Taro T

I'd expect the offense to be in good shape in '10 (especially if they add a true LT to the mix in the next off-season), but expect the line to take some serious time to gel this year. Add in the holdover head coach and I have a hard time being optimistic for THIS year. That said, I hope The Senator's finally right, but wouldn't bank on a 0.500+ season.

What, you don't remember the Sooners racing in their boats up the Amazon to claim their own little patch of heaven?

No, he wasn't a "liberal lover", but his vetting process was rather flawed. Souter turned out to be FAR more liberal than expected, and I'd contend that Thomas was more conservative than Bush expected as well. And conservative Presidents have been known in the past to nominate judges that ended up very liberal. The fact that Bush gave her her start on the federal bench is less telling than the fact that Clinton promoted her. She already has 60 votes. I'd be very surprised if she only gets 5-10 Republicans to vote for her. I'd expect her to end up close to 80 when all is said and done.

I expect that she will get confirmed w/ a margin of something on the order of 80/20. I'm sure the hearing will get contentious, but no where near the level of Thomas' hearing. Though I doubt I will agree w/ her decisions very often when the court is split, I agree w/ you that Obama won and he should get his nominee confirmed provided she isn't a true wacko. From the bits I have read of her, she isn't a wacko.

You're using the 47 yarder in defense of Jauron? There was absolutely no reason for them not to try to gain more yardage and it was extremely poor coaching to settle for a 47 yard try into the wind at that point. That kick was not going to be a "gimme" at that distance and the Bills were moving the ball well. He should have tried to get closer.

Uh, 20 total. Steelers - Dallas (3x) Dallas - Denver (1x) Baltimore - Dallas (1x) SB XXVII and XXVIII would meet your criteria as well. And if you aren't counting the SF Bay as warm, then you add SB's XIX, XXIX & the Gruden game to your list.

The blind leading the myopic and w/ other people's money. Unfortunately Buffalo has a long history of supporting restaurants which have no possibility for success.

Week 1 Mon, Sep 14 @ New England Patriots* L Week 2 Sun, Sep 20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers L Week 3 Sun, Sep 27 New Orleans Saints L Week 4 Sun, Oct 04 @ Miami Dolphins W Week 5 Sun, Oct 11 Cleveland Browns W Week 6 Sun, Oct 18 @ New York Jets W Week 7 Sun, Oct 25 @ Carolina Panthers L Week 8 Sun, Nov 01 Houston Texans W Week 9 Sun, Nov 08 BYE Week 10 Sun, Nov 15 @ Tennessee Titans L Week 11 Sun, Nov 22 @ Jacksonville Jaguars L Week 12 Sun, Nov 29 Miami Dolphins W Week 13 Thu, Dec 03 New York Jets (Toronto) W Week 14 Sun, Dec 13 @ Kansas City Chiefs L Week 15 Sun, Dec 20 New England Patriots* W Week 16 Sun, Dec 27 @ Atlanta Falcons L Week 17 Sun, Jan 03 Indianapolis Colts L 7-9 Hopefully I'm out after the 1st week.

Sorry Mike, you are wrong. The NHL doesn't. 3 Canucks wear A's during their games: Kesler, Mitchell, and Ohlund. If the NHL recognized Luongo as the Captain (which they can't because it is against the rules), then they could only have 2 of the 3 A's wear the A's. That is definitely the way he comes across on-the-air.

I don't know, I always thought Grand Island was pretty close to Buffalo. And he went to St John Fisher and had a job w/ the D&C and then one of the Ra-cha-cha stations before going to WNSA. I doubt he hates the area. It'd be interesting to hear his actual statement in context. He's definitely not a huge football fan, but that sounds a little over the top for even him. (And I rarely if ever defend the guy.)

Cool. A man who definitely knows his audience. I look forward to the article/blog. Thanks.

Nah, 5-11 or 6-10 teams rarely get the #1 pick in the draft. If the Bills are as bad as I fear they'll be this year, hopefully we get a new coach. I doubt it, but we can hope. I'd be surprised/shocked if we're bad enough for Bledsoe to get replaced by Polian, but we can hope.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Tim, have you heard any reaction from the (Bills or Eagles) players on Peters being traded? Sorry, I haven't read through all 90 threads on the trade, so if you have already adressed that, my bad.

Did I miss turn back your clocks 18 days, and is today April 1?

No we didn't. The only way we had surpluses was by including monies going into social security. Monies which have already been allocated for other, future, spending. That was the point of Al Gore's "lock box." It's like taking out a mortgage for $100k, having after tax income of $50K, and spending $140k, knowing your after tax income will be $50k for the foreseeable future as well, and then believing you are $10k in the black that year. You aren't, you are $90k in the hole. If you spend another $140k the next year, you are in deep doo doo.

In fact, this bill doesn't cut taxes. Every single $ the government spends is a tax. Some of the taxes are collected today, and some in the future; but either way a $ has to come out of somebody's pocket. And whether you are taking from the rich and giving to the poor, taking from the poor and giving to the rich, taking from the middle class and giving to the middle class, or some other permutation, you are "taking from one and giving to another." Someone puts money in (again, either today or tomorrow) and someone else gets to take it out. As you state about, in this case someone in the future will have to pay so we can spend today. (Although I'd be very surprised if there aren't other tax increases for today in the bill as well.)

Could you please expand upon this statement?

And your continuing to harp on an immaterial triviality is not even remotely surprising. Whether Franken was responsible for 5% or 10% or 1% of SNL does not change the fact that his bits were not funny and it isn't much of a reach to assume that what he wrote (that wasn't explicitly credited to him) wasn't funny either. Yes, Air America having come out of bankruptcy was news to me. It doesn't change the fact that it was in bankruptcy. I called it his Air America because he was the face of that organization and was involved in its formation. You find Franken funny, but are unwilling to provide any examples of something he's done that is funny. That's fine, and again, not terribly unexpected. It also is not nearly as entertaining as the Sabres' game, so I am probably done w/ this discussion. Spater.

The exact percentage of skits written by Franken is immaterial. The point, which you so deftly missed once again, was that it is doubtful that Franken is responsible for many of the good skits that don't include him; as the vast majority of skits he was in were not funny. But perhaps you can retell me how the writers do collaborate w/ each other once again; which is a pointless point as we both agree that they work together. Thus my statement earlier "And I am certain that they worked w/ other members of the crew as well." Perhaps you should do your research. They filed for bankruptcy back in '06 and were bought in '07. So HIS Air America WAS bankrupt. It's somebody elses now. And, it's not surprising that you'd try to extrapolate your final comment out of my original comments.

We may have different definitions of "journeymen" but both Meadows and Hammond strike me as being journeymen. (It isn't a bust on either, as I find both very funny within the SNL format; but I'd be very surprised to see either headlining a (good) movie or broadway show in the future.) My evaluation of Franken's writing talents may be flawed. Please provide me a better evaluation metric for his talent/ lack thereof. All I know is, the skits he ends up in; the movie roles I've seen him in, and the radio talk he's spoken have been poor IMHO. I've asked the steel dildo to provide the same, but my guess is he will come back w/ a retort that is far less eloquent and informative than your response will be. (Basically, I think you may actually give me something to reevaluate my opinion; whether you can or can't, I won't be wasting my time reading your response.) I'm not certain how relevant his books being best sellers is. Jackie Collins and Tom Clancy have had at least twice that many. That doesn't mean that Collins books are good, or that Clancy's are bad (or vice versa depending on perspective), it only means they caught on w/ the right PR people to promote what their books were about. Couldn't Franken's Ivy League ties and ability to shamelessly selfpromote have had something to do w/ his book sales?

Look dildo (Steely Dan, whatever), I did not say that one writer works on a sketch and that is it. Had you ever paid attention to the reruns of the old SNL, you would realize that Franken and Davis were a writing team. And I am certain that they worked w/ other members of the crew as well. Saying that 5% of the writing is his, on a whole, is probably very accurate. You have heard of this new concept called an "average", correct? The way an average works is, when you have, say 24 shows w/ 20 writers submitting material to the show w/ 16 skits per show, on average each writer supplies ~20 skits per season. Considering Al was on the screen at least 10 times / season (and probably more like 20) it is safe to assume that he supplied a lot of his own material. And the vast majority of that material wasn't funny. Again, if you disagree, please point out what WAS funny. The fact that you continue to bash me for saying his skits were unfunny w/out providing any evidence that anything WAS funny is telling as I have pointed out specific instances that were not funny. The reason his comedy is relevant to his politics is that he is basing his entire political career off of his comedy/ media career. His Air America is bankrupt. I doubt he was basing his campaign on that leg. The only other things he has is his TV/movie writing/acting and his books. Please explain to me what his comedy DOESN'T have to do w/ his politics? If his entire background is his comedy, isn't that what he's bringing to the table as a Senator? What else does he bring? How is any of that, especially considering the radio show went under, anything but self-promoting?

And Tim Meadows was on that show for 10+ years and Darryl Hammond has probably been around that long as well. A long tenure actually can imply hitting a journeyman status, where a person was good enough to get in, but not move on. (And part of being good enough to get in sometimes is going to the right school, etc. My opinion of Franken is that he was at the right Ivy League school at the right time and kissed the right butt to get in. The guy NEVER made it on his own, provided Governer Ventura's subjects don't throw this one to him.) As I wrote earlier, please tell me what he's done that was funny. I didn't find his Franken and Davis skits funny (although some of Davis' lines were funny; if Al wrote them, I'll give him credit for that), nor did I find his WU commentary funny. Stuart Smiley was PAINFULLY unfunny. Al, as a typical politician, has always appeared to be about himself. Considering he has never DONE anything tangible (other than self promote), I truly hope he does not end up in the "exclusive club". If he HAS done something other than self-promote under the radar, please let me know. I've seen no evidence of it.

You really think he'll actually sponsor bills? He might. But I would not be surprised to see him be a loud-mouthed follower like Kerry.

How many writers did they have on staff when he was there? 20 or so? They've been pretty consistent in that regard to having a large contingent of writers. If they have 20 writers, and each produces about the same amount of material, then each writer is responsible for ~5% of the shows that make it to the air. Considering every skit Al was in sucked, (if you disagree w/ this assessment, please point out what you think he was in that DIDN'T suck, I've already provided several examples of what DID suck) it isn't hard to extrapolate that his writing wasn't responsible for the funny bits that made it to air. And what you are neglecting to acknowledge by pointing out my comment that "some" of the best writing occurred while Al was on staff, is that a lot of good writing occurred while he wasn't on staff. Get it?

Flowers was Butler, but most of the rest of what you state is spot on.