Congresswoman Louise Slaughter made a rare appearance on Dialog. It's been 18 months since her last visit. IMHO, this one went quite well, so I'm hoping it won't be another 18 months until her next one. I think I asked every question that was asked of me. We certainly could have had her on for the whole hour.

As we begin the show, our hero is ... agreeing with Lord Voldebush? Yes, that's right kids, Scott liked the PWRA for this past Saturday and expresses as much in his weekly retort. After that, we talk about Delphi and whether we can get along without it. I say yes. Others say no. Hopefully, we never have to find out.

Lockport Mayor Mike Tucker took some harsh phone calls on Friday. A couple listeners were upset with the way the city does things. Mayor Mike seemed shaken ... but not stirred. :) Enjoy.

Author John Longenecker joined us by phone to discuss his book, "The Battle We Fight," - on the topic of Potomoc Fever, that little disease the people get when they get elected to Congress ... which causes them to spend money like water. After we talked to John, we talked about the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Base and the BRAC Commission.

Spokesperson for FairTax.org, Bill Phelps, talked about the FairTax plan, also known as HR25. This, of course, is the same FairTax that Neal Boortz has been discussing ad nauseum. A few callers disliked the idea and several good points were brought up.

We begin the show with a (fair) assumption. We're anti-business. The question of the day is ... why? Why all the rules and regulations? Why is New York 49th in the Tax Foundation's list of business friendly states? Some good calls and astute points.

President's weekly radio address, then Scott's retort (which got cut off ... for the full thing, click here. Some guy called in to complain about Scott's "whining" without a solution. Same caller said he's boycotting business that advertise during Dialog. But when Scott asked the caller for a solution of his own, the caller hung up. Others called to agree or disagree with the lone boycotter. Overall, a good show. Enjoy.

Former President Bill Clinton turned 59 and I took the occasion as an opportunity to mock him ... then stick up for him when caller after caller claimed that he is the most vile person ever. I think several callers drank Drano before calling ... or they sniffed glue ... or something. Cause the calls were OFF-THE-WALL. I also complained about Tom (photo op) Reynolds "officially releasing" the money to restore Lockport's Flight of Five ... and I complained about the pork-laden Transportation Bill, which is funding the photo op. Er, I mean, restoration.

County Manager Greg Lewis and I had a lengthy conversation about Niagara County Community College - how it's funded, how it gets its board, etc. Then we took phone calls ... Mount View ... the budget ... the Day Road Park ... the Sheriff's Department ... and a bike path from Niagara Falls to Lewiston were all topics on the show.

John Hall and I swapped old jokes. A few (not many) people called in. Melissa just laughed the whole show. And an hour seemed like it was a lot longer than that. Download only if you like torturing yourself ... or you're fond of old jokes - in which case, you might want to check out this site, which was where I got much of my material - including my rather lude Ben Franklin Joke.

Chris Klicka from the Home School Legal Defense Association was on to discuss home schooling for the first half of the show. Then we opened up the phone lines in the second half.

The president says we must stay the course in Iraq - cause of all the good reason's we're there in the first place. How many reasons are there, after-all? Phone calls ranged from a guy who needed a house for his cats to people asking where we'll start war next. Iran? Syria? I guess we'll just have to wait to find out. The "consolation" is that we probably won't have to wait too long.

Friday we talked about a bunch of stuff ... from the needed cleanup at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station ... to the bombing of Nagasaki 60 years ago ... to local taxes ... to Cindy Sheehan. Lots of calls. Especially at the end.

Maglio talked about smuggers ... and Kurson talked about his book, Shadow Divers. We had a few minutes at the end, so we just ran the gambit. Enjoy.

Buy Maglio's book

Buy Kurson's book

Wednesday's guest talked about religious fundamentalism ... and his opinions on bible stories. The second half, we talked about Nagasaki again.

Buy Freke's book

Lou Ricciuti (Nuclear Lou) was our guest on Tuesday, diccussing Niagara's role in the Manhattan Project and, subsequently in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed some 200,000 civilians. We took some phone calls and ended the show with a song, Bomb the World - by Spearhead. Download song here.

We started a new feature on Monday. Scott played the Presidents Weekly Radio Address ... then gave his point of view on the topic at hand - in this case, the economy. Also Monday, Ed McDonald gave his version of the McDonald vs. Aronow story, we discussed the City of Lockport hiring new police, civics lessons from professor Sandra Day O'Connnor, Glenn dissed Ed, and more. A very entertaining and energetic episode of Dialog. Finally, I have decided to rename "slacker Monday," since I don't slack that much for Monday's show. I'm thinking "MRE: Monday's Review of Everthing."

Friday was a good old-fashioned Open Dialog. Whatever came up, that's what we talked about. Enjoy.

SCOTUS nominee John Roberts was the topic of the day Thursday. Grant Lally of the New York Republican Lawyers Association played it cool. Meanwhile, Scott was basically bored by the Roberts nomination. So he's conservative. What the hell did you expect George Bush to do? I know other liberal groups and shows are comparing this guy to Satan ... I just don't see it.

It's always fun when legislators Glenn Aronow and Rick Updegrove share in the Dialog. These are two serious guys ... but who don't take life TOO serious. This show is a good mix of work and play - accentuated by an interesting disagreement between the legislators and Fred Laskey ... in which, they admitted, Fred was right. Good show overall. Enjoy.

John David Rose was our guest, talking about corporations ... and specifically the founding fathers' view of corporations. After we spoke with John, we continued the conversation. Some great phone calls. Good show.

Buy Rose's book

Monday, August 1, 2005. Open Dialog.