West Virginia Blue
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Although there has been no small amount of consternation in the progressive blogosphere about the recent supreme court decision to open the floodgates for the purchase and sale of the law by big corporations, the lack of reporting by the mainstream media about the strain it puts on our democracy is proof that the media is anything but "liberal".
To see a perfect example of what a corporate-run state leader is all about one need go no further than West Virginia. The stranglehold that "king coal" has on our political process here is legendary. It's no secret that large corporations owned outside the state plow huge amounts into our state government to reap huge profit margins.
Witness West Virginia's top coalocrat willingly embarrasses himself when announcing his plan to honor coal operators the same as war veterans to lobbyist Chris Hamilton. Then watch him give Hamilton the ol' reacharound (politically speaking) as he makes a number of outrageous claims which are so contrary to the facts that they're ridiculous. Finally, after our Governor plays the patriotic card to praise the coal industry, cringe as he completely turns against the U.S. for making us "energy unsecure".
Right wing politician wishing to take advantage of the supreme court's decision to unleash the apocalypse of democracy will want to study Manchin's technique as he takes corporate pandering to a whole other level.
Local free-marketeers are struggling to ignore the fact that thousands of people have died and are dying due to coal operations across West Virginia. But their argument that leveling our mountains will attract businesses is extremely hard to accept since Forbes Magazine all but described West Virginia as a toxic wasteland.
All video and audio sources used in the making of the above video editorial are in the public domain and not covered by any copyright laws.
The original interview was produced by the State of West Virginia's Library Commission Video Services around October 2009 (ref. no. c 122.07).
Then there's always the ever-increasing warnings(now also known as "advice", notably for the first time ever) from WV's Department of Natural Resources about eating fish loaded with toxic substances.
Regarding the pollution of water by coal operations in WV, it is also curious to note that not too long ago, the WV Department of Environmental Protection ("WV DEP") finally, after much delay, reported to the WV legislature that it just didn't have enough "information" to conclude that coal slurry injection would at some point end up leaking into the aquifer and end up poisoning rural community water wells in and around the WV coal fields.
Unfortunately, besides letting the public know for the first time that the WV DEP somehow doesn't employ any engineers who understand even the most basic laws of physics (entropy), the WV DEP had to delay the obvious conclusion even longer by palming it off onto WVU's engineering department six months ago. Which, despite also being overdue, WVU's report still hasn't been aired before the public.
Anyway, if you're really curious, try calling the WV DEP and asking them to either read or send you the conclusions of that report. Or ANYTHING for that matter. According to WV DEP's communications director Kathy Cosco, there is what amounts to an information lockdown order issued by the Governor on all of WV's agencies. She informed my source that she was ordered by Governor Manchin's office that before ANY WV employees release ANY field reports, they were required to pass through the standard FOIA request process.
Yet mysteriously that same day the Chief Communications Officer at the WV Department of Natural Resources informed my source that each agency establishes its own protocol.
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