through their desires, one can control them through their fears --- (shame on, Mittens)

NYTs, “said in a statement that the authorities had received a tip that was "uncorroborated and of unknown reliability" about such a plot. They released the names and photographs of two Chinese men and two Chinese women whom they were looking to bring in for questioning.”

“The authorities were informed about the four in a tip from a single anonymous source, said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The tip, apparently received by federal officials in California, suggested that the four might have entered the United Sates recently from Mexico.”

"Gov. Mitt Romney said Wednesday evening that the four were believed to have been "dropped off" in New York and that they might have been heading to Boston but that none of them were believed to be in Massachusetts as of Wednesday evening."

“Local news coverage of the reported threats prompted Mr. Romney, who was in Washington to attend the inauguration of President Bush on Thursday, to return to Massachusetts on Wednesday night. He said he wanted "to assure people that it's safe to be in Boston."

“…typical of the kind of fragmentary and unsubstantiated information that federal authorities routinely check out, but rarely find significant.”

Romney tries to become a savior returning to Boston from Washington D.C. “to assure people”… –

There was terror going on in Boston, but not by Chinese Nationals. In this writer’s opinion, it is based on another event which began to unfold in December, prior to the January announced ‘terror alert’. Boston was under siege by the bulging cases of pedophilia in the Catholic Church was stealing newspaper headlines and leaving parishes vacant of parishioners. The Catholic Church was learning both the public and financial cost of child sexual abuse cover-up.

Inside the LDS Ward in Mathuen, Mass. in December prior to the ‘terror’ alert, members of the LDS Church were told not to cooperate with local law enforcement by LDS church authorities. The lay Mormon Church leadership was uncooperative with police investigators. Whispers circulated in the LDS community in other states, of child sexual assault "The Church" was attempting to keep the lid on, by pressuring its membership into silence.

By mid-January, news began to leak out of child sexual abuse in the Boston Mormon Church. Within ten to eleven days of the child sexual abuse story starting to break in Boston – the story not yet reaching national news; an “uncorroborated and of unknown reliability tip” came in from an anonymous source in California, of a potential “terrorist” assault on Boston, Mass., triggering national media attention and sweeping the child sexual abuse case off the pages of the press.

People with connections in the LDS community began commenting among themselves in late December, that Mitt’s phone lines between Boston and SLC must burning 24/7. It is well known in LDS circles the influence of the Mormon Church headquarters on members in political leadership. The lay ministry in Boston who were pressuring members not to cooperate and were themselves uncooperative, have other full-time positions in the secular world.


Even Harry Reid mentions “I was in SLC doing some church work.” –

The problem with the LDS Church lay ministry is the line between church and state can be impossible to distinguish and crosses over, as in the story below:

Jeff Foli, a Mayor in Missouri was excommunicated when he failed to follow SLC directives.

Jeff Foli was Mayor of Chillicothe Missouri; he was threatened with excommunication if I did not follow Mormon orders in regards to a political matter. It is supposedly against Fereral Law (Title 26, Section 501) for a church to influence, or manipulate the political process, but in 2003, the late Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson thought it appropriate and acceptable to threaten membership in the church when Jeff was Mayor of Chillicothe in Northwest Missouri, regarding a political matter.”

“On Feb. 17, 2007, the Church held a disciplinary Council (church court) because the public was made aware of these acts via the internet, and charges were filed with the local Sheriff, the ACLU, the IRS, and others because of the continual manipulation and abuse of Mormon leaders in Chillicothe.”

---There are a number of people who have been accused of ‘terrorism’, when either disagreeing with Mitt, or when there was an issue within the Boston Mormon church, which is leading one to wonder exactly who the real terrorist is -

(Mitt Romney served as Bishop and Stake President in the Mormon Church in Mass for approx. nine years)
blog piece with additional information on this issue can be linked to:
http://mittromney2012potus.blogspot.com/2010/03/political-life-was-saved-at-least-for.html
or located on the side bar, in the March blog section under 'A Political Life Was Saved For At Least For A Moment.

References in comments section:

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

If You Don’t Support Mitt’s Views You Get Fired- or Worst

Early one morning, as the Repeal and Replace Movement, moved from the birthing room into the media limelight, one of the first names I heard on the news was Mike Rogers from Michigan. Mike was making a statement supporting the movement. “No shock”, I thought. “Romney’s puppy is out nipping at ankles.”

A Livingston County Republican ‘who knows’ Mike, has posted on the blog, "Mike did not endorse any candidate during the primaries in 2008". However, members of his close knit and influential county family did support Romney. Rogers appears to possess life-long political ambitions and seemed to be playing politics, not wanting to get on the bad side of any Republican presidential hopefuls and waited to toss his hat into the ring, until after the primary dust settled.



While in Dallas on Mar 19, 2010 Mitt Romney laid out his plan to repeal the health-care bill, later citing the 10th amendment as the bases. Mitt Romney, who is the grandfather of the health-care bill, now attempts to become the darling of the conservative republicans with his repeal-and-replace plan. Mitt always creates his own drama, by being the catalyst of an issue and then rushes in to be the ‘savior,’ from the issues he assisted in creating.

David Frum wasn’t buying what he was hearing --

Frum questioned Republicans lack of in-put into the health-care bill Obama signed into law. In David Frum’s March 21 article, he outlined several points why the health-care bill might becomes republicans ‘Waterloo’. The second point, I suggest, became the reason for Frum’s own Waterloo when he wrote:

“So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now”

Frum’s second point, from appearance is expanded into his March 23 article, on the “fantasy” of the repeal- and replace- movement. Frum writes:

“Mitt Romney and Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah, have both come under intense attack from the party’s activist base. Bennett faces a very serious primary challenge; Romney has run away from his own handiwork. Who wants to share their fate?”

“So the question should be pressed as Republicans speak of “replacement”: who is in charge of the process of drafting this replacement? What’s the deadline for completion? My guess is that there won’t be answers to those questions, that “replacement” will remain a more or less empty slogan through the 2010 elections”

David Frum’s words must have been a slap in the face to Romney. The movement which is to be Romney’s salvation was torpedoed by one of the Republican’s most prominent writers.

On March 26th, David Frum, during lunch with AEI President Arthur Brooks, was terminated. The generous money donators’ to AEI had decided to put their money elsewhere and not in Frum direction.

Less than two weeks from Mitt announced plan of repeal and replace, Frum was out the door of AEI.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy



Meanwhile back in Livingston County,Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers’s stomping ground; one Livingston County GOPer is quoted regarding David Frum:

“Man, that guy is a serious downer.” “I can totally see now why he's fired all the time.”

Does it seem unfair to point a finger in Mitt’s direction for Frum’s dismissal? Not really, others have run into steep head winds when going against an agenda of Mitts, or put Romney’ actions into question. To disagree with Romney had serious consequences -- even for people who appear to have a ‘liberal’ view.

Steve Hindi in the video below disagreed with Romney over a ‘rodeo’. O.K. it is a rodeo, many people may never have been to a rodeo, some may like them, and some may not. It is a rodeo, but it was serious business to Romney.

Guess who showed up in jackets with “Olympics" blazed across the back, while Steve Hindi was being accused of being a terrorist. You read that right, accused of being a TERRORIST! --- PLUS allegations of bomb threats! incite riots? We’re talking serious terrorist here, Romney doesn’t’ take someone disagreeing with him lightly!!



Obviously, there was influence used in the harassment of Steve Hindi. FBI agents bailing and leaving the New Mexico police looking like fools. Undue pressures and influence can come from within the agency by Mormon administrators favorable to members of their own faith, as in the case of Hispanic FBI agents which filed a law suit against the agency.

“Three hundred-eleven His¬panic FBI agents won a class action suit against the agency on September 30. A central argument in the suit was that their careers were stymied by the religious bias against non-Mormons of ranking FBI officials who are Mormon (LDS).

“Charges of a “Mormon Mafia” in the FBI’s Los Angeles office have been circulating for years, The FBI, admitting the dis¬crimination practices and pledging to end them with the recent appointment of a new director, had no plans to appeal the ruling.”

“Just after the case was filed, Richard T. Bretzing, 49, head of the Los Angeles divi¬sion of the FBI since 1982, retired to become the Manag¬ing Director of the LDS Church’s security department, according to the LDS Church News. Bretzing retired after 27 years’ service (three years short of the 30-year government retirement plan).”


Does anymore need to be said?

References in the comment section.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Romney BUDDY Congressman Mike Rogers a Wiretapping Expert?

Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled in March, the government has violated a 1978 federal stature requiring court approval for domestic surveillance. “Under the program, the National Security Agency monitored Americans’ international e-mail messages and phone calls without court approval, even though the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, required warrants.”

FISA warrants? Aren’t they the warrants Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan voted to remove?

Rogers on his website boast about his role in the development of wiretaps, some of which are now found illegal by a U.S. Courts of Law. To quote Rogers: “In Congress, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Mike’s expertise was sought out during development of the USA PATRIOT Act, which gives law enforcement the tools necessary for tracking terrorists with today’s technology. Mike’s expertise proved invaluable in understanding how wiretaps are obtained and used, the complex checks and balances that prevent abuse of wire taps, and why the rules based on 1970s technology were no longer applicable in the day of cell phones and the Internet.

Mike voted:

..... YES on removing need for FISA warrant for wiretapping

“The ruling delivered a blow to the Bush administration’s claims that its surveillance program, which Mr. Bush secretly authorized shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was lawful. Under the program, the National Security Agency monitored Americans’ international e-mail messages and phone calls without court approval, even though the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, required warrants.”

Not good news for Congressman Mike Rogers’s judgment, understanding, or expertise on wiretapping.

Guess, the 1970’s federal program is applicable in today’s world.

Rogers is from Livingston County, Michigan, a county whose GOP leadership has been in an endless love affair with Mitt since the start of his last failed presidential run. Romney won the Saturday, March. 11, 2006 "straw vote in Livingston County, Mich., a fast-growing exurban county near Detroit, Romney won a straw poll of GOP activists, according to Michigan Republican Party chairman Saul Anuzis who was in Memphis.” “He estimated that about 400 people had taken part in the Michigan straw poll.”

Rogers’s involvement in the wiretapping and the March court ruling of Judge Vaughn R. Walker got me thinking about Mitt Romney’s view on enhanced tortures, which lead to the April 12th blog piece. The enhanced torture program followed on the heels of the Patriot Act of 2001.

Rogers and Romney have close associations, are touched on in the blog piece: “Mitt Romney, Mark Foley and Congressman Mike Rogers from Michigan”
Can be located on the side bar in the March blogs, or http://mittromney2012potus.blogspot.com/2010/03/mitt-romney-mark-foley-and-congressman.html

References in comment section.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Romney Is For Enhanced Interrogations Techniques

It is amazing Mitt Romney, a man whose family has cowered from military service for generations, is for enhanced torture. Romney also claims strong moral values, supports tortures which includes extreme sexual humiliation, rape, including children raped in front to their parents, and explicit sexual contortions. On second thought, somehow it doesn’t seem too shocking Romney supports the sexual abuse of children and the tormenting parents by mocking the sexual abuse of their children. Not shocking at all.



McCain on enhanced tortures -


Romney recently stated:

“I am convinced this is the time to tell Americans the truth,” said Romney. “We have to be honest and people will do the right thing. The silent majority is less and less silent.” Mitt is right; it is time for truth - even if it is the truth Romney doesn’t want told -

Mitt Romney’s support of enhanced torture is not a difficult stretch. Judge Bybee, Tom Flanagan, Mitchell, Jessen, DeLand, McCotter, were involved in the creation of the enhanced torture program. All are fellow Mormon Church members and Temple recommend holders, the same as Mitt,

Cofer Black, one of Romney’s advisers during his last presidential race, hand was in the selection Mitchell and Jessen’s development of enhanced tortures. Romney welcomed Black to his staff with his announcement:

"I am pleased to welcome Cofer Black to our campaign. He has a long and impressive career dedicated to making America safer and more secure in the world," said Governor Romney. "Our country faces a new generation of challenges and Black's experience at the forefront of our nation's counter-terrorism efforts will be a tremendous asset."

In order to begin to untangle the web which created the torture programs the background on the key players is necessary - and their background is where things get really interesting

Mitchell and Jessen had no experience with intelligence interrogations, they worked in the SERE program, which is a survival program for military personal that may be taken captive.


“And sources within JPRA knew a lot about Mitchell and Jessen. They said they were self-promoters, they were cowboys. They disapproved of the kind of techniques and their cozying up to the CIA. But they told us that they live here because it’s a nice place to live. And even though their mailing address is Langley, Virginia…”- Katherine Eban from Democracy Now interview.

According to Jeffrey Kaye’s article on Fireddoglake “…..another insider, who says he has some knowledge of the individuals involved, has indicated that it was Roger Aldrich, Mitchell and Jessen’s superior officer, the man who indeed hired them in the 1990s, who was responsible for the idea of reverse-engineering SERE techniques and contracting out services to the government.”

“Aldrich was an officer in the Air Force Reserve, who was also civilian chief of the Air Force’s Special Survival Training Program (SSTP), which was later folded into the JPRA agency. From this position, the source says, he hired "many people into lucrative civil service jobs at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington, paying from $75K to $150K per year plus fantastic benefits." Aldrich used his influence and position to dole out patronage, and gained a loyal, devoted following.

"He took Mitchell and Jessen and promoted them. After 9/11, he hatched a scheme with the two men to offer interrogation and training services to the military and CIA for a great deal of money.”


Their contact at the CIA was Cofer Black.

“By the start of 2002, Dr. Mitchell was consulting with the C3 Center, whose director, Cofer Black, and chief operating officer, Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., were impressed by his combination of visceral toughness and psychological jargon. One person who heard some discussions said Dr. Mitchell gave the C.I.A. officials what they wanted to hear. In this person’s words, Dr. Mitchell suggested that interrogations required “a comparable level of fear and brutality to flying planes into buildings.”

The enhanced torture program was implemented to the dismay of many experience intelligence interrogators who felt Mitchell and Jessen could wind up with charges pressed against them, which earned them the name of "The Poster Boys".The feeling was Mitchell and Jessen would wind up on the FBI's "Most Wanted List".

Mitchell and Jessen were given the nickname of the “Mormon Mafia” by peers at the CIA, due to the power they had within the agency. CIA and FBI interrogators who disagreed with Mitchell and Jessen torture program, found themselves countered with the stern message “you have lost your spine”, from the Mormon Mafia poster boys.

After the story of the abuses broke:

“Panetta fired all the C.I.A.'s contract interrogators, including the former military psychologists who appear to have designed the most brutal interrogation techniques.

DeLand and McCotter were tapped to set up Abu Ghraib

Gary DeLand was recommended by Lance McCotter to assist in setting up Abu Ghraib.

DeLand and McCotter relationship goes back to the Utah Department of Corrections and working for Management & Training Corporation, where both are executives. Management & Training Corporation is a private correction corporation started in Utah in the 1980’s by Utah State graduate Scott Marquardt and Lyle Parry.

Gary DeLand, served as the head of the Utah Department of Corrections from 1985 to 1992. Deland had been named in numerous law suits involving abuse of prisoner in the correction facilities he was over. “Deland was the named defendant in Littlefield v. Deland, where, according to the Court, a young mentally ill man was kept naked for 56 days in a "strip cell" with no windows, no interior lights, no bunk, no floor covering, and no toilet except for a hole in the concrete floor.”

Lane McCotter, served in the Utah Corrections system from 1992 until he was forced to resign in 1997. McCotter had worked prior to Utah for prison systems in Texas, and New Mexico, which resulted also in numerous abuse claims while under his watch.

The “Department of Justice's own Civil Rights Division released a 36-page report documenting inhumane and unsafe conditions at a jail run by a private prison company, Management & Training Corporation, where McCotter is a senior executive.”

“Texas, where McCotter served as director of the Department of Corrections for two years, he faced allegations in 1985 of erasing the parts of a video that showed the beating of a prisoner by a guard.”

In Utah, a SWAT team led to the death of an inmate after they burst into a mentally ill patient’s cell. (Remember the SWAT team for later in the post)

“A statement provided by Schumer's office reviews McCotter's employment history, including his resignation as Utah prison director in 1997 after a mentally ill inmate died after spending 16 hours strapped to a chair. Schumer's news release also calls attention to the Justice report criticizing MTC's management of the Santa Fe County jail, and notes that the New Mexico Corrections Department also raised concerns about the jail."

"While McCotter's company was under state and Department of Justice investigation, Attorney General Ashcroft selected him to serve as one of four civilian advisers to oversee the reconstitution of Iraqi prisons," Schumer noted. "Why Attorney General Ashcroft would send someone with such a checkered record to rebuild Iraq's corrections system is beyond me," Schumer said.

Then, on May 20, in a case of unfathomable irony, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that McCotter, along with three other corrections experts, had gone to Iraq. The very same day, Justice Department lawyers began their first negotiations with Santa Fe County officials over the extensive changes needed at the jail to avoid legal action.”

“The New York Times reported that McCotter "directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year," and McCotter himself admitted he worked closely with American military police officers at the prison complex.”

“While Lance McCotter worked establishing Abu Ghraib, he reportedly walked around handing out wads of cash, three million dollars worth, to people rebuilding Abu Ghraib prison.”

He also worked with according to “The Nation, Deland and McCotter "worked along with Brig. Gen. Karpinski and MPs from various battalions" at Abu Ghraib.” Brig. Gen Karpinski later became the scapegoat for the prison abuse. DeLand and McCotter left Abu Ghraib prior to the abuse story breaking.

Janis Leigh Karpinski is a central figure in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.

Another destroyed video tape?

Outside of Mitchell and Jessen firing from the CIA, a few low level prison guard charged after taking photographs, and Karpinski made scapegoat, there was been no accountability for the creators of the enhanced torture programs has happened.

Harry Reid, also a member of the Mormon Church, discouraged investigation into the tortures and probing of the memo’s which approved the program. “After the release of these memos why then is Harry Reid not in line with almost every Democratic Politician?”

“A serious setback, however: Harry Reid, whose Senate would rule on an impeachment in the House, doesn't seem to like the idea:”

Reid stated:

"Judge Bybee has a good professional reputation in Nevada," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said in an e-mail "While the memos that have been released are disturbing to Sen. Reid, at this point in time, he doesn't think we should be making a rush to judgment.”

Back in Utah, the legacy of DeLand and McCotter prison system is tragic. Tragic not to the prison inmates, but with children of Mormon Church wards. News papers in Utah ran the abuse stories:

“PROVO — A former corrections officer and SWAT team member at the Utah State Prison was charged Friday with nine felony sex offenses involving a child. Davis was hired by the Utah Department of Corrections in December 1998 and was most recently working for Adult Probation and Parole Region 4, which is Utah County, said Jack Ford, Utah Department of Corrections spokesman”

And –

“WEST VALLEY CITY -- A former LDS bishop and administrator with the Utah Department of Corrections was accused Tuesday of molesting several teenage boys over an extended period of time.
David James Gomez, 57, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Monday for investigation of 50 counts of forcible sodomy, 15 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, 10 counts of sodomy on a child, all first-degree felonies, and 50 counts of forcible sexual abuse, all second-degree felonies. He was being held Tuesday without bail."

"Gomez is accused of raping, sodomizing and fondling several boys 10 to 13 years ago, according to police. He came in contact with the boys while serving as bishop (Mormon Bishop) of the Hunter 10th Ward.”

DeLand and McCotter were sent to Iraq to set up a prison system similar to the prisons in the United States, they appear to have succeeded, as well as succeeding in tarnishing the name of the people of America.

Romney’s stand on enhanced tortures, as well as his selection of Cofer Black on his 2008 presidential staff, will lead some to ask if in voting for Romney in 2012, would return the United States back to the torture programs which brought disgrace on American people?

(The reference are too numerous to list on the post page, and are listed on the comments section. One can link to all sources used in the post)

Friday, April 2, 2010

Blessings This Easter Holiday - A Time Not For Politics, But Family



- see you after break! There are great blog pieces below on Mitt, feel free to read...

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Is Romney Behind the Eight Ball for 2012?

I expect to take some heat for criticizing Mitt in this piece. Mitt is always amusing with the strangeness of his spins, flips and excuses; which more than once, has a left me crossed-eye and scratching my head saying, “Huh?” “What did he say?”

Mitt’s current polls aren’t looking as healthy as he apparently thinks. The other potential opponents winning the polls, are not working the GOP circuit, or have said they are not going run. I wondered, what was in Mitt’s future for 2012?

I decided to dig out a half-forgotten crystal ball, from a decade’s old PTO fund raiser, and check out Romney’s 2012 prospects. O.k., it really isn’t a crystal ball, but one of those magic eight balls when turned upside down and right again, tells your future.

The ball predicted, Mitt would be in the race for the GOP nomination for president, but would concede to another Republican candidate.

This actually is great news for Romney! It gives Mitt plenty of time to come up with a truly bazaar concession speech that would leave people puzzled for years. Romney’s last concession speech left some in laughter when he said:

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or (Barack) Obama would win," he said. "And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding surrender to terror."

Mitt’s campaign was aiding terrorist? His campaign was a surrender to terror? “I don’t get it”, I thought. Then I remembered, THAT movie came out….




http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18772382