If WV Is the Saudi Arabia of Coal, Then What Does That Make The Charleston Gazette?

by: One Citizen

Tue Apr 07, 2009 at 17:31:57 PM EDT

This morning I posted the following comment reacting to a piece by the Gazette's statehouse reporter Phil Kabler titled Democrat lays into teachers' unions where he whips up anti-teacher's union sentiment in the way he uses an inexperienced lawmaker's own words.

The theory of "supply and demand" has failed miserably in WV for obvious reasons.  The future of WV kids has been pitted against coal futures. Education here has never had much chance of getting properly funded because Big Coal spends huge amounts successfully defeating proponents of education.

The WV Coal Association's deal is quite simple. They understand that education funding comes from coal severance and property taxes. So they "invest" by electing politicians who will do everything within their power to keep their taxes low. Even as you read this, their puppets have pledged to legislate diligently "For The Sake Of The Coal" http://tinyurl.com/cn2bs5

Recent studies reveal that WV is losing qualified teachers at an alarming rate because we don't properly pay them. "Supply and demand" means that as demand goes up, so do prices. But that law is broken by Big Business and coal-powered lawmakers who believe that WV's most precious resource is NOT the minds of our children.

What you see above was immediately snatched down by the Gazette Online Overlords. Not once, but three times. And I'm reasonably certain why. The comment that they finally decided to let stand did not have the phrase WV Coal Association in it, but rather substituted the term "Big Coal"!

Curiously, what the Gazette's Online Overlords found no problem leaving up was the following comment (also by yours truly) which was my reaction to the last of the three pieces.

Kabler's articles don't even come close to passing the smell test. He's obviously now struggling to save Wells' reputation.

Kabler implies the union badly misquotes Wells, but they really haven't, have they?

Kabler then shifts the focus to his article being wrongly attributed. But a wrongful attribution would mean that union reps had twisted Wells' meaning in some way. But again, THEY HAVE NOT.

Wells flatly stated his belief that teachers unions don't care about education. Yet teachers unions represent a workforce WHICH CARES ABOUT KIDS. One proof union reps care about kids is when, at their own risk*, reps negotiated on behalf of poor kids during a wildcat strike held because, among other reasons, WV politicians refused to raise coal taxes enough to properly equip poor schools http://tinyurl.com/bmc2pk

So Keebler unjustifiably impugned union reps. [b]And he's done it by twisting facts far worse than have any union reps.[/b]

*http://tinyurl.com/d8w5mp

What's most curious about the Gaz Overlord's lack of censorship here is that this one is focused on Phil Kabler and was just fine with the Gaz Overlords, but they didn't dare let me get away with directly naming the WV Coal Association for what I perceive is their long-running scam.

Here's why I see it that way.

Back in 1953 WV Governor Marland wanted to place the first severance tax on coal. When he went to the statehouse with his proposal of 10 cents per ton the legislature

"witnessed a political donnybrook reminiscent of West Virginia's legendary Hatfield and McCoy feud". The Charleston Gazette, whose editorial board included Carl Andrews, secretary of the WVCoal Operators Association, attacked Marland's severance tax declaring it "would destroy the coal industry of West Virginia"

It wasn't until 34 years later (1987) did a severance tax pass, yet our "Saudi Arabia of Coal" remains one of the poorest states in the nation to this day. It is because WV lawmakers have ALWAYS neglected to properly pay teachers here, and we might as well face it, there are just too many of us hillbillys still camping on top of their coal.

I mean after all, If a Big Coal CEO wanted to buy surface rights for as cheaply as possible while lowering property taxes, he'd simply devalue all coalpatch property and chase as many families off it as possible. And THAT's actually quite easy.

All he has to do is financially back politicians willing to cut all infrastructure funds -starting with WV schools. Once our schools fail, people leave automatically. Anyone staying once the schools fail naturally risks sacrificing the future of their children

It's no mere coincidence that full-time Massey employee Troy Andes (R-Putnam) is on two major statehouse education committees, and I strongly suspect that he ain't on the Joint Standing Committee on Education "For The Sake Of The Kids"

After all, there is always the possibility that a future political leader might better understand the not-so-complex dynamic antagonistic economic symbiosis which has long existed between Big Coal and education funding.