Jump: Getting a Grip • You Auto Know • Puck Stop • Play Ball! • Peace Bridge Chronicles

From Haiti to Laos, people are starving—but they won't do it quietly.

Last week CNN’s Jack Cafferty, in an on-air editorial, called the goons and thugs that run China’s one party state “goons and thugs.” And right on cue, these autocrats—the ones who still hold survivors of their 1989 massacre of nonviolent, pro-democracy activists locked away in a mysterious gulag system replete with slave labor factories—proved Cafferty right, demanding that CNN retract his remarks and apologize to the offended goons and thugs.

I think historians eventually will mark the effective start of the George W. Bush presidency as September 12, 2001. Up until that point, the only historically distinguishing feature of the Bush reign was W.’s record-setting vacation time at his ranch. Until the morning of September 11, the whole neo-con cabal was pretty much stuck in the mud, wheels spinning with the agenda splattering on the back fender. After September 11, just as after the bombing of the Reichstag, it was another story.

In another Fox News agenda-setting moment, the GOP’s propaganda wing has successfully shifted the election focus away from our endless wars and our imploding economy and environment, over to Barack Obama’s pastor.

To put the Spitzer prostitution scandal into perspective, let me go back two decades to when I first started teaching college—back when Eliot Spitzer was a young upstart district attorney. I was teaching an alternative media course to, I always suspected, a class that included a number of potheads. I asked my students a question that I told them I didn’t actually want them to answer aloud—but just think about the answer: “How many of you have dealt dope?”

This primary season we’re seeing civic engagement on a level we haven’t witnessed for a generation. My 16-year-old niece and her friends are phone-banking for Barack Obama. People who have never participated in the electoral process are getting stoked. Primary turnout is at blockbuster levels. After two decades of post-Reagan apathy and civic disengagement, this distraction from consumerism might well save our struggling democracy.

Try this one out on your friends and family. Ask them to name all the wars that we’ve fought or funded since they were born. Few Americans can do this. Think about it. So many wars and so few concerns. Why do these wars start? How do they end? Do they end? Who gives a damn? Britney’s trying to have a baby.

If the American economy had a dashboard, all the gauges would be oscillating wildly—the engine overheating, the fuel tank empty, the speedometer pinned and the door ajar light blinking.

After years of changing rationales, justifications and reasons as to why the US invaded Iraq, we seem to have reached a national consensus: We invaded Iraq because people told lies.

It’s Clinton (the media likes to call her Hillary because she’s a girl) and Obama neck and neck at the first turn, pulling away from the pack. Obama’s out front by a nose. It’s Obama by a head. It looks like Obama’s got it. But wait—here’s Clinton on the outside neck and neck with Obama in the final turn. Now she’s pulling ahead at the wire. And it’s Clinton, our winner by a Diebold nose. Wow, what a race. And what a smart dresser she is.

Jump: Top of Page • Getting a Grip • You Auto Know • Puck Stop • Play Ball! • Peace Bridge Chronicles

I’ve got to admit that when I first came across this story in Britain’s Car Magazine I immediately dismissed it. After all, it was in the April issue, and I figured it was just another April Fool’s joke.

Time was when when spending an arm and a leg actually got you something. Sad to say those days are long gone and not likely to return. As I write this, today I spent $3.64 for gas; I’m sure as you read this it’s even higher.

Although I always enjoy the annual Buffalo auto show, once you’ve been to a real auto show (Detroit, New York, Frankfort…), the local show pales in comparison. Heck, it pales even if you’ve never been to another show.

You hear it over and over again in the real estate business: “Location, location, location.” In the car biz, it’s more like timing. Timing, and a huge dose of luck and/or talent. Toyota’s tenth generation Corolla couldn’t come along at a better time.

You immediately get the idea that the smart fortwo is out to save you money—check out that all-lower-case name. Everyone knows capital letters cost more! Another clue is its “half-a-car” size. I’ll tell you one thing, though: Prepare to be looked at—big time—when driving this fun little car.

Walking around this year’s Buffalo Auto Show got me thinking how things have changed over the years. Particularly the sound systems available in some of the new cars.

If the just-concluded North American International Auto Show proved anything, it’s that America still doesn’t get it. While the Frankfurt, Germany show this past fall seemed to focus on the greening of the European auto industry, the big stars of the Detroit show seemed to be the restyled Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram pickups, Chevy’s 600-hp, $100,000 Corvette and Cadillac’s new 500-horsepower CTS-V. Hardly the news we’ve been waiting for as we face higher and higher gas prices.

With a nod to my wife, who’s always been a huge Barbie fan, we get to this week’s subject, Chevy’s new Malibu. This could possibly be one of, if not the, most important cars General Motors has put in a showroom in years.

Jump: Top of Page • Getting a Grip • You Auto Know • Puck Stop • Play Ball! • Peace Bridge Chronicles

Puck Stop by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

“The sky is not falling.” So said Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier last July, when an angry public demanded to know how the organization could have allowed co-captains Daniel Briere and Chris Drury to depart via free agency.

Most desperate teams will win playoff prize: Will it be the Buffalo Sabres? Is this team for real or are they just a tease?

The Campbell Trade: Two very different opinions on where the Sabres are headed.

New York—That 8-0-2 streak was almost too good to be true, wasn’t it?

So are the Buffalo Sabres trading deadline buyers or sellers as the team heads into February? While the team did not crash and burn on their recent road trip, they didn’t exactly make a bold statement either.

We have been covering your team here at Artvoice for three seasons now, since the lockout ended. We have been fans of the team and season ticket holders for far longer than that. We cheered on the Sabres from our seats in section 11 in the blues for many a season at the Aud, and switched over to section 113 in our new digs in 1996, where we have been ever since.

A little more than a week has gone by, yet everyone is still talking about it—the NHL AMP Energy Winter Classic. The event arguably is the biggest sports spectacle ever to happen here in Western New York.

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Play Ball! by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

This past week the Buffalo Bisons finally put together a winning streak of sorts, taking the first three games since returning to Dunn Tire Park for the current homestand.

The Buffalo Bisons opened their 21st season at the downtown ballpark last Friday, and the overriding theme was what will happen to the team’s affiliation with the Cleveland Indians, which has been in place since 1995.

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Peace Bridge Chronicles by Bruce Jackson

How a bird-brained notion has put us in the weeds again.

How a bird-brained notion has put us in the weeds again.

Every day there are emails about the Peace Bridge—some days three or four of them—from the Columbus Avenue homeowners group. The list of recipients is organic, growing larger week by week. One mailing for January 12 had 73 recipients. It included every local politician of note, local staffers for the area’s senators and members of Congress, the Buffalo News, Artvoice, WBFO, Don Esmonde, two Sam Hoyt staffers, Mylous Hairston and one member of the PBA.

Jump: Top of Page • Getting a Grip • You Auto Know • Puck Stop • Play Ball! • Peace Bridge Chronicles

Stay tuned! This index is under construction - in the mean time, please use our search feature to the right, or Back Issues link at the top of the page for more!

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