Albany,n.y.

This summer I booked a round trip flight to Baltimore for the Bills/Ravens 12/31 game with my return flight leaving BWI at 6:34 pm. I got home yesterday and I had received an e-mail from Expedia telling me that something in my trip had been changed & Expedia accepted the change in my behalf. When I called Expedia to learn what the change was, the computer voice indicated that the status had been changed to booked. I figured it was just some accounting thing, but I answered that I wanted to hear my entire itinerary just to play it safe. It turns out they changed my 6:34 departure to a flight leaving Baltimore around 2:30. Needless to say, that didn't work for me. WTF are they thinking? I book an evening flight out of Baltimore on Sunday after arriving on Saturday and they can't figure out that I might need to be in Baltimore Sunday afternoon. I called last night & the person on the phone indicated he'd try to get me a 7:30 pm flight out of Baltimore & they would probably notify me within a few hours. I didn't get any message so I called back & nothing had been done! I called back & after close to 1/2 hour, I finally was able to get them to book me an 8:55 pm flight out of BWI. Now I have to wait another day to confirm that the flight was actually changed, since the turnaround time on their website is 24 hours. In the future, I won't be booking anything with Expedia where I only am staying 1 night and they have an opportunity to screw things up this badly. I've had flights changed where I'm leaving after my business or pleasure is done, but a planned 30 hour stay leaves too little room to have a major screwup occur if they change things on you. Just a warning to all, if you're booking months in advance for a football game where you're coming to town, staying one night & then leaving shortly after the game, Expedia & similar agents might not be the best choice. It might be better to book with a travel agent who understands the purpose of your flight & won't change it to the middle of the game.

Most companies don't draft employees. Most companies don't give signing bonuses. Most companies don't have a depth chart Most companies don't have a work day list of 8 paid inactives. Playing in the NFL cannot be compared to being employed by "most companies"

Do you really think Dwight Drane was better than Henry Jones by the end of the 1991 season?

In 1991 there was a DB who held out & missed a lot of camp. The incumbent at his position, Leonard Smith, started the whole season, then got injured in the AFC Championship game & Smith's backup, Dwight Drane started Super Bowl XXVI with the holdout seeing little to no action the entire 1991 season & post-season. The following year, Henry Jones became the starting SS & went to the Pro Bowl.

I voted for Hevesi, but I hope he gets tossed out. The reason is I couldn't vote for Callaghan because I'm in the state retirement system and Callaghan wants to end pensions as we know them for new employees. Even though I would be grandfathered in and Callaghan couldn't stop my pension, anyone who is against the concept, and is the sole trustee of the currently $140 billion fund, worries me. I would be concered that he might hurt the fund through benign neglect. How can I trust a man who doesn't believe in the pension fund to work hard to insure its growth & stability? If Hevesi gets tossed, we'll get a guy a lot more qualified than Callaghan. If Hevesi stays, we get a guy a lot more qualified than Callaghan, with a proven record of being pro-pension. Either way, a better choice for me than Callaghan represented. You can have an honest incompetent or a crook who is competent. When it comes to my money, give me the competent crook, because he may steal SOME of my money, but he won't blow ALL of my money by screwing up. Maybe I can vote for a crook because I think all politicians are crooks. I vote for the crook whose agenda fits my interests 1st, then I move on to how I feel about the issues that may not affect me directly, but are important to other people that I believe should benefit. However, when it's financial, it's all my interest only when I vote.

I never said to keep JP in my post. I don't know what to do with JP yet. But if you had to give up 2 #1s & a lot of $ to bring in Schaub, who may not have enough of an arm outside of a dome or warm weather city, it certainly would hurt this team.

Fails on character. Has at least 2 arrests.

Doesn't sound any better than RJ in Jacksonville + according to scouting reports out of college, he has a weak arm. Here's PFW's comments on arm strength: "Lacks the arm strength to drive ball downfield. Deep balls tend to hang rather than turn over." Draft Insiders Digest: " Matt is a big passer who lacks a cannon for an arm, but shows fine accuracy and timing in the short and intermediate passing game...He is a fine passer with only adequate arm strength and mobility...As a passer, he needs work on the deep game where his accuracy falls substantially compared to the shorter game." HE PLAYS IN A DOME!!!! Please please, just give it up already on this guy. Every time I see a "get Schaub" post, I want to throw up!

I didn't know Rush Limbaugh was a poster on TSW.

That totally sums it up. Anyone who watched the game knows that the game's stats don't come close to the reality of what we saw Sunday. I got an e-mail from Petrino, who didn't see the game & just read the stats & he thought the team kept JP on a short leash. Throw out the stats, watch the game and it's obvious that the Bills were horrible except on special teams & one busted coverage play by Evans. Maybe the A-train gets a pass too. However, if Brett Favre didn't hand the game to the Bills, it's an ugly loss in a game totally dominated by GB on O & D.

The correct term is he didn't swallow.

This is the best response so far. I'm a fellow old timer, I am not originally from Buffalo, but I went to college in WNY & then lived in or around Buffalo a few years after college. Once I started going to games I had an allegiance to the team. Even though I now live over 290 miles away, I go to just about every game (I'll miss my 1st home game since 1990 this 12/24). Unlike fans who pick & choose their team watching games on TV, I have no choice to stick with the Bills, since for better or worse, I've been a fan over 30 years. Where I currently live, most of the people are what I call "TV fans". If their team starts to go through bad times, all they have to do is change the channel & presto-new favorite team! Every team I root for (Bills, Yankees, Mets, Nets) have been located in an area I've lived in & I have seen them in their own stadium or arena. I can never be a tv fan. During the Super Bowl years, I felt that team was my just reward for all the prior years of lousy football I endured. I went to all 4 Super Bowls and I felt I deserved to go to each of them. When the Bills make it back to the top, these years will make it that much sweeter.

Edit : Link: http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/feed.../ap3142429.html The leader of the influential National Association of Evangelicals, a vocal opponent of the drive for same-sex marriage, resigned Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man. The Rev. Ted Haggard also stepped aside as head of his 14,000-member New Life Church while a church panel investigates, saying he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations." The investigation came after a 49-year-old man told a Denver radio station that Haggard paid him to have sex. Haggard, a married father of five, denied the allegations in an interview with KUSA-TV late Wednesday: "Never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife." In a written statement, Haggard said: "I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity. I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date. In the interim, I will seek both spiritual advice and guidance." Mike Jones, 49, told The Associated Press that Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month for three years. His allegations were first aired on KHOW-AM in Denver. Jones said that he had advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and that a man who called himself Art contacted him. Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard. He said that he last had sex with Haggard in August and that he did not warn him before making his allegations this week. Jones said he has voice mail messages from Haggard, as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash, though he declined to make any of it available to the AP. "There's some stuff on there (the voice mails) that's pretty damning," he said. Richard Cizik, vice president for government affairs for the evangelicals association, expressed shock. "Is this something I can imagine of Ted Haggard? No," he said. Carolyn Haggard, spokeswoman for the New Life Church, said a four-member church panel will investigate the allegations. She did not identify the board members. "This is really routine when any sort of situation like this arises, so we're prepared," she said. "The church is going to continue to serve and be welcoming to our community. That's a priority." Another gay conservative against gay marriage, what a surprise. Why is the conservative against gay marriage? Because he's afraid his boyfriend will demand he divorce his wife & marry him.

The best part of all this is that any slim chance he had of getting support in the Democratic primaries in 2008 is gone. There will be no contributions, no momentum...nothing. He is done as a Presidential candidate in any way, shape or form. That's a very good thing for the Democratic party. Now if Hillary could say something this stupid, the Democrats might have a decent chance of winning the Presidency in '08.

No comparison to Henry is complete without adding arrests, drug suspensions & missed games due to injury. You can quote all the stats you want, but when given a chance to replace Henry the Bills had to take it because his off field troubles make him too tough to count on. How would the pro- Henry people have reacted if his 4 game suspension had come as a Bill?

I've actually met A.J. & he seemed to be a pretty good guy to me. Of course the context was a little different than the NFL-his son attended St. Francis, where one of my closest friends teaches & that's where I met A.J. Smith. When my friend suffered a mild heart attack a few years ago, he got an envelope with the San Diego Chargers as the return address. A.J. Smith took the time to send him get well wishes from San Diego. So I don't think A.J. is an !@#$.

I didn't say getting Flutie was luck, I said we were lucky that A.J. Smith pushed so hard for him. Unfortunately, we were unlucky that Ralph decided to go to Donahoe instead of promoting A.J. Smith. As it turned out, we had a pretty good GM in the making in A.J. & we let him get away.

I have to admit as I was typing my post, I had to think the problem might just be Ralph, I didn't put it in, but i definitely thought about it.

Look at what we've done since we had the team of Kelly & Reich and a logical conclusion is that our scouts at both the college and pro level are not getting the job done when it comes to evaluating QBs. Here are the guys someone has recommended over the recent years. 1995: Spend a 2nd on Todd Collins 1997: Spend a 3rd on Billy Joe Hobert 1998: Spend a 1 & 4 on Rob Johnson Got lucky that A.J. Smith pushed so hard for Flutie. Plus we had Ryan Leaf rated above Peyton Manning-I base this on conversations that John Butler had with the media where he was on record as saying if he had the #1 pick, it would be Leaf. 2002: Spent a 2003 1st on Drew Bledsoe. This was after Detroit "saved" us from picking Joey Harrington with the pick we busted on Mike Williams with. 2004: Spent a 1st on J.P. Losman (giving up 3 picks in order to get that 1st-a 2, 5 and the following year's 1) 2005: Spent $ to bring in Kelly Holcomb 2006: Spent $ to bring in Craig Nall This is too many wasted $ & draft choices. At 1st glance it appears that someone is looking too much at arm strength without regards to the intangibles that are needed to succeed at the QB position. For years under the direction of Ron Wolf, Green Bay was almost a QB factory. In recent years the Packers have had Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, Ty Detmer, and Mark Brunell all in the same camp and drafted Matt Hasselbeck in the 6th round. It's either our scouts or the directions they are given when evaluating QBs. We have to find a new way of rating QBs, because whatever methods are being used at One Bills Drive are not working. It doesn't seem to matter if it's Butler, Donahoe or so far, Marv.

The Bills don't owe 50+ players anything other than their paycheck and the chance to show they are worthy of playing on a chapionship team. The Bills management owes their fans and owner a chance at a championship. That means finding out which players among the 53 are best qualified to stick around and be members of a champion. Marv is quite familiar with the process, he came in in 1986 & kept a core of winners & dumped the rest. That's what he's doing now. He already knows that Holcomb & Nall cannot be the QB on that champion. He's giving JP time, because JP might be the guy & if he proves otherwise, Marv doesn't have to waste any more time before looking for a new QB. The answer could have been known by now if last years management had the guts to NOT DO what you're suggesting. The losers who will soon be gone are owed nothing on any given Sunday when it comes to squeezing out a 6-10 season instead of a 4-12 one.

As we get closer to election day, all you hear every day are lies & more lies from these people trying to get themselves or their cronies elected. Even when they tell the truth, they do so in a manner that takes a true fact and twists it into a false conclusion. If these clowns really wanted to tell the truth it would be quite simple. Make it a law that any office holder, or person running for office who lies to the public be subject to perjury charges. Penalty if convicted: A stiff fine, community service and a permanent ban from ever seeking office again. In the case of a person in office-impeachment & removal from office plus the above penalties. I'm just so sick of the ads that are running. You can often find articles in print or tv, radio etc that expose the statements as outright lies. An example of truth being twisted is one I received in the mail just the other day. Claiming his opponent was a tax raiser, a politician included a statement saying his opponent helped raise assessments up to 90%. As someone very familiar with the field, all I can say is that if you have a revaluation, assessments will go up. Depending on what year the assessments are based on, assessments can go up many times. For example, when Nassau county went from 1939 based assessments to more current market value assessments a $400,000 house may have been assessed less than $10,000, got raised over 4000% and may or may not have had a tax increase. Politicians will always tell you the half truth to fit their agenda. They are lower than pond scum! Throw them all out of office & for the worst-into a jail cell. Edit: Here's a story about how far the NRCC will go, using a staff member's incorrect dialing of a number to smear a foe: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1003286540

That's last week's standings. We're # 7 (with a bullet) if those win % are similar.

I'm amazed that nobody recommends the stadium lots, especially considering HN is concerned about possibly having to leave the game early. If you plan on leaving early, the stadium lot, drive 5 is the best for heading east. Take a right out of there, go on 20 to Milestrip that takes you to 219 & then the Thruway. When I leave when the game ends, I leave from drive 5, right on to 20 & stay staight. In a lot of traffic, I avoid the Thruway in Buffalo metro & get on in Depew -Transit Road Rt 78 (20 becomes 78 if you stay on it).

Never, because the premise is totally moronic! The guy was drafted at 10, do you really think if he was picked at 8 he would have had any leverage to hold out and be traded to a west coast team? What team? The Raiders had already passed on him, the Chargers had Rivers, the 49ers had the guy just taken #1 in the draft the year before! Seattle had just played in the Super Bowl, Denver had just spent a #1 pick on a QB! That leaves Arizona, and he was just about the last guy signed while negotiating with them. When will you "Leinart wouldn't have signed with Buffalo if picked 8th" wake up & just admit your argument has absolutely no foundation whatsoever!

It's nice to see Felser coming around to my thinking, here's what I said after the draft: should have drafted Albany,n.y. Posted on: May 1 2006, 04:33 PM Veteran Group: Members Posts: 3,248 Joined: 5-September 01 From: Delmar, N.Y. Member No.: 770 I know exactly what I'm saying-With the 8th pick in the 2006 draft, the Buffalo Bills should have selected Matt Leinart. His arm strength is not any different than Tom Brady's, and the last time I looked, Brady is doing ok with the weather in NE. I have only one question: In 5 years who will be the best of these three QBs-Leinart, Losman, Nall? My answer is Leinart, if you don't answer Leinart, then you can justify not drafting him. But if your answer is Leinart, the Bills should have drafted him because no matter what anyone says, your most important player is your quarterback. I base my judgement on Leinart on the one pattern I've found that pinpoints success in drafting QBs-if a QB would have been a 1st round pick in his jr year, stayed in school and maintained his 1st round status, his success rate is most likely 100%. Look it up & find me a 1st round bust who qualifies-there aren't any! In the Q&A with Dwight Adams, he stated you build a team around the QB-I agree with Mr. Adams. The Bills should have drafted Matt Leinart. Can you honestly say you believe, with great confidence that this team can be built around, JP Losman, Craig Nall or Kelly Holcomb? I can't. That's what I'm saying-and I know what I'm saying!