KC Confidential.com

You’ve got to love an action-thriller in which the underground network for illegal immigrants is headquartered in a taco truck!

MACHETE is a completely over-the top blast (literally) and is probably the only movie ever to be totally based on a fake movie trailer—one of several that appeared inside of Quentin Tarantino’s GRINDHOUSE a few years ago.

What we’ve got here is a timely splatterfest action story of shady, right wing Senator Robert DeNiro working with a Mexican drug lord to ’secure’ the border—for his own crooked purposes.

What he didn’t count on was that MACHETE - does his name proud – complete with a weed whacker attack. Continue reading

“People are buying tickets and Arrowhead Stadium is being (re)built to watch people win. Not to watch people give great effort.”
Tim Grunhard, 810 AM

“Packers hardly bother”
Headline to game story of the Chiefs’ 17-13 win over the Packers at Arrowhead Thursday night, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

“I would say the biggest thing in the (Chiefs’) preseason is Tyson Jackson. He looked awful once again tonight.”
Jason Anderson, on the Chiefs second-year defensive lineman’s effort against the Eagles, 810 AM

“I think we’re better (on offense). We clearly have more speed and more flexibility. I think we are a better football team.”
Brian Waters, in an interview Monday with Bob Fescoe, 610 AM

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There’s a bit of good news for people cruising around Kansas City proper on increasingly expensive foreign oil.

Recent stats reveal driving in this area only seems life threatening and dangerous.

In fact, Allstate recently ranked 200 of the largest U.S. cities using car collision frequency data and drivers in KCMO are 8.3 percent less likely than the average U.S. driver to have an accident. Across the State Line in KCK, the numbers are even better. Sadly, I still haven’t found a worthwhile excuse to venture into KCK but it’s nice to know at least the drive will be nice and safe.

These driver stats are comforting but they don’t feel accurate at all given that most locals don’t know what they’re doing behind the wheel.

I have examples.
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Police in Silver Spring, Maryland fatally shot a guy holding people hostage at the Discovery Channel HQ building.  And this just in,  a bunch of hot Latino women have taken over the METRO WEATHER CHANNEL!

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The Chiefs played the Packers tonight in a rematch of Super Bowl I, the 1967 game that was televised on CBS and NBC.  You never see the network coverage of that game anymore because both networks recorded over their footage which is a travesty. Continue reading

Movie attendance in the U.S. this summer was at its lowest point in five years. Yet revenue hit an all-time high. Apparently, movie theaters have adopted the Royals business model.

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I loved watching the president’s speech coming to an end as ABC went straight into WIPEOUT. That took me from patriotic to brain dead in 2.5 seconds. Continue reading

“Missouri is issuing its own justice here in an unnecessary and possibly irresponsible rush to judgment, effectively convicting a man before he’s able to defend himself in court. Washington’s legal team may have a case that Mizzou is polluting the potential jury pool. And if he’s found not guilty, he’ll have a much bigger case than that.”
Sam Mellinger, columnist, Kansas City Star
GH: I have heard a number of voices on radio and in print calling Mizzou’s “permanent suspension” of Washington a rash and unfair rush to judgment. It is my opinion that anyone condemning MU’s decision to boot the former senior captain from the team is just as guilty of reacting without all the facts. Read on.

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Yesterday the KCMO Health Department put out a presser that provides both good and bad news.

The media notice was an effort to inform folks about greater options for STD testing at the Kansas City Health Department. This is welcomed information because it provides greater access to Healthcare and increased efficiency.

However, it’s also a bad sign because it reveals that so many nasty STDs still lurk in and around Kansas City and the current healthcare system is adjusting in order to meet the obviously increased demand.

Let’s take a look at the copy.
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To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, The Sun also sets…

And in the case of the Sun Newspapers, it looks like it’s about to set on a an unspecified number folks living in the wilds of Johnson County, Kansas. Because after 60 years of distributing its weekly newspapers free-of-charge (if you don’t count the panhandling platoons of school kids the Sun used to enlist for door-to–door guilt tripping), some Sun readers are now being asked to pay up or the Sun says it will shut up.

“Dear Sun Reader,” begins an August 20th letter from co-publisher Steve Rose, son of Sun founder, Stan Rose. “Due to significant proposed postage increases for newspapers, we regret we must ask you to make a choice. You can continue to receive The Johnson County Sun for $19.95 per year (38 cents per issue) or $24.95 for two years (24 cents per issue).”

Severe consequences await Sun spotters who opt not to ante up. Continue reading

It has all the trappings of an exciting mystery suspense thriller.

A professional international hit man’s adventures across Europe.  George Clooney in the starring role.

I couldn’t wait for the screening of THE AMERICAN.

Instead what I got was a lifeless, slow insight into this guy’s persona and last assignment.

THE AMERICAN brought back memories of those mid-60’s slow Euro-Thrillers which bored anyone other than the Art House crowd half to death. Continue reading

“This city is ready to turn on Matt Cassel. I’m not sure I know why.”
Kevin Kietzman, 810 AM
GH: Season two for the Chiefs’ quarterback has yet to begin but yet there is a growing concern among the media and fans that Scott Pioli’s $60-million man is not the man to return Arrowhead and the Chiefs to greatness. Read on.

“I think (the fans) have already turned on the guy. I think they are going to have to go look for another quarterback at some point.”
Nate Bukaty, 810 AM

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The Kansas City, Missouri School District has started the year with an impressive volley of public relations efforts attempting to sway the conversation in their favor.

For the most part, the media has been complicit in this PR effort.

Tragically, in more than a year of energetic campaigning by School Board member Airick L. West and Superintendent John Covington, preliminary test scores reveal little effect in local classrooms.

Like it or not, it takes more than great PR to turn around a School District that has been in decline for more than a generation.
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Will Kansas City Star editor Mike Fannin live to tell the story?

First Fannin took a three-hour radio and cable TV drubbing at the hands of former sports scribe Jason Whitlock. Whitlock painted a picture of Fannin as a party boy who had been having an “inappropriate relationship” with his immediate subordinate, Star sports editor Holly Lawton (a.k.a. sportsbabe68 on Twitter).

Coincidentally, Lawton abruptly resigned just prior to the three-month Whitlock “vacation” saga reaching full boil. Continue reading

So, I skipped out on The 2010 Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition not just because I’m lazy and wanted to spend Sunday Afternoon watching G.I. Joe.

But also because I realized the the Sunday drinking was inadvertently making a political statement that runs afoul of the self-interest of so many hipsters in the area.

Without question, it’s a good looking event full of vibrant and young locals with a keen interest in having a good time. Kansas City Photographer Eric Bowers took some choice photos of the party and Kansas City’s cool people were certainly out in full force. But, I just couldn’t help thinking that the boozefest was a bit hypocritical.

Allow me to explain.
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As reported here three weeks back, more layoffs appear to be on the way at the Kansas City Star…

As noted earlier, newspaperlayoffs.com reported August 5 that sister Star newspaper the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram had just laid off 15 newsroom staffers.

And sources say McClatchy Company-owned papers are given quarterly targets that if they are not met, require that layoffs and/or cutbacks be implemented. Continue reading