For a born-again, turn-the-other-cheek, ride-that-Gospel-ship, my-check-kiting-days-are-over Christian, Joe Illuzzi certainly is given to fits of stunning vituperation. The bile he unloaded last night is particularly freighted with hate and slander.

On Cheektowaga Democratic chairman Frank Max:

One of the bloggers arrested for indecent exposure  known for fabricating stories, libel, etc. & getting paid to do it wrote Cheektowaga Chairman Frank Max beat up his wife & did jail time, true account.

However, later on Max paid him to write a retraction. Now Max says this publication  solicited an ad for Glascott for Sheriff. Absolutely not true. Max brought the ad up & we ignored him. Max would always preface his conversations with us by offering some sort of payment in kind. The fool never realized how insulted we were by that tactic. We should mention Max excoriated the blogger in question for over a year until he realized he could purchase the retraction.

We never swayed from our support of Tim Howard. We wouldn’t take money from a man who represented one of the most racist, brutal police departments in the country. However, the blogger in question took Glascott’s money & excoriated Howard for months.

But what was is true is Max beat up his wife!

On Erie County Legislator Tom Mazur:

Then this degenerate who represents a guy who beat up his wife (Max) is singing the praises of Legislator Tom Mazur was forced to resign his teaching position at ECC for sexually abusing a very young female student, more than one says a very prominent jurist.

On New York State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt:

To add insult to injury: Hoyt Sam I’ll be your lollipop Hoyt is taking full credit for the Legislature reversing itself on the license plate mandate. Hoyt sanctioned by the Assembly Speaker & kicked out of the “student intern” for having sex with one of the girls in his charge. Actually, there was more than one & one had an abortion.

On Common Council President Dave Franczyk:

We received a number of emails from readers wanting to make the point that Common Council President David Franczyk is simply a talking head. His district looks like a war zone because Franczyk has done little or nothing for his constituents. His job is to get the Black guys.

On the five members of the majority coalition on the Common Council:

The Majority on the Buffalo Common Council is trying to lynch Brian Davis.

And on an unnamed member of the Common Council:

Oh! I almost forgot! Sources say unequivocally that a Majority member of the Buffalo Common Council got caught in a extra marital tryst. Did we mention it was a gay man. The gay guys partner made him come clean if he wanted a reconciliation. No names (We have  names) just the facts – just the facts.

Come on, Joe. Don’t blow a week’s worth of character assassination in one evening. It’s only Tuesday, and your weekly dose of forgiveness is a long time coming.

The last assertion is especially egregious. Who is the old blackmailer threatening with this gossip, and why?

Consider Illuzzi’s sponsors: He is the paid man of Byron Brown and Steve Casey, who, like their opponents, are scrambling to positions for the fight to choose the successor to Brian Davis, who, according to state law, vacated the Ellicott District seat on Friday by pleading guilty to two misdemeanor violations of campaign finance law. (By the way, note that DA Frank Sedita claims there was no plea deal with Davis. Sedita says that Davis plead to exactly the crimes he committed, and if he had not, Sedita would have convened a grand jury this week to look at the case. But if Sedita was ready to convene a grand jury, then he must have had felonies to pin on Davis, not misdemeanors. Sounds like a plea deal to me.) The Council’s majority coalition wants to fill the vacancy quickly, not only because the Ellicott District needs representation but because the Council is beginning to work on the mayor’s proposed capital budget. Last year, the majority held the capital budget hostage well into the new year, insisting on changes that the mayor refused to make, and unable to force the mayor’s hand because they lacked a sixth vote to overturn Brown’s veto.

The Ellicott District seat could provide that sixth vote this year, but they need to fill the vacancy before December 15, by which date the Council must make its changes to the mayor’s $22.7 million capital budget proposal.

It may seem like the majority should be able to pick whomever they like for that seat, after advertising the position, accepting resumes, interviewing candidates, and listening to the district’s Democratic committee members, whose recommendation is influential but non-binding. But a five-to-four majority is thin, and it might be possible for Brown and Casey to peel away one ambitious majority member. One of the five, for example, might be convinced to vote for the candidate backed by Brown and Casey (Janique Curry, perhaps?) in exchange for the Council presidency, which would be determined by a new majority comprising the mayor’s bloc—North, University, Masten, and Ellicott—plus the rogue member of the current majority.

That carrot, or one similar to it, is surely being dangled right now. Perhaps Illuzzi, then, is the stick. If you don’t take the carrot, Brown and Casey may be saying, we can turn Illuzzi and his poison on you.

When Erie County Executive Chris Collins called Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver an anti-Christ last Saturday night at a Republican dinner, it wasn’t the first time he’d pulled the line out of his bag.

He recently made the exact same comparison to a group of Buffalo State political science students, who were visiting the Rath Building. Two Buffalo State faculty member were present.

Yesterday I asked Grant Loomis, the county executive’s director of communications, if Collins had ever made a similar reference to Silver before. He assured me that Collins had had not, that the remark was “unscripted” and “off the cuff.”

He then paused a moment and backed off a little, adding, “…to the best of my knowledge.”

I told Loomis about the Buffalo State students, and the two members of the faculty, and Loomis said, “Oh.”

He told me he’d look into it and get back to me. He did not, until this morning, when I wrote to him that I would take his failure to reply as a refusal to comment. He replied to that email immediately: “The CE has said everything there is to say in the statement,” referring to the apology Collins issued on Monday:

“Saturday night, I made a poor joke regarding the Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver.  I want to extend my sincerest apologies to him for my comments.  I have placed a call to the Speaker’s office to offer my apologies directly.

While we may disagree strongly on policy matters, my statement had no place in our political discourse and I am truly sorry to both the Speaker and to anyone else who I may have offended.”

I’m not going to take issue with the apology—it’s too easy to undermine the sincerity of a public apology, and it’s not fair: I can’t see into the heart of Chris Collins.

But it’s clear to me that his remark comparing an orthodox Jew to Hitler and the anti-Christ was not “off the cuff” or “unscripted”; it was not a momentary lapse in judgment. The joke is part of Collins’s repertoire. He has used it more than once, who knows how many times. Perhaps he wasn’t even aware that it was offensive until the uncomfortable silence he met at the Adam’s Mark on Saturday night. Maybe he didn’t know it was offensive until Elizabeth Benjamin exposed the remarks in the New York Daily News on Sunday. Maybe he still doesn’t believe what he said was offensive.  He certainly did not recognize it to be offensive between the time he made the remark to that group of college students and the time he made the remark on Saturday. Or he did and didn’t care. The former makes him an idiot, the latter makes him arrogant and heedless.

And, as Bruce Fisher writes in this week’s cover story, giving him a pass on this makes us all look bad.

UPDATE: Grant Loomis sent out a second statement this morning, after our email exchange. Here it is:

“The County Executive, at times, uses very harsh language in taking on what he believes are opponents of the taxpayers.  As the descendant of a Jewish grandfather, the County Executive recognizes that this characterization of the Speaker is wrong.  He has apologized for that characterization publicly, and personally apologized to the Speaker.  The County Executive will not let this mistake, however, distract him from his focus on protecting taxpayers and challenging the status quo locally and in Albany.”

Still no denial. So he’s called Silver hateful things before, and now that he’s been caught out, he recognizes what he said was wrong. Call it adult education, on Erie County’s dime.

Archeologists believe they may have found a long-lost quatrain penned by the famous renaissance seer Nostradamus, in the remains of a room once used as a salon by Catherine de Medici. The four-line verse is thought to be one of the fifty-eight quatrains missing from the his collection of predictions known as the seventh “Century.” He composed ten in all. Believers around the world point to the uncanny accuracy of his forecasts—including envisioning the rise of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler.

Alas, the discovery comes a few days late for Erie County Executive Chris Collins, who might’ve benefited from the soothsayers words:

The great suit will stumble at the mark

Among a crowd of his followers

From his lake, clad in silver, on horseback, he will cross the state

Seeking the letter sigma, whose number shall be six

Tearing a page from the Bread and Puppet Theater, the Coalition for Economic Justice staged the following skit at the condos down by the waterfront yesterday. Pictured is a great big Tom Golisano puppet.

Location: Behind Waterfront Place Condos
Date: 10/1/09
Time: 4:00 PM

A Press Conference in 1 Act:

Setting: Rally at Waterfront Condos

Designated “Cast”:
Politician played by Eric Gallion
Developer  (Carl Paladino) played by Roger Cook
Condo Buyer  (Stephen Barnes) played by Harrison Watkins

Foreclosed Home Owner played by Jane Piazza
Unemployed Worker played by Rachel Wilson

Activist: Eric Walker

Act 1: The Press Conference (Politician, Developer, and Condo Buyer stand next to each other, behind podium)

Politician: “We are gathered here today to celebrate the opening of the Waterfront Place Condos.  It has been my honor to pave the way for these condos to be built in a tax-free zone, spurring economic development that only the wealthy can afford.  This development is a perfect example of creatively using the Empire Zone program, which was originally intended to promote investment and job creation in poorer areas, to subsidize luxury condos for the entitled elite.  Without further ado, I would like to introduce the developer who had the courage to take advantage of these subsidies in the third poorest city in the country when he could have built these condos with his own money.” (more…)

Below is Assistant Erie County District Attorney Mark Sacha’s complete statement accusing his boss, Frank Sedita, of refusing to prosecute Steve Pigeon for election law violations, as detailed by Mike Beebe and Bob McCarthy in this Buffalo News article:

My name is Mark Sacha and I am an Assistant Erie County District Attorney.  I have served in that capacity for over 22 years.  I was hired by the Honorable Richard Arcara in 1987.  I was promoted to supervisory positions by the Honorable Kevin Dillon and District Attorney Frank Clark.  Until January 2, 2009, I held the position of Deputy District Attorney with signing authority on behalf of District Attorney Clark.  I have been in charge of most of the specialized units of the District Attorney’s Office and in that time supervised over 100 Assistant District Attorneys.  I have been the chief public corruption prosecutor in Erie County over the past ten years.

As such I am thoroughly familiar with the New York State Election Law and the importance of Election Law prosecution.  I was the lead prosecutor in the investigation of the Paul Clark campaign for Erie County Executive.  It is in that capacity that I feel legally, morally and ethically obligated to speak out about matters that effect the public’s right to free and fair elections.  These matters involve conflicts of interest, abuse of discretion, and abuse of power.  These matters involve the District Attorney’s sworn responsibility to enforce the law and do justice in the public interest.  These matters include instances where the power of the District Attorney has been used improperly to protect political interests and to retaliate against me for pursuing an ongoing investigation.

(more…)

Looks like Mayor Byron Brown and Steve Pigeon are together again, again. Their on again, off again political relationship appeared to be down for the count just two months prior to the September 15 Democratic primary, in the fallout of the NYS Senate coup that stalled Albany this summer. At the time, the Buffalo News described Pigeon as “radioactive,” explaining why Brown’s campaign declined a June 25 fundraiser Pigeon was to host. The event might have raised $100,000 for the mayor’s campaign.

Now, Pigeon is on the State payroll for $150,000 as counsel to Pedro Espada (the off again, on again Democratic senator who left and rejoined the party along with Hiram Monserrate this summer), and he is also serving as Mayor Brown’s lawyer, according to this petition filed last Friday. Four people signed the affidavits reporting lines at polling places: Cindy Cooper, Omar Price, Mary Scarpine, and Cavette Chambers. Scarpine notarized Chambers’s affidavit, Chambers notarized Scarpine’s, Cooper’s, and Price’s. They all work for corporation counsel in city hall.

The petition is a follow-up to this order issued by judge John M. Curran late Tuesday night which sought to keep voters at certain polling places from being disenfranchised.

If you couldn’t get into your usual parking space at the Buffalo Club this morning, blame it on UB President John Simpson, who held his annual community address across the street at Babeville. I think I was the only sucker who put a quarter in a meter on the street. And I’m lucky I had a quarter, because the automated kiosk on Delaware Avenue was broken and wouldn’t accept credit or debit cards.

This year’s speech, “Buffalo-Niagara at a Crossroads,” riffs on themes borrowed from bluesman Robert Johnson and poet Robert Frost.

Teddy Roosevelt also received major props in the address, as Simpson reminded us, “If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk big; we must act big.” As in UB2020, get it?

Simpson also borrowed Roosevelt’s warning to skeptics: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Dust and sweat and blood, people. You can’t make this stuff up. He even threw in a reference to the Russians and Sputnik. But don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself by clicking here.

And for the heck of it, I’ll offer another Teddy Roosevelt quote, for your edification: “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

I am listening to Carl Paladino on WBEN as I type this, and recalling that the last time Carl visited AV’s offices, he nearly came to blows with Bruce Jackson. Time does not, in fact, heal all wounds but it does create strange bedfellows. On Friday, Jackson—who has endorsed Mickey Kearns for mayor of Buffalo—sent out an email urging the recipients to vote for Kearns in tomorrow’s primary. Rather than explain why, he attached Paladino’s letter to the Buffalo News in support of Kearns:

Next Tuesday’s Democratic primary will decide who will be mayor of Buffalo for the next four years. The two candidates are incumbent Mayor Byron Brown and South District Councilman Michael Kearns. I am writing to urge you to vote for Mickey Kearns.

I am not writing as a UB faculty member for more than four decades, or as the editor of Buffalo Report for the past seven years, or as the author of more than one hundred articles on civic issues for Artvoice and the Buffalo News. I am writing as a long-time Buffalo resident who loves this city, whose children grew up and went to school here, who hates what has happened in and to the mayor’s office in recent years, and who believes Mickey Kearns can and will make a difference.

I’m asking you not only to go out and vote for Mickey yourself, but to do what you can to take everyone in your household with you. And to pass this letter along to at least 10 friends, asking them to do the same. Byron Brown has amassed a huge warchest; perhaps we can use email and our own networking to restore some of the balance.

I could offer many reasons why you should vote for Mickey Kearns, but Carl Paladino—a man I’ve had strong disagreements with over civic issues in the past—has made the case as well as anyone might. This time, Carl and I are in complete agreement. I will attach his Another Voice essay, “Kearns offers alternative to city’s poor government,” which appears in today’s Buffalo News.

Paladino’s “Another Voice” column in the News.

A new telephone poll commissioned by WGRZ TV has already been posted with a story in the online version of Buffalo Business First. This, the “final poll” commissioned by the TV station from Survey USA, puts Mayor Byron Brown ahead of challenger Mickey Kearns.

Survey USA also conducted a poll for WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, NC last fall, for the Presidential election. There, three previous Survey USA polls had put McCain up by eight, five, and four points, while the fourth one put him up 20. Said McCain would get 58% of the vote, Obama 38%.

On election day, Obama won North Carolina and picked up 15 electoral votes.

So remember, polls are good space fillers for media outlets, but they aren’t always accurate, and they don’t even have to be, no offense to Survey USA.

People seem to love ‘em, though, so I figured I’d get a little mileage off this one, seeing as somebody else paid for it.

Byron Brown has jumped ahead a few point on Mickey Kearns, according to a new poll conducted by SurveyUSA. The new poll has Brown ahead 51 percent to 44 percent, with five percent undecided and a margin of error of four percent.

This poll is no more reliable than last week’s poll, which showed the race in a dead heat, 48 percent for Brown and 47 percent for Kearns, with the same margin of error and five percent undecided. SurveyUSA acknowledges that polling loses some significance when so few voters are likely to come to the polls:

Only a fraction of Buffalo’s 112,000 registered Democrats are expected to vote in the primary. In a low-turnout municipal election, a small mis-measurement can result in a surprise on Primary Day. The winner’s margin will ultimately be decided by which city of Buffalo voters actually show up on Tuesday.

I think it’s interesting that the percentage of undecided was the same in each of the two sample groups.