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The Buffalo News today points out that Western New York is poised to wield much more power in Congress.  Brian Higgins and Louise Slaughter will be in much stronger positions.  They will be in a position to bring the bacon home.

While this may sound good for the Buffalo government, it does nothing to address the fundamental fault of our government - It is too big and spends too much money.  We may enjoy a temporary benefit from increased pork headed to our tables, but it will come at a cost.  Essentially, our future is still being mortgaged for the present.

Higgins thinks he can get the funds approved quickly for a new Federal Courthouse.  That will be about $115 million spent on a “feel-good” project that is not necessary.  He’s not content to stop there.  He also wants to expand the metrorail.  The metrorail has one of the most heavily subsidize operating budgets locally.  Fares don’t even cover 1/4 of the cost of a ride.  Why shouldn’t I, and others, be entitled to having over 75% of the cost of operating our cars subsidized?

As the gravy train continues to roll on, we become more firmly entrenched as indentured servants to our government.

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Big Government constantly lies about the effects and accomplishments of its extravagent social programs.  The true costs and consequences are very rarely discussed openly.  Here’s a few examples:

• Sen. Dan Quayle (R-Ind.), who parlayed his role as chief author of the 1982 Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) into the vice presidency, claimed that the act “has a job placement rate … for the young people around 70 percent.” However, this statistic was actually based not on jobs but on “positive outcomes” — which included learning how to make change from a dollar and demonstrating “effective non-verbal communication with others.”
• The Job Corps, the flagship of Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, padded its success claims by counting Corps trainees as employed simply by confirming that they had had one job interview.
• Government education programs are notorious for using deceptive statistics to lull parents about the quality of schooling their children receive. School test data have been manipulated to allow “all 50 state education agencies to report above-average scores for their elementary schools, with most claiming such scores in every subject area and every grade level,” as former Education Department official Larry Uzzell stated in 1989.
• The No Child Left Behind Act itself has become another fount of scams. The act spurred states to slash their learning standards so that they could claim “adequate progress” in the following years, thereby complying with the new law and continuing to receive federal subsidies.

Read it all in Lies and Leviathan by James Bovard.

Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II - The Domino Effect

I was going to blog this, but Chris Byrd already did.  Read it here.

Rus Thompson has started a petition to remove the Grand Island toll booths.

Commuter traffic has become so intense traffic is backed up onto the Youngman Expressway (290) as they wait in line to get onto the 190 off ramp, to wait in line to pay the tolls. Vehicles traveling at the speed limit are now coming up on vehicles at a dead stop.

I agree that it does present a very dangerous situation with cars traveling approximately 60 m.p.h. unexpectedly coming upon stopped traffic.  The delays are horrible, especially in the summer months with increased tourist traffic heading to Niagara Falls and Canada.  I can remember many occasions during my 10 years of residency on Grand Island encountering delays of 45 minutes or more just to get over the bridge and get home.

There is no alternate route for Grand Island residents!

Please consider signing the petition here.