Mojo Mom's blog

Do you know about hydrofracking, the method of extracting methane gas from the ground by creating micro-earthquakes to fracture rock and release the gas?

Horizontal drilling and fracking are currently illegal in North Carolina but there is political pressure to change laws to allow it.

Monday night, October 10th, the NC Department of Natural Resources is convening a public input meeting on the shale gas study, Oct. 10 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in Sanford at the McSwain Extension Education & Agriculture Center. If the issue of fracking is already on your radar, I encourage you to attend. I will be there and will report on it afterward.

Thanks to the statewide summit on fracking put on last month by Clean Water for North Carolina, I have started to learn a lot about what the impacts of fracking could mean to out state. It's not a pretty picture.

I wrote up my notes from that meeting, and additional research, in two blog posts:

What you need to know about Fracking in 400 words or less (and four photos)

Why you need to know about Fracking — it may be coming to a field or neighborhood near you. This much longer post includes more links to additional reporting.

The Family is one of the most frightening political organizations I have heard of. It grew out of 1930's roots of union-busting and a desire to foster "Totalitarianism for Christ" after the predicted fall of Democracy.

Today the group is on the forefront of the conservative side of "the culture wars"--anti-gay rights, anti-reproductive rights. It operates on a basis of leaders chosen by God doing whatever they think is best, on a national and global level. This includes support to dictators (as long as they are so-called "key men" chosen by God). The Family is currently connected "to proposed anti-gay legislation in Uganda that could sentence, quote, repeat offenders to the death penalty."

If you've heard about The Family, you've probably heard that recently scandalized Republicans like Mark Sanford and John Ensign are involved. Now the names like Congressmen Bart Stupak and Joe Pitts have fresh recognition since they authored the strong anti-abortion amendment to the House's health care reform bill.

It was also distressing news to me Democrats including North Carolina's own Congressmen Heath Shuler and Mike McIntryre are involved with The Family. This week's new Fresh Air with Terry Gross interview with investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet is a must-listen refresher course shining light on this secretive organization.

Hey North Carolina, it's the moment we've all been waiting for--Andy and Opie for Obama--really!

If this can't turn NC Blue I don't know what will.

Today's N&O reports that "filling in the straight-party ticket circle won't register a vote for president, judicial races and nonpartisan contests such as school board." Is this true? It doesn't seem to make any sense for the Presidential contest.

Sarah Palin sure knows how to deliver a speech, but are we willing to look at the content embedded in her rousing delivery?

Palin may be no Dick Cheney in that she's less likely to be a behind-the-scenes puppetmaster than he has been for the past eight years, but Palin does pull McCain toward the dark side in several ways.

Now that John Edwards has confessed his affair, the blogosphere has stopped talking about why the mainstream media wasn't covering the allegations, and started talking about whether and how it matters.

It matters to me, and here's why. [Cross-posted at my Mojo Mom blog]

Frontpaged by James.

On the day that Barack Obama gave his speech about racial challenges and reconciliation, 10,000 people gathered for Eve Carson's memorial service in the Dean Dome. Outside, a handful of picketers traveled from Kansas to spew messages of hate. Can we as a nation overcome division and hatred?

[Cross-posted from my Mojo Mom blog]

I am a Democrat, a big John Edwards fan, but I see good things in Obama and Clinton as well. I have been very frustrated by the mainstream media forcing storylines on an election that is just starting to unfold. The best analysis I have seen of the insistence on "horse race" coverage is "Why Campaign Coverage Sucks" by Jay Rosen, originally reported on TomDispatch.com, and reposted to Salon.com.

On CNN.com this morning, the story "Germany: Massive Terror Attacks Foiled" briefly held the main headline spot. Much to my dismay, this attention-getting spot was quickly taken over by "'She-Male' leads prisoners in dance."