FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #37 Buerkle Fights the Sex Trade

Maybe, but she will not protect the victims. She would require any woman or girl, pregnant from rape in the "sex trade", to complete the pregnancy. Compassion is not her strong suit.

Sex trade is slavery. Ann Marie Buerkle says that allowing abortion in this instance would create a "second victim". Her sick thinking disempowers, yet again, victims who are made pregnant in this sick business.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #36 Buerkle Stands With Rape Victims

Ann Marie "fœtus in a jar**" Buerkle

[** see bottom of page]

+

Todd "legitimate rape" Akin

John "the rape thing" Koster

Richard "God intended it to happen" Mourdock

Rick "rape is a gift in a very broken way" Santorum

Chuck "double ultrasound" Winder

Paul "rape is a method of conception" Ryan

Roger "some girls, they rape so easy" Rivard

Rape Hall of Shame 

Buerkle stands with all these prominent men who pontificate about rape and abortion: no abortion in the case of rape.  (Hey guys, never mind that abortion is legal. Not your Constitution? That's unpatriotic!)

PS This list is not exhaustive, not even close.

**Blue Sky Girl is still puzzled about AMB's complete and utter lack of respect for that fœtus, aborted then stolen from a clinic in another state in 1989, transported across state lines, and brought to a protest at Planned Parenthood in Syracuse, and her lack of respect for the women entering that clinic. She is a loose cannon, unethical, and cruel.  Then again, if you have ever experienced her looking you in the eye with her cold blue eyes and telling you a lie without blinking, then you know that she is capable of knocking over anything that stands in her way. 

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: # 12 "Rape is Rape"

 

Buerkle co-sponsored a bill with Todd Akin, R-Missouri, that included the exclusionary term "forcible rape." She has shared other, similar votes with Akin, the knucklehead who said that when a woman is raped her body naturally will not conceive. 

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #4 Against Government Intrusion

Buerkle says she wants to limit government intrusion into citizens' lives. But she would make abortion a crime.

Rick Santorum Aborts Campaign Without Permission

Ashley Judd and friends nail it with an extra-amusing video.

Our Gal Annie and Rick are cut from the same cynical cloth: punish any woman who gets pregnant with the baby.

Ashley Judd for Czarina of Irony!

Still Trusting Women After All These Years

Thank you to ThinkProgress, 9-16-2011, for this Constitutionally and rationally good news amidst a week of particularly unattractive political dogfighting. It restores Blueskygirl's confidence that there are still plenty of people in the nation who actually trust women: 

POLL: MAJORITY OF AMERICANS ARE PRO-CHOICE, DESPITE GOP PUSH TO BAN ABORTION

A new CNN poll finds that an overwhelming majority of Americans still believe in a woman’s right to choose, with 78 percent of respondents saying that they want abortion to remain legal under any circumstances or under certain circumstances. Just 21 percent said they would support outlawing abortion under all circumstances. 

The numbers are almost unchanged from a year ago — despite the concerted efforts of conservatives to severely restrict access to abortion on the state level. Seventy-seven percent of Americans identified themselves as pro-choice in 2009 and support has remained consistent over the last five years. 

Captain Regulation on Women's Right to Choose

Captain Regulation: You rang?

Ann Marie Buerkle:  Why are there still so many regulations? They are just hurting my constituents. They tell me, "too many regulations."

CR: And yet I understand you want to add regulations limiting a woman's right to choose and hurting the providers of women's health services? Make up your mind. More or less? 

AMB: I want less unless I want more. I want to restrict things I don't like. 

CR: Make up your mind. 

Ann Marie Buerkle, Let's Talk Men's Issues!

OK, so the budget stalemate is all coming down to the issue of abortion, is it?
Everybody knows, or ought to understand by now, that the War on Abortion is a war on women.
How about this: let's talk men's issues!
Henceforth:

• all prostate surgeries will take place in the town square (to put another slant on Live Action Princess Lila Rose's talk).
• any user of Viagra will have to be licensed. Any user will be required to view the results of his labors via ultrasound.
• all sperm must be accounted for daily (and I do mean every single one).
• sperm banks will go into mandatory bankruptcy.
• all rapes will be tried by female tribunals
• men will be 100% responsible for birth control
• men will spend 2 hours a week in community service teaching boys to respect girls and women, and handing out condoms at malls and high schools
• boys and men will voluntarily clean the toilet bowl rims at home every day
• boys and men must live with a Baby Think It Over Infant simulator doll for 3 months; if anyone neglects the "baby", he has to start over.

Florynce Kennedy said: "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."


I have no idea who wrote this; I cannot take credit for it. It's good:

               If men got pregnant:

• Maternity leave would last for two years...with full pay.
• There'd be a cure for stretch marks
• Natural childbirth would become obsolete
• Morning sickness would rank as the nation's number one health problem
• All methods of birth control would be improved to 100 percent effectiveness
• Children would be kept in the hospital until they were toilet trained
• Men would be EAGER to talk about commitment
• They wouldn't think twins were quite so cute
• Fathers would demand that their SONS be home from dates by 10:00pm
• Men could use THEIR briefcases as diaper bags
• They'd have to stop saying,"I'm afraid I'll drop him."
• Paternity suits would be a line of clothes
• They'd stay in bed for the entire nine months
• Menus at most restaurants would list ice cream and pickles as an entree
• Women would rule the world!

Finally, Florynce Kennedy, amazing and beautiful woman, said, "There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody." 

Another great Florynce Kennedy quote: "When a system of oppression has become institutionalized it is unnecessary for individuals to be oppressive."

A biography of Flo Kennedy is here:  http://revcom.us/a/v22/1090-99/1095/flo_kennedy.htm

Ann Marie Buerkle: This Leopard isn't Changing

That Was Then:

Thursday, July 6, 1989

FYI, those of you for whom Buerkle is a relatively new phenom, it was on this same day, July 6, 1989, that she and her cohorts demonstrated their respect for life, and their compassion for women and health care providers, by bringing to Planned Parenthood an illegally procured, blackened foetus in a jar. During this time she was the local spokesperson for Operation Rescue and associated with extremist Randall Terry; a decade earlier she had started the local chapter of Friends for Life.

Then, this in March 2010: 

Buerkle minimizes her anti-abortion history. [Syracuse.com printed the following summary on January 23, 2011: 

       When she launched her run for Congress in [March of] 2010, Buerkle said abortion was not the issue that would define her, nor would it be a priority of her campaign....

        “I want to be really careful not to make this a referendum on abortion,” Buerkle said as she began her campaign in March 2010. “People here are concerned about jobs and the economy. I have six kids, and five of them live outside of the state because of a lack of opportunities.”

       At the time, Buerkle said her days as an anti-abortion activist were from a different part of her life, when she was a young mother and working as a nurse. “Life is an evolution,” she said in March. “You never stay in the same place."]

But then, this on July 17:

Susan B. Anthony List endorses Buerkle

This Is Now:

January 19 delivers a "passionate" speech in Congress advocating restricting and criminalizing abortion (organized by the Pro-Life Caucus)

January 20 co-sponsors "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act", H.R. 3, which extends its reach to insurance providers and another bill that would ban abortion coverage in future Federal health care provisions

January 22 walks with and addresses a March for Life gathering in Syracuse

January 24 addresses March for Life in Washington DC

February 18 votes for Pense Amendment to defund Planned Parenthood and to all stop most federal funds for women's reproductive health

February 28 Buerkle is a subject of Susan B. Anthony List's expensive ad campaign, thanking her for her vote to defund Planned Parenthood

March 2 she distances herself from the Susan B. Anthony List ad campaign, citing rules about consorting with special interest groups [Ann Marie, Really?]

March 9 she is publicly thanked for her vote to defund Planned Parenthood by Lila Rose, head of Live Action, who shows up in her big bus at the Federal Building in Syracuse [Rose is the "pro-life" advocate who deceptively and dishonestly uses altered and spliced tapes to damage Planned Parenthood]  Susan B. Anthony List helped produce this tragic piece of theatre.

The Historical Susan B. Anthony Had Real Values for Women in Mind When She Protested!

...from Swing State Project's  http://www.swingstateproject.com  savvy commentary:


• NY-25: The namejacking anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List is running an ad thanking Ann Marie Buerkle for her vote to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. Kudos to Dave Catanese, who says the size of the buy (which includes online ads) is $75,000, and that the ad itself is expected to run 182 times. 


Wonder how much AMB profited from that marriage?


In 2010 Susan B. Anthony List contributed $10,000 to AMB's campaign. That is, by far, the top dollar amount they donated to any House of Representatives candidate last year.  
from Open Secrets,
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00332296&cycle=2010

Ann Marie Buerkle: "Yes, Mr. Boehner, Sir; Thank you, Mr. Boehner, Sir"

Among the many signers of the recent House of Representatives bill, House Resolution 3, that, among other things, restricts abortions except in the case of "forcible rape," is 25th Congressional District Representative Ann Marie Buerkle.

How does AMB sleep at night?

Does she ever stop to wonder at the redundancy of "forcible rape"? Isn't "rape" clear language? Do some women, does Ann Marie Buerkle reason, agree to rape? Volunteer for rape? Invite rape?


From House Resolution 3:
"Prohibits the inclusion of abortion in any health care service furnished by a federal or District of Columbia health care facility or by any physician or other individual employed by the federal government or the District. Provides that such prohibitions shall not apply to an abortion if: (1) the pregnancy is the result of forcible rape or, if the pregnant woman is a minor, incest; or (2) the woman suffers from a physical disorder, injury, or illness, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, that would place her in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, as certified by a physician."


Ann Marie is a woman. She has daughters. She worked with women during her years of service to Right to Life and other anti-choice organizations. She volunteered to work with women in crisis at Vera House. 

Her sponsorship of H. Res. 3 can only be characterized as cynicism* in the extreme.                                             


So, and we feared this, and some of us knew it all too well: As Ann Marie Buerkle moves into her term in Congress she has left her conscience behind. She is now serving not her constituents but her bosses. 

*cynical: showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's actions, especially by actions that exploit the scruples of others.

Power and the Unbearable Obligation of the Elected Leader

After the election in November 2010, we heard that John Boehner met with Randall Terry in Washington. 

Terry is the extremist Right-to-Life founder and leader you may remember exhorted people to violence in his fight against abortion. He was bankrupted and spent time in jail.

He's back in public view in Washington now that the Republicans have regained the House.  He is fighting for traction.

Turns out that Boehner's chief of staff, and not Boehner as far as we know, met with Terry and a group of people he brought with him.

This led me to think about who is present at public meetings and who is not, and thus what messages about power and favor are being transmitted.


I created this handy chart, in which power is reduced to formula. All the combinations represent public meetings. Who knows what kind of dealings go on in private and over the internets?

[The principals are each given values of 10; their respective groups of people, staff, supporters etc., are represented by 4s.]

I meet with you  10:10      (indicates approximate equality of power and influence)

I meet with your people  10:4      (you are somewhere else but important to me)

I meet with you and your people 10:10+4      (ceremonial and/or you may have something I want) 

I and my people meet with you and your people 10+4:10+4      (indicates a party going on, lots of note-taking)

I and my people meet with your people  10+4:4      (you definitely have something I want; unusual)

My people meet with you and your people  4:10+4      (I am "busy" and that is all you and your people will get or, as I suspect is the difficulty for John Boehner with Randall Terry, I need to keep my public distance but you have something that I want or fear)

My people meet with you  4:10    (I am "busy" but not rude)

My people meet with your people  4:4    (blah blah blah)

Ann Marie Buerkle, of course, knows Randall Terry and worked closely with him during her early activist years. She may be working with him still. We shall find out who dares to be seen with him these days.

Against Abortions? Then Don't Have One...and Other Slogans

Slogans are easy. They are way too easy, and ineffective, when it comes to convincing other people about the wrongness of their beliefs and the rightness of one's own beliefs.

I would like to approach the question of abortion from a very different angle.

What really scares me about the "no-abortions-under-any-or-all-circumstances" way of thinking, and then making and enforcing laws to that effect, is that control of child bearing in this way is no different from requiring abortions under any or all circumstances. Governments that want to have it one way just might, in another time, want to have it the other way. Governments and legislative bodies tend to be like that if they are left unchecked.

Black-and-white thinking, and the dictatorial powers that satisfy it, are not compatible with Democracy. Period.

And while I have the floor, I would like to remind anyone who doesn't "believe in" abortion and will never have one: that is YOUR personal choice. I personally support and embrace your choice regardless of your belief. But your beliefs and values do not, in a free society, extend to telling me what I may or may not do with MY body. That is MY personal choice. Period.

Pro-Life Feminism? Nice Try, Ladies

Blue Sky Girl deplores Susan B. Anthony List's substitution of "pro-abortion" for Dan Maffei's pro-choice position. Portraying support for what is a woman's personal and difficult decision as support for an altogether different policy is deceitful. The alternative to "pro-life" is "pro-choice."

Rejoice that we live in a country where "choice" is a choice that one is free to accept or reject.               

Press Release: 

Susan B. Anthony List

24 November 2010

SBA List Claims 'Year of the Pro-life Woman' Victory in Buerkle NY-25 Win

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Susan B. Anthony List celebrated the election of the eighth pro-life woman U.S. Representative in the 112th Congress and a major upset in Ann Marie Buerkle’s defeat of pro-abortion incumbent Dan Maffei.

“Ann Marie Buerkle’s win is historic for women, the unborn and New York’s 25th Congressional District,” SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.  “A pro-life gain in this district – thought by many to be out of reach – affirms the wave of pro-life feminine leadership pouring into the 112th Congress.  That wave, including Buerkle’s election, further confirms that 2010 is the Year of the Pro-Life Woman.

“As the first woman elected to Congress from NY-25, she brings years of experience speaking out for Life and feminine leadership harkening back to its roots in authentic pro-life feminism.  At the same time, she replaces a consistently pro-abortion vote with dependable advocacy for Life on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. ”

As a registered nurse and mother of six, Buerkle will contribute a unique medical background and a strong commitment to ending taxpayer funding of abortion to Congress. 

In the weeks leading up to the November general election, the SBA List mailed nearly 23,000 households in NY-25 and bundled nearly $24,000 for the Buerkle campaign.  The SBA List spent $2.3 million electing pro-life women to congressional and statewide office, resulting in a 70 percent increase in the number of pro-life women in the U.S. House of Representatives, an increase in the number of pro-life women governors from one to four and the election of the 112th Congress’ first pro-life woman Senator.  SBA List-endorsed candidates won 83 percent of the time in SBA List-versus-EMILY’s List head-to-head races.

Ann Marie Buerkle on Choice: Science? Fear? Is All That So Far In Her Past That She Respects Choice for Other Women? Changing The Subject Does Not Put Blueskigirl's Fears To Rest

From 55 Plus  13 June 2010
In 1976, she moved with her husband back to Central New York, settling in Syracuse, and they had their first child. She attended Le Moyne College and in 1977 got involved in the pro-life movement, helping establish a Friends for Life chapter in Syracuse.

She approached her speaking and educational role in Friends for Life from a medical perspective. “I talked about fetal development and told the audience, ‘I’m giving you the facts so you will be able to make an informed decision if and when you need to do so,’” she says.

From Syracuse.com 29 March 2010
Buerkle is the former head of the Syracuse Right-to-Life group and served as the spokeswoman for the anti-abortion groups Friends for Life and Operation Rescue.  
She was the local spokeswoman for Operation Rescue when the group demonstrated outside of a gynecologist’s office in 1989. In that protest, 44 abortion protesters who blocked the entrance to the office were charged with trespassing. Earlier that year, she was with a group that carried a blackened fetus named “Baby Choice” to a protest at Planned Parenthood in Syracuse, where 14 protesters were arrested.

Buerkle makes no apologies for her past activism, and said her views on abortion have not changed. But she said it’s not the single issue that defines her, nor will it be a top priority of her campaign.
“I want to be really careful not to make this a referendum on abortion,” Buerkle said. “People here are concerned about jobs and the economy. I have six kids, and five of them live outside of the state because of a lack of opportunities.”
Buerkle said her days as an anti-abortion activist were from a different part of her life and career, when she was a young mother and working as a nurse.
“Life is an evolution,” she said. “You never stay in the same place. I have a pretty consistent record of public service. And that’s why I’m running now. I see a lack of representation for people who live here.”