Last Tuesday, 3/8, was touted as Gov. Kasich’s State of the State address, compete was huge speakers outside the statehouse to broadcast his speech to a huge expected crowd.
This day, however, belonged to the workers!

The walls of the statehouse literally shook, as thousands of workers, in hard hats & gear, marched to the capital grounds following a delegation of bagpipes and drums. They were there protesting the attempt by Gov. Kasich and Republicans to take bargaining rights aways from public workers in Ohio. Chants of “Kill the Bill,” & “We Are What Democracy Looks Like,” swept the crowd. Union flags and banners, many dating from the founding of the locals, spotted the entire march.

Diana Jackson, who formerly worked for the soon to be privatized Ohio Development Commission, said that she had “no idea how strong we are, together.”

“I just cannot believe that the people of Ohio will sit ultimately let this happen. We’ve worked too long and too hard to develop decent living standards for our people. This guy just wants to give it all away to billionaires!”

Had the massive 8.9 Richter-scale earthquake that has just savaged Japan hit off the California coast, it could have ripped apart at least four coastal reactors and sent a lethal cloud of radiation across the entire United States.

The two huge reactors each at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon are not designed to withstand such powerful shocks. All four are extremely close to major faults.

All four reactors are located relatively low to the coast. They are vulnerable to tsunamis like those now expected to hit as many as fifty countries.

San Onofre sits between San Diego and Los Angeles. A radioactive cloud spewing from one or both reactors there would do incalculable damage to either or both urban areas before carrying over the rest of southern and central California.

Senator Sherrod Brown apologized after giving a speech on the Senate floor March 4 where he stated the obvious, that Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Egyptian President Mubarak all crushed independent labor unions. No need to apologize, Senator Brown. The Republicans never do, as they endorse the policies of union busters. The only thing, Senator, you should be mildly chagrined about, is failing to point out Ohio Governor John Kasich and Wisconsin Governor Walker's similarities to Mussolini's fascism.

As Kasich takes money from the new corporate robber barons – the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch – let's quote Mussolini directly: "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Kasich has just won his battle to privatize economic development in Ohio. Again the more accurate word would be "corporatize."