Fifteen-year-old defenseman R.J. Gicewicz will play in international event this week for Old Glory in Ann Arbor, Mich.

With the lockout wiping out OTAs and minicamps, top pick Marcell Dareus is the only Buffalo newcomer atop the depth chart at his position.

Cover of Teri Hatcher

This is what I’m thinking:
* On Sunday, one of my favorite cable series, CNN’s “Reliable Sources” with UB graduate Howard Kurtz, briefly dealt with one of my favorite organizations, the Television Critics Association.
In Los Angeles, Kurtz had a lengthy interview with Sharon Waxman, who is running an online media site, “The Wrap,” that covers Hollywood from all angles and prides itself on not getting too chummy with celebrities in front of and behind the camera.
At one point, Kurtz asked Waxman what she thought of the semi-annual meetings in which television critics go to Los Angeles and meet network executives who attempt to spin them.
“Aren’t they really getting spoon fed by industry executives?” asked Kurtz.
It would have been easy and self-serving for Waxman to agree with the common complaint that critics are being spun and buy everything told to them.
To her credit, Waxman said that the meetings give critics the opportunity to ask executives any questions they want, which isn’t something that happens in the movie industry.
She’s right. And the questions can get pretty contentious. The truth is the TCA meetings rarely turn into a lovefest and veteran critics are generally skeptical of just about everything executives say.
Near the end of my TCA experience in 2010, the advent of blogging during interview sessions had a disturbing side effect. Many of the younger and newer critics just sat in their seats instantly sending the latest news or what passes for news to their websites via the computer and relied on a handful of mostly veteran critics to ask questions. It made you fear the future when the veterans aren’t around to ask the tough questions.
* Speaking of the TCA, over the weekend the nation’s critics named “Friday Night Lights” as program of the year after its fifth and final season. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I was cheering.
The TCA awards can be a little confusing since “Mad Men” (which isn’t expected to return until March of 2012) was named best drama instead of “FNL.” “Modern Family” repeated as best comedy. Jon Hamm of “Mad Men,” Ty Burrell of “Modern Family” and Nick Offerman of “Parks and Recreation” won individual awards. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” was named new program of the year, Oprah Winfrey won the career achievement award and “The Dick Van Dyke Show” won the Heritage Award. “DVD” is currently playing on WBBZ-TV locally.
* One of the 10 cuts in the engineering department at Channel 7 scheduled for Sept. 30 will be Bob Hellwitz, the vice president of the local NABET/CWA chapter. Hellwitz has been at the station for 29 years and he isn’t even the longest-tenured Channel 7 worker scheduled to lose his job to work outsourced to Atlanta. Sad.
* ABC finally made it official over the weekend – “Desperate Housewives” will be done after the coming season. I lost interest more than a year ago as the plots got more and more absurd, reducing the humor quotient. Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher stayed at the party a little too long.
* I only had two columns killed in my 28 years as the television critic of The Buffalo News. One of them was my response to what I believed to be unfair criticism by another writer for a minor publication. My boss at the time, Murray Light, told me it wasn’t a good idea to respond to someone who had such low circulation because it was bound to draw more attention to my critic. I didn’t like having the column killed because I thought my response was funny. But Light was right. It would have been a bad idea to run it and look so thin-skinned.
I thought of that killed column immediately when I read the end of a column Sunday by Buffalo News political writer Robert McCarthy in which he responded to some heavy criticism that wnymedia.net has thrown his way. I like McCarthy and respect the work he does. But he needed someone like Murray Light to tell him to kill the item. It lead to a lengthy response Sunday from Marc Odien of wnymedia.net . McCarthy should have known that he couldn’t win and his item would only lead to more criticism. But I don’t blame him. After all, I tried to do the same thing until I was saved by an editor smarter than I. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.
* Speaking of the Buffalo News, Saturday’s front page headline shocked me. Over four columns, it read “Investors need to stay calm.” It seemed like an order from the newspaper, which is supposed to be reporting the news and not giving financial advice. That’s because the attribution came below in a one-column sub-head: “Experts say chaos shouldn’t inspire too much fear.” A better headline would have been “Experts to Investors: Stay Calm.” Then at least readers would immediately know where the advice was coming from.
* While we’re on the News, a writer claimed the “announcement story” about the change in call letters from WNGS to the new WBBZ was written by a News staffer. Actually, the WBBZ changes were announced in stilltalkintv several days before the paper finally got to it. Of course, that happens often. (The News isn’t the only media outlet that can pat itself on the back).
*Finally, it was interesting to read over the weekend in The News that there are three upperclassmen competing for the starting quarterback job for the University at Buffalo football team. But it would have been nice to know the Bulls’ plans for their prize freshman QB recruit, Joe Licata of Williamsville South. He wasn’t mentioned. At the very least, the paper could have explained if Bulls Coach Jeff Quinn wants to red-shirt him or if he will give Licata a chance to compete for the job with the upperclassmen. After all, Licata has a lot of fans in his hometown wondering what his status is.
pergament@msn.com

He never thought of becoming a pilot, but Cravane M. Givens would end up flying tanker planes for the Air Force, supplying fuel to other aircraft at 30,000 feet.

When Bob McCarthy unprofessionally attacks one WNYMedia.net writer for having a pecuniary bias, he attacks us all.  I commented at the News’ site:

If the “Buffalo News” has ever received a dime that’s recorded at the BOE, McCarthy will look foolish. I know for a fact he didn’t contact Chris Smith, who received not a dime from Poloncarz, directly or through WNYMedia.net, thus rendering this second-hand non-story as lazy as it is full of implied pecuniary bias.

I won’t re-hash what Chris S., Marc, and Chris C. have already wrote. Instead, I direct you to this passage in McCarthy’s column:

But not over at WNY Media Network, where Smith toils. More important to the network, apparently, is the $3,750 Poloncarz paid to WNY Media Network for website design and video editing, according to state campaign finance records. In fact, the same records show WNY Media Network has handled Poloncarz’s video campaign for years.

Some local bloggers receive money from politicians. The Politics Column does not — and that says it all.

The implication is that Chris had a pecuniary interest to write about how lazy Bob McCarthy was in his reporting on the Poloncarz campaign, and that, but for the kingly ransom of $3,750, Smith would not have gone after McCarthy for his “Stefan wrote it for me” he said/she said regurgitation of Collins’ talking points.

The “Buffalo News” has been on the receiving end of $193,981.38 of various and sundry campaign expenditures between 2000 – 2011.  Another $64,289.02 was paid to “The Buffalo News”, leaving a grand total of $258,270.40.

By McCarthy’s own clumsy accusation, each time he wrote about any of the candidates who spent money to advertise with the Buffalo News; e.g., Sam Hoyt, Robin Schimminger, George Maziarz, etc., he should have disclosed the pecuniary bias he had in doing so.  Advertising bucks paid to the Buffalo News keeps Bob McCarthy in repurposed Century 21 blazers, whereas I never saw a penny of Poloncarz’s website & video payments to Marc Odien.

To be clear – I am not accusing Bob McCarthy of being on the take. There are two local websites who compete for dollars from candidates, and make promises about editorial direction that are dependent on those dollars (or lack thereof). Neither WNYMedia.net nor the Buffalo News are among those websites. To suggest that we are just like them is false and defamatory; to suggest that we are just like them without taking the time to check your facts, if you’re the sole paper’s sole political reporter/columnist, is a lazy dereliction of duty.

Bob McCarthy isn’t some blogger who writes tens of thousands of words’ worth of content for free. He is a well-paid newspaper journalist. People know we have a bias, and they read our content with that understanding. On the other hand, people assume that what Bob McCarthy runs with in the paper is fed to him by insiders, and that he then checks his facts.

In this instance, politicsny.net ran with the “Poloncarz paid WNYMedia.net” charge, and Bob McCarthy checked the BOE website and ran the story in the paper. Usually, I would agree that McCarthy wouldn’t have to double-check whether WNYMedia.net  got the money he says we did. It’s right there in the disclosure. But when he concludes with “Some local bloggers receive money from politicians” that’s something he should have checked with Chris about, first.

I’m not a supporter of Democrats and Democratic politics because someone paid me to be, but because I think that the Republicans, their policies, and their ideology are largely wrong.

Do I think Bob McCarthy or his ingeniously named “The Politics Column” is being paid by campaigns to slant his coverage? No.

Do I think Bob McCarthy is lazy, and will print whatever his handful of sources hand him on a silver platter? Hell, it’s not even that hard to figure out who his sources are. For all I know, he’s got politicsny.net on speed-dial.

I’ve had a handful of dealings with Bob in my time here. Interestingly, he never deigned to interview me when I ran for office, leaving that to Steve Watson, who was covering online goings-on. We’ve slammed him for laziness before. When Mark Grisanti voted for same-sex marriage, we were interested in how he came to change his vote. Bob McCarthy wanted to know about inside baseball “who wins, who loses” party politics.  When current Attorney General Eric Schneiderman appeared at a campaign stop last year with Mark Poloncarz, Bob asked him to comment on some BS story that the partisan New York Post had printed about him. He prints what people give him, but fails to examine whether it’s true, or whether it matters.  Over and over  and over again.

In 2008, the Davis campaign handed to Bob McCarthy a completely false story that then-congressional candidate Jon Powers had run his charity into the ground, and that he got arrested for cursing at a police officer in Ohio. McCarthy’s willingness to be a transcription service for campaigns who would give him something to write about became quite evident, and colors many people’s perception of him to this day.

We’ve even specifically discussed in the past, charges that the Buffalo News’ most mustachioed political reporter might be on the take. (We don’t think he is).

Hell, he gets invited to big-ticket Republican confabs and just uncritically transcribes what attendees tell him.

I’ve even established a law of local politics. It’s called Powers’ Law:

If you’re a political candidate, and you get a call from the Buffalo News’ Bob McCarthy, and he informs you that he’s going to run a story the next day that accuses you of horrible moral turpitude (e.g., you stole money from Iraqi orphans or you’re a racist), you absolutely cannot issue a limp rebuttal and pretend like it will all just blow over.

You have to address the allegation head on, strongly, to take control of the narrative as soon as possible, otherwise your silence/tepid response will be interpreted as a concession of the accusation’s truth.

Political columnists throughout New York State have must-read blogs - Jimmy Vielkind, Liz Benjamin, Azi Paybarah, Celeste Katz, to name a few. They hustle for stories, they use social media effectively, they have good sources, they vet the information they receive, and with good humor, they compete with each other for scoops.

On the other hand, Bob McCarthy is a walking metaphor for everything that’s wrong with the Buffalo News.

A quick look at what's happening today in Western New York

’67 Imperial, Niagara Falls, N.Y. Today, it’s all about the cupholders. But, back when the brochure for this 1967 Imperial four-door sedan was printed, the headline at the top of page 16 proudly proclaimed: “The new Imperial sedan has a glove compartment in each door.” brochure art Well, ya sold me! The pillared sedan was [...]

Welcome to the Monday Edition of the morning grumpy, recently downgraded from its AAA bullshit rating.

1. The US stock market is going to take a shit today after Standard & Poor’s lowered America’s credit rating late on Friday. By and large, most sane economists think the decision to lower the credit rating was a political one. In 2009, S&P maintained our AAA credit rating and projected maintaining it as such even though they projected a debt-to-GDP ratio of 90%. Now, in 2011 with a projected debt-to-GDP ratio of 75%, they lower our credit rating?

Of the other countries with a AAA credit rating from S&P, what are their debt-to-GDP ratios? Australia 95% Austria 200% Denmark 180% Finland 155% France 182% Germany 142% Hong Kong 334% Luxembourg 3443% Netherlands 471% Norway 538% Sweden 187% Switzerland 229% United Kingdom 400%

The media seems to have taken a “pox on both houses” narrative for this story, even though the history as described above and the S&P credit report tell a different story. S&P changed their rating based on our extreme long term debt, yes. However, until this past 60 days, the United States always demonstrated an ability to raise money at will to pay debts due to our stable political system and willingness to raise and collect taxes to secure the debt.  Not so much anymore.

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.

Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.

With several members of the GOP leadership openly welcoming default, it’s not a shock that the credit rating agencies have taken them seriously. Heckuva job, tea party.

2. Ladies and Gentlemen, your GOP frontrunner for the 2012 Presidential nomination, Gov. Rick “Pray For Rain” Perry!

This weekend, he capitalized on the political and economic uncertainty in America with a good ol’ fashioned prayer revival in Houston.

“This is the first time a governor, one of the highest-ranking officials in the government, made a stand and said: We need this,” says Finn. “It says in 1 Peter that we should submit to governors. As true believers, as Christians, when the governor wants us to be here, we’re really required to be here.”

Fucking hell, his plan is to hand it all over to god? Pity this poor nation…

3. Ever heard of the New Apostolic Reformation? Their plans for “spiritual warfare” in America? They make up Rick Perry’s base of support and several other leading Republicans are either part of the movement or court their support, including Palin, Bachmann, etc. They are a force to be reckoned with in this country so, get to know them.

4. A song for Monday, Part 1. “Video Games” by Lana Del Rey

5. Here’s a cool map that illustrates how much the United States owes to foreign countries and to whom. For example, placing your mouse over the large dot on China shows that Chinese lending to the United States has gone from $59 billion ten years ago to more than $1.15 trillion today, or one quarter of the total foreign owned debt of $4.45 trillion

6.  Many major U.S. companies are making big plans to expand overseas even as some of them announce new layoffs at home, and there’s a chilling reason why: They’re beginning to give up on the American consumer as a source of future growth.

Major layoff announcements by big corporations already have begun to rise again in the U.S., hitting a 16-month high of 66,414 jobs to be shed in coming months, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Strikingly, the largest layoff actions last month were accompanied by disclosures that the same companies planned to ramp up their operations — including hiring — in emerging economies.

An ambitious jobs plan from President Obama would be to offer a tax amnesty for overseas earnings if those companies were to reinvest a significant portion of that money into expanding their workforce and onshore manufacturing facilities. A corporate friendly way to solve our demand problem in this country…

7. Grover Norquist, Soul of the New Right Wing Machine.

Norquist calls it the “Leave-Us-Alone Coalition,” a grouping of gun owners, the Christian right, homeschoolers, libertarians, and business leaders that he has almost single-handedly managed to unite. The common vision: an America in which the rich will be taxed at the same rates as the poor, where capital is freed from government constraints, where government services are turned over to the free market, where the minimum wage is repealed, unions are made irrelevant, and law-abiding citizens can pack handguns in every state and town.

8. A song for Monday, Part 2, “The Pursuit of Happiness” by Lissie – A favorite of mine on Mondays.

9. Finally, a piece in the NY TImes which is being debated all over the web, “What happened to Obama?”

THE real conundrum is why the president seems so compelled to take both sides of every issue, encouraging voters to project whatever they want on him, and hoping they won’t realize which hand is holding the rabbit. That a large section of the country views him as a socialist while many in his own party are concluding that he does not share their values speaks volumes — but not the volumes his advisers are selling: that if you make both the right and left mad, you must be doing something right.

The article does feel a little like an indictment of the hostage rather than the extremist right hostage takers, but I generally agree with the sentiment of the article. Obama doesn’t know how to handle bullies, sees every issue as an opportunity for negotiation and sees himself as the “legislator in chief” rather than the President. If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve voted for Hillary. She knows how to deal with the insane right.

Have a day!

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1040 Delaware Avenue will soon be welcoming tenants.  The Lutheran Nursing Home, vacant for the past ten years, has been converted into a mix of 49 rental units along with 2,200 sq.ft. of ground floor office space.  1040 Delaware LLC's project carries a $5.5 million price tag and was designed by David Wylier and Associates.

A berm in front of the building was removed and a new main entrance has been created in what was previously the basement.  The building gained a parapet and a new brick façade with bay windows and stone and iron accents. 

There are 35 one-bedroom apartments, thirteen two-bedroom apartments and one studio apartment.  Rent, which includes cable, internet and heat, ranges from $850 up to $1,145/month for the one and two-bedroom units.  Apartments are available beginning September 1.

The units have high-end, modern finishes including hardwood and stone tile floors, hard-surface countertops and stainless steel appliances.  The building has ample parking and will include a storage area for tenants along with laundry facilities and an exercise room. 

James Swiezy (Greenleaf & Company) and Paul Kolkmeyer (Priam Enterprises) partnered on the project.  Greenleaf and Kolkmeyer are also planning a conversion project for the former Spaghetti Warehouse location at 141 Elm Street downtown.  Greenleaf Development and Construction was construction manager.

Get Connected: Greenleaf, 716.885.8538

"Before"

It was some time in mid-December 2010. I’d tried my hand at blogging, I’d taken on some of the local powers and I was paying the price for it. I wasn’t a guy with an audience back then, just a guy with a keyboard and a blogger.com site designed to air out some grievances in Genesee County. That airing of grievances landed me in handcuffs and completely gagged me as far as writing about politics in my hometown. I’ve told that story too many times now, but there were things that happened before and after it that I feel the need to talk about.

The reason I started the blog that landed me in legal difficulty was fairly simple. I was a frequent reader of WNYMedia.net. In early 2010 I learned that a group of citizens who gave a damn had the power to expose disgusting politicians for what they really were.

When Carl Paladino fell victim to the truth about himself, I was inspired, but when he won the Republican Gubernatorial primary, I was motivated. The first thing I ever published on my own on the internet was a fairly simple rant about Paladino’s misdeeds, I thought: If those guys in Buffalo can get after this guy, then I will too.

Then I watched as Alan Bedenko put his name out in public fighting about and fighting over the things he believed should be talked about while local media ignored the issues. I read Gabe Post and Brian Castner’s pieces about things that were important to them; they were well written and pointed articles that made me think hard about what I believed. I read posts by Tom Dolina and Kristen Becker that took me out of my comfort zone and made me laugh. I became a fan of the site and all of it’s writer’s and I did my best to emulate their courage, wit and dedication to the truth.

For years people had been telling me about the misdeeds of a local politician. They had given me proof of damning information about him. The overwhelming feeling both voiced and implied was always: Somebody needs to do something about this guy, he’s bad for us; he’s cancerous. So I did what the guys at WNYMedia would do. I waited for the right opportunity, I used the facts that were presented to me, and I lit him the fuck up. I’d do it again if given the opportunity. That scumbag is quitting politics and I’m not so modest as to refuse some credit for it.

Of course, it wasn’t a free or easy ride. The silly bastard had me arrested. He used his marginal power to gag me, so what was a guy with a keyboard and a penchant for writing about politics supposed to do? Simple really: Expand his horizons. If I couldn’t write about the horrible people in my home county, I could easily move my focus a little bit west. Chris Collins had always disgusted me and a man that I considered a friend, Mark Poloncarz, was destined to challenge him for the Erie County Executive seat soon. It was during the Erie County budget battle when I decided to cast my gaze westward. After all, horrible people are horrible people and if I spent a few minutes exposing Chris Collins as the disgusting, power-hungry tool that he was, it was no skin off of my nose. So I did. I posted the blog piece to my Facebook page as I always do, but I also chose to slap a link up on an Erie County Facebook group.

I put that link up with a small comment that basically amounted to: ‘amidoinitrite?’ Apparently I was. A few hours later Marc Odien asked me if I was interested in writing for WNYMedia.net. Of course I couldn’t tell him how much I respected his site and the writers who dwelled there; that wouldn’t be properly macho. So, I asked him to get in touch with me and three days later I had a username and password.

The first post I ever put up on this site was a copy/paste of my Collins rant. It was a damn sight better than my first blog post, but still not the best I’ve offered. Marc, Chris Smith and Alan Bedenko have given me the opportunity to write things I’m proud of, things I never would have written if I hadn’t been invited here.

The minute my name was listed here, I felt challenged to grow as a writer, to match the level of excellence that I witnessed when I was just a fan of the site. There were times when I’ve been writing a piece for WNYMedia when tears came to my eyes because I was writing something that I was so fucking emotionally invested in that I couldn’t help it. Nine months ago I wouldn’t have done that. I would have taken the easy route or not written anything at all, but because the standard here is so high, I felt I had to do it, had to push, had to be better.

I don’t get paid to write here, not in dollars at least. My biggest payday came when I was given the opportunity to add my voice to a group of people who I respect and admire. Marc, Chris, Alan, Brian, Tom, Kristen et al treat me like a peer, and even though I always feel like I’m the dumbest guy in the room, I’d rather be that here than the smartest guy anywhere else.

So let Bob McCarthy regurgitate the bullshit that spews from the inferior mind of Joe Illuzzi. We had a saying in the Air Force: ‘You can’t polish a turd.’ Illuzzi is a turd of the highest order and no matter how well you proofread his substandard rants, bullshit is still bullshit and you can’t make it shine.

We don’t take money from politicians in exchange for favors here. We don’t take any money at all. With that integrity comes the freedom to piss all over scumbags. That being said, I have a belly full of beer and no fires to extinguish. So if anyone cares to make an accusation,, I’m damn good and ready.

Takers?

Fuck You, McCarthy. Have another drink.

Lineman could start in preseason opener against Bears.

Gailey says cornerback will be out of action for a week or so with ankle injury.

Drayton Florence suffered a sprained ankle in practice Sunday. (PHOTO: BuffaloBills.com)

The Bills wrapped up practice Sunday with two more starters injured, as cornerback Drayton Florence and offensive tackle Demetrius Bell suffered minor injuries. Florence sprained an ankle while competing for a ball in the end zone. He’ll miss several days of action, and has to be considered unlikely to play in Buffalo’s preseason opener Saturday in Chicago. Bell strained a shoulder, but it’s not considered serious. However, given Bell’s awful luck with injuries, any setback at all is scary.

Bell’s injury was made more scary by the fact that none other than Ed Wang stepped in to replace Bell with the first team offense. Unless Wang is a whole heck of a lot better than he showed last season, Bell getting injured is a terrifying prospect. If there’s another NFL-quality left tackle floating around unemployed, Buffalo should move to sign him.

… [visit site to read more]

The Bills closed practice with the drill every player and every fan looks forward to, live goal line. Head coach Chan Gailey had about 10 snaps on the call sheet with full tackling at the end of Su...