FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #20 Buerkle Believes in Consumer Choice

Where to start?

Blue Sky Girl found this photo on AMB's own Congressional web site heading Energy, under Issues. Never mind that only 18 months ago she introduced a bill promoting incandescent light bulbs under the guise of consumer choice.

Second, choice is precisely what she abhors when it comes to medical decisions between women and their doctors. Which is it: small government or big government?

And third, AMB belongs to a small and elite group called "The Flat Earth Five." The idea that sound science enters into any of her stances on any "issues" is absurd.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #6 Buerkle Endorses Mitt Romney

It strains credulity that Buerkle endorses Mitt Romney, who once upon a time supported women's right to choose and designed Obamacare, back when it was Romneycare, as governor of Massachusetts.

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!

Buerkle Chooses Overwhelming Cruelty

Posted this morning by: 

National Right to Life News Today, Dec. 7, 2011 By Jonathan Imbody, Vice President for Government Relations, Christian Medical Association, Director, Freedom2Care

Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, New York Republican, protested that under the new abortion referral requirement [for agencies serving youth victims of human trafficking applying for Federal funds], “Now we are going to ask 12-year-olds to make life-changing decisions. You don’t know the trauma of abortion. This will only add to the trauma already experienced by the victims.”

Ann Marie Buerkle wants us to believe that:

going through a "normal" pregnancy with a child's immature mind and body; and 

having a baby of a rapist, one of your dozens or hundreds of rapists, whom you will never identify, at 12 or 13 years old (to go with Buerkle's example); and

after living as a prisoner and in bondage for months or years; and

ignoring the STDs including HIV that you may have contracted; and

the effect these STDs will have on your baby; and

ignoring your own long-term lack of health care and vulnerability to a wide range of non-sexually transmitted diseases; and

having lost your support network, your family and your culture; and

removing your right to CHOOSE to keep or not to keep, even at this young age, and thereby disempowering you further; 

are all preferable to abortion. How is it possible that Buerkle believes that ignoring all these factors could even remotely be a better choice? 

Buerkle, get this, loud and clear: Being FORCED to go through with such a pregnancy and producing a baby who, along with the pre-teen mother, has zero chance of living a normal and healthy life, is CRUEL and IRRATIONAL. 

Yes, you are right: Blueskygirl is shouting. Sorry.

Both the foetus, if you, Buerkle, proud mother who gave birth to six chosen, beautiful and healthy children, require it to be born and if it survives its high-risk pregnancy, and the child-mother, if she survives her high-risk pregnancy, will have nil chances for lives free of severe health issues, severe emotional issues, poverty and very little opportunity of access to any semblance of a good life.

And please don't tell me that these infants, and these 12-year olds, will be adopted into loving homes. There is not, never has been, and never will be, an inexhaustible supply of loving homes for high-risk infants or pre-teens of any cultural background, including "white." When was the last time you adopted a needy baby, or any child, Buerkle?

And, for God's sake, we remember, loud and clear, that you, Buerkle, have suggested that we diminish or take away the scant medical services that both these victims of human trafficking may ever see.

Oh, please.

Blueskygirl's suggestion: way better to find out how to arrest and throw the book at the traffickers and pedophiles.

Way worse to blame and punish, by your stupid politics, the victims.

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. 

"Get government out of the way," of Women's Reproductive Health Care

Several statements by AMB on non-governmental interference, as in: "Get government out of the way," amended:

• “We should be focusing on pursuing ideas and practices that encourage choice, innovation, and excellence in women's health care education,” said Buerkle      [AMB's statement on the recent HR charter schools bill, amended]

•  “If we’re talking about creating jobs and getting our economy back on track, that’s a big piece,” Buerkle said. “Beyond that, I guess the question is whether you want the government telling you what kind of women's reproductive health care light bulb you can use.”       [AMB's statement on BULB on her first day in office, amended]

• “The key here is not what I think — it’s what women who need health care the business owners think,” Buerkle said Monday. “I tell them that Darrell Issa has charged us to go out and talk to women who need reproductive health care the people about what regulations are impeding their success.”     [AMB's statement on federal regulations, amended]

And she finally gets it right:

Real health care reform ought to be enacted in incremental steps that preserves patient choice, protects access to health care, and controls costs without hurting job growth, reducing patient care, or slashing Medicare for seniors.  We need health care reform that puts medical decisions in the hands of doctors, families and patients, not an unaccountable bureaucracy.  In such a system, individuals and families would make the key decisions and control the dollars, not government bureaucrats.

[AMB on ObamaCare, not amended]

Buerkle and Other Anti-Choice Tyrants: Who Will You Choose To Be Today?

Some Conservatives and all tea partiers have excised the word "choice" from their vocabularies, to their peril. 

They forget that even drinking the tea is a choice.

"Teach Your Children Well" ... and bravo to this school, whatever the choices.

Ann Marie Buerkle is Pro-Choice

From Syracuse Post-Standard, February 8, 2011:

Washington, D.C. -- When it comes to light bulbs, U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle says Americans should be free to choose.

“If we’re talking about creating jobs and getting our economy back on track, that’s a big piece,” Buerkle said. “Beyond that, I guess the question is whether you want the government telling you what kind of light bulb you can use.”

Ann Marie Buerkle: How About Re-instituting 12-Hour Workdays and Legalizing Child Labor?

Ann Marie's troop leader Darrell Issa and the rest of the Tea Baggers are looking to roll us back to pre-labor-rights days.                   
Some of the items they want to look at, all under the heading, The Government is Too Damn Big, showed up yesterday in the Washington Post and the Syracuse Post-Standard:

Reconsidering rules

Businesses have asked House Republicans to roll back or pre-empt more than 150 rules governing industries from Wall Street to those who make cleaning products for your bathroom, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post. The newspaper said Monday that the targeted regulations include:

Financial disclosures: Financial regulations that require companies to disclose how much the chief executive is paid compared to how much the typical worker is paid.

Worker rights: Rules that require mining companies to disclose information about mine safety and health information and labor regulations that require employers to post notices informing workers of their rights under federal labor law.

Limits on hours: Transportation regulations that limit the number of hours airline pilots can be on duty between rest periods.

Emissions: Environmental and energy regulations on greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy standards for cars, trucks and commercial vehicles; and limits on hazardous air pollution from trash incinerators.

Damn it! I want my pilots rested, and I want our miners to know their rights! If Ann Marie is so hot on choice for business, why isn't she hot on choice for women?

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.”