In order to prove the need for a voter ID poll tax, and to prove how easy it is for someone to procure and cast a false ballot, the kid who took ACORN down based on fabrications sent some people to New Hampshire to…well, to procure and cast false ballots. The problem is that it’s [...]

No surprise, the owners of Valenti’s are embroiled in a bitter landlord/tenant dispute with Budwey’s.  No surprise, it’s over unpaid rent and whether the rent is triple net or not. The saga of the Iron Chef has reached Lifetime Movie of the Week proportions. It’s also fodder for discussion on Chowhound.

The best thing about being rid of Chris Collins in elected office is that his daily fits of pique are now just comical. Collins is a millionaire – he can very well pay to remove county equipment from his personal car, but he amazingly demands the county pay for it. The equipment – lights and [...]

All the news and views fit to consume during your morning grumpy.   1. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple received a $378 million pay package this year, consisting of a $900,000 in base salary and $376.2 million in stock options. The people employed by Chinese manufacturer, Foxconn, who make Apple gadgets for the hipster masses? [...]

More offerings from the 2012 NAIAS in Detroit, going clockwise from the upper left: a pretty unexciting-looking 2013 Honda Accord coupe, which Honda is calling a concept but is likely very close to the upcoming production model; the 2013 Cadillac ATS is slated to do battle with the BMW 3-Series; rear and frontal views of [...]

Isn’t Wolf Blitzer’s from WNY? Isn’t he one of the few locals who went on to become a media giant? If so, why is he busy penning facile book reports about how nice it is that people are willing to run for king of the free world? From the rarely-situational Situation Room, Wolf hopes you [...]

After yesterday’s New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney is all but guaranteed to be the Republican presidential nominee. The parallels to 1996 here are hard to ignore; a somewhat weakened chief executive, reeling from bad poll numbers and movement conservatives in the ascendency, a deeply flawed Republican nominee, and a short Texan with a loud, unconventional, populist [...]

Central Terminal by Kevin Brautlacht.   www.flickr.com More in Buffalopundit: AV Photo Daily pool  

All the news and views fit to consume during your morning grumpy. 1. Last night in his victory speech, Mitt Romney asked Americans to reject the “bitter politics of envy” and to not be “dragged down by a resentment of success”.  As Paul Krugman put it yesterday, “Romney evidently has no sense of what it’s [...]

As futile as it may have been, this simple act by new County Executive Poloncarz – a no vote on the county IDA, which is quick to hand out free money to its good friends for upscale housing – is ground-shaking. For all the Republicans’ talk about how awful it is to redistribute wealth, they’re [...]

…from the 2012 NAIAS comes the plug-in electric smart for-us pickup truck. You read that right, a pickup truck, but it’s just a concept for now. Small by pickup standards, it’s huge compared to the smart fortwo — three feet longer as a matter of fact. But still shorter than a Mini Cooper.  The for-us [...]

Both Chris and I have written extensively over the past several years about what’s going on at the Inner Harbor. (Unfortunately, links will have to wait). In late 2010, the planning for Canalside was co-opted by a crowdsourcing process that provided all of the ills of central planning with none of the decision-making efficiency. After [...]

Robin’s Nest by Tom Mazur.   www.flickr.com More in Buffalopundit: AV Photo Daily pool  

All the news and views fit to consume during your morning grumpy. 1. What goes around, comes around. Anthony Baynes, former Chairman of the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority has moved on to real estate development since his term ended on the authority in 2008. His most current project is the adaptive re-use of a [...]

Seeing that it’s North American International Automobile Show time (a.k.a. NAIAS), we’ll be spending some time these next few days looking at some of their offerings.  Here is something VW is calling the E-Bugster. “E” for electric (it’s a plug-in), “Bug” for obvious reasons, and “ster” for not so obvious reasons — it’s supposed to [...]