IowaBill

I don't know which is the greater evil, faith in the union leadership to do what is right for their members, or faith in a corporation or municipality to do what is right for their stakeholders. I mentioned I was a unio member once. In fact I was a shop steward. I remember going through a 7 month long strike, and during that strike union officials coming to the picket lines and strike headquarters (local Elks Club!!) in their expensive cars and fine clothes. Meanwhile, I wasn't getting a paycheck. I also wasn't getting much in the way of assistance from the local, except for help in filling out food stamp applications. I left the union position, got a poistion in the managment, and realized that what I went on strike for was not really in my best interest. I haven't worked in a union position since, I have always made more money, had better benefits and had abetter work experience without a union. much like the people at the Toyota and Honda assembly plants in the US I didn't need a union. I would disagree with some of the comments made by others here regarding quality differences. Some of the least reliable cars I have had have been Japanese, and the single most reliable car I have ever had was a 1992 Jeep Cherokee, of all things as i know they are not known for their quality. After 425,000 miles with the ORIGINAL engine and transmission, I finally gave to my nephew. He promptly smashed it into a tree. i am pretty sure that had nothing to do with who designed or built it . Just my two cents on unions, I am sure others have had different experiences.

As a former union member, I would agree, bite me!!!!! Actually, lets not consider it an act of patriotism to buy a car built and assembled by union labor. I say as a person that drives a Ford F 150 and my wife drives a Mustang, both built by UAW members. Cars don't have tpo be built and assmebled by union workers to be good, certainly the non union car companys that design, build and assemble cars here in the states (Honda, Toyota, Hyundai,etc) have proven that. GM is eliminating 30,000 jobs because they have way too much capacity for the number of vehicles they make. It doesn't take anywhere near the number of union workers and man hours to build and assemble automobiles as it used to. Even if we bought "American " (read UAW assembled) cars, GM and Ford would most likely be shrinking their unionized workforce. I have been to Toyota and Honda assembly plants in the US. Guess what, the people there didn't attack Pearl Harbor, they didn't throw any Jews into ovens. They are as American as you and I. They make a decent living and make a good product. They also don't pay union dues, which I think is what really rankles you. Unions are not needed for fair wages , good benefits, and safe working conditions.

Typical AD response. The PPP board is littered with them. Perhaps we need more stringent environmental regulations.

Who peed in your Wheaties?????? Go back and read his post and see where he said anything that would warrant the response you had.

I have always respected your posts, for a number of reasons too lengthy to get into here. However, the Salvation Army will help anybody they can that is "down on their luck" within whatever parameters they set. Their service to the poor, however, is done separately from the christian church (an offshoot of the Methodists) they run. This separate social service organization is set up so they can accept government dollars, foundation grants and revenues from other orgnizations like the United Way. I ahve worked with SA chapters on numerous occaisions, and even the people that run the chapters (they call them "officers") who are ordained ministers, will tell one part of their operations (social service) has NOTHING to do with the other (christian church). As it should be. Christians do not have any kind of monopoly on doing good deeds to others.

I think he was Ahmad Rashad by then. the headlines from the Buffalo (Evening) News the day after the game read "A Star is Born" referring to Fergusons late game performance.

Williams, I believe is the current conductor for the Boston Pops orchestra as well. If memory serves he got his start composing for Irwin Allen TV productions such as Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Land of the Giants. I think that the theme to The Magnificent Seven should be on the poll. Elmer Bernstein (no relation to Leonard Bernstein of West Side Story fame) composed the tune whcih was later used for Marlboro commercials, before our govt decided we shouldn't be allowed to see cigarette ads.

To admit publicly I know the rest of the lyrics of that, or any England Dan and John Ford Cooley song is something I am not prepared to do.

"I'm not talkin about movin' in..."

While Suzy K. may not be the most attractive sideline reporter on the air these days, I have NEVER seen a WalMart cashier as attractive as she is. Most of them are pretty rough looking. (not that I (or anybody on this board if the pictures of the tailgate parties to be believed) am any "bed of roses".

The idea of living in the past being in exclusively in the domain of liberals is probably nothe case. Many times, self proclaimed, right wing conservatives have responded to points about GWB and his ilk made by self proclaimed, left wing liberals, with "oh yeah, well about the time Clinton.........". Clearly those statements have not been made by you. It wouldn't be difficult, however to find them by some of the right wingers here. "rooster up" is a mistake (especially when with someone other than your wife)

JP looked good in that game because Houston is the worst team in the league. Most QB's (and defenses!) have looked good against the Texans. If you are using that game as your baseline for evaluating JP's ability at this stage in his career, that would appear to be a mistake.

I was the person the made the original statement regarding SSDI and SSI. I was incorrect, regarding Social Security Disability benefits (SSD), and Live and Die Bills is correct oin that matter. There have been a number of references to SSI, which I think people believe is the "proper" bureaucratic acronym for Social Security. In fact, the acronym when used by the Social Security Administration (SSA) stands for Supplemental Security Income. SSI are payments to people that are disabled or indigent due to disability and have never payed into the SSA system. These benefits are payed from the general fund, not social securiy collections, but are administered by the Social Security Administration. Recipients of such benefits are often disabled from birth, or have been disabled since before the age of 21. Like most government bureaucracies, the acronyms and jargon are confusing and hard for a "lay" person to negotiate, and the employees of the "system" typically don't make it any easier.

I don't nessecarily disagree with your opinion regarding GWB's approach to "fixing" social security. Your takeon SSDI is incorrect, I believe. SSDI and SSI have long been administered by the Social Security administration, however the funds for those programs have always come from general funds, not from SS taxes collected. Few people realize that. I have often heard people complain about disabled getting "my Social Security" dollars, when those recipients are not, they are getting SSI or SSDI.

Why would we give him the ball more if we are already in the endzone. Unless you meant red zone. Then I would agree. The problem is Tom Clements still thinks that passing the ball from 5 yard line is a play that is going to yield consistnet results.

it is a lyric from a song from "Guys and Dolls" by Frank Loesser. "Guys and Dolls" took place in NYC. The Music Man is by Meredith Wilson and took place in Iowa.

Remember the last goalie the Sabres picked up from Chicago.............he was a relatively unknown Czech backing up Ed Belfour at the time............perhaps lightning will strike twice......................

I would caution using Wikipedia as some sort of unimpeachable source. Check out the Wikipedia entry for Van Miller. It gives a description of him calling the Dolphins game when Jim Kelly dove in from the 2 yard line to win the game and then goes on to state that that was the game that broke the 20 consecutive loosing streak against the Dolphins. That streak was actually broken years earlier when Joe Ferguson was the QB and I believe Marino was a rookie. I think almost anybody is allowed to edit or make a Wikipedia entry. No fact checking needed, any old opinion will do. I am not sure their definition of drought is right or wrong, but using Wikipedia as a source is a bad idea.

I agree with your statement that health insurance benefits should be market driven in terms of them being offered by the employer. Additionally increasing the size of the govt. to address this issue probably would be a less than stellar idea. I am not sure, however, how we eliminate the entitlement mentality as regards health care services. One could argue that waht drives people to seek health care, regardless of thier ability to pay is the instinct we wll have to stay alive. Given that we are justifiably proud of our health care delivery system, it being among the best in the world, and we all have a fairly strong survival instinct, I don't think we will ever stop people from seeking health care services. the problem then becomes how it is provided, who pays for it, and how effeciently it can be carried out. I think if we accept that people seek the services because of their quality and the need for them, we will be more successful in ensuring access at a reasonable and managable rate. Let's not deny anybody, let's provide for everybody in a way that makes sense.

There are a number of moderately succesful programs (mostly private) that have been formed to deal with the growing problem of the working uninsured. I spent a fair amount of time in the "textile and furniture belt" area of both North Carolina and Virginia andworked on developing two of them. Probably one of the more successful efforts is Project Access in Asheville, North Carolina. Without going into too many details it is a joint project of the local medical society, the existing hospitals and several community organizations. It doesn't get rid of Medicaid, as it doesn't address health care to the indigent. It does, however, deal very effectively with overuse of emrgent care services and it provides a quality stream of medical services to a population that would not otherwise be able to afford it. Many of these programs are in smaller cities (Asheville probably has about 75K people in it) and may not be as a effective in a bigger city / population area like Suffolk County, NY. Additionally, if the working unisured continues to grow at the rate it has, voluntary run programs of this nature will NOT be able to cope with the issue. Not sure what the solution is, but there are places where this problem can be addressed, with minimal cost to the taxpayer.

At what point is a store "big" enough to force them to provide health insurance. Employer paid health insurance had its primary genesis during WWII when wages were frozen during war production. Employer provided health care was offered as a benefit to keep workers (Kaiser Shipbuilding). It made good business sense to provide health insurance / health care then. When it makes good business sense to provide health insurance at a certain level, you can bet WalMart will do so. Agree or disagree with their policies, it is an extremely successful company. The idea that higher prices due to mandated health coverage will lower taxes because of lower Medicaid costs is probably a bad one. The way to address Medicaid fraud and costs is to address them at the source, NOT by legislation that applies only to select companies.

Tying legislation to the presence of a collective bargaining agreement seems like a bad idea to me. I know it is "popular" for some groups to continually bash Walmart, but I am not sure it is warranted here as regards health insurance. Wal Mart does provide health insurance to its employees at some levels. Is it "good" health insurance?? Probably not, BUT does anybody think that the "mom and pop" stores that Walmart has supposedly put out of of business all over the country would have provided health insurance to their entry level employees???? Does anybody think that "mom and pop" stores only employ full time staff with a compensation package that allows them to raise a family, buy a house, etc, etc. I don't think "mom and pop" stores met the criteria people want Wal Mart to meet. If a company (Walmart, Target, Lowes, etc) has to pay 3.00 / hour per employee for health insurance, who do you think is going to pay for it?? The customers (you and me), and aren't we taxpayers?? If the Suffolk County government is trying to deal with a health insurance issue by forcing select employers based on the presence , or lack thereof, of a collective bargaining agreement, I thikn they are out of line. The issue is the cost of health care and health insurance. The answer is NOT forcing select employers to pay for it. Unfortunately, for all my ranting, I don't have an answer.

I would question where you state the only the rookie to do well IN THE HISTORY OF THE NFL (emphasis, mine) was Ben R., I would ask you to look back at Joe Ferguson's rookie year when he went 9-5 during a fourteen game season. And by the way, JP is not a rookie, although I realize he didn't get many snaps last year in game time. Not meant to be slam at JP, I think the Bills should stick with him, for a while at least. He does need to show some glimmer of promise, other than that which he showed against the Texans. (who have turned out to be what seems like the worst team in professional football)

The NFL "uniform nazis" have built the most succesful sports marketing franchise by making sure each franchise adheres to an established set of standards. This is extremely basic marketing. One of the reasons the NFL merchandise sales program is so succesful is because of the standards set and enforced by the NFL. many of thier decisions may seem petty to us (fining someone for not wearing the right socks, only allowing two apperances of the "throwback" uniforms per season, etc) but their decision are based in pretty sound business principles. It is much easier to enforce the standards if the franchising organization, in the case the NFL, doesn't allow any non standardized uniform items to appear. let some people get by not adhering to standards, the next thing you know, none of the teams are folloing the standards. This in turn weaknes the NFL's control over the copyrighted logos and merchandise. That would mean more "non approved" merchandise, which in turn would have a negative impact on the revnues ditributed to the teams, which would have a negative impact on small market teams (like the Bills), etc, etc. I like the "throwbacks", they bring back memories of being a kid again, and watching the Bills with my family. having said that, I undertstand why the NFL makes the decisions regarding uniforms the way they do.

Ab - so - freakin - lutley, although somebody else mentioned Buzzy's, Sammy's (both OK, I was eating a Sammys Pizza when "wide right" happened). Pizza Oven can be a bit of an acquired taste, although it is damn good. Nothing beats a La Hacienda, though. Last time I was back there, it was closed for the day. Talk about lousy timing!!! (made do with a pizza from Buzzy's). Seems like people outside of WNY sometimes just don't understand pizza.