Labor Day, Van Jones and Coal Miners

Which side are you on? (0.00 / 0)

"There are only two sides to this issue. On the right is Don standing at Logan, wrapped in the pretense of American freedom, with his bought judges, DEP agents and many misled souls. Don stands with promises of jobs and security. In one hand, is a new mining permit, and in the other is dynamite. In his heart and mind is power to put down the UMWA, the environmentalist, and to mine coal his way: nonunion, unregulated, any way he wants!"

Jeff's great post fit right in with what I was thinking as I listened to Don Blankenship on the live feed.  

Oh workers can you stand it?
Oh tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?

Don't scab for the bosses,
Don't listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize.

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by: JAWVMM @ Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 19:25:05 PM UTC

Crowd for Don... (0.00 / 0)

I just tuned in and the crowd they are showing is tiny... maybe 2,000 people or so. What happened? Is there more than one stage? Was the crowd bigger earlier?

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by: Clem Guttata @ Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 20:53:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Hard to tell (0.00 / 0)

They weren't turning the camera on the crowd much, which made me wonder.  The one time they did, it maybe looked bigger than it does now, but the angle was different. It was not a very loud crowd; before Blankenship came on, a guy tried to get some cheers going, and they were not wildly enthusiastic. There are ponchos, so maybe rain has thinned the crowd.

This crowd is a generation younger than the crowd at the Marion Co. AFL-CIO picnic yesterday, which had a good bit of UMWA, CWA, and AFT attendance.  The gov and various union and elected officials all made fairly strong pro-health reform and even pro-Obama speeches;  Mollohan didn't show - he's "in Washington already, working for us."

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by: JAWVMM @ Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 21:27:21 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

This costs Don a cool million? (4.00 / 1)

And they brought in extra talent at the last minute?

Hope he gets as good a return on this investment as all those buck spent "electing more Republicans" to the state legislature.

Seattle Times said morning crowd was smaller than the "estimate".

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 21:39:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Don-a-polutza a bust? (0.00 / 0)

It sounds like Don't best efforts to steer the debate on GW/CC isn't doing so well, what with the rain and all and all those nasty enviro groups protesting and signing on against one of his sponsors, well it's only money to Don and his gang.  Don thinks, let's just close down another mine and we'll save that money and more.  Why not embrace these enviros and start a solar farm on one of the sites, naaaw, that would be too easy.

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by: JBdem4usa @ Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 23:39:41 PM UTC

. (4.00 / 2)

The crowd estimates by Massey were lower than the 100,000 they initially claimed. They eventually gave a number of 75,000. They could have pulled that out of their ass for all we know.

It was a really bizarre mash-up of messages. Blankenship was railing against 'corporate america" in his invite video (Look in a mirror, Don).

Nugent was, as usual, obsessed with guns - then went off on a tangent about jobs lost to China. He seemed to forget that it was his beloved Republican Party that led the way on our trade debacle (with an assist from conservative Dems-Thanks, Bill!).

Hannity gave a generic stump speech with marginal local content - still defending Dubya as a misunderstood genius. According to the Daily Mail, the crowd was more interested in getting to the main stage for Hank than sticking around to hear him talk.

They got a sizable turnout. But at $10+ a head was it worth it for Don?

I doubt it. They were preaching to the choir. I doubt few minds were changed and it hardly made a blip on the national radar. And the Verizon sure as hell got a headache out of being involved.

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by: heath_harrison @ Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 06:12:27 AM UTC

Blankenship's horrible return (4.00 / 2)

Yet again, Blankenship got a truly horrible return on this investment.

He paid $10 per mailing list name.
He paid $40 per petition name.
His only national sponsor paid $1000 for a major headache.

The coalition with concerns about the rally got at least 80,000 petition signatures.

He paid a whole lot of money to get his new favorite quotes into a few papers.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 07:15:48 AM UTC

my initial response to Don Blankenship's speech... (4.00 / 2)

We don't want corporations run by CEOs who tell us to ignore science just to increase already bloated company profits.

In Washington, they spend too much time giving hand outs to coal companies. Well, we're smart enough to know its the coal community residents who just need a hand up.

Why should we trust a CEO who can't run a company lawfully to tell the truth?

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by: Clem Guttata @ Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 07:24:04 AM UTC