This post obviously does not account for all of the news over the last 30 days, it is just the news I have been paying particular attention to.
First of all I was glad to see Senator Brown from Massachusetts get elected. I didn’t like how the Senate was trying to push a 2008 page health reform bill through the Senate with only one side of the aisle voting for it and some of those votes being bought and paid for. That tells me there is something seriously wrong with the bill and/or something seriously wrong with the process. I think in the case of health reform it was both. Senator Brown changed the process now they will probably have to change the bill.
On the eve of that seemingly minor victory for democracy the U.S. Supreme Court blocks a ban on corporate spending in candidate elections. I’m really surprised this bit of news is not getting more attention… people marching in the street kind of attention. In West Virginia it means that all of those politicians I perceive as being bought and paid for by the coal industry can now be bought and paid for by the coal industry. If there is a battle going on in Washington, there should be, where the peoples voice is fighting for survival from the onslaught of corporate politics then the peoples voice took a major hit with this Supreme Court decision.
There oughta be a revolution.
You can’t talk about congress and corporate spending without mentioning Spike Maynard running against Rep. Rahall for the house seat in November. Former Supreme Court Justice Spike Maynard Files for U.S. Congress
We do remember Spike… don’t we?
The ‘Spike’ Maynard case: Justice undermined
If the disturbing allegations about an appalling lack of judgment are accurate, Elliott “Spike” Maynard, chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court, should have resigned on Friday instead of recusing himself.
Justice Maynard and Don L. Blankenship, a powerful coal company executive, had met in Monte Carlo in the summer of 2006. They shared several meals even as Mr. Blankenship’s companies were appealing a multimillion-dollar jury verdict against them to the state Supreme Court, according to The New York Times.
Spike is running on basically a coal platform. I think Elliot “Spike” Maynard getting elected into Congress as an obvious friend to big coal would be another slap to the face of democracy especially here in West Virginia.
With the US Supreme Court decision I mentioned earlier I expect to see plenty of ads for Spike in the coming months. I would also venture to guess the ads will be heavily supported by the Friends of Coal. Just remember… resistance is not futile.
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With the current state of the economy I think Big Coal is really going to start trying to justify mountaintop removal with jobs. I can totally understand the need for more jobs in this country and a better economy but for the life of me I just can’t see blowing up the mountains as any part of the solution. We can come up with a better way.
I think folks really need to be paying attention right now. Less to what is going on with Tiger Woods and more to what is going on in the Government and our own back yards.
More than once, he complained to Obama and the others that coal had been “vilified” by some around the country, including public leaders.
Manchin voiced concerns that if the administration makes it harder to mine coal the entire country will suffer.
Massey outlines plans to up coal production
Massey Energy plans to increase metallurgical coal production as much as 62 percent to meet demand from rapidly recovering Asian economies.
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Much of the increased production is going overseas, including approximately 2 million tons to India, Blankenship said.
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