Takeo Spikes has declared that the Bills defense will play better this week . . against the Bengals.

I'm so sickened by the Bills loss . . .

Kudos to CNBC for handling the Democratic debate with 10 candidates as smootly as they did. Al Sharpton had the best line.When they were talking about trade policy he said, "I'm here because of bad trade policy, all African Americans are here because of bad trade policy."

I think Kerry is doing very well. He has established himself as the only credible candidate. He is the only one, according to instinct and the polls, who can defeat Bush. Clark the other good poller against Bush, will fade against Bush because of his past baggage. Kerry is creating a ground swell under the radar and come crunch time, I think voters will go with a winner.

Edwards is also doing quite well. Someone had suggested that he'd be great as an attorney general. That would be very interesting and quite nice.

Dean is a very interesting phenomenon. What his campaign and the media don't realize is that his crowd are the Gen X tech savvy crowd with no families and happy go lucky. For that reason they can treat him like a rock star and put much into visbilty. The problem for him is that the closer that regular voters, families with children, problems, houses, etc get to Dea, the less appealing he is. What the media hasn't picked up on is that the Dean momentum has stalled. In Iowa he can't get past 24% and in NH Kerry is quickly closing the gap. Dean shot ahead because he has no other responsibilities and has practically lived in NH and Iowa. But as Kerry, Clark, Edwards and Gephardt step up their efforts in Iowa and NH, Dean's rose definitely loses its bloom.

Edwards has been the winner in all this. For one, he has gained double digits in Iowa, which is phenomenal and is leading in South Carolina. Why? Because he has shown himself to be of incisive intelligence coupled with his grace and charm. Bob Graham is also doing well in increasing his profile. He has shown the ability to understand and analyze complex issues and break the down. He would be a great Secretary of Defense.

Clark cannot last. He has too much baggage. Not to long ago, he expressed support for conservative republicans. He supported Nixon and Reagan. He also chided Bush for not being a true conservative. It is almost as though he should be running on the Republican ticket as the true compassionate conservative and true reformer with results. He is also close friends and admirers of too many of the disliked neo-cons.

I predict Kerry will win the Democratic nomination and will or could win against Bush.

ER review. Season opener was good, not great. The characters are generally uninspiring. I found it interesting that there was a major accident that the show set up at the beginning, which is normally the foil for the rapid pace medical dialog and proceedures. However, the show's characterisitic tension and fast pace is gone. Can you imagine Peter Benton strolling around when there are three surgery consults?

The new med student, the Indian English lady seems like a solid character-may be the accent. We just got tired of the reference to the fact that she was Indian-English, big deal!!! Romano was back in form. Carter and Abi, that's a story line that needs to die a quick and death. Pratt-stupind character. Other Black dude-his character is lost. Debbbie Chen--her character is quickly fading into uselessness as is that of Susan.

The writers have a diffucult task of re-creating the characters to make for a halfway decent show. Let's see if they can manage that.

The Bills are plaing the Eagles on Sunday in what is a crucial, crucial game. The Bills got off to a 2-0 fast start but stumbled badly in Miami. No one's off the band wagon, but this game is improtant because it tells us if the Bills are legit, which I think they are-if they can get their running game going. The defense is solid and it is brings back memories of a few years ago, when they had the best defense in the league but a very bad offense with Flutie and Rob Johnson. This time, we have much more talent and common sense on offense, but this is our one shot at greatness,w e can't blow it.

Okay, West Wing season premier update. The wife liked it, I was so-so about it. I think the whole plot turn with the president's daughter being kidnapped is a little much and restricts the storyline going forward. I think a botched kidnap attempt would have created more interest.

My wife and I were trying to figure where we had seen the President's older daughter before. We eventually figure out that she was Annabeth Gish who stared in the X Files in its last two seasons. She's a good actress and has the mystique to carry a good character.

Sorkin is no longer involved. I noticed that there were pauses in the dialog, not as talkative as with Sorkin. There was definitely a change in the use of shadows and camera. I thought they were trying too hard to create drama through effects and less through the story line.

ER open tonite. Yikes, the presidential debate is also tonite. Not to worry, I can't stand ER any longer. But my wife wants to give it another shot this season so we'll tape the dabate on CNBC at 4, I'll watch it when I get home from work and then we are free to watch ER.

Isabel was not as bad as we expected for us in Southern maryland. We had feared the worst with all that talk about 100 mile/hour winds. Some people are without power, traffic lights are out and some trees are down. We are thinking of getting a house, though, close to the Chesapeake, so we are going to be one of those people who have to board up, etc when the storms come in.

The Bills rock and will kick Miami's butt on Sunday. I say this is the Super Bowl team. I am going to be in Buffalo for the game. can you say chicken wings and pizza?

Wes Clark has said that he probably would have support the Iraq war resolution. there are many possibilities here. If Hillary is going to be his running mate, her ticket to the presidency in 2012, then he has to give her cover for her support of the Iraq resolution. The other idea is that Clark has seen that he is way in over his head with the whole field of issues, so he is now running for VP. If he was for the war, then that would be cover for Dean during a general election. If he is with Kerry, then that would be a very, very, strong ticket--no weakness. Also, the Democratic party powers that be may be isolated Dean as the aberrant weak-on-security candidate with no foreign policy experience, which will eventually catch up to him. Kerry is already closing in on the NH polls and Kerry leads nationwide.

Dianne Feinstein has thrown her hat in the ring for John Kerry for President. I have contended for months that she would make an excellent running mate and I think that the fact that she was the first heavywight to endorse him, even before Joe Biden, is a huge step in that direction. Of course, Kerry is not going to play his hand before the primary season ends because if southerners think that Kerry is not going to pick a southern running mate, he'll get creamed by Edwards and Clark.

I am unusually sanguine about Clark getting into the race. I think it slows Deans momentum earlier than it was scheduled to slow and it certainly takes the bloom of Dean's rose. Someone said, Clark is Dean with credibility and credentials. I still don't think Kerry is hurt as much. His vet status is not undermined by Clark because he still took the bullets and put his life on the line.

Besides when both resumes are placed side by side, the fact that Kerry has the tough County crime-busting prosecutor, Lt. Governor, and Senatorial experience on his resume, would dwarf Clarks Rhodes Scholar and West Point highlights. It will be a very interesting race.

There is also the question of if the candidates are all going to play nice as far as Clark is concerned. On Clark's part, he wouldn't want to rankle anyone so that his VP options remain open, on the Kerry and Dean's part, they wouldn't want to rankle him so that they can work together as running mates.

Concensus is that the Bills are the best team in the NFL right now. One key factor is Dick LeBeau, former Bengals coach and defensive guru. He was hired as assistant head coach along with some other coaching heavy weights to add some experience to Greg William's staff. It is clear that they have done a great job.

The win in Jacksonville, even though not against a great team, was still significant. The Bills have always had fall Florida weather conditioning problems. But they were able to stay fresh and strong during this game.

I bet the Monday night planning committee is getting chewed out for missing out on the Bills.

Well, the Bills kicked butt again this weekend. As happy as I am about this win against Jacksonville, I don't think anyone is happy that we could only gain 40 yards or so on 30 carries. The other problem was that fred Taylor ran the ball well against our defense, our saving grace was that Jacksonville had to abandon the run because the Bills were so far ahead. That said, a W is a W.

I was telling someone that I don't see any team on the Bills schedule that we cannot beat. This team could actually go undefeated this year. A strech? Yes, but not completely out of the realm of impossibility.

The Bills this year are a very solid team on all fronts. We play Miami next. AS we all know, that game could go in any way. We certainly have the ability to handle Miami, but divisional games have so much vitriol that they are completely unpredictable.

For more pics and the full story go to John Kerry's website

Kerry Rocks!

There is word that Dean is trying to draft Gen Clark as his VP. Here are my comments on that.

I actually wish that General Clark would join Dean. First, I'm not as enarmoured with the electability and presidential potential of the General as most are. I like him a great deal and watched him faithfully on CNN and I think he has a ton of class. But if he runs, he would hurt Kerry more than Dean, because Keryy has certainly gone the military route in his campaign and now someone with a deeper military record would jeopardize that. Also, General Clark has zero domestic experience and his candidacy is a reactive, responsive candidacy, much like Dean's.

My attraction to Kerry is his vision. He wants to take America somewhere, not just react to present leadership or lack thereof. This, I believe is Dean's weakness too. Dean is reacting, but unlike Edwards and Kerry, does not have a postiive future vision for America.

If Clark joins Dean, then the other candidates would be forced to pick running mates. I think this would consolidate and weed out the field. Gephardt and Edwards would not join because they are too similar and are fighting for the same base. However, Edwards may join Kerry because he provides the Southern angle for Kerry. They both were tough lawyers, one a defensive guy, the other a prosecutor, so that is powerful. Also, the under-the-radar story of this primary is that Black voters lean more to Edwards than anyone else because he is the second coming of Clinton and because of his Share cropper roots. I think a Kerry-Edwards team would have the funds and the appeal to blow the others out of the water, even Dean-Clark.

If all this happens, then Graham and Braun and Kucinich will most likely drop out, clearing out the field for more solid debates.

Another disadvantage for Dean-Clark is that Dean's far left base would not be as comfortable with Clarks moderate appeal especially on Guns, etc. Also note that the Draft CLark movement is bi-partisanm, so the Republicans in that movement may be put off by Dean.

I am actually encouraged by this Dean-Clark thing. I hope it happens, because it may just be the turning point for Kerry in creating a juggernaut.

I'm not discounting the Dean-Clark appeal, it is just that strategically it is not a great move.

I sent a love note to the Congressional Black Caucus Institute who along with Fox hosted the Presidential TV debate. That debate was close to being a joke with all the heckling that went on. Also the format was a joke because it amounted to a series of 60 second campaign commercials and sound bites and no substantive discussion.

Also, I am irritated at Ed Gordon who seems to think that he is the second coming or close to it. The man openly derided the venerable Senator Kerry. That was nothing short of unprofessional. I hope the next CBC debate does not have him in it. There are many solid and credible Black journalists out there who can be used and we don't need some guy who thinks he is the Black TV adonis of the world.

The Pope is going on a trip to Slovakia today. Why is this significant? Because recently, Slovakia signed a treaty with the Vatican giving the Vatican some measure of control over its school curriculums. Of course, this has become a major problem. I wonder what the Vatican's response would be if a country signed a treaty with Islamists or Jews and gave one of their respective bodies the power to effect control over the school curriculums.

This is why you cannot yield an inch to the Vatican, because they will inappropriately insert themselves into secular governance. The fact is that there has never in recent times been a good outcome when the Church was so closely aligned with the government. As examples, I point to Quebec and Ireland.

Okay, I made my weekend NFL picks. I did rock the boat with a couple of calls--I have Detroit over Green Bay, I have the Jets beating Miami, I have Atlanta over Washington, San Diego over Denver, Cleveland over Baltimore and New England over over Philly.

Of course, the will break the will of the Jaguars. However, the early word from Buffalo is that the temp will be in the high 80's, which provides more conducive condition for Jacksonville. So we need to watch that. However, the bills have depth and should be able to address the heat problem.

I volunteered at the DC Kerrycampaign office for the first time yesterday. It felt great. I was only able to put in 30 minutes. I work in NE DC, and it takes 15-20 minutes to get to the campaign office, so I have very little time during my lunch break which is when I head over there.

CBC Democratic debate on Fox tonite. I understand that they are trying to reach out to independents which is why Fox is carrying the debate. I am skeptical about this move because these candidates are still trying to win over the base on the left and the Fox audience is not the place to do that.

Was anyone else dissappointed with Bush's speech? I don't think the man is facing political reality. He is still counting on the wartime patriotism to boost his candidacy but they don't seem to see that his support is eroding steadily. He clearly hasn't managed his whole presidency well. One key fact is that, for the first time in a long time, the Republicans could lose the Veteran and military vote. If John Kerry wins the nomination, he will command the Veteran vote and could very well be more attractive to military families.

The one great thing about Kerry is that there'll be no training on the job. The next four years need someone who is solid and has credibilty domestically and abroad: Bush is not it and Dean certainly is not it.

The Bills are back!!!

great game yesterday--great shalacking of the Pats, especially since the Patriots have had the Bills in their back pockets the past few years. Many of us Bills fans knew that this Bills team is the real deal but no one's been looking their way.

I was happy with the performance overall. All division rivals lost this weekend and even more importantly,t he Bills beat a division rival, which gives them a couple of favorable tie-breakers.

I was dissappointed with the D-line because it didn't get as many sacks, but the overall scheme put pressure on Brady and now, the defense has become opportunistic.

The running game was a dissappointment too but I was glad that they let Henry carry 28 times even though he only gained about 85 yards on almost 30 carries. that O-line needs to begin punching some major holes.

My early AFC championship picks are Bills vs. Titans and I pick the Bills to play Tampa Bay in the Superbowl.

The Bills are looking to pick up Lawyer Milloy who was cut from the Patriots. Now, if they can pull that off that would be da bomb. I think we are shaping up for a very solid season. I think chemistry, more than anything, is the questions. We have talent and depth, we just need chemistry, consistency and no mistakes.

John Kerry is kicking his campaign into high gear and let's hope he can overcome the drone of the Deanie babies.

Hewlett Packard ink cartridges are outrageously expensive-$20 for black ink and $35 for one cartridge of tri-color ink.

I am self instructing on Adobe Photoshop and it is quite fun. I am also trying to get going on Adobe InDesign which is industry strength publishing software but my Dell, I hate Dell, is not reading the disk and I am tired of dealing with them to fix the problem. I'm going to have to upgrade from InDesign 1.5 to 2.0. If this training works out, then I'll try to make some money doing design and marketing.

I'm currently listening to John Kerry's presidential announcement. I am getting goose bumps and wish I could be watching. I think this man should be president, I hope the rest of the country can see it.