Bad News Boyda casts a vote for corruption

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, is under investigation for tax fraud and not reporting income and assets, such as his property in the Caribbean, for the past decade at least.

Nancy Boyda originally promised a complete investigation, but then blocked a vote on the investigation and voted against removing him from his powerful chairmanship. Could it be because Rep. Rangel has given "Bad News Boyda" over $22,000 in campaign contributions?

Someone who cannot pay their own taxes should not be managing the taxpayers' money. Nancy Boyda was more than willing to stand up to General Petraeus and rudely walk out when he was speaking. Yet she's unwilling to take on a corrupt member of her own party, a flagrant and unrepentant porkbarreler who recently misappropriated taxpayer funds to fund the building of a center in his name in his home district.

Looks like "Bad News Boyda" is unwilling to tell Rangel the bad news, but she has no qualms disrespecting an honorable military general. Looks like she's fitting in well with the do-nothing congress which promises more of the same and politics as usual.

The Konnection gets a facelift...

The Konnection is currently undergoing major style, design, and formatting changes. I've finally decided to move over to Blogger's new platform, which is more streamlined and offers user-friendly approaches to integrating multimedia technology with blogging--something that required much knowledge of HTML code before and tedious time trying to facilitate placement of those applications on the web blog.

First and foremost, we are glad to have our own logo (recently modified) but now front and center at the top of the webpage.

The Konnection has also decided to provide you with easy access to Republican candidates and their campaign websites with the "Campaign Central" section in the right sidebar, which will list Republican candidates in Kansas and include their bright, flashy logos for one-click transfer to their campaign websites. We will be adding more candidates to the section as time goes on, and wnat it to serve as a resource for information on federal, state, and local candidates.

Watch for more changes to the blog to faciliate more user feedback, interaction, discussion, and greater use of multimedia content.

And let me know what you think or what you would like to see added.

Vote or Die? Not quite, but the word "vote" was said at least a dozen times in last night's Emmys

So last night the Emmys took place, and if you're anything like me, you were curious to see how political the awards would be. I was watching to see if the best comedy in the world, NBC's "The Office," would clean up the show, but the winner of many awards was the extremely biased HBO miniseries Recount, which chronicled the 2000 election and recount hysteria in Florida--from the viewpoint that the Bush campaign stole the election.

Presenter after presenter implored Americans to vote this year, and it was painfully obvious that each presenter wanted to tell Americans whom to vote for, but they were also aware of the backlash that would cause among fans and viewers and they didn't want to hurt Obama's election as they hurt Kerry's bid in 2004. Martin Sheen urged voters to vote "at least once" on Election Day. I was puzzled by that--did I hear correctly or was that a not-so-subtle endorsement of voter fraud? Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert managed to get away with what the presenters could not do explicitly--be political. Colbert's musings on his bag of prunes and how an "old, shriveled prune" was the choice for him this year, even though it would be four more years of the same, produced smirks from the Hollywood elite, but came across as overused, not funny, and too overtly political. Colbert and Stewart were singing to the choir--now, if they has joked about Obama too, they might have come across as equal-opportunity offenders, but of course they would not dare do that. Too bold, too risky.

Overall, despite the explicit attempts to be apolitical, the Emmys (ironically) were staged with heavy political undertones, and the fact that a provocative, politically-biased miniseries reaped the most awards and attention only added to politically-charged atmosphere at the awards show last night. And having each celebrity presenter extol the virtues of voting and urge us commoners to vote does not endear me to their cause or candidate. They just come across sounding preachy, and when you watch an awards show, you want to be entertained--you are trying to escape politics and political lecures. So, in a nutshell, I do not think the tactic of trying to be neutral and encourage Americans to vote for Obama was successful.

Dennis Moore puts party first, country second

Unlike Sen. McCain, our own 3rd District congressman Dennis Moore chose to put his party first and his country second today when he signed on to Nancy Pelosi's energy plan, instead of a comprosmise plan backed by House Democrats and Republicans.

Dennis Moore will say that this plan "compromises" by allowing drilling and funding alternatives to oil, but the plan does:

• DOES NOT permit drilling within 50 miles of the U.S. coast, although 90 percent of known oil reserves are in this area!


• DOES NOT permit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The area proposed for drilling occupies just 2,000 acres (0.01 percent) of the more than 20,000 million acres. And this area is desolate and inhabited by few lifeforms.

Dennis Moore has consistently opposed energy exploration and has always voted AGAINST drilling in ANWR in Alaska. The do-nothing congressman who few in congress have heard of does do a good job though of impeding economic progress and ensuring that gas prices remain high.

Had enough? Call Dennis Moore at (202) 225-2865 and tell him to put his country first and his party second.

10 years is enough. We need "more" out of Washington, and that requires that we vote "Moore" out of Washington. Vote Nick Jordan for congress on Nov. 4th. Visit www.nickjordan.com or www.wakingupwashington.com.

McCaskill claims McCain will jail rape victims who have abortions

Outrageous? A complete lie? You bet.

From the desparate Missouri Senator:

“If women are going to kick the tires,” McCaskill said, “they’re going to find out that this is a ticket that wants to put women in prison for having an abortion after they have been raped.”

Apparently, the senator needs help with some facts. Fact #1: McCain has always been in favor of an exception for victims of rape and incest. Fact #2: If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the issue would go back to the states, and there is no indication that abortion would carry a jail sentence. On the contrary, many crimes have no sentence and do not merit prosecution.

Congressional Quarterly correctly called out the senator on her desparate attempt to keep Obama's campaign alive.

If you live in Missouri and you've had enough, call Claire's D.C. office, and tell her that you think it is despicable to slander and outright lie about McCain's record like this. Tell her you've had enough with this level of fraud and deception and that these types of scare tactics have no place in this election. Tell Claire to stop working for Barack Obama and to start working for Missouri.

Call Claire at (202) 224-6154 and let's send a message that this level of vitriole and deception will not be tolerated.

Gallup congressional poll shows Republicans gaining

In a stunning reversal, Republicans are now within a few points or leading Democrats in the generic congressional ballot question which asks voters which party's candidate they would support in their congressional district election. Just a few months ago, Democrats held a 15 point lead, 55-40 percent. Now, Republicans have closed that deficit to just 3 points (a 48-45 Democratic lead among registered voters) and among likely voters, Republicans now lead by 5 points, 50-45 percent. See more here.

Additionally, the enthusiam gap among voters of both parties has tightened. While Democrats enjoyed a double-digit lead in enthusiasm for their candidate for most of the year, Republicans are about just as enthusiastic as their counterparts, 60 percent to 67 percent.

As Republicans gain in congressional election polls, McCain continues to lead Obama in national polls and gain on leads on most issues of importance to the American people, and Sarah Palin continues to have higher favorability ratings than all 3 other national candidates, Democrats are taking note of this ominous sign. A recent news article interviews several Democratic candidates who fret that McCain's popularity and Obama's gaffes and inability to connect with voters will damage their party's chances in November. Campaign managers of Democrats running in swing districts are urging their candidates to distance themselves from Obama and refrain from attacking McCain.

"Democrats on Capitol Hill Fear Obama Fallout (Financial Times)"

The Palin Pick: By the Numbers

• The indefensible, heavy-handed media-driven attacks on Palin have backfired. Rassmussen polling shows that 51 percent of Americans believe reporters are trying to hurt Palin with their news coverage.
• The attack against her as being inexperienced is not working: 44 percent of Americans believe Palin is more experienced than Obama to be President of the United States
• Palin's favorability ratings stand at 58 percent--surpassing McCain, Obama, and Biden. Palin's counterpart on the Democratic side--Joe Biden--is only viewed favorably by less than half of American voters--48 percent
• Republicans (89 percent) and Independents (52 percent) believe Palin helps McCain. Only 69 percent of Democrats and 45 percent of Independents believe Biden helps Obama

The Polls

• McCain now leads in most of the major polls: He leads Obama in the National Gallup Poll by 3 points (48 to 45 percent)
• McCain leads Obama in the Zogby poll, 50-46 percent
• And the first double-digit lead in the race so far this year: Gallup/USA Today polls shows McCain leading Obama 54-44 percent among likely voters--a 10 point lead and the largest so far this year!
• Survey USA shows McCain leading now on most issues of concern to the American public. The poll data reveals that voters believe McCain has a better plan for Iraq (14 point advantage), a better plan for energy independence (12 points), a better plan for healthcare (1 point advantage) and a better plan for education (5 point advantage). Obama's only lead is on environmental issues (and he only has an 8 point advantage).

Republican Convention tops DNC in viewers

McCain's acceptance speech made history for the most number of viewers ever to watch a candidate's acceptance speech primetime at a party convention. 38.9 million people watched McCain accept the nomination of the GOP--500,000 more than those who watched Obama give his media-driven, much anticipated speech among the gaudy ruins of a Greek Temple before 80,000 at Invesco Field.

Of course, the excitement and energy needed to boost McCain's ratings over Obama's came from Sarah Palin's speech the night before, which was incredibly impressive and successful: 37.2 million viewers, coming extremely close to Obama's 38.4 million viewers. Biden's VP speech only garnered 24 million viewers.

By choosing fellow maverick Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be on his ticket, McCain was able to do what no one thought he could do: breathe new life into what was expected to be a less enthused RNC, less anticipated and less watched. The RNC matched the DNC in enthusiam, excitement, and exceeded them in ratings and viewership. McCain has now also erased Obama's short and small convention bounce and has overtaken a lead that is above the margin of error in most current polling surveys.

(source: http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Television_44/McCain_s_edge_38_9_million_viewers.asp