As I read news stories and other blogs, I’ll bookmark items with plans to come back and post a blog about those items. Sometimes I get back to them quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. Here’s several different items I wanted to bring to your attention … but haven’t … ’til now.

I always enjoy a good roast … especially if it’s political. Here’s a YouTube video someone brought to my attention a while ago called “I’m Voting Republican.”

And here’s another YouTube video. This one I found myself … about a Jedi Church. And, yeah, I think they’re serious …

Here in Niagara County, we have a “county manager,” basically, he serves at the direction and the pleasure of the County Legislature. Seems like people on both sides of the political aisle are getting sick of him, though. The Dems call him a yes-man for the GOP and the Republicans hate him for their own reasons. Check out this Republican Blog and their thoughts on the topic. If you’d like to add your own thoughts, I posed the question in the new forum on what you think we should do about Greg Lewis.

Sticking with the same GOP Blog, they had a very thoughtful discussion on the role of race in media. To sum it up, there is a man in Lockport trying to open a business in what city officials are calling a residential area (although there are businesses all up and down the street). The media points out that the man – who keeps getting turned down – is black. Should they? Given Lockport’s history of race issues, I think it’s worth mentioning.

I mentioned on Dialog last week some time that there was a bill that would allow the government access to all of our credit card transactions. Check out Rus Thompson’s take on it.

Over at Buffalo Rising, I found this odd post about Al Jazeera doing a piece on how Buffalo is handling the ugly economy. I hope they don’t think that Buffalo is typical of the rest of the country. I’m sure everyone else is doing better than we are. Of course, if Al Jazeera is the terrorist-loving, America-hating network I keep being told it is, maybe they want the rest of the world to think that the country’s in as bad shape as Buffalo. (I don’t think they are, BTW)

Jake Tapper, a blogger for ABC News writes a strange tale about Karl Rove calling Barack Obama elitist. Rove, of course, is now a “pundit” and I fear he’ll be used heavily this election season – as though he is a credible journalist. He’s neither credible, nor a journalist, of course.

Speaking of journalists, you may recall a week and a half ago, US&J Editor Tim Marren and I discussed the art of endorsing. He’s written on his blog that the paper is re-thinking the practice and want to know what you think … so click on through and let him know.

I continue to hear from several casino nay-sayers that the casino (specifically the Seneca Niagara Casino) has done nothing for us … but WECK reported that they’re responsible for quite an economic boost.

Jack Davis needs no economic boost … but he kind of got one last week when the Supreme Court ruled the millionaires amendment to be UnConstitutional. Several newspapers have come out against that ruling in the days since.

The Amherst Times took a position of their own. Not on Davis vs. the FEC, but on an ongoing controversy in Amherst. They’re calling on Satish Mohan to resign.

The Onion continues to amuse me …

The bird war, of course, also continues to amuse (and scare) me. In Vancouver a lion has helped thin the bird population, but the zoo is being critcized because of it. And in Brazil, they’ve trained some birds to be on our side … kind of … assuming that we want inmates broken out of prison.