Sandy spent his entire three hours excoriating Giambra, Ianello and Marinelli for ineptness today. With a sideswipe at Byron Brown's budget, the biggest spending increase in fifteen years.
He says he did it because the union apprentice thing was being brought up again. Probably because the hacks on the Legislature (Ms. Cinthia excepted) are counting on us to be distracted by the Sabres.
He had effusive praise for the CBs---both County and City. These are folks, says Sandy, who don't get paid, who have no financial interst in the outcome and will receive no civic awards for their service.
Those awards always make me want to puke. They are always given to current legislators, in the unspoken hope that more dough will flow to the cause giving the award.
I've given enough to some orgs to be asked for a photograph "giving the check" to appear in their newsletter. I tell them I'm not running for anything and, thus, don't need the publicity.
Plus, I'm giving my own dough, not the somebody else's. Like all the politicos.
Truth springs from argument among friends.
no financial interest?
isn't Bob Wilmers on the board? M&T would greatly benefit from the city and county having new building growth as they'd be getting some of the new mortgages
granted it'd be good for all of us if the city and county got their crap together and the economy improved because of it, but control board members would benefit financially too
although at least we'd all be getting a benefit unlike the status quo where the politicians line their pockets while the rest of us suffer
Vote for freedom, not political parties.
Politicians need to cut spending
With Buffalo and Erie County's economic growth so paltry, it is becoming a smaller and smaller portion of M&T's overall business.
Wilmer's willingness to serve in this thankless position bears no percentage relation to the interests of M&T (which he heads).
Truth springs from argument among friends.
This was sent to me from another group; you might just find it interesting.Originally Posted by biker
From: "Cynthia Van Ness" bettybarcode@yahoo.com
Date: Sun May 21, 2006 6:13pm(PDT)
Subject: Hot local reading: "Power Failure"
My, my, how quiet Buffalo has been about Diana Dillaway's book, "Power Failure," which was featured on the cover of Artvoice a few weeks ago. See:
http://www.prometheusbooks.com/catalog/book_1814.htmlI picked up my copy at Talking Leaves and am half or more through it. Here's the main thing Dillaway reveals: the seat of power in Buffalo is not city, county, or even state government. The reins of power are held by Buffalo bankers, lawyers, and real estate interests.
http://artvoice.com/issues/v5n17/power_failure
I suppose this is something that lots of people know even if few talk about it. Dillaway serves up a healthy share of dysfunctional government anecdotes.
Given that she also shows how government was a tool of WASP élites, it's about time we started identifying the fingerprints on that tool: the supposedly wise, infallible, efficient Private Sector. Accordingly, she also serves up plenty of corrupt "leader" anecdotes.
Dysfunctional government is a symptom, not a cause, of decline.
I hope and pray Dillaway makes provision for her interview tapes and papers to be deposited in a proper archive and opened to the public after her death or some other appropriate interval of time.
Men (yes, they all seem to be male) who destroy a city should not be allowed to anonymously escape the judgement of history.
*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-*
Sounds like an interesting book.....
Think you can trust the government?
Ask an Indian!
I commented on that book on May 1 on my blog and on the Free New York blog--
I've read a book by former Buffalonian Diana Dillaway called "Power Failure: Politics, Patronage, and the Economic Future of Buffalo, New York.
I'll have more to say later, but here are some quick thoughts.
The book blames poor leadership and to a lesser extent racism for Buffalo's failure to respond to economic decline. The poor leadership consists of leaders making judgments on public policy issues for their own selfish motives as opposed to the public good.
However, selfishness and racism are common features of human society in all places and times. Was Buffalo less racist in its economic boom times? Were civic leaders less selfish? I don't think so.
No doubt we have had self-serving and unimaginative civic leaders for many years. What we need is a political regime where brilliant and inspired leadership is not essential. That system would be limited, decentralized government with a free market economy. Political and economic power are dispersed and diffused throughout society so critical errors by a few powerful men will not doom the community.
Yet, in the last chapter, Ms. Dillaway speaks highly of regionalism and centralizing power. That's no surprise as she is a planner by trade.
Economic liberalism, that which in my view is responsible for Buffalo's plight, emerges largely unscathed in Power Failure. The heroes are black and liberal politicians and activists; the villains are businessmen and centrist or conservative ethnic politicians. So expect this book to get rave reviews in liberal quarters. It already got a front page feature story in Art Voice.
This is an interesting book about Buffalo from the standpoint of a liberal academic with a fondness for central planning.
Naturally, I think my own Political Class Dismissed got it right the first time:
It is no accident that Buffalo’s decline began in the decade of the 1960s, the great liberal decade. While Buffalo was shooting itself in the foot with home-grown liberal policy mistakes, it was also the victim of economic liberalism on the state and federal levels. Throughout the decade, economic liberals ran the state government (Nelson Rockefeller) and the federal government (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon).
*****
Thus, in the 1960s, Buffalo was the victim of a multi-pronged, economic-liberal pincer movement joined in by all four levels of government—city, county, state, and federal, fully supported by the local political machine, and, unfortunately, endorsed by most of the voters as well. The combined impact of these liberal assaults delivered a blow to Buffalo from which it has never recovered.
*********
As for your comment:
"Given that she also shows how government was a tool of WASP élites, it's about time we started identifying the fingerprints on that tool: the supposedly wise, infallible, efficient Private Sector. Accordingly, she also serves up plenty of corrupt "leader" anecdotes.
Dysfunctional government is a symptom, not a cause, of decline."
But you're confusing the free market with the corporate state. The political system in Buffalo is the corporate state. For a more detailed discussion, see here--
http://www.lewrockwell.com/ostrowski/ostrowski51.html
Jim - I'm not confusing anything, I just brought this over from a Yahoo blog called BuffaloHistory. The lady that sent it is one that I like to see go against the Biker sometime; her claim to fame is the Buffalo Preservationists Group.
By statements that she's made in the past, she definately seems to have an agenda. She has nothing against anyone's business, unless they want to expand, like Wal-Green's or Pano's Restaurant.
I'll send your reply to her and see what she has to say.
Think you can trust the government?
Ask an Indian!
Jim - I posted your reply at the Yahoo Weblog and Cynthia was kind enough to reply, refering to your previous letter here (posted above).
Message 6
From: "Cynthia Van Ness" bettybarcode@yahoo.com
Date: Mon May 22, 2006 6:52pm(PDT) Subject:
Re: Power Failure
There are two problems with that analysis.
All of the men in elite positions of power deciding Buffalo's fate were in the free market, private sector. They controlled government, not the other way around.
And they were conservative Republicans who blocked a UB campus in the city because it would dilute their turf and power with too many "liberals."
Now I have been reading some yearbooks from the old Buffalo Times from the 1890s and they speak of various civic leaders in glowing terms who were movers and shapers of the City's future.
I also read old newspapers down at the Grovsner Room of the library, newspapers from the 1920s through the 1950s, and the story's the same in those as well, just the names are different.
If she's wrong, why did the taxpayers build a football stadium, a baseball park and a hockey arena and literally give total control of them to the team owners? And why is it that the then-owner of the Buffalo News managed to take a slam-dunk vote on the Domed Stadium and through political pressure, get it overturned before it even came to a vote? The story I heard was Mrs. Butler just finished the New's new offices and didn't want a stadium blocking her view of the lake.
No, I think that there's a grain of truth to this book, and its not the fault of all the Liberals or Progressives. Its also not the fault of all the Conservatives, either.
Look at the people in Giambra's so-called "Kitchen Cabinet", these are the people that are running the show in all the local governments, and these are the people that this book is trying to name.
Think you can trust the government?
Ask an Indian!
By definition, the decision as to where a state university is placed is not made by the free market. It's made by government. The fact that governments tend to become the playthings of the rich is a different issue. They become the playthings of the rich because their vast powers over the economy make them tempting targets.
Liberals have adied this process by supportign vast expansions of the government's power over the economy--Federal Reserve, Federal Income Tax, etc.
I think my essay cited above explains all this in more detail.
The funny thing is, Marxists get it; liberals don't. It was libertarians and Marxists, who agree on little else, who first identified the pernicious corporate state.
"Progressives"--a public relations term for the ideology of the corporate state--the consolidation of power over the economy by big business, big government, and organized labor, the junior partner.
Here's the story as related to me (and others) by Al Abgott.
After a considerable period of discussion and debate, the County Legislature was ready to vote on the location of the new domed stadium. At that point, it was considered a slam-dunk to be located down on lower Main Street south of the Auditorium and north of the DL&W terminal. The Rapid Transit was due to go in front of this location and it was thought that this would aid in bringing people into venues at that site.
After the final committee session on a Thursday, the law-makers went home and were ready for their vote the following week. When they gathered again, Abgott, one of bill's sponsers, was amazed to find it defeated by a wide majority.
He went around and privately polled all of the nay votes and found the same thing from each. Over the previous weekend, Mrs Butler, owner of the Buffalo News called each and every legislator in a successful attempt to sway their votes. She cajolled, bullied and threatened all of them with negative "attention" from her newspaper.
There wasn't one legislator called that stood up to her.
The only reason that Mr. Abgott could think of for her actions was that she didn't want a huge domed stadium overshadowing her (at the time) brand-new newspaper office.
And considering how many things have been proposed for that bit of real estate, why hasn't it been used for something after all these years?
Does some developer have his eye on it?
Over the years that I worked in County Government, I have heard other stories of how "civic leaders" wound up telling our elected leaders how to vote.
As a private citizen, I can inform my legislators how I'd like them to vote and they might even listen to me, but when the "movers and shapers" weigh in, who do YOU think that the Legislature listens to?
This area has been an oligarchy for many years and most people here don't even realize it.
Think you can trust the government?
Ask an Indian!
News called each and every legislator in a successful attempt to sway their votes. She cajolled, bullied and threatened all of them with negative "attention" from her newspaper.
This can't be true. If this was the case each legislature involved should of commented on her threats.
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What can I say?
First, I have said many times that this county is (politically) run by fifty middle-aged white men, most of them in business. Can I be clearer?
Second, in a free market, the county isn't building stadiums! Why, because the government isn't doing things that private business can do. It is doing what we are told only governments can do--fight wars, keep the peace (irony intended) and adjudicate disputes.
Third, even if Mrs. Butler persuaded those people to change their votes, what is it about government-owned enterprises that allows their managers to make such frivolous decisions without personal consequences?
Free Buffalo has already answered that critical question,
here--
http://freebuffalo.org/articles/poli...%20Lessons.pdf
and here--
http://freebuffalo.org/articles/news...uthorities.pdf
Why do you want anyone to go up against me?
What have I done to you?
And why do you pick a feminazi socialist as your champion?
I think you spent too much time in government service, my friend.
Truth springs from argument among friends.
I agree with that a hundred percent. Brown was not their guy. That is why I was elated when he won. From what I have seen I'm glad he won. He is doing good things in the BPD and I hope it continues.
Buffalo's decline began well before the Depression started, not in the 1960s.
Its peak was around 1915-1916.
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