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by One Citizen
Local (WV) media reported that "tens of thousands" showed up at the Friends of America Labor Day fabrication fest without even coming close to disputing the blatant corporate lie that over 70,000 had turned out. Worse still, the corporate-owned media seemed to go completely out of its way to misreport the reality of exactly why coal company CEO Donald Blankenship threw at least a million bucks at his little Mingo County dog-and-pony show.
Although the disinformation most often repeated by the media was that Donny's spree was all about "standing up for American jobs", virtually every Appalachian media outlet somehow failed to mention that it wasn't that long ago his extravaganza's main sponsor was trying to change safety regulations just so that CEO Blankenship could import Mexicans to work in his mines So could someone please clue me in as to why, in the run up to Labor Day, mainstream media failed to report that ol' Blanky would apparently do anything to avoid hiring experienced AMERICAN miners?
source: FluxView.com
While coal magnate Don Blankenship pledged his allegiance to his corporation on a bleak surface mine site, the Color Guard of VFW Post 5578 lead the flag salute at beautiful John Slack Memorial Park in Racine, WV. By the way, Don, Title 4 Section 8 paragraph d of the US Code clearly states that the flag should never be used as wearing apparel.
photo by One Citizen - Charleston, WV
While chickenhawk Tod "Crusty Pants" Nugent was paid big bucks to whine into a corporate-owned microphone about his precious 2nd amendment right to shoot raccoons on a nearly barren surface mine quarry in Mingo County, WV, just miles away UMWA volunteers rolled out a light artillery piece which had been left by the federal government for coal companies to use as a "bargaining tool" against AMERICAN miners who'd struggled for basic human rights in the Appalachian coalfields for years.
photo by One Citizen - Charleston, WV
photo by One Citizen - Charleston, WV
"The people who came here -- they did it because of what's in their heart and not what's in their pocket books," said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. "These people are committed to the United Mine Workers and the principles of organized labor."
photo by One Citizen - Charleston, WV
The real Labor Day celebration in Racine was truly a family event.
But at Blankenship's Friends of Massey charade he and other outside agitators lied profusely and repeatedly cussed through loudspeakers about how Cap and Trade regs would threaten jobs, when the truth is that no anti-pollution laws have ever, or will ever, cost more mining jobs or more lives than mountaintop removal. Plus, those Cap and Trade laws wouldn't even apply if coal was as "clean" as all of Donny's deep pocket "Friends" have been advertising! So just why are they spending billions trying to convince America that coal is "clean" instead of paying scientists to figure out ways to make it clean? And just why is Blankenship blowing all this cash on a lie-fest while hiring teams of corporate lawyers beat out folks whose lives he's ruined by polluting?
The fact is that anti-pollution regs which could stop mountaintop removal altogether would actually put more folks to work if only our political leaders were willing to enforce them.
photo by One Citizen - Charleston, WV
At WV's real Labor Day celebration the emphasis was on health care benefits. |
