Entries from May 2008 ↓

I waited to see what Rus Thompson’s take would be on this before sounding off with opinions of my own.

New York State Thruway Authority members give up perk

(WIVB) - Members of the New York State Thruway Authority are giving up a nice perk.

Board members gave in to public pressure Wednesday and agreed to stop using their free E-ZPass tags.

The move comes just one day after the New York Daily News revealed that about 60 past and present board members, many of them multi-millionaires, had received the free tags for life.

Rus Thompson’s reply to it all:

Oh, whoopie frikin do….. 7, only 7? Like this will have a big effect on toll revenue. This practice started in 1965 in union negotiations, there are thousands of these out there. This will do nothing and is simply pandering. Is it a start? Only time will tell. My god there are many, many other places to go to in this bloated budget and the corrupt system.

This does not impress me in the least bit. Do something real, something substantial…. Or our hands tied and we are at the behest of the NYSTA…. Read the noGItolls website for some more real waste.

Agreeing that this move to halt lifelong Ez-Passes for TA members isn’t as substantial as the media/news is making it out to be. IMO, The Thruway Authority thought they could escape pressure by thinking the public would be pacified with them giving up this perk.

Do we buy it? Hell NO!

Today I played my first golfing game. It’s been said “you have to start somewhere” and I begin…. 89 over par on a 9-hole, 36 par course. I had an “old-timer” say he’s going to skip a hole I was beginning.

I had some great shots, though few & far between. On the brighter side, I never lost my ball (even if it landed at the start of the next hole …oops), twice I was able to chip the ball over a creek to the fairway (just outside of the green… but putting ended badly), and my highlight was the 3rd hole … it was a 3 par and I made it in 6 shots, that was one hole over the creek.

I saw it on Channel 2 news website:

A spokesperson for the Catholic Health System has confirmed that James (Jimmy) Griffin died early Sunday morning at Father Baker Manor in Orchard Park after a brief illness. He was 78 years old.

Griffin passed away quietly and peacefully with his family by his side.

What more can be said about a guy who never held back in the opinions he held? If he was ever fed-up, you’d know it.

I can’t say much more, but he was a friend. He will be missed, but his memory will live on.

Prayers to his family.

It says on the news:

A regular gallon of gas in Western New York now averages over $4.00 a gallon. Gas prices are up 85 cents a gallon from last Memorial Day.

The story ends with a comment from an elected leader:

Scott Brown: “What do you tell the person who’s having trouble paying these prices every week?”

Congressman Brian Higgins: “Well its very, very difficult. I want to avoid raising expectations because I think the problem is going to get much worse before it gets better.”

And then I wondered, as a congressman, what is he going to do about it?

Today I had one of them 24-7 “news” stations on and they played Obama’s speech in Oregon.

Obama dissed Bush as a President, and all I could yell out to the TV (knowing the fool can’t hear me) “You’re the law making body of this government!”

I find it rather ironic that any Senator can call the President of the United States out as bad, while they are elected as our law makers….. they have the power to write NEW laws of which the President can vote for or against. At no point whatsoever did the senator say that he wrote laws of which the President marked as veto.

The topic was on cost of living….. and Senator Obama could only find the words to shame President Bush while he’s holding a Senate seat.

Kettle… this is black, Black…. this is kettle.

Damn! That says a lot of the people whom are to be leaders of our area.

There’s a article in the Buffalo News about living on $2.95 a day. The challenge was presented to a few politicians for two days… and they failed.

The “poverty challenge” was put forward by the Homeless Alliance of Western New York, which earlier in the week called on community leaders and lawmakers to join in solidarity with the 30 percent of Buffalo residents who live at or below the federal poverty line of $866 (or $1,466 for a family of three) in income per month.

A realistic approach to stretching a dollar would have been for them to be poverty-stricken for a full month. A full billing cycle of rent, gas, electric, phone, internet, cable, food, credit cards, auto & health insurances. Now add in a couple of kids.

During the challenge, LoCurto gave up cable television and the Internet, saving about $2.48 against his budget. But he continued to use his cell phone, drove to work and maintained his health insurance.

“That left me with a budget for the day of negative 82 cents, before I started eating,” said LoCurto, who represents the Delaware District. “I don’t function if I don’t have three meals a day, and they weren’t elaborate meals . . . What do you do if you have to buy a $4 bottle of Tylenol? You don’t have dinner that day?”

A realistic challenge would be for these politicians to actually have their paychecks reduced to the poverty level for the full effect of being the working class poor. When you play a game with monopoly money, you know it’s only a game. But when you’re looking at a real budget with real money and finding away at real survival of supporting a family…. it no longer becomes the thought of “let’s pretend you’re poor” it becomes you’re actually living in the poorer lifestyle. A lifestyle of which making ends meet is a daily struggle.

A further realistic “challenge” would be living as the working class poor for a full year, so when minimum wage is increased & an economic stimulus check is being issued by the government, you’ll see how the cost of living adjusts your budgeting for the year…. a budgeting of going without more because food prices jumped through the roof & utility rates are robbery in broad daylight. After 12 months you see you’re further behind.

The alliance developed the challenge to call more attention to poverty in the second-poorest large city in the country, according to U. S. Census Bureau data.

When a lesson is to be taught with monopoly money, nothing is ventured…. nothing is gained, and politicians are no less ignorant when it comes to living a poorer lifestyle. They lived it for 2 days and then went back to their richer living. I bet the $4 bottle of Tylenol doesn’t seem so expensive now, does it? No rules have been broken today by any politician because you drove your child to daycare.

The “fed-up” in me is saying the effects of lifting people out of poverty is more than playing pretend for two days, because for people who are struggling more than myself it’s more than 48 hours of budgeting bills and modes of transportation. It’s more than 48 hours of making smaller meals so your food supply lasts a little longer. More than 48 hours of opting not to buy a new pair of sneakers for your children because you don’t want the electric cut off in your home.

This poverty challenge was a failure before it began, because the poor are still poor and the politicians get to go home with their financial security still in tact. Thanks for playing the game though.