Day: June 8, 2012

Like Most Neocons, Mitt Romney Avoided the Draft During Vietnam

Jon Ponder

Romney protesting in favor of the Vietnam War
Romney protesting in favor of the Vietnam War
Mitt Romney has built his international relations team out of many, if not most, of the same neocons whose “bomb first, ask questions never” policies were at the root of the foreign affairs disasters during the George W. Bush era.

In the 1960s, like most high-profile neocons — Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, John Bolton and their cheerleaders like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly — Mitt Romney avoided serving in the Vietnam War. Like Cheney, Romney sought and received multiple deferments. Cheney had five; Romney had four. (Like George Bush, John Bolton served in the National Guard, which was all but a guarantee against service overseas in those days.)

But unlike his fellow draft-dodging neocons, Romney has a record of lying about his deferments:

Though an early supporter of the Vietnam War, Romney avoided military service at the height of the fighting after high school by seeking and receiving four draft deferments, according to Selective Service records. They included college deferments and a 31-month stretch as a “minister of religion” in France, a classification for Mormon missionaries that the church at the time feared was being overused. The country was cutting troop levels by the time he became eligible for the draft, and his lottery number was not called.

And:

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Mitt Romney’s Cop Fetish – Plays Narc on California Public Beach, Scolds and Calls Cops on Pot Smoking Neighbors

Jon Ponder

photo-michigan-trooper-60sThe New York Times reports that the Romneys are pissing off their liberal California neighbors in the one-time right-wing beachside enclave of La Jolla. For one thing, the Romneys are super-sizing the house they bought four years ago — turning it into a McMansion complete with the infamous car elevator. For another, Romney, who has appointed himself leader of the national gay-hate movement, seems to have been unaware that he bought property in one of San Diego’s ritziest, gay-friendliest neighborhoods.

From the perspective of the California mindset, however, the worst offense of all is that Romney has appointed himself head narc on the beach in front of his house, a self-appointment that apparenlty entitles him to accost townsfolk and stop them from enjoying a joint or a beer at the ocean:

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