Dump Mike Ferguson (NJ7)

Last Friday was the last day of Mike Ferguson's third term in Congress, and he decided to end it with a bang.

Following on his work on the Terry Schiavo issue where he tried to play doctor, Ferguson now wants to pass Federal legislation telling doctors what to tell their patients. Again demonstrating his radical anti-abortion credentials, Ferguson wants to make every doctor counsel women seeking an abortion during the second trimester that the fetus feels pain. It did not pass.

Next, contradicting his campaign claims that he is an environmentalist and opposes offshore drilling, Ferguson voted for a bill that will expand offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Posted by admin at 07:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On February 10, 2004 Congressman Mike Ferguson signed on as a cosponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) which would deny same sex couples the right to marry anywhere in the United States, regardless of what the voters and citizens of that state wanted.

On July 18, 2006 Congressman Mike Ferguson voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment yet strangely his name is no longer attached to the bill as a cosponsor.

Why would he take his name of the bill if he still supports the bill? Is Mike Ferguson going soft on the issue of same sex marriage?

Or was he backing a popular President George Bush in 2004 by cosponsoring the bill, and now trying to run away from an unpopular George Bush in 2006?

Posted by admin at 06:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

This letter on net neutrality was published in the Courier News on May 4, 2006:

Ferguson trying to put a price on Web

Rep. Mike Ferguson, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, voted to pass a bill to the floor which would give wide power to telecommunication companies to change the way we experience the Internet. It gives them the power to charge content providers, like Amazon etc., extra fees to send their content to users.

The Internet will no longer be the free space with equal access for all that it was intended to be. It will be taken over by profit-hungry telecommunication companies and used only by people who can afford to pay to have access to everything.

It should be noted that Rep. Ferguson has received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from AT&T and other telecommunication companies. Until we change to publicly financed elections to diminish the huge influence of lobbyists, the only recourse we have is to barrage our legislators with calls and e-mails opposing this bill.

The Internet is an amazing space which encourages the free flow of ideas and products. Oh! That's right! Republicans and industry lobbyists only like unrestricted commerce as long as they are the ones making money from it.

MARTHA MILLER
Flemington

Posted by admin at 05:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This letter was published in the Cranford Chronicle on April 6, 2006:

Notion of Rep. Ferguson as 'moderate' is a myth

To The Chronicle:

Let's consider a couple ratings of Representative Mike Ferguson's voting record by two non-profit organizations.

First, the ACLU has rated all U.S. House membersaccording to how they have voted on matters of civil liberties and constitutional rights.Ferguson's lifetime score is 7 percent.For comparison, the lifetime scores for Reps. Rothman, Andrews, Pallone, Payne, and Holt range from 70 percent to 100 percent.

Second, NARAL has awarded Ferguson a 2005 score of 0 percent for his House votes concerning women's reproductive rights.Yes folks, you read that correctly, his score is zero. Democratic representatives from New Jersey scored between 80 and 100 percent.

Mike Ferguson obviously has little regard for the civil liberties and reproductive freedom of his fellow Americans.His scores show that his voting record is a miserable failure.His extreme right-wing views and uncritical embrace of the Bush-Cheney agenda prove that he is clearly out of touch with the moderate citizens of New Jersey's 7th District. The notion of "moderate Mike" is just a myth.

For an alternative, and a positive change,see the Web site lindastenderforcongress.com.

JOHN CANTILLI
Cranford

Posted by admin at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This letter was published in the Courier News on June 23, 2005.

Patriot Act should not be renewed

Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives took a stand against the infringements on our civil liberties, which have been assailed by the Patriot Act. As the act is due to expire this year, the House is voting to alter it before presumably renewing the act. The House took a step toward sanity as it voted to strip from the act the powers that gave the federal government and its agencies the ability to spy on its citizens library, bookstore and other records.

This was an absurd breach of our basic civil liberties. Unfortunately, Congressman Mike Ferguson voted not to remove this provision. I, as should other voters in the 7th congressional district, am ashamed by my congressman's vote. He should stop voting the party line and vote his conscience and do what is best for, and wanted by, his constituents in the 7th District.

JESSE LANDON
Lebanon

Great letter, Jesse!

Posted by admin at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This letter was published in the Cranford Chronicle on June 23, 2005:

On June 16, the US House of Representatives approved an amendment, by a vote of 238 to 187, which would eliminate funding for Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Section 215 allows federal searches, without your knowledge, of your library and book store records. Rep. Mike Ferguson, along with Rep. Tom DeLay, voted no on the amendment. Ferguson and DeLay apparently have little regard for the privacy of ordinary American citizens, and they represent the minority position on this issue. On May 26, Ferguson voted against an amendment to add $53 million to veterans' medical care. The amendment failed by one vote. Is Ferguson properly serving the citizens of the 7th District, or is he merely the loyal lapdog of his Republican masters, George W. Bush and Tom DeLay? For more unflattering facts about the real Mike Ferguson, visit www.dumpmike.com. John Cantilli
Cranford NJ

Thanks for the plug, John!

Posted by admin at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday the House voted 238 - 187 to approve an amendment that would prevent money allocated for 2005-2006 to the Department of Justice to be used on scattershot searches of library, book sales and book store customer lists as authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

Mike Ferguson voted to fund this kind of search.

Here's a description of what Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows, from Congressman Bernie Sanders' press release:

Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, federal agents have been empowered to get orders from a secret court that allows them to access, among other things, the reading records of Americans in both libraries and bookstores. Because these orders are granted by a secret court, the people whose records are sought had no opportunity to oppose the order. In most cases the person whose records are acquired would never know it because the law itself makes it a criminal offense for the librarian or bookseller to tell anyone about the order.

Sanders’ amendment prohibits the government from using these secret court orders to gain access to Americans’ reading records. The amendment passed despite a Bush Administration veto threat issued the day before the vote.

Congressman Michael Ferguson thinks this is a bad idea.

Write or call Mike Ferguson today and ask him why he voted against Americans being able to read and access information without being secretly tracked by the FBI.

Or write a letter to the editor to your local paper talking about Rep. Ferguson's votes against personal privacy.

Call his office at (908) 757-7835 or write to him from his Congressional Website.

When you are done, leave the answer in the comments for or write to dumpmike@gmail.com.

Posted by admin at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)