About coal

Winnie wondered how I felt about the candidates' debate regarding coal.

I don't think there's such a thing as "clean coal." On that, President Obama and I disagree.

I think ALL candidates who appear to support coal miners are really supporting coal company owners. It's the owners, after all, who make campaign contributions. It's the miners and their families who breathe the dirtiest air, drink the dirtiest water and suffer the most severe health problems due to the disregard of environmental protections.

And, of course, the disregard of safety protections results in loss of life and the complete shutdown of a mine.

The bottom line on coal is that its days are waning. Coal is not a renewable resource and it's getting more and more expensive to extract what's left. Coal mine owners know this and have publicly said it, as has former Senator Byrd (oh, how we miss him here in West Virginia) and current Senator Rockefeller.

There are far fewer coal mining jobs available with the advent of mechanized extraction. To blame the loss of jobs on the EPA or on President Obama is just wrong. Blame it on the owners. They want to make money. It is more profitable to buy a machine than to pay several miners' wages and benefits. Oh, and machines don't die if there's an accident. There's always the threat of that pesky little PR problem when human beings work underground.

Don't get me started on mountaintop removal. There's an SUV in our neighborhood sporting a sticker on the back window that says "This vehicle paid for by mountaintop removal mining." I find that unbelievably offensive.

A friend and WV native has said repeatedly that this state would have been better off had that first lump of coal never been found. His point is that we would have looked elsewhere for ways to attract people to the state. We're trying now, but it's too little, too late. Mining is entrenched in some families and they feel there are no other options. They're right, too, unless they move.

But how do you sell a home that's black with coal dust? And where do you go when jobs have always been scarce? The coal industry currently provides between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs. (At its peak, in the 1940s, that number was slightly more than 130,000.) Our state had 1,213,231 registered voters as of 2011. You do the math. Politicians who support coal mining are working awfully damned hard for very few votes.

The "War on Coal" is a PR win for the mining industry. Bottom line, though – it's a lie.

Okay, enough about that. Time for me to get busy making donut-hole acorns and slicing apples to dip in caramel sauce and filling a vat with spaghetti sauce. It's not often I get to cook for eight!

Vote, damn it

The voter registration deadline has come and gone in West Virginia. If you didn't register, you can't vote, and don't come crying to me later when your government isn't doing what you want it to do.

If you are registered, don't throw that right away by staying home November 6. There are enough politicians and state legislatures out there already trying to take that right away. They don't need your help, they need you to oppose them.

Voting rights should be EXPANDED, not restricted, no matter your political persuasion. You think your vote doesn't count? There's really only one contest where it could be argued that it doesn't, and that's the Top Job, where the Supreme Court Electoral College determines the winner. (In the current political climate, I question what one wins.)

Every other candidate and issue on the ballot wins or loses because you made the effort to cast a ballot.

Yes, you.

As both of you know, I don't watch much television. I've learned that I'm a happier, saner, nicer person when I don't watch the news, and it's been a while since I've had a favorite, can't-miss program. HBO's The Newsroom would be the most recent qualifier. The West Wing is probably the last. I watch sports – that's my reality TV.  I watched the Democratic convention and I've tuned in to all of the debates.

During campaign season, it's not the programming itself that sends me into apoplectic fits, it's the commercials. Here in West Virginia it appears that the candidates for U.S. Senator and for governor of West Virginia are all running against President Obama.

All. Of. Them.

The Republicans are lumping the Democrats in with the President because, well, they're Democrats, while the Democrats are distancing themselves from him – "I'll stand up to anybody" is one of their oft-repeated and memorable lines – in the name of coal. (Here's a hint, guys: Your war on coal and "Obama's job-killing EPA" is misguided. Natural gas is coal's cleaner, cheaper competition. Nixon – yes, Nixon – started the EPA.)

It's easier than ever – at least for now – to cast a ballot. (It's much more difficult to register, however. Thank you, Patriot Act. And first-time voters may have to show some form of identification at the polls.) With early voting, you can't use the "I'm too busy the first Tuesday in November" excuse any longer. In my county, voting booths are set up in the courthouse beginning next Wednesday and continuing through the Saturday before Election Day.

So vote, damn it.

One more thing: I've heard more than a few people say they'll vote, all right, but they're not going to vote for [fill-in-the-office-of-your-choice – President, Senator or Governor].

I can't tell you what to do when it's just you and that screen. Actually I can, but you don't have to listen to or follow my advice. That's what secret ballots are all about. You can even tell me to my face that you're going to scratch the rooster, but when it comes right down to it, I'll never know whether you did or not.

But if you don't vote for [fill-in-the-office-of-your-choice] you might as well just vote for the other guy. If your candidate doesn't win, you have no way of influencing him/her once s/he takes the oath.

As recently as a month ago, I was one of those. I've been, um, enlightened. I'll hold my nose and vote a straight ticket. I then plan to bombard my Senator and Governor (because West Virginia is, in the end, a blue state until you start talking about the Electoral College) with letters and phone calls and e-mails, reminding them that I'm a constituent, too.

I don't work in a coal mine. I drink water from a well. My government needs to remember that voters like me outnumber coal miners by a wide margin. President Obama's Nixon's "job-killing EPA" is supposed to make the air safe to breathe and the water safe to drink. I think my representatives need to be reminded of that.

(And yes, I know they're not really standing up for miners. It's the coal company owners who fill their campaign coffers. But I'll play along until they take the oath of office.)

What we're up against

//Political rant ahead.//

The couple who lives in this house are obviously Republicans who have drunk the "Friends of Coal" Kool-aid. The wife drives a big SUV with a sticker on the back window that says "This vehicle paid for by mountaintop removal." I cringe whenever I see it. I have the same visceral reaction to that sticker as I do toward Confederate flags.

There are a lot of Confederate flags around here, even though West Virginia went with the Union in the Civil War. As a border state, loyalties were mixed, particularly in southeastern West Virginia.

The Friends of Coal have erected billboards on our major highways delineating Obama's No Job Zone and, of course, West Virginia is right there. But you know what? West Virginia has been a no-job zone for decades. Young people grow up and leave because there's no place to work. My dad, who would have been 82 this year, left southern Ohio (similar demographics) 60 years ago to find work in Columbus, and never looked back.

Coal might be our heritage here in the Mountain State, but it's certainly not ours or anyone else's future. Except maybe China. They seem to be mining a lot of it, polluting their air and sickening their citizens. Because that's what coal does. Besides that, there is no war on coal. Coal jobs have increased under President Obama's watch. The general decline in the industry has more to do with natural gas extraction than with their perceived war on coal. They should be learning how to frack instead of moaning about mining.

Coal is a vital resource for producing electricity and steel. But it's not the only one and there are better ones and whenever I drive by that yard sign I want to spray-paint it with an Obama sunrise.

But I'd bet a hundred bucks the guy who lives there is someone I don't want to mess with. There are some small minds that can't be changed, and I'm quite sure his is one of them.

//Rant off.//