Archive for September, 2007

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County Executive candidate Chris Collins confronts ultimate ‘R’ word

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

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I have been holding on to this article because I really wanted to comment on it in so many ways. With my recent rush trip to Mass I wasn’t able to until now, but I must comment because I think this is just the first of many articles that will be coming out with the purpose of bad mouthing Republicans in this race for County Executive and the Erie County Legislature by the Buffalo News.

Please note that I am being interviewed by the News this afternoon at 2:30 for an endorsement. They have not endorsed me in the past so I fully expect them not to this year too. The editorial staff seems to really like the status quo but always complain about taxes and the waste in government. So why then always articles like this? It is their purpose and intention to discredit Republicans, so it seems anyway but that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Now a little line by line commenting, this is really the only way to do this.
disclaimer…. I have only met Chris Collins twice, once at the Grand Island Parade for 10 seconds and once two weeks ago for 10 seconds at an event.

Collins confronts ultimate ‘R’ word
‘Republican’ poses hurdle in race for county executive
(more…)

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Assembly Speaker: No Way To Thruway Tolls

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

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If he is against this increase then he should be ready to abolish the thruway authority altogether. Let’s get rid of not only the Grand Island tolls but all of them. 100’s of millions can be saved by funding the canal system another way like Spitzer and Pataki both said they would do.

Take the money from the gas tax and use it for the roads and stop the funneling of it into the general fund. This is a perfect time for Hoyt to bring the Grand Island tolls issue to the floor of the assembly, then maybe we would actually see something get done. I won’t hold my breath though.

WBEN 930 : Assembly Speaker: No Way To Thruway Tolls

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) – Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says he and his colleagues are opposed to an increase in Thruway tolls. “This is another tax on people who use their cars….to and from work,” he says.
(more…)

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Pressure mounts for removal of Nuclear-wastes Tonawanda landfill

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

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I have spent many hours on this landfill, I toured the site with some knowledgeable people and we all agree this nuclear waste must be removed. I cannot figure out for the life of me why these people have been excavating around and in the landfill itself. When they dig they hit water… What does that tell you?

I recently went to a symposium with Sister Rosalie Bertell, she talked about a simple blood test that can be done to see if the children are being affected by what ever is in there. This blood test can be both predictors that a body is at risk or safe and that there are relatively simple ways to restore a child or adult to health if the problem is identified early enough.

We have to remove this and the fighting over who pays needs to be over with now. The risks are too great for delay.

Pressure mounts for removal of N-wastes

Demand is growing for removing radioactive wastes from the Town of Tonawanda Landfill before the site is capped.

“The removal of this waste will facilitate the final closure of the landfill in an environmentally sound manner that is protective of the health and welfare of residents,” Tonawanda Supervisor Ronald H. Moline said Tuesday.
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DEC issues landfill rebuke ~ Tonawanda Landfill

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

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OK, here we go…. This looks like it will now be dragged out for the foreseeable future. When we now have forces pointing the finger of blame at each other we have a problem. Who suffers? The people that have to live near this site.

DEC issues landfill rebuke
State says cleanup is federal government’s responsibility

The state has issued a stinging rebuttal to the plan proposed by the federal agency overseeing cleanup of the Town of Tonawanda Landfill.

But for now, the Army Corps of Engineers is resolved to not specifically address the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s report, issued on Monday.
(more…)

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Machine politics stills another voice in Erie County

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

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As co-founder of Primary Challenge my opinion is this needs to be a wake up call for the Democrats in this county. I truly hope that every Democrat in Erie County sees and realizes exactly what just happened in this primary with the defeat of Cindy Locklear.

Cindy was/is the Legislator every citizen wanted, a legislator that truly represented the people in her district yet she did things that benefited every resident in Erie County. She is an independent Democrat that voted her conscience not the Party line and she was defeated because of it. The Democrat machine, “the Party” beat her, they took her out and everyone needs to wake up and see this for exactly what it is. A typical “Party” hit.

There is no Republican running in that district so Wroblewski will be the legislator now, why? He will vote the way he is told to vote just like every other Democrat in the legislature right now. Is this what we want? NO, but this is what Lenihan, Lorigo, Delmont and Orsini want. They endorsed these people to protect their peoples jobs. Cindy was a threat to that and so aren’t I.

We get what we deserve when people blindly walk in to the polling booth and just pull the lever for their parties candidate and or just sit at home on primary day and let the party hacks do the voting for them. When only 20% of the registered party members vote, the people loose. Welcome to the world of corrupt politics.

Donn Esmonde: Machine politics stills another voice in Erie County:

The so-called taxpayer revolution is over. What was left of what little there was got voted out of office in Tuesday’s primary.

The taxpayers’ revolt two years ago was, unfortunately, more about changing the cast than rewriting the plot. It was no fault of the voters. They swept out the old and brought in the new, channeling their anti-Joel Giambra outrage from the county’s budget meltdown. Nine of 15 county legislators were replaced as a Democratic tide swept into office.

Sadly, the new were mostly replacement parts — different cogs in the same political machine; new bodies with the old political strings attached. There were exceptions.
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INSIGHT 9-25-07

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

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THE FOUNDATION: THE PRESS
“Newspapers… serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.” —Thomas Jefferson

OPINION IN BRIEF
“Dan Rather seems divinely inspired to crash more times than a Kennedy driving home from an office party. The multimillionaire semi-retired newsman is suing [CBS] for $70 million, $1 million for every year he’s been alive since he was 5 years old. Which is fitting, because that’s what he sounds like. The gist of his lawsuit is that CBS used him as a ‘scapegoat’ in the Memogate story to ‘pacify the White House.’ The swelled-headed former anchor, who used to brag incessantly about his toughness and independence, also whines in his suit that the network forced him to apologize under duress when ‘no apology from him was warranted,’ and that the former managing editor of CBS News ‘was not responsible for any such errors.’ Indeed, according to Rather and his lawyers, the only mistakes made were by CBS management, which, in its eagerness to ‘appease angry government officials,’ had the temerity to apologize for passing off fake documents as real ones in a news story intended to sway a presidential election… Frankly, we need this. And by ‘we,’ I mean a grand coalition of people who delight in watching one of the 20th century’s most pompous gasbags fall from the top of the laughingstock tree and hit every branch on the way down. These are dour times, and if Gunga Dan and Hurricane Dan and What’s-The-Frequency-Kenneth Dan want to trade their Afghan robes, yellow windbreakers and enormous tinfoil hats for some baggy pants, bright-orange wigs and floppy shoes, I say let them. I just hope all of the Dans show up at the courthouse in a teensy-weensy clown car.” —Jonah Goldberg

INSIGHT (more…)

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Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse would thrive without Albany

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

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Excellent article and the comments are great.

Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse would thrive without Albany

After living in the Empire State for three years, it is obvious to me that this state needs to be split in two.

The money needed to fund activities in New York City comes from all of us — including those of us in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. It’s “taxation with minimal representation.”
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Amherst IDA is protecting its turf

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

I ask, why do we have so many IDA’s………..? It’s stupid to have so many, we need to grow this area as a whole not in individual little clusters.

Amherst IDA is protecting its turf

Development agency’s information campaign is against merger with the ECIDA

The Amherst Industrial Development Agency, threatened by a push to create a single county wide IDA, is going on the offensive.

The agency is taking its case directly to Amherst residents, distributing a four-page pullout in a weekly newspaper and offering to make its case in presentations with community groups.
(more…)

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NY Thruway May Increase Tolls

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

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The trip I just took to Massachusetts cost me $12.60 to simply drive across this state. All the tolls in New York and Massachusetts cost me $30.90 for the round trip. I paid $160 for gasoline to drive the 900 miles. The difference in gas prices from Mass and New York was 25 cents a gallon. 2.71 at the last gas stop in Mass and 2.95 in NY…..

How much more do they want, or better still, how much more will we tolerate them to continue to take from us? I will also continue to ask why is the thruway authority running the canal system?

Once again all you have to do is review the FOIL and you tell me if they can cut costs. This is pure lunacy.

They are also threatening to end the EZ-Pass discounts…. Well they are continuing to force people to leave this state.

NY Thruway May Increase Tolls

ALBANY, N.Y. — Thruway tolls could increase and E-ZPass discounts could evaporate as the state Thruway Authority deals with slower-than-expected traffic growth on the highway due to rising fuel costs, officials said Monday.

Most passenger and commercial drivers could see toll increases of under 5 percent phased in over several years. But larger increases are possible in discount zones _ including those near Grand Island, New Rochelle and the Tappan Zee Bridge _ and for users of annual passes for frequent short trips such as between Amsterdam and Albany.

The Thruway Authority, however, isn’t offering any estimates of what those increases could be.
(more…)

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Clinton campaign kills negative story

Monday, September 24th, 2007

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These lefties control the media and then have the nerve to say Bush is a totalitarian?? They have so much power with the “news” media it is frightening, then the Dems weep and run away from Fox News because it is “biased.” They are such a joke but you can’t laugh because they have fooled enough Americans to probably get themselves elected.

Clinton campaign kills negative story

Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president learned that the men’s magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland.

So Clinton’s aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood publicists and offered GQ a stark choice: Kill the piece, or lose access to planned celebrity coverboy Bill Clinton. (more…)

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