Back when Sal Paonessa had his afternoon show on WLVL radio, Staba, Bruce and I would occasionally appear as guests, chatting with Sal and his listeners about the paper, local politics and, all too often, our personal lives.
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That's the thing about a call-in show, you never know what the caller's going to say. You've got to be pretty fast on your feet. Sal said he liked having us on, because he hardly ever had to do any work. The switchboard lit up as soon as we went on the air and the lines were still busy an hour later, when the show ended.
But suppose they had a call-in show and nobody called?
That's exactly what happened one afternoon last week, when Mayor Vince Anello appeared on Lenny Rico's WLVL program. Not one caller, despite the fact that both the mayor and the host gave out the phone number about every three minutes.
For a whole hour, Anello droned on, his soliloquy broken only occasionally by Rico's mindless cackling. It was excruciating.
While the mayor may have the perfect face for radio, his timing, delivery and choice of subject matter had people falling asleep at their desks all across Niagara County.
Supporters of both Barry Snyder and Cyrus Schindler told the Reporter last week that there is growing concern about the potential for violence on the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations as the Seneca election draws near.
An Oct. 9 meeting of the tribal council nearly erupted into a riot, with threats of bodily harm flying fast and furious from both camps.
"It was hot," one normally outspoken Seneca said. "I'm usually one to speak up at council meetings, but even I was just sitting in the back, keeping quiet because I didn't want to become a target."
Resentments have been simmering ever since, he added.
"I won't forget that meeting anytime soon," he said. "It was pretty rough."
In a recent interview with the Salamanca Press, Schindler said he was refusing to debate Snyder on the grounds that such an event would be dangerous both to the candidates and their supporters.
According to an article in the Philadelphia Daily News, a pair of well-known Western New York political operatives have injected themselves into the hard-fought senatorial race in Pennsylvania.
Gary Parenti and Steve Pigeon, both of whom worked for state Sen. Byron Brown until recently, were named in the article as officers of an organization called the Philadelphia Education Project, described as a "shadowy political committee" by the paper.
The organization's main goal seems to be to link the candidacies of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican facing a tough challenge for re-election.
To that end, hundreds of "Kerry-Specter" signs have popped up in heavily Democratic Philadelphia neighborhoods, which has caused some confusion since Kerry publicly endorsed Specter's Democratic rival.
The mastermind behind the organization is veteran GOP strategist Roger Stone, best known in these parts for running Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano's most recent gubernatorial campaign.
Nobody really knows whether Al Gore or George W. Bush won the state of Florida in the 2000 election. The official total shows Bush winning with a little over 500 votes, but that was after the largely Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court stopped ongoing recounts in the state.
This election year, it appears as though the Republicans are hoping for a wider margin. In fact, they are sending absentee ballot registration forms to people who aren't even Florida residents!
I ran into a Republican friend of mine who lives over on Weston Avenue the other night. Yes, I know, as shocking as it may seem, I do have Republican friends. Quite a few of them, as a matter of fact.
"You'll appreciate this," he said, handing me a large mailer he'd received.
"America looks to Florida," it said. "Vote Republican by mail in 2004."
The mailer contained two post cards, addressed to the Polk County Supervisor of Elections in Barton, Fla., requesting absentee ballots.
My friend explained that he had once lived in Florida, years ago. He couldn't really figure out how they'd tracked him down, he told me.
Although he's been a Republican all his life, my friend knows what's right is right, and this was clearly wrong.
How many other absentee ballot applications have the Republicans sent out to former Florida residents now living, and registered to vote, in other states?
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Oct. 26 2004 |