A day of celebration underscored by personal madness…

AT 4:30 this morning when I posted Obama‘s win I had had 2 1/2 hours of sleep and needed to be up by five to drive to Hagerstown for the first of five different scheduled lab visits, Doctor conferences, and tests based on the notion that I’d be in surgery with my little brain on Friday.

Then, in the middle of all this, as my wife and I went from office to office (I had fasted for close to 11 hours because of one of the tests… so tired AND hungry) trying to get our neurosurgeon on the telephone to find out the results of yesterday’s testing, we were told the surgery would be moved to Monday from Friday!

Well, you’ve never heard anyone yell as loudly into a cell phone as Elly did to one of the front desk ladies at the Doctors‘ office who informed us of this unannounced time change. You have to understand, she takes time off from her work at the College to take me to these appointments and she manages our schedules and expenses, and she expects that professionals follow professional guidelines and maintain their schedules. They don’t.

There is a chance that they may not be able to do the surgery Monday, either, or that my wife will insist that we find another doctor (my daughters, I think, agree with that, too… I’m to worn out and dizzy to even think about it now. I’ll do what they say.)

So, if there is no surgery Friday, we will probably be headed to Georgetown ( 2 hours away) to interview another neurological practice.  If that does happen, I’ll probably be able to do my Saturday morning radio show on WSHC.

There is Joy In Mudville, though… Mighty Mitty has struck out. If you heard that snivelling concession speech he made (gracefulness is not a Republican skill) at 1:30 in the morning, then you have an idea of what kind of president he would have made.

Now we still have the House of Representatives with a big margin for the Repubs and John Boehner  which will let them trample the legislation we need for the economy, for single payer healthcare, for rebuilding our country and for getting out of all this war. I’m afraid it will be a difficult 4 years. Our support for the president will help get things done.

It will be one of the functions of this blog as long as I can keep it going.

– Bill

 

Related articles

• Hey radio fans… we have a special schedule today due to football season: (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Getting this election over with is becoming an evening of sheer misery… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Finding something to do to keep from going mad! (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• The Republican John Boehner Beats Obama to Backing A Grand Bargain (arshadparvez.wordpress.com)

 

Just Returned From Early Voting…

After having done the Friday Morning radio show on WSHC with John Case, Elly and I set out to go to Charles Town, WV, for a visit to the Jefferson County Courthouse for early voting. Since John and his wife, Carol, were already planning to vote today, Elly and I arranged to meet them at the polling place and to have lunch afterward at our favorite Charles Town restaurant, Mezzaluna.

We spent over an hour from getting into the Court House line through voting at the booth. I never expected that it would take that much time, but the lines were very, very long. It seems like many of our fellow citizens were there to vote early… but remember, this was the third day of early voting and it was still mobbed this morning.

But we HAVE voted and I feel very good about it. The odds are very low that West Virginia will agree with me on most of the votes… particularly it is not considered likely that WV will go for Obama. But you have to vote your conscience anyway, and I did.

The Courthouse is a famous location in Jefferson County since it was here that John Brown was tried and convicted for the Harpers Ferry raid during the Civil War. Now it’s famous as the place where Elly and I do early voting.

I hope everyone out there remembers to vote, either early or on election day.

Related articles

• Is Early Voting A ‘Quiet Revolution?’ (npr.org)
• Obama is First Sitting President to Vote Early: PHOTO (towleroad.com)
• Maryland To Monitor Storm Impact On Early Voting (baltimore.cbslocal.com)

 

Hey WV folks… it’s Early Voting time…

Today’s the day. Early voting starts today in West Virginia and I think Elly and I will be heading over to the Charles Town County Courthouse on Friday to cast our ballots for Obama. Speaking of Obama… he will be doing early voting in Chicago on his current speaking tour. That makes him the first President in office to vote early.

BTW… polls are open on Saturday.

 

The latest Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll finds President Obama had a lead of 53% to 42% among the 17% of the surveyed registered voters who said they had already cast their vote. Let’s keep it up!

Related articles

• Is Early Voting A ‘Quiet Revolution?’ (npr.org)
• Early voting is underway in many states… how about yours? (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Early voting begins in West Virginia (wvgazette.com)
• Tennessee early voting exceeding expectations (timesfreepress.com)
• Early Voting Information (arkansasmatters.com)
• Illinois Early Voting Begins Today (progressillinois.com)
• RNC: Check Out Our Early Votes in Swing States! (nationalreview.com)

 

Finding something to do to keep from going mad!

 

I’ve had a bad day today… physically tripped up by a small seizure while I was doing dishes and an afternoon of trying to stay awake. This is, unfortunately, what life has become… I can’t drive (by law…until I’ve gone a year without a seizure as certified by a doctor) and, since Elly works (which I can’t do outside of the house), I bounce off the walls and am bombarded by televised boredom. If it were not for my laptop and the internet I might as well be in a coma.

So I guess I’m going to start writing something outside of my blog. There is a joy in constructing ideas out of words which I am beginning to look forward to each morning. What I do with what I write is not apparent right now, but I expect it will be realized sooner or later.

I’m tending toward creating a radio drama that I might be able to add to my Saturday show at WSHC, or do with John on the Friday morning show. I’ve been researching radio scripts from the 30s and 40s and I find them fascinating. Some are funny, some are adventures, all of them are strongly character-based since there is little opportunity for scenery (other than sound effects) in radio work.

When I get something finished I’ll let you know.

Related articles

• TT: When radio wasn’t (artsjournal.com)
• Lean & Hungry Theater to Perform and Record Radio Drama Version of The Winter’s Tale, December 4 and 5 (prweb.com)

 

Curious about the public’s opinion of who really won the debate?

It seems that a couple of days of review by NBC using a new tool called ForSight, which is used to gauge public opinion in new media, that there is a sustained backlash against the punditry who had called the debate for Romney. The tool works by evaluating comments in social media.  According to results: if Romney “won”, he did so by lying, whereas Obama had won on substance.

Here’s the report:

The immediate consensus that Mitt Romney won Wednesday’s presidential debate has eroded significantly as fact-checkers have weighed in and supporters of President Barack Obama have fought back, according to NBCPolitics’ computer-assisted analysis of more than 1.3 million post-debate comments on social media.

The analysis suggests that as debate over a news event continues unmediated over time, the impact of the conventional wisdom of journalists and partisan commentators can be mitigated…

By Friday morning, the counterargument that Obama had actually won on substance had taken root, with online sentiment now favoring the president.

 

The stats from the evaluation:

The race isn’t over yet. Romney is not ahead in the public mind. I’m curious to see how the VP debate and the next two presidential debates go down.

Related articles

• Social media analysis: Who really won the debate? (nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com)
• Unlike the Corporate Media, Citizens Aren’t Buying Romney’s Debate Lies (politicususa.com)
• Social media analysis: Who really won the debate? – NBC Politics (nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com)

Jobs for July higher than expected

From McClatchy newspapers:

Stronger-than-expected July jobs number reported by the government Friday eased concerns about an economy slipping back into recession and gave wind to President Barack Obama’s re-election hopes. But economists warned that the road ahead is likely to remain bumpy.

Non-farm payrolls grew by 163,000 jobs in July, according to the Labor Department, which also said the unemployment rate inched up by less than a tenth of a percentage point to 8.3 percent.

The strong report sent stocks soaring for most of Friday’s trading, with the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 220 points in the first hour, closing up 217.29 for the day at 13,096.17.

Mainstream economists had expected about 100,000 new jobs, so Friday’s report was wildly above expectations and more than double the revised 64,000 jobs that were added in June. Most heartening, economists said, was that the gains were spread across all sectors but construction and government hiring.

I find this is very encouraging even though there was a slight increase in unemployment.

Add this information to the number of private jobs gained under Democrats since 1961 and you wonder what Mitt Romney is really going to do about jobs. My guess is nothing!

 

Related articles

• Government report: Employers add more jobs than expected in July (sacbee.com)
• US economy adds 163K jobs, rate rises to 8.3 percent (bostonherald.com)
• Obama, Romney Each Read Jobs Numbers Differently (wnyc.org)
• Jobs added in July, but economists still worried (goerie.com)
• July hiring exceeds expectations, eases worries (bangordailynews.com)
• US economy adds 163K jobs, rate rises to 8.3 pct. (onlineathens.com)

Just came home from the morning radio show…

 

John Case

John Case and I did Winners and Losers on WSHC this morning and, as usual, we had a pretty good show… especially with our regular callers Ralph Petrie and Stu Brown.

I’ve been thinking lately about how much I enjoy doing the two radio programs I’m on each week (got my Saturday show, Talk To Me, tomorrow from 11 to 1) and don’t really know what I’d do without them. Fortunately John picks me up and drives me home on Fridays and my wife gets me to the station on Saturdays and Ralph Petrie drives me home. As long as this keeps up, I have no problems.

Me

So now I’m putting together the song list for tomorrow morning’s show, plus picking a couple of comedy bits from the Bob and Ray collection, and going over various talking points to cover. Lately I’ve been getting quite a few call-ins — especially challenge requests for rare songs —  so the show has been quite a project.

If you want to call in tomorrow, the number is 304-876-5369… and no matter where you are, you can listen live on the internet at http://www.897wshc.org.

 

Putting together my Saturday radio show while I watch Grimm…

I don’t know why I watch Grimm… the stories are, well, stupid. The acting is single level at best. The special effects are now getting boring (seeing these descendents of German gremlins and monsters turning into beasts from the neck up, over and over, has stayed roughly the same for twenty weeks.)

I guess Friday nights I need stupid entertainment.

My show is from 11 to 1 tomorrow… I call it “Talk To Me” and have quite a few phone calls, trivia questions and song requests. It’s two hours I really enjoy.

Listen in (89.7 FM) if you get a chance (on line at http://897wshc.org).

News that makes America wince…

BrickTeeVee reports at the Sam Seder Show:

I'll bet this makes Cheney ecstatic...

Dick Cheney's home state Wyoming House 
advances doomsday bill  
(Wyoming Trib.com) 

CHEYENNE — State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States. House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government. The task force would look at the feasibility of Wyoming issuing its own alternative currency, if needed. And House members approved an amendment Friday by state Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, to have the task force also examine conditions under which Wyoming would need to implement its own military draft, raise a standing army, and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.

What in Hell would Wyoming do with an aircraft carrier?

Related articles

• The Cheyenne Army (reason.com)
• Wyoming Considering So-Called “Doomsday Bill” (izabael.com)
• Wyoming Legislator Wants State To Plan For Collapse Of United States (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Wyoming House advances doomsday bill (tribuneofthepeople.com)
• Wyoming Begins Preparation For Doomsday Scenarios (economicnoise.com)
• Wyoming Wants Their Own Currency, a Draft, and a Freaking Aircraft Carrier In case of Doomsday [Dumb] (gizmodo.com)