"Looks like the state's trying to provoke a shooting war with the Tuscarora Nation over cigarette taxes. For the record, I stand firmly with the Tuscarora.

It's not just because I buy my cigarettes out there either. There are a lot of reasons.

Does anybody really think that the people of this state -- Native American, European, African American or Latino -- don't already send enough money to Albany for the parasites to squander? New Yorkers are already the most-taxed people in the nation, and here in Niagara County -- and especially Niagara Falls -- we are the most-taxed people in New York state.

Going after the Tuscarora will be a disaster. They'll close Saunders Settlement and Lower Mountain Road with burning tires and armed men. They'll dynamite power lines and telephone poles. The potential for the loss of life would be high.

And all of the people of Niagara County would bear the brunt of the damage. Once again, we would be the ones forced to pick up the tab -- in dollars and human suffering -- for Albany's insanity.

The push to enforce the unenforceable and tax Native American tobacco sales on the sovereign reservations of the Tuscarora, Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Cayuga people comes strictly from the politicians and convenience-store owners like the odious Newman family of Buffalo, which owns the NOCO chain here.

People like that would tax the air that we breathe if given half a chance."

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Mike Hudson: IROQUOIS GET MY VOTE (The Niagara Falls Reporter 9/21)