FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #40 Buerkle Doesn't Publicly Admit to Climate Change

So far to the right on climate change, she is one of the Flat Earth Five according to the League of Conservation Voters. Blue Sky Girl thinks that Buerkle is pandering to her base of science-free Tea Drinkers.

According to the League of Conservation Voters:

...Rep. Buerkle ... has claimed that “a lot of the global warming myth has been exposed.”

“Rep. Buerkle’s extreme views put her at odds with scientists, the Pentagon and her constituents,” said Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters.

Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that humans are contributing to climate change, Rep. Buerkle has referred to “the global warming myth” and claimed that “the jury is still out” on the issue. 

In response, Central New York scientists have condemned Rep. Buerkle’s climate denial. The Syracuse Post Standard quoted Cornelius Murphy, president of the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry, as saying of Rep. Buerkle’s stance, “This has been known by scientists for decades…This demands action, not denial. Climate change is real.”

Blue Sky Girl wonders if Buerkle would like to take her pandering to the people of New Jersey and lower New York right now? To Governors Cuomo and Christie, and to Mayor Bloomberg?

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #39 Buerkle Gives a Warm Welcome to Ursula Rozum

Setting up forums that favored Buerkle, at town hall meetings on her home turf with her claque for support, she invited Ursula Rozum and Dan Mafei to several "debates", knowing she couldn't lose. Green Party candidate Rozum got press coverage; Democrat Mafei got criticism for declining to go to a forum that could not be fair. 

Votes for Rozum can only hurt Mafei. Buerkle is cunning and cynical. Rozum looks naive.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #37 Buerkle Fights the Sex Trade

Maybe, but she will not protect the victims. She would require any woman or girl, pregnant from rape in the "sex trade", to complete the pregnancy. Compassion is not her strong suit.

Sex trade is slavery. Ann Marie Buerkle says that allowing abortion in this instance would create a "second victim". Her sick thinking disempowers, yet again, victims who are made pregnant in this sick business.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #36 Buerkle Stands With Rape Victims

Ann Marie "fœtus in a jar**" Buerkle

[** see bottom of page]

+

Todd "legitimate rape" Akin

John "the rape thing" Koster

Richard "God intended it to happen" Mourdock

Rick "rape is a gift in a very broken way" Santorum

Chuck "double ultrasound" Winder

Paul "rape is a method of conception" Ryan

Roger "some girls, they rape so easy" Rivard

Rape Hall of Shame 

Buerkle stands with all these prominent men who pontificate about rape and abortion: no abortion in the case of rape.  (Hey guys, never mind that abortion is legal. Not your Constitution? That's unpatriotic!)

PS This list is not exhaustive, not even close.

**Blue Sky Girl is still puzzled about AMB's complete and utter lack of respect for that fœtus, aborted then stolen from a clinic in another state in 1989, transported across state lines, and brought to a protest at Planned Parenthood in Syracuse, and her lack of respect for the women entering that clinic. She is a loose cannon, unethical, and cruel.  Then again, if you have ever experienced her looking you in the eye with her cold blue eyes and telling you a lie without blinking, then you know that she is capable of knocking over anything that stands in her way. 

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #35 Buerkle Says FEMA's Insurance Requirements Will Devastate Communities

From ABuerk's own web site:

Apr 4, 2012

Buerkle Reacts to New FEMA Flood Maps

Today, Representative Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-25) issued the following statement following the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) release of new proposed Federal flood maps for Onondaga County: "FEMA’s proposed flood maps are reason for considerable concern for the residents on the south side of Syracuse. Should these maps take effect this year, the consequences could devastate those communities in Syracuse least prepared to accommodate them.

Care to rethink that?

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #34 Annie Says We Have a Spending Problem

Over the last two years, Congressional Republicans have forced a 43 percent reduction in the primary FEMA grants that pay for disaster preparedness. NY Times, October 30, 2012

Some things are better left to national planning and response, fool.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #33 Buerkle Says All Life is Precious

Buerkle said. “I don’t think as a society we can pick and choose what life is valuable and what is not. All life is precious without exception.” [The Post-Standard, 8/23/12]

But she hasn't uttered word one about war...the massively expensive war in Afghanistan, the longest war in which the US has ever been involved; the massively expensive war on drugs both at home and abroad; the cruel war against providing all people in our great nation with health care insurance. She has been in a powerful position for almost 2 years, one of 538 Members of Congress, and what she might have said could have been so important to the national discussion of priorities. 

Buerkle says life is precious in utero. After birth she stops caring. 

Selective conscience is no conscience at all.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #32 Ann Marie Pledges Civil Discourse

Alan West is one of the most unpleasant people in national politics today. That is why he is at the outermost fringes of political dialogue. His divisiveness repels other politicians; most distance themselves because he makes outrageous statements, crude threats and insulting insinuations.

Buerkle accepts him and asked him to do a fundraiser for her. Ick.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #31 Buerkle Is For Jobs

And who isn't? Platitudes, empty platitudes. Buerkle has created no jobs here, nor would she if she goes back to Washington. And she hasn't fought for jobs that have been lost.

What she has done is supported legislation that sends jobs overseas. And taken advantage of Welch Allyn's decision to downsize. 

She doesn't give a damn about her constituents, even the folks who vote for her because they think she is smart, kind and compassionate.  She cares about power, money, status, and herself. Vote for her at your peril. Go ahead, vote against your own self-interest. 

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #25 Annie Cares About the Environment

AMB's grasp of science - earth science, environmental science, modern research, what is happening to glaciers and polar bears - is nil. Whether it's willfulness or stupidity, Blue Sky Girl cannot say, but Annie's dishonesty that embraces ignorance is stunning. Did her curiosity and imagination die in grade school?

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #23 "More Jobs, Less Government"

So say her signs. 

Offshore jobs? Trade agreements? Yes indeed. Jobs at home? Not so much. 

How about retraining for displaced U.S. workers? Definitely not. AMB voted against the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act.

What a gal!

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #22 Buerkle Will Go to Washington With an Open and Independent Mind

Buerkle voted with the Republican/Tea Party block 95% of the time so far in her Congressional term.

She did this in spite of saying the following in Compact25 in August, 2010:

I will be independent

I will be the voice of the people and not the voice of a party, a President, or a special interest group. The only special interest group I’ll be listening to is the people of the 25th District of New York.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #21 Buerkle's Commitment to Her Constituents

 

Buerkle's platform Compact25 from August before the last election, included the following:

I recognize that as your Representative I will answer to you.  I understand that your support is not a blank check for me to go my own way without considering your wishes. While you and I may not completely agree on everything, I will welcome discussion and will approach every vote carefully.  I will post on my website an explanation and justification of every major vote I cast.

Buerkle has utterly ignored half her constituents, including a great many disenfranchised people who live in her district. People without resources simply cannot be heard by her because almost all of her "town meetings" are in the suburbs or in overwhelmingly Republican areas. 

She is never within range nor does she make a concerted effort to make disenfranchised people feel welcome at her homogeneous "town hall" meetings. In fact, people of different views or less means who come to her public meetings might well find a hostile audience sitting up front.  

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #20 Buerkle Believes in Consumer Choice

Where to start?

Blue Sky Girl found this photo on AMB's own Congressional web site heading Energy, under Issues. Never mind that only 18 months ago she introduced a bill promoting incandescent light bulbs under the guise of consumer choice.

Second, choice is precisely what she abhors when it comes to medical decisions between women and their doctors. Which is it: small government or big government?

And third, AMB belongs to a small and elite group called "The Flat Earth Five." The idea that sound science enters into any of her stances on any "issues" is absurd.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #19 This Dear Lady is Your Friend

This dear lady, Ann Marie Buerkle, has rallied the disaffected and angry people of her district by telling them she will represent them in Congress.

Can anyone tell us one thing that she has accomplished for her district in the past nearly-two years? Has she brought jobs here? Has she brought public works dollars here? Is your life better now than it was two years ago because of anything Buerkle did in Washington?

Yes, she has taken the credit for grants and loans...as a representative of government. But personally? Nothing.

Remember the voucher misinformation? Remember "death panels"?  Remember "seeking common ground"? Remember the catastrophic near-default of our country? Remember Compact25?

What her supporters don't know is that her history, for her entire public and political life, has had one purpose: selfishness. 

That she can rally enough voters to be serious competition in an election is a silent monument to her ability to deceive.

Buerkle is an actress. She dresses the part. She speaks the lines. She is a millionaire at least two times over, telling the disenfranchised that she cares about their "issues". In fact, if you look on her website, "issues" are what what she says she cares about. You won't find anything there about real people and real problem-solving. 

Anyone can "care" about "issues" without lifting a finger. 

This dear lady is not dear and she is certainly not a lady. Ladies don't lie.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #18 Buerkle Wants High Standards for Education

Buerkle says she cares about education but she advocates getting government out of education and removing federal mandates. 

Where does that leave children who live in poorer districts or states, or districts or states that consistently try to teach religion instead of science? 

What about states that decide education beyond 8th grade is a waste of time, or that educating girls is a waste of time?

On November 28, 2010, Buerkle said the following to Syracuse.com:

Syracuse.com: You’ve talked about shrinking the size of government regarding the Education Department. Should it be abolished?
AMB: "It sounds so radical, but if you think about it, if you think about how we’re paying all these school taxes, how much goes to the federal government, and then it comes back to the districts with all these strings attached. It’s almost laundered down there. I went by the Department of Education and I looked at this massive building. How do they know what’s best for Syracuse, New York? How do they know what’s best for Fowler High School? They don’t. It’s the local government and the state government that should have more power and more authority, and certainly be the one that handles the money. Communities and the state know what’s best for schools."

One of the great things about living in a country that has a united vision of a decent education for all children is that local or state interpretation, if it falls short, can be overridden by the federal government. Remember Brown v Board of Education of Topeka?

Lies, promised in a singularly honest moment so many years ago to Blue Sky Girl's friend J, roll off AMB's tongue like rain out of the sky.

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #17 Ann Marie Supports Improved Health Care

Think...Vouchers

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #16 Ann Marie Cares About...anybody...

...except herself.

Blue Sky Girl has been following pretty closely and cannot recall an instance of Ann Marie uttering the word "poverty", or "racism", or "equality", or "justice".

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #15 Buerkle Concerned With Women's Safety

Her use of Vera House to prove her concern for women's issues notwithstanding, Buerkle has consistently opposed a landmark bill in Congress that would further help women who need legal protections from domestic violence. She opposed reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that would have expanded domestic violence protections to marginally protected groups such as undocumented immigrants, same sex partners and Native American women. 

FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #14 Defense and National Security are Important

"The issues of Defense and National Security are important to our district and to my work in Congress." Buerkle web site

Buerkle says "issues" are important, but real security at Benghazi wasn't so important. She voted, like a well-behaved sheep, to massively cut the State Department over the last two years, leaving the US embassy deficient in security which led directly to the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens.