No Bigger Dope
Sam in Kyle
Over the years each First Lady has had a cause. We have Lady Bird to thank for much of the beauty we see along our roadways. Betty Ford championed rights for women and Rosalyn Carter highlighted those with mental disabilities. Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” was as big a flop as her husband’s presidency but it was still an effort. Barbara Bush and Laura Bush both championed literacy, sadly with lackluster results in their immediate family. For Hilary Clinton, her cause was health care and Michelle Obama’s is childhood obesity.
So if by some hideous fate Ann Romney ends up as First Lady what will her cause be? She’s already announced that she will be working to prevent teen drug use. Yet, judging by this article, her efforts may well be directed toward torturing young drug users into submission. Romney has a long history of being involved in “rehab” schools for teens—not just any institutions, but “tough love” ones with disturbing reputations for abuse.
Bain Capital acquired CRC Health in 2006. Although Romney had left the company by then, he still receives money from the profits. Three Bain partners sit on the board; two have donated $500,000 to his super PAC. Among the allegations against the clinics are that, “children have died of neglect under their care as the pressure that Bain exerts on the company to make a profit filters down to their patients.”
Robert Litchfield, a major Romney fundraiser and fellow Mormon, is the founder and board member of the World Wide Association for Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS). Among the allegations brought against the school by former patients are that, “Staff routinely locked teens in dog cages, sexually and physically abused them, starved them, and emotionally brutalized them.”
Another major Romney supporter is Melvin Sembler, a “Florida strip-mall magnate who was a national fundraising chair for Romney in 2008 and is again a Florida State Co-Chair for Romney’s finance committee.” Sembler’s drug rehab clinics, Straight Inc., had a long reputation for abuse including one young girl who, “testified to being beaten, raped, locked in a janitor’s closet in pants soiled by urine, feces, and menstrual blood…”
“You can trust Mitt; he loves America,” said Ann this week at the world’s largest Klan rally. This must be what is called ‘tough love’ really, really ‘tough love’. And even though Mitt has a well-deserved reputation as a flip-flopper, I have no doubt that he and Paul Ryan will treat our nation exactly the way his friends treat teen drug users.
I see a couple of pitfalls in Ann Romney’s cause. Mainly, that if things go the way they should she’ll have to be a private citizen bothering these poor kids. And second, Ann doesn’t seem to care about anyone less fortunate (in any way, shape or form) than herself.
1Good grief! Here I was thinking that if mitt/Ann’s got ahold of us we would all need SOMA from “Brave New World” or “1984” can’t remember which…
2At least if Callesta had gotten to be (3rd) first “lady” she could have taught the children the 3 “C’s” that all young girls need to know– color, cut and clarity– something useful that you can put in your skirt hem to buy your way out of the country when it all goes to hell in a hand basket from all the raiding and debt loading, from our corporate masters…I hate how willful stupidity is a mark of Republicians pride, and most are too old, (like Clint) to understand what the vultures really are doing…sigh
All this sounds way too much like “It Can’t Happen Here” a 1935 semi satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can't_Happen_Here
So many parallels it is downright frightening
3That link was horrifying. Neither Ann nor Mitt understand a damned thing besides money and how they can spend it. The plight of people who are less fortunate than they are (read, “almost everybody else”) is completely incomprehensible to them. Yep — exactly so, Elise — proud to be willfully stupid.
4Of all the many drawbacks to be dreaded from a Romney Administration, I hadn’t even considered the possibilities of the equestrienne’s mission. Chilling.
5The very idea of this is so scary it’s hard to even contemplate!!
6Google Robert Llitchfield and Melvin Sembler. If you’ve ever worked with “troubled” kids this will make your skin crawl.
7These two “friends” exemplify the Romney’s and republican values. Although not with Bain presently, he still benefits from these investments which have blood on them. And “Two Cadillac Annie” wants to work with “at risk youth”. Let’s see. How would that money be funnelled?
Forget all that %^&* stuff about romney’s “good deeds”. For him it only counts if it helps him get to heaven. Or perhaps it’s a tax deductible gift to a non-profit like the Bush library.
A man is known by his friends. ‘Nuff said.
By the way…am I better off than I was four years ago?
I’ve spent the last couple days doing some serious number crunching for other reasons (this would be for the actual business where I sign pretty much all the checks as an actual Job Creator, with waaaay more than a 15% tax rate, ’cause I am not EVEN in the Investing Class…nope, I just own and run the joint).
I am, in fact, in better shape than I was four years ago. Comfy mai tais on the veranda – nahhh…are you high or something? Wondering if I’m gonna keep the freakin’ doors open – nope, not really worrying about that now, either, though.
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