Archive for January 24, 2011

Says the Syracuse “She’s 12 points down” post standard:

When asked about her renewed focus on abortion this past week, Buerkle said she is performing her duty to represent the views of the 25th Congressional District. Buerkle said she is convinced most residents of the district agree with the bills she has co-sponsored.

“I can’t give you a hard statistic,” Buerkle said. “But I heard from many people throughout the campaign who would not support me unless I was pro-life.”

The Lonely Conservative notes that the Post Standard considers it front page news that a former member of Operation Rescue is against abortion. Of course the left to whom Abortion is a sacrament, is attacking:

“Rep. Buerkle was elected to Congress because she promised to create jobs, but instead, one of her first acts is to co-sponsor and champion a bill that takes away health insurance benefits that the majority of women currently have,” DeFazio said.

Because of course repealing Obamacare and limiting what government funds are spent on has nothing to do with small government does it? Additionally having been in office for an entire 20 days, it’s undoubtedly her fault that the unemployment rate hasn’t already dropped to Bush Era levels.

NOW also attacks but that’s to be expected

Buerkle’s actions on the issue also alarm Karen DeCrow, of Jamesville, the former national president of the National Organization for Women.

“This district does not share her views on birth control, sex education, family planning and abortion,” DeCrow said of Buerkle. “She has a different view.”

Yeah the district disagrees with her so much that as the Lonely Conservative points out an attack ad used against her highlighting her opposition may have pushed her over the top:

NY25 covers all of Onondaga and Wayne Counties, and part of Cayuga and Monroe Counties. But a large portion of NY25′s voters are in Onondaga County. I did some digging and found out that there were 147,332 Catholics in Onondaga County alone in 2000 (Sorry, I searched for hours and couldn’t find any more recent data, or a breakdown of religious affiliation of registered voters.) I’m sure enough of those Catholics are registered voters who could swing the election in Buerkle’s favor. This race hasn’t been about social issues. It’s been about the economy, the direction of our country, and the failed policies of the current administration and Congress. By running this ad Dan Maffei just gave undecided pro-life voters a reason to vote for Ann Marie Buerkle.

You would think she was a Catholic or something.

The more I see of Congresswoman Buerkle the more I wish she was my congresswoman.

Update: Stacy McCain: Media Shocked — Shocked! — To Discover That Ann Marie Buerkle Is Pro-Life

Now it is one of the seven corporal acts of mercy to visit the imprisoned. So I certainly can’t fault someone for visiting a person in jail, and if Firedoglake and Greenwald want to bemoan Manning’s treatment that is certainly their call and of course as a blogger I have no issue with citizen journalists covering a story.

But the Washington Post has an interesting description of the firedoglake folks who went to visit Bradley Manning in this story.

Two backers of a jailed Army private suspected of passing classified documents to the WikiLeaks website say their car was towed after they arrived at a Marine base to visit him.

David House and blogger Jane Hamsher say in a statement they had not had problems previously driving onto the Quantico base. But they say they were detained and unable to visit Army Pfc. Bradley Manning on Sunday.emphasis mine

“Backers”; that is the key word. Manning (and lets give the presumption of innocence) is accused of leaking classified documents in wartime to a foreign national who put them out there harming the US and risking lives. When they are backing Manning, it’s not because they think is wrongly accused, it’s because they don’t support the war and support any action that might cause our retreat.

Let’s make it clear. They do not back him because they think he is innocent. They back him because they believe he is guilty.

As Glenn Reynolds has said many times. They are not anti-war, they are on the other side and we are deluding ourselves if we think differently.