Saturday, April 9th, Noon-3pm
at the Statehouse, Columbus
(see Plunderbund for more details)
* There are plenty of rumors out there about the Kasich administration. Apparently, Gov. Kasich has already privatized certain contracts and agencies. With Kasich's avoidance of transparency, there are some business transactions that Ohioans won't learn about for many years.
Think Progress has an interesting tidbit about Ohio's looming environmental disaster, thanks to Kasich:
OHIO: At the behest of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, an exemption was inserted into a 2005 energy bill — dubbed the “Haliburton loophole” — which stripped the EPA of its power to regulate a natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. This method, named fracking, entails drilling a L-shaped well deep into shale and pumping millions of gallons of water laced with industrial chemicals — chemicals which the energy companies are not legally bound to disclose. The poisonous fluid fractures the shale and releases natural gas deposits for collection. But the public health risk associated with fracking doesn’t seem to bother Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and state Republicans. The Ohio House introduced a bill early last month that would create a panel to open any state-owned land for oil and gas exploration to the highest bidder. Subsequently, in Kasich’s budget proposal, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would be given authority to lease 200,000 acres of state park land for oil and gas exploration. Faced with a litany of problems related to fracking — even including a house exploding in Ohio — Kasich has fully endorsed drilling in Ohio state parks, saying, “Ohio is not going to walk away from a potential industry.” State Rep. John Adams (R), the House bill’s sponsor, said drilling in state parks can help erase a projected $8 billion budget deficit, and “keep our parks and our lakes up to the standards that the citizens of Ohio want.”
We should all go out and take pictures of our state parks this weekend so we can show our grandchildren how beautiful our state parks were until Kasich came into power.
>>>> OMG! Ohio State's spring commencement will have John Boehner as the commencement speaker. What? This is awful. Who invited him-----the college Republicans? The Lantern has some interesting responses from readers.
* Republican Rep. Paul Ryan calls his plan to fix Medicare a "Roadmap to Prosperity" but it is a trip to disaster for the elderly. Everyone knows that Paul Ryan's plan is to eliminate Medicare and Medicaid. He can call it what ever he wants, but it is still a plan to end Medicare and Medicaid and overburden the elderly and poor.
Paul Ryan's plan actually increases the deficit and increases the amount of pay out that seniors will need to pay for medical care. The other cockamamie idea that Paul Ryan has is to reduce corporate tax rates even more. Is he out of his mind?