The Spree has a great article - and it’s online - about Chris, Mike, and Michele’s Broadway Fillmore Alive!

Check it out.

You read that correctly. Lotus. Tunes. A. Lada.

He gave a speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Here’s a link to the transcript. Some nuggets:

Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us; we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias.

So, Mr. President, pay no attention to the people that say the glass is half full. 32% means the glass — it’s important to set up your jokes properly, sir. Sir, pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means its 2/3 empty. There’s still some liquid in that glass is my point, but I wouldn’t drink it. The last third is usually backwash. Folks, my point are that I don’t believe this is a low point in this presidency. I believe it is just a lull, before a comeback…

…So don’t pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68% of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this, does that not also logically mean that 68% approve of the job he’s not doing? Think about it.

and

The greatest thing about this man is he’s steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday, that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change, this man’s beliefs never will. And as excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of fox news.

Fox News gives you sides of every story, the president’s side and the vice president’s side.

Check the whole thing. It’s funny. Here, he auditions for press secretary:

Thanks to everyone who voted.

I confess that I’ve never read a word that Jane Jacobs has ever written. Although I plan to. And I know that others have commented on her recent passing.

But I read this in today’s New York Times, and found some of it quite thought-provoking.

It praises her for staring down Robert Moses and his plan to raze parts of Greenwich Village and SoHo to build an Expressway, but…

But the problems of the 20th-century city were vast and complicated. Ms. Jacobs had few answers for suburban sprawl or the nation’s dependence on cars, which remains critical to the development of American cities. She could not see that the same freeway that isolated her beloved, working-class North End from downtown Boston also protected it from gentrification. And she never understood cities like Los Angeles, whose beauty stems from the heroic scale of its freeways and its strange interweaving of man-made and natural environments.

The threats facing the contemporary city are not what they were when she first formed her ideas, now nearly 50 years ago. The activists of Ms. Jacobs’s generation may have saved SoHo from Mr. Moses’ bulldozers, but they could not stop it from becoming an open-air mall.

The old buildings are still there, the streets are once again paved in cobblestone, but the rich mix of manufacturers, artists and gallery owners has been replaced by homogenous crowds of lemming-like shoppers. Nothing is produced there any more. It is a corner of the city that is nearly as soulless, in its way, as the superblocks that Ms. Jacobs so reviled.

SoHo is, indeed, a mall with cobblestones. But those galleries, artists, and manufacturers have moved on to other, previously neglected parts of New York City. Brooklyn didn’t become hip until people started getting priced out of Manhattan.

Perhaps her legacy has been most damaged by those who continue to treat “Death and Life” as sacred text rather than as what it was: a heroic cri de coeur. Of those, the New Urbanists are the most guilty; in many cases, they reduced her vision of corner shops and busy streets to a superficial town formula that creates the illusion of urban diversity, but masks a stifling uniformity at its core.

This is true in large-scale projects as diverse as Battery Park City or Celebration, Fla., where narrow streets and parks were supposed to create an immediate sense of community. As it turns out, what the New Urbanists could not reproduce was the most critical aspect of Ms. Jacobs’s vision, the intimate neighborhood that is built — brick by brick, family by family — over a century.

For those who could not see it, the hollowness of this urban planning strategy was finally exposed in New Orleans, where planners were tarting up historic districts for tourists, even as deeper social problems were being ignored and its infrastructure was crumbling.

The answer to such superficiality is not to resurrect the spirit of Robert Moses. But in retrospect his vision, however flawed, represented an America that still believed a healthy government would provide the infrastructure — roads, parks, bridges — that binds us into a nation. Ms. Jacobs, at her best, was fighting to preserve the more delicate bonds that tie us to a community. A city, to survive and flourish, needs both perspectives.

On the one hand, the author makes some interesting points. Once in a while, the grand project isn’t so bad. Lincoln Center is brought up as an example.

On the other hand, I’m reminded of a character that David Cross used to periodically play on Mr. Show. The freakish intellectual who dresses in a scarf and trench coat even on a hot summer day. He scoffs at the idea of listening to music CDs, and relies on his old Victrola because it’s so “pure it hurts“, refuses to own a TV, etc.

New Urbanism may be nouveau and all, but it tries to maintain the principles that make a neighborhood a neighborhood. And a contrived neighborhood is better than a soulless concrete block or thruway.

I like Frank Lutz. He’s a consummate car guy. GM brought him in (he helped revive Chrysler in the 90s) to improve its product.

He’s the mastermind behind GM’s ongoing restructuring. Interiors aren’t quite as cheap as they used to be; everything has a better perceived quality and feel to it. Engines are more reliable and less coarse. Exterior design is no longer done by committee (see Pontiac Aztek), and is now done by actual designers (see Pontiac Solstice).

Last year, Lutz showed up at the NY Auto Show and declared Buick and Pontiac “damaged”, launching speculation that one of the marques would be discontinued. Buick has several all-new models out that aren’t quite up to Lexus standards yet, but are a vast improvement over what was out before.

This year, a journalist asked Lutz to comment on the notion that GM doesn’t build cars that people want to buy - a charge that was certainly true in, say, 2000.

Lutz’s reply, according to page C2 in the Buffalo News:

The Corvette C6 is sold out. The Corvette Z06 is sold out. The Pontiac Solstice is sold out. The Saturn Sky is sold out. Demand for the Chevy HHR is 200% higher than supply. The Chevy Impala outsold the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger combined in the first quarter of this year, and Chevy overtook Ford in total sales last year.

That’s great news for GM, and all of those cars (’cept maybe the Impala, which is still boring to me) are gorgeous. I’m also wondering whether the Impala’s higher figures are due either to fleet sales or high demand/low supply of the 300 and Charger.

Lutz adds:

So then people say, ‘I’ll give you the Corvette, Solstice, Sky, HHR, and Impala, but overall your vehicles stink.’ And we’re getting this from analysts who live in New York and don’t even own a car.”

I’d go on and say that the Chevy Cobalt (especially the SS supercharged version) is a huge improvement over the venerable, mediocre Cavalier. The Malibu and Pontiac G6 (Epsilon platform) could use a freshening, but are huge improvements over their predecessors. Pontiac has shed the cheap, grey, rental car interiors and ubiquitous body cladding. Saturn is due genuinely to become the import-fighter it was always meant to be when it releases the Aura, the Outlook, the next-gen Vue, and especially when a rebadged Opel Astra replaces the design abortion called the Ion.

The more GM improves its lineup, the better it is for folks in Tonawanda and Lockport, incidentally.

One Canadian dollar now buys almost 90 American cents.

In 2002, a Loonie bought 65 US cents.

Good for us, because we’re much more of a bargain for Canadian shoppers. 8.75% tax beats 16-or-so% GST/PST, too.

But T.O. is less of a bargain for us than it used to be.

The News’ Viewpoints section (the op-ed section) kicks off a comprehensive examination of what’s wrong with Albany and offers ideas - mostly culled from the Brennan Center report - how to fix it.

Term limits? I’m not a fan, but when you hear about some people in Albany being there for 50-odd years, there’s something wrong.

Objective redistricting? Yes! Gerrymandering to ensure re-election has got to stop.

Transforming legislative committees into true deliberative bodies? You should be shocked they’re not already so.

Capping debt and halting the practice of using public authorities as conduits for increased borrowing? Not only that, but ensure that the authorties become the direct responsibility of the governor and his staff, and that authorities act pursuant to laws passed by elected officials. No more fiefdoms.

My favorite, of course, is ending the practice of electoral fusion whereby little nothing parties with zero platform, zero candidates, and zero ideology get to wield a disproportionately large amount of power in the electoral process.

This Sunday at 10:00 a.m., the good Perfesser from the nice Catholic university on Main Street will talk to your humble correspondent, EC Dem chair Len Lenihan, 142nd Assembly Dist. R,C,I candidate Michael Cole (D,W candidate Jeff Bono was offered the same opportunity and could not appear), and Niagara Falls Reporter editor Mike Hudson.

At 10:30, Prof. Hardwick will be joined by Luke Moretti and Steve Barber for the roundtable discussion, and at 11, they’ll be joined by new ECGOP Chair Jim Domagalski.

Hizzardwick reprezent’n Canisius on WBEN from 10am - 12pm on Sunday. Ya heard?

Some people are all a-twitter because some Latino Americans had the unmitigated gall and audacity to record a version of the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish.

Seriously, listening to the Michelle Malkin types screaming and yelling about this insult to American honor is downright sickening. Get the fuck over yourselves. It’s the National Anthem. It’s not Jesus himself.

But aside from the fact that it’s not heresy to record the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish, I wonder if anyone who is spouting fire and brimstone about “Nuestro Himno” has heard it? Or read the lyrics?

(Incidentally, the practically unsingable Star Spangled Banner shouldn’t be the National Anthem at all. It should be “America the Beautiful”. Not “God Bless America.” I said “America the Beautiful”)

Read this:

By the light of the dawn, do you see arising,
what we proudly hailed at twilight’s last fall?
Its stars, its stripes
yesterday streamed
above fierce combat
a gleaming emblem of victory
and the struggle toward liberty.
Throughout the night, they proclaimed:
“We will defend it!”
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?
Its stars, its stripes,
liberty, we are the same.
We are brothers in our anthem.
In fierce combat, a gleaming emblem of victory
and the struggle toward liberty.
My people fight on.
The time has come to break the chains.
Throughout the night they proclaimed, “We will defend it!”
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?

*Gasp* Sacred flag?! Gleaming emblem of victory?! Its starry beauty?!

Again - if you think it’s bad for Spanish speaking Americans to rework the National Anthem into a Spanish equivalent that it completely respectful of the symbolism of the song, and the flag, then you really need to check yourself.

Here’s an mp3 of it. “Nuestro Himno”

I like how some jackass expressed the idea that the French would never stand for the Marseillaise to be sung in a language other than French. I guess the fact that it makes up the opening bars of “All You Need Is Love” is ok, though.

But here’s an example of how the language of the anthem doesn’t really fucking matter, not one whit:

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

and

O Canada! Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!

Car ton bras sait porter l’épée,
Il sait porter la croix!

Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.

Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Yet somehow Canada thrives. With two sets of lyrics in two official languages.

The USA doesn’t have an official language, by the way.

Ethan from BR sent this to me today. It’s a website where people photograph themselves flipping off random Hummer H2s.

And I’m all for that. The H2 is such a poseur mobile.

But ultimately, this has now become the ultimate “FUH2″:

Check out the WNY Progress Report Saturday at 9 AM for a chat with Timothy Karr from Free Press.net about phony news, schemes to ruin the Internet, and other media issues gripping our nation. Calls will be taken at (716) 855-6848 and views will be exchanged, and what you hear just might shock you.

And some guy who calls himself “Buffalopundit” or something pretentious like that will be filling in for Kevin tomorrow.

Saturday. 9:00 am. News Talk 1270 AM and online at http://www.whldam1270.com.

Rush Limbaugh was arrested today on one charge of “Doctor Shopping” in an effort improperly to obtain Oxycontin.

He was released one hour later on $3,000 bail, and pled not guilty to one charge of doctor shopping.

Under the terms of an agreement with the State of Florida, so long as el Rushbo stays out of trouble and doesn’t relapse for 18 months, the one charge against him will be dropped.

Back in Mass., we called that “pretrial probation”. Not uncommon for first offenders.

Update: And yeah, that’s his mugshot.

The News gives another puzzling endorsement. Evidently channeling Ted from “Bill and Ted”, it praises both candidates as “decent.”

Then it reminds you that it’s important to vote.

The 142nd is the late Sandra Lee Wirth’s district. Two people are vying for her seat. Republican Alden Town Supervisor Michael Cole, and Democrat Jeffrey Bono, who’s affiliated with Jack Davis’ Save American Jobs movement.

Whoever wins has to run again in November.

The News:

Both have similar stances on several issues and want to be an independent voice in Albany. Both also have experience that could prove helpful in the Legislature, Cole with close looks at economic impacts through his work as a bankruptcy attorney and Bono with health care experience from his hospital work in Los Angeles and fund-raising work here.

But Cole has a better grasp of specific legislative needs and offers better ideas, and for that reason earns The Buffalo News’ endorsement in this election. He also maintains a dissenting party seat in a chamber where Democrats rule with little thought for what’s best for this Assembly district.

Maybe explain to me how Cole has a better grasp of “specific legislative needs” and how his ideas are “better.”

Maybe explain to me how it makes sense to send a freshman Republican into Shelly Silver’s lair.

When you think about it, it makes no sense. Wirth was a Republican. Hers was a “dissenting party seat”. Since she wasn’t Silver’s pet, she couldn’t do bugger-all for the district. So, how is electing a new Republican going to prompt Albany Democrats to “rule with” any more “though for what’s best for this Assembly District”, using the News’ own logic?

Here’s what Bono proposes on his website:

* We need to enact the Brennan Center’s suggested Assembly reforms. They will make government more transparent and de-centralize the authority that is currently given to the Speaker. Rank-and-file members deserve a voice. Committees should have the first crack at drafting good legislation, and once voted out of committee, there should be open public debate. If we enact these reforms, we will be taking a large step in the good government direction. The first step to making this a reality is getting new representation with a positive attitude in Albany. We haven’t been able to trust our Legislature for twenty years and it is my belief that the longer we keep these people in power, the longer our dubious streak will continue.

This isn’t the kind of new Buffalo is used to.

People on the coasts, sure. Buffalonians? Not so much.

Rocco Termini just put a building filled with renovated loft apartments on the rental market. Fully leased.

Under an innovative incentive program, Termini can afford to rent the gorgeous lofts to young professionals earning less than Buffalo’s median income - $37,000 - for about $500-$800.

One of IS Lofts inaugural tenants is a college student who will graduate next month from a university in Philadelphia.

“He wanted a really cool apartment and wanted to be downtown. At IS he can pay well under $1,000 a month for something that would run $2,500 in Philly,” Termini said.

In addition to $2.1 million in low-income tax credits from the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal, the project also received $1.1 million in permanent financing through the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC). The not-for-profit mortgage lender will sell bonds to back the loan through the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

For Buffalo, it means 24 filled apartments on Oak Street. People moving downtown. People with disposable income who like to go out on weekends.

I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this in the near future, and it’s so great for the City.

The Spree has posted its Best of list online here.

Jen14221’s new blog column is here.

My restaurant reviews (May Jen, Ming Cafe & Chang’s Garden) - you gotta buy the hard copy. Bitches.

Craig posts about United 93, the dramatization of what may have happened aboard that doomed aircraft on 9/11. He notes that the reviews are good, even in ArtVoice. But the ArtVoice review suggests that the film has the whiff of propaganda.

Of course it does. Dramatization of heroism has long been used by certain governments and regimes for propagandistic purposes. That’s nothing new. It’s no Alexandr Nevsky or Battleship Potemkin, though.

Craig adds his two cents:

Anyone who can even suspect “propaganda” in Greengrass’s statement about brave people taking action, is looking for propaganda. And what is that propaganda? Brave people taking action against a terrorist attack are to be admired. And by the rather jarring leap from movie review to fears over attacking Iran, Faust expresses what I think is a common worry on the left, but one not often openly-admitted.

After the attacks of September 11 there has been a noticeable lack of documentaries and films about the events of that day. There’s been plenty of debate over their causes and effects — but the entertainment industry (film and TV) have been extremely reticent to rebroadcast the horrifying pictures of the people jumping to their deaths rather than burn. We haven’t seen any dramatizations of the heroism of New York’s firefighters and police. And up till now (with the exception of a TV-movie) the stories of the people caught on the planes that day have been absent from screens.

The reason given is that it’s all just too recent — they’re simply being sensitive to the families of the victims. No need to open old wounds. But it’s been more than four years now and 9/11 remains the single most important event of the 21st century. It’s exceedingly odd that an attack against the United States that killed 3,000 people and destroyed three of America’s most iconic buildings has disappeared from view.

Single most important event of the 5-year old 21st century. It is, I suppose. But 9/11 has disappeared from whose view? Let’s continue…

The big fear of replaying the footage of that day and dramatizing its heroism is that we unsophisticated jingoistic and unwashed Americans of a certain political persuasion will be renewed in our determination to assure that Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is wiped out. Flagging support for the War Against Terror might just be renewed; if you’re opposed to the American-led war, it’s a very sensible fear.

What war against terror? There is no war against terror. As David Cross said, a war on terror is as pointless as a war on jealousy.

There’s a war against the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. There’s a war of insurgency and almost a civil war in Iraq. Our homeland security department is extraordinarily concerned with the appearance of security, rather than actual security.

You want to see what homeland security is supposed to be like? Go to London. Heavy but not heavyhanded police presence. Ubiquitous security cameras. Constant reminders to the public to be vigilant. These people had been dealing with the IRA long before bin Laden put on his pajamas and went to Afghanistan.

Because it’s homeland security that is the real war on terror. Not the installation of a nominally democratic government in Iraq or controlling the city of Kabul and environs. The notion that people are poo-pooing United 93 as “too soon”, etc. because they don’t want people to remember 9/11 and become more pro-Bush or pro-war is pretty darn condescending.

And the idea that we’re not properly honoring 9/11 until we dramatize it is just silly.

But the media log-jam may have broken with the release of United 93. And while I suspect that most of us will resist our instincts to exit the theater and head down the street goose-stepping toward Iran, we probably will be inspired.

I didn’t see Mel Gibson’s Jesus snuff film, and I won’t go see this, either. I know the former was the Lucianne-Coulter movie of 2005, and I’m suspecting that United 93 will sort of be the same. There’s a tipping point at which a particular movie gets so much hype, that it becomes completely unappealing to me.

But United 93 also doesn’t appeal because to me, it seems like a cheap dramatization of a heroic act that may best be left to our imagination and psyche rather than a Hollywood dumbing-down and make-believery.

9/11. Brought to you by Hallmark.

I don’t need Hollywood either to validate the import of 9/11, or my thoughts, opinions, memories, or feelings about it.

I’m back from the Spree Best of Party, and I can proudly proclaim that your humble correspondent was the runner-up for Best Buffalo Blog; the winner was Buffalo Rising. Congratulations to Newell, George & the gang.

There, I bumped into Jen14221, who is now writing the blog column for the Spree, and met her husband, too.

My favorite pizza joint, Zetti’s, was runner-up for Best Buffalo Pizza (traditional), which is phenomenal for a business that’s been open for 2 years and makes authentic New York-style thin crust pizza. The winner was La Hacienda (Pine & 31st in Niagara Falls), which also makes authentic New York-style thin crust pizza.

Shea’s is a beautiful setting in which to mingle and sample lots of great food from local restaurants.

I also finally got an opportunity to meet Andy Sedita, who heads up Erie County’s Park system, and we chatted about Santaland, which remains unfunded for 2006, but fingers are crossed and wood is being knocked all over town.

It was a great event for a good cause, and the beginning of a great new annual feature for the Spree.

In my earlier open thread, Dan from Cyburbia posted a link to Tops Thailand.

Same logo and everything. How surreal is that? (And yes, there is a Tops location that matches the title of this post)

Sure enough, it started out as a Royal Ahold joint venture:

TOPS Supermarket was initially launched in 1996 as a joint venture with the Dutch supermarket giant Royal Ahold. It is the first Thai supermarket to set up centralized distribution centers for fresh foods and dry grocery products. These centers allow better quality control and earned TOPS superior freshness and food safety certifications from public health organizations. TOPS became a wholly owned Central Retail company in early 2004, and is today the leading supermarket brand in Thailand

I love worthless trivia like this.

Kellie Pickler was voted off of American Idol last night. About 2 weeks too late. There’s only so long her ignorant charm and cutie-pie looks could support the thin singing voice and complete inability to sing in different genres.

Her rendition last week of “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” was so incredibly bad it was shocking that she wasn’t in the bottom three. She wasn’t only off-key, she lost the rhythm completely, as well.

I’m not that into Idol this year as I have been before, but I like the bald guy and the guy with grey hair. Whatever their names are.

Buffalopundit…out.

The countdown of days until George W. Bush’s departure from the White House has now reached the three-digits; 999 days until 1/20/09.

There is, my friends, a light at the end of the tunnel.

HT Oliver Willis

The Buffalo Spree is holding its first “Best of” party tonight at Shea’s. You can get tickets here, the proceeds from which benefit Carly’s Club.

Some of you know that I contribute to the Spree, but the real reason I’m going is that the blog has been nominated for a “Best of” award.

Which means that you - the people who stop by and read my profane ramblings - voted for this blog.

For that, you have my gratitude.

I don’t do this for money or for glory; I do it for the fun of it. I love to write and this is a perfect outlet for me. I love to discuss and debate issues relating to Western New York, and I try - when I can - to turn my words and opinions into something more palpable.

So, despite the fact that my beloved WNY Coalition for Progress has a media & communications working group meeting tonight, I will be at Shea’s to party with the Spree-istas. Thanks again for your votes.

Evidently, Snoop Dogg is writing a book.

Fark has a photoshop contest asking contributors to photoshop the cover of said book.

My favorite? “All My Peeps Poops, Yo.”