Cool.

Thanks to Eden Town Board candidate Christina Abt for mentioning me to the News in today’s blogging article.

Boston got snow before we did.

More like “Biased and Unbalanced”

JUAN WILLIAMS: You can try to minimize it, but the fact that you have Scooter Libby, so involved in justifying going to war, and in the posture of trying to smear a critic of that justification. I think is pretty revealing and pretty damaging to the Bush White House. I think they’re going to have to rebuild a sense of trust with the American People. And that’s why when Brit asked this question, why did he have to lie, he felt the need to lie if he did lie, but by all indications he’s going to say I didn’t remember it quite the way this person remembered and all the like. That’s not very strong in my book, and I think Fitzgerald did a terrific job on Friday. But the reason he felt the need was to make it clear that he was not involved in what really was a conspiracy to defame Joe Wilson.

BRIT HUME: Juan, somebody needs to hose you down.

1. What a great rebuttal from Brit Hume, who’s, like, totally unbiased.
2. What great symbolism to use the night after they paid tribute to Rosa Parks.

Evidently, Bush satisfied the first of Trent Lott’s choices.

It’s being reported that Bush is selecting Sam Alito for the SCOTUS.

Alito’s nickname is “Scalito”.

Whenever the issue of charter schools comes up, we invariably hear whining from the teacher’s union types who bitterly complain that the charter schools take money away from the traditional schools, and we don’t even know if they do a good job.

They do a good job. And with poorer students.

Publicly funded charter schools first opened here in 2000. Fifteen charter schools - 13 in Buffalo - enroll more than 5,500 elementary and high school students, and many have long waiting lists. While charter school enrollment has grown dramatically, enrollment in traditional Buffalo Public Schools has fallen to 36,050 from 46,000 in 1999-2000. Two of the local charter schools are sponsored by the Buffalo Board of Education. The rest received charters from the state.

Charter schools have fewer contractual restrictions than traditional public schools and greater flexibility in establishing school hours, work rules and assignments. They are publicly funded and are open to all city students through lotteries.

In an effort to close the achievement gap between the charters and the traditional schools, Williams is preparing a reform plan that will revolve around a longer school day and an extended school year - both trademarks of charter schools.

In five years, the Buffalo School system has lost 10,000 pupils, yet Rumore and others tell us that too little funding (i.e., a budget larger than that of the City itself - $600+ million/year) is the problem. As I posted about months ago, the City of Buffalo’s school funding comes out to $19,000 per year, per student.

I think Helfer’s line that education is the civil rights issue for the 21st century is dead-on. It’s also the way for Buffalo to climb out of the muck and mire of the industrial revolution and join the information age.

At $19k per student, I think that if you asked every parent in the Buffalo City Schools if they’d like a voucher for that amount to spend on tuition at any private or public school in Erie County, they’d be thrilled.

Because it’s not about the teachers or their union, it’s not about the teacher’s union’s president, it’s not about the board of education, it’s not about the schools superintendent.

It’s about the kids and their families. If the system isn’t serving them satisfactorily, then they deserve options. These kids only get one chance.

I really ought to get a subscription to the News. I usually glom onto someone else’s paper or read it online, but I didn’t get a chance to peruse it yesterday, and I didn’t check out the website until late in the day.

The News has overwhelmingly lent more coverage to Byron Brown. David Coffee analyzed the actual number on WNYMedia.net. I had assumed that the News would merely repeat its half-hearted endorsement of Brown that it gave in September.

But I was wrong.

To everyone who says that the News is just a liberal rag, I’ll point out that this year, the 2-time Giambra endorsers have endorsed the Republican candidate in every major race. Howard for Sheriff, Canavan for Comptroller, and now Helfer for Mayor.

I get a sense, however, that the editorial board is writing these endorsements:

1. Reluctantly;
2. At the insistence of higher-ups; and
2. Under protest.

When the News endorsed Howard, it said that the Sheriff’s department needed change, and that Fieramusca would be the agent for that change.

When the News endorsed Canavan, it said that independence was the most important factor in this year’s Comptroller’s race, and clearly as compared with Canavan, Poloncarz is the more independent of the three candidates.

Don’t forget that the News also endorsed an intemperate Whalen - who is Giambra’s political mentor - to become Erie County’s fiscal watchdog in September, too. Is Hormoz Mansouri e-mailing his picks to the News’ editorial board, or is it the Partnership or, hell, maybe it’s Buffett himself.

When the News endorsed Brown over Gaughan in the primary, it indicated that Gaughan had ideas and vision, and described Brown as a wishy-washy milquetoast.

Now it comes around to saying that “wishy-washy milquetoast” is decidedly not what we need from a mayor.

Well, why didn’t it reach that conclusion in September? Are the people of Buffalo not to be trusted with a November race involving ideas versus ideas?

I like Helfer, and I’m not one of these knee-jerkers who say he’s George Bush in disguise. The News actually takes a race, endorses a candidate, and does it for all the reasons I’ve been bringing up for months about Byron Brown - a nice guy, but no agent for change and reform.

Read the whole thing.

Happy Halloween, everybody.

We were talking last night about candy you’d get as a kid on Halloween that you’d never get any other time of year. I always remember getting Mary Janes only on Halloween back then.

I don’t really eat a lot of candy bars, so pretty much everything fits that bill nowadays. But I get lots of kids, so I’ve got almost 10 lbs of candy in my hall closet ready & waiting. That oughta do it.

Notice that they don’t sell the Halloween bags of candy by count anymore, but by weight? I figure I’ll get over 100 kids, so I probably overbought in anticipation of that.

We got Kit Kats (my favorite) and Kit Kat assortment (white chocolate and triple chocolate). We got Reese’s cups (also a fave) along with an assortment of inside-out Reese’s cups and white chocolate cups (noticing a pattern?). We also got some Snickers, some Almond Joy (awesome), and just in case we run out, we got some Hershey’s miniatures. I like the Mr. Goodbars in there, but I’m not a huge fan of Hershey’s chocolate by itself.

Back in Boston, we lived in an apartment building and got zero trick-or-treaters. Now, I practically have to finance the candy purchase.

Everyone knows by now that OJ is looking at property in Niagara County. He looked at one house on Lincoln in Lockport, across from the high school, but the scuttlebutt is that he’s more likely to buy rural. Gasport or Middleport. Maybe we’ll bump into him at Udder Delights in Gasport some summer eve. He was recently seen eating at the Basket Factory in Middleport (went in 2002, but wasn’t particularly overwhelmed. And I couldn’t find Middleport on a map anyway. We were just passing through).

When asked, potential neighbors don’t seem particularly concerned. After all, he only allegedly did those two murders, and they were 11 years ago.

Check out Craig’s new endeavor.

The Beast has a good overview of the most recent Mayoral debate. To sum up: “No wonder no one cares about local politics.”

They also point out something interesting about the News’ Mayoral poll: Ladies last.

DiBella’s does hot subs now. Not grilled like Quizno’s. Hot like cheesesteak, etc. I had a hot turkey sandwich today that was just amazing. It made the cheese melt, but the rest of the sandwich was still cool. Kind of like a McDLT. Only not.

Anyway, Wegman’s Sub Shoppe? Your move.

After reading that wikipedia entry on totalitarianism, (which threw my mind back to PoliSci classes from 17 years ago), I think I’ll start referring to the entrenched political folks as the nomenklatura. I just love that word.

To accuse any contemporary American liberal or Democratic politician of “totalitarianism” belies a real fundamental ignorance when it comes to what totalitarianism is. Indeed, you can probably learn more about it from Wikipedia than from any brain fart of Jonah Goldberg’s.

Here’s the cover of Jonah Goldberg’s new book:

The title is: “Liberal Fascism : The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton”

I wonder how that jibes with this:

September 4, 2003, 9:45 a.m.
“Bush=Hitler”
The politics of dangerous stupidity.

Nazis murdered millions of unarmed people. They put them in ovens. They made soap out of them. They carted off children in boxcars to die and used some of the kids for medical experiments, including injecting dyes into their eyes to see if they could improve their looks. Lower on the list of charges, the Nazis enslaved millions and launched wars for territorial and egotistical gain (and sent many of the conquered populations to death camps as well). Lower still, they banned books and burned them too. They expropriated homes and businesses, banned religions, etc.

An intelligent person wouldn’t normally assume these are the sorts of facts people forget. It’s not quite the same thing as saying that the Mork and Mindy was a spin-off from Happy Days, is it?

I could, of course, get more graphic about what the Nazis did, but I don’t much like writing about the Holocaust. It’s not merely a depressing subject, its enormity is so depressing, so compacted down with evil and barbarity and cruelty that it folds in upon itself like a black hole. The gravitational pull of its tragedy has permanently bent the trajectory of mankind. Suffice it to say that the Nazis weren’t simply generically bad, they were uniquely and monumentally evil, not just in their hearts but also in literally billions of intentional, well-planned, and bureaucratized decisions they made every day.

And yet, in polite and supposedly sophisticated circles in America today it is acceptable to say George Bush is akin to a Nazi and that America is becoming Nazi-like. Indeed, in certain corners of the globe to disagree with this assertion is the more outlandish position than to agree with it.

In the September 1, 2003, issue of National Review, Byron York chronicles (read the piece here) some of the Bushphobia. He writes,

A staple of Bush-hating is the portrayal of the president as a Nazi. That has, of course, been a prominent part of other attacks against other presidents, but today it seems to be deployed with particular aggressiveness against Bush. There are thousands of references, across the vastness of the Internet, linking Bush to Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. Do you want to buy a T-shirt with a swastika replacing the “s” in Bush? No problem. Do you want to collect images of Bush in a German army uniform, with a Hitler mustache Photoshopped onto his face? That’s easy. Do you want to find pictures of Dick Cheney and Tom Ridge and Ari Fleischer dressed as Bush’s Nazi henchmen? That’s easy, too.

As York observes, It’s not just the intellectual poltroons of the Internet who feign bravery by loudly saying what is patently stupid so that people a fraction dumber than them might mistake it for boldness and conviction. It’s not just the masses of undifferentiated cattle who sport their Hitlerfied George Bush T-shirts and who chant slogans with a verve more truly reminiscent of Nuremberg than anything ever uttered by George Bush.

HT Atrios.

Lawyers like to use that phrase. It incorporates the likelihood that someone who should know of something, but claims not to know - may just be lying. Page 5 of the Scooterdictment reads:

On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Divison. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.

Via Kos and Josh Marshall, the CIA’s Counterproliferation Division falls under the CIA’s “Directorate of Operations“, which is where spies come from. Not the Intelligence Division, where mere “analysts” come from.

So, it was Cheney who first let the information go. The indictment also evidences collaboration (collusion?) between Libby & “Official A”; Karl Rove. And the only reason this information came out, you’ll remember, is that Joe Wilson had the audacity to rebut Bush’s allegations about Niger plutonium in his SOTU.

It was payback. Bush is Tony Soprano without the smarts. Rove is Silvio. Cheney is Junior. Any votes for this administration’s Paulie Walnuts? Chris Moltasanti?

I guess that makes Libby Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri.

Sunday at 11am on WBEN 930-AM the Perfesser (who is decidedly not the “Jeff Gannon” of Buffalo), will host Sheriff Candidates Tim Howard and Charlie Fieramusca.

I might call in (803-0930) and ask Mr. Howard about his staff intimidating local news stations - under color of law - to influence their reporting, and punish their employees.

I’m just saying.

We checked out the Albright-Knox’s Gusto at the Gallery event last night. There were lots of families there making Halloween masks, checking out the artwork, watching a few performances, seeing pumpkins carved by local artists, etc. And it was all free.

Quality of Life: 1
Naysayers: 0

Just so you know, the conservative talking point du jour is that the Fitzgerald investigation / indictment, paired with the prosecution of Tom Delay for violations of Texas state campaign finance and disclosure law is the “criminalization of conservatism.”

Nice try.

Because every time you use “criminal” and “conservative” in the same sentence, you lose.

Unions in general are a good thing, because they help workers negotiate compensation packages and work rules that they otherwise would never see when up against powerful management. Especially given the early history of capitalism, it was certainly important that workers be protected from various forms of bad and cruel treatment at the hands of the owners.

But I’m wondering today why, exactly, we need public sector unions at all?

Since the public sector employees’ managers are elected and appointed political officials; and since everyone’s salaries are paid for by taxpayers; and since ultimately the selection of public sector employees is dependent on those political officials, whose selection (and election) is ultimately dependent on us, the people - does it make a tremendous amount of sense to give union protection from ourselves?

Most of the cost-cutting needed for balancing the Erie County budget (apart from paying PFM’s bill), comes from union concession after union concession. A government in crisis that doesn’t have the flexibility needed to weasel its way out of that crisis is going to stay in crisis. The only choices at this point are to inflict pain on every taxpayer in Erie County versus inflicting pain on the limited number of people who work for the county or benefit from its largesse in some way.

So at the risk of sounding like Grover Norquist’s twin brother, can someone explain to me the fundamental fairness and need for unions to represent government employees? Is the risk that working conditions in the Rath Building or ECMC will revert to that of a sweatshop? How likely is that? If you’re a white-collar worker, especially - I just don’t see the point at all. Not in the public sector.

David has some pictures of gorgeous, but very, very decrepit, old theaters on the East Side. Then click the link to Google maps and see just how barren the surrounding areas are.

Imagine the possibilities.

One way to run for County Comptroller…

…is to show ‘em how it’s done.

“I am calling on the Erie County Executive and his budget director to immediately release to the Erie County Legislature the monthly budget monitoring report for September 2005, as well as all recent past due reports,” said Poloncarz. “Without accurate and timely budgetary data, the Legislature cannot make fully-informed decisions concerning Erie County’s finances, especially during their hearings on the County Executive’s budget proposal for 2006.”

Poloncarz noted that since December 2002, the County Executive had only sent 11 monthly BMRs to the Legislature when he should have sent 33. The last monthly report was provided on June 24, 2005.

“It is bad enough that County Executive Giambra continues to violate budget resolutions requiring the release of BMRs to the Legislature. However, it is unconscionable that the County Executive is also violating a local law adopted in June 2005 – a local law he signed into law – requiring him to release monthly BMRs,” stated Poloncarz.

Don’t run on the “clean up government” and/or “restore dignity” platform if you won’t.

Then…

“I will swear to uphold the laws of the land. But I will also swear to uphold the honor and the integrity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God,” said then-Governor George Bush [CNN, “Inside Politics,” 8/11/00]

“Americans are tired of investigations and scandal, and the best way to get rid of them is to elect a new president who will bring a new administration, who will restore honor and dignity to the White House.” [Then-Governor George Bush on CNN’s “Burden of Proof,” 9/15/00]

“Americans want to be assured that the next administration will bring honor and dignity to the White House.” [Then-Governor George Bush on CNN’s “Capital Gang,” 8/13/00]

Now..

Vice presidential adviser I. Lewis “Scooter’ Libby Jr. was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury in the CIA leak case.

Karl Rove, President Bush’s closest adviser, escaped indictment Friday but remained under investigation, his legal status a looming political problem for the White House.

The Smoking Gun has the indictment. Libby resigned.

According to this lunatic, if George Bush should be somehow brought down by the Plamegate imbroglio, it would bring about the end of all Western Civilization.

He explains:

If any Administration official is indicted, President Bush should pardon them and then go on national television. He should go on television and then tell the American people the real truth (shaded as necessary) of the left’s treasonous goals and designs. He should tell the people about how Joe Wilson is an inveterate liar whose distortions have been exposed at length.

If the time has come to declare war against the enemy at home, so be it. It’s time that we tell the American people the truth about seventy years of treason on the part of certain elements of the Democrat Party – and of the thirty-five years since the forces of treason took national control of the Democrat Party.

Now is the time to suit up and prepare for battle. I don’t know what is coming. But I know what I shall do.

We are now engaged in a great struggle for the future of our civilization. If we lose – if we allow this great man to fall at the hands of traitors and opportunists – it will raise the curtain upon the era of the decline and defeat of American, and indeed Western, civilization. We must win this battle, whatever the cost may be.

So, um, what happens in 2008, when we know he’s gone?

Then again, this is the same fascist cretin who wrote:

That’s the future of the Democratic Party: providing Republicans with a number of cute (but not that bright) comfort women.

Let’s face a hard truth: this was the bitterest Presidential campaign in living memory. The Democrats and their allies staked everything on the defeat of this President. All of the resources they had accumulated over a generation of struggle were thrown into this battle: and they have failed. Despite all of their tricks, despite all of their lies, the people have rejected them. They mean nothing. They are worth nothing. There’s no point in trying to reach out to them because they won’t be reached out to. We’ve got their teeth clutching the sidewalk and out boot above their head. Now’s the time to curb-stomp the bastards.

A strong case for diesels over hybrids:

Peugeot of France doesn’t sell its cars in the U.S., but its new 407 Coupe (pictured) is powered by an engine that will induce a warm glow in Americans.

The engine is a diesel, and it means that Americans forced by high gas prices to seek alternatives to fuel-guzzling motors can do so without making sacrifices.

The new car, launched here in October, is powered by a 2.7 litre V-6 diesel which is quieter than a gasoline engine, has so much torque that its acceleration is blistering and instantaneous, does an average 27.6 miles per U.S. gallon, and most important of all, the engine is made by Ford and is already used in top-of-the-line Jaguars and Range Rovers. This is no smokey, under-powered, bag-o-nails old diesel rattlebox. It is creamy smooth, quiet, sophisticated, and environmentally friendly.

To be fair, Ford makes this latest technology common rail diesel engine in a joint venture with Peugeot. But the capability of the engines like these in terms of economy and refined performance makes Europeans wonder why Americans are making such a fuss about hybrid engines.

Despite all the hullabaloo about hybrids, experts predict that by 2012 Americans will be buying roughly twice as many diesels as hybrids. By then, diesels will also be able to match the toughest emission regulations set by California.

But what about hybrids, which get awesome mileage, according to the EPA?

The runaway price of gasoline has forced Americans to look for more economical fuel. Sure, the gas-electric hybrid engines powering the Toyota Prius and Lexus RX400h are breathtaking technological achievements. But they are heavy and expensive. And claims by Toyota that the Prius will average 54.7 miles per U.S. gallon have not been borne out in Europe, where you can expect around…35 miles per U.S. gallon. Diesel-powered cars like the VW Passat can easily better that, and can combine frugality with much better performance than the Prius.

You would expect leaders of big European manufacturers to echo this idea, and they do, describing hybrids as an expensive blind alley.

“Despite the big public debate right now, it (hybrids) will just be a niche technology,” German luxury car maker BMW AG chief executive Helmut Panke told Reuters at the Tokyo car show.

“They (hybrids) do not have long-term economic prospects because they are a lot more expensive to produce (than diesels) with the same results,” said Jean-Martin Folz, chief executive of French mass car manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen.

What do we need to do in the States to introduce the newest, cleanest diesels to market?

Quality of fuel - Late next year a U.S. federal law will force diesel fuel’s sulphur content down to 15 parts per million, comparable to European levels of 10 ppm.

Particulate emissions - That nasty black soot which diesels used to spew out has been eradicated by particulate filters, now commonplace on European diesels.

NOx filters - Diesels emit more nitrogen oxide (NOx) than gas engines, but emissions can be reduced to comparable levels by fitting a de-NOx filter, an additional catalyst. Mercedes “Bluetec” technology is an example of this.

To sum up:

“Diesels are all round superior to hybrids in terms of running costs, manufacturing costs, flexibility in town and highway, they are winning hands down. Hybrids’ only plus? A marginal advantage in very heavy traffic congestion,” said Schmidt.

So will Ford send that creamy V-6 diesel engine to America? I’m sorry to report the answer is no.

“Ford has no plans at the moment to use this engine in the U.S.,” said a spokesman.

Come to think of it, that doesn’t sound like a very serious “no”.

Bring ‘em.

I’ve been alternating between BBC Radio 1 and Howard 100 on Sirius over the last few days.

Howard 100 is like listening to history being made. The newscast is actually quite interesting, and the fact that native NYers will recognize the telltale sounds of 1010-WINS makes it really sound like, well, news.

I’ve listened to Wendy do nothing but watch TV. I’ve listened to Ray & Ben Stern take phone calls. I’ve listened to Double-A interview Beth O (Howard’s girlfriend). And, of course, the Howard 100 newscast, which is live at 6pm every weekday.

You know how that Jack FM guy breaks in during Stern commericals to tell you what’s going to happen on 92.9 when Stern goes to “pay radio”? (Apparently, a mishmash of songs that have nothing to do with one another. If I want to listen to an iPod on shuffle, I’ll listen to MY iPod on shuffle.)

On Stern 100 News, they refer to broadcast radio as “old-fashioned radio”. That cracks me up. And the station IDs: “Howard 100 News. No More Bullshit.” Or “More people get their Howard Stern news from Howard 100 than any other Howard Stern news source.”

According to this article, Stern is driving a retail surge for Sirius. Until last year, people doubted it would survive. XM was cleaning Sirius’ clock. Not so much, anymore.

Analysts at Sanford Bernstein noted that Sirius’ share at retail has risen from 11% in 2002 to 44% last year and 48% in the first half of this year.

Retail sales do n