Warning: Doing the Labor Day Wango Tango with Don Blankenship may be fatal.

Thanks for this informative diary (4.00 / 1)

I don't think this will appear in newspapers in southern West Virginia such as the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that finds nothing wrong with coal in today's editorial. You can read it here.

Lawmakers elected to serve the coalfields of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia must be willing to stand up for coal, for coal miners and for the coal industry.

They must also be willing to acknowledge and take into consideration the barrage of utility rate increases folks in this region are facing.

Too many families are already pushed to the breaking point with their household bills, and winter is just around the corner. They can’t afford another increase.

It would appear that coal — and the coal producing counties of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia — are under attack. We must be willing to fight back.

Evidently the editorial staff of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph expects us all to support coal at any cost.  I don't think we will see any editorials about slurry impoundments any time soon. There are far more dangers to the people that inhabit the coalfields of West Viriginia than Cap and Trade and a minimal increase in electricity bills.  We can count on the folks at Appalchian Power to insure that those bills will go up regardless of what happens with Cap and Trade. The coal producing counties of southern West Viriginia are under attack by the likes of Don Blankenship and Massey Energy.

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by: wvblueguy @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 01:07:06 AM UTC

The irony is that pro-coal media could easily rake in more advert bucks by running my warning (4.00 / 2)

From a historical aspect, it wasn't until the public started realizing that American media was slanting the news in favor of elite and powerful interests did circulation across the U.S. begin to shrink.

Common sense should now reveal it's no coincidence that small-town and rural media will continue shrinking. Unless their owners begin to recognize that only by playing both ends against the middle (a.k.a. "accurate reporting on a LOCAL scale") can they ever increase the power (a.k.a. "price") of their advertising.

In other words, continuing to sell out BOTH their newsprint AND editorial pages for free to BigCoal will get them absolutely NOTHING except DIMINISHING SUBSCRIPTIONS due to people exiting the state.

Editors and serious bean-counters for the Bluefield rag need to review how the Charleston Gazette and Charleston Daily Mail have both stayed alive practically forever despite the small, overlapping venue which they serve. And bean counters should also consider that I have personally met the staff of the Coal Valley News on several occasions (and followed their articles for a number of years as well).

My personal observation over time is that the staff of the Coal Valley News has always had far more freedom than either the Blowfield Teabagger or The MartinsburgGerbil either one. I've also found that the staff of that little Boone County, WV publication has surprisingly reported public safety issues when other much larger WV news media has not. For example, where in those "other" two birdcage liners have you ever seen any details about how many coal impoundment sites there are in the areas they serve? Much less any notification that there were ever any emergency warning plans filed with the WV Department of Environmental Protection?

And HEYj...Just why the heck should the staff of the Bluefield or Martinsburg mewspapers care about the survival of a bunch of stupid hillbillies anyway?

Speaking of which ...I'm now wondering if Sean Hannity's hairhelmetdresser has been told that he could end up sleeping forever underneath over 4 billion gallons of toxic sludge by Labor Tuesday, as well?  If he hails from Martinsborg or Blofeld, WV, then Hannity's #1 hair shelllacker could easily end up dead by Wodensday if he relies on his local fishwrap to keep him informed.

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by: One Citizen @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 07:24:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

i'll (0.00 / 1)

bet you 10 bucks that the rally goes off without any deaths from drowning in sludge...you know, like the last 37 years..

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by: stevewvu @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 12:54:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'll bet you twenty that if Sean Hannity knew about the danger he wouldn't have booked it. (4.00 / 1)

Neither he nor Ted Nugent had the 'nads to go to 'Nam.

But how 'Bout you stevewvu?  You won't be there, either, will you?

Imagine. You're cooking breakfast. Suddenly, the lights blow out. A low rumbling sound like an explosion echoes down the hollow. You run outside. Someone screams: "The dam has broke!"
You grab the children and run uphill -- any direction will do.
Then you hear it. A three story wall of water roars down your quiet valley, moving like a gigantic black snake, almost solid from its enormous pressure, taking out one house, twisting in its path, sparing another, plunging recklessly through the narrow valley.
For 5,000 residents of Buffalo Creek, WV, this was Saturday morning, Feb. 26, 1972. When it was over, one hundred and twenty five people died, over a thousand were injured, and 4,000 were left homeless.
"This is the most tragic thing I've ever seen in my life," sobbed one young man, sitting on a cot in the Man, WV high school gym a few days later. "I'm sorry that God let me live to see it." source

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by: One Citizen @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 14:06:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

By the way, that dam at Buffalo Creek only held back a measly (4.00 / 1)

132 million gallons of water and one million gallons of sludge.

There's one near Blanky's "reclaimed" coal quarry which holds back nearly 5 BILLION gallons of sludge from roaring down the valley. Perfect place to locate a startup business, eh?

To Whom It May Concern: I as a resident and business owner of Mingo Co. think if you build these ponds around residents you should buy us out and relocate us. Don't put people in danger. Coal is not worth our health or our lives. Put in mind first, I'm all for mining coal but do it safe and there won't be no problems.  After all as a owner of a pizza place, if I don't do it right the people would put me out of operation. So lets do it right and there wont be no problem. And I wouldn't blame them. Thank you P.S. So do it right. That's the only way!
Troy Columbia 7/7/2003 source

But if you trust that Massey is such a great corporate citizen that it's "done it right" when building those billion gallon sludge impoundments, and actually consider locating your business there, then you haven't been reading the newspaper.

Some 550 current and former residents of Rawl, Lick Creek, Sprigg and Merrimac are suing Massey and Rawl Sales for injecting 1.4 billion gallons of coal slurry into worked-out underground mines between 1978 and 1987. Slurry is the wastewater produced when coal is washed to help it burn more efficiently.  source

It's a little hard to cook even a pizza without water, eh?

BTW stevewvu, there's a good reason that the Friends of Coal haven't posted an evac plan for their Labor Day rally anywhere.

Coal waste impoundments are an accident just waiting to happen. I base this opinion from past experiences; Buffalo Creek, Logan County, WVa. And Wolf Creek Martin County, KY. Also I can see no possible way that the people in this valley could be evacuated in case the impoundment fails.
William Hall, Delbarton 7/3/2003  source

As soon as you find one, googleboy, you be sure to let us know about it, okay?

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by: One Citizen @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 14:36:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

try (0.00 / 0)

googleing "drowning deaths cause by coal sludge damn breaks last 37 years"...

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by: stevewvu @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 20:39:06 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

wait (4.00 / 1)

the arsenic, etc after that one in Tennessee will grant you your wish, selfish moran.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 21:19:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

But you won't be attending will you? (0.00 / 0)

Come on! If you're so confident that God'll spare you, then why doncha put your money where your mouth is, stevedubya?

Back in the day, conservatives weren't wimpy at all. For instance, not only would the former industrialist Elmer Fike have attended, he'd call the media to witness him swimming laps in his toxic soup just to drive home a point.

Todays NEOconservatives are a bunch of pansies by comparison. I'll bet you'll never catch that cheap wuss Don Blankenship swimming in HIS own industrial waste site!

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by: One Citizen @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 23:32:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thank You! (4.00 / 2)

Okay, it's not like I was even going to consider attending this throwndown with the lowdown, but I'm so blogging about Ted "Crusty Pants" Nugent.  That story is PRICELESS.

You are the ray of sunshine my day needed.  (Though, I have to admit, the thought of thousands perishing under sludge--even thousands drawn into Blank'n'shit's fold by the siren's song of Hank Jr. and The Spooge--makes me ill.)

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by: Buzzardbilly @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 20:25:08 PM UTC