Thursday, April 2, 2009

Thursday April 2 -- Got news or a question?

If you have news or a question, leave it in comments.
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17 comments:

John Altevogt said...

Just looking over The Star's endorsements. Once again a disgraceful handmaiden to corruption. Barb Shelly is an embarrassment to our community.

The Star would double its credibility just by firing the entire editorial board and re-hiring some of its reporters and other essential staff.

Kansas City needs an honest newspaper.

McClatchy Watch said...

FYI I found the Kansas City Star endorsements here.

I don't have info on the candidates... John, what is the deal with Barb Shelly and why would the KC Star endorse her?

Anonymous said...

Shelly isn't a candidate. She's a columnist and member of The Star's editorial board.

Kevin Gregory said...

8:52 thanks

Anonymous said...

Another year in the US for Auntie Zeituni
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She knows about birth certificates and such things better kept under wraps. Don’t mess with Auntie Zeituni from Kenya.

Anonymous said...

Obama was the second gunman! He's a Freemason!

John Altevogt said...

The Star as handmaiden to corruption.

The endorsements I refer to is located at:

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/

The two columns on the left hand side of the page originally appeared in Midwest Voices and were written by Barb Shelly.

For the record, my main objection to The Star's editorial board isn't its all left, all the time political perspective. It's The Star's servitude to the sleaziest elements in metro area politics. Keep in mind that Kansas City was listed in George Magazine as one of America's Top 10 Corrupt cities. I would argue that since the Brisbane regime The Star has been a major component in maintaining and perpetuating that corruption.

Let me give examples. In one race for a county judge the main issue was that the establishment candidate was accused of being drunk on the bench. The Star endorsed the drunk and he won by 50 votes.

In the primary for Congress in Missouri Jamie Metzl ran against Emmanual Cleaver. Both are ardent leftists. The difference is that Metzl had a record of honesty and integrity and Cleaver, the establishment candidate, had more baggage than a freight train. The Star endorsed Cleaver.

This time there is one candidate running for KCKCC Community College and one for Johnson County Community College who have records for trying to bring reform to the their respective schools. Shelly denounced one for being "argumentative" and the other for being "disruptive" and urged that both be replaced by the handpicked establishment slates of candidates.

The Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has been a constant black eye for the citizens of Wyandotte County and recently one of the BPU's head officers and a contract attorney were indicted for ripping the utility off for around 400K thanks to a Grand Jury called as a result of the almost singled-handed efforts of a guy by the name of TJ Reardon. Reardon is now running for a UG seat and Shelly dismisses him by reference to 25 year old drug convictions that occurred when the guy was a kid.

Indeed, The Star endorses two of the three incumbents on the BPU's board who have been in the thick of its many scandals.

3 reform candidates and all 3 trashed by The Star for being too uppity.

Just to give you an idea of what's going on at Johnson County Community College, a main building is named after the former President, Charles "Groper" Carlsen who resigned in disgrace after allegations of sexual misconduct. The board covered up the allegations for years and only after the student newspaper blew the whistle was the matter exposed. Neither The Sun, nor The Star had anything to do with bringing the matter to light.

Currently, Ben Hodge, the "disruptive" one Shelly wants to get rid of, disrupted the new college president's efforts to do business in violation of the Open Meetings statutes. While Shelly pays him a back handed compliment for doing so, it is that disruptiveness to which she refers.

Again, my problem with The Star's endorsements isn't that they're ideologically based, it's that The Star's editorial board is little more than a handmaiden to corruption that doesn't speak truth to power, it actively works to silence those voices, and it is for that reason that many of the people on this board hope The Star goes out of business for the good of our community.

Anonymous said...

Wow, politics in Kansas City is more fascinating than I ever could have believed. Could you write a much longer post about it?

Anonymous said...

-Alaska Sen. Stevens cleared of all charges-

Signs of Prosecutorial Misconduct Appear in Ted Stevens Legal Saga ... That raises the more relevant question -- [why was the Senator indicted so close to an election?] The Stevens case emerged out of a broader ..
online.wsj.com/article/
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Now, it turns out, the evidence that cleared Sen. Stevens was known months before the election and was kept hidden. He could and should have been cleared then and there! This stinks beyond stinking.

Anonymous said...

Wow! That must be the stinkiest thing ever!

Anonymous said...

John Altevogt said...
The Star as handmaiden to corruption
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John that was an excellent post. The child writing the Wow comments is a whacko, whose livelihood probably depends on KC staying corrupt, and the Star staying the go to cover-up rag. It is important to witness this sort of childishness, you know you have hit a nerve, and it probably is in their ass, located right beside their brain.

Anonymous said...

Barbara Shelly's level of ignorance is only matched by Rhonda Lokeman’s. You don’t have to read one word to know what’s coming out their crassholes. Both are a one trick pony in the Star’s one ring circus, but at least Rho has been put out to graze. Make that a ½ ring circus now. The whole editorial board is a thing of misery. Maybe the online paper, if even that survives, will get some decent bloggers, with a little knowledge of current readers. The world is five years ahead of these out-of-date deadheads that write their biased garbage, as they tumble down into the gutter.

Anonymous said...

Let us all remember that the Stevens prosecution was under the Republican administration of George W. Bush.

Anonymous said...

Let us all remember that the Stevens prosecution was under the Republican administration of George W. Bush.
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And you think the people that held back the important information that would have cleared Senator Stevens several months earlier, and not until after the elections were GOP prosecutors? And, the FBI is totally GOP influenced? That doesn’t even make sense to a fool. These were the prosecutors that President Bush was trying to fire, and the Democrats were raising hell about it. Now we know he had good reason, they were corrupt. I hope they lose their jobs, and are banned from government service forever.

Anonymous said...

Attorney General Holder (the third cabinet member to have tax problems) dropped the case against Stevens at once. He knew it was a fraud, but he should offer Alaska the financing to hold another election to elect their senator in an honest manner. The Democrat that won the election, did so under the use of illegal fraud. This dishonesty should not stand in a country with the rule of law. I hope the people of Alaska recall the bogus senator and start again. This election corruption must come to an end, or we might elect a mirage or something.

Anonymous said...

It should be noted that the case against Stevens was dropped because of incompetence in the prosecution NOT because here was no evidence of corruption.

If you followed the case closely, you will have noted that he accepted -- and did not report -- hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods and services over a period of years. Loss of his Senate seat rather than further prosecution would seem to be adequate punishment for that.

Anonymous said...

http://tinyurl.com/ddxx34

The Richmond Times-Dispatch eliminated 31 open positions and laid off 59 employees today. Affected departments include Production, Circulation, Marketing, Business, Advertising, Editorial, News, Operations, Facilities, Prepress Design Services and Targeted Solutions, a new product development group.