DNC ads lampoon Romney for ‘corporations are people’ gaffe

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Sorry, Mittens, but corporate personhood is a "legal fiction" — originally granted by an act of judicial fraud in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394 (1886) — for certain limited purposes but not all rights afforded to natural persons under the law. For more details read Thom Hartmann's book "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights."

Mittens is right in one respect: corporate executives and the über-rich "investor class," a relatively small number of extremely wealthy individuals who control most of the world's wealth, hide behind the veil of the legal fiction of corporations to avoid personal liability for the actions of the corporation that in some cases amounts to criminal negligence (the FBI is investigating Massey Energy Company for the deaths of coal miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine).

Without this legal fiction, these wealthy individuals would be subject to criminal prosecution and imprisonment, and their fortunes would be subject to civil suits for damages. This legal fiction allows the wealthy to avoid any personal responsibility or liability for their actions and the actions of the corporation — something Willard "Mittens" Romney well knows.

The DNC almost immediately posted a video lampooning Mitten's quote, featuring Barbara Streisand's "People."

The DNC posted a second video on Saturday, airing in Iowa. This video is the type of 30 second-style attack ad we can expect to see if Romney winds up getting the Republican nomination. Opening with the comment, "Mitt Romney stands with the Tea Party," it then goes on to air the controversial comments before closing with the slogan, "Mitt Romney: Putting Corporations First." (h/t Talkingpointsmemo.com)

UPDATE: Steve Benen poses an interesting question in Corporations and context:

What Romney skips [when talking about his private-sector background] is his experience in eliminating jobs.

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Or as Stephen Colbert explained:

“You see, Romney made a Mittload of cash using what’s known as a leveraged buyout. He’d buy a company with ‘money borrowed against their assets, groomed them to be sold off and in the interim collect huge management fees.’ Once Mitt had control of the company, he’d cut frivolous spending like ‘jobs,’ ‘workers,’ ‘employees,’ and ‘jobs.’ […]

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He rescued businesses like Dade Behring, Stage Stories, American Pad and Paper, and GS Industries, then his company sold them for a profit of $578 million after which all of those firms declared bankruptcy. Which sounds bad, but don’t worry, almost no one worked there anymore.

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“Corporations are people”? In this little figure of speech, wouldn’t that make Mitt Romney a metaphorical serial killer?