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So we've heard a lot about creeps like Dick Mourdock, Todd Akin, Tea Party Tom Smith, Deb Fischer and Jeff Flake but a few months ago I discovered this vacant land known as North Dakota. Appearantly this land is state and like any other state in the U.S. it too has two senators and there happens to be a Senate race going on there. If you thought Dick Mourdock and the Tea Party Pro-Life Rape Gang version of the Wu-Tang Clan was dope, wait till you hear their buddy Rick Berg's solo album. He's like their Red Man:
http://www.policymic.com/...
In September, in the midst of the Akin and Mourdock and whoever else scandals, BuzzFeed broke the “news” that in 2007, Berg voted for a bill in the North Dakota State House that would have made “any woman who obtained an abortion guilty of a homicide crime — even if it were in the case of rape or incest.” The bill would have made seeking an abortion a Class AA felony, carrying a maximum sentence of life without parole. - Policy Mic, 10/26/12
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But wait, there's more:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/...
Berg voted against federal health coverage that includes abortion. He also voted against family planning (Planned Parenthood) and Title X grant money—“Since 1970s, this is the only federal program that provides individuals with several health services. Many of those services are those used by women, although they can be services used by low income people of both sexes. Those services include: HIV prevention, screening for breast and cervical cancer, and family planning services.” - Addicting Info, 10/16/12
Well at least he can make an exception for if the mother's life is in danger. If you were raped? Fuck you, off to jail for you. But hey, that's North Dakota for ya:
This extreme legislation hardly seems out of place in North Dakota. In 2011, the State House passed the Defense of Human Life Act, a Personhood bill that would have made abortion at all stages of pregnancy illegal. It would also “ban the destruction of human embryos that are created when a woman’s egg is fertilized outside her body.” It passed 68-25 in the House but was tabled in the Senate, thanks to Republican in-fighting.
Also last year, the legislature managed to pass a law effectively banning all medication abortion. The law was taken to court and opponents succeeded in winning a restraining order against its implementation, later seeking an injunction on grounds that it places an undue burden on women seeking medication abortions. The ban is still blocked by the injunction; the lawsuit has yet to be resolved.
North Dakota also requires parental consent, a 24-hour waiting period and state-directed counseling. The state limits public and private insurance coverage for abortion, and bans telemedicine and almost all public funding. - Policy Mic, 10/26/12
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I'm sorry to diss on North Dakota but that is fucking ridiculous. Pro-life legislation is like Friday Night Lights for North Dakota Republicans. They're really into it and it's fucking scary. Rick Berg absolutely cannot be elected Senator this year. Need I remind you that the Blunt Amendment was very close to becoming serious legislator. You imagine the type of dangerous bills Berg might try to introduce in the Senate? I mean this guy was the Speaker of the North Dakota House.
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Luckily Democrats landed a terrific candidate this year; former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp.
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http://www.kfyrtv.com/...
Here's a little info about Heidi form her website:
http://heidifornorthdakota.com/...
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Heidi Heitkamp learned her North Dakota values of hard work and responsibility growing up in a big family in the small town of Mantador. Her mom was the school cook and custodian, and her dad did all kinds of jobs, from truck driver to seasonal construction.
Heidi and her six brothers and sisters all went to work as soon as they could to earn extra money for the family and later for school. She got her first babysitting job when she was 13, and worked her way through high school and college with a series of jobs, everything from waitressing to summer highway construction on a North Dakota road crew.
She says her father taught her the importance of working within the community to get the job done, from building the town VFW hall to putting a public park in Mantador so that every child had a place to play. And she says her mother, who never let the bullies beat up on the little kids in school, taught her to stand up for the little guy and demand fair play.
Heidi brought those small-town values to her career, choosing a life of public service. As a crime-fighting attorney general, she battled drug dealers, protected senior citizens from scams, and worked to keep sexual predators off our streets and away from our kids, even after their prison terms are up.
Her reputation as an advocate for the people grew when she served as a leader in the national settlement with the tobacco companies that required them to tell the truth about smoking and health, and pay restitution to the states. That settlement has so far brought $336 million to North Dakota for successful programs to reduce teen smoking and support schools and water supplies throughout the state.
Today, as a director of the one-of-a-kind Dakota Gasification synfuels plant, she’s a champion for North Dakota’s energy industry. Heidi believes we need to use all of North Dakota’s rich energy resources wisely, creating and keeping high-paying jobs right here. She believes in reducing our dependence on oil from the Mideast and investing in the sustainable, renewable power sources of the future, including harnessing North Dakota’s abundant potential for wind and solar power. And she believes energy companies should do their fair share to build the infrastructure that North Dakota needs to support a thriving energy industry.
Heidi will bring her North Dakota values to the U.S. Senate. She says there are too many extreme politicians in Washington willing to hold our economy hostage to advance their narrow political agenda. Heidi says it’s time to put country first, put politics aside and work together to cut government spending, balance the budget, create jobs and get our economy back on track—while protecting North Dakotans.
Heidi lives in Mandan with her husband, Dr. Darwin Lange, a family practitioner, their golden retriever Copper, and their elderly tabby cat, Sport. They have two grown children, Ali and Nathan.
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Heitkamp is a centrist Democrat but her views are more in line with former Senator Byron Dorgan (D. ND), one of the few Senators to vote against the repeal of Glass-Steagall. She believes in balancing the budget but she strongly supports making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share and closing loopholes and is a strong supporter of the Buffett Rule. She supports drilling for oil in North Dakota and building the Keystone Pipeline but she also supports investing in alternative energy and has vowed to fight Wall Street's reckless speculation that drives up oil and gas prices. And despite coming from a state that has tried to pass some of the most radical and dangerous pro-life legislation, especially with Berg as Speaker of the House, Heitkamp supports a woman's right to choose.
The latest Mason-Dixon poll has showed Berg with a slight edge but the race still remains close:
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http://www.kqcd.com/...
Berg has strong support in the more conservative areas of Bismarck-Mandan and western North Dakota, while Heitkamp leads in Fargo and eastern North Dakota. Heitkamp wins in the east 50 to 41 and 52 to 41, while Berg is tops with the western voters, 54 to 39 per cent and 53 to 38 percent.
Berg is the choice with male voters, winning 57 to 38, while Heitkamp has a 52 to 37 advantage with women. Within party affiliations, Heitkamp has a 96 to 2 lead with Democrats while Berg wins with Republicans 88 to 7. Heitkamp has a 48 to 38 lead with people who say they are independents. - KFYR-TV, 10/29/12
Guys like Berg, Akin and Mourdock prove that even in deep red states like North Dakota that support radical pro-life legislation, a great Democrat like Heitkamp can win. I fully believe she will win because she has a great record for North Dakota whereas Berg has a long shady past in the North Dakota House authoring and passing legislator that serves to help his shady real estate business, Goldmark, thrive and evict tenants, including soldiers serving overseas, for bull shit reasons while still making a profit. You can read about here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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Heitkamp's internal polling shows her in the lead. I believe her polling because she has been hitting Berg hard for his connection to Golmark and how his company evicted a soldier over seas and North Dakota voters aren't happy about that:
http://www.salon.com/...
Berg has run a predominantly negative campaign continuously trying to tie Heitkamp to President Obama. Berg has no real plans to help fix the economy, he's just a Tea Party/GOP rubber stamper and people in North Dakota know that. I for one don't want a Tea Party extremist who supports putting rape victims and women who seek abortions in jail. You know he'll introduce similar legislation that he failed to get passed in a conservative state and he won't serve the people of North Dakota. The only person he will serve is himself and his company, Goldmark. Heitkamp is a prove public servant and will work with both Democrats and Republicans. If we are going to fix the economy, the last thing we need are more Tea Party extremists. Lets help Heitkamp cross that finish line:
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https://secure.actblue.com/...