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PoliticsNY.Net: SARAH UPDATE:

 

 

My daughter Sarah finished the marking period with a 93 average. She is doing very well on her college course exams. I believe she is taking two maybe three. She is on her way to Quebec for a four day field trip. Sarah took four years of French, ergo Quebec. I will attending the father daughter (parent) breakfast with her in early June. Graduation is on the 22nd. I am having a dinner for her on the 24th at a steak & seafood restaurant. That will be fun! She is going to Christian camp for two weeks in July. Then its orientation & college. I expect she will need a new car. She will be spending a lot of time here. I live down the street from the college. She is still going out with Ken. Ken is a very - very high acheiver. He will be receiving a number of awards, academic & sports at graduation. The gift, among many, they have in common is their Christian faith. Oh yes, thank God for her grandparents! Thanks for asking! ...

 

 

POLITICAL NEWS OF CONSEQUENCE

 

 

 

 

Looks like Lakeview's Mike Amodeo (D) is running for State Senate in the 60th.  If true he will get the Democratic endorsement. This even though he went no where in his Assembly race last cycle. Swanick will defeat him in the primary.  Its just a waste of time & money. He has no name recognition. I asked a Democratic insider why? Response, "if he wins he will give Grisanti a free ride." The bitterness at headquarters runs so deep that Lenihan & company will not endorse the winner in Swanick. Amodeo has not announced so maybe he'll do a Destino talk to his wife & not run. Sorry but thats funny!  ...

 

UPDATE: NYS Democratic Committee Executive Director Charlie King will not be replacing Jay Jacobs as state chairman. He will be returning to the private sector. You wll recall King embarrassed himself & Cuomo in a losing attempt to get Erie County Chair Lenihan to resign & take over the local party.  ...

 

State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs confirmed the NYT report that he has tendered his resignation to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, clearing the way for the governor to select his own leader of an organization of which he became the de facto head when he was elected back in 2010.

 

This move is not unexepected – in fact, it has been speculated since the gubernatorial campaign when Cuomo installed his political frenemy, Charlie King, as the party’s executive director. King, as you’ll recall, worked for the governor at HUD, ran as his LG in that ill-fated 2002 race and then challenged him (and dropped out) in the 2006 AG race. Liz Benjamin ...

 

UPDATE: The vote 5-3 to confirm Chris Scanlon. Joe Golombek voted for Scanlon giving him that crucial 5th vote. The Hoyt block & Franczyk voted against. ...

 

Breaking News: Chris Scanlon, son of South Buffalo's John Scanlon, will get the appointment to fill Assemblyman Mickey Kearns' South Buffalo Common Council seat tomorrow (Wednesday) in Common Council Chambers at 9:00am. ...

 

Sources say, "former Congressional candidate & tanning czar Dan Hummiston (I) is considering a run for the Assembly 147th District." He would have to run on the 5th line so I don't see it. ...

 

The Common Council Tuesday passed a Resolution 8-0 to transfer NFTA Outer Harbor land to the City of Buffalo not the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation. ...

 

Senator Timothy M. Kennedy, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, announced the Senate has confirmed the appointment of Howard Zemsky to serve as chairman of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. Zemsky, who also works as co-chair of the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, becomes chairman of the NFTA after serving on its board of commissioners since 2008. ...

 

UPDATE: The Senate will agree with the Assembly to change this year’s legislative primaries to Sept. 13, avoiding the 9/11 anniversary, Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said Tuesday. The primary traditionally is on the second Tuesday in September. This year, that would mean holding votes on Sept. 11. Skelos said he agreed to the change at the request of New York.  ...

 

Looks like the Legislature will change the state & local primary dates from September 11th to the 13th. I believe this means that petitions will be circulated in June & end in mid July. Chuck Swanick running in the 60th will win the Democratic line one way or another. Sources say, "Swanick is ahead of Grisanti by 7%" in the latest internal polling, operative word internal. In the 63rd Antoine Thompson will announce, by the end of May, he will primary Tim Kennedy. The insders are calling that primary a toss up. Some giving the edge to Thompson. The 62nd remains fluid. Johnny Destino, according to his handlers, agreed to primary Maziarz. Now we are getting mixed signals. This would be a David & Goliath race. However, unlike the biblical David, Destino might walk off the field. I am told he is a very bright man, a great family man, & true too Christian principles. PoliticsNY.Net wishes him God speed in what ever he decides to do. We'll see. I can't call the primary in the Assembly 147th. I can write without reservation that if Kevin Gaughan primaries Sean Ryan in the 145th he will lose big time. Ryan is an excellent public servant. ...

 

"We have been informed by the Wyoming County Republican Committee Chairman Gordon Brown that their committee voted not to participate with Erie County in the selection of a Republican Party designee for the 147th Assembly District as required by state and local Republican Party rules. There are many candidates that are running for this office. A new candidate from Wyoming County has emerged just last week. Most of those candidates have made it clear that they will run a Republican Primary campaign regardless of the endorsement process. The various Erie County towns within the district have expressed their support for a variety of candidates as well. I have maintained neutrality in this process to date and have no plans to endorse a candidate until we have a nominee following the Primary election. With no ability to have the appropriate, comprehensive endorsement process with both counties, we will have an OPEN PRIMARY. This decision will make some candidates happy, some angry and others will likely reconsider their candidacy. The bottom line is, the voters will decide who carries the banner of our Party in November."

 

Erie Couny GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy

 

UPDATE: A rumor has been widely circulating in the city that former Niagara Falls Mayor, Vince Anello will run for city council in 2013 and that he has already opened a campaign bank account. According to Mr. Anello, there is a bank account, called “Friends of Vince Anello,” but the account has been open since 1996 when he first ran for council.  He has opened no new accounts and taken no new contributions. “Presently I have no plans to run,” said Mr. Anello, “but life is full of little mysteries. I’m a testament to that. Your destiny can take some strong turns; some you do not expect. My goal right now is to reconnect with the community, help those that are trying to help the city and expose those who are trying to exploit the city. I’m encouraged by the fact that so many young people are getting involved in discussing the future of Niagara Falls.”  You have no specific agenda to run?“Exactly. I am not even thinking in that direction.” ...

 

There are RUMORS that former Niagara Falls Mayor Vince Anello is considering a run for the City Council. Anello, just released from Federal Prison, convened a number of pressers to talk about his case, very strange. I have not checked but I believe the State has a provision disallowing convicted felons from running for office. Not to mention his probation officer would have to sign off & its a bit soon after his release. A lot of ego at work here if true! ...

 

Joe Illuzzi

 

 

 

Collins Tours Wyoming County Farms

 

 

Highlighting the importance of local agriculture, congressional candidate Chris Collins visited two farms in Wyoming County this week. Collins spent time with both Tom Marquart of Marquart Farms in Gainesville and Tom Swyers of Gardeau Crest Farms in Perry. The family owned and operated farms are two of the 36,000 farms spread all across New York State. Collins used his visit to the potato and dairy farms to talk about the need to support agriculture in New York State, and how farmers in the 27th Congressional District are vital to the local economy. The newly drawn district spans Western New York and the Finger Lakes and includes all or part of Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, and Wyoming counties.

 

"Family farming is a way of life in the 27th Congressional District, and all across our great country," said Collins. "It's also a major driver of our state's economy with agriculture pumping in billions of dollars each year. A thriving agricultural sector in New York helps create jobs, not only in agriculture directly, but in the multitude of other industries impacted by the success of our farmers. And a strong, local farming community helps ensure that much of what we put on the table every day for our families is produced or grown in our own backyard."

Farming is a major component of the local economy in the 27th Congressional District. According to the latest Census of Agriculture, there are more than 6,000 farms spread across the eight counties that make up the 27th Congressional District. Approximately one-quarter of all of New York's land is used for agricultural purposes. Milk is the State's leading agricultural product with a value of $2.2 billion in 2010. More milk is produced in Wyoming County than anywhere else in New York. The State's apple crop ranks second nationally for production worth $223 million in 2010.

"Farming is hard business," continued Collins. "It requires dedication and perseverance. I know because my daughter is part of a family farm in her home state of Virginia. Farmers need a federal government on their side. Instead, President Obama and his friends in Congress keep trying to impose more regulations and bureaucratic hurdles for farmers to jump over. Just recently, the Obama White House tried to implement a proposal that would ban children from performing many common chores on family-owned farms. Thankfully, this latest example of ridiculous overreach was blocked. But it proves that the President and many in Congress are totally out of touch with rural America and the proud tradition of family farming 

 

 

FRAN WARTHLING ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF ECWA

 

 

Buffalo, NY - Lackawanna resident and businessman Francis G. Warthling was elected Chair of the Erie County Water Authority (ECWA) Thursday by his fellow commissioners at the ECWA’s annual reorganization meeting.

 

Warthling, a lifelong Lackawanna resident, is co-owner of Diamond Cutters, which opened a second location on Abbott Road in Lackawanna in late 2009. He also owns and operates a residential and commercial real estate business and is very active in the community, including: serving on the Lackawanna Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors; a member of the Lackawanna Planning Board and Lackawanna Public Schools Audit Committee; and is Chairman of the Lackawanna Democratic Committee. Warthling was recently appointed to a third three-year term on the ECWA Board of Commissioners by the Erie County Legislature.

 

“I’m honored to be elected Chair of the ECWA by my fellow commissioners Jack O’Donnell and Earl Jann, and  I am grateful for their continued confidence and support,” Warthling said.

 

Warthling said he pursued the board chair based on the accomplishments the ECWA has achieved during his tenure on the board, including:

 

Completed $115 million in system-wide infrastructure upgrades over the past 5 years and recently approved another five-year $87 million infrastructure investment program;

 

Two bond rating increases and a rating reaffirmation from Wall Street - currently  “AA+”; among the highest of any public agency in New York State;

 

Continued to expand customer base with additional service consolidations with the Town of Hamburg and the Village of Blasdell;

 

Maintained the 2nd lowest water rate among all public water purveyors in Western New York;

 

No increase in commodity rate for 2012, and increases have averaged less than 1 percent over the past five years;

 

Installed stand-by power generators at all major facilities;

 

Numerous industry awards for “Excellence in Financial Reporting” and “Engineering Excellence”;

 

Customer satisfaction rating of 92%;

 

“I am very proud of the accomplishments we have achieved on behalf of our ratepayers during my six years on the board of commissioners,” Warthling said. “My colleagues on the board and the entire organization are committed to maintaining the ECWA as one of the best managed public utilities in New York State.”

 

Commissioner Earl L. Jann, Jr. was elected Vice-Chair and Commissioner Jack F. O’Donnell was elected Treasurer.                                                                                   

 

 

May 17, 2012

 

 

CASINO GAMING RESOLUTION PASSED BY WAYNE COUNTY

 

 

 

We are pleased to announce that the Wayne County Board of Supervisor’s adopted a resolution to support full casino gaming at Batavia Downs Casino. Wayne County is the sixth Western and Central New York County to Support Batavia Downs Casino following their Colleagues in Genesee , Wyoming, Livingston, Oswego and Orleans Counties. The Counties which own Batavia Downs recognize the important dialogue that needs to take place in the next year concerning Casino Gaming and the inclusion of Batavia Downs as a full Casino venue.

 

“We are encouraged by the growing and overwhelming support of Western and Central New York Counties and the importance of Batavia Downs Casino to the local municipalities and State Education.” The Counties are and have recognized that as the only Municipally owned Casino in New York State the revenues not only help State Education but also help lower local property tax rates for the 17 municipalities that own Batavia Downs” COO Mike Nolan

 

 

 

SACRIFICIAL SCAMS

 

by Ann Coulter

 

The real class warfare in this country isn't rich vs. poor, it's government employees vs. we, the taxpayers, who pay their salaries.

Working for the government is supposed to be a trade-off: You can't be fired and don't have to exert yourself, but you will receive smaller remuneration than in the private sector, where layoffs are common (especially in the Obama economy!). Instead, government jobs are safe, secure, pressure-free -- and now, amazingly lucrative!

Whether it's in Wisconsin, Illinois, California or the nation's capital, today's public sector workers expect to do little or no work (I'm not counting partying in Las Vegas as "work"), and then be lavishly compensated. Often, the only heavy lifting they do all week is picking up their paychecks.

When government employees mobbed the state capitol in Wisconsin last year, the upside was: They got to bully people. The downside: Voters finally found out what these public servants were being paid.

Their compensation included not only straight salary, but also lavish overtime benefits, pensions, health care plans, sick days and vacation time (most of which they spent protesting).

The unions thought they could fight back against Gov. Scott Walker's tiny rollbacks without anyone finding out the details. Most people saw what public employees were getting and assumed it was a misprint.

Two years ago, seven bus drivers in Madison, Wis., made more than $100,000 a year.

A few years before that, we found out that the city manager of little Bell, Calif. -- per capita annual income $24,800 -- was making $787,637, or including benefits: $1.5 million a year. The chief of police was getting $457,000 a year -- $770,046 counting benefits -- making him the first chief of police to commit highway robbery on the job. The assistant city manager was taking home $376,288 per year, for a total compensation package of $845,960.

All were Democrats, the party of Big Government.

Speaking of which -- whatever happened to that investigation Gov. Jerry Brown was launching into these thieving public servants drawing million-dollar pensions from California taxpayers? The Bell scandal broke during the California gubernatorial race between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown, who was then state attorney general. Brown vowed a no-holds-barred inquiry.

Anyone seen his report yet?

Jerry Brown will demand to see Obama's birth certificate before he will call for a rollback of these undeserved, million-dollar government pensions.

Less than 20 percent of private sector employees get pensions. Most people save their own money for retirement -- for example, through 401(k)s. By contrast, government employees expect to be paid by us for the rest of their lives.

Former representative and amateur home pornographer Anthony Weiner was a member of Congress until he resigned last June in order to spend more time with his hard drive. He will probably end up collecting about a million dollars from his 80 percent taxpayer-funded government pension.

These are the "1 percent" deserving of the public's wrath: We're paying their salaries. We weren't taxed to pay Mitt Romney's salary at Bain Capital. We aren't taxed to pay the salaries of Jamie Dimon or Alex Rodriguez. Anthony Weiner? Him, we pay for.

Government employees expect to live like something out of the czar's court -- and then have us admire them as if they're Rosa Parks.

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Barack and Michelle Obama both paid heartfelt tributes to themselves for passing up money-grubbing private sector jobs to work in "public service."

In her speech, Michelle boasted that she had "tried to give back to this country."

"... That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities."

She was hired by the University of Chicago Hospital as soon as her husband became a state senator. When he was elected to the U.S. Senate, her salary nearly tripled, from $121,910 to $316,962 -- and the junior senator from Illinois returned the favor by sending taxpayer dollars the hospital's way.

By Obama's second year in the U.S. Senate, in 2006, Michelle Obama's compensation from "public service" was approximately $375,000 a year -- more than triple the average salary for a lawyer in the United States with 20 years' experience.

(America to the Obamas: "You two have sacrificed enough. Please retire and kick back a little!")

Vice President Joe Biden, long touted as the poorest U.S. senator, took home $248,459 in household income in 2006, including his public school teacher wife's salary, also paid by taxpayers. In 2007, these working poor made $319,853. This puts the couple nearly into the top 1 percent of all earners in the U.S., where the median household income was $48,201 in 2006 and $50,233 in 2007.

A career in "public service" pays well.

 

 

May 16, 2012

 

 

PoliticsNY.Net: Political Notes

 

 

 

WKBW #7 like the other locals. radio & TV, have it wrong again. 27th Congressional District candidate Chris Collins did not accept Bellavia's challenge to debate 8 times. So far there is one debate on the table in Erie County. As of this writing no particulars are available. ...

 

I read somewhere Sunday morning Buffalo' regional guru  Kevin Gaughan (D) was considering a run against Sean Ryan (D) in the 145th Assembly District. Kevin Gaughan isn't running against Sean Ryan. If he does run  He will lose 60-40% if not 65-35%. ...

 

I believe it would be fair for GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy to pass on an endorsement in the 147th Assembly District. If ever there was a District that is crying out for an open primary its the 147th. ...

 

I also read that for mer Assemblyman Sam Hoyt is Cuomo's go to guy upstate. Well, not altogether. However, Hoyt has come a long way. I was very impressed with his call for the City to be involved in Outer Harbor development. ...

 

Joe Illuzzi

 

 

 

NIAGARA FALLS' HOLIDAY MARKET

 

MISLEADS PUBLIC IN CLAIMING $31,000 LOSS

 

by Frank Parlato Jr.

 

 

The Niagara Holiday Market ran last year from November 26 to December 31 and every dime of public money - $225,000 from the city and $251,000 from the state, through USA Niagara, is gone.

After the final bills are paid, less than $1,000 will remain in the account.

 

The summary report was recently made available to the public.

 

The Market’s chief promoters, Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster, USA Niagara President Chris Schoeplin and the developer of the market, Mark Rivers, from Boise, Idaho, have said the market was a good first try, a nice effort – and that it only lost $31,000.

 

The fact is the Market lost all $476,000 of the public’s money, plus all the money various sponsors contributed, plus all the money it took in revenue, plus $31,000.

 

By true accounting standards, the Market lost $676,322.

 

So how come its promoters claim it only lost $31,000?

Because they are counting public money not as a capital contribution or investment (that was lost) but oddly as income to the Market.

 

That’s right, the expense of the public’s money is counted as the Market's income.

 

It doesn’t work that way in the real world.

 

Using the same rough numbers as the Holiday Market, as an example, if you started a business and invested $476,000 of your own money and got investors to put in another $257,000 in cash or donations of their time or services (called in-kind services) and all you made from your business was $90,000 from actual income, and you spent every dime of the money invested by you and others to operate your business, you would show a loss of $676,000. Not $31,000.

 

The money that the public spent on the Holiday Market should not be reported to the public as income.

 

But it has been reported that way.

 

To hear them tell it, the public hardly lost a thing – a mere $31,000.

 

But keep in mind your state and city of Niagara Falls' tax dollars are gone: $476,000 of it. To report it that way, to spin it to the media, only attempts to disguise the fact that the Holiday Market lost every dime the pubic invested and all the public has left to show for it is 30 wooden sheds that now sit in the city corporation yard.

 

The promoters had no metric measurements in place to measure attendance, sales tax, jobs created. Everything they offer about the public benefits are purely anecdotal. In the real world of business, where people spend their own money, and it should be the same when public dollars are spent or squandered, the Niagara Holiday Market would be classified as one truly spectacular failure.

 

 

May 15, 2012

 

 

PoliticsNY.Net: Political Note

 

A Zeplowitz poll conducted May 2-3 from 500 Buffalo voters. The poll found Mayor Brown with a 65% approval and 22% disapproval job performance rating or an almost 3-1 approval to disapproval rating. Mayor Brown's approval rating among Democrats is 67/20 and 62/29 with Republicans. His approval rating is more positive then negative in every council district including a 81/12 in Ellicott, 73/15 in North and 49/40 in South Buffalo." ... 

Joe Illuzzi

 

 

A Censored Race War?

 

by Thomas Sowell

When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks -- beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work -- that might seem to have been news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn't.

"The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel was the first major television program to report this incident. Yet this story is not just a Norfolk story, either in what happened or in how the media and the authorities have tried to sweep it under the rug.

Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by young black gangs against white people chosen at random on beaches, in shopping malls or in other public places have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles and other places across the country. Both the authorities and the media tend to try to sweep these episodes under the rug as well.

In Milwaukee, for example, an attack on whites at a public park a few years ago left many of the victims battered to the ground and bloody. But, when the police arrived on the scene, it became clear that the authorities wanted to keep this quiet.

One 22-year-old woman, who had been robbed of her cell phone and debit card, and had blood streaming down her face said: "About 20 of us stayed to give statements and make sure everyone was accounted for. The police wouldn't listen to us, they wouldn't take our names or statements. They told us to leave. It was completely infuriating."

The police chief seemed determined to head off any suggestion that this was a racially motivated attack by saying that crime is colorblind. Other officials elsewhere have said similar things.

A wave of such attacks in Chicago were reported, but not the race of the attackers or victims. Media outlets that do not report the race of people committing crimes nevertheless report racial disparities in imprisonment and write heated editorials blaming the criminal justice system.

What the authorities and the media seem determined to suppress is that the hoodlum elements in many ghettoes launch coordinated attacks on whites in public places. If there is anything worse than a one-sided race war, it is a two-sided race war, especially when one of the races outnumbers the other several times over.

It may be understandable that some people want to head off such a catastrophe, either by not reporting the attacks in this race war, or not identifying the race of those attacking, or by insisting that the attacks were not racially motivated -- even when the attackers themselves voice anti-white invective as they laugh at their bleeding victims.

Trying to keep the lid on is understandable. But a lot of pressure can build up under that lid. If and when that pressure leads to an explosion of white backlash, things could be a lot worse than if the truth had come out earlier, and steps taken by both black and white leaders to deal with the hoodlums and with those who inflame the hoodlums.

These latter would include not only race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson but also lesser known people in the media, in educational institutions and elsewhere who hype grievances and make all the problems of blacks the fault of whites. Some of these people may think that they are doing a favor to blacks. But it is no favor to anyone who lags behind to turn their energies from the task of improving and advancing themselves to the task of lashing out at others.

These others extend beyond whites. Asian American school children in New York and Philadelphia have for years been beaten up by their black classmates. But people in the mainstream media who go ballistic if some kid says something unkind on the Internet about a homosexual classmate nevertheless hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil when Asian American youngsters are beaten up by their black classmates.

Those who automatically say that the social pathology of the ghetto is due to poverty, discrimination and the like cannot explain why such pathology was far less prevalent in the 1950s, when poverty and discrimination were worse. But there were not nearly as many grievance mongers and race hustlers then.

 

May 14, 2012

 

PoliticsNY.Net: SIENA POLL

 

POLL

President Obama currently leads Mitt Romney by 20 points, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand maintains better than two-to-one leads over all three potential Republican opponents. Although down a little, Governor Andrew Cuomo continues to be viewed favorably by more than two-thirds of voters and has a 56-43 positive job performance rating. Both the State Senate and State Assembly have the highest favorability ratings they’ve had in the three plus years Siena has been asking about the houses of the Legislature. Both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are viewed negatively by a majority of voters. ###

MONDAY'S TOP POLITICAL INTERNET NEWS

Top stories

 

 

NY POST: President Obama’s backing of gay marriage dominated the political press over the weekend as Newsweek pronounced him “the first gay president” on its cover. The magazine, which also depicts a rainbow halo above Obama’s head, has an essay by gay columnist Andrew Sullivan, hailing the president’s policies. “When you step back a little and assess the record of Obama on gay rights, you see, in fact, that this was not an aberration,” Sullivan wrote.“It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work.”

 

 

REUTERS: Forty-nine headless corpses found in northern Mexico. Suspected drug cartel killers in Mexico dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near the northern city of Monterrey, a sickening atrocity that prompted the government to condemn the "inhuman" violence plaguing the country. 

 

 

CNN: Across country, black pastors weigh in on Obama's same-sex marriage support. Addressing his large, mostly black congregation on Sunday morning, the Rev. Wallace Charles Smith did not mince words about where he stood on President Barack Obama's newly announced support for same-sex marriage: The church is against it, he said, prompting shouts of "Amen!" from the pews. And yet Smith hardly issued a full condemnation of the president. "We may disagree with our president on this one issue," Smith said from the pulpit of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington. "But we will keep him lifted up in prayer. ... Pray for President Barack Obama."

 

NY TIMES: Unions That Divide: Churches Split Over Gay Marriage. At a black Pentecostal church in Raleigh, N.C., the Rev. Patrick Wooden entered the sanctuary on Sunday to a standing ovation, exulting that God’s “high hand” had led voters last week to pass a statewide amendment banning same-sex marriage. He took to the pulpit and denounced President Obama for taking a stand “in support of sin,” and “in opposition to the biblical model of marriage.”

 

TIMES UNION: LGBT aid for senator. Local activist Libby Post is back in politics, helping Roy McDonald. Voting for same-sex marriage helped push Sen. Jim Alesi not to seek another term, he said, but it's generated new supporters for Sen. Roy McDonald, a Saratoga Republican currently locked in a party primary.

 

 

NY DAILY NEWS: Gov. Cuomo's best chance of taking White House in 2016. Political clock is ticking on presidential aspirations, political experts say. Gov. Cuomo’s appearance with President Obama upstate last week allowed him to speak at a pulpit bearing the presidential seal. If he wants a shot at doing it for real, 2016 is his “best chance.” Cuomo is just 54, but, for a variety of reasons, the political clock is already ticking, prominent Democratic operatives say. “He’s going to have to take the shot in 2016 if he wants to go,” said veteran Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who worked in the Clinton White House. “He’s going to lose value over time. He’s going to become stale.”

 

NY POST: Clock ticks on pol hike$. Gov out to beat re-elect heat. Message from the gov: Don’t wait ’til next year. Gov. Cuomo has told associates he’s willing to support a desperately desired pay increase for state lawmakers this year, but won’t do so next year as his own planned re-election approaches, The Post has learned. Such a move by Cuomo could mean the Legislature, which hasn’t had a raise since 1999, won’t be able to get one until 2017, at the earliest. “If the Legislature wants a pay raise, it’s now or never,’’ said a Cuomo administration source.

 

 

STAR GAZETTE: Tax cap faces challenge on Tuesday when budgets, board seats go to voters. The state's property tax cap will face its stiffest challenge Tuesday when residents across the state vote on their 2012-13 school budget. Nearly 92 percent of schools are staying under their tax cap amount, fearing backlash at the polls if they ask voters to override the cap. A failed override attempt could have serious consequences: If a budget vote is rejected twice, a district couldn't increase taxes at all -- a key stipulation of the tax cap law. Full story   ###

 

"Intrepid Daily Politics blogger Liz Benjamin is too modest to let you know about this herself, but she's in Washington, D.C., today to accept Governing magazine's Hal Hovey Award for "outstanding journalistic coverage of state and local government."

"Benjamin is being honored for her blog, which produces unmatched coverage of the New York state and New York City political scene," the magazine's web site says. On the blog, the Daily Politics, Benjamin offers original reporting, insider information and links to the latest news from around the state. Her frequent postings make sense out of the complex, intrigue-filled world of New York politics.

"Elizabeth Benjamin is a prolific, talented writer," says Alan Ehrenhalt, GOVERNING'S executive editor. "Benjamin's insight, humor and clear prose make the Daily Politics a must-read for anyone interested in New York government. Her work is proof that tenacious, detailed reporting is still in style in the Internet age." PoliticsNY.Net: Congratulations Liz! ...

Breaking News: Senator George Maziarz (R) has a primary, confirmed.

 

Niagara Falls Attorney Johnny G. Destino will challenge Maziarz, 62nd District, in September. You might recall Destino came within a few votes from defeating Falls Mayor Paul Dyster (D) last year.

 

Sources say, "Destino will be well financed & is looking forward to the primary."

 

Now you might ask why is a stalwart GOP partisan like Destino primarying a fixture on the NYS State Senate like Maziarz?

 

Answer, & I can only speculate, political retribution for Maziarz intrusion into Erie County politics, esp. the 60th District Senate race. Not to mention everyone agrees his personal attacks on Erie County Conservative Chairman Ralph Lorigo & former Erie County Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon was way over the top & demands an answer.

 

Also, Maziarz promised financial support but failed to come through. According to published accounts, Destino believes if Maziarz had kept his word he would have won.

 

Maziarz endorsement of David Bellavia for the 27th Congressional over Chris Collins further alienated the powers that be on the Erie County GOP side of this calculus.

 

The RUMOR mill has it Carl Paladino is behind Destino as well in order to have one vote against Majority Leader Dean Skelos for bringing the Marriage Bill to the floor amongst other other things.

 

Maziarz also has problems in his home County. He   attempted to oust City of Niagara Falls GOP Chairman Bob Krause. Niagara County Legislature Chairman William Ross endorsed Chris Collins over Maziarz' choice David Bellavia.

 

Look George Maziarz is a policy wonk. We needed George leading the charge for upstate NY in the Senate. His attempt at "gotcha"  politics only gets in the way.

 

Quite frankly, & sorry for the over used quote, but this mess isn't going to be over until its over & thats to bad. ###

 

Joe Illuzzi

 

 

 

Beach Boys: Still making Waves

 

by Bill O'Reilly

 

Quick question: What is the most enduring American pop group of all time? It has to be the Beach Boys, right? They are currently on their 50th anniversary tour across the country, if you can believe it.

I saw the Boys the other night, and they can still bring it. Lead singer Mike Love is 71, and musical genius Brian Wilson is nearly 70, as is keyboardist Bruce Johnston.

The audience was primarily aging baby boomers who were not only singing along to the surf tracks, they were memorializing their youth. When the Beach Boys first began harmonizing in 1962, America was a kinder, sweeter place, where long summer days defined many young lives.

John Kennedy was president, and Camelot was in full flower that year. "Where were you in '62?" later became the ad campaign for a film called "American Graffiti," but many senior citizens well remember where they were: Watching the number one rated TV program, "Wagon Train." Listening to Elvis sing "Return to Sender." Maybe going to the movies to see the blockbuster "Lawrence of Arabia."

Johnny Carson debuted on The Tonight Show in 1962. The unemployment rate was 5.2%. Average family income: $6,000, which didn't leave much cash left over for recreational drugs.

I was 12 years old and loved the Beach Boys. "Surfer Girl" and "Little Deuce Coup" were my favorite songs. I lived on Long Island and, like the Boys, I had access to an ocean. I used it frequently, catching waves, feeling the warmth of the sun. It was a happy time. The girls were pretty, my parents clueless, and all things seemed possible.

But life has a way of intruding on happiness. Two of the original Beach Boys, Carl and Dennis Wilson, are dead. And their brother Brian is one of the walking wounded, a poster boy for the downside of drug abuse. The picture the Beach Boys continue to paint with their upbeat lyrics is idyllic, but their lives, generally speaking, have included much turbulent water.

In that, they are just like most of us. So when we get a chance to revisit the past in a positive way, we should take it. I actually embarrassed myself at the concert by singing "In My Room." I didn't care. I remember my small, un-air conditioned room in Levittown. I could go there to soothe my troubles. I did much dreaming in that space.

So right on to the Beach Boys, even though they are now ancient mariners. The waves today are far more intense than they were back in '62. In the face of the incoming tide, sometimes we need some relief, some positive perspective about our lives.

God only knows just how much the baby boom generation has experienced.

 

 

 

May 12/13, 2012

 

 

Politics NY.Net: Obama's Saturday Internet Remarks

 

 

Political Notes

 

 

The first book mass published in the late 1700's was the Bible. The Congress paid for the effort. The reason the founders wanted citizens to understand the fact the Constitution was predicated on Biblical principles. The founders are turning over in their collective graves this morning as a result of Obama's stated position on homo sexual marriage. This nonsense about "evolving", an evolution, is ludicrous. Its a further step into the lower rings of hell. ...

 

UPDATE: "Kathy Hochul voted against a measure to stop devastating budget cuts that would affect our military and military personnel like those at the Niagara Falls Air Force Station.  Hochul voted to allow these military cuts that, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, would be “devastating” and “terribly weaken” our national security in order to keep big-government spending programs like ObamaCare." ...

 

Kathy Hochul is playing politics with the Air Base in Niagara Fall big time. It is really sad. She keeps getting voters hopes up knowing full well the only thing she will be able to do if that is keep the base open until after the election. The first ads have starting airing demanding Hochul validate her support for Obamacare & the changes in Medicare. Here is the ad Obamacare Liz Benjamin

 

Let me make a point: Brian Higgins is not entilted to reelection. He has to earn the right at the ballot box. Hochul in a cowardly way just laid down & allowed Higgins, as a right, retain his seat. Hochul should have primaried Higgins. Right now she is in a political black hole knowing she will be practicing law in January. ...

 

Explore & More Children's Museum from East Aurora will tie up prime Waterfront property for four years. Explore & More Children's Museum has no plan. Explore & More Children's Museum has little or NO money. There are NO guarantees that Explore & More Children's Museum will be able to complete the project & or the project, after a couple of years, will not fold. I have NO problem with a Children's Museum in the waterfront district, cobblesone, etc. just NOT on prime waterfront property. This is an exercise in disaster. There is something very wrong here. Changes need to be made at Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. sooner rather than later, Executive Director Dee must go.

 

"For years Explore & More Children's Museum has been hoping to have a large downtown space that would allow it to attract families from throughout the region. Wednesday, that dream took a big step toward becoming a reality as the East Aurora-based museum was selected to operate a museum on the site of the former Memorial Auditorium. Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. picked Explore & More over two competing proposals for what is expected to be a multimillion-dollar facility opening by Memorial Day 2016." ...

 

"Former Buffalo Common Council member Robert Quintana has been arrested by federal authorities for allegedly abusing sick leave in his job as a city police officer. The U.S. Attorney's Office is set to conduct a news conference in moments to provide additional information. Quintana has been listed as injured on duty for an extended period and receiving his full pay and benefits, police said. When he was elected to the Council in 1995, he became the first Hispanic member of that body. Buffalo News ...

 

"The curtain will rise again at a dark theatre in downtown Buffalo. Financial problems forced the Studio Arena Theatre to closed down a few years ago. Tuesday marked the building's foreclosure sale and 710 Main Street, Inc., who has partnered with Shea's Performing Arts Center, was the highest bidder. The deal sets the stage for new life at Studio Arena. Shea's will manage the box office and programming." PR ...

 

Niagara County Legislature Chairman William Ross and Erie County Legislature Minority Leader Jack Mills today endorsed Chris Collins for Congress. Collins is running for the newly drawn 27th Congressional District seat, which includes the majority of Erie and Niagara counties. In addition, Collins named Mills as his Erie County Campaign Chairman, while Ross will serve in the same capacity in Niagara County. ...

 

"The popular line of Democratic attack on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is that his positions on every issue change to please popular sentiment or too muddled and unclear to determine. But today (Tuesday) in a conference call, former Gov. George Pataki sought to turn that critique onto President Obama and his stance on same-sex marriage. “Either you’re for something or you’re against it … President Obama is looking to have both sides,” Pataki told reporters on a conference call arranged by the Republican National Committee prior to the president’s trip to Albany." YNN ...

 

Would someone  please tell 27th District Congressional David Bellavia (R) Chris Collins released his Federal Financial Disclosure Forms Monday. No big deal! These disclosures are far more in depth than a candidate's tax returns. I believe Collins has said he will debate Bellavia twice. One debate in the Erie County Market the other Monroe County. Bellavia is in over his head. He still doesn't understand how the political process works. 

 

As an aside: Bellavia sold the movie rights to his book. He should consider going Hollywood which on the surface at least seems more suited to his skill set. Not to mention after the screen writers are through with his book no doubt he will be needed on the set as a consultant. The question becomes how will he find the time too represent the 27th & make a movie. By the way I honor David's service & will certainly buy a ticket (s) to see the movie. ...

 

Petitions are due on the streets in just a few weeks, these for State & local races, primaries in September; not to be confused with the Presidential primary in April or the Congressional primaries on the 26th of June.

 

Erie County Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy & his Executive committee will make  a series of endorsements at the end of May. The highlights being a cross for DA Frank Sedita (D); Mark Grisanti (R) for reelection in the NYS Senate 60th. Grisanti has to get by Kevin Stocker in a GOP primary. All eyes are on the 147th Assembly District. Incumbent Kevin Smardz moved into the District. However, it looks like Dave DiPietro will get the GOP nod as a result of his friendship with Carl Paladino. A very popular David Mariacher has been endorsed by the Elma GOP Committee. Apparently, he has the support of his brother in law Bills Hall of Fame running back Thurmond Thomas. Let me make a point: Kevin Smardz is an excellent Assemblyman & public servant. The race in the 147th is all about politics & not qualifications, although all three candidates are qualified. Stefan Mychajliw will get the endorsement to run for County Comptroller. Everyone's favorite Judge Kevin Carter for Family Court. I don't expect Steve Barber to run in the NYS Senate 63rd.

 

UPDATES: "Joe, it's all going to come down to who can hammer on the most doors and press the most flesh. From what it sounds like, Swanick is WAAAAAY ahead in that department. He's been all over Tonawanda, Orchard Park and Hamburg and already has Grand Island locked up. Not hearing much on Stocker and Grisanti and Panepinto doing door to door. Then again, it's Chuck's strength. He enjoys it and will be doing it all summer long. Will Grisanti attempt to catch up to him or leave it to Giambra's henchmen to do the dirty work? People want to meet the candidate, which is why Chuck is hustling all over and wearing out tennis shoes every 3 weeks or so. If he keeps this up, he will definitely be the favorite in this race for the primary and the general election." ...

 

RUMORS are rampant Marc Panepinto (D) will not primary Chcuk Swanick in the 60th. I am hearing the polling favors Swanick in both the primary & general elections, unconfirmed. He has knocked on thousands of doors. ...

 

The larger question at this point in time is what will Democratic Chairman Len Lenihan do. Will his Executive Committee endorse former County Legislature Chairman Chuck Swanick for the NYS State Senate 60th or Marc Panepinto, will there be a surprise candidate? Swanick has the Conservative endorsement. Lenihan will endorse Senator Kennedy in the 63rd. However, when Antoine Thompson announces that will create a real breach in the Party. Cheektowaga Town Board member Jim Rogowski has not commited to the race as of this post. Lenihan is going to face a very tough roster of candidates this time around coming out of the GOP ranks. Hochul is in big trouble in the 27th with the GOP plurality. If Len doesn't endorse Swanick he will hand Grisanti a sure victory if Swanick should lose to the endorsed primary candidate. No one knows why Crapsi announced for Family Court. Lets not forget Assemblyman Mickey Kearns in the 145th? Lenihan has his work cut out for him.

 

Interim Comptroller David Shenk (D) is not assured the Conservative line. Sources say, "Stefan could get the line." ###

 

Joe Illuzzi

Schroeder releases response to city budget

 

Commends mayor for improved bond rating, but warns against depletion of fund balance, parking fund “sweep,” and solid waste fund deficit

In a report required by the city charter, Buffalo Comptroller Mark J.F. Schroeder warned against the depletion of fund balance, as well as the transfer of surpluses from the parking fund into the general fund, where it is used to subsidize the money-losing solid waste fund.

“The mayor should be commended for the sound fiscal management that has led to our improved bond ratings, especially when municipalities across the state are running deficits and having their bond ratings downgraded,” said Schroeder, who pointed out that Buffalo is in the “A” category with all of the “Big Three” bond rating agencies, Moody’s, Fitch, and Standard & Poor’s.

 

“However, we can’t keep using fund balance to plug the gap between revenues and expenditures,” said Schroeder, pointing out that the fund balance has been tapped an average of $12 million in each of the past three years. “The bond rating agencies have warned against this becoming a trend.”

Schroeder said that the city still has a healthy fund balance at $130 million, but the only portion of it that can be used to fill budget gaps – the unassigned fund – is dwindling.

“Our estimates have the unassigned fund running out of money this year,” said Schroeder. “The remainder of the fund balance, including the ‘rainy day fund,’ cannot be used to balance the budget.”

Schroeder said he is also concerned about surpluses in the parking fund – $3.2 million in each of the past two years and $5.2 million budgeted for this coming year – being transferred into the general fund. The general fund, in turn, is used to subsidize the yearly deficit in the solid waste fund, which is $3.2 million this coming year. It will be the seventh consecutive annual deficit in the solid waste fund, which already has an accumulated deficit of $20.3 million.

“In the state Capitol, we called this type of transfer a ‘sweep’ – using surpluses in one operation to offset deficits in another,” said Schroeder, a former assemblyman. “That surplus from the parking fund should be used to build new parking ramps. Instead, we will be borrowing money to build new ramps.”

Schroeder also included in the report the Buffalo Fiscal Integrity Act, legislation he unveiled last week designed to ensure the financial health of the city for years to come. If enacted, the amendment to the city charter would require annual four-year financial plans, as well as establish policies to protect the city’s fund balance.

 

 

OBAMA'S GAY MARRIAGE HEAD FAKE

 

By Roger Stone

 

Once Gay Americans are through celebrating President Barack Obama's "personal" support of Gay marriage equality, they will learn that Obama's "evolution" changes nothing. Obama's new position is a bullshit cop-out.

This comes on the heels of an cynical Obama campaign pirouette where Team Obama trotted out first Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then Vice President "Crazy" Joe Biden to say they support gay marriage and imply that the President would too--after the election.

Now, incredibly, Obama says Gay marriage is a state issue. That's what they used to say about abortion and before that, slavery. Now Obama tells us that gay couples should be able to marry but he doesn't believe they have a right to do so. Obama would leave the question to the states--in other words -the status quo. This is like saying that public schools ought to be integrated but if the people of Mississippi disagree, well he says, "let the states decide"

If Obama believes that marriage quality is a constitutionally guaranteed civil right, as former Governor Gary Johnson does, than it can't be abridged by the states. Forty-four states currently ban gay marriage. Under Obama millions of Americans in most states will continue be denied the right to marry the person of their choice.

The courts will soon address the issue of whether the equal protection clause of the constitution guarantees gays the same access to marriage rights as heterosexual men and women as everyone else as Governor Johnson does-- including California's Proposition 8 case.

There is also a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars gay men and woman from receiving federal marriage benefits and allows states to refuse to recognize valid gay marriages performed in other states. Judge Andrew Napolitano called this 'settled law" because the Federal Courts have upheld the validity of interracial marriages when some states sought to ban them on FOX. He's right. Obama new position on Gay marriage undercuts the pro-marriage arguments in those cases.
,Team Obama knows that African Americans overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage equality and fear that a more sweeping forthright stand by the President might put Ohio Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia out of reach. Obama could take a lesson in leadership from Governor Andrew Cuomo who brought Republicans and Democrats together to make same-sex marriage legal in New York State. Instead Obama tries to have it both ways.

Barack Obama is playing a cruel and cynical game with peoples lives and happiness. He did nothing to establish that gay marriage is a right yesterday.

 

 

Echoes of '67: Israel unites

 

By Charles Krauthammer

 

In May 1967, in brazen violation of previous truce agreements, Egypt ordered U.N. peacekeepers out of the Sinai, marched 120,000 troops to the Israeli border, blockaded the Straits of Tiran (Israel’s southern outlet to the world’s oceans), abruptly signed a military pact with Jordan and, together with Syria, pledged war for the final destruction of Israel.

May ’67 was Israel’s most fearful, desperate month. The country was surrounded and alone. Previous great-power guarantees proved worthless. A plan to test the blockade with a Western flotilla failed for lack of participants. Time was running out. Forced into mass mobilization in order to protect against invasion — and with a military consisting overwhelmingly of civilian reservists — life ground to a halt. The country was dying.

On June 5, Israel launched a preemptive strike on the Egyptian air force, then proceeded to lightning victories on three fronts. The Six-Day War is legend, but less remembered is that, four days earlier, the nationalist opposition (Mena­chem Begin’s Likud precursor) was for the first time ever brought into the government, creating an emergency national-unity coalition.

Everyone understood why. You do not undertake a supremely risky preemptive war without the full participation of a broad coalition representing a national consensus.

Forty-five years later, in the middle of the night of May 7-8, 2012, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shocked his country by bringing the main opposition party, Kadima, into a national unity government. Shocking because just hours earlier, the Knesset was expediting a bill to call early elections in September.

Why did the high-flying Netanyahu call off elections he was sure to win?

 

Because for Israelis today, it is May ’67. The dread is not quite as acute: The mood is not despair, just foreboding. Time is running out, but not quite as fast. War is not four days away, but it looms. Israelis today face the greatest threat to their existence — nuclear weapons in the hands of apocalyptic mullahs publicly pledged to Israel’s annihilation — since May ’67. The world is again telling Israelis to do nothing as it looks for a way out. But if such a way is not found — as in ’67 — Israelis know that they will once again have to defend themselves, by themselves.

Such a fateful decision demands a national consensus. By creating the largest coalition in nearly three decades, Netanyahu is establishing the political premise for a preemptive strike, should it come to that. The new government commands an astonishing 94 Knesset seats out of 120, described by one Israeli columnist as a “hundred tons of solid concrete.”

So much for the recent media hype about some great domestic resistance to Netanyahu’s hard line on Iran. Two notable retired intelligence figures were widely covered here for coming out against him. Little noted was that one had been passed over by Netanyahu to be the head of Mossad, while the other had been fired by Netanyahu as Mossad chief (hence the job opening). For centrist Kadima (it pulled Israel out of Gaza) to join a Likud-led coalition whose defense minister is a former Labor prime minister (who once offered half of Jerusalem to Yasser Arafat) is the very definition of national unity — and refutes the popular “Israel is divided” meme. “Everyone is saying the same thing,” explained one Knesset member, “though there may be a difference of tone.”

To be sure, Netanyahu and Kadima’s Shaul Mofaz offered more prosaic reasons for their merger: to mandate national service for now exempt ultra- Orthodox youth, to change the election law to reduce the disproportionate influence of minor parties and to seek negotiations with the Palestinians. But Netanyahu, the first Likud prime minister to recognize Palestinian statehood, did not need Kadima for him to enter peace talks. For two years he’s been waiting for Mahmoud Abbas to show up at the table. Abbas hasn’t. And won’t. Nothing will change on that front.

What does change is Israel’s position vis-a-vis Iran. The wall-to-wall coalition demonstrates Israel’s political readiness to attack, if necessary. (Its military readiness is not in doubt.)

Those counseling Israeli submission, resignation or just endless patience can no longer dismiss Israel’s tough stance as the work of irredeemable right-wingers. Not with a government now representing 78 percent of the country.

Netanyahu forfeited September elections that would have given him four more years in power. He chose instead to form a national coalition that guarantees 18 months of stability — 18 months during which, if the world does not act (whether by diplomacy or otherwise) to stop Iran.

  

 

PoliticsNY.Net: BALD EAGLES REUNITED IN WNY (REALLY)

An absolute must read & watch

WGRZ CHANNEL #2

 

Wendi Pencille has operated the Bless The Beast Wildlife Center for almost 25 years and in that quarter century she had never taken in an injured bald eagle, that is until this past May.

 

She received a call about a bald eagle down about a block from her home.

 

She's had plenty of calls reporting eagles hurt, but they always had turned out to be hawks. So she and her son Noah went out to check this one out, taking along a small pet carrier.

 

When Wendi got there, sure enough, it was a female bald eagle that had apparently hit a power line. She picked it up and brought it back to her car, and the pet carrier that was far too small for the 10lb. bird. She placed the eagle on the front seat and drove carefully. Full story with video ###

 

 

ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY OF BUFFALO, NY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE ATLANTIC: The Surprising Architectural Legacy of Buffalo, New York. I've been thinking about Buffalo, New York lately. Part of it is that the National Trust is holding (and promoting the heck out of) its next annual preservation conference there. And another part is that my friend Barbara Campagna, a preservationist and green architect of some significance, just set up shop there. Barbara believes that "reusing what we have buildings, landscapes, communities is the best way to make the biggest impact in controlling climate change," and I couldn't agree more. (BTW, go here for a nice personal essay about Barbara's evolution as an architect.) Full story ###

 

Joe Illuzzi

 

BUFFALO SCHOOLS: ITS WHITE & BLACK!  

by Joseph J. Illuzzi

 

I published this column thirteen years ago. There have been some marginal improvements in the District. However, my thinking has evolved to the degree where there is NO doubt in my mind that this crisis cannot be resolved unless there is direct INTERVENTION in the lives of these children from conception, prenatal care. The idea its Williams or any Superintendent's fault or the Board of Ed or both is just stupid. While there is shared blame, the failure of parents too parent is the real issue; this is a multi generational crisis.

 

 

Imagine being born into a family of relative stability, middle class, having the extras, home, car, etc., then all of the sudden it all disappears for one reason or another. You realize you simply are not prepared for the socio-economic shock of moving into an arena of such great upheval & uncertainty!

 

Bethlehem Steel, et al., began downsizing, eventually closing its doors. The resulting well paying manufacturing jobs for the most part simply became a chapter in the history and folklore of both Buffalo & Erie County.

 

Now if you are white & living in Erie County in the 60¡¦s and 70¡¦s, you probably did not have to deal with these kind of issues. But if you're Black (minorities) and lived in Buffalo & Erie County, you most certainly were/are confronted with these issues.

 

Blacks in great numbers began to realize something was wrong ... they lacked the skills, as a result of not having the appropriate educational background, to move fluidly from an environment of relative stability, finding other employment, too one of instability & uncertainty, unemployment.

 

Blacks found themselves in the social and economic abyss, no money, no job, no prospects a real conundrum.

 

Concurrently, whites seemed to be moving into other areas of employment with little or no difficulty.

 

Whites for the most part were able to maintain their middle class standard of living.

 

The reasons: While both Black and whites were working at Bethlehem Steel, et al., times were good.

 

There existed "economies of scale" in both the white and Black areas of the City. No one was paying attention because everyone had a job. Blacks realized in a very short period of time, after things changed, there was one unique difference, among many differences, between them and their white counterparts, schools!

 

The schools in the Masten, Fillmore, and Ellicott Districts, were in no way equivalent to the schools in the Delaware, North, South, and Lovejoy Districts. The teachers in the classrooms seemed not to be the equivalent or as focused as those in the white districts. The school buildings in the Black Districts always were in a state of disrepair. The manor in which supplies, e.g. text books, were distributed seemed to favor the white districts, thus the great revelation. There was a great divide between the Black and white experience in the classrooms of the Buffalo School District.

 

Blacks, in great numbers, in fact were/are an uneducated, underclass, in Buffalo & Erie County.

 

Not only not educated on the same level as whites but regulated to specific geographical areas of the City with little ability to move up and out, especially in the 50's and 60's. Blacks certainly did not move to Amherst or Cheektowaga. As a matter of fact there were signs put up, "No N..... Allowed".

 

This racist behavior led to the great social upheaval in the late 60's, rioting in the streets etc. I know because a round or two went thru my bedroom window at East Ferry & Fillmore next to Colson's gas station. However, while Blacks around the country seemed, on the surface, to become more socio-economically mobile, in Buffalo & Erie County Black circumstances remained stagnant.

 

Blacks remained an uneducated, underclass.

 

Here it is 2011 Buffalo & Erie County remain one of the poorest, most segregated Cities & Counties in the Nation. 25% of Black males graduate.

 

Now the result of all this is many Blacks in the city were/are unemployed. The most troubling ramification, of many, the lot of a Black child was and remains severely impeded, esp in our our schools.

 

Not only because of the upheaval in the home, but the political climate, and the failure of the Black leadership during this era as well.

 

White Democratic politicians found race an avenue for election and reelection in Buffalo, esp. by separating the races, i.e. separate & unequal. Some referred to the behavior as, "polarizing the City along racial lines", esp. under the 16 years of the Griffin administration.

The political problem was exacerbated because Black leaders told their constituents to vote one way, democratic. The reason Black leaders told their constituents to vote one way? Black leaders found they also could be elected and reelected as well on that line, number one. Number two: Get wealthy pimping all of the poverty programs of the late 60's - 70's & early 80's. Actually, this kind of thing goes on too this very day.

The result: Grassroot Blacks remain to this day an underclass in Buffalo & Erie County.

Unless things change dramatically in our attitudes, the body politic, esp. the classroom; the Black experience in Buffalo & Erie County would not and did not change.

 

Albeit, there are obvious marginal improvements in the lives of some Blacks in the City/County.

 

This is to say: Things are changing but the results of decades of socio-economic disparity remain the same for many, if not most, Blacks living in Buffalo & Erie County.

 

There remains a plethora of very serious issues in the Buffalo School District. Also, it goes without saying with teachers in the classroom via discipline and student performance, the drop out & graduation rates.

Part of the lingering problem is during the 60s, 70s, and 80s most teachers in the classroom were middle class, white, and female, not trained to deal with children with such horrible discipline problems.

 

(Dr. Williams is right the system was not set up to teach poor Black & hispanic children & immigrants.)

 

Problems became much worse as a result of changing dynamics in the home, i.e. single unemployed parents, drugs, crime, and the resulting violence, not to mention teen pregnancy and infant mortality.

 

The ramifications from this behavior, in the aggregate, found its way into the classroom. To this very day the denial of the reality of these issues by media, many of our private sector and political leaders is also a problem that weighs heavily on our ability to redress these issues.

 

The fact is 26% of the adult population, Blacks and Hispanics (70%) for the most part, in Buffalo do not have high school diplomas. The illiteracy numbers among all minorities, immigrants, in the City is very troubling. Unless we deal with this phenomenon, things will never change.

 

Just stop and think! Ask yourself why taxes are so high in NYS & Erie County? The answer is quite simple because we are paying for our sins of the past, reparations? Not as a result of slavery; but our benign neglect of a race of people, esp. children in Buffalo & Erie County, over the last decades. Thus our welfare costs, e.g., Medicaid. The cost to taxpayers for public safety, the resulting cost to build and maintain prisons. Every cent we pay in taxes one way or another, except for the obvious, e.g. the infirmed, elderly, goes to the Masten, Fillmore, Niagara, and Ellicott Districts for one entitlement or another.

So, What if the Bible Really Is True? Part I 

by David Limbaugh

 

I'd like to challenge you to consider that the "good news" we celebrate during the Christmas season really is true.

You may choose to believe the Bible is merely a book of fables with nice moral lessons, but there is more abundant and accurate manuscript evidence for the New Testament than any other book from antiquity. Moreover, the number of witnesses to Christ's life, death and resurrection, as well as the nature of their testimony, is strong evidence of the reliability of the scriptural accounts, as are the corroborating secular testimony and archeological evidence.

In fact, the New Testament writers had every temporal motive to deny the resurrection occurred. Why would they fabricate and stand by a story that would lead to their being beaten, tortured and murdered?

So next time you read your Bible, consider that you're reading the inspired word of God and that Jesus really did say and do what the Bible reports, beginning with His claims about His own divinity:

He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will also know My Father. ... The one who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:6-8). He also said, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am" (John 8:58). Here, Jesus claimed not only to have pre-existed Abraham but also that His pre-existence was eternal, as would have been the case had He said, "I was." More significantly, "I AM" was a name for God. He further identified himself as the God of the Old Testament, when proclaiming, "I am the light of the world" (Psalm 27:1 says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation") and "I am the good shepherd." (Psalm 23:1 says, "The Lord is my shepherd.") When responding to the high priest as to His deity, Jesus said, "I am and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62).

Jesus also fulfilled Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah: He was born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, in the line of Abraham and David; He was rejected by His own people; His hands, feet and side were pierced, but no bones were broken; and He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.

Jesus claimed to have authority to forgive sins. He told the paralyzed man, "But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." He said He was the judge of mankind (John 5:25-29).

Jesus claimed honor that is only due God (Isaiah 42:8), when He said, "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began" (John 17:1) and "Honor the Son, even as they honor the Father" (John 5:23). Jesus invited prayer in His name: "And I will do whatever you ask in my name" (John 14:13). He accepted worship (Matthew 8:2, 14:33, 15:25, 20:20, 28:17), though the Old Testament clearly forbids the worship of anyone but God (Exodus 20:1-4; Deuteronomy 5:6-9). Even the angels refused to be worshipped (Revelation 22:8, 9).

Jesus said He would give us things that only God can give. "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it" (John 5:21).

Jesus told us not just to follow His teaching but also to follow Him (Matthew 10:38).

Jesus performed many miracles, the greatest being His resurrection, which He predicted (John 2:19, 21) and was attested to by all four Gospel writers and, among others, by Paul, who said Jesus was seen by more than 500 eyewitnesses, most of whom were still alive and could have contradicted him if untrue (1 Corinthians 15:4).

His Apostles also claimed that He was God: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1); Jesus was the "first and the last" (Revelation 1:17, 2:8, 22:13); and, "For unto us, a child is born ... and his name will be called 'Wonderful, counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Matthew 1:23).

Jesus, who claimed and proved to be God, affirmed the divine authority of the Old Testament (Matthew 5:17-18) and promised that the Holy Spirit would inspire the New Testament revelations (John 14:26, 16:13). New Testament writers also attested that all Scripture is inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:16).

Once we conclude the Bible is the word of God, we will delight in the Scriptures (Psalm 119:92) and, as one writer put it, acquire "that great sense that we are living in the sphere of eternal security."

Eternal security, indeed, for Christ died so that by repenting and trusting in Him, we could live. Now that's the true meaning of Christmas and the best news of all.    

 

So, What if the Bible Really Is True? Part II

 

by David Limbaugh

 

If I had to single out one thing that played the greatest role in initially convincing me of the Bible's authenticity and the truth of Christianity, I'd choose the Old Testament prophecies, especially those concerning the Messiah. The specificity of some of the individual prophecies is powerfully probative, but the odds against so many of them being fulfilled in the person of Christ by coincidence are utterly breathtaking.

In about 700 B.C., the Prophet Isaiah specifically named the king (Cyrus) who would rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, some 114 years before Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it and some 150 years before Persia conquered the Babylonians and its king (Cyrus) issued the decree to rebuild the Temple. Josh McDowell summarized it this way: "Thus Isaiah predicted that a man named Cyrus, who would not be born for about 100 years, would give the command to rebuild the temple which was still standing in Isaiah's day and would not be destroyed for more than 100 years."

Biblical scholar J. Barton Payne cited 574 Old Testament verses containing messianic prophecies, and countless others have listed and explained them, but my favorite compilation is by McDowell, who highlights some 60 of them as unmistakable predictions. Let me give you just a sampling with the humble suggestion that you read and contemplate these verses yourselves.

The Messiah would: reconcile men to God at painful cost to Himself; come from the seed of a woman (Genesis 3:15); be a Semite (Genesis 9:26); descend through Abraham (Genesis 22:18), Isaac (Genesis 21:12) and Jacob Numbers 24:17) and be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10); be a prophet, like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15), a priest (Psalm 110:4), the judge (Isaiah 33:22) and king (Psalm 2:6); descend from Jesse's line (Isaiah 11:1) and David's line and be eternal king (2 Samuel 7:13); be God, the Father's Son (Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:14); ransom men and restore their righteousness (Job 17:3); exist before time began and be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and young children would be killed (Jeremiah 31:15); be given gifts (Psalm 72:10; Isaiah 60:6); be called Lord (Psalm 110:1); be "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14); be anointed by the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2, 42:1); have zeal for His Father's house and reproach those who would violate it (Psalm 69:9); be announced in advance (Isaiah 40:3);

begin his ministry in Galilee; heal the blind, deaf, dumb and lame (Isaiah 35:5,6); teach in parables (Psalm 78:2); enter the Temple (Malachi 3:1); enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9); be a stumbling block to the Jews (Psalm 118:22, 8:14); be a light to the gentiles (Isaiah 60:3); be resurrected (Psalm 16:10); ascend (Psalm 68:18) and sit at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1); be betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:19) and sold for 30 pieces of silver, which he would throw into the Temple and which would be given for the potter's field (Zechariah 11:12-13); be struck, causing his disciples to scatter (Zechariah 13:7), which Christ affirmed and repeated (Matthew 26:31); be falsely accused (Psalm 35:11); stand silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7); be wounded and bruised for people's sins (Isaiah 53:5), smitten and spit upon (Isaiah 50:6) and mocked (Psalm 22:7); be crucified with thieves and plead for those killing him (Isaiah 53:12); be thirsty (Psalm 69:21); ask God why He

had forsaken Him (Psalm 22:1); commit His spirit to God (Psalm 31:5); and be buried in a rich man's tomb (Isaiah 53:9). Darkness would fall over the land (Amos 8:9); His hands, feet (Psalm 22:16) and side (Zechariah 12:10) would be pierced, but none of His bones would be broken (Psalm 34:20); His own people would reject Him (Isaiah 53:3) and hate Him without cause (Psalm 69:4); His friends would witness His ordeal from afar (Psalm 38:11); and people would cast lots for his clothing (Psalm 22:18).

McDowell notes that the Old Testament was completed in about 450 B.C., but if you won't accept that, you can verify that the Septuagint (Greek translation) was begun during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.), which means the Hebrew version had to have been completed at least 250 years before Christ was born.

He also notes that while it's true that Jesus could have arranged to fulfill some of these prophecies, He could not have orchestrated the place, time and manner of His birth, that He would be betrayed, the manner of His death, people's reactions to His crucifixion, the piercings and the burial. The statistical odds that any man might have fulfilled all eight of those prophecies, let alone 61 (or 574) of them, are 1 in 10 to the 17th power.

If you're not yet amazed, study Daniel 9:24-27, which many believe predicts, to the precise year, the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

 

Who do you say that He is?