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(Reposted in case you missed it the first time. - promoted by Clem Guttata)
By Clem Guttata
Coal CEOs get political representation, what about the rest of us?
Logan County Commission President Art Kirkendoll requested a meeting and he got it. Michael Browning reported (emphasis mine):
Kirkendoll has asked Gov. Joe Manchin for a meeting with him, commission presidents from Lincoln, Boone, Mingo and Kanawha counties, the EPA, the Division of Environmental Protection, Congressman Nick Rahall, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, representatives from U.S. senators Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller's offices and officials from the coal industry.
Today at 3 p.m., the group will meet privately in the governor's office to discuss coal's future and the economic impact it has on the state and nation.
"This meeting was way overdue to have all the major coal producers' officials together with the EPA and the DEP, the congressional people and the commission presidents from the five major coal-producing counties that spend the money and try to create activities on coal tax," Kirkendoll said. "Everybody that has a stake in what we do will be there. Instead of each of us writing letters, I wanted to get us all together - the people who are investing their money, who are spending the money, the people who are making laws and making the rules - so that we can ask how do we a qualify permits that are solid and work. I sent the governor a letter and he thought it was a great idea so he put the meeting together."
Kirkendoll doesn't think anyone downstream has a stake in coal mining. He doesn't think it matters that we drink the same water, breath the same air, or--point of fact--actually pay for the electricity that makes that coal valuable.
...the list of expected attendees includes Massey Energy President Don Blankenship, CONSOL Energy CEO Brett Harvey and International Coal Group President Ben Hatfield. Two members of Congress will be there, as will county commissioners from the state's major coal producing counties, and top officials from a dozen or more other coal companies. It's a big deal to get all those folks in the same room, and it seems like the public ought to know what is said.
With enough twists to fill a pretzel factor, Gov. Manchin and his communications director, Matt Turner, said there was no need to invite potential critics of coal mining practices because:
"the meeting is not about environmental regulations." (AP - via)
"This is not about the environment. This is about the economic plight the (coalfield local government officials) are being put in." (source)
The meeting happened this afternoon outside the Governor's Mansion in a party tent literally bought and paid for by coal industry donors, (I kid you not... you couldn't make this stuff up) and was followed by a press conference.
Nov. 10, 2009 - CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin, joined by West Virginia elected officials: U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, House Speaker Rick Thompson and various other state leaders, county commissioners, representatives from the coal industry and labor met to discuss the future of coal in West Virginia during a press conference. Photos by: Steven W. Rotsch
West Virginia political leaders promised Tuesday to speak "with one voice" to clarify the Obama administration's proposals to more strictly regulate mountaintop removal coal mining.
Gov. Joe Manchin, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, and Reps. Nick J. Rahall and Shelley Moore Capito said they would join forces to seek a high-level White House meeting to raise coal industry concerns about tougher permit reviews instituted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"It's about the economy of West Virginia," Manchin said at a news conference after a two-hour, closed-door meeting with industry leaders. "We're just trying to find that balance right now."
I'd like someone to ask Gov. Manchin what it is that he's trying to "balance"? As far as I can tell, "balance" is his code word for stopping any tighter environmental regulation enforcement.
Coal company CEOs have been guaranteed a voice in Washington. The Gov. of West Virginia, Sen. Rockefeller, Rep. Rahall and Rep. Capito stood at a podium this afternoon and promised to speak "with one voice" in Washington, DC on their behalf.
The citizens of West Virginia did not elect these officials to represent coal company executives, they serve to represent us all.
What is good for Don Blankenship is not what is good for all of West Virginia. What is good for CONSOL Energy CEO Brett Harvey is not what is good for all of West Virginia (just ask the residents of the Dunkard Creek watershed). What is good for International Coal Group President Ben Hatfield is not what is good for all of West Virginia.
We need political leaders who will lead for all West Virginians, not political followers catering to the needs of coal company CEOs. We need political leaders who will ask not what they can do for coal, but what they can do for West Virginia. We need political leaders who can honor both our heritage and our future.
I just heard today that a member of my extended family had another application for health insurance denied because of a pre-existing condition. This pre-existing condition is something she's had since birth--in fact, the best available scientific evidence suggests she inherited it from a parent, who also has this rare condition.
The denial letter from the insurance company helpfully suggested looking for a state program for coverage. In her case, she's a young adult who is potentially eligible for a state program but only if she goes for at least half a year un-covered by any insurance whatsoever. Meanwhile, she's at risk of major expenses if anything catastrophic happens.
Here's a young adult going to school part time who is falling between the cracks of any available health insurance plan. She's had health insurance her entire life and now that her COBRA coverage has run out she's joining the ranks of the uninsured.
For the conservatives and libertarians reading this who say "the market is the answer"--what we have here is a total market failure--no one will sell her insurance at any price. My relative's story is a hardly exceptional. There are people dying every day for lack of health care coverage.
How can it be that the wealthiest society that has ever existed on this planet is failing so badly to provide for the basic needs of its citizens?
Health care insurance reform can't happen quickly enough.
Keep at it, Sens. Byrd and Rockefeller, Reps. Mollohan and Rahall. We're counting on you to get health care reform passed this month.
The Senate approved $140 billion in extended tax breaks and unemployment benefits on Wednesday in a largely partisan vote.
The bill was approved on a 62-36 vote, with six Republicans joining most Democrats in backing it.
Senate Democrats are calling the measure a jobs bill, though it includes tax breaks extended by Congress on a near-annual basis as well as a fix to Medicare payments for doctors that lawmakers also have previously extended.
It's the second package of legislation that Senate Democrats have labeled as a jobs bill this year, joining a $15 billion measure approved by the Senate last week.
GOP Sens. Kit Bond (Mo.), Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), David Vitter (La.) and George Voinovich (Ohio) voted for the bill.
We're a long way off from an economic recovery that puts everyone back to work who wants to work.
Thank you for continuing to provide relief to those who need it in this time of great need.
CA_Berkeley_WV in the comments of One Citizen's post:
I watched the Senate Finance and Health Committee markups live blogging most of it before that big check for Soros arrived I bought new pajamas and a case of Cheetos.
I watched the voting patters of West Virginia native Sen. Tom Carper D-DE, MR Ducks Sen. Blanche Lincoln D-AR, very serious Sen. Jeff Bingaman D-NM and budget scold Sen. Kent Conrad D-ND.
Did you watch all the HELP and all the Finance markups to come to this conclusion? Do you know what amendments were defeated? Rockefeller offered his, made his pitch, and then acknowled that it would be defeated. So did Sen. Wyden D-OR. Sen. Schumer D-NY did not have much luck either, and he may end up the next majority leader.
Would the general public know as much as we do about rescission without the Commerce Committee hearing Sen. Rockefeller held that took testimony from Wendell Potter, whistleblower? Around midnight that last night another thought this was a great Rockefeller quote:
Children from CHIP shouldn't have to go to the exchange, where "insurance companies would...have them for lunch."
Statements in the press are often directed to other members and are the best window we have on consensus building. How a bill gets cobbled together is ugly. Sen. Wyden certainly was not happy with the concessions given between 11:30PM and midnight to Sen. Rockefeller the last night. I know Conrad's legislative director. He got the concessions he wanted. You can't manufacture votes.
Public Option cannot be introduced into the sidecar. It will not stand a Byrd Rule and a point of order. Parliamentarian Emeritus Robert Dove cannot remember being overruled by the chair alone on one of these. This whip got to 51 last fall, John Tester D-MT last one counted. Waiving the Byrd Rule is a 60 vote lift. CBO score on the sidecar today. House vote next week.
States can setup single payer under the Senate bill, so some focus should shift. Congress is not doing this this term, but the long term effort is worth it. Intimating that Rockefeller benefited from stock trades during the markup by linking to Page Not Found Error 404 as a bludgeon, unwisely wielded at this time.
reflecting subsidies provided through insurance exchanges, increased net outlays for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and tax credits for small employers
That is what Rockefeller traded. Add that to Sen. Sanders I-CT community health clinics and I am not ready to cut off my nose to spite my aching toe.
Good evening, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
Some of the Hill news that's fit to blog is over the fold...
Press Conference Cont., Meeting with Sen. Rockefeller's State Director
In December, a climate change rally was held outside of the old Daniel Boone Hotel in Charleston, along with a press conference in the lobby. The building currently houses U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller's office.
People gathered in support of a strong climate change bill and later, some would go on to deliver a letter and banner to Rockefeller's staff and ask for the senator's support.
The media did little to nothing with the rally, and as you all know you need the media to help garner public support for your issue, so I'm posting it now since health care reform is getting butchered (as expected) and then once that gets shot between the eyes (as expected), hopefully climate change will actually become an issue AGAIN, this year (especially in West Virginia), since our country's economy is still hurting and fixing the problem will actually create jobs.
So let's make climate an issue in 2010 and get our Congressional delegation to push for a 35% reduction in CO2 emmissions by 2020 and create much needed jobs in the process! Wreck the world, then save it and make money off of doing so. That's the American way!
***Groups represented at rally and press conference: 1SKY WV (Andrew Porter), WV Environmental Council (Jesse Johnson), Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (Mel Tyree), UE 170 (John Thompson), Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charleston (Rev. Rose Edington)***
Paging Senator Rockefeller. Senator Jay Rockefeller to the illegally bugged white courtesy phone, please.
No one - except, you know, us dirty hillbilly bloggers and pretty much everyone else - could have predictedthis:
The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews.
...
E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.
A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.
But I'm sure it was all in emergency circumstances when there was no time to apply for legal warrants to do this, right?
FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni said in an interview Monday that the FBI technically violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act when agents invoked nonexistent emergencies to collect records.
"We should have stopped those requests from being made that way," she said. The after-the-fact approvals were a "good-hearted but not well-thought-out" solution to put phone carriers at ease, she said. In true emergencies, Caproni said, agents always had the legal right to get phone records, and lawyers have now concluded there was no need for the after-the-fact approval process. "What this turned out to be was a self-inflicted wound," she said.
The story goes on to say the agents were working "under stress" to stop terrorist attacks. The problems with that kind of rationalizing are that it allows for lazy investigators to take unnecessary shortcuts and those who do not safeguard liberties in the name of security are surely to not have or deserve either.
Don't worry about Rockefeller getting shafted for the purpose of "cutting the federal budget", fellow citizens. When Harry X-Mas gets to passing out the porkponies under the upcoming Cap and Trade bill, Senator Rockefeller (Coalocrat-WV) will have learned to dig in his heels and "bargain" us all a lump of coal in the form of even more subsidies for coal operators and call it his "Green Jobs Initiative". Ignoring the fact that mining more coal means poisoning more of his constituents.
Isn't it time we officially outlaw the nickname "Mountain State" (due to the love of flattening our mountains by coal operators who run things here) and revert to the age old "Panhandle State" tag to accurately reflect how our politicians let the coal companies panhandle ALL of the federal subsidies? Not to mention how our politicians in turn panhandle from the operators.
But you don't have to take my word for it. It isn't any wonder since Manchin's Stimulus Package website fails to take advantage of, or even mentions the "Green Jobs Act" portion of the Stim package. In contrast our neighboring state of Virginia publicly notes outright that the stimulus package included $3.95 billion for training and employment services-including $750 million for research and job training projects in "green jobs," health care, and other high-demand and emerging occupations.
I say we rename our WVU sports teams "The Mighty Panhandlers".
Mountaineer fans should venture below the fold to see why I'm suggesting that they substitute sooty black in place of the traditional blue and instead of the rich gold that adorns their arena heroes, why blood red would be more fitting tribute to the people who live here.
In the past 50 years, there have been 8 different men who have served as Governor of West Virginia. In summary:
* Joe Manchin - Democrat 2005-present
* Bob Wise - Democrat 2001-2005
* Cecil H. Underwood - Republic 1997-2001
* Gaston Caperton - Democrat 1989-1997
* Arch A. Moore, Jr. - Republic 1985-1989
* John D. Rockefeller IV - Democrat 1977-1985
* Arch A. Moore, Jr. - Republic 1969-1977
* William Wallace Barron - Democrat 1961-1965
* Cecil H. Underwood - Republic 1957-1961
* Hulett C. Smith - Democratic 1965-1969
It is instructive to consider what they did before they became Governor, as well as what they did afterward.
Joe Manchin, Elected 2004, Re-Elected 2008
Previous offices: Secretary of State (2000), State Senate (1986-96), House of Delegates (1982-86)
Ran for Gov. once before, lost in Dem. Primary (1996)
Bob Wise, Elected 2000
Previous offices: State Senate (1980-1982), US House of Rep. 1982-2000
Post-Gov.: President of the Alliance for Excellent Education,
Cecil H. Underwood, Elected 1956, Re-Elected 1996
Previous offices: House of Delegates (1944-56)
Between terms: defeated for US Senate (1960); defeated for Gov. in 1964, 1968 (primary), and 1976.
Gaston Caperton, Elected 1988, Re-Elected 1992
Previous offices: none.
Post-Gov.: President and CEO of College Board
Arch A. Moore, Jr., Elected 1968, Re-Elected 1972; Re-Elected 1984
Previous offices: House of Delegates (1952); US House of Rep. (1956-1968)
Between terms: Lost Senate race (1978), Lost Gov. race (1980)
Post-Gov.: served 3+ years in federal prison after pleading guilty to five felonies
Jay Rockefeller, Elected 1976, Re-election 1980
Previous offices: House of Delegates (1966); Sec. of State (1968)
Lost Gov. race in 1972
Post-Gov.: US Senate (1984 - present)
Hulett C. Smith, Elected 1964
Previous offices: none
Chairman of W.Va. Democratic Party 1956-1962
Ran for Gov. once before, lost in Dem. Primary (1960)
Post-Gov.: "After leaving office, Smith returned to his insurance agency in Beckley and assumed duties as secretary-treasurer of two area hospitals. In retirement, he became an outspoken advocate for the environment. He later served on the National Council for Revision of State Constitutions, the Judicial Inquiry Commission, and as a director of First Lady Rosalyn Carter's Friendship Force."
William Wallace Barron, Elected 1960
Previous offices: House of Delegates (1950-1953), Attorney General (1956)
Post-Gov.: Served four-year sentence for jury tampering stemming from bribery trial related to his term in Gov.
Here's a summary of what offices each candidate held before their first election to Governor. Their highest held office is listed in bold.
* US Congress: Wise, Moore * Secretary of State: Manchin, Rockefeller * Attorney General: Barron * State Senate: Manchin, Wise
* House of Delegates: Underwood, Manchin, Wise, Rockefeller, Moore, Barron
* None: Caperton, Smith
After their first term as Gov.:
* Rockefeller won many Senate elections
* Underwood and Moore both lost Senate races but returned to the Gov. mansion in non-consecutive terms
* Wise, Caperton and Smith did not run for elected office again.
* Moore and Barron served multi-year jail sentences
Finally, in campaigns since 1976, Wise, Caperton won on their first attempts, but Manchin, Underwood, Moore and Rockefeller all lost in their first race.
It's a rhetorical question. Of course he doesn't. At least not the real Pope.
Now let's ask a real question of our rhetorical Pope (depicted above). Did Rockefeller really believe that his "public option" had even half a chance? Really?
Jay certainly acted all holier-than-thou when he tore apart Dr. Howard Dean for criticizing the Senate bill the other day. Funny, but I never heard Rockefeller get fired up like that during entire time congressional Neocons were staving off the much-needed intelligence oversight of the Bush administration by Rockefeller's panel. Even when Cheney tried foisting the responsibility for torture over onto Congress, Rockefeller never got as upset as he did at Howard Dean.
There's got to be some reason for his outburst. Rockefeller certainly didn't get torqued when Obama abandoned his public option amendment. There is always the strong possibility that Rockefeller's bargaining away of real reforms for giant giveaways to the insurance industry may be connected to how the health industry stocks jumped as an immediate reaction to what his Senate Finance Committee passed. Check it out at this link.
Good afternoon, WVa Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
As always, this is a crosspost from CongressMatters. This is the important news of the day. Okay, maybe only some of it. So if you disagree, go watch CSPAN. Or watch your government in neutral on CSPAN2.
Sen. Rockefeller and Sen. Lieberman spoke back to back on the floor of the Senate just now.
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