Alec MacGillis: Ohio Politics

Here's a thorough examination of the current state of politics in Ohio. As an important swing-state in the presidential election, many eyes will be focused here over the next 6 months of campaigning.

"Lodge 141 of the Fraternal Order of Police is housed, along with 446 jail cells, inside the Mahoning County Justice Center, a forbidding brick and steel hulk at the edge of the frayed downtown of Youngstown, Ohio. It’s a humble office, but its proprietors have embellished it with a number of rather pointed political decorations. There is a spoof of Shepard Fairey’s iconic Barack Obama poster, with the face of Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, in place of the president’s and the word “DOUCHE” written across the bottom instead of “HOPE.” There is a newspaper clip describing protests by police officers last year in Columbus, the state capital. And there is a quotation from Martin Luther King decrying “right-to-work” laws, which limit the power of unions."

You can read the entire piece here.

Fracking: Truthout's Fracking Expose, Part 2

Here's part 2 of Truthout.org's fracking expose examining the claims from the industry and even President Obama's administration that fracking does not have as detrimental consequences for the environment and health as being reported. However, any objective observer knows otherwise.

"The natural gas industry defends hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, as safe and efficient. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a pro-industry non-profit organization, claims fracking has been “a widely deployed as safe extraction technique,” dating back to 1949. What he doesn’t say is that until recently energy companies had used low-pressure methods to extract natural gas from fields closer to the surface than the current high-pressure technology that extracts more gas, but uses significantly more water, chemicals, and elements..." continue reading here.

I find this article particularly interesting because it delves into the change in the industry over the last few years to switch from low-pressure drilling to these high-pressure techniques that have shown to contaminate well water in towns, rivers and streams, to the point where people can light their tap water on fire, as well as a major contributor to recent seismic activity (earthquakes) in such states as Alabama, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The rhetorical question is: why did they need to switch to this new technique? Money, money, money...