More Blood

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that I donated blood yesterday. It wasn't bad. Had a funny moment when the nurse prepping me looked at my information sheet and said, "Oh, you don't work at the radio station anymore? How long have you been gone?" When I told her it had been over a year she responded, "Oh. Where have I been!" Stuff like that catches me off guard sometimes. But back to donating blood. It's kind of fascinating to watch the stuff that sustains your life flowing through tubes. It always surprises me at how fast it fills up the tubes they use for testing. Weird stuff.

Redistricting Shenanigans

For today at least, Chautauqua County will be part of the same Congressional district as Erie County. Go here see a map of District 27, which is part of the new plan approved by the New York State Legislature today. What this means is that Chautauqua County, a rural county, will be separated from other rural counties like Cattaraugus, Allegany and Chemung, and instead grouped with Erie County, which will dominate the district's politics due to having the large city of Buffalo.

How does this happen? It's called politics. Representative Tom Reynolds did not want to face an election against Representative John LaFalce, so Vice President Dick Cheney and one of his cronies basically tell Governor Pataki and the Legislature what to do. Oh, and it's noteworthy that Cheney would like to see Reynolds become House Speaker when current Speaker Dennis Hastert retires. I would provide a news link, but I'm having trouble finding the story that appeared in today's Post-Journal. It'll be all over tomorrow's papers/radio/tv stations anyway.