KC Confidential.com

It looks like all of the resolutions from the beginning of this year have been forgotten and this cowtown is back in same old vicious cycle of in-fighting, bickering and tacit racism. A round-up of trends from throughout this week reveal that Kansas City continues to fight and make little real progress.

Fortunately, cowtown pettiness is something that keeps media outlets going so I’m not going to lament the return to a regular news cycle that features more than a fair share of nastiness, hatred and circular logic.

Let’s take a look at the top stories that powered the media and supplied a break in content between much more entertaining entertainment talk programs and reality shows.

Check it:
Continue reading

So, it’s one day after Martin Luther King Day in Kansas City and I don’t feel any more tolerant.

Despite the ongoing economic downturn, at the last minute this cowtown went out if its way to celebrate the legacy of a Civil Rights Legend. Reports indicate the MLK party in Kansas City, Kansas might have hosted the biggest turnout overall given that it was more of a grassroots affair and didn’t come with any of the political posturing included in most KCMO and Jackson County MLK soirees.

I was lucky enough to get a free seat at the NAACP Olathe Chapter MLK Celebration and I’d like to share just a few of the things I’ve learned along with my thoughts on the festivities.
Continue reading

One of Kansas City’s finest is out making history…

For the past dozen or so years former Pitch editor Jim Hense has been hanging in Hollywood, producing shows for the History and Discovery channels.

“My latest masterpiece is January 15^th,” Hense says. “It’s a debut episode of a show called ‘Life After People’ – a very popular show on the History Channel.”

What it is: “It presupposes what would happen to the physical world if you removed people from the equation,” Hense explains. “What happens to bridges, statues, buildings, industrial waste, animals, dogs.”

Dogs? Continue reading

Face it, in these lean times the only talk that really matters relates to money.

On the subject of the old and busted U.S. Banking System, University of Missouri – Kansas City Law Professor William K. Black has recently been stepping up his game in terms of taking his insight and analysis to the public.

His money quotes have been showing up everywhere from The New York Times to the crackpot Alex Jones Prison Planet site.

Overall his message is simple and mostly notes that both Bush and Obama have failed to properly address lending institutions that nearly destroyed the world’s economy, but managed to solicit U.S. financial forgiveness because they were “too big to fail.” Continue reading

Is it possible to feel more erudite without really trying than when you’re in the thrall of one of the intriguing writers Vivien Jennings and Roger Doeren host out of their Rainy Day Books emporium in Fairway?

Wednesday night, our hometown booksellers–not to be confused with the mass market superstores that are really just coffeeshops and CD stores with books attached–welcomed Boston Globe advice columnist Robin Abrahams for a delightful reading and book signing. Old friends, transplanted East Coast fans, writer wannabees– they all showed up for the antidote to whatever was on Fox that night.

Ms Abrahams is a charming, funny speaker– a nod to her days as a theater publicist (the charming part) and stand-up comedienne. Her popular “Miss Conduct” columns in the Globe navigate the treacherous waters of etiquette in a post-everything world. While initially bleak in her proscription of a world run amok with as many different POVs and mores as M&M colors and Swatch watchbands, Abraham ultimately found reason to be hopeful in a world where, at long last,  most everyone at least recognizes the fact that we all deserve a modicum of respect. Never thought about the course of history that way, I have to admit. Continue reading

Anti war activist Cindy Sheehan loomed large at the Uptown Theater Sunday at a KKFI 90.1 FMcommunity radio station rally / fundraiser…

Sheehan doesn’t think much about critic/Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, though she awoke recently to him dissing her. And while her enmity towards former President Bush is well documented, she’s far from enamored with President Obama.

“Why would I think that protecting George Bush and Dick Cheney from prosecution is good?” Sheehan queried. “I’m not a Democrat. I want the troops home from Iraq.”

Sheehan is touring in support of her online book, Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution.

Her goal: to build grass roots communities less dependent on government, more dependent on one another and “not really counting on the Robber Class,” she says. “There are two classes in American today – the Robber Class and the Robbed Class.”

Did Sheehan attend any of the April Tea Party action around the country?”

“No, why would I?” she asks. “I think (the Tea Parties) started out good and then got co-opted by Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.”

The behind-the-scenes on Sheehan’s agreeing to make an appearance on Hannity’s show?

“I said, sure if he calls me and personally apologizes for every nasty thing he’s said about me,” Sheehan says. “And he did.”

Her overall take on the new prez First 100 or so Days:

“I think he’s doing exactly what I expected him to do,” she says. “A very slow – even slower now – withdrawal from Iraq and sending more troops to Afghanistan and protecting George Bush from prosecution just like Nancy Pelosi did. I am not so much into the person as I am their policies, so I’m disappointed in him although I’m more vindicated than disappointed because I knew (what he would do) all along. Obama is a member of the Robber Class.” Continue reading