Missouri Senate Race Heats Up

Missouri Senate Race Heats Up

With less than a month before Missourians go to the polls to elect a Senator to take the place of the retiring (it's about time) Christopher Bond, the mudslinging and political ads are as expected this time of year. This year's race is between two political veterans from well connected Missouri Political Families. Robin Carnahan, Democrat, is the current Missouri Secretary of State, and daughter of former Governor, the late Mel Carnahan. Her Brother is a US Congressman from St Louis. Roy Blunt has been involved in Missouri politics since 1972, and has been a Congressman since 1997. Blunt's son, Matt Blunt is the former Governor of Missouri. His other two children are lobbyists. Both candidates have solid name recognition with voters.

Recently Blunt has managed a clear lead in the polls, capitalizing on President Obama's huge unpopularity in the state. Even the NY Times says so. Recent ads from Blunt show Obama saying in a speech that "I need another vote", and "It would have already been done of I had Robin up there". With Obama job approval ratings at well below 50% in Missouri, especially on Health Care, these ads have been effective. Blunt has also attacked Carnahan on the $107 million grant that Carnahan's brother's company received from federal stimulus money. Inferring that Political influence was used to steer the money his direction.

Carnahan's camp counters that Blunt is nothing more than a Washington insider who also has used influence to benefit family members. Blunt's wife and two of his children are lobbyists. Of course the real problem lies with the voting public. Let's be honest, neither candidate really is worth voting for, both are too politically connected to serve the people well. If voters would really pay attention and stop just pulling a lever that has a name they recognize, we would all benefit.

Roy Halladay Throws Postseason No-Hitter

Many baseball fans and analysts wondered how veteran all-star Roy Halladay would pitch when he finally found himself in a meaningful game. After a very productive career with the average-at-best Blue Jays, Halladay signed with the Phillies for a shot at a ring.

Halladay answered the questions of the baseball world and moved the Phillies closer to a second title in three years in dramatic fashion - throwing only the second no-hitter in baseball postseason history. In the first playoff game of his career, Halladay shut down the Cincinnati Reds, one of the best offensive teams in the sport.

Halladay has consistently been one of the best pitchers in baseball, however this performance makes him a legend. He is only the second pitcher to throw a no-no in the playoffs, and his stellar career shows this is certainly no fluke. 2010 was the year of the pitcher, and the stellar pitcher match-ups in the postseason reflect this notion. Despite all the talent, Halladay continues to be the best, and is now one game closer to being a champion.

Another Miserable Royals Season Comes to an End

Another Miserable Royals Season Comes to an End

I don't know if anyone noticed, but The Kansas City Royals 2010 season has, mercifully, come to an end. 67 wins, 95 losses - uggh. On the bright side, that is two more wins than last year. At this rate of improvement, we can expect to make the playoffs in about 13 years (actually, I would take the playoffs in 13 years). As usual, the Royals finished the season with a bang giving false hope to fans for a turnaround next season winning 7 of their last 10 games.

On top of lame Free Agent signings, now we have a disgruntled young pitching ace who may or may not be traded in the off season depending on who you ask. Greinke has recently, publicly shared his discontent with losing. He's bored - join the club. I think it would be wise to deal Zack now and get a couple of players that make an impact before Greinke has a MAJOR mental meltdown. We can have a going away party like we did for another local sports team star when he left town.

All these years of losing could lead to fan apathy, but that is not really the case in Kansas City. This town wants to love their Royals and they do keep showing up to the K with surprising regularity. The Royals averaged over 20,000 fans per game, though near the bottom of the majors, that is only 3,000 less per contest than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays who have the best record in the American League. Although maybe that says more about Rays fans than it does Royals fans. Oh well - we do have the only undefeated NFL team in the league (until Sunday anyway).

Man Attacks Woman in Motel, Carves "Hoe" into Chest

Kansas City Police are currently investigating a brutal attack on a 22-year-old woman this weekend that occured in a local motel. The woman, after passing out drunk, awoke to find the word "hoe" carved into her chest with a box cutter.

Accoring to the police report, the woman met a man at a hotel she had talked to on a chat line, but the man left after she refused to have sex with him. The woman then proceeded to finish her bottle of alcohol, then awoke in the night to see a man pacing in her room and calling her a hoe. The woman believes this was a different man than the one she had originally met. When she woke in the morning, she had been physically assaulted and possibly raped, with the word "hoe" cut in her chest.

While I feel terrible for the injuries the woman suffered, people need to learn not to put themselves in situations that can lead to personal trauma. Meeting up with someone you met on a chatline and then drinking an entire bottle of hard alcohol with him will often lead to bad things. Hopefully the horrible aftermath of this crime will serve as a warning to other Kansas City women to use more caution when meeting strangers, especially those met on the internet or through a chat line.

Donald Trump for President in 2012?

Trump to run for office in 2012?

Recently Donald Trump has been very outspoken about his frustrations with the American foreign policy and economic turmoil.  He makes several valid points and speaks clearly and directly to the issues that are plaguing our country.  It's actually very refreshing to hear someone speak who has no affiliation with any political party.  Would it make sense to hand the country over to a self made billionaire and let him run the country like a business?  If Donald Trump could be as successful at running America as he is at running his massive business empire, this Kansas City news editor says let's give it a try.

A recent secret poll was taken in New Hampshire to determine the public opinion of a possibility of Trump for President in 2012 - and the results were overwhelmingly positive.  So far, Donald has come right out with his political ideas:

Stop Selling Out America

One of Trump's concerns is that our leaders are spineless "friendly" types that are sent to negotiate with foreign leaders.  In contrast, the foreign leaders are straight shooters, incredibly sharp and aggressive businessmen who have actually admitted that they "can't believe what they are getting away with" in regards to taking advantage of America.  Trump sites China as our biggest current enemy, claiming that Americans such as himself cannot build a business in China while America lets everyone and anyone buy pieces of America.  Trump allures to the fact that there are a small group of people (perhaps he is alluding to the fabled small circle of people who actually run America) that he believes could "go to bat" for America in business situations and come out with positive results.  In so many words Trump states that the guys that he would send in to negotiate foreign policy wouldn't exactly be the "please everyone" friendly type.  The guys that Trump would send in would be hard hitting ball busters that would get the deal done.  Trump goes on to state that our leaders are soft and weak.

Cleaning Up The Other Guy's Mess

Trump tells a story about personal acquaintances that "own, not run, but OWN" Kuwait.  He states that while America was in Iraq fighting a war to get oil wells back for Kuwait, the leaders of Kuwait were nestled safely in their lavish condos in London (Trump noted that their "condos" were more like entire buildings in London).  When America won the oil wells back, the sheik leaders returned to Kuwait and resumed control of their billion dollar oil wells.  Trump noted that after all that America did for Kuwait, they weren't awarded a single dime, and the Kuwait leaders actually raised the price of oil and remain infinitely wealthy.  Back in America, we have unemployment and former bank vice presidents working at Wendy's and the pavement of the road leading to one of America's most important cities (Manhattan) is crumbling away.  It is obvious that Trump would like to see America fix it's own problems for a while rather than spending billions of dollars cleaning up the other guy's mess.

The Strength of the Village

Special interest groups are buying public policy.  Even when favorable policies are put in place, the special interest groups come right behind them a few months later and manipulate the rules through clever loopholes in the system.  The end result, we are losing the middle class.  One hope that emerges is the recent rise in social networking such as independent websites and blog sites.  Social networks are important because they ensure a certain amount of honesty.  Through these networks everyone's voice can be heard, and American communities can make up their own minds on what the real issues are.  Without the influence of crooked special interest media, the country could literally fix itself eventually.  For example, through the social network, some people have actually created their own jobs.  What do you think we're doing with this blog site :)

Two Heads are Better Than One - Not Necessarily...

Trump also brought up the point that our country is divided into two parts, Republican and Democrat.  Why?  "If I had a company and I wanted to appoint a leader, I sure as hell wouldn't appoint two guys who had totally different views and spent more energy fighting each other than solving the big picture.  The idea of having two parties who spend more time and money battling each other INTERNALLY in America than actually solving our problems as a team is insane".  This is true - I always thought that the saying went "divided we fall".  So......what are we doing then?  Republican, Democrat, Animal, Plant, Mineral - how about we ALL just focus on the same goals.

Lastly let's consider that Donald Trump could just say screw America, buy himself an island in the tropics, retire, and never surface again.  But instead, he's taking some initiative and showing pride and concern for his failing country.  And maybe, just maybe, he intends to do something about it.  No matter what you think about Donald Trump for President you have to respect that.