Blueskygirl has a story to tell about Ann Marie Buerkle's abilities at deception. It is a second hand story, yet it is perfectly believable to Blueskygirl because it was told to her by a good friend and neighbor whom she trusts. She feels that her friend would have no reason to tell anything but the truth about the incident she is going to describe. It was a powerful moment for Blueskygirl's friend, and one he will never forget.
Many years ago Blueskygirl's friend worked in the human services field as an advocate for people with certain disabilities. This friend had occasion to know Ann Marie Buerkle through his capacity as a leader in his agency and field.
Buerkle was in a position to oppose the services Blueskygirl's friend was trying to develop, and she used her power at the time to try to undermine his work and turn the public and the funders against his project. She did this by misrepresenting the nature of the disabilities and the nature of the services.
Blueskygirl's friend had an opportunity to confront Buerkle about her outspoken opposition. He tried to have a discussion with her about the need for the services. He tried using facts. He tried to appeal to her sense of compassion. She would not be swayed.
Finally he said to her, "You are just never going to tell the truth about this, are you? You are going to go on lying, aren't you?"
Buerkle smiled broadly at him and said, "Yes, you are right." The conversation was over. She walked away, still smiling.
Speaking of deception: another baldfaced (barefaced?) lie occurred on Thursday night's Pompey townhall meeting when AMB attempted to float the phoenix idea of "death panels" to a calm, assertively skeptical bunch. Instead of admitting her misrepresentation after the attendees corrected her, she ignored the room's objections.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IpuPo6DK0Y
Not only that, but her factoid that the Affordable Care Act "cut Medicare by $500 billion," demonstrates her proclivity to wantonly mislead. The reason we "don't hear about that" five hundred billion dollar cut is because it redefines the budgetary and fiscal definition of the word "cut." That money, as Politifact states, "[isn't] actual cuts but reductions to future spending for a program that will still grow significantly in the next 10 years." Politifact debunks this claim as part of a broader campaign of misinformation regarding the ACA, a campaign through whose invalidated facets AMB continues to refract the wan light of her rhetoric promoting the ruination of the social safety net.