Submitted by danps on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 7:50am
Last summer I wrote about the Sierra Club's Water Sentinels program for testing water. Our town's anti-fracking activists have been using it at their homes for a while now, but around the time of my post we also began free monthly water testing for the community. We are careful to emphasize several caveats, though. The most important is that the testing is not comprehensive or EPA certified; it is not meant to be a substitute for a certified test. It measures a handful of items and is only meant to give a basic idea of water quality. Similarly, the testing would almost certainly not be admissible in a court of law; anyone with an eye on future court cases should go with an EPA certified lab. Read below the fold...
Submitted by danps on Thu, 12/06/2012 - 10:13pm
One of the under appreciated hazards of fracking is its effect on democracy. Fracking is a big, intrusive process - one that sucks up lots of water, creates enormous amounts of traffic and an ungodly amount of noise, etc. Setting aside the environmental dangers and health effects (!), the heavy industrialization involved in fracking guarantees that communities will be abundantly aware of it. Read below the fold...
Submitted by danps on Sat, 10/27/2012 - 8:18am
Ohioans have experienced a number of different frustrations in trying to get their government to be responsive to their concerns about fracking. The biggest one may be the state's usurping of home rule of home rule on the issue. Ohio's Constitution had home rule - basically, the right of cities and towns to self-government - enshrined in it back in 1912, but in 2004 the state passed a law stripping localities of the right to legislate on the issue.
On the face of it, that wouldn't seem to be something that would pass judicial scrutiny. It would seem to be problematic to go to all the trouble of amending the Constitution to spell something out, then have the statehouse come back later on and say "yeah, not for that."
On the other hand, it's all just words on a page without anyone to respect it, right? The US Constitution says Congress shall pass no law regarding the establishment of a religion, but the only thing preventing Congress from doing just that is its sense of forbearance and its respect for tradition. It isn't as though representatives would be struck dead by bolts of lightning from Avenging Lady Justice if they did so. Read below the fold...
Submitted by danps on Sat, 09/22/2012 - 7:11am
The trustee meeting I attended Tuesday actually began over hundred years ago. In 1910 Ohio voters approved the calling of a constitutional convention, and in 1912 a whole series of amendments were adopted. The Ohio History Central link goes to a short but very good summary, and it's definitely worth taking a minute to read it. Read below the fold...
Submitted by danps on Thu, 09/06/2012 - 7:09pm
The fracking industry has dramatically increased its activity in Portage county recently. In some cases the activity is unmistakably tangible (more on that next week), but the real action at the moment seems to be preparing the ground for the deluge. Read below the fold...
Submitted by libbyliberal on Wed, 08/29/2012 - 1:58pm
Craig Unger has written a new book "Boss Rove: Inside Karl Rove’s Secret Kingdom of Power" about the mastermind of George Bush’s two successful but crooked runs at the US Presidency.
Rove, as Unger explains, is at the center of two of the biggest scandals of the Bush administration. The Valerie Plame Wilson affair and the U.S. attorneys’ scandal. Rove was ALMOST indicted for the Plame affair but as we all know, the 13th commandment is not to get caught, and the 14th commandment is if you get caught not to get prosecuted. (Especially easy if you have gamed the judicial system with cronies who selectively prosecute only members of the other Party!) Read below the fold...
Submitted by twig on Fri, 03/23/2012 - 7:30am
Miss B.B.
Today's Petidote is from Correntian ohio, who answered our pleas for more pet pictures with the lovely Miss B.B., part of an extended feral cat family. Thank you, ohio -- for taking care of them and for sharing them with us. Hat tip coming at ya!! And now for the tale (tail?) of Miss B.B. and company:
Miss B.B. is a feral cat who has decided I don’t suck.
Read below the fold...
Submitted by Michael Kwiatkowski on Sat, 11/12/2011 - 9:12pm
Submitted by danps on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 7:22pm
Submitted by Michael Kwiatkowski on Wed, 11/09/2011 - 9:14am
Ohio voters last night voted overwhelmingly against both Republican and Democrat corporate-favoring policies in a referendum. Senate Bill 5, passed by the Republican-dominated legislature and signed into law by Republican governor John Kasich, was shot down by sixty-one percent, too large a margin for the GOP to rig the vote count in its favor. Read below the fold...
Submitted by danps on Tue, 11/08/2011 - 9:49pm
Submitted by danps on Sat, 10/22/2011 - 6:25am
The effort to get a citizen veto of John Kasich's union-busting attack on the middle class is still a very big deal in Ohio, even as the Occupy movement picks up steam here (and everywhere!) If it has gone somewhat off your radar here's an update. First, the latest polling shows overwhelming support for overturning the law. Read below the fold...
Submitted by DCblogger on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 5:14pm
Loophole
At the same time Columbus politicians were asking hardworking Ohioans to make 'shared sacrifices,' they were literally giving out huge pay raises and bonuses to their staff members. Their hypocrisy is appalling. Once again these politicians are playing by one set of rules, while expecting the rest of us to play by another.
Read below the fold...
Submitted by danps on Wed, 08/24/2011 - 8:26pm
Since the Wisconsin recalls there has been quite a bit of commentary about how folks want a break from politics, and maybe a campaign to oust Scott Walker early next year should be postponed. Some of it is just garden variety concern trolling by conservatives who understand just how devastating the recall losses were and are looking for a nice, nonpartisan message to stanch the bleeding. Read below the fold...
Submitted by danps on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 8:35pm
Last week the Ohio politics blog Plunderbund had a series of posts about the sudden and dramatic sense of desperation that had seized the right. The panic began with an editorial from the conservative Columbus Dispatch. It was so completely at odds with reality that even a casual follower of state politics might have taken it for parody. Read below the fold...
