It looks like the embattled leader of the abortion ban ballot initiative from Kalispell is displaying her fading grasp on reality once again.
In a recent email missive about her efforts, Annie Bukacek assumes the black helicopters are already circling when she writes this accusation about Montana's county elections officials:
It is a near-certainty there will be fraud in some of the county elections departments.
Bukacek certainly knows something about fraud: she's under investigation for being a perpetrator of it.
In the same rambling email, Bukacek also mentions her efforts to recruit tea-baggers to her cause. I can see why Bukacek's minions are drawn to tea-baggers. They seem to share a penchant for boldly displaying their cognitive limitations. I'm not saying that's all bad--it makes it easier for the rest of us to avoid hiring them.
The fact is, Bukacek's prototypical supporter seems to be "that one guy" who, if he continues along his current trajectory, will likely spend a considerable portion of his 30s as that one local nutter in every Denny's who spends his time filling notebooks with manifestos.
Not the tea-baggers.
This small, whiney minority of the population that is virtually impotent and have no impact on policy is the wrong target for Bukacek. Heck, they aren't even trying to have a part in any movement FOR anything - they are the "new anarchists". They aren't the types who are going get behind a movement and volunteer. Nor do they seem like the types that want the government to have more say in private medical decisions.
A Nevada judge has tossed out a proposed so-called personhood initiative saying the language was too vague and violated state law that limits questions to one subject.
Like in Montana, the Nevada ballot initiative petition does not specifically mention abortion, but is a back door attempt to totally ban abortion in the state.
Carson City District Court Judge James Russell said the measure was too broad and general in nature to be put before voters in November.
"The issue to me is, are we adequately informing voters on what they're voting on," Russell said in a ruling from the bench after listening to about two hours of arguments.
Besides being vague, Russell said, the initiative violates a law limiting referendum questions to a single subject.
"There's no way for the voter to understand the effects of the initiative," he said.
The case came to court after a Nevada woman, a pharmacist and an OB-GYN together filed a legal challenge against the petition, arguing that the initiative proposes far reaching changes to the Nevada Constitution and laws, is misleading and fails to give voters a clear understanding of the changes it proposes and its purpose and effect.
That's one reason why what Annie Bukacek is doing is so, so wrong. Bukacek is an uber-right, would-be abortion banner who is giving other Kalispell crazies a run for their money after criminal investigators rolled in to investigate her for Medicaid fraud. Bukacek not only harmed the patients she is alleged to have scammed--she's ripped-off every single one of us who have ever paid taxes in this state. Medicaid fraud puts an extra hurt on Montana taxpayers because unlike Medicare, the federally funded health care benefit program for seniors, Medicaid is a joint state-federal funded program for low-income people.
Fun fact: that sum is enough to pay for one third of U.S. defense spending for fiscal year 2010. It could cover the entire defense spending this year for Iraq and Afghanistan combined--and leave the U.S. with $100 million dollars to spare.
This year, New York state doubled their Medicaid fraud crackdown efforts and recovered an additional $114 million. I wonder how much money Montana could recover if all the Bukaceks out there were stopped.
If the rash of absurd self-fellating letters to the editor and blog comments pretending that this is about praying with patients means anything, Bukacek and her minions just don't get it. Here's an idea Bukacek: instead of rabble-rousing, how about reading the Bible now and again. There's this part about not stealing...
These guys have quite the reputation. So the Montana Pro-Life Coalition scoured their ranks for a front person they hoped would have as little baggage as possible--but Annie Bukacek is turning out to be every bit as much the self-aggrandizing wing-nut as the rest of them.
Not familiar with Bukacek? You should be, she's the new official face of extreme-right politics in Montana. Bukacek's all about giving rights to "the unborn"-- but once born, she doesn't want them to have healthcare.
Reporters I know have found that Bukacek is the only member of the so-called organization that is allowed to talk to the press.
If you're so inclined, you can seek out Bukacek's comparison of "islamofaciasts to christofacists" and her views on radical Islam being the "true" Islam of the Koran. Or her advice that husbands love their wives as Christ loved his church (ick.)
The treatises are a catalogue of her beliefs that the laws of Montana and the United states should reflect "God's laws." Montana Taliban anyone? How long before adultery is punishable by a weak without food in the stocks? And divorce? Forget about it. We should probably go ahead and cancel the NFL on Sundays, too. (There is no mention of abortion or NFL in the bible, so both are clearly abominations.)
Does Bukacek have a right to believe this stuff? Of course, but she doesn't have the right to force them on the rest of us by permanently amending our constitution.
If Bukacek really wanted to decrease the need for abortion in Montana, she would join the mainstream and work to increase access to affordable birth control and medically accurate sex-ed to decrease unintended pregnancy in the first place.
