FORTY LIES IN 40 DAYS: #9 Promise to Seek Common Ground

"We may not agree on every issue, but constituents should feel that they can come to me and we can talk and we can find common ground," she said. "And that’s really my biggest task — to work hard so that the people in this district feel they have a voice in Washington." December 2010 

In all the Town Hall Meetings, visits to the office and letters with questions, there has been no "common ground" to be found. "Common ground" means precisely where AMB is standing and not an inch wider. 

When ideology rules, as it does her brand of politics, AMB will only, ever, hear that which confirms her beliefs. This is confirmation bias. Her claque, her band of merry followers, suffers the same smallness.

Claquewatch NY: Claquers and Their Hobbies, Part 2

Claquewatch:  Bob Murfitt aka MrBobbis just posted a cheap, blurry and boring video on YouTube of Mitt Romney stumping for Ann Marie Buerkle in September 2010. 

What makes the notion of posting this worthless piece interesting is that Romney is reliably at the whim of the moment. He changes his positions to fit the constituency he seeks. Did Romney believe in Buerkle? Did he know anything about her? Doesn't matter. 

And does this mean that VideoClaquer Bob Murfitt is going with Mitt, the presumptive winner of the Republican primaries and maybe the convention? Many people like to feel they voted with a winner regardless of his or her record. Blueskygirl would have supposed that Ron Paul would be more up Murfitt's alley, or maybe Michele Bachmann.

Claquewatch NY: On Civil Society

When Blueskygirl witnesses supporters of Ann Marie Buerkle behaving uncivilly toward some of the people who attend Buerkle's town hall meetings, and when Buerkle allows this to go on, meeting after meeting, Blueskygirl has to ask if these are actions similar to those that occurred at recent televised Republican debates.

Claquers: ask yourselves:

• Does a death sentence, carried out, deny the commandment Thou Shalt Not Kill?

• Does letting an uninsured person die without medical care fit with your moral teachings?

• Does rejecting people who are not like you, any people, fit with Loving Thy Neighbor as Thyself?

Yet, on national television recently, carefully chosen audiences at Republican debates:

• cheered for Texas governor Rick Perry's high number of executions;

• shouted "let him die," drowning out a question to Ron Paul about an uninsured person with a fatal illness and no insurance;

• booed a gay US soldier on active duty in Afghanistan who, in a video question segment, asked candidates' opinions on the US military's reversal of don't-ask-don't-tell.

US HR NY25 Claquers: are these audiences the people you want to be allied and associated with? 

Blueskygirl wishes she had evidence that local Claquers are different, but she has none. Unfortunately the intolerance she witnesses at all of Ann Marie Buerkle's meetings causes her to suspect these people are quite similar to the Republican debates audiences.

And the presidential candidates, and Ann Marie Buerkle, do nothing to interrupt the divisiveness and hate. That speaks volumes. 

As a civil society we must deplore this behavior in any leader or prospective leader, and in their followers. 

We are a nation built on tolerance not hate. Every one of us has a responsibility to help promote an atmosphere where all people are treated humanely. 

Town Hall Meeting Thursday Evening in Town of Onondaga

Thursday evening AMB will again graciously stand up at the front of the room and avoid answering questions. 

She will thank everyone for coming and let us know that we are meeting in her own current home town. Then she will offer special thanks to the public officials from the Town of Onondaga for having us over for another chance to "find common ground."

She will give us a brief update of her most important work in Washington.

Then she begin to take, from a box, questions written on pieces of paper by constituents as they came through the foyer.

Her claque will vigorously defend her. 

The people who have come with serious concerns will become frustrated when she avoids serious consideration of tough lines of questioning. She may even cut people off. (She has before.) 

Watch Buerkle lose her cool when questioners try to pin her down.

She will continue to defend the wealthy, attack the US Senate and "the president" (not President Obama), and claim need for "certainty" for the "job creators", whatever the hell that is and whoever the hell they are.

So, come along but don't plan to have much fun, that is, unless you are in her claque:

Town Hall Meeting

Onondaga Town Hall

5020 Ball Road

Syracuse, NY

Thursday, September 29, 2011

6:00 to 7:00 pm

Ball Rd. is off McDonald Rd. in the Town of Onondaga.

McDonald Rd. completes a triangle between Rt. 173 near Howlett Hill Rd. and Velasco Rd. 

at Kelley's restaurant.

Directions from Syracuse: 

at Kelley's restaurant and the Mobil station at the corner of Velasco Rd. and McDonald Rd., 

head west on McDonald Rd. toward Howlett Hill Rd. 

(not south on Velasco toward Onondaga Hill). 

Ball Rd., on the north, is a residential loop with two entrances. Take the western-most entrance. 

The new town hall is visible from McDonald Rd. 

Ann Marie Buerkle Is Not Interested in You, Average Constituent

Blueskygirl is at a loss today, as she is many days, to understand why Ann Marie Buerkle continues to be such a powerful force in the lives of her right-leaning constituents.

Democracy requires participants to question the motivation of candidates, their qualifications, their ability to translate their life experiences into good policy and governance. 

In addition, democracy asks voters to separate their emotional reaction to candidates from a long hard look at whether candidates have the voters' interests at heart.

Ann Marie Buerkle represents a district in upstate New York straddling the NY Thruway, once a thriving manufacturing corridor from Albany to Buffalo.

Today that district is solidly in a region we know as the rust belt. Recently the carcass of Carrier Corporation, world leader in air conditioning, was sold for scrap. 

Oneida silverware, Buffalo china and Syracuse china are all manufactured in China. New Venture gears eventually came from overseas, made of inferior steel, and the last of New Venture Gear disappears by the end of this year. Crucible Steel's high quality steel is barely competitive with foreign, inferior steel. National Grid laid off 800 workers this year.

Inner cities are mostly in ruin, their inner city schools and neighborhoods increasingly deserted by professional parents who want the best education for their children, and who can blame them? Outlying malls surround empty storefronts in our  downtowns.

Rurally, small farmers struggle because their competition is huge and protected. Even the big farms here (with, astoundingly, 3 big barns!, which no one in the old days would have called a small farm,) struggle to compete.

In this landscape Ann Marie Buerkle, conservative, tea party sweetheart and "the pretty lady from Syracuse", tells us that she will never vote to raise taxes on the extremely wealthy people and corporations of this nation.

Glaringly missing from her vocabulary are words like poverty, homelessness, teacher layoffs, soup kitchens, living wage, unemployment. Missing from her intent in Washington are solving the home mortgage crisis, creating real jobs, improving the lot of farmers, and making good educations, from kindergarten to BAs, BSs, MAs, and yes, even MDs, accessible for the less and least fortunate among us. Missing is support for unions.

Rather, every single one of her decisions is made in favor of corporate interests. Thus she paves the way for increased contributions to her next campaign. Thus she pleases John Boehner.

Tea partiers, conservatives, Republicans: wake up and look at what Ann Marie Buerkle does every day. Is she looking out for your best interests and those of your neighbor? If she is not, push back and wake HER up. She needs to hear from you. 

Buerkle: 5 Easy Lies

At the American Legion in Cato last night, we were slimed. Ann Marie Buerkle held one of her "town hall" meetings.


It is deceptive to hear Buerkle speak because her favored public front is one of smoothness, friendliness, clarity, competence.


Her claqueurs were there, heavily outnumbering people with tough questions. It felt intimidating.


Her handlers were handing her the softest of softball questions.


Lie #1:  "I will be independent." This became a platform plank early in the campaign as part of her Compact 25. The fact is that she has voted with her party and John Boehner 97% of the time, with the other 3% being missed and procedural votes, proves differently.


Lie #2:  "I will be accountable" is another plank from Compact 25. Yes, she holds town hall meetings. Then she fills them with supporters who ask her softball questions, and a moderator and staff who protect her from the hard ones.


Lie #3:  When questioned last night about her stance against women's health care and abortion she said, "you elected me as a Pro-Life candidate." Actually, she hid her Pro-Life platform during the campaign. When she first declared, she said that abortion was not the issue that would define her nor would it be a priority of her campaign. If you were new to the area, you would never have known about her ignominious history with Operation Rescue.


Lie #4:  "The government is not in the business of supporting energy." That does not match the tax-free business status of BP and other gas and oil companies in the US. It does not match the total green light that the nuclear industry has always had from the government.


Lie #5:  "There is no voucher for Medicaid in Congressman Paul Ryan's budget bill." Last night, five sentences later she said, "let me explain how the vouchers would work."


Blue Sky Girl doesn't think she actually knows what the truth would sound like.