Thursday, May 10, 2012

Barletta attempts snark, fails

Congressman Lou Barletta put out a press release on Tuesday that jumped on the fetus White House tour story that is flying around the right wing blogs.

In a tongue in cheek statement almost worthy of a snarky blogger he said:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Lou Barletta, PA-11, congratulated the White House of President Obama – who supports partial-birth abortions and voted against born-alive failed abortion infant protection legislation on the grounds that a fetus is not a viable life – for finally recognizing that life begins at conception.
Tuesday, it was reported that the White House is now asking pregnant mothers to identify their unborn babies when requesting tours of the president’s house.
In an e-mail to offices, the White House stated, “Crazy as it may sound, you MUST include the baby in the overall count of guests in the tour.” [Emphasis original to e-mail.]
The e-mail gives details on how to include the unborn child’s first name (“Baby”), birthday (even though the baby has not yet been born), gender, and social security number.
“The White House of President Obama – who voted against bills protecting unborn children from the horror of abortion – enacted a policy identifying babies still in the womb when they come to visit the White House. If an unborn child is considered alive for the purposes of a White House tour, clearly an unborn child should be considered alive when pro-life legislation is considered,” Rep. Barletta said.
“I’d like to commend President Obama for finally acknowledging that life begins at conception.”

Surprisingly the details were ignored  by Barletta's press outfit, they are usually better than that. As he says in the first line, “it was reported” that this happened. He’s not actually saying it did. The Secret Service says Pregnant women are not required to count their fetuses as full human beings when registering for White House tours but it would help expecting parents already signed up for a tour to be able to bring a newborn.
 The White House has thousands of visitors every day and that people sign up for tours months in advance, often canceling and rescheduling. By having a placeholder ready for a baby-to-be, it prevents delays when people might otherwise show up for the tour with a child not previously listed.
"This policy was implemented so if you want to bring your children on a tour, we can account for them."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lou, you spent your career as Mayor of Hazleton complaining that Hazleton recieved NOTHING, We have to ask, what have you DONE? and dont give us the , "give me time"

One termer.

Big Dan said...

Recent Barletta and Marino votes against the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, Liberty, and Freedom and FOR Big Government:

Barletta and Marino voted FOR letting employers continue to be able to ask for employees FaceBook userids/passwords:

House Republicans vote 234-1, including Barletta and Marino, to allow employers to keep being able to to ask for employees' FaceBook USERID's and PASSWORDS.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/roll137.xml

Barletta and Marino voted AGAINST revealing the names of secret super-rich campaign donors (what happened to NO SECRETS and OPEN GOVERNMENT?):

House Republicans vote 230-5, including Barletta and Marino, to allow allow donors who make enormous campaign contributions to remain a secret.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/roll135.xml

HR 347 - banning protests (this goes against the first amendment of the Constitution) - Barletta and Marino go along with Obama and the Democrats on HR 347:

House votes 399-3, including Barletta and Marino, to ban protesting.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/112-2011/h149

NDAA - giving the ability for the president to lock up American citizens without due process - Barletta and Marino go along with Obama and the Democrats:

House Republicans go along with Obama and vote 190-43, including Barletta and Marino, for NDAA which includes a provision to lock up American citizens indefinitely without due process.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll932.xml

The Patriot Act - too many un-Constitutional points in it to even mention - Barletta and Marino vote FOR it:

House Republicans go along with Obama and vote 210-26, including Barletta and Marino, to renew un-Constitutional Patriot Act.

http://www.opencongress.org/vote/2011/h/26

http://thatsmycongress.com/index.php/2011/02/15/roll-call-of-valentines-day-patriot-act-vote/