Obama Osawatomie Kansas Speech 2011

When it was announced that President Obama would be visiting Osawatomie, Kansas on Tuesday December 6th, 2011, the most common reaction was "why is he going to Osawatomie of all places?". The reason Obama's Speech took place in Osawatomie, Kansas this afternoon was because Osawatomie was the location that Theodore Roosevelt made a speech about the American economy and the President's idea for a "New Nationalism". Obama was also accompanied by local former Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who is now the Secretary of Health and Human Services in Washington. Tickets were sold, people camped out to get them, and the town of Osawatomie was given a quick makeover in preparation for President Obama. President Obama landed Air Force One at MCI Kansas City International Airport, and then made the one hour drive south on 69 Highway to Osawatomie, Kansas to deliver a speech at the gym at Osawatomie High School.

Obama "channeled" Teddy Roosevelt in his speech on economy and the middle class, and Roosevelt's idea of a New Nationalism today as he garnered many swells of coffee-fueled applause from the all white, all middle / lower class citizens of Osawatomie. Obama's speech was primarily about the redistribution of wealth, taxing the upper 1 percent class appropriately and fairly and giving the large companies in America incentive to keep jobs in the US instead of outsourcing to other countries. Obama suggests that if we invest our budget dollars into science and engineering, the big companies will start to focus on making products that are ingenuitive and can be sold throughout the world with the stamp "made in America". Obama pointed out that many jobs have been taken by computers, the internet, and ATM machines. He did not mention that about 10 percent of the jobs in America have been taken by illegal Mexicans.

Obama doesn't need to worry, however, as he will be re-elected no matter what he says between now and November 2012. The Republicans can't find anyone worth running against Obama and it is almost a certainty that Obama will be elected for a second term. We are just going to have to brace ourselves for an onslaught of name calling, smearing, and finger pointing in the next year as the politicians via for position in the 2012 election. None of what you see will matter, however, as Obama will be elected again and will continue with his vetoes and watchdog instituting. We're not saying that Obama isn't doing a good job, we're just saying that the next 12 months of political blah blah are not going to affect the outcome of the 2012 election - at all. Obama wins second term, that's the story.

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Frank White Fired From Fox News and Royals Organization

Notorious Royals second baseman Frank White was fired by Fox News and the Kansas City Royals for unknown reasons. According to Jack Harry and Frank Boal the firing did not have anything to do with Dayton Moore but more to do with Dan Glass. Kevin Shank was also fired. The story so far is that Frank White, All Star Second Baseman for the Kansas City Royals was sent to a downtown Kansas City hotel to get news from a Fox News employee that he was no longer needed at Fox or in the broadcast booth for the Royals.

Frank White took over the broadcasting job for the Kansas City Royals when Paul Splittorff passed away and has been calling Royals games ever since. His firing did not come as a surprise by those close to the organization as it was well known that Frank White did not get along well with the front office of the Royals organization. The reason that this has become such a big story is that there has not been an explanation given to the public from the Royals front office yet, and also the manner in which he was fired was considered by most to be unethical. Sam Mellinger from the Kansas City Star reported that "Royals general manager Dayton Moore is being blamed in many circles for White’s ouster from the broadcast booth, which multiple sources adamantly dispute and classify as a collaborative decision."

Jack Henry reported that Dayton Moore had little or nothing to do with the firing of Frank White, but rather the firing came from Royals upper brass member Dan Glass, acting out his father David Glass' wishes. It will be a shame to see anything keep Frank White from participating in the 2012 All Star Game to be held at Kauffman Stadium next summer, as they will surely be planning a huge celebration and honorary ceremony of former Royals stars including George Brett, Willie Wilson and of course Frank White. These players were the pillars of a generation of Royals success, in fact the ONLY success that the Royals have ever experienced since their inception. In fact, the 1985 Royals are the only professional sports team that has ever won a World Championship for Kansas City and neither the Kansas City Chiefs nor the Kansas City Royals have even come close since the 1985 Royals World Series Win. Most sports writers and news reporters in Kansas City writing these days were not around to see that 1985 team like we were and they need to show some respect. All they have to write about is some fiddling around with Mexican/Puerto Rican/Dominican baseball players and insane trades and shady ownership of the Royals and they will never understand how it felt to be at Kauffman Stadium during the early 80's when the Royals were on the NATIONAL front and they probably never will. We certainly hope that Frank White's firing won't keep him from participating in any ceremony honoring the 1985 Royals at the 2012 MLB All Star Game, and we hope that the young sports writers out there who are products of the "plastic generation" who have little or no emotion or sense of Royals pride understand Frank White's situation and not pretend that they were there when everything was REALLY happening.

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Jardines KC Jazz Club Closed Likely Permanently

On Saturday afternoon we received a notice from our good friend Dave Stephens from the Dave Stephens Band warning his fans not to show up to his performance that night that was scheduled to be at Jardines Jazz Club in Kansas City near the Plaza. Dave said that Jardines had fired their entire staff with no advance notice on Saturday or perhaps on Friday. Currently, there is a sign on the door that says "closed for repairs", but according to several inside sources Jardines is closed for good.

It's hard to imagine the circumstances that may have surrounded the closing of Jardine's, but it had to have been something out of the ordinary due to the "sudden death" manner in which it closed. To hear that the entire staff was suddenly fired is proof that something was rotten at Jardine's, and to cancel a show on Dave Stephens at the last minute when they know that he flies all the way in from his home in Los Angeles just to perform at the club is just not right. Surely there is a good explanation for the closing of Jardine's as they have not done any sort of odd things like this in the past. They have been a steady rock in the rough waters that are the Kansas City jazz scene, as Kansas City jazz bands and jazz musicians hardly have anywhere to perform as it is.

Ironically enough, Kansas City is known for Jazz, but in reality there are less than a handful of venues that actually feature and promote live jazz. Jazz musicians are mostly loners, who are fairly arrogant and only want their own name to be known, this is why they don't really put together bands, rather they "sit in" with each other - or jazz performers with some notoriety put together a random group of jazz musicians to "back" their performances, often introducing each musician several times during a performance. Featured jazz musicians who will be affected by Jardine's closing will be Dave Stephens and his band, The Kansas City Lights, Danny Embrey and several other Kansas City bands. This is a serious blow to the jazz community as they are losing one of the most well known jazz venues in Jardine's, and they will be forced to look elsewhere for jazz gigs. A local booking agency is offering free sign up for jazz bands and jazz musicians at www.bandsforhirelive.com to help them find gigs in Kansas City and other areas in the Midwest.

Jardine's owner Beena Johnson hails from Pune, India and is an IT specialist (what else to they do down there, of course she is an IT specialist) and she was not available for comment on the closing of Jardine's jazz club in Kansas City.

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Chiefs Stomp Bears Easily as McCluster Leads Offense

The Kansas City Chiefs pounded the Chicago Bears like they weren't even there today, revealing that the Bears are not even close to a playoff quality team and are extremely inept at running the ball or throwing the ball. The only player that showed up for the Bears today was Julius Peppers, who pestered Tyler Palko as he easily led The Chiefs to a victory over the pathetic Chicago Bears.

Once again the Chiefs defense pummeled and stumped the opposing team's passing and running attack with sacks going to Tamba Hali, Justin Houston, Jon McGraw (uncredited), and a key interception by Eric Carr to boot. This is the second straight week that the Chiefs defense has allowed less than 14 points and in the past two weeks the Chiefs defense has only allowed a total of 16 points. The Chiefs really should have defeated the Steelers as well, but the offense just couldn't get it done. Dexter McCluster surprised everyone and shushed the doubters today as he put up monster numbers on the ground and in the air. McCluster caught a 45 yard touchdown pass at the end of the 1st half, representing the Chiefs only touchdown for the day. Dwayne Bowe was definitely off his game, dropping passes and acting like he doesn't care (as usual), we're not impressed with Dwayne Bowe today, or last week, or the week before that. Yes, we understand that Palko doesn't put the ball where he is supposed to most of the time, but Bowe still needs to go up and try to get that ball. We told you before the season even started that we should have gone after Plaxico Burress, look at how he's playing now.

Overall it is great to see the Chiefs playing defensive football again. It has been a long time since the Chiefs have dominated with their defense and with the way the offense is playing lately, we really have no other choice. In other news, our new 2.3 million dollar quarterback Kyle Orton played 1 down and injured his right index finger, and then left the game.

The Chiefs were almost the only winners today in the AFC West, until Denver once again got lucky and squeaked out a win.

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Kyle Orton Not Starting Palko Starts vs Bears

Todd Haley looks like he's been rode hard and put away wet, we've seen heroin addicts with more spunk and inspiring speech pathology. Haley has been getting pounded with the same question over and over in the past few days; who will you start vs the Bears on Sunday? The answer comes out as quickly as the question - "our starter is still Tyler Palko", and though we did pick up Kyle Orton he will remain the third or fourth option at quarterback for the lowly Chiefs. Tyler Palko has a career passer rating of 50.1, has thrown ZERO touchdowns in the NFL and has thrown 6 interceptions. Palko is easily the worst quarterback in the NFL, and Chiefs fans are baffled as to why he would remain the starting quarterback in the second half of an NFL season that is clearly all over for the Kansas City Chiefs.

By this time the only people who are paying attention to Chiefs news are the hard core Chiefs fans who watch the team's every move no matter how poorly the team is performing. Though not as sad as Royals fans who have to sit through a grueling 162 game season with a losing team who's owners will spend no money to improve the team, the Chiefs fans only have to suffer through 17 weeks of watching an underfunded team struggle against the current that is the NFL. Though it would seem that the Chiefs stand a better chance of going into history as world champions each year, it is actually the Royals who have won the championship most recently in 1985. The Chiefs haven't gone all the way since 1970, and do not look like they are going to return any time soon.

I remember a time in Kansas City when you never saw a Chiefs game turned on anyone's TV, but you always saw people tuning in to watch the Royals. Growing up in the 80's I don't even remember anyone EVER watching a Chiefs game. The first time that I became aware of who the Chiefs even were was when the Kansas City Police used to hand out Chiefs Cards to us kids (looking back it makes me wonder who's idea that was??). The Royals were so popular in Kansas City that people even listened to the game on transistor radios, sitting in lawn chairs in the driveway when the game wasn't televised.

The Chiefs are clearly the most popular sports team in Kansas City right now, but that can only be attributed to the fact that NFL football is just simply more fun to watch than baseball in general. HD television, increased advertising revenue, and perhaps a more violent society has contributed to the popularity of the NFL (now that would make a good topic for a thesis, "how a more violent society has led to the increased popularity of the NFL" - go ahead and use that one students if you need a topic). The Chiefs Tailgate parties are also a huge reason for the team's dedicated fan base, and the Chiefs invest a lot of money to insure that the tailgate parties flourish and that the Chiefs fans have a reason to keep renewing their season tickets each year even though the team cannot compete in the NFL.

The Chiefs look like they are probably going to end up going 5-11, or maybe 6-10. The defense looks decent, but with Tyler Palko at the helm they are in trouble. Kyle Orton might be able to bring something to the table, but without blocking up front, and Orton's lack of scrambling ability, he may not put up good numbers either. If you've even read this far into this article I commend you on your support of the flailing Kansas City Chiefs, or maybe you are just spacing off at work again...

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