Obama opens campaign office in North Little Rock?

You've really got to admire the Barack Obama campaign.

Well, I mean you've got to admire the campaign when it's not attacking anyone who doesn't believe that Obama is the Second Coming, I mean.

The most recent move worthy of respect happened today when the group opened a campaign office in North Little Rock. Obama doesn't have a chance in hell of carrying Arkansas as there's just not enough white liberal guilt in this state to swing the votes needed to defeat John McCain. Yes, they could use the Al Gore technique of using cigarettes to buy votes from the homeless and they'll still not drum up enough support in this state to topple McCain.

Still, it's great to see that his supporters are trying to make a go of it.

They're naive enough to think Obama might have a chance in Arkansas, and that's kind of cute in the same way a six-year-old trying to build a robot out of a cardboard box and some assorted bolts, screws and electrical tape is cute. You know the kid will never build a robot, but he's enjoying himself so much that you just want to let him give it a shot, anyway.

Obama needs to carry the South to win this election. That's all there is to it. He's in a close battle with McCain and will need to carry all of the states he can. I'm well aware that Obama's supporters will declare that we're just too racist around here to vote for a black man. You'll find that to be true in some quarters, but I'd wager the "let's keep the White House white" bunch is very much in the minority.

Hollering "racism!" overlooks the real difficulty that a lot of people in these parts have with Obama. The problem, of course, is that national Democrats hate almost everyone who lives in the South or any rural enclave, really. Winning the South would mean that Obama and his ilk would have to admit that what is important to people in places like Arkansas actually matters. They'll never do that, of course.

The Democrats are terrible at talking to those of us in "flyover territory," anyway. Remember how idiotic John Kerry looked when he made an awkward attempt to get a gun, buy a hunting license and go hunting? Obama's slicker than Kerry was in addressing us so-called "red staters," but not by much.

Watch for McCain to carry Arkansas, the South and a good chunk of the rest of the nation. You can thank America's favorite populist, Sarah Palin, for McCain's success in November.

Just stop it!

I've heard plenty of bloggers gripe about people who put audio on their sites that plays automatically.

I'll go ahead and add my complaint to the, err, complaint pile. Why? Because the problem seems to be getting worse.

I tend to have music running through Winamp whenever I've got my computer running and I'm sitting in front of it. I'm listening to music, old time radio, actual news radio or etc. It's just downright annoying to have what I want to hear interfered with by something that just annoys me.

Now, hearing some song is just obnoxious. On the other hand, I ran across a video with audio the other day that just made me mad as hell. It featured this greasy guy with a pony tail who looks like a Ron Jeremy disciple. He was howling about how he'd make me rich on the Internet.

I don't like people yelling at me when I access a blog and really don't appreciate people who look like low-rent pimps telling me they can make me rich. Fortunately, I was able to find the pause button, but there's no need to inflict even that on the unsuspecting public.

Hey, if you must share that wonderful new song you just heard or put a sleazy guy on your site that promises to make you rich, just find a way to make it so people have to actively click a link in order to check out that digital treasure you are convinced the world must know about? For example, if you head over to YouTube, you can find a dandy "embed" feature next to that video you like which allows you to put some code on your site that shows that wonderful video but allows people the option of playing it or not.

See, look at this great YouTube video from the hysterical Bobby Conn:


I happen to think that one is a hoot and contains a few swipes at The Man. You know which The Man I'm talking about, right? He's the same man that, say, employs you and makes you edit something on your blog that makes his organization look bad.

That's all hypothetical, of course.

Anyway, how many people actually think Bobby Conn is a hoot and is actually worth watching? One percent of the general population? Less? Why inflict the great Bobby Conn on people who hate his guts?

Yes, giving those blog visitors the option of having to actively choose to listen to something like Bobby Conn is the way to go. Everything about my blog from the ads I select to the bells and whistles that amuse me are largely passive -- I appreciate it when people do visit and would rather not annoy them.

Oh, and do go and look at that Bobby Conn video. You'll laugh so hard you'll break all your furniture. Be sure to stick around for his out-of-breath interview at the end.

Meanwhile...

Jon over at OTRCat.com sent me a little "thank you" today -- two CDs full of MP3s of Duffy's Tavern and My Favorite Husband. Yes, those are both wonderful old time radio comedies and My Favorite Husband stars none other than a young Lucille Ball.

Why would Jon do such a wonderful thing? Because I mentioned his site in an earlier blog post and Jon appreciated it. He's a classy guy and the programs he sent me are of the highest quality. Thanks, Jon!

Once again, I encourage anyone wanting to pick up some great old time radio shows for a great price to visit OTRCat.com. If you like old time radio, you'll be glad you paid Jon a visit.

The Hawg has returned!

Fortunately, I'm back from Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA) convention that was held Monday through Wednesday in Little Rock.

Of course, I'm the director of media relations for the ARA and consider any convention where someone doesn't get arrested as a successful one (that photo I took and posted here was staged, thanks to a Realtor and a Little Rock police officer with a good sense of humor). The media would have a field day with the ARA should one of our members drink too much, do something stupid and wind up in jail.

As an added bonus, I got to meet the famed Hillbilly Willy, a fellow Arkansas Blogger who works for one of the exhibitors that arrived at our convention. I'm not going to go around identifying which company Willy works for, but I will mention that he's as funny as one might expect from his blog. Look me up when we're not so busy sometime, Willy. I'll buy you a beer.

One thing I was reminded of at this convention and all of them I've attended is a question that I get quite a bit -- which Realtor should I hire? At the ARA, we can't go around making referrals, of course, as we're not supposed to show preference for one Realtor over another. However, there is a great way to find a good Realtor regardless of where you live -- ask your friends and families who have bought houses and get some recommendations.

Here's the thing -- most Realtors are good, honest people who work hard for a living and represent their clients well. Some of them are terrifyingly self-centered and are best avoided.

Of course, I've got that insider knowledge and I know how to spot those few bad apples. You can spot them, too, just by asking your friends and neighbors who did a good job for them. Reputation is everything in the real estate business. It's been that way for years and will never change.

So, it's good to be home and blogging again. I've been slacking on my marketing through Entrecard for obvious reasons, but I'll be back in the swing of things within the next few days.

Meanwhile...

While I was way, I was somehow presented with a slew of dandy awards. I will get around to passing those along to some great bloggers before long but I feel obliged to mentioned what those awards are and thank all of those people who sent them to me. So, here's what I won and who sent them.

1. Lyndon at Lyndonology sent me the BFF Gold Card Award. He also sent the "I 'heart' Your blog" award that I sent to him straight back to me. Not sure that one counts, though.

2. Lot 2 Learn at Did I Miss Something? sent me the Brilliante Weblog Premio 2008.

3. Steve at the Axis of Stevil sent me two awards -- the Kick Ass Blogger Award and the Brainy Blog Award.

So, thanks to all of those cats for sending those awards my way. I'll get around to thanking all of those great bloggers properly through a post in the next day or two and I'll pass those awards along, too.

Of Hogs, cats and weasels

I got an e-mail earlier today from Jon over at OTRCat.com about a post I wrote not long ago about my love of Old Time Radio (OTR).

Jon asked me to mention his site, through which you can get a ton of old time radio shows through either audio or MP3 compact discs. Because SEO stuff is important as far as searh engines are concerned, I should probably mention that OTRCat is short for Old Time Radio Catalog.

Well, The Hawg doesn't plug any junk sites and I'm here to tell you that Jon has a great one that should be visited by anyone looking to satisfy that OTR fix. He's got everything from the Aldrich Family through Sam Spade over there and the prices are ridiculously low (a CD stuffed with MP3 files will cost you about $5).

The selection of shows over there is impressive and you even get a comprehensive description of the history and significance of each show. Jon's even gone so far as to put together some "best of" collections so you can grab the greatest Dragnet episodes ever made, find a dynamite selection of great Christmas shows, etc. Truth be told, I spent quite some time combing through shows I've never heard of and reading up on some old favorites.

Not sure about a show? You can listen to samples of what's available at the site, too. Download an episode or two while you're at it. The site is well organized and is a joy to simply browse and read. Jon, clearly, loves old time radio and has invested a lot of time and effort in making a top notch site.

Jon mentioned he put this project together in an attempt to preserve old time radio shows. I honestly believe that's his primary motivation as there's no way he's getting rich by selling such quality stuff for about $5 a disc. As I've mentioned before, I respect anyone who goes out of his way to preserve OTR as the Golden Age of Radio represents a fantastic period in American history that we are rapidly forgetting.

For those not familiar with old time radio, that's the medium where great shows like Dragnet and Gunsmoke started. That medium made stars of Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen and a host of other people. Even greats like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope were stars on radio and you can find some of their material over at OTRCat.com.

Get over there, OK? And thanks, Jon, for telling me about your great site!

Jon, by the way, has inspired me to do something I've thought about for some time -- creating a blog roll and list of sites I like. Look for that soon.

Calm down, Razorbacks fans

I've heard a lot of grumbling throughout the Natural State over the past couple of days. Why? Arkansas barely scraped by another cream puff team on Saturday by beating Louisiana-Monroe by one rotten point.

Yes, Arkansas has spent the past two weeks squeaking by teams we're used to watching the Hogs whip the socks off on a regular basis. The complaints, of course, have to do with the notion that Arkansas isn't whipping those teams badly enough -- there's a team the Hogs will get killed by the Texas Longhorns next week and will get crushed during the SEC regular season.

Anyone who expected the Razorbacks to have a stellar season is living in a fool's paradise. This is Bobby Petrino's first year as the coach and he inherited a mess from the Houston Nutt years. This season will probably be a long one, but anyone who watched the Houston Nutt saga unfold last year should know that Petrino has his work cut out for him. The man's got a young team, after all, and they've got a lot to learn.

Meanwhile, thank God Houston Nutt is out of this state. It seems Ole Miss dropped a game against Wake Forest yesterday.

It appeared, early on, that Ole Miss was going to win that one, but the famed Nutt factor struck and Wake Forest was able to capitalize on some bonehead mistakes. What's this? A Nutt team blowing a game because of some sloppy, undisciplined play? Who would have guessed that?

I feel sorry for Ole Miss fans. They'll learn before long why we got to the point where we absolutely hated Nutt here in Arkansas. At least it's better to have him frustrating fans in Mississippi rather than breaking hearts in Arkansas, I suppose. Still, it's incredible that Nutt -- a complete moron -- ever managed to wind up coaching a team in the SEC is beyond me.

Rumor has it the Benton Panthers were looking for a new coach not long ago and Nutt's name came up. Any discussion of hiring him was quickly killed, however -- we take our high school football seriously down here and look for coaches that are more qualified than Nutt. Heh, heh.

Super Weasel Lawyer Team update

Tim Swift sent me the rough draft of the soon to be famous Super Weasel Lawyer Team comic strip. It's awesome, folks. Tim's sitting in Nashville working on the final draft of the first strip as we speak and I'm very excited about this little project.

Tim and I have decided to create a whole new blog for the strip and I'll provide the details as soon as I have them. I hope everyone enjoys the strip and, as I've said, the project becomes the longest-running lawyer joke in history.

Hopefully, you folks will enjoy watching a couple of Southern boys tear into the legal system. Being a recovering lawyer, I'll enjoy it at least. Stay tuned!

A reminder

I doubt I'll be able to update my blog until Thursday, Sept. 11 (there's a creepy date, huh?) as I'll be dealing with the Arkansas Realtors Association convention from Monday through Wednesday. I'll be going through a bunch of 14 and 15-hour days and will probably be so irate that nothing I'd post would be worth reading anyway.

The Super Weasel Lawyer Team and other things

I've collected a lot of stuff to blog about over the past week, so I thought I'd put them in one post.

Yes, there's a lot of business to tend to, so I'll get right to it.

First of all, I'm very excited to announce that I'll soon release a new Web comic into the wild -- The Super Weasel Lawyer Team. Some of you may recall that I sent out a request for help about a week ago. One intrepid soul, Tim Swift, answered the call.

I've put the scripts together for the first couple of strips so far and Tim has finished some preliminary drafts of the characters. Folks, I'm excited about this one -- Tim has some great ideas and I'm sure y'all will love the artwork.

Whether the stories are any good is another matter, entirely. I'm a recovering lawyer, see, so I'll draw on my experiences as a practicing attorney and law student to essentially make fun of lawyers, the legal profession, law students, law professors, judges, criminals and other folks.

In this era of political correctness, there are still some groups we can make fun of without fear of ramifications. For example, we can take swipes at Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, lawyers and other groups that are largely harmful to society. If I'm really lucky, I'll get some hate mail from a lawyer or two and make fun of that, too.

I was very tempted to post some of Tim's preliminary sketches, but I decided against it. So, everyone will just have to wait and be surprised.

When will the first installment of The Super Weasel Lawyer Team be released? I'm not real sure, but it should be fairly soon. We've got some work to do and have to decide whether to release it on this blog, build a new one, do both or whatever. So, stay tuned and get for regular updates on what I hope becomes the longest lawyer joke on record.

Look what Theresa Komor went and did!

Theresa, a good ol' Arkie girl and one of my favorite bloggers, has done some work in journalism and had a story published on Saturday morning in The Daily Citizen in Searcy, Ark. I'm more than a bit envious as I, too, used to be a reporter and I loved every minute of it. I've transitioned to the public relations field over the years and that job does have it's rewards, but there's nothing like the fun of meeting deadlines and doing something different every day.

Yes, I miss those days like hell, but I'm thrilled to see that Theresa gets to enjoy the great profession of journalism. I hope to see some more articles from Theresa and I wish her well in her decision to freelance some articles for The Daily Citizen and (I hope!) some more newspapers around Arkansas.

She's a very good writer, so make sure to click the link above and read her latest newspaper article and certainly check out her blogs -- A Bumpy Path and Eyebald.

The Crotchety Old Man is a phenomenon

If you haven't visited Crotchety Old Man Yells at Cars yet, you really need to head over there. Crotchety has gotten a lot of attention lately because of both his sharp wit and his weekly photo caption contest. If you haven't participated in that contest you really need to do that.

Why? You get some damned strange photos and prizes for the winners (yours truly won some Entrecard credits through that contest just a couple of days ago).

If you stop in there once, you'll keep coming back on a regular basis. Trust me on this.

The Hawg for President?

Go ahead and check out this video for the full story. Yes, as president I promise to be for stuff that's cool and solidly against stuff that's not.

Additionally, I'll make sure to cash in on my four years in office and reestablish something that's been sadly lacking from our nation for the past 20 years -- red baiting. Yes, turn in a commie and get a reward from a grateful nation!

An absent The Hawg?

Sadly, I will be busy from Monday through about Wednesday. So I won't be messing with my blog and hitting Entrecard as much as I'd like.

What will I be doing? Well, I'm the director of media relations for the Arkansas Realtors Association and we've got our convention from Monday through Wednesday in Little Rock.

So it'll be a bunch of 15-hour days through Wednesday and, hopefully, some time to sleep.

I'll be back in fine form come Thursday, but duty calls, you know?