Overexposure

I'm tired of Derrick Beasley. And Steve Raleigh. And whoever the guy on Channel 12 is.

I understand the need for lots of coverage when some small town on the far edge of the viewing area has a three percent chance of experiencing a tornado. It doesn't make me happy (and I turn the channel), but I can at least appreciate the public service involved.

But why is this necessary for snow? It's snowing right now. That's going to be the story for the next several hours. There's no need to take cover. There won't be any siresns going off. The meteorologists add about as much to my knowledge of the weather situation as I could gain by sticking my head out a window. There's no public service in the continuous coverage. Do their ratings actually go up by covering the snow so much?

I like (in principle, at least) the closings tickers at the bottom of the TV screen. It's a good way to get the information out. But does anyone know why Channel 9 need TWO tickers? That drives me nuts.

Maybe what I need to do is walk my tired a-- across downtown and get some much needed beer at Bockfest.

Blizzard and Beer: Never Fear!!!

While many events are cancelled tonight, here's a public service announcement: Bockfest is still on. Festivities begin at Arnold's at 6. There won't be a parade, though (or at least the float portion of it is cancelled; apparently, there's still plans to walk from Arnold's to Bockfest Hall).

Looks like the Bockfest folks are doing a good job of providing up-to-the-minute information on their website.

The Continuing Story of Hillary and Barack

Will the continue battle for the Democratic nomination hurt the winner? Some would say yes, this will now become an all out bloodsport. On the other hand, the Democrats are going to get all of the attention as long as the battle goes on, maybe right into the Convention. McCain is not going to get much attention at all, unless he makes news somehow.

Voting Problems?

Did anyone face problems like this Enquirer story reports? I honestly don't grasp how far off Clermont County could be to not have been prepared for this? The Secretary of State of Ohio has been predicting this for days. How did Wulsin do in the same county, were her primary votes up as well?

Voting Obama

The presidential primaries have never been an issue here in Ohio. Tomorrow I am going to do something I have never done before, take a partisan ballot. Philosophically I don't like the two party system. I consider myself an independent liberal. I will taking the Democratic ballot and at least for Tuesday, I am a Democrat. This will not be a big deal to most, since I nearly always vote for the Democrat. To me, however, this is a change. I don't know if I will participate in the primary in the future or not, but it is clear that my vote will count tomorrow. There is a race on in American politics and we have the opportunity for change.

On Saturday, I tried to go vote early, to avoid waking up early tomorrow, but when I got to the BOE, the line to vote was insanely long, I couldn't even get off the elevator to even get in line. That was a great sign. It was great to see people voting. I hope this is the biggest turnout for a primary every for Ohio. Having an impact on an election is good for our state. Lets hope there are no problems at the polls and that we have a quickly tallied vote.

I don't like telling people who to vote for. Instead I am telling you that I am voting for Barack Obama. All you need to do is go vote your conscious.

Local Republican Shakeup?

Kevin Osborne is reporting that HamCo Republican Chair George Vincent will resign in the next few weeks and be replaced by HamCo Common Pleas Judge Alex Triantafilou. If Kevin's got the story right (and he usually does), this would be a pretty big deal for local Republicans.

It's been my policy not to blog on stories arising from the HamCo Courthouse. As a lawyer who appears there on a near-daily basis, when I'm there, I just want to be viewed as any other member of the bar, not some quasi journalist/editorialist/whatever. And my criminal practice relies on maintaining cordial relationships with judges and prosecutors, so other than my typical non-court-related liberal rants, I don't want to create any unnecessary tension or hurt feelings. (That doesn't mean I'm afraid to hurt someone's feelings when I'm advocating on behalf of a client--the key word in the previous sentence is "unnecessary".)

I will say this, though: if the story is true, the courthouse's loss will be the Republican Party's gain. As a judge (both in his present position and during his previous tenure on the municipal court bench), Judge Triantafilou has garnered the respect of both prosecutors and the criminal defense bar, as well as civil litigators. If he applies the work ethic he's utilized on the bench to (what appears to be) his future job, it could mean real revitalization for the local Republican party, which has been struggling somewhat for direction these past few years. One has to wonder if Tim Burke would be any match for him.

Ringing in March

Finally (for me) for now, an interesting music event at the Duke Energy Center tonight: at 5:00, there will be a free handbell concert. The regional chapter of the American Guild of English Handbell Choirs has put together a concert featuring over 600 handbell ringers. Details, courtesy Channel 12, are here. While you're there, you can check out the main attraction at the convention center this weekend, the Cincinnati Home and Garden Show.

(Geesh--am I the nerd on this blog, or what? Griff just finished posting about how to get Heartless Bastards (of which I'm a fan, actually) and a bunch of bands I'm not cool enough to have heard of to come to MidPoint Music Festival (the ultimate "cool kids" event in Cincinnati), and here I am getting gooey about several hundred handbells. Sorry for bringing down the collective hipness of the blog.)