Owner: North Buffalo Journal and Review URL:http://nbjr.speakupwny.com Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 17:41:27 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: My rants, raves and reviews of life from north buffalo - any topics are fair game. Frequent topics included politics, events, news and photography. I incorporate a great deal of my own photography into posts that I write. Site statistics:Click here
NEW Poster Available 2006-10-22 10:07:34
I just finished tweaking the color settings from a raw photo I’ve posted previously. This rendition turned out 500% better than the original one. I just made it available in my cafepress store as a poster. The info is all posted below. I made up a digitally framed version to give people an idea what it would look like framed.
Images by Mike in WNY : Scenic Night Views : Buffalo Skyline at Night : Buffalo Skyline at Night Large Poster
Size: 35.0″ x 23.0″
Buffalo Skyline at Night Large Poster
$25.99
Qty:
AVAILABILITY: In Stock, will ship in 2-3 business days (shipped separately)
Product Number: 82445894
Tell a friend about this product!
Product InformationPerfect for dressing up any wall, this is the perfect size for maximum visual impact, or instantly creating a theme for a room. Images look great on this high-quality poster, printed on heavyweight 7 mil semi-gloss paper using superior dye inks. Image size 23"
The Following Question was Asked Twice on Political Class Dismissed: The Blog 2006-10-22 05:18:28
Second Request-Will Sam Hoyt Serve Out Term?
If elected, that is.
Why won't he answer?
Politics is full of rumors, half-truths and innuendo. I have heard the rumor regarding Sam Hoyt circulating for quite a while now. As an elected official public servant, I think Sam owes an answer to the voters.
The rumor is that if Sam Hoyt is re-elected and Eliot Spitzer is elected Governor, Spitzer will be appointing Hoyt to a desirable position within New York State government. Part 2 of the rumor is a bit murky. I originally heard that Marc Coppola would be given Sam’s seat if he won his race with Antoine Thompson. Another variation was that Marc needed to capture at least 40% of the vote.
Regardless of the second part of the rumor, inquiring voters still want to know - “Sam, if you win, and Eliot wins, will you serve out your term?”
We know that Sam Hoyt was an early member of the Spitzer Bandwagon.
“Eliot Spitzer has what it Read more:Following
, Question
, Twice
Comments Are Working Now! 2006-10-22 04:10:56 If you tried to comment earlier, I had a buggy plugin that was allowing comments to work. Thanks to a friend notifying me, the problem is now fixed
Read more:Comments
Can Anyone Answer This Question? 2006-10-21 20:22:38 Why is it that neither the Erie County Republican Committee, nor the Erie County Democratic Committee, have a list of candidates on their websites?
Read more:Question
, Anyone
Incumbency and Gerrymandered Districts 2006-10-21 11:00:13 The combination of incumbency and gerrymandered districts is almost impossible to beat in an election. The New York Times sums up the reasons nicely in an article in today’s paper.
In the age of gerrymander, the open seat — one where incumbents step aside because of age, ambition, scandal or other considerations — is a rare but sometimes golden opportunity for one party to wrest control from the other. This year, Democrats like Mr. Perlmutter are taking full advantage, giving their party a potentially vital edge in the battle for control of the House.
"I hate open seats," Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in an interview last month as he discussed his party's difficulties in defending its openings.
Deprived of the name recognition, fund-raising and other powers of incumbency — not least the ability to steer federal dollars into local projects — candidates trying to defend open sea Read more:Districts
Seven and OH! That's How the Sabres Go 2006-10-21 04:16:46 The league leading Sabres
just did it again, knocked off the Carolina Hurricanes and are still undefeated. Afinogenov kicked it into “max mode” and had 1 goal and 2 assists.
Buffalo got their first lead of the game at 13:31 of the 2nd period with a goal by Afinogenov, assisted by Campbell and Roy. The Canes tied it up a couple of minutes later at the 15:42 mark of the 2nd period.
It wasn’t until 13:42 of the 3rd period that another goal was scored. This is the one that put the Sabres in the lead for good. Vanek scored it with assists by Afinogenov and Roy. Spacek added an insurance goal at the 15:24 mark, assisted by Vanek and Afinogenov.
Commodore added a Carolina goal at 18:45 of the 3rd, but it was not enough. The Canes drop to 3-4-1 for the season with a total of 7 points.
Max Afinogenov is the type of player that can make a big difference. We’ve seen his moves in the past. This season Max is playing more cons Read more:Seven
New Blog Theme 2006-10-21 02:31:33 I am having a few formatting problems with this new theme, especially with the way it is displaying in Internet Explorer. Hopefully I will have it worked out soon.
I am using these previously unpublished photos from last weeks storm as a test post. I believe it has been picture sizes that are causing the display problems.
Between the storm last week and all of the political posturing that resulted, learning a bit about CSS coding and style sheets is a welcome distraction. The most important thing I’ve learned is to have a back up copy of .php files in case I make a major screw up.
Hopefully within a couple of days of putzing around, I will have all the kinks worked out. Until then, I apologize if my blog looks messed up. I think the major bugs are worked out, for a bit entire posts were disappearing. I think I just have some minor bugs left. If anyone has any useful tips, please leave a comment.
Read more:Theme
Barely a Peep as Bush Kills the Constitution 2006-10-20 20:34:14 It is with great disgust, anger and fear that I regard President Bush’s latest power grab. Constitution
al protections provided by our founding fathers in the U.S. Constitution have been swept aside by George W. Bush. The act was committed when the President signed The Military Commissions Act this week.
James Bovard writes:
. . . the new law makes the president legislator, prosecutor, judge, and bailiff. As Yale law professor Jack Balkin notes, "The President has created a new regime in which he is a law unto himself on issues of prisoner interrogations. He decides whether he has violated the laws, and he decides whether to prosecute the people he in turn urges to break the law"
. . . the bill codifies the president's power to label anyone on Earth an "enemy combatant" — based on secret evidence which the government need not disclose.
“Anyone on Earth,” not just “foreign” terrorists, but also American citizens are subj Read more:Barely
, Kills
Quote of the Day 2006-10-23 08:20:52 I’ve fairly non-plussed when it comes to Jack Davis . . .until today! In once sentence he managed to shift me from a state of bewilderment to one of support for him.
“I don’t visualize the congressman’s job as financing a lot of local favored projects,” Davis said. “I see him as trying to serve the people as ways that are described in the Constitution and making sure we have a healthy economy.”
People have criticized Davis for being a “one trick pony” for not having a broad platform. He doesn’t need one. The plan is already out there and Jack Davis identified it - the U.S. Constitution. If followed to the letter, the Constitution will take care of the economy, end agressive terrorist acts and restore our standing as a respected world power! When it comes to government, less is more, and the Constitution is the road map to get us there.
Read more:Quote
Microsoft Has Released Internet Explorer 7 2006-10-23 11:59:50 Internet Explorer
7 is now available for download. I was a bit leary after trying the last beta version. The bugs I encountered in the beta were horrific. I installed the new release of IE7 yesterday and have been quite surprised. It loads quickly and browses quickly. From my test usage it appears to run faster than Firefox. With the tabbed browsing, new look and some other new features, I give microsoft a thumbs up on this latest version of Internet Explorer.
Before you think I’m trashing Firefox, I’m not. I still love the customizable features that are not available in IE. Not to be outdone, I’ve heard that Firefox is scheduled to release a major upgrade, tomorrow, October 24. Firefox 2.0 should be available for public download. And it promises to have even more features. You can read more on Firefox 2.0 here.
My suggestion is to try both browsers. There are definetly times when one is preferabl Read more:Microsoft
, Internet
Former Enron CEO Sentenced 2006-10-23 22:15:13 Former Enron
CEO Jeffrey Skilling has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for his role in one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history, AP and Reuters report.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday sentenced former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeff Skilling to just over 24 years in prison for crimes that led to the onetime energy trading giant’s collapse.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake set sentence at 292 months, or 24 years and four months. Skilling, 52, has said he will appeal his conviction in May on 19 of 28 charges, including fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors.
The politicians, whose complicity enabled the Enron fiasco, should be equally guilty, if not more so.
Read more:Former
, Sentenced
The Perfect Gubernatorial Candidate 2006-10-24 02:16:48 What if you could design the perfect candidate for Governor? What positions would he/she take?
The following is the list of positions I would want my favorite candidate to embrace:
Stop Eminent Domain Abuse - No more Kelo land-grabs for private development. Property rights are fundamental and need to be honored.
Eliminate State Income Taxes, beginning with the elimination of the tax for all making under $75,000 annually.
More Options for Educating Youth, not throwing more money into a failed system. Maximize school choice options for parents, especially homeschoolers.
Withdraw the New York State National Guard from the unconstitutional Iraq War. Hawaii’s legislature formally called on the Governor to remove their troops.
Defend the Right to Petition. Respect and protect citizens who withhold taxes until their servant government properly responds to their constitutional right to petition for a redress of grievances.
End the restaurant smoking Read more:Perfect
, Candidate
Quote of the Day 2006-10-24 11:17:16
“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for you.” — Robert A. Heinlein
Read more:Quote
Midterm Madness - A Political Junkie's Game 2006-10-24 20:30:30 If you just can not get enough politics, the Washington Post has the perfect game for you. It is called MidtermMadness
. The object is to predict the winners for all the Congressional and Senatorial elections. You submit your picks to become eligible for prizes. You can also view other contestants choices.
PRIZES: The contest players with the highest point scores will win:1) First prize (highest score): a $100 American Express gift certificate,2) Second prize (second highest score): a $50 American Express gift certificate, and,3) Third prize (third highest score): a $25 American Express gift certificate.
At the time of this posting there were 966 registered contestants. Good luck!
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Read more:Junkie
Alan Hevesi is Under the Gun 2006-10-25 02:20:32 It appears that Alan Hevesi has his hands full just before elections from the chauffeur-gate scandal. You can read the details here from Buffalo Pundit.
This reminded me that I still have not heard any results from the Audit of the Power Authority by the State Comptroller’s Office. Below is my follow-up email request for information, including the original response from the OSC early in March.
Dear Mr. Barber:
It has been over 7 months since your reply regarding the status of the audit of the Power Authority. Are the results of that audit available? If not, when will the report be available?
Michael Rebmann
—–Original Message—–From: JBARBER@osc.state.ny.us [mailto:JBARBER@osc.state.ny.us]Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 8:33 AMTo: Michael RebmannSubject: RE: Power Authority
Dear Mr. Rebmann:
It will be several months before the audit process is complete and a final audit report including agency comments is available.
Jerry Barber, CPA,
FEMA Disaster Aid for Western New York 2006-10-25 05:07:36 Individuals and Businesses can register with FEMA for possible storm damages. Households are eligible for up to $5600 in reimbursement, after insurance claims have been exhausted. You can register with FEMA by calling 1-800-621-fema or register here. If you are not sure if you qualify, register with FEMA and they will evaluate your situation.
Businesses are not eligible for direct aid, but can register for SBA loans to cover damages and losses. Individuals whose losses exceed $5600 after FEMA aid and insurance are also able to apply for low interest loans.
Netflix Delivers DVDs to your home. NO LATE FEES. Try for FREE!
Read more:Disaster
, Western
Why Health Care is So Expensive 2006-10-25 10:38:07 Not only is the cost of health care escalating faster than the number of lies leading up to November 7th, the service is getting worse also. Take 3 minutes and read this article by John Stossel. He uses some very good analogies to explain what is wrong with our health care system today.
Getting medical insurance from your boss is a bad idea
By John Stossel
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
According to the new “ABC News” poll on health care, Americans are eager to have the government force employers to provide heath insurance: “Nearly eight in 10 favor a federal requirement that all employers offer insurance to their full-time workers.”
Why?! Do our employers pay for our food, clothing, or shelter? If they did, why would that be good? Having my health care tied to my boss invites him to snoop into my private health issues, and if I change jobs, I lose coverage.
Employer-paid health insurance isn’t free. It just means we get insurance instead of higher sala Read more:Health
Quote of the Day 2006-10-25 11:38:26 The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
- H.L. Mencken
Netflix Delivers DVDs to your home. NO LATE FEES. Try for FREE!
Read more:Quote
More Photos from the Sabres/Thrashers Game 2006-10-30 00:22:17 A day has past, life moves on and so do the Sabres
. The streak was nice and as long as they continue to play the type of hockey we’ve seen, this will be a season to remember. Below is a slideshow of photos from the game. Follow the jump to see the individual photos.
Sabres Bid for a New NHL Record Thrashed by Atlanta 2006-10-29 04:26:13
The game was exciting, a nail biter for sure. The Sabres
had their chances and the Thrashers also played a tough game. In the end it came down to the shootout and the Sabres lost this one. Below are my shots of Kozlov (13) beating Ryan Miller for the win. More photos might be online tomorrow, I have a Halloween Party to attend. Check BfloBlog for a more detailed analysis, I’m sure they will have a good one, as always.
Read more:Record
, Atlanta
Why Should Government Fund Cultural Institutions? 2006-10-28 13:03:48 The answer: They shouldn’t! The urban design experts on Buffalo Rising are currently arguing about how your money, and mine, should or should not be spent. At issue is the proposed Burchfield Penney Art Center located on the Richardson Complex grounds. The original post author experiences monumental shock and dismay because there are actually people opposing the project. The bickering that ensues is comical. The problem is the project is being opposed for the wrong reasons.
The highly charged, humorous discussion is a result of people not spending their own money. They, and everyone else, have lost control over the spending of much of their hard earned money. The press release put out by Kathleen Heyworth, Director of News Services for the BPAC, is deceptive at best. It states that almost $28 million has been raised for the project. It doesn’t state that $17.75 million of that total was taken Read more:Government
, Cultural
, Institutions
Quote of the Day 2006-10-28 06:24:26 A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.
- Barry Goldwater
Today I’m going to break tradition and include a second quote, also from Barry Goldwater.
Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.
Read more:Quote
Photo Sharing 2006-10-28 04:39:32 Below is a shot of “The Church,” home of Righteous Babe Records. I took the shot just before attending The Cost at Hallwalls.
Read more:Photo
, Sharing
, Photo Sharing
Obscene Salaries - Government & Non-Profit 2006-10-28 02:07:07 Buffaloi.com brings to light a proposed salary increase for Dr. Anthony J. Billittier, the Erie County Commissioner of Health. Proposed is a $29,400 raise that would bring his salary (excluding benefits) to $154,460. That is a 23.51% salary increase. That is obscene in light of the Counties financial condition and the exorbitant rate of taxation. I already have a big problem paying his salary in light of the socialist, statist regulations he favors. (it is enough to gall any freedom loving libertarian)
If that isn’t bad enough, non-profit salaries are also exposed in the same post. Here are a few examples cited from Buffaloi.com:
Donald Boswell, who gets $196,742 for running the WNED public stations; Arlene Kaukus, who gets $144,046 as head of the local United Way; Eugene Meeks, who gets $161,926 for running Child and Family Services; James Boles, who gets $149,883 for running People Inc.; and Ronald Silverio who makes $104,955 runn Read more:Government
, Obscene
, Salaries
Mother Nature Has Tricks in Store for Saturday Halloween Parties 2006-10-28 00:37:11 Many people will be out Saturday
night attending Halloween
parties being held in numerous clubs and bars in the area. Mother Nature has her own tricks in store for us this weekend that could make travel a bit tricky.
There is a high wind watch in effect for Saturday evening through Sunday afternoon. This could cause more downed tree limbs from already damaged trees. It also threatens to cause Lakeshore flooding.
A lake effect snow watch is in effect from Saturday night into Sunday with a possibility of 3″-10″ of snow. It is expected to remain south of Buffalo.
Read more:Store
Who to Vote for in the State Comptroller's Race 2006-10-27 17:14:19 Now that Alan Hevesi is embroiled in the middle of a huge scandal, the question is “who should voters pull the lever for in November?” Anyone who still votes for Hevesi is crazy, this is not the first time he has been in the eye of the storm for misappropriating funds.
J. Christopher Callaghan appears to be a very weak candidate at best. Buffalo Geek has his analysis here on what is wrong with both of those candidates, noting that Eliot Spitzer has withdrawn his endorsement of Hevesi.
Clearly, the best, and only viable, candidate now in this race is John Cain. He has the integrity necessary to perform financial oversight in the State
with the most dysfunctional state government.
LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NEW YORK (516) 767-4688 website: http://www.ny.lp.org/ Contact: Richard Cooper nylibertarian@hotmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Corruption Fighter Seeks Comptroller
Nomination
Albany, NY 4/23/06: John Cain served on the Clarkstown Planning Board in Rockland Coun
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