West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
* There's a website for the March on Blair Mountain. Videos, pictures, and audio all available of this inspiring action.
* While most of the WV press hones its skills in the self-appointed craft of stenography, there is still one bright shining light pointing out there's multiple sides to every story. This introduction is a strong hint who:
The Gazette's late publisher, Ned Chilton, was know for his criticism of what he called West Virginia's "insipid press," local newspapers that didn't question the actions of local politicians and powerful institutions.
Here's some suggestions for Mike Ruben and friends... next time you write about WV energy, ask your sources what happens to coal-based energy production when cheap Appalachian coal runs out in 15-20 years? Ask them how much money is saved in reduced healthcare costs each time a coal-fired electrical plant closes. Ask them, when US demand for renewable energy is going up and demand for coal-based energy is going down, why should WV consumers have to pay more for coal-based energy?
* West Virginia gets a new district office for MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration). Here's hoping this means even safer mines, too.
This is a story about a hard-working man in our community, who through no fault of his own, has a life-threatening condition. That he can't afford to have fixed. STOP THE MADNESS!!!!!!!!
Army Sgt. 1st Class Otie J. McVey, 53, of Oak Hill.
Evacuated from Iraq Sept. 23, 2004, for a non-combat related illness and died in Beaver, W.Va. Nov. 7, 2004.
So I turn on the Great Orange Satan during a tea break this AM, and mcjoan greets my face with this slap:
ThinkProgress's Lee Fang has a frightening story on the stealthy move by the Koch political machine into universities around the country. It's a wide reach: the economics department at Florida State University, George Mason University (including the Mercatus Center, more on that in a bit), West Virginia University, Brown University, Troy University, Utah State University, and Beloit College. As the St. Petersburg Times reported, a similar arrangement has been made with WVU as with FSU in accepting at least $480,000 from Koch.
Now haven't we seen the ill effects of letting the drug industry pay for it's own studies quite enough? First it was doctors on the dole, now it's the voodoo economics departments? And linking back to our report here, ThinkProgress names West Virginia Watchdog as another front for the color shifting invertebrate.
- West Virginia University: As ThinkProgressreported last year, Koch funds an array of academic programs at West Virginia University, a public university. One Koch-funded academic at WVU, economics professor Russell Sobel, has written a book blasting regulations of all types. He even argues that less mine safety regulations will make coal miners more safe.
Russell S. Sobel. I wonder where I heard that name before...
I guess I need another cuppa to sort this out in my brain.
Earl Ray Tomblin has pushed tax payer subsidies to his family business, dog racing and gambling, for years. His affiliation with felons like Joe Ferral is well known in political circles but the generally public has little knowledge of it.
Kudos to Perdue for finally bringing this glaringly corrupt issue to the forefront. How the mainstream media has not made more of an issue about this just shows that money controls a lot in small market West Virginia. I may just vote for Perdue for having the guts to brint attention to this issue before the GOP pounces on it in the general.
I think Tomblin, the favorite in the Democratic Primary according to the polls, is in store for major attacks from a nationally bankrolled GOP candidate. As Democrats, how can we defend someone who in our heart of hearts we know is wrong. This one cannot.
In a flier sent out to voters state-wide, WOMEN VOTE!, a Political Action Committee supporting current West Virginia Secretary of State and Gubernatorial Primary Candidate Natalie Tennant teed off on the other four candidates, in what easily is the most negative piece of campaign material thus far in this election.
The flier, entitled "West Virginia needs a real plan to create jobs, not more big talk", goes on to say that while Ms. Tennant is Accountable to West Virginians, the "Other Candidates' Big Talk Hides Their Real Records". Then, it goes on to list the following allegations against the candidates:
Jeff Kessler
Changed legislation to protect a wealthy campaign donor and gutted Governor Machin's [sic] ethics bill that tried to limit lobbyist activity. He made it so corporations could contribute unlimited amounts to certain political funds.
Earl Ray Tomblin
Voted to raise his own pay multiple times, including a $5000 pay raise when the economy was uncertain. He's been accused of steering taxpayer money to his family business and killed a bill that would have helped his family's competitors.
John Perdue
Perdue has been accused of using his office to benefit himself and abusing taxpayer dollars. Governor Manchin even ordered an investigation when an audit uncovered misuse of state vehicles and revealed that Perdue failed to pay taxes on the taxpayer-funded car he drives as Treasurer.
Rick Thompson
Tripled his taxpayer-funded salary as Speaker of the House despite a tough economy and has taken more than $165,000 in taxpayer money for travel. He supported pay raises that the Charleston Daily Mail said the state "cannot afford," and were "an in-your-face insult".
While there is some shades of truth to the allegations made against several of the candidates, the allegations made against Kessler, which are by far the most serious sounding allegations contained in the document, are either outright lies or at the very least, gross misrepresentations of the truth. For example, the Kessler actually did not "gut" an ethics reform bill in 2009; rather, he made the changes he thought gave it a chance to get through his committee, and it still did not get through. Kessler's support for ethics reform was revealed this year when, in his first year as acting Senate President, he got a significant ethics reform bill passed. And in 2005, Kessler spearheaded the passage of legislation that heavily regulated 527 groups in WV (basically the predecessor to PACS). At no time did he support legislation to enable corporations to give unlimited money to political funds. (The horrible Supreme Court Decision in Citizens United did this, perhaps that is the twisted claim being made here -- that by enacting regulation of 527 groups, Kessler knew that eventually the Supreme Court would permit unlimited donations?)
Ostensibly, the egregious attacks against Kessler by the Tennant backing PAC are to attack the other percieved "progressive" candidate. However, while Secretary Tennant can claim that this PAC acted unilaterally, it certainly seems pretty unsavory for Secretary Tennant, who has a motto of getting rid of "politics as usual", to have a PAC sending out such negative, and at least in the case of Kessler, false, literature against her opponents.
Now that this has been done, the appropriate thing to do is for Ms. Tennant to repudiate the attacks which are false or grossly taken out of context by this PAC on Kessler (and her other opponents as well) as inappropriate and uncalled for. But somehow, I don't see that happening.
Instead of attempting to close Planned Parenthood, if West Virginia for Life was really for West Virginia or for LIFE, it would be pushing to increase spending on maternal and child health care servcies.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The best place in the world to be a mom is Norway, where maternal and child mortality rates are low, women's life expectancy and years in school are high, and the average maternity leave is about one year, a new study measuring the well-being of mothers and babies shows.
Australia and Iceland join Norway at the top of Save the Children's 12th annual Mothers Index, released Tuesday. Afghanistan comes in last, and the United States places 31st.
snip
It said the U.S. and other industrialized nations could do more to improve education and health care for their own disadvantaged mothers and children.
The survey noted that the United States came in at 31 mainly because its maternal mortality rate of 1 in 2,100 is among the highest of any industrialized nation.
Granted, we're about the only industrialized nation without that evil known as "socialized medicine" so there is that. So we're saved from that even if it means people die as a consequence.
An Alum Creek man has been arrested after neighbors allegedly found him fondling himself over the dead body of a stolen pygmy goat while wearing women's underwear.
Mark Lucas Thompson, 19, of Greenview Road was taken into custody early Monday morning at his home where Kanawha Sheriff's deputies were investigating the bloody scene. Thompson told deputies he had been high on "bath salts"-synthetic drugs-for the last three days, said Cpl. Sean Snuffer, a detective with the sheriff's office.
snip
Thompson ran out of the house into the wooded hillside after Pollis asked about the dead goat in the bedroom. Witnesses said he ran off wearing only a muscle shirt and thong underwear.
Cpl. M.B. Cummings and Sgt. R.P. Boone went to the Greenview Road home to help Shackelford with the investigation. The three officers went into Thompson's home and found blood on the floor. In a bedroom they found women's panties and tampons lying on the bed and fresh blood on the floor.
In case you ever wonder why those of us in the Eastern Panhandle lock up our goats when people from Kanawha visit, now you know.
Anytime coal's cost to America is discussed, the coal industry reflexively talks about what an economic lifeline it is for the states in which it operates. Headwaters Economics, a Bozeman-based think tank focusing on natural resource issues, has a solid new study that's getting national attention for undercutting those claims. For instance, the Headwaters study finds that "[f]ossil fuel production has not insulated energy-producing states from fiscal crisis," that "[f]ossil fuel extraction has a limited influence at the state level on economic indicators such as GDP by state, personal income, and employment," and that "[t]he volatility of fossil fuel markets poses obstacles to the stability and long-term security of economic growth in energy-producing regions."
This is a problem for the coal industry, which spends heavily to construct a fantasy world in which it's a "clean" industry to which we should feel grateful, a vital supplier of our power, and an economic lifeline to host communities.
But in the real world, coal's case is even weaker than the Headwaters study shows. The work of Professor Michael Hendryx of West Virginia University goes even further. His work has looked at the costs of coal mining to the Appalachian communities that host it.
In light of the House of Representatives' aggressive efforts to eliminate already-loose controls over the coal industry's egregious practices - blowing the tops off mountains and violating the Clean Water Act - we interviewed Hendryx and found his views especially timely and powerful. The highlights:
Check out the beta of a new West Virginia phenomenon. The site created by newspaperman, videographer, singer, lyricist, musician Doug Imbrogno can be seen by clicking here.
WestVirginiaVille is a work-in-progress. Stay tuned and join in as we attempt to birth a multimedia Web magazine and creative collective devoted to life and culture in a state that’s more like a village and maybe a shire. too. I began this Web venture partly as a way to better showcase the video and feature work I do in my day job as a newspaperman, frustrated by the way multimedia and feature work disappears so quickly, washed away by the tidal wave of the daily news. So, you will see this site showcasing some of that newspaper work and my sideline musical efforts, including older content worth a second (or even a first) look, since in the busy world of the Web so much zips by that we may miss its original launch.
Be sure and check out ALL of the tabs. Each one unlocks new hollers, stories, and pictures that make up the diversity of West Viriginia.
Thanks Doug for this great effort, Looking forward to seeing how WestVirginiaVille evolves.
It sounds like acting as Governor Tomblin is punishing the people that put the most on the line for our State in an attempt to silence their support of his opponents. Apparently State Troopers supporting Treasurer Perdue have been transferred against their will because of an after hours event they did with Big John. This is a shameful but not surprising tactic from the Tomblin camp and this action should be further investigated.
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