This post is by Martha Jackovics aka @BeachPeanuts. Before you read it, you must understand that Mitt Romney supports the Blunt Amendment which would permit your employer to deny you breast cancer screenings (as well as a laundry list of other preventive healthcare services primarily used by women). Period. -ABLxx
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Last week, Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan barged his way into an empty soup kitchen after it had already served dinner in order to “wash” dishes that were already clean for a shameless photo op. He wanted to appear as if he cared for the needy when in fact his and Mitt Romney’s policies would actually be devastating to those in need.
Well, today in Orlando, it was Ann Romney’s turn. She came briefly down off her high horse to mingle amongst the “you people” to pretend she and her husband care about women’s health. Specifically breast cancer:
Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, joined the sea of pink bras, pink feather boas, pink socks and pink hats in Orlando on Saturday as she walked in support of breast cancer.
….Romney weaved through downtown for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K.
The annual fundraising event — the largest breast-cancer walk in Florida — drew more than 40,000 participants Saturday, packing the streets around Lake Eola Park, near where the walk started and finished.
Romney posed for photos alongside Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, shown here in a photo Romney tweeted to her followers:
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer? What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Notice anything unusual in this photo? I did right away. Normally when there’s a breast cancer walk or similar fundraising event, those pink t-shirts the participants wear promote the effort in the battle against the disease. Call me crazy, but I don’t see anything on the front of those t-shirts that mentions breast cancer. However, they do promote the effort that Ann Romney cares about most:
Getting her husband into the White House.
The shirts read: Team Romney, Romney-Ryan 2012.
I’m not the least bit surprised that Ann Romney would use breast cancer victims in a shameless photo op. (If those women pictured are survivors rather than Romney campaign staffers.) After all, that’s the Romney family business: Self-promotion at others expense. Mitt Romney profits from outsourcing American workers jobs to China at the very same time he rails against that very thing. He recently used coal miners as a backdrop for a campaign ad while their boss forced them to take the day off without pay while claiming Obama was anti-coal. This from Romney, who also once said coal plants kill.
Well, here’s something else that kills: breast cancer.
Ann Romney is perfectly aware of this. She’s a breast cancer survivor with a family history of cancer:
“I lost my mother from ovarian cancer, I lost my grandmother from ovarian cancer, I lost my great-grandmother from breast cancer, so for me, you know, it’s been a long line of cancer,” Romney admitted. “Women that have dealt with cancer in their lives, and I unfortunately saw my grandmother die from ovarian and I took care [of] and loved my mother in her death, with her battle with ovarian cancer. So cancer is a serious business.”
Yes, cancer is serious business Ann. Dead serious. Especially to those women who will in fact die from the disease if Mitt Romney lands in the White House.
Ann Romney and Pam Bondi can pose for their “pretty in pink” “Team Romney” photo ops from now until election day, but that won’t change the fact that both women are working harder than ever to keep women, poor and otherwise, from getting access to affordable health care that could prevent and treat diseases like breast cancer. I doubt that this fact came up in conversation while both women walked and chatted with survivors.
Pam Bondi has vowed to kill Obamacare ever since she campaigned for the office she now holds, and she tried to by hiring others to do the dirty work for her and fight it in the Supreme Court. Bondi was overjoyed at the thought of the court throwing out the Affordable Care Act, making those so-called “death panels” a reality for women who could no longer afford things like breast and ovarian cancer screenings and treatment. Lucky for us Bondi’s effort failed, but she still got some nice photo-ops in Washington, and lots of PR as a leader in the Republican fight to do away with Obamacare, not to mention their War Against Women, for her trouble.
As for Ann Romney, what else would we expect, since she’s frequently lectured to women in this country that they only care about the deficit and the economy, not women’s health issues! Never crosses women’s minds according to Ann.
That’s something Ann would never take notice of unless she were in a swing state when the polls show that Mitt isn’t popular with the ladies.
Time to bring in the Romney campaign’s uterus whisperer so she can say “I love you women!” just like she did at the RNC. The fact that it’s during a breast cancer walk is just icing on the cake for the man who is hell bent on convincing voters that even though he got a health care plan for Massachusetts when he was governor, now killing Obamacare on “day one” is really a good thing! Just trust him! Would he lie to you?
You bet he would. Does it every day, and so will Ann. What does she care? She can afford the best health care money can buy, thanks to people like those in Freeport, Illinois whose jobs Bain just outsourced to China that she and Mitt stand to profit from. To those, and so many others who are now unemployed thanks to the Romney’s and Bain, Ann Romney says “you’re welcome!”
But even that’s not enough, so Mitt is running for President, and he’s coming for your access to health care now too, because, hey, his huge tax breaks won’t pay for themselves!
So Ann will don that pink shirt and hang out with women who have breast cancer for her own political gain, knowing all along that if her husband wins, he’ll make good on his promise to kill Obamacare.
She’ll do it gladly, knowing that women who are poor and have nowhere else to turn except to Planned Parenthood for health care services and cancer screenings will likely just die when her husband gets rid of PP as promised.
She’ll dress pretty in pink in an Oscar de la Renta dress for breast cancer awareness month, while knowing that she can afford such a dress thanks to big tax breaks at the expense of those who may go bankrupt or worse because they got cancer and have no insurance or did have insurance, but it would barely cover them because the health care laws put in place by President Obama would be no more if Romney killed Obamacare.
She can pretend to be a real “fighter” for breast cancer awareness, this woman who recently snapped during a radio interview about mere criticism of her husband, saying: “Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring,” but she’ll never know what it’s like to fight cancer the way those who can’t afford to do.
She doesn’t know hard. Hard is fighting for your life while trying to feed your kids and keep your home if you have one. Worse, hard is knowing that if you’re a mom just diagnosed with breast cancer, your daughters now have a pre-existing condition, which no insurance company would cover before Obamacare, and who now may face the same diagnosis in the future with no resources because their parents lost everything due to that illness if Obamacare ceases to exist in a Romney Administration.
You know, because it runs in the family, Ann, and like you said, cancer is serious business.
So you put on that pink breast cancer campaign t-shirt Ann, looking all pretty on the outside and smile for the cameras while playing the part of a human being who cares.
But deep down on the inside? That must be one ugly place to live.
[via Beach Peanuts]
***You can follow Martha at @BeachPeanuts and read her blog, Beach Peanuts.
TexasMango
Ugh. I can’t stand Miss Ann. I really can’t.
YoohooCthulhu
What I HAVE seen at these kind of events is teams that have a given survivor/cancer patient’s name on their shirt, so it’s not THAT weird. But then it means they should be “Team Ann”, not “Team Romney”.
Anya
I wish someone would ask Ann Romney about her husband’s promise to cut funding to Planned Parenthood which means cutting money for cancer screenings for poor and uninsured women. If she loves women so much then why is she supporting policies that harm women? Or was her love only reserved for affluent women who can afford cancer screening and private health care?
Ken
@YoohooCthulhu: How much did Team Romney/Ryan contribute to breast cancer research/cure?I’m guessing the same amount as her husband actually cares. Anybody got a number?
Alison
@Anya:
Ding ding ding! Yup. As I said on Twitter, shit like the Blunt Amendment and defunding PP won’t have any effect on Ann’s wealthy circle, so she couldn’t possibly care less about it. The people it will impact are so far from her notice, she couldn’t see them with a damn telescope. Goes along with Mitt’s “We have emergency rooms so universal health care is totally unneeded” bullshit.
I despise these heartless, plutocrat spiteful shitbags.
TexasMango
@Anya: She probably thinks that poor women can go to the ER for their cancer treatment. Her husband told her so.
Pooh
I hate these people so much
Yutsano
I saw Ann’s interview on “The View” where Whoopi supposedly asks her the gotcha question about her sons serving missions instead of in the military. She really is an entitled haughty woman who would make a terrible First Lady. I shudder to think what her cause would be.
TexasMango
@Yutsano: She would have the nerve to make her cause cancer even as her husband’s policies would make it so that more people died from it.
Pooh
@Yutsano: it’s bizzare. W’s family made him more human, Romney’s makes him emphatically less so, or would if he weren’t already at zero Kelvin on that front.
The Dangerman
Team Romney doesn’t appear to be especially diverse, but maybe I had decaf this morning.
I don’t know who I want to see crushed more, Mitt or Ann. Only 16 more days to go.
HRA
Now it seems we are going to have to deal once again with Ann’s diseases. I do not make light of these diseases. I have family members who died from them and some who survived. One niece is right now in critical care fighting for her life.
Damn the Romneys for using these diseases for profit.
Alison
@Yutsano: We often compare how Obama and Romney differ in relating to crowds and voters at rallies and such.
Think of the difference between Ann and Michelle. All those awesome pictures of Michelle hugging kids, doing jump rope, dancing, high-fiving, grinning and joking around, being adorable and fun, getting swamped by hordes of children…try to picture Ann in any of those situations, and how she’d behave and react.
I mean. My lord.
greennotGreen
I am currently undergoing chemo for Stage III ovarian cancer. In the TN 4th congressional district an asshat named Scott DesJarlais is running for re-election. He wants to repeal “Obamacare” because “it puts a bureaucrat between you and your doctor.” Obviously, despite his being a physician, he does not, somehow, deal with insurance companies now because just Friday I sat patiently (easy when you’re exhausted) while a pharmacist jumped through hoops to get some of my meds refilled. I had been prescribed 28 days of a clot-preventing drug, but the insurance company decided I could only get 17 syringes at a time, and since I still had two left (which would mean I would run out over the weekend) they didn’t want to pay for anymore yet. And the other drug is really expensive, so they wanted me to run out of that, too, before I could get more. I can’t drive now because of the meds, and public transportation isn’t a great idea with a depressed immune system (plus the walk to the bus stop.) There’s a someone standing between me and my physician and my pharmacist right now, but that someone’s goal isn’t for me to get well – it’s to maximize the insurance company’s profit.
I’m lucky. I have good insurance, and I have a good support system. And I have the sense to know that it is luck, not my superior position in the eyes of God, and that it could have easily been different.
And the Scott DesJarlaises and the Ann and Mitt Romneys of the world can go to hell.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Alison: And it will go through one ear and out the other ear to all those who will vote for RobbedMe just to get that KenyanSoshulistMuslin out of the office, or the idea that JEEEEEZZZZZZUSSSS is against all that liebrul stuff, including a large number of Tea Party wimmin!
Another Halocene Human
@Yutsano: I read about that. I don’t know what the ‘gotcha’ is. Obviously Whoopi looks silly, as she often does (her and Bill Maher both), but in a way isn’t it worse to say you’re for these wars and then use religious ‘service’ as this excuse not to serve and send others in harm’s way? Especially in Mitt’s case. But the whole family, really.
Maybe it started with–and I don’t know this for a fact–grandpa keeping his citizenship, even getting welfare payments yet avoiding WWII service, when those living in the States got drafted.
Triassic Sands
If the Obama campaign is your only source of information, I doubt you’d know that. As near as I can tell, the words “poor,” “disabled,” and “most vulnerable” are unknown to the president.
Nothing reveals more clearly what kind of person Mitt Romney is than his proposed policies for poor Americans. The same can be said for Ryan. Yet, for some reason, Obama seems to be unwilling to follow Bill Clinton’s lead (from his convention speech) and go after the Romney/Ryan plans for Medicaid (and SNAP). Obama’s made it clear he won’t “voucherize” Medicare, but, so far, I haven’t heard a single word from Obama in defense of Medicaid or SNAP.
Romney’s campaign is full of absurd inconsistencies — sometimes known as lies — but his promise to strengthen the safety net — if it needs it — is utterly contradicted by his plan to turn Medicaid into a perpetually shrinking block grant. By tying the grant size to a number that will always be less than the growth in the cost of health care, Romney guarantees that states will have to act accordingly and perpetually cut the cost of Medicaid by tightening eligibility, cutting benefits, or both, unless they are willing to dramatically increase taxes on their own residents. (And we know that’s not going to happen.) As Cornell West says, those changes (to Medicaid) will be measured in actual human deaths.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Mr Stagger Lee: And this includes my best friend who lost his wife to breast cancer, has two daughters, and a beautiful granddaughter, and yet he will vote for RobbedMe and the zombie eyed granny starver.
gogol's wife
@greennotGreen:
I’ve been thinking of you — thanks for checking in.
God I want to defeat these jerks!
Ding dong
@Yutsano: silly question. Her cause will be private school education or some other isse where her children can benefit through investing in the company which will receive the privatization contracts. Anything to do with the Romneys has to be the attainmment of more wealth for them.
rikyrah
Cannot stand Miss Ann.
good post, ABL
notoriousJRT
I don’t like Ann Romney. But, as a breast cancer survivor (I hope), I don’t think it is any of my business what she puts on her tee shirt when she participates in an event. There are any number of criticisms that could be leveled at her that I can get behind. This ain’t one of ’em.
greennotGreen
@notoriousJRT: I hope that no one is criticizing Ann Romney for participating in a cancer walk. I think the suspicion is that it was just a photo op, similar to Paul Ryan’s clean dish washing in the soup kitchen. Personally, the Romneys do support some good causes, but even with all their money, their philanthropy wouldn’t make up for the damage Mitt’s policies would do to the 99%.
Meg
@notoriousJRT: Agree. This seems a bit petty compared to all other things we can complain about her.
kc
My mother and grandmother died from ovarian cancer. The pill reduces a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer. I wonder if Ann Romey knows that, or cares.
Thor Heyerdahl
Ann and the entire Romney family — what a bunch of boobs!
MikeBoyScout
One of the reasons I’ve put up the time and money I have for Team Blue this cycle is that my mother died of breast cancer.
This photo-op bullshit is beyond outrageous, it is deadly!
grape_crush
> [Ryan] wanted to appear as if he cared for the needy…
I’m just wondering why he had to go to Ohio for the photo op. It’s not as if there are soup kitchens and shelters in his Wisconsin district that he could have fake-cared about.
Maybe he just doesn’t know where they are or couldn’t be bothered to ask his own wife.
Hill Dweller
@Alison: Not just in crowds, but on the stump, I’d take Michelle over any male politician, save her husband.
Michelle essentially gives her convention speech, with some asides mixed in, by memory. There is a teleprompter, but she only looks at it when introducing the local politicians in attendance. She’s also developed the ability to use timely voice inflections, cadence and tempo changes, to become a great speaker.
AxelFoley
@Triassic Sands:
Then you don’t know shit, because I’ve heard him mention folks in those categories many a time.
grape_crush
Oh, and…
> Normally when there’s a breast cancer walk or similar fundraising event, those pink t-shirts the participants wear promote the effort in the battle against the disease.
Of the many disgusting acts today’s GOP shows great skill at performing, it is the politicization of and capitalizing on other people’s suffering that makes me the sickest.
1badbaba3
@Triassic Sands: Well, it’s a good thing those poor unfortunates have you then, innit? Now, put on your tights and cape and fly, FLY!…
Southern Beale
I really despise Anne Romney.
notoriousJRT
@greennotGreen:
I understand that people are questioning the photo op. I guess I think she is as entitled (and I KNOW she thinks she is entitled to EVERYTHING) as any other survivor/participant to express herself in whatever manner she wishes as a participant unless she is breaking the rules of the event. I don’t care what her tee shirt says. If her shirt said nothing at all this would not change my impression of her just as her her political advertising does not. As someone who has walked her journey, I’m not going to criticize her for this particular thing.
Culture of Truth
also, against.
Luthe
The first thing I noticed about that picture was how melanin-deprived all those women were.
muddy
I didn’t know that she had that familial gene for the breast cancer. This adds fuel to the fire of my conspiracy theory that the reason his sons are using surrogates etc is that to remove that gene they are breeding back to Mitt, hoping for a more George-like outcome. They are hoping in this way to retain the hairline/brow look they need for their patriarchal look.
Things that make you go hmmm
Lolis
If she would have done this in one of the multiple states she lives in I would not think it was a photo-op, doing it in a swing state she has no ties to is pretty blatant. This is the kind of thing you do locally with your friends and loved ones.
pebble
Well, it’s always all about the Romneys, isn’t it?
cckids
@notoriousJRT: If just she had the Team Romney shirt, or if the Romneys were sponsoring the whole team with loads of cash, no one would care. That is how those events are run.
But add in the swing state, the fact that the only wording on the shirts is political (no reference to the cause), etc. ? Looks like another callus photo-op using humans & their problems as a stage to make a Repub look compassionate.
Also, too, Luthe @ 35 said. I’ve never been at a charity/cause walk that wasn’t at least as diverse as the community–even in Nebraska. Maybe the paleness is to coordinate with the pink tees.
DanR2
Sorry, I can’t muster up any outrage about this.
karen
She and Romney and the GOP are seriously getting me to a point where if any of them had cancer, I wouldn’t shed a tear. I hate being that person but at least if Ann Romney had breast cancer, she could afford the best help in the world. Just like her MS. I’d feel bad about it but she can afford the very bed medicine and treatments and I’d rather save my sympathy for people who can’t.
Seeing this picture just reminds me of the Cancer Centers of America (I think that’s what they’re called) ads I always see that talk about these nice and dedicated doctors who care about their patients and knowing the whole time that if they don’t have insurance, cancer sufferers are left to die.
karen
@Luthe:
Well she and Mitt only thought black people were actually human beings and not devil spawn since 1978.
karen
@kc:
I’m fucked on that regard. My father’s mother died of ovarian cancer but I can’t go back on the pill because I had a DVT in 2001.
karen
@Triassic Sands:
Then you’ve never seen an Obama ad or listened to him talk because he’s mentioned Medicaid and poor and disabled people.
Carl Nyberg
Maybe someone should do a SignOn.org petition asking Ann Romney about her position on cutting medical services to low income women.
Thursday
They’re trying, they’re trying! Oddly enough, their votes somehow keep vanishing on them…
http://www.gregpalast.com/its-magic/
Shazza
Imani, I see you’ve got 2 bubble-heads at your site outraged that you posted this. Guess they’re not paying attention. It’s funny that Miss Anne wants you to feel sorry for her suffering with MS while no one talks about the fact that Mrs. Obama’s dad had MS yet went to work everyday. Too bad he couldn’t get a horse.
Hypatia's Momma
@muddy:
If Tagg is carrying the gene, then it doesn’t matter if the surrogacy is traditional or gestational. Unless you believe that Tagg’s wife is also his blood-sister AND that only women carry the mutated gene in question, in which case you might consider having lithium added to your tap water.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
I accept the proposition that waaaaaay too many white males are foolish enough to vote for Robmey, so it’s gonna be up to men of color, enlightened white males, and women (of all colors) to see through Mitt. And yet… according to some pollsters, he’s closing the gap on Obama with female voters. Please put out the word to the sisterhood that the sparkly bottle-blonde in the photo above does not care about what is best for you or this country! Her husband and their brood do not have our best interests at heart.
I know, I’m preaching to the choir, but still!
TS
@greennotGreen:
They support their church – as number 1 charity – this was a photo op – nothing else
Aj
Ann Romney is a very classy and wonderful women. Haters stop the slimy lies about her and Mitt. These people are serving their country. All of you haters are simple-minded and petty.
Aj
Bigoted garbage
ruemara
@greennotGreen: Hang in there. Sending you nothing but the best.
Nancy Irving
Ann really should not claim to have had breast cancer.
According to news reports, what she had was a non-invasive (i.e. benign) tumor. Having breast cancer means your tumor is invasive.
You can tell she didn’t really have “cancer” because she didn’t undergo either chemotherapy or radiation. If her tumor had been invasive, she would have had both radiation and at least one kind of chemo, and probably several. (I know, I’ve gone through it.)
I don’t know why she isn’t “satisfied” with having MS, which is in fact much scarier than cancer. Maybe like her husband with money, Ann is addicted to sympathy, and she just can’t get enough of it.
Paul in KY
Saw no one darker than ‘really, really white’ in that photo. I guess no latino or blah people live in Orlando…