The story isn’t that a creepy congressman from Florida Mark Foley was busy behaving inappropriately online with 16-year-old male congressional pages. (I wonder how many Barney Frank jokes this guy guffawed at). The story isn’t that a creepy congressman from Florida got caught doing this almost a year ago.

The story is that Denny Hastert claims not to have known about it, but Tom Reynolds admits that he knew about it a year ago, and told Hastert about it.

So, locally the story is that Tom Reynolds likes people like Tom Delay and does absolutely nothing when he learns that his Republican congressional colleague abused his position by making inappropriate comments to underage boys ostensibly under the Congress’ tutelage.

They can’t say they didn’t know. They can only say they didn’t care. They can only say that protecting that Republican seat was more important than protecting a 16-year-old boy from a person in authority.

Red got his STAR rebate check and evidently it’s all going to Australia.

Craig Howard thinks that the Democrats are indistinguishable from al Qaeda.

How droll. How reasonable.

Of course, I don’t recall the last time a Democrat blew up 3,000 people. But that oughtn’t get in the way of a hi-larious freeper metaphor.

Geek is in receipt of his Stouffer’s Macaroni & Cheese I mean frozen Uno’s I mean his Chicago deep dish pizzas, shipped from that windiest of cities.

Monday. Zetti’s. 6:30. Pizza & wine. Be there & bring your favorite).

So, the first questions out of the box involved whether I missed living in Westchester (not at all - you try getting caught in nasty traffic on the 287 or the Sprain or on Central Ave on a Saturday afternoon, coupled with generally unfriendly people, by Buffalo’s standards), and ribbing about the weather in Buffalo (no, a cloudless 50-degree morning does not constitute a heat wave).

The radio show is run by two law partners from White Plains, and the first segment involved a client of theirs who had recently gotten himself into some trouble in Family Court down in Yonkers. They had a pretty insightful discussion about where the breakdown is that permits a kid so young to get into so much trouble so fast, and what society in general could do to minimize that from happening when the family obviously is broken down.

We began by discussing some pretty abysmal math scores from Buffalo city schools, and I spoke about Superintendent Williams’ efforts to reform the city’s schools, and how certain entrenched interests - both labor and management - are at odds about how and whether the schools should be reformed. We talked about flex time for schools, and the possible extension of the school year, and I noted that the one thing that would help New York improve in a lot of ways would be for these competing interests to all show a little flexibility so that progress can occasionally be made.

They were particularly galled by the fact that the http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050616/1050134.asp“>Buffalo city school’s budget is larger than that of the http://www.ci.buffalo.ny.us/document_1947_3.html“>City itself.

The segment was over pretty quickly, and we’ll talk again about other topics.

Step one a lot of times involves convincing our downstate cousins that upstate and western New York aren’t wholly populated by the cast of Deliverance.

A statement from fictional Kazakh reporter Borat’s D.C. press conference outside the Embassy of Kazakhstan:

UPDATE: The reason YouTube rocks? Full video up - same day raw feeds:

Part 1:

Part 2:

“Jagshemash, my name Borat Sagdiyev. I would like to comment on recent advertisments on television and in media about my nation of Kazakhstan, saying that women are treated equally, and that all religions are tolerated — these are disgusting fabrications. These claims are part of a propoganda campaign against our country by evil nitwits Uzbekistan — who as we all know are a very nosey people, with a bone in the middle of their brain.

“There is a man name Roman Vasilenko who is claiming to be Press Secretary of Kazakhstan. Please do not listen this man, he is Uzbek imposter, and is currently being hunted by our agents. I must further say on behalf of my government, that if Uzbekistan do not desist from funding these attacks, then we will not rule out the possibility of military intervention. …

“Furthermore, all claims that our glorious leader is displeased with my film, ‘Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazahkstan’ is lie. Infacts main purpose of Premier Nazharbayev’s visit to Washingtons is to promote this moviefilm. This why together with Ministry of Information he will be hosting a screening tomorrow evening, to which he have invitate Premier George Walter Bush and other American dignitaries — Donald Rumsfeld, Bill Gates, O.J. Simpson and Mel Gibsons. This screening will be followed by cocktail party and a discussion of closer ties between our countries at Hooters, on 825 7th Street.

“Thank you, I must now return to Embassy where my government need me.

“Chenquieh”

WBEN is reporting that:

Women all over Western New York are unable to cash many of the checks, because they are made out to the male property owner, even in cases where the property deed lists both the husband and wife.

I actually noted that when I realized that only I had to endorse the thing.

Long Island’s Newsday reports the checks, by virtue of being property tax rebates, are considered as income, and taxable.

Ah, sweet irony.

But even better:

State authorities claimed they didn’t have enough room on the checks to notify the public that they are taxable - even though room was made to feature Pataki’s name.

The state tax department destroyed 200,000 STAR rebate checks because they didn’t give credit to the governor and the state legislature.

The first run checks only mentioned the rebate program, while the reissues add the phrase “approved by Governor George Pataki and the state legislature.”

Pataki had opposed the school tax rebate, though he signed the bill under threat of a veto override.

Tax officials say the checks were changed to clarify confusing jargon and that they made the change on their own.

WVOX.

The County Legislature approved $4 million in new borrowing to help fund the Buffalo Zoo’s $16 million Rainforest attraction.

At risk was the state funding, as well as a $4 million challenge grant from M&T Bank Chairman Robert G. Wilmers, whose name will adorn the rain forest. Loughran said he liked the project but was opposed to borrowing to make it happen. He wanted the county to take the $4 million out of last year’s budget surplus.

Once the county control board said it supported the zoo plan, that gave the leg the green light to pass it. I think it’ll be a wonderful project. I think it’s somewhat of a shame that it needed county money to get built.

Ugh. Under the “compromise” bill on torture, the administration must allow detainees to have a trial, but the President may “interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Convention”.

For your information, Schumer & Clinton voted against the bill. Slaughtervoted against the bill. Reynolds, Kuhl, and Higgins voted for it.

UPDATE: Jesus’ General has put the vote in starker terms.

Since 2006 is a truck year (Nfz) for the Frankfurt Auto Show, the Paris show takes center stage as automakers from around the world roll out the 2007 models and concepts.

Autoblog is there.

First off, do you want to hear an F1 engine play “God Save the Queen”/”My Country ’tis of Thee”? Of course you do (it’s done with the help of a computer).

F1 Engine Song - video powered by Metacafe

Next up is the Volvo C30 - a hatchback coupe version of the popular S40. Its glass rear hatch is reminiscent of the classic Volvo 1800. Now all we need is BMW to come up with a 2002 successor, and VW to release a Karmann Ghia successor. The C30 will be sold in the US, available with the 5 cylinder turbo that makes 218 HP, 236 lb-ft of torque, and people smile.

Never fear, though. VW will be turning this concept into the all-new Scirocco:

After decades as the best of the mediocre Sovet-bloc cars, Å koda (a VW group company) is now among the best-respected marques in Europe, known for quality surpassing its German cousins. Here, Å koda shows off its “Joyster” concept. Think Honda Element for the European Golf-klasse market.

Minivans in Europe are not US-sized behemoths, but closer in size to the new (impressive, handy but underpowered) Mazda5. Volkswagen and Daimler-Chrysler are collaborating on the next-generation offerings from those two marques (VW never sold a true minivan in the US, but its European offering, the Sharan, is getting long in the tooth). Wouldn’t it be nice to see the facelifted VW Touran Mini-MPV, seen here, on US shores? Particularly with VW’s awesome 2.0L FSI turbo and the ability to row one’s own gears:

And its seats 7 comfortably. More later.

On Monday, please be at Zetti’s with your favorite pie submission by 6:30 at the latest. All are welcome to participate, but it’d be good if you brought a pie.

The Spree will be printing up voting cards for people to fill out, and we’ll peg the pies by number with a key, so the tasters can’t necessarily shill for their favorite.

No wonder they’re all going negative.

A Channel 2 poll shows Tom Reynolds (R-inc) to be in a statistical dead heat with Jack Davis (D).

Reynolds is at 45% and Davis is at 43%.

In a district that was especially carved to ensure Reynolds’ incumbency, that’s pretty stark news for him. I wonder what it is about Davis that has people backing him? Is it the Smoot-Hawley protectionism? Is it his pining for the good old days of a manufacturing-based economy, when the rest of the industrialized world has pretty literally already shifted to an information and services-based economy? Could it be as simple as disgust with Congress and a movement to throw the bums out? Could it be Reynolds’ coziness and defense of Tom Delay?

Who knows.

All I do know is that Davis is distracting the hell out of Reynolds, who is technically in charge of every Republican congressional re-election campaign this season.

Hodgepodge goes and makes me do some brain-thinkin’ by asking a pretty good question: shouldn’t we define the goal for Buffalo, and then work to achieve it?

It’s pretty basic, when you think about it, but we seem constantly mired in procedure here, rather than substance - I know I’m as guilty of that as anyone. Specifically, Hodge asks:

What is success for Buffalo? What are the objectives? What is the time frame? What are the milestones? What is the unit of analysis - the city of Buffalo, the county of Erie, or Western New York more broadly?

As Geek notes, the answer is going to differ depending on whom you speak with.

But I think the answer is obvious. The goal has to do with population growth, because such growth would be circumstantial evidence of other positives.

Buffalo 400,000 in 2016.

A population growth of 100,000 people within city limits in 10 years. Hodgepodge suggests whether the 8 counties of WNY, or all of Erie County should be included in the calculation, and I don’t think they do. If the city grows, so will the rest of the region.

The foundation for a growth such as that has already been lain. Culturals rival any big city’s. The medical corridor is beginning to attract brilliant minds from around the world. Buffalo is shedding its image (and self-perception) as a backwards rust-belt has-been. We have many local colleges graduating thousands of young, bright minds every year - many of whom might stay, given the chance. Downtown is poised for revival.

How do we build on that potential? Obviously, population growth would be indicative of New York in general being an attractive place to live. Our problems aren’t unique to Buffalo, as much as we like to think they are. Instead, they’re shared by most non-metro-NYC cities throughout the state.

The key lies in Albany.

Reformation of our backwards public authority system. Reformation of our lobbyist’s funpark into a true deliberative legislature. Reformation of our county government system to minimize or abolish unfunded mandates, and to re-think county government’s duties. Streamlining of public services. We need to make New York at least as competitive as other states.

Make New York competitive, and watch Buffalo grow.

I grew up in White Plains, and on Friday between 10 and 10:30, I’ll be the call-in guest on Bill Martin’s show on WVOX 1460-AM in New Rochelle (on the 95 between Rye and the Bronx).

Should be a good conversation about WNY, Westchester, and NYS politics in general. Check it out and listen on the web, if you’re so inclined.

I read it so you don’t have to

1. Let’s be clear: Mary does not like modern art. Period. Full Stop, for our British friends. She refers to it as “foundering in a sea of bright stripes, phallic abstract sculptures, giant chairs and tables and all kinds of other flotsam and jetsam”. Instead, she wants Rembrandt and Renoir but found only one Gauguin which was “in exile, unguarded, unloved, barely distinguishable from the bargain-basement gift shop sale going on next to it. We wanted to try to buy it. But we were afraid they’d give it to us for nothing.” Today’s phallic abstract sculpture may be tomorrow’s masterpiece.

2. Mary finds the poster for the October 6th performance of Configuration Dance to be “art expos[ing] itself to you” because the dancers on the poster are “scantily clad” in spandex. Remember - she doesn’t like the Beatles.

3. Mary went to Oktoberfest and Beerfest and found the man:woman ratio to be advantageous to women. She liked the German music at Oktoberfest. Also, Mary suggests making your own wine. To meet men.

4. Mary went out in the rain on Saturday and found people who did things outdoors despite the rain.

5. For the “Buzz”, Mary notes that Laughlin’s Beef & Barrel (Franklin @ W. Tupper) now has blues on Thursday nights. El Museo needs altars for the Day of the Dead exhibition, so design yourself a funky altar to someone like Lance Diamond and submit.

Generally inoffensive, but the bits about the modern art and spandex-clad dancers merit an 8.2

Jeanine Pirro - Westchester DA and talk-show guest extraordinaire - is being investigated by the (Bush-appointed) US Attorney down there for allegations that she was going to hire someone to surveil her husband, whom she suspected of extramarital activities. Specifically, she hired former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik to bug the Pirros’ boat.

This is getting loads of play downstate, and is being reported locally, but I suspect this story won’t have legs. New York Magazine’s Early & Often says:

As political spouses go, Al is no Laura Bush. He spent eleven months in prison, fathered an illegitimate daughter during his marriage to Pirro, and was recently arrested for speeding…You almost have to admire the mixture of incompetence and fortitude that compels Jeanine Pirro to press on, Job-like, with her political career.”

The Times has a roundup of blog commentary from around the state’s nether regions, and many are concluding that, given Pirro’s hubby problem in general, this is the maraschino cherry topping the icing on the cake.

Here’s part of Pirro’s statement on the issue:

Nothing happened here that is, or should be, the business of the United States attorney’s office… Sometime last year, I came to believe that my husband was seeing another woman. I was angry and had him followed to see if what I suspected was true. Although I spoke about taping him, there was no wiretapping by me of anyone. There was anger, and frustration, and nothing more.

Ben Smith from the Daily Politics has the video of her presser via YouTube:

I feel bad for Pirro. There’s no excuse for something like this being investigated, or being publicized. Her husband is already a massive distraction, but she had managed to somehow compartmentalize her political career from that.

That’s all academic, though. I don’t think she has a chance.

Courtesy of the Buffaloi.com.

Here, Buffaloi expounds on the BNE’s numbers. (Cf. Geek)

Cindy Locklear compares the recent payout of bonuses to ECMC administrators to the sky-high salaries of Buffalo Bills personnel, concluding:

Finally; the complaint that really irks me is the one that says even though Young has exceeded his contractually identified performance objectives, we are going to REWRITE his contract in the media and political arena to also require that ECMC be off the county’s subsidy before he is paid the bonus. Quoting Mr. Poloncarz: “…such bonuses should only be paid when the Hospital becomes a self sufficient and profitable entity”.

However, this argument is more political than either legal or even logical. It in fact punishs Young for the deep hole of a deficit ECMC gave him to start from and is in essence telling him “I dont care if you have climbed halfway up the hole and can now see the daylight, your head is still not out of the hole”. This mindset fails to recognize that this CEO is doing exactly what he was hired to do, something that no one before him has done. Under the current projections ECMC will not need the subsidy by 2008. And that will all be due to Mr. Young’s vision and plan of execution.

Young is capturing all the identified milestones on the road to self sufficiency and profitably and he should be rewarded accordingly and without acrimony.

Are we forgetting that the guy already makes $411,000? I think that’s handsome remuneration from a heavily subsidized entity. $100,000 bonus is extraordinarily generous. His contract may require the payment of such a bonus, yes - but one wonders whether the city employees living under a wage freeze would sympathize much if Mr. Young’s bonus was, oh, say halted by a control board?

Specifically, she notes:

Earlier this week Comptroller Poloncarz was quoted in the News as saying that cash bonuses paid this past summer to ECMC CEO Michael Young ($99,750) and to CFO Sue McCarthy ($28,167) were “inappropriate” and “questionable” and “misguided”.

Dear Mr. Poloncarz, where is your comparable “weighing in” on the salaries of the Buffalo Bills players? or Marv Levy?

The county owns the stadium and leases it to the Bills for next to nothing. The county contributes $2.75 million per year for improvements to the stadium.

The Bills receive nothing from the county for operating expenses.

In 2006, the County will give ECMC over $11 million for improvements, plus another $38 million through 2009. On top of that, the County gives ECMC a subsidy for operating expenses of $19 million for 2005, $20 million this year, and $14 million next year, plus debt service for 2008.

Bills? Private entity. No operating subsidy.
ECMC? Public benefit corporation. Massive operating subsidy from Erie County.

Apples & oranges.

Rick Snowden of Tally-Ho fame is selling the strip clubs and his Nottingham Street mansion for a package deal totalling almost $7.5 million.

You’ll remember that Mr. Snowden was considering a run for office, but found that his job was holding him back; WNYers didn’t want to vote for a stripclub owner. That rejection, plus a fight with the state department of revenue was about to send Snowden packing:

[Snowden] planned to return to Las Vegas due to New York State’s high personal, property and business taxes. Before that, he had contemplated a political career, sizing up races for Congress, the State Legislature and Erie County executive.

The strip club entrepreneur now says he’s getting out of the adult entertainment business altogether, and is looking to buy property in East Aurora, where he can raise horses and “enjoy family life” with his wife, Danielle, and five young children.

“We’ve made many wonderful friends in our time here, and my wife would really like to stay here, so that seems to be where we’re headed,” Snowden said.

He said he’s contemplating a new career in fine arts and antiques, as well as business consulting and public relations. But first he plans to take time off from the work world.

“I’ve been in the entertainment business for 27 years and now I’m in the family mode,” Snowden said.

I’m glad they’re staying in Western New York, and I’m happy he’s evidently re-thought his choice of industry. If the guy has any political ambitions whatsoever, he will benefit from being a horse farmer rather than a stripclub owner, and he will also benefit from having stayed and fought the DOR, rather than (to coin a phrase) cutting and running.

Hurry, hurry. You can download a passport application here, or a Nexus application here. You’re going to need one of them.

A major clash erupted among Republican congressional leaders Tuesday over an agreement to delay stringent new identification requirements for Americans crossing the border.

Business groups fear that requiring Americans to get passports or similar documents will stifle trade and tourism in struggling communities.

Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence, said the actions of his own House GOP leadership left him “disappointed and frustrated.” Here’s what happened:

In the morning, Republicans and Democrats from states along the northern border announced that the mandate would be delayed to June 1, 2009, from Jan. 1, 2008.

A Senate-House conference committee, run by Republican appropriations chairmen, agreed to insert the 17-month delay into a homeland security spending bill.

Sens. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Norm Coleman, R-Minn., praised the conference report as a huge victory for businesses on the northern border.

But “at the 11th hour,” according to Reynolds, House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., objected. Sensenbrenner prevailed on House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to strip the delay from the conference report.

Had Hastert not intervened, the House and Senate would have voted before the end of the session for the delay - a move business interests had sought vigorously for more than a year.

Lewis “Luke” Rich, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s point man on border issues, said Reynolds labored all day to save the postponement language.

As matters stand, the Jan. 1, 2008, deadline remains in force - which Reynolds said “is both unreasonable and unworkable because of the turf battles between the Departments of State and Homeland Security.”

Reynolds, a House leader by virtue of his job as National Republican Campaign Committee chairman, said he “will continue to work toward a delay, . . . either through legislation like my own or other vehicles.”

Reynolds, Schumer and Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, made postponement proposals.

Alerted by Slaughter, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier in the day sent appeals to all its affiliates, including the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, to save the postponement.

They asked local chambers and business groups to urge Hastert not to do what he ultimately did - strip away the postponement provision.

Late Tuesday, Slaughter called on Hastert to reverse himself.

“Homeland Security and the State Department are pursuing a deeply flawed plan that will negatively impact cross-border commerce with minimal gains to border security,” she wrote. “The Government Accountability Office concluded in May that [the Departments of Homeland Security and State] are not likely to meet the 2008 deadline.”

Then, there’s this letter in today’s News:

The Canada passports measure is yet another attempt to harness the herd, and let the wolves go. The Muslims who have been committing or planning acts of terror need to be detained. This measure, however, will only make the lines to get across the Peace Bridge, Rainbow Bridge and Lewiston-Queenston Bridge longer.
The Muslims in question range in age from 17 to 40, and 98 times out of 100, they’re male. Yet in an attempt to cut down terrorist traffic, the government wants to stop everyone at the border, which will reduce the flow of dollars between the United States and Canada. This makes everyone a suspect, not just the terrorists.

Of the top 25 terrorist organizations, only two are non-Muslim: the Basque group ETA (Spain) and Sinn Fein (Ireland). The rest originate primarily in the Middle East. Why not stop them from coming here?

It reminds me of Soviet Russia, where police or army officers would ask for a person’s “papers.” Requiring a passport to enter a neighboring country with open borders toward each other’s citizens would be like asking for papers. Let’s all get back to the basic tenets of being American - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Kenneth M. Boser II
Allegany

Lots of competing interests and issues here. Let’s step back a second and try to be rational.

The goal is to ensure that our borders are secure and that we halt potential terrorists from entering the country, yes?

Yes. OK.

The issue then becomes the means to achieve that goal. Are passports the answer?

Without a doubt, no.

The letter-writer’s comparison to Soviet Russia’s KGB “papers, please” is dead wrong. Most international borders require a passport, with the exception of the EU’s Schengen countries, and possibly some others. Even now, you’re supposed to have proof of citizenship when crossing between the US and Canada - it doesn’t have to be a passport, however.

I have a big problem with the federal government arbitrarily mandating that a passport (or Nexus) is the only acceptable form of citizenship identification at the Canadian border. It automatically and instantly imposes at least a $50 burden on every American adult wishing to walk across the Rainbow Bridge, or dine at Ming Teh. (A Nexus pass is $50 for an adult, and you have to undergo a background check and interview. A passport is about $100, and all you need to do is send in a birth certificate and fill out a form).

If the federal government wishes to impose a new identification regulation at the Canadian border, then at the very least the ID should be offered free of charge to anyone living in a zip code within, say, 50 or 100 miles of that border.

Otherwise, it’s an unfair imposition of a tax on residents of border regions.

I’m particularly struck by the mention of “turf wars” between State and Homeland Security. Shouldn’t that have been taken care of by Mr. Resolve in the White House?

The answer isn’t passports. It’s smart people in the customs booths. Profiling leaves a bad, unconstitutional taste in people’s mouths, but profiling that passes constitutional muster is exactly what is needed. In other words, it can’t be profiling based on race, gender, religion, etc. It has to be profiling based on a number of factors so as to ensure constitutional muster. If a grandma from Kenmore comes across the Peace Bridge after a day of bingo, she gets a wave. If a young man with a Canadian passport is alone, is sweating on a cool day, won’t look the guard in the eyes, and can’t explain where he’s going or why he’s coming across, then he gets pulled over for some extra questioning. They already do that. Let’s just make sure everyone’s trained as well as possible to do it.

Responding to the “Casey-cam”, Donn Esmonde suggests the “Citizen-cam” so that we average schmucks can keep track of what our political leaders do on public time, or on other people’s dime.

We are their bosses. We pay their salaries. We have a right to know if they are on the job, or goofing off. Forget Casey-cam. We need Citizen-cam.

Given today’s technology, a small video chip could be affixed to every elected official. It would constantly broadcast a live feed to public access TV or an Internet site. At any time of day, we could find out where our public servants are and what they are up to.

Casey was accused last year of working for then-State Sen. Brown’s mayoral campaign on our time. Citizen-cam would have showed us whether he was in his staff office or out pounding the pavement for Brown.

Monitoring Casey’s movements is just the tip of the iceberg. Casey and Brown are products of Albany, the home of the nation’s most dysfunctional government. Affixing Citizen-cams on our state lawmakers would give us a close look at the chaos.

I love it anytime someone reminds us that Casey was on the public payroll during the entire summer of 2005 while he was running Brown’s campaign full-time. No-show jobs have been popularized in, e.g., the Sopranos. Thanks to the magic of “comp time”, he was able to take a leave lasting several months and continue to draw his state paycheck as if he were toiling away in Albany for the people of the 60th Senate District. Not illegal…but certainly stinks of a mixture of skunk and poo.

A News editorial brings it up, too.

Don’t forget that Casey also managed to park in a marked non-parking zone adjacent to Brown campaign HQ for the entire summer - oftentimes blocking legitimate delivery vehicles - by merely placing an “official Senate business” placard on his dashboard. Free downtown parking with impunity in in a no-parking zone. The administration that gave us “zero-tolerance” especially with parking violations. Irony and stink abound.