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I had to look twice, I thought I was reading the April Fool’s edition of the Buffalo News.
Brown doesn’t hesitate when asked to grade his first year in office. He said he deserves an “A.”
I will give Byron Brown an ’A’ when taxes are down, government is streamlined, restricitive codes and regulations are repealed, businesses want to, and do, locate in the City and employent is up.
Link to Buffalo News - Brown gives himself an ‘A’ after first year as Buffalo mayor
I put together a slideshow of photos that represent a 2006 year in review. Some of the photos I chose were favorites of the viewers on flickr and some were my choices. I also included photos that represent events from the past year. Click here for a popup slideshow, you might have to enable popups or hold down the shift key. All of the pictures have a connection to Buffalo. Enjoy!
Many people, including BuffaloPundit, believe that justice was served by the hanging of Saddam Hussein. If this is true, there are others who conspired with Saddam Hussein and deserve the same fate. There are questions that must be answered and not ignored if this whole sordid chapter in our history is to have any real value for the future. Saddam, the Butcher of Baghdad, was created by the United States government. Hussein’s crimes do not stand alone, he was aided and abetted by the United States government.
Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam’s weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.
And the mass killings we perpetrated in 2003 with our depleted uranium shells and our “bunker buster” bombs and our phosphorous, the murderous post-invasion sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, the hell-disaster of anarchy we unleashed on the Iraqi population in the aftermath of our “victory” - our “mission accomplished” - who will be found guilty of this? Such expiation as we might expect will come, no doubt, in the self-serving memoirs of Blair and Bush, written in comfortable and wealthy retirement.
Saddam, in the face of death, knew that he will be viewed as a martyr.
At first, those who suffered from Saddam’s cruelty will welcome his execution. Hundreds wanted to pull the hangman’s lever. So will many other Kurds and Shia outside Iraq welcome his end. But they - and millions of other Muslims - will remember how he was informed of his death sentence at the dawn of the Eid al-Adha feast, which recalls the would-be sacrifice by Abraham, of his son, a commemoration which even the ghastly Saddam cynically used to celebrate by releasing prisoners from his jails. “Handed over to the Iraqi authorities,” he may have been before his death. But his execution will go down - correctly - as an American affair and time will add its false but lasting gloss to all this - that the West destroyed an Arab leader who no longer obeyed his orders from Washington, that, for all his wrongdoing (and this will be the terrible get-out for Arab historians, this shaving away of his crimes) Saddam died a “martyr” to the will of the new “Crusaders”.
This 1983 photo says it all.
“There are some who, uh, feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: Bring ‘em on. We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation. “ - George W. Bush, July 2, 2003.
Here are a few quotes from Riverbend and her local blog in Baghdad. Click the source link to read it all.
End of Another Year…
You know your country is in trouble when:
The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.
Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.
The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.
The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.
An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country’s ‘Golden Years’.
Your country is purportedly ’selling’ 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.
For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it’s going to cut back on providing that hour.
Politicians who supported the war spend tv time debating whether it is ’sectarian bloodshed’ or ‘civil war’.
People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that’s been missing for two weeks.
Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our children now play games of ’sniper’ and ‘jihadi’, pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.
People are being openly shot at check points or in drive by killings… Many colleges have stopped classes. Thousands of Iraqis no longer send their children to school- it’s just not safe.
Had I not chronicled those feelings of agitation in this very blog, I wouldn’t believe them now. Today, they simply represent numbers. 3000 Americans dead over nearly four years? Really? That’s the number of dead Iraqis in less than a month. The Americans had families? Too bad. So do we. So do the corpses in the streets and the ones waiting for identification in the morgue.
Source: Baghdad Burning
The non-stop news coverage of Saddam’s pending execution is sick and demented. It is almost as if a pool exists to guess the day and time. The whole ordeal is a sad and disturbing reflection of our country.
Larry King even comments on the “ghoulish” nature of this bizarre event.
Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark denounced the Iraqi Special Tribunal’s death sentences against Saddam Hussein and two co-defendants in a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday, Dec. 20. Clark served on Hussein’s defense team during the trial.
Although the recently completed show trial against Saddam and the co-defendants was founded upon the outcome of previous proceedings, transcripts of the proceedings against the would-be assassins were not allowed into evidence.
Further, near the end of the recent trial, an Iraqi puppet judge told one of the defendants, “You had blood on your hands since you were a child.”
There was no attempt to prove that the recent trial was anything other than a rigged show trial. As Clark said, it represented “victor’s injustice, victor’s justice being an oxymoron.”
The illegal U.S. occupation regime had no authority to try or convict Hussein or any of his co-defendants. Real trials for “crimes against humanity” would have Bush administration officials and Pentagon generals as the defendants.
(source)
CNN, in a flash of demented hype, is calling its coverage “Death of a Dictator.”
News of Saddam’s death should be forthcoming any minute now according to the news on TV.
We are truly a witness to a very dark moment in history.
10:06 PM, CNN is reporting Saddam’s execution took place 10 minutes ago.
Rangel has been making a lot of noise lately about resumption of the Draft. He claims it is only fair. He is wrong!
Is the draft ever justified? How could it be? Even in a defensive war, one can’t properly defend freedom by violating it. And there is no reason to believe that free people would not defend their homes under a genuine threat. What they might not do in sufficient numbers is fight imperialist wars. To that I say: Let’s hope not.
Advocates of the draft harbor a premise that has no place in a free society — that the individual belongs to the state. Every American should find that idea revolting. It’s time to end draft registration.
Today’s quote is my commentary on President Bush’s foreign policy.
One ought to examine himself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others.
Jimmy Griffin is seriously considering a run for County Executive. Griffin says he has many ideas to save the County money, “saving money is saving nickels and dimes.”
Michele lists a number of things on her blog that people can do to help better our city. Most of them are great ideas but fail to address the cause of the problems. The Buffalo area suffers from extremely high taxation and a lack of quality jobs. Dig a bit deeper and you will find that the root cause is the government. The answer to the problem is to change the size and scope of government so that private resources are available to accomplish the improvements we so desperately need. Keep reading if you are interested in a permanent solution.
Making Buffalo attractive for private investment will yield the capital necessary to accomplish Michele’s goals. We don’t need more government economic development plans, we need less. The government plans fail because there is no risk of capital. The government does not go broke when the plans fail, it just raises taxes and continues to exacerbate the problem it set out to fix. Government caters to special interests because it is a way to gain votes. Private development cares only about one thing - SUCCESS!
If you are interested in becoming a part of the solution there is an opportunity for you and for all of us. A new Political Action Committee is being formed. The PAC, as of yet unnamed, will be pro-development, pro-jobs and pro-tax reduction. The purpose of the PAC will be to elect candidates to public office who are sympathetic to the ideas advanced by Free Buffalo. This includes freeing us from big government, political machines and special interests. The result would be freeing up private capital needed to make the necessary changes that will spur growth and improvement for all.
The organizing meeting of the new PAC will be Wednesday, Jan. 3, at 7pm at Bia Irish Deli, 5601 Main St., Williamsville.
If you would like to participate please reply by email. If you have any questions, you may address them in this thread on Speak Up Western New York’s Community Forum.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
-Mohandas Gandhi
Buffalo Niagara International Airport passed a milestone Wednesday when its 5 millionth passenger of the year walked through the terminal.
In a community often noted for its failures - a bridge that can’t get built, a waterfront not developed, silver-bullet development schemes that shoot blanks - that milestone marked a significant success story.
It wasn’t long ago that the new Buffalo terminal, which opened on Nov. 3, 1997, wasn’t projected to attract 5 million passengers a year until 2020.
“We often talk as a community about the things we do wrong. The airport and the airport service objectives everyone wanted 10-plus years ago is one of the things we’ve done right,” said Andrew J. Rudnick, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.
What is not mentioned is that the NFTA had an operating loss of $116,379,000 that is largely covered by taxpayers’ money. The Buffalo Niagara International Airport had an operating loss of $988,000 for 2005-06
Makes you wonder what a private, for-profit entity could accomplish.
Source: Buffalo News - 5 millionth passenger makes airport’s year
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”
Saddam lost his appeal and will be hanged within 30 days even though there are serious questions about the fairness of his trial.
The State Department has said it believes the trial met international standards of fairness.
Are “international standards” what we aspire to follow? I thought the missions was to create a “democracy” based on our values. Apparently, the means justifies the end.
New York-based Human Rights Watch, an independent advocacy group that opposed the death penalty, said in a Nov. 20 report that executing Hussein before further cases are heard will deny thousands of victims a chance to testify about other alleged crimes.
The group, which called the first Dujail trial “fundamentally flawed,” says the prosecution failed to disclose evidence to the defense in advance and denied defendants the right to confront witnesses. Human Rights Watch also says there were “gaps in the evidence” that undermined the prosecution’s case, according to the report.
That doesn’t sound like a fair trial at all.
. . . former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark was ejected from the courtroom before sentencing after handing the judge a note in which he called the trial a “travesty”.
Saddam Hussein’s defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said the court’s verdict “was expected”.
The appeals court said Ramadan should also face execution
“We were not at all surprised, as we are convinced that this has been - 100% - a political trial,” he said.
Source: Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
LOS ANGELES - Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon’s scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America’s history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93.
“My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age,” Mrs. Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage. “His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.”
The statement did not say where Ford died or list a cause of death. Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments — including an angioplasty — in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
He was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.
Ford was an accidental president, Nixon’s hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straight-forward as Nixon was tightly controlled and conspiratorial.
President Ford took over the job as President during a very turbulent period. The Vietnam war was winding down and we had just gone through the whole Watergate scandal. He was highly criticized for the Presidential pardon of Richard Nixon, issued in the wake of Watergate, however, his goal was for the healing to begin and the scandal put behind.
Read the rest of the article here.
This has got to be one of the most idiotic solutions ever devised by a government official.
South Council Member Michael P. Kearns will introduce a bill at today’s Common Council meeting that encourages the city and Erie County to work on a joint offensive. He cites a program in Rochester that requires some irresponsible landlords and problem tenants to undergo training in order to continue participating in social services programs.
This is a typical response for a politician. A program isn’t working as intended so we need to throw more money at it and create another government program to address it. It is only a matter of time before there is no money left to take for more failed government programs.
He thinks many neighborhoods would see improved conditions if problem landlords were required to attend sessions that focus on screening tenants, recognizing signs of drug activity and the eviction process.
In order protect both landlords and tenants, Kearns said there should be inspections before renters move into dwellings. Kearns said Buffalo could snare state funding to help offset some program costs, just as Rochester did.
Another component would be the creation of what Kearns calls a neighborhood accountability board. He said the panel could help track housing problems and would involve block clubs, inspectors, law enforcers and other parties.
There are already building codes that can be used to deal with landlords who do not maintain their property. The problems described in the article stem from the fact that landlords and tenants relying on government funding have no personal stake in the living conditions because the money is not coming out of their pockets.
If the proposed plan is approved it just brings us one step closer to complete socialism. This is just another program that will help keep people trapped in the poverty lifestyle. End the wasteful social programs that are a drain on economic capital and eradicates the concept of personal responsibility. The money forcefully taken from people for redistribution of wealth programs would fund economic growth that would provide the availability of many more jobs and enable people to take care of themselves. The few who truly have circumstances that prohibit them from being self-sufficient would be cared for through voluntary charitable organizations. Thanks to Michelle for pointing out this article. I agree there is a problem but the solution is less government spending, not more. That would benefit everyone, not just a select few.
Source: Buffalo News - Taking aim at problem tenants, landlords