On one hand, we have the Buffalo Niagara Partnership telling Albany to “Unshackle Upstate” from the chains of big government, big spending, high taxes and incompetent government. That if left to our own devices up here in Buffaloland, we’d fix our own problems, thank you [...]
“If you could get the right ten thousand people to move from Silicon Valley to Buffalo, Buffalo would become Silicon Valley.” – Paul Graham in his essay “How To Be Silicon Valley”
In many ways, the notion of “imported innovation” is the core tenet of [...]
Lawrence Lessig and Change Congress take a look at why two specific Democratic Senators (Evan Bayh and Joe Lieberman) might oppose inclusion of the public option in the pending healthcare reform bill.
It’s easy to be cynical, point fingers and accuse Lieberman of corruption, but the problem itself is actually [...]
“Newspapers have a terrible future.” – Warren Buffett, Owner of The Buffalo News, 11/3/2009
Yes, yes they do. The finer point here is that journalism has an incredibly bright future.
The problem, as I see it, is that newspapers and the corporations that own them are risk-averse [...]
This is a bit of a dumping ground for stories I think are important and deserve your attention. I’ll keep a running list of these stories in the sidebar of this site under the Headline “Your Daily Homework”. I’m not giving you the full backstory on [...]
A slapfight is developing on regional blogs about Rep. Eric Massa’s refusal to vote for the Healthcare Reform bill. You have Phil Anderson, editor of The Albany Project saying that Massa is duplicitous and “full of shit”.
Today is D-Day for health care [...]
It was a long weekend of healthcare debates, Afghanistan discussion, and lots of action in local politics. I could talk about all of that today, but I don’t want to. It’s Monday, it’s gonna be a beautiful 70 degree November day and I want some superhappyawesomefuntime discussion. Post cool videos, [...]
I’m efforting some way to get this into an more easily viewed interface and maybe cut it into smaller chunks. Until then, enjoy.
Some thoughts on the panel discussion graciously hosted by Buffalo Spree Magazine:
Journalism itself is NOT on the brink, content delivery mechanisms are changing and old paradigms are [...]
Alright, so it’s not actually a showdown, it’s more of a panel discussion with liquor. I just needed a catchy title and “Journalism On The Brink” just isn’t cutting it for me.
Buffalo Spree Publishing, Inc. presents a special panel discussion “Journalism on the brink: When [...]
“We want our country back!”
That’s the common refrain from teabaggers, quasi-libertarians, and the conservative movement since the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The thing is, most of the members of that movement don’t seem to understand that America and the demographics of the voting class in this country have [...]
Volker isn't running, I just love this picture at election time.
As Alan noted yesterday, it’s obligatory that the columnists at WNYMedia issue our annual slate of endorsed candidates in local races. Unlike Alan, I think our endorsements matter, not necessarily as a means to effect [...]
The Board of Directors of Buffalo ReUse announced this evening that Michael Gainer has accepted a position with the organization as the Program Director.
The responsibilities of the position of Program Director were agreed by the Board and are as follows:
Program Director, Buffalo ReUse:
Provides monthly deconstruction and [...]
Buffalo ReUse Announces Newly Elected Board of Directors
At its annual meeting October 7, the members of Buffalo ReUse elected a Board of Directors to lead the organization through the next phase of its growth. Newly elected members are Vincent Kuntz, Keith James, Alison Mueller, David Laguerre and [...]
After Dick Jauron stoically led the Buffalo Bills to yet another embarrassing loss, this time to the Miami Dolphins, my thoughts are best summed up by giving a listen to the classic “Dick Jauron Song”.
If the Bills are only going to be around for another couple [...]
Rep. Alan Grayson (D, FL) will undoubtedly be all over the news today for the following unapologetic slamming of Republicans
His statement on the floor of Congress which caused a controversy:
It’s important to remember that he isn’t necessarily making blind accusations here. Several Republicans have taken to the floor [...]
Rachel Maddow did a great job last night boiling the ACORN smear campaign down to its essence. Enjoy.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
[...]
Last year, I read a great book titled “The Back Of The Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures“. The premise is that through our reliance on words, industry terminology and buzzword slang, we have made complex business problems more difficult to [...]
I know when a candidate is running for office, he or she doesn’t really want to turn down the support of any group. It’s tough to alienate people who might support your campaign with volunteer hours or money. However, I would encourage Kevin Hardwick, Lynne Dixon, Dino [...]
The Town of Orchard Park today voted to reduce the size of their government, not a small victory for civic activist Kevin Gaughan who said, “I’m proud to see the voters take control of their future.”
This is the third victory for Gaughan and his organization as [...]
How quickly the script flips when you hand out a massive electoral ass-kicking, eh?
Two weeks ago, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown was at a press conference on the waterfront and this is how it played out:
Yeah, not so good.
This week, the press (aside from Jim [...]
Change around a few words in this leaflet and it reads like a Glenn Beck show transcript about Obama, n’est-ce pas?
The point being…the more things change, the more they stay the same.
[...]
If you don’t read Glenn Greenwald, on the regular, you’re doing yourself a disservice. He’s one of the last of his kind, an actual journalist who investigates and reports the “How” and the “Why” as often as schmoes like David Gregory or Jake Tapper reports the [...]
So, we’re working on some new marketing materials and we thought it best to tap into the hive mind of the local interwebs to help us pick a new slogan. We want self-deprecation, snark, sarcasm…essentially something that sums up what we’re all about. Be mean if you [...]
The results of Tuesday’s Democratic Mayoral Primary Election in Buffalo are in and aside from a few crankpots crying about voter fraud, it’s over. I mean seriously, for the voter fraud claims to matter, you’re talking about 5,000+ fraudulent votes. Using the tired old bullshit about groceries and cigarettes for [...]
After the ass kicking that Mayor Brown gave challenger Mickey Kearns last night in the Democratic Primary, we decided to look forward rather than rehash the election of 2009.
Using our connections at the Erie County Democratic Committee and ACORN, wnymedia.net has obtained a video which features interviews with Buffalonians interested [...]
We met with Rep. Brian Higgins (D, NY-27) last week for a sprawling discussion on healthcare reform, local politics and the state of public debate in America. This installment with Rep. Higgins focuses on his vision of healthcare reform, his support for the public option and answers the question [...]
We thought we’d help Dr. Rudnick of The Buffalo Niagara Partnership find his match by providing a little advice for his personal advertisement.
Must Hate Carl Paladino and Love Dogs
SWM with affinity for bowties seeks SWF who enjoys long walks on the beach, puppies, rainbows, rainstorms, and [...]
Since becoming the “official” spokesperson of the Buffalo ReUse membership, I have taken a pass on commenting on the Buffalo ReUse situation on this site or others. I have responded to questions from reporters with a steady hand and not made public accusations or made passive aggressive [...]
Last week, I interviewed Buffalo Mayoral Candidate Matthew Ricchiazzi at our Niagara Street offices.
Matthew is a young guy who is clearly well-educated, bright, and possessed with the ignorance of youth. I don’t mean that derisively, the kid is audacious in what he believes and ignores obstacles put in [...]
It’s often been said that President Obama plays the “long game” and cedes the fight for the daily news cycle to his adversaries. During the campaign, this rope-a-dope strategy worked well with both Hillary Clinton and John McCain. IOW, give your opponent enough rope and they will [...]
Last year as part of Squeaky Wheel’s “Channels” program, local filmmaker Carl Lee created a 20 minute documentary about Buffalo ReUse.
It’s a well done look at the organization, its founding mission and values. The film documents their efforts to not only address issues of blight through green deconstruction, but [...]
We wanted to highlight some positive news in the local non-profit community as a balance to some of the more negative stories we ran this week.
This week, as part of our ongoing BuffaloStyle Series, we turned our cameras onto the remarkable efforts of the Massachusetts [...]
Fareed Zakaria coined the term “The Rise Of The Rest“, a term he uses frequently to not point out America’s decline or failing, but rather the rise of everyone else. It originated from the title of Alice Amsden’s landmark book.
This is not going to be [...]
Yesterday, WNYMedia went out to the protest of State Senator Dale Volker’s fundraiser at the Erie Basin Marina. Let’s be clear, Volker represents everything that is wrong with politics and policy in New York State. A state government run amok; rife with arrogance, corruption, graft and [...]
Yesterday, I posted an excerpt of an email from Michael Gainer regarding his firing from Buffalo ReUse. That post has since been updated with his full email as well as with statements sent from Harvey Garrett (Interim Executive Director of Buffalo ReUse) and an email from Board [...]
Michael Gainer, founder and former Executive Director of local non-profit, Buffalo ReUse, has been removed from his position by the organization’s board of directors.
In an email message to members, Buffalo ReUSE Board Chairwoman Stephanie Simeon released the following statement:
Buffalo ReUSE, founded in 2007, is [...]
At Netroots Nation, I became the cynical asshole on health care reform. So much so, that I think people were starting to avoid me. As I listened to all the speeches and read the daily news, it seemed that Obama Administration officials were slowly and steadily preparing [...]
This week, Alan and I are at Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh, PA. I’ve been filing observations of each panel discussion and meeting on twitter, but I wanted to log a few thoughts here so I can build deeper posts later.
- This is my first Netroots [...]
Lately, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to whether or not America is capable of big things anymore. Are we capable of having adult discussions about issues of import and making informed, cogent decisions about our collective future? I’m not so sure.
I started to write one [...]
Mrs. Geek Would Like Me To Note, this is not our child
When we started this website back in 2004, WNYMedia.net was pretty much the only online outlet for people to comment on and discuss the local news of the day. The TV stations pretty much ignored the [...]
If you’re like me, you’re tired of the the anecdotal arguments, misinformed positions, corporate feeding of astroturf organizations and the general “deluge of dumb” in the current debate about healthcare reform. It’s a disservice to an issue that will determine the future and perhaps survival of our republic.
Corporate money and [...]
In recent weeks, Rus Thompson of Albany’s Insanity has made a big show of listing out what union groups and PAC’s have made significant contributions to Democrats like Lynn Marinelli, Maria Whyte, Antoine Thompson, et al.
The purpose, of course, is to demonstrate that these [...]
In a new, irregular and totally random feature, I’ll address a media report that is so incredibly fucking dumb, that it can not be allowed to stand. I’m calling it “The Dummy Chronicles” because the reporter/commentator relaying it is a big, fat dummy [...]
Normally, I leave the blind and uncritical parroting of Carl Paladino’s missives to the fine folks at Buffalo Rising. However, this latest email which I received today was too good to pass up, so call me a parrot for the day.
Carl wrote a response to the Buffalo [...]
The debate surrounding “health care reform” in 2009 has been disingenuous, riddled with anecdotal bullshit, straight up lies, and is being treated as a political football more than the lynchpin to the financial health of this country. Each day that passes, I become more cynical [...]
I’ve been running around like a scalded dog this week for work and haven’t had much time to add spicy content to the fancy new website, so my apologies.
As I sit here tonight suffering from blogger block, I thought I’d pose a couple of questions [...]
I’ve been giving some thought as of late to running for political office. Aside from creating a derivative campaign poster, I haven’t gotten very far in the planning. I’m not really sure I want to run or what office best suits my abrasive, arrogant, know-it-all, smartypants style.
Decisions, [...]
Today was an important day in the “race” to be the next Mayor of Buffalo. It’s the day the July 2009 Periodic Campaign Finance Disclosure Reports are published by the New York State Board of Elections. As a campaign junkie, report filings get me as excited [...]
He can’t win and he’s wasting his time.
There, I said it.
I’m not the only one who is saying it as several local Democratic operatives, journalists, legislative staff members and politicos have shared the same feeling with me. Kearns hasn’t been able to drum [...]
In fall of 2008, the United States Census Bureau released a special report naming Buffalo as the third poorest large city in the United States, with approximately one-third of its adult population living below the poverty line, and 42% of its children living [...]
As we ramp up content on the new site, Marc Odien and I are planning a new feature and we’re going to need help from our readers/commenters in order to implement it.
We know that it takes a lot of effort to create a blog, maintain it [...]
Yesterday, Byron Brown announced the formation of the “Green Team”, a group of volunteers dedicated to getting Buffalonians to recycle more of their stuff.
“Increasing our rate of recycling is an important way to reduce our carbon footprint,” Brown said at a press conference in Niagara Square. [...]
So, how do you like the new site? We’ve cleaned it up a bit, added some new partners and moved to a speedy new server. It’s been a busy weekend for all of us, especially for the designer, Chris Van Patten.
This version of the site moves us one step closer [...]
In the fall of 1992, I was an idealistic freshman at Canisius College. As an active volunteer for the Clinton/Gore campaign, I was excited to cast my first vote for President in November. I was certain that voting Republican was pretty close to killing kittens on the [...]
On Friday, Sarah Palin provided us with one of the oddest political moments since the Richard Nixon “Checkers” speech when she hurriedly announced her resignation as Governor of Alaska. In a blizzard of disconnected thoughts, incomplete clauses and stuttering repetition, Palin essentially told us that [...]
During the Bush era, it was de rigueur to say that terrorists, muslims and other assorted brown people around the world “hated us for our freedom”. And by “freedom”, the right wing meant love of Jesus, guns and the parts of the constitution they liked…in that order.
Do you know why [...]
On the June 19th episode of “Real Time“, Bill Maher took four minutes to sum up everything I have been thinking about the political paradigm that has developed since Barack Obama became President in January.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Fast Forward to about two minutes into the [...]
It would appear that Yahoo! has made a site selection for their proposed datacenter in Western New York and they have chosen the best of the three options, Lockport, NY.
Yahoo (YHOO) has filed plans for a $150 million data center in Lockport, New [...]
Last week, Matt Spina of The Buffalo News wrote an article about the negotiating style of Erie County Executive Chris Collins. Aside from a quote from Jennifer Parker (recently deposed by Collins as Chair of the Buffalo CVB), the article was generally flattering [...]
Over the past week, I have been the lucky recipient of nearly thirty emails from my readers. Evidently, some members of the lunatic fringe did not take kindly to my criticism of the libertarian movement, ridicule of the “birther” movement, nor my commentary on James Von Brunn, [...]
It was certainly an eventful day in New York’s ongoing Senate coup saga, replete with hidden keys, locked drawers, lawsuits and one of the new “coalition” Senators contemplating a flip back to the Democratic voting bloc. However, there was just as much excitement in the private sector as a slew [...]
As opposed to the usual long-winded fare found here, this post will be rather short and sweet. A quick comparison between two cities, their economic development strategies and the results.
Here is a copy of their Regional Development Business Plan
A white supremacist walked into the American Holocaust Museum and opened fire on the crowd with his rifle.
An elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, gravely wounding a security guard before two other officers returned fire. The assailant and his [...]
This weeks episode of Bill Moyers Journal featured two lengthy discussions that are exceptionally helpful when it comes to informing the debate about the collapsing relevance of our national media organizations and the whimsy of the daily news cycle.
The Buffalo News is fumbling towards enlightenment as it pertains to the new media ecosystem. I was going to break this into a series of posts, but I think I’ll slam them all into one post and see what happens…
Let’s start by laying out the business problem facing the [...]
In the continued evolution of Buffalo.com, the management at TBN Interactive has rolled out the latest iteration of the site…MyBuffalo.com
I’ll let Deanna Russo and Ben Kirst, the community managers of Buffalo.com explain the new site:
What The Buffalo News is unveiling this week is their branded [...]
Civic Activist Kevin Gaughan
Viagra pill Generic viagra Slots Outs Credit card debt help Viagra online Ga Get hydrocodone Cheap fioricet Top online casino Youporn Xenical diet pill Football pool Classic car insurance Antivirus software Xanax Brand Online slot University of phoenix Discount [...]
Like most of you, I’ve been following the news and analysis on the drawdown and bankruptcy of General Motors.
There have quite literally been thousands of obituaries written about the automaker and tens of thousands of opinion articles written about what went wrong. Hindsight is [...]
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama pledged to launch an information revolution. One that would provide access to information in universally accessible formats, put legislation online, allow for analysis of federal contracts, display lobbying data and a prosecute a fundamental change in the way Freedom of Information Act data was [...]
Buffalo took an incremental step towards transparency and accountability with the announcement that Buffalo Crime Statistics would be released on a daily basis on an external website called Crime Reports.
The service pulls a feed from the City of Buffalo’s Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and [...]
NY State Senator Antoine Thompson
From the State Senator who brought you the bill he sponsored before he was against it and this hilarious bit of powerlifting FAIL
Comes this hilarious bit of political nonsense.
They claimed to have nobody on [...]
Perhaps it is a reflection of the massive dysfunction of state government that efforts to reform it are as disorganized and dysfunctional as the entity itself. Take for instance, Leonard Roberto’s group, Primary Challenge.
What started as a grassroots effort to get fresh faces into government [...]
Last week, the news broke that Yahoo! was in negotiations to build a large dataenter somewhere in Western New York. While Yahoo! has not yet agreed to build the datacenter in New York, it sure as hell didn’t stop Governor Paterson and other state politicians [...]
The Buffalo Niagara Partnership is hosting an event next week to celebrate local companies which have been in business for more than fifty years in Buffalo and Western New York. They are calling it the “Endurance All-Stars“. Let’s consult with Mr. Merriam and [...]
I’ll steal one of Pundit’s favorite gimmicks for this one…
Dick Cheney made a speech today about torture and national defense. After watching it, all I could think of was how Dick Cheney is morphing into a decrepit old version of Colonel Jessup from [...]
So, the big economic development news around the region is that the RC Cola of Internet search engines and aggregation portals, Yahoo! will be opening a new datacenter in WNY.
The New York Power Authority — which previously came under fire for denying power [...]
I discovered Nate Silver several years ago due to his uncanny skill as a baseball statistical analyst at a little website called Baseball Prospectus. He developed an uncannily accurate statistical analysis system called PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm) to predict the future performance of [...]
The leaves may be sprouting on the trees and flowers may be blooming, but you know how I know when it is officially spring in Buffalo? It’s when Buffalo Place releases their annual lineup for Thursday At The Square and the [...]
Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight has a nice rundown of the vote tally as the New York State Senate prepares to debate and vote on S4401, an act to amend the domestic relations law, in relation to the ability to marry.
Although New York’s State Assembly [...]
Local developer, attorney and political activist Carl Paladino did not actually testify before the New York State Senate in any capacity, but if he did, this is how I assume it would go:
Carl is at it again with an ad running on WBEN calling for the resignation of [...]
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown announced what everyone already knew, he will seek another four year term in office. Here’s the video of the announcement and Brown reciting his litany of accomplishments in his first term.
Mayor Brown will be facing a primary race from Buffalo South District Councilman [...]
The title got your attention, didn’t it? That’s why I won Best Blogger in Buffalo 2009 and you didn’t, bitches.
I’ve been busy with work, family, kids and side businesses lately and haven’t had much time to post. I have about 11 posts in draft status that I need to finish [...]
I just got my congratulatory plaque from the Artvoice Best of Buffalo awards and I’d like to thank all of those who voted for me! It feels good to have finally been recognized for my brilliance.
[...]
Artvoice has released their 2009 “Best of Buffalo” nominations and I have a few things to say about the nomination list for “Best Local Blogger“.
Now, if this was BuffaloPundit’s blog, he’d ironically beg you to go vote for him, post a picture of [...]
There is something happening in America today and it’s troubling, even for a cynical bastard like me. We’re not willing to even be truthful anymore. Once upon a time in this nation, there was an objective truth and then there was partisan interpretations of that truth [...]
There was a lot of angst in left wing circles as to whether President Obama would pass a major test of transparency when it came to releasing Bush Administration memos authorizing torture and describing the tactics in full.
Today is the most significant test yet determining [...]
