March 9, 2010, beloved wife of James R.; dear mother of Herb (Sue), Jimmy (Paul), Ericka (Michael) and the late Christopher; daughter of the late Michael and Adele Forster; daughter-in- law of Leon and the late Florence Zolnowski; sister of Paul (late Peggy), Robert (Sonya), Gerald (Ginny) and the late Norman (Ann) Forster; sister-in- law of Ronald (Sharon) and Michael (Geri) Zolnowski; also survived by many nieces and nephews. Funeral from the PACER FUNERAL HOME, INC., 2275 George Urban Blvd. (two blocks east of Dick Rd.) Friday 11 AM and Our Lady of Pompeii Church 11:30. Visitation Thursday 2-8 PM. Adele was a retiree of Reichert Inc. Online condolences at www.PACERFUNERALHOME.com

Hundreds of motorists who park at surface lots around the old Memorial Auditorium site and beneath the Skyway might see improved conditions in the future.

Catherine Nugent Panepinto has abandoned plans to seek reelection to the North District seat she currently holds on the Buffalo School Board and will focus instead on seeking a State Supreme Court judgeship in November.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, will speak at 8:15 p. m. March 29 in the Montante Cultural Center at Canisius College, 2001 Main St.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, will speak at 8:15 p. m. March 29 in the Montante Cultural Center at Canisius College, 2001 Main St.

The Public Service Commission will participate in the Buffalo Home and Garden Show on Friday and Saturday in the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center as part of National Consumer Protection Week.

For the next week Bills linebacker Kawika Mitchell is teaming up with New York Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka in a charity effort to help villages in Kiwanuka’s native Uganda, while also tak...

I’ve negotiated with my inner Kucinich and made peace with the health insurance reform bill.  It’s time to finish the job.

By the way, a couple of points on the status of the bill and the reporting I’ve seen/read on the remainder of the process. It’s important to note that we’re not “passing” healthcare reform through reconciliation. The bill(s) already “passed” with the required votes in both houses, a majority in the House and 60 votes in the Senate. Now, the House will pass the Senate bill and changes which affect the budget will be applied through reconciliation, a valid and well used procedure. That’s it. The big commie muslim socialist black man will not be (c)ramming his big black reform plan down anyone’s throat. Language matters. I digress…

The bill is not perfect and it is not what I wanted it to be when the process began and it is a product of a very flawed system.  However, it is the first step toward real, long-term reform in our healthcare system.  Incrementalism is the reality in our corporate political world until the bright shining day arrives when money is taken out of politics.

We’ve listened to what FreedomWorks, AHIP, PhRMA, and the rabid teabaggers had to say.  The bill has been watered down to the point where progressives barely recognize it anymore. The Democrats adopted 161 of 201 proposed GOP amendments to the Healthcare bill and did not receive one single affirmative GOP vote as a reward for their compromises.

The final Senate bill includes all four planks of the GOP’s proposed alternative plan, including buying insurance across state lines, tougher medicaid/medicare fraud prevention strategies, empowerment for states to implement the plan in different ways, tort reform and purchasing pools for small business. It’s all in the bill.

In fact, one could say that this bill combines the best parts of the GOP plan and the worst of the Democratic plan. Primarily, it lacks a public option, single payer provisions and is entirely based on regulating the private market.  It is possible that a public option could be brought back into the bill through reconciliation with 41 Senators now signed on to support that effort (including Schumer and Gillibrand), but I won’t hold my breath.

Since the Democrats would not receive one single, solitary vote no matter what bill they put forward, I thought they should have simply pushed forward a bill with a robust public option and the regulations needed to make an immediate impact on the system.  However, the will was lacking in the Democratic Party as many of the legislators are just as indentured to the insurance and medical lobby as their counterparts on the right.

So, the bill we have is the one the system is willing to give us at this point.  With a minority party more interested in opposing then governing, this is what happens.  When Democratic Senators are operating as lobbyists for Wellpoint, UHC and Aetna, this is what we get.  As is often said nowadays, it is what it is.  My hope is that once this bill is put in place, further reforms will be enacted, market protections will increase, coverage will be expanded and we’ll eventually end up with a more perfect healthcare system.  Perhaps the Democrats might embrace a simple four page bill that should have been the starting point for this reform process.  To stop now simply guarantees that nothing will be done.

I chose the “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” video from the Obama campaign because it was a seminal moment in a historic campaign.  Whatever you thought of Obama then or whatever you think of him now, he speaks truth in that clip.  Change and reform are only possible if we advocate for it, fight for it, demand it.  If we push our legislators to demand better, more and faster.  Perhaps the grassroots on the left was disenfranchised from the start and were drowned out by the astroturf millions on the right during the formative portions of this process.  Perhaps the monied interests have a bigger ownership stake in our legislators than we do, but we have what we have.

The time is now for the grassroots to demand that something be done.  To remind them that we voted for this President and gave a sweeping mandate to the Democratic Party to enact this legislation, as imperfect as it is.

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• Public Option Support Now Over 40 In Senate (huffingtonpost.com)

You may recall this post that Marc Odien wrote the other day in response to repeated claims being made by the county administration that its jail system lives up to – or exceeds – minimum state standards.

But the state has taken issue with the county’s claims, and ordered the county to take corrective action in March 2009, claiming that conditions at the jail were unsanitary, unhygienic, and otherwise substandard. The county balked, and the state Commission of Corrections took the county to court.

And won.

So far, the anti-agenda, anti-status quo folks have lost every time they try. Tim Howard? In 2006, the state concluded that Ralph “Bucky” Phillips’ escape (and subsequent cop-killing) was thanks to the Alden Correctional Facility not meeting the state’s minimum standards.

This is getting to be a habit.

The Sheriff was trying to cut corners by classifying different prisoners in the county jail differently. For instance, if you get popped for disorderly conduct in Hamburg, you might get kept in a lock-up until the first available arraignment time. That’s usually a very short time frame measured in hours, not days. Town lock-ups that detain people pre-arraignment are not considered “jails”. The jails, however, are considered jails. A 2002 law permits towns to ship inmates awaiting arraignment to the county jail.

Sheriff Howard wanted to treat pre-arraignment detainees differently from post-arraignment detainees who are held for longer periods awaiting trial.

All this over toilet paper and toothbrushes.

It’s that time of year again for the Artvoice Best of Buffalo awards. Your vote would be much appreciated.

I hear rumors of people campaigning to defeat me in this endeavor, and there are a handful of worthy blogs out there, most of them writing for, or affiliated with, WNYMedia.net. PinkBflo, Chris Smith, Buffalo Chow, Marc Odien – all of them are great, and a win for any of them would be appropriate. I’d also add Jen from Lockport to that list. And Kelly/Jaquandor.

But then again, I give you a 7-year, almost daily track record of Failboated excellence here. So, you know. Write my name down.

The Health Care Association of New York put this together to advocate against cuts to health services in New York State.

Given the usual breathless, actor-portrayed predictions of death & destruction from these types of advertisements, at least this self-parody reveals a sense of humor.

All is well though, because Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch says the state should just borrow $6 billion to close the budget gap. Yeah, that’s a great idea.

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• Updated: Behold … the Ravitch plan! (timesunion.com)
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• N.Y.’s Paterson Says Financial Review Board in Ravitch Plan (businessweek.com)
• Skelos: Yep, there will be borrowing (timesunion.com)

I wanted to comment on the House voting down a resolution that would have directed President Obama to pull our troops out of Afghanistan within 30 days.

H.Con.Res.248 as introduced:

Directs the President, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, to remove the U.S. Armed Forces from Afghanistan:

(1) by no later than 30 days after this resolution is adopted; or

(2) if the President determines that it is not safe to remove them by such date, by no later than December 31, 2010, or such earlier date that the President determines that they can be safely removed.

In the end, the resolution was defeated 356-65.

To try and tell the Administration to pull troops out of Afghanistan within 30 days is not just irresponsible – it’s physically and practically impossible. I am pleased that the vast majority of the House voted against this resolution. I have long expressed my strong opposition to this ill-conceived war and I strongly believe that the best thing we can do is move to bring our efforts there to a close shortly.

I do not support spending unlimited funds to rebuild that nation and I think that a sensible timeline for drawing down our effort there is the best way Congress can act on this issue.

Parody? Not so much if you watch cable news during the day or Channel 2 at any time…

Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere



Buffalo News high schools writer Keith McShea will held his live chat Wednesday at the Prep Talk blog.

Lots of clouds, not much rain, that's the word for today from the National Weather Service. Mild temperatures -- mid- to upper 50s near Lake Erie, even warmer inland -- will continue as the system that brought us sunshine slowly moves on to New England. Overnight lows should stay in the mid-40s.