WSPD show recap - Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012

Here are the links to the topics we discussed during my guest hosting Thursday on 1370 WSPD:

* Mike Rowe, from Dirty Jobs, and his letter to Mitt Romney about skilled trades and how our nation seems to no longer value hard work.

Link to story

* State Rep. Barbara Sears called in to add to the topic and inform the audience about the state's 21st Century Manufacturing Task Force, which met at Owens-Illinois earlier in the day. This was part of a series of meetings around the state and she said that she's hearing lots of comments about individuals not being ready for today's manufacturing and skilled labor jobs.

She also encouraged people to share their thoughts with her by contacting her office.

Link to task force information

* After being found guilty of violating the Hatch Act which "prohibits federal employees from using their official authority or influence to affect the outcome of an election," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is again hitting the campaign trail for President Barack Obama.

Link to story

* Pres. Obama, after being criticized for missing so many of his intelligence briefings leading up to the terrorist attack on our Libyan embassy, is now attending nearly 100% of them - and sometimes V.P. Biden as well! Imagine that.

Link to story

* University of Chicago professor claims American "overvalues" free speech.

Link to story

* There will be no bacon shortage after all - and there was great rejoicing (but I'm still stockpiling bacon anyway!).

Link to story

* Andrew Marcus, writer and director for the soon-to-be release film Hating Breitbart, was my guest to talk about the movie and why the examination of how the media came to hate the late Andrew Breitbart is so critical to understand, especially now.

Podcast is available here

Friday show:

It's fishing line Friday so be sure to call-in. We will have two guests:

* 3:30 p.m. Matt Mayer from Opportunity Ohio, a free-market think tank, will talk about "Can Romney win Ohio?"

* 4:30 p.m. Bill Weisenberg from the Ohio Bar Association on the organization's opposition to Issue 2, the redistricting proposal.

WSPD show recap - Sept. 26, 2012

Here are the links to the subjects we discussed Wednesday on 1370 WSPD:

* Bacon shortage?!? I'm stockpiling.

link to story

* Lucas County jobless rate lowest since '08 is headline in the local paper...but the actual numbers show something different:

Link to Ohio statistics website

Link to Ohio Labor Force Estimates

Employment numbers - not the unemployment rate - is the statistic we should watch.

205,900 was the Lucas County employment in May 2008.
192,900 was the Lucas County employment in Aug 2012.

Even though unemployment rate is low, there were 13,000 more people working in Lucas County back in 2008.

131,200 was the Toledo employment rate in May 2008.
119,800 was the Toledo employment rate in Aug 2012.

Even though there was only a difference of 200 in the number unemployed in Toledo when you compare May 2008 to August 2012, there are 11,400 people NOT working in August than were working in May.

The picture might be slightly better, but the headline is based on distorted numbers and the real truth of the job situation is revealed when you look at the number employed.

* Mayor Mike Bell doesn't like the presidential candidates bashing China in Toledo when he's holding an economic forum for dozens of Chinese investors on the same day.

Link to story

Note Councilman Joe McNamara's comment at the end of the story and then check out page 7 of this report from Ohio which shows that employment, compared to last year, in the categories of Motor Vehicles and Motor Vehicle Parts is down 1,400 and 1,000 jobs, respectively.

* With President Barack Obama touting his tariffs on Chinese tires, it's important t know it didn't really do anything to help the American tire market. The article has the details

Link to story

* Fritz Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies revealed the inside story about the latest New York Times/CBS/Quinnipiac poll which shows Obama leading Romney by 10 points.

Podcast of interview is available here.

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac Polls, who said that "it is probably unlikely" that Democrats will turn out to the polls in the margins at which they are reflected in the polls. Here is the link to the blog post.

* Jason Hart of Media Trackers Ohio talking about his investigations into the personal biases behind the so-call objective fact-checking that PolitiFact supposedly does.

Podcast is available here.

Additionally, I referenced a series being done by Ohio Watchdog that checks the fact-checkers at PolitiFact and finds much of it is fiction.

Here is the lastest post in the series, "OH: PolitiFact claim in Brown ad refuted by PolitiFact" with the earlier entries linked at the bottom of the story.

Thursday Show:

We'll talk about the letter Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs, sent to Mitt Romney and what it means in terms of future jobs. Also, Andrew Marcus, the writer and director of the soon-to-be released movie, "Hating Breitbart."