Soulstice CD Release Gig

I went to the Soulstice CD release party last night at the Broadview hotel and took a view pictures also bought their CD "Record Highs." Soulstice is a small group combo at the very fine jazz program at Friends University (which has an outstanding series of concerts scheduled over the fall and spring semesters.

I took a few pictures a non-SLR digital camera, which are in the slideshow below. By now means a thorough documentation of the evening. I didn't get a snap of Nathan Hittle the very fine piano player.

I'm very impressed with the CD. In a blindfold test, even sophisticated listeners might not detect that it is a bunch of college students from Kansas.

The unnoticed exremism in Palin's blessing

Video of a pastor blessing Sarah Palin with protection against witchcraft has been the rounds. Moti Rieber at FedReb catches something that most observers haven't noticed.

Here's what the Pastor says

The second area whereby God wants us, wants to penetrate in our society is in the economic area. The Bible says that the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It's high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations. That's what we are waiting for. That's part and parcel of transformation. If you look at the -- you know -- if you look at the Israelites, that's how they work. And that's how they are, even today.

Moti's comments are spot on.

In case you need a scorecard, that is a pastor at Palin's church saying that the Christians need to act like the Jews and run "the economy of nations" and "that's how they [the "Israelites"] are, even today." That, my friends, is classic, no-holds-barred anti-Semitism. And she was sitting there for it, and she was blessed by this pastor later in the event.

Jim Slattery on Roberts Smears

Incumbent Senator Pat Roberts has spent lots of money--as much as $1.5 million on TV ads attacking challenger Jim Slattery alleging excessive absentism and that Slattery made "millions" "lobbying" for "special interests in Washington.

At the end of his August 22 speech to the Kansas AFL-CIO, Slattery told the truth about those smears.

Give a watch.

Sebelius Endorses Slattery & His Pro-worker Record

Governor Kathleen Sebelius endorses Jim Slattery at the 2008 Kansas AFL-CIO COPE convention, citing his pro-workers record

Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News 1854-1858

Thursday, September 25. 7:00 p.m.

Craig Miner reading, talk & signing. "Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858" -

At the Wichita/Sedgwick County Historical Museum 204 S. Main.

Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Kansas Territory was a national issue that dominated America's press, not to mention three sessions of Congress. Hundreds of thousands of articles and editorials--4,500 in the New York Herald alone--were published about Bleeding Kansas during those four tumultuous years leading up to the Lecompton Constitution. Craig Miner now offers the first in-depth study of national media coverage devoted to the beleaguered territory, unearthing new examples of what Americans were saying about Kansas and showing how those words affected the course of national events.

Brownback confirms Palin was McSame's first pick

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback was interviewed on National Public Radio
Tuesday and let a couple of interesting things slip through in his rapturous adoration of Gov. Sarah Palin. Brownback is going to make one of the nominating speeches for Palin on Wednesday.

Revelation # 1. Brownback said he had originally been asked to make a nominating speech for another candidate. This candidate was pro-choice and Brownback assumed it was Joe Lieberman. Brownback agreed to make the nominating speech for candidate X. When McCain changed his mind, Brownback agreed to make a speech for Palin, who he probably knows even less well than McCain.

It has been said that a district attorney can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Apparently, so hungry is Brownback for attention, that he would agree to make a nominating speech for a ham sandwich.

Revelation # 2. I'm getting ahead of myself with that ham sandwich crack. Brownback, in this instance, has shown himself to be lacking in political principles. Willing to nominate a pro-choice or a pro-life candidate. Willing to nominate a moderate liberal on domestic issues (Lieberman) or a far-right kook (Palin.)