I don’t think that I have ever agreed with anything the Buffalo News has printed as much as I agree with today’s editorial.

What bothers us is the system under which all this money flows. The state takes too much from its taxpayers every day and in good years returns some of it in dramatic gifts promoting lawmakers’ re-elections.

Because of its high business and personal tax levels, New York can’t hope to attract a Silicon Valley chip maker unless it makes an exception for that one company - and its 2,000 jobs and construction work - by negating for it the taxes everyone else has to operate under. To get the $3.5 billion plant, taxpayers will provide $1 billion in incentives.

Instead of cutting a $1 billion deal with one company, why not cut taxes and spending by billions for all companies? There were 7.41 million employed New Yorkers at 502,948 non-farm businesses in 2003. Cutting taxes for all of them would create far more than 2,000 jobs. Tax cuts would make the state more attractive to secure more business and jobs.

I’m just wondering when the rest of the voting public is going to figure this out as well.

Parent of a child in Buffalo Public Schools: “We demand that you give our children a proper education!”

Buffalo Public Schools: “You’re right. We’re going to require your child to attend summer school to get up to speed.”

Parent of a child in Buffalo Public Schools: “No way, we’ve got a family reunion to go to!”

When I read stories like this, I really don’t know where to begin…

About 3,100 pupils who just finished prekindergarten through second grade were recently informed that they must attend summer school, but many parents have called “with all types of excuses” why their children won’t attend, said Rosalyn Taylor, assistant superintendent for school operations.

Taylor, speaking at a public forum held by the Buffalo Local Action Committee, also defended the district against heated charges by the committee that the social promotion policy was hammered out without their input and that an alternative school set to open in September will become a “dumping ground.” The meeting, attended by about 75 people, was held at the Buffalo Museum of Science.

“Our problem is that we weren’t involved in the process,” said Abdul Halim Muhammad, a minister of the Local Action Committee. “Slavery is over with. Don’t give us some token participation. It’s got to be substantive. It’s got to be real.”

Just a sad state of affairs in our public school system.

So, 25 towns and 16 villages of Erie County each have their own general purpose government with elected officials, services, multiple school districts, etc.

However, 19 of these towns and villages do not have their own police force to act as first responders to crime within their particular jurisdictions. The Erie County Sheriff’s office provides that service. Your tax dollars in Buffalo, Cheektowaga, West Seneca, and other towns go to supply road patrols to the other towns who have decided not to establish their own police force. Does it seem fair to you that the citizens of Clarence, Grand Island, Springville, and others can avoid the cost of patrol cars, officers, benefits, pension plans, and police infrastructure and focus their dollars elsewhere? The justification heard from the citizens of those towns is that they utilize only a small portion of county dollars and it’s a fair distribution.

Well, the four year plan approved by the Erie County legislature and the Erie County Executive has asked these towns and villages to pony up a portion of the cost for their road patrols. Not surprisingly, each of these municipal governments has told the County to cram that plan down their collective cramholes.

The communities were asked to respond to the county by Saturday. Most are expected to decline to sign a contract with the county to pay for the service. Springville already has a contract with the Sheriff’s Department for 20 hours of dedicated service, and has been told that it was sent a letter by mistake.

Giambra does not expect a positive response from any of the remaining communities.

“We’re probably headed for some sort of legal fight that would be nice to avoid,” he said.

Regionalism is not the panacea to all of our problems but, when it comes to providing certain services, it makes a lot of sense. It makes sense when it comes to Industrial Development Agencies, Water Authorities, Libraries, Sewage Authorities, Housing Authorities, Highway Maintenance, and Public Safety. It allows our government to focus efforts, achieve economies of scale and eventually reduce overall spending.

What do you think of the idea of consolidating all municipal police forces under the umbrella of the Erie County Sheriff’s office? Do you share my opinion that we would have less competition for state and federal funding while being able to equall distribute public safety costs? What are the drawbacks to such a plan?

Angriest.Customer.EVER

Second Angriest Customer EVER. Check your volume if you’re at work

The Gravitas Rematch

Henry Rollins With Tips On Geting Rid Of Telemarketers

Video chock full of Useless Trivia

Sarah Silverman “You’re Gonna Die Soon”

Wow.

To no one’s surprise, the AFL-CIO gave a hearty and enthusiastic endorsement to Eliot Spitzer today.

Democratic candidate for governor Eliot Spitzer accepted the endorsement of the state’s biggest union organization on Wednesday, then refused to detail his position on the many pro-union bills passed in the 2006 legislative session he said spent too much.

Why do you think he refused to answer questions on cutting the state employee payroll, spending reductions, and reforming the Taylor and Wicks laws? Might it have something to do with every single schmuck in a toolbelt giving him an endorsement and an envelope of cash?

Instead Spitzer, flanked by the state’s top labor leaders, said long stalled reforms of the pro-union Wick’s Law governing public construction projects, the so-called Triborough amendment that protects public labor contracts and others would be on the table when he becomes governor. He said he wouldn’t detail his ideas on those issues in a press conference because he didn’t want to undermine his strategy for those talks.

Uh, what?

With a 40 point lead in the polls, just nut up and be honest. It would at least be refreshing and interesting. I’ve really grown tired of “I’ll make the tough decisions”, “Passion in Albany”, and “On Day One, everything changes” as responses to tough questions. In fact, let me spice up that campaign slogan for you:

“On Day One, everything remains exactly the same. Well, I’ll be upping the bottle deposit revenue, expanding failed tax programs, talking about medicaid reform, and giving lip service to union reform but, really, I’ll make the tough decisions after asking the unions what I should do.”

Hmm, not that catchy. I’ll have to work on it…

I am really enjoying the bickering between O’Reilly and Olberman. Keith keeps upping the ante.

You want a recipe for fun?

- 1 Tasteless Sheet Cake From Tops
- Sporks
- 15 coworkers
- 1 Horribly laconic rendition of Happy Birthday for moderately unknown office person
- 15 minutes of awkward conversation around the cake
- Shuffle back to the cube for more work

POW! Office Morale Booster!

That was the last line in the credit sequence of “Flipped”, which was screened last night at the Market Arcade.

Marc Odien and Jason Oliveri took what was a fantastic and powerful documentary and made it better. They added some additional interview sequences, gave the problem a little more context, and put a hopeful spin on the possible solutions to the problem of house flipping on the East Side.

As I said in my initial review of the documentary:

It is an exceptionally powerful documentary that was directed by the extremely talented Marc Odien…who may have found his calling as a documentary director and narrator. It paints a pretty bleak picture of life on the East Side of Buffalo but, I am heartened by the dedication of Michelle Johnson and Broadway Fillmore Alive as they work to save their beloved neighborhood.

The east side is a historic and culturally rich part of our city’s past and through the tireless efforts of community activists like Michelle Johnson, Chris Byrd, and Mike Miller…the future is very bright indeed.

Congratulations on a great documentary and let’s hope you’ve motivated people to step forward and be a part of the solution.

Let me join the litany of locals who hate the “proposed” redesign of the Buffalo Sabres logo.

Seriously, this logo is an abomination. The fans have been demanding that the Sabres retire the current “Angry Goat” design and return to the classic blue and gold for the better part of a decade. After all this time, we get this? What’s wrong with the Celsius Design logos that have been on the Internets for three years? Can’t they just liberally borrow from those designs?

It’s real simple.

- Blue and Gold Colors
- Charging Buffalo with legs
- Two swords

Done.

Why must we be saddled with a ripoff of the Nashville Predators logo? We deserve better. Contact the Sabres and tell them the “proposed” logo sucks. If you contact them to say that you like it, I’ll hunt you down and beat you like Patrick Roy beats his wife.

If you can set aside a bit of time to make a blood donation today or tomorrow, the Red Cross would sincerely appreciate it. Blood levels are low and the upcoming holiday usually puts a strain on the supply.

The American Red Cross is urging donors to give blood for use during the long Independence Day weekend. There is an urgent need for donors with O-Negative blood, and only a short supply of Type O blood. Blood drives will be held all week, including Tuesday, July 4.

Click here to find donation locations in and around Buffalo.

Has anyone heard of an update on the proposed hotel at Elmwood and Forest Avenues?

As discussed here and at Buffalo Rising, the lawsuit seeking an injunction on construction was scheduled to be heard on June 22nd. So…wha happen?

The last update from Newell at BRO:

So where do things stand at this point in time? In court. The lawsuit that was filed alleges among other things that the city rushed the environmental review process, which the city strongly refutes. The group is in front of Judge Sconiers later this month (the 22nd).

This is a critical development project for the city and it seems odd that nary a word has been reported on the outcome of the judicial hearing.

Scientists have conveniently assembled a list of excuses I can provide when asked, “Geek, why are you fat?”

Scientists have come up with some novel excuses, including air conditioning, lack of sleep, fewer smokers and more sex among obese people, which can produce chubby kids.

Twinkies aren’t the only things weighing America down, these researchers contend in a report being published today in the International Journal of Obesity.

“I think it’s very creative,” said Dr. Robert Kushner, medical director of the weight management program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, who had no role in the report. “We are facing an epidemic with no tipping point in the near future. At this point, there are no silly ideas.”

Absolutely, there are no silly ideas…especially the idea that I need to stop eating so god damned much. Here’s the top 10:

1. Inadequate sleep. (Average sleep amounts have fallen, and many studies tie sleep deprivation to weight gain.)
2. Endocrine disrupters, which are substances in some foods that may alter fats in the body.
3. Nice temperatures. (Air conditioning and heating limit calories burned from sweating and shivering.)
4. Fewer people smoking. (Less appetite suppression.)
5. Medicines that cause weight gain.
6. Population changes. (More middle-agers and Hispanics, who have higher obesity rates.)
7. Older birth moms. (That correlates with heavier children.)
8. Genetic influences during pregnancy.
9. Darwinian natural selection. (Fat people out-survive skinny ones.)
10. Assortative mating, or “like mating with like,” as Allison puts it. Translation: fat people procreating with others of the same body type, gradually skewing the population toward the heavy end.

Yeah, I think I like the “nice temperatures” excuse. I don’t sweat enough.

Pedro makes his return to Fenway tonight…

Prediction?

Beckett goes a strong seven innings for the Sox, Pedro gives up at least five runs, and the Sox win 7-3.

Don’t you despise those mealy mouthed asskissers around your office? The ones who constantly tell the boss how he/she is always right and that he/she is wearing a snappy suit? File Margaret Sullivan, Editor of The Buffalo News under “suck-up”.

In addition to the huge amount of page space dedicated to coverage of Warren Buffett’s charitable donation yesterday, Margaret decides to heap on additional praise in today’s editorial. In addition to her plaudits of his investment strategies and general moral rectitude, Maggie used a potent list of descriptive words to describe Buffett and his actions:

extraordinary
common sense
bedrock values
America’s premier investor
independent thinker
principles
ethics
finds a better way
evolve
dispassionate analysis
boyish love of surprise and discovery
egoless
elegant simplicity

Hopefully, she gets a bigger budget next year after such an obvious display of asskissing.

Vigorish, or simply “vig”, or “juice”, is the amount charged by a bookmaker for his services. The term is Yiddish slang originating from the Russian word for “winnings,” vyigrysh. The concept is also known as the overround.

As a “former” gambler on professional sports, ponies, poker, and pretty much anything you can possibly set a wager on, I’m familiar with the idea of tweaking the vig with “gambling professionals” for my personal benefit. Evidently, Brian Higgins learned how to do this as well…

Buffalo Congressman Brian Higgins says he wants to make sure Buffalo gets its fair share of revenue from the planned Seneca Buffalo Creek casino

The current allotment of revenue from the casino, under terms of the compact between the state and the Seneca Nation, gives the state 18-percent of proceeds from slot revenues, of which the state keeps 75-percent. Higgins wants the host city, in this case Buffalo, to get all of it.

First of all, is it just me or did I miss the election that sent Brian Higgins back to the State Assembly?

Secondly, is this to be Brian’s legacy? Using press conference politics to make statements that he can’t back up?

In case you forgot, Higgins was in the Assembly when the compact with the Senecas was established and that compact spelled out how local governments would divy up the slot revenue pie. What did he have to say about it back then? Nothing.

What is he going to actually do about it now? Nothing. Empty threats and press conference politics…the legacy of Brian Higgins.

We deserve better.