Author: Carnacki

Crossposted from West Virginia Blue.

wvablueguy posted about the 13 arrested during the Marsh Fork Elementary School protest Saturday at the Capitol in Charleston.

The 50 protestors who were in Gov. Joe Manchin’s office’s reception area wanted the governor’s assurance that the school would be re-located due to the extreme dangers posed by Don Blankenship’s Massey Energy coal mining operations way-too-close to the school.

Here’s YouTube video of the arrests from West Virginia Public Television:

Here’s what else the group wants:

In addition to closing the school, the group wants to shut down Goals Coal’s preparation plant and a 1,849-acre mountaintop removal mine site and a 2.8 billion-gallon coal sludge dam about 400 yards from the school.

Here’s what prompted Saturday’s protest:

The protest follows Tuesday’s ruling by the state Surface Mine Board that reversed the rejection of a permit for the silo.

Massey Energy Co. subsidiary Goals Coal Co. is seeking a second storage silo for its preparation plant next door to Marsh Fork.

Don Blankenship’s subsidiary Goals Coal then submitted a new application, “which was rejected last year because federal and state laws prohibit new mining operations within 300 feet of a school.“

So one state agency rejected the process and another reversed the rejection.

Jspiker had great details Thursday on the permit process.

Massey Energy, the WV Surface Mine Board, and the WV Department of Environmental Protection have been raging war on each other for over two years now.

Don Blankenship just doesn’t understand the word NO.

Isn’t it ironic a man spending millions of dollars under the guise of “For the Sake of the Kids” would pursue such legal proceedings?

In 2005, a court battle over a coal silo near Marsh Fork Elementary School, denied Massey Energy the right to expand operations because it was within 300 feet of the school. The law is intended to protect our children from safety and health hazards associated with coal mining in this area.

Almost a year ago, a Massey Energy engineer testified that he altered the permit boundary shown on official maps when the company sought approval for a new coal silo near the Raleigh County School.

Paul McCombs, an engineer for Massey’s Goals Coal subsidiary, said he expanded the map boundary to match what he believed the real permit area should have been, based on a field examination at the site. McCombs told the state Surface Mine Board that he did not seek state Department of Environmental Protection approval for the changes, or notify the DEP that he had made the changes.

In a split decision last week, the state Surface Mine Board overturned a Department of Environmental Protection order that previously blocked the new silo.

A majority of the board – members Henry Rauch, Stephen Capelli, Michael Hastings and Randy McMillion – sided with the company.

They found “the construction of a silo is a tool for decreasing and minimizing dust in high dust areas” and “the construction of the silo will not place a significant burden on public health.”

Board Chairman Tom Michael and members Paul Nay and Ed Grafton disagreed. They found, “the construction of the silo less than 300 feet from the school places a significant burden on the public health and the environment of the local community.”

Manchin filed an appeal to the Surface Mine Board’s reversal of the rejection. In other words, he filed to stop the project.

Manchin’s Department of Environmental Protection filed an appeal Thursday challenging the mine board’s ruling. DEP lawyer Tom Clarke asked for a stay of the board ruling while the appeal is heard, and argued that the board ruling alone – without a subsequent DEP permit approval under the board’s legal standard – does not allow the silo construction to start.

Don Blankenship claims the second coal silo would “protect the environment” are as credible as his claim that he wanted to stock the West Virginia legislature with 42-hand-picked Republicans was “for the sake of the kids.”

Here’s a comment from Clem Guttata that helps illustrate (with photos) the dangers Blankenship would rather ignore:

This whole situation is just yet another horrible accident waiting to happen.

Above the prep plant, a road zigzags up the face of an earthen dam holding back billions of gallons of coal sludge in Massey’s leaking Shumate impoundment. A worker at this site, now alleges he is gravely ill from the chemicals used on site. He says portions of this dam where not constructed properly and Mine Safety and Health Administration records support his statements.

Beyond the impoundment–that black lake of toxic goo–another Massey Energy subsidiary, Independence Coal, is starting an 1,849 acre strip mine. How crazy to have blasting at this strip mine above an impoundment held by a violation-prone earthen dam–just 400 yards from an elementary school!

Here’s from Saturday’s Gazette-Mail:

Don Blankenship, Richmond, Va.-based Massey’s chief executive officer, said the second silo would enable the company to make additional environmental improvements and cut down the amount of coal dust at the site.

But when it denied the silo permit for a second time last year, the DEP noted that there had never been an open coal stockpile in the area where the silos were planned. And in February 2006, the DEP turned down a related Massey permit request to double the allowable air pollution from the Goals Coal site.

In a federal court lawsuit, Blankenship alleges that the DEP is fighting the silo project as part of Manchin’s effort to punish Massey for Blankenship’s political involvement against the governor.

Activists, however, wanted more assurances from the governor that a new school would be built and the elementary school near the coal site would be closed.

In West Virginia, such decisions are left to county school boards.

Minutes before the arrests, Manchin Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Martin read a statement from the governor to the crowd. The statement said Manchin will encourage the Raleigh County school board to put the decision of building a new school at Marsh Fork to a countywide vote, but stressed that decision is out of the governor’s hands.

“Before the state can get involved in issues such as whether a school should be moved or if a new school should be built, a decision must first be made at the local level,” Martin read.

Here’s Tom Breen of Associated Press describing the events:

During occasionally tense exchanges earlier in the day, Martin tried to persuade the protesters to stop chanting and singing.

At one point, Wiley shouted at Martin, “Enough of this whispering in my ear, telling me to settle this down. We’ll raise the roof off the dang place,” which was met by cheers from the protesters.

Many of the protesters were from West Virginia’s southern coalfields but a substantial number were college students, who said they were from Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Maine. Others came from colleges throughout West Virginia.

The protest appeared organized at least in part by a group called Mountain Justice Summer, which on its Web site bills this week as “Mountain Justice Spring Break” in Charleston. (Clem Guttata posted about Mountain Justice here.)

Lincoln Walks At Midnight has other details.

West Virginia Blue is open!
Frankly I’m just going to repeat what I wrote when the BlogPac funding was announced:

I’d seen the way Daily Kos had helped develop many Democratic activists. The site helped inform us. The site helped motivate us. The site empowered us.

I wanted the same thing to happen in West Virginia.

We’re a diverse state with many challenges — not the least of which is our geography. Those of us in the Eastern Panhandle know little of the problems in Southern West Virginia. In many counties schools are having to consolidate due to a lack of students. Here in this area schools cannot be built fast enough to keep up with the enrollment.

Our traditional news sources seldom cover other parts of the state and when they do seldom provide context. The lack of quality coverage of politicians like Shelley Moore Capito in between elections has allowed her to manipulate the voters into believing she is a moderate who cares for the people of West Virginia when the reality is she’s beholden to corporate and right wing interests who have profit margins and executive pay as their priorities.

Before 2000, I took little interest in politics. I voted, I donated to charities and causes I believed in and by that I thought I did my part. Too many of us have been apathetic as to what the government did in our name and we’ve paid the price for it by having right wing corporate media sell us a false bill of goods. We’ve seen the manipulation of reality and people’s emotions lead to Republican victories and put an incompetent, ill-equipped administration in the White House. We’ve seen the price paid with record deficits, terrorist threats ignored before the worst criminal act occurred in U.S. history, international good will squandered and old alliances tattered.

Blogs have the power to inform and unite us. Ask Democratic Senator Jim Webb and countless others how effective blogs can be at helping campaigns. But it’s not just campaigns that can be helped. It’s a long-term movement. And that’s what I’m here for: the long haul. We’ve not rested between election cycles. Politicians like Ms. Capito aren’t going to be able to rest on their laurels in between elections and have people forget their votes and their words in between. This is a democracy. We’re here to remind the politicians they work for us.

To some, that diary proved I had “sold out” or was making a pitch to be a front pager here. Ha! As if. You should see our growth numbers. Sky rocket trajectory. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I won’t be happy until West Virginia (and by extension me) rules the world!

Between you and me, I’m just genuinely thrilled to be offer something to my fellow West Virginians.

This site helped me form my political views and helped make me much more active in my community and country. I hope West Virginia Blue has that same success.

So go sign up now. Get a low UID and the handle you want for a change. And begin blogging at West Virginia Blue.

Think back to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Criminals seized four airliners and crashed them into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Many on board the planes realized they were going to die and many trapped in the towers knew their end was near too.

Families watched horrified, knowing they were unable to save their loved ones.

3,000 people died on Sept. 11th, taken away from their families before their time, leaving behind grief and voids where their lives were.

Cancer creates a Sept. 11th every other day.
Cancer kills 1,500 people every day. Unlike Sept. 11th, the deaths are spread out across the country and not televised. Nevertheless, the victims die before their time. Loved ones watch in sadness and fear. The deaths leave voids in the lives of others.

This year, cancer will kill about 559,650 people. Grandparents. Fathers. Mothers. Children.

To those of you who have read this before, I apologize. But I realize not everyone reads political blogs on Friday nights. So I will repeat my tale from Friday:

I’m probably best known on Daily Kos for when I wrote happy stories on Friday nights.

Tonight, I want to tell you about the worst day of my life. Then I’m going to ask you to help me do something about it.

I loved my father a great deal. He was a good, decent, hard working man. He worked his eight-hour shift at the paper mill as a mechanic and electrician and then came home and worked on the farm often until dark and sometimes beyond.

One cold January night when I was 19, the two of us were digging a trench to run electrical wiring underground from the house to a new barn.

“Boy, I just can’t seem to catch my breath,” he said, leaning on his shovel.

My father never took sick days. The only time I recalled him missing work was when he passed kidney stones.

He went to the doctor about his shortness of breath. The doctor scheduled a biopsy. I remember well the growing feeling of fear as we sat in the hospital waiting room. My younger sister left because we did not know how long the procedure would take. Soon after she walked out, we saw the doctor coming down another hall and I raced to get her. The two of us sprinted back. The biopsy showed he had inoperable cancer. It had been in his lymph nodes and spread to his heart and lungs. The doctor told him he had less than a year to live.

That night my mother’s best friend from childhood came out to the farm after she finished working her shift at the hospital.

My mother had known when she was 10 years old she wanted to marry my father. He joined the Navy at 17 during the Korean War and was stationed at Norfolk, Va., when she turned 18. He sent an engagement ring to her friend and arranged for her to be at my mother’s when he phoned to propose and then her friend slipped the engagement ring on my mother’s finger. That night she was there to explain my father’s cancer treatment options to my mother and to comfort her. I walked her out to her car and then I cried for a long time on her shoulder. Twenty three years later I can remember how wet my face was with tears.

Twenty three years of life later, that remains the saddest and worst day of my life. Even his death seven months later was not as sad for by then death was a release for him.

I often wish my father was still alive to see my daughters and to see them sitting beside him on the tractor just as he did my brother’s daughters. I would have liked that. He was a good grandfather.

Many of us have seen the scourge that is cancer in our lives, either in our own or in those we love. Mcjoan’s brother. Jane at Fire Dog Lake is fighting it again. Dreaming of Better Days is undergoing treatment for it.

Now station wagon:

sad news and a BIG F-ING PROBLEM (78+ / 0-)

in stationwagonville.  It has been 11 days since I went to my doctor with nausea and vomiting and a distended upper abdomen to an appointment with an oncologist yesterday who told my husband and me that I have advanced, too advanced to treat, liver cancer.  Monday I have a biopsy on the tumors literally squeezing out functioning liver cells to see if the cancer is primary or secondary- they have not been able to locate any source outside of my liver.  But the oncologist has a hunch that it might be my pancreas- which can be hard to see even with a CAT scan.  If it’s secondary, chemo might be able to buy me a little time, but the prognosis is grim.  We can’t process this all at once (mercifully) we keep cycling between waiting to wake up and being overwhelmed with sadness for our kids and other loved ones.  

Liver cancer is a mean mofo.  Symptoms don’t usually show up until it’s too advanced to treat.

I love you all, Kossacks.  I just needed to come here and dump this out.  I’m going to watch a movie with my son now.  I’m grateful to all of you for giving me a learning place and a haven.

In order to hide their embezzlement behind a posse of demented hicks, Republicans’ slogans must be short and superstitious. Grand Moff Texan

by station wagon on Sat Mar 03, 2007 at 08:51:36 PM EST

As I mentioned on Friday, Prayers are important. I know enough about cancer that amazing treatments are being developed. Cancer treatment has come along way since my father died of it in 1984.

Many of us have been through this terrible disease, either suffering from it or losing someone dear to us from it.

I well recall the anger I felt at seeing my father ill. That anger creates an energy to this day.

Let us put that anger and energy to use.

Let us do our part to fight this scourge upon humanity.

As I said before, I can’t research a cure or new treatment for patients or donate millions for those who do.

But I can write to Congress and urge that they fully arm those who can. We spend hundreds of billions on defense projects while people are dying at home from illness and poverty.

We need to do more as a nation to find out why cancer rates are rising, what environmental factors might be causing certain cancers to appear at younger age groups.

As I wrote Friday:

I am not asking for us to fight against death. Death is as natural as life. Our motality is what makes each day count and our time on earth is better by knowing that.

But I am saying we can work to eradicate a disease that is horrific.

What we can do as a political blog is to advocate to make certain those on the frontline of cancer and scientific research have the tools and people they need.

From the comments on Friday, it is clear that not only do we as a nation need to fully fund the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, but also fully fund the National Science Foundation. It should not be a question of one agency played off another in order to research a cure. It should be more funding for all research. The secret to eradicate cancer and other diseases might not come from direct research, but from other, seemingly unrelated research in other fields.

I’d like to have titled this diary: “Let’s kick cancer’s ass”. It’s not going to happen easily. This has to be a long term committment from us and from our government.

Here’s the American Cancer Society’s page to email Congressional legislators. We’re not going to use their form letter however. Many of us have our own issues with the American Cancer Society for one reason or another. I’m going to include some talking points for you to feel free to use, but write of your tale of cancer. Reach inside and remember your fear and your anger and most importantly your love for those hurt by it to write from your own heart:

(Your cancer story here)

As my Congressional representative, here is what I want you to do:

o A minimum increase of 6.7 percent for the National Institutes of Health in 2008 in your program request letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee.

o Keep the promise of increasing funding for the National Science Foundation. Don’t just say you want to double the budget. Provide funding for it.

o In addition, stop looking at funding for scientific research at NIH, NCI and the NSF in five year cycles. Look at this as a long-term committment because cures won’t be found over night. Take a long term approach and develop budget plans for scientific research grants that look ahead 20 to 50 years. Developing a PhD researcher takes longer than the current budget cycles for scientific research.

o Let us work together to save lives. The economic benefits from such research can be tremendous. The lifesaving benefits can be priceless.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]

Feel free to use any aspects of my diary in writing your emails. Feel free also to print out your letters and send them to your Congressional representative.

I’m working on other diaries for this project. One of the diaries will urge people to donate to their local hospices and Meals on Wheels programs. The fight against cancer is long term. Sometimes victory will have to be measured by such things as pain-free days. Or helping someone go home to spend their final days. Another diary will ask people to write letters to their local newspapers to increase public awareness of the importance of tax-dollar supported federal and state research. And I also want us to write to the American Cancer Society to push them to fully support all areas of scientific research, no matter how controversial.

More than 10 million people in the United States are currently being treated for cancer or have survived cancer. Countless others love those people and are glad they are alive today. Politically, this is an effort that should be bipartisan because President Nixon created the National Cancer Institute out of memory of his sister who had died from the disease. In reality, we’ve seen too many right wingers declare a war on scientific research and play shell games with funding. Let’s change that. Let’s do what we can to save lives.

I’m probably best known for when I wrote happy stories on Friday nights.

Tonight, I want to tell you about the worst day of my life. Then I’m going to ask you to help me do something about it.
I loved my father a great deal. He was a good, decent, hard working man. He worked his eight-hour shift at the paper mill as a mechanic and electrician and then came home and worked on the farm often until dark and sometimes beyond.

One cold January night when I was 19, the two of us were digging a trench to run electrical wiring underground from the house to a new barn.

“Boy, I just can’t seem to catch my breath,” he said, leaning on his shovel.

My father never took sick days. The only time I recalled him missing work was when he passed kidney stones.

He went to the doctor about his shortness of breath. The doctor scheduled a biopsy. I remember well the growing feeling of fear as we sat in the hospital waiting room. My younger sister left because we did not know how long the procedure would take. Soon after she walked out, we saw the doctor coming down another hall and I raced to get her. The two of us sprinted back. The biopsy showed he had inoperable cancer. It had been in his lymph nodes and spread to his heart and lungs. The doctor told him he had less than a year to live.

That night my mother’s best friend from childhood came out to the farm after she finished working her shift at the hospital.

My mother had known when she was 10 years old she wanted to marry my father. He joined the Navy at 17 during the Korean War and was stationed at Norfolk, Va., when she turned 18. He sent an engagement ring to her friend and arranged for her to be at my mother’s when he phoned to propose and then her friend slipped the engagement ring on my mother’s finger. That night she was there to explain my father’s cancer treatment options to my mother and to comfort her. I walked her out to her car and then I cried for a long time on her shoulder. Twenty three years later I can remember how wet my face was with tears.

Twenty three years of life later, that remains the saddest and worst day of my life. Even his death seven months later was not as sad for by then death was a release for him.

I often wish my father was still alive to see my daughters and to see them sitting beside him on the tractor just as he did my brother’s daughters. I would have liked that. He was a good grandfather.

Many of us have seen the scourge that is cancer in our lives, either in our own or in those we love. Mcjoan’s brother. Jane at Fire Dog Lake is fighting it again. Dreaming of Better Days is undergoing treatment for it.

Now station wagon:

sad news and a BIG F-ING PROBLEM (78+ / 0-)

in stationwagonville.  It has been 11 days since I went to my doctor with nausea and vomiting and a distended upper abdomen to an appointment with an oncologist yesterday who told my husband and me that I have advanced, too advanced to treat, liver cancer.  Monday I have a biopsy on the tumors literally squeezing out functioning liver cells to see if the cancer is primary or secondary- they have not been able to locate any source outside of my liver.  But the oncologist has a hunch that it might be my pancreas- which can be hard to see even with a CAT scan.  If it’s secondary, chemo might be able to buy me a little time, but the prognosis is grim.  We can’t process this all at once (mercifully) we keep cycling between waiting to wake up and being overwhelmed with sadness for our kids and other loved ones.  

Liver cancer is a mean mofo.  Symptoms don’t usually show up until it’s too advanced to treat.

I love you all, Kossacks.  I just needed to come here and dump this out.  I’m going to watch a movie with my son now.  I’m grateful to all of you for giving me a learning place and a haven.

In order to hide their embezzlement behind a posse of demented hicks, Republicans’ slogans must be short and superstitious. Grand Moff Texan

by station wagon on Sat Mar 03, 2007 at 08:51:36 PM EST

Prayers are important. I know enough about cancer that amazing treatments are being developed. Cancer treatment has come along way since my father died of it in 1984. And I know — I absolutely know — that miracles occur. The kind of miracles that leave doctors and nurses shaking their heads in wonder.

But I want to fight this terrible disease.

If I could, I would lace up my steel-toed boots, jump in the truck and drive to Cancer’s house, and beat it out of existence with a ball bat.

I can’t.

I can’t do research for a cure, I can’t treat patients, I can’t donate millions of dollars for treatments and research.

What I can do is write.

I can advocate.

When Booman Tribune and the blogosphere is best at doing is making phone calls, writing letters, pushing an agenda. We’ve done it during elections. We’ve done it over Supreme Court nominees and against hateful right wing columnists.

Cancer is a terror we should be fighting. More people die of cancer each year than ever will die of a terrorist attack. Cancer terrorizes the victims and the families.

But the funding to the National Cancer Institute is a pittance of that spent on the Department of Defense.

I am not asking for us to fight against death. Death is as natural as life. Our mortality is what makes each day count and our time on earth is better by knowing that.

But I am saying we can work to eradicate a disease that is horrific.

We need to give those doing the research and providing the treatment all of the tools they need. Just as we’ve fought and made calls to make certain our soldiers have body armor, we need to make sure our cancer researchers have everything they need at the frontlines of fighting cancer.

Here’s the action alert on the American Cancer Society’s page:

As a volunteer for ACS CAN and someone whose life has been affected by cancer, I can tell you that this disease has a devastating effect on families, many of them right here in our state.

Please include a request for a 6.7% increase for NIH in 2008 in your program request letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee.

How much NIH and NCI money comes into our district? Go to acscan.org/mydistrict to find out.

While the NIH budget doubled between 1998 and 2003, funding in recent years has fallen behind, putting at risk the substantial progress we are beginning to make. While this 6.7% request is not as much as the level authorized by Congress last year, it represents a down payment on getting NIH funding back to where it was at the end of the doubling, accounting for biomedical inflation.

Cancer centers and universities in every state, including ours, receive NIH grants that support lifesaving cancer research into the causes of the disease and new treatments for those who’ve been diagnosed.

Please do your part to ensure NIH receives the funding it needs to support lifesaving research and programs. Include a request for a 6.7% funding increase for NIH in your program request letter.

Together, WE CAN make fighting cancer a national priority.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]

I’m not sure if this is the best approach. I’m all for fully funding the NCI. It should receive bipartisan support.

President Nixon founded the NCI. Cancer touches all of us regardless of party. In an interview with David Frost, President Nixon was asked what he was most proud of during his presidency. Nixon said that above normalization of relations with China, ending the war in Southeast Asia, the nuclear missile treaties with the Soviet Union, he was most proud of creating the National Cancer Institute. Nixon had lost a beloved sister to cancer. He understood the need to eradicate this dreaded disease.

What I’d like to do with this diary tonight is brainstorm. I believe a letter to a Congressman calling for specific action is always better than a generic letter. Should we blanket legislators with letters calling for full-funding for NCI? Should we target a specific committee or legislators? Is there other legislation we should focus on?

I’d also like to hear if this idea is worth urging other blogs to join in with. Fire Dog Lake would be a natural. Is it possible to make this a blog swarm across the Internet and what’s the best way to do that?

Please give me your ideas below. I’d like to take those ideas and develop from them an action diary. In doing the research in trying to develop an action plan, I felt overwhelmed by the need.

There’s a part of me that wants to see the eradication of cancer out of revenge for the death of my father. But stronger still is to see it ended out of those we love today. And love gives us our greatest strength of all.

I’m very proud to say that Blogpac just announced West Virginia Blue is a recipient of the 2nd round of grants to help develop the netroots movement.

This is exciting news on many levels for me. When I began the site in August 2006, I had been a relatively veteran poster at Daily Kos.

I’d seen the way the site had helped develop many Democratic activists. The site helped inform us. The site helped motivate us. The site empowered us.

I wanted the same thing to happen in West Virginia.
We’re a diverse state with many challenges — not the least of which is our geography. Those of us in the Eastern Panhandle know little of the problems in Southern West Virginia. In many counties schools are having to consolidate due to a lack of students. Here in this area schools cannot be built fast enough to keep up with the enrollment.

Our traditional news sources seldom cover other parts of the state and when they do seldom provide context. The lack of quality coverage of politicians like Shelley Moore Capito in between elections has allowed her to manipulate the voters into believing she is a moderate who cares for the people of West Virginia when the reality is she’s beholden to corporate and right wing interests who have profit margins and executive pay as their priorities.

Before 2000, I took little interest in politics. I voted, I donated to charities and causes I believed in and by that I thought I did my part. Too many of us have been apathetic as to what the government did in our name and we’ve paid the price for it by having right wing corporate media sell us a false bill of goods. We’ve seen the manipulation of reality and people’s emotions lead to Republican victories and put an incompetent, ill-equipped administration in the White House. We’ve seen the price paid with record deficits, terrorist threats ignored before the worst criminal act occurred in U.S. history, international good will squandered and old alliances tattered.

Blogs have the power to inform and unite us. Ask Democratic Senator Jim Webb and countless others how effective blogs can be at helping campaigns. But it’s not just campaigns that can be helped. It’s a long-term movement. And that’s what I’m here for: the long haul. We’ve not rested between election cycles. Politicians like Ms. Capito aren’t going to be able to rest on their laurels in between elections and have people forget their votes and their words in between. This is a democracy. We’re here to remind the politicians they work for us.

co-authored by Carnacki and SLJ of West Virginia Blue.

West Virginia Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito had a chance to earn our praise yesterday. If she had continued on a path she had begun, we would have been the first to have credited her for doing the right thing for West Virginians and the American people. We would have crossed party lines to sing praises because bringing peace to Iraq, bringing our troops home or freeing them for where they are needed in Afghanistan — that is bigger than partisan politics.

She did not. She deserves to be called out for her cowardly action and this is something you can help with as we’ll explain at the end of the diary.
She had the chance to take a stand against an unnecessary war that has already claimed thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. It has cost us allies, the respect of the world. It has not helped the fight against terrorism. Indeed, according to studies by the Department of Defense, the CIA and the recent National Intelligence Estimate, it has created even more enemies for us.

Capito had been on the course to change

During the election campaign of 2006, she mostly ran away from her previous Rubber Stamp Republican support of President Bush. She claimed she was independent of him and that she was eager to bring the troops home. She won with 57 percent of the vote.

After she won election, she claimed to have heard us.

Capito conceded the war had a major impact on her race and others throughout the nation. She called for the new Congress to “join together in a bipartisan way with the president to bring our troops home as soon as we can.”

Then at the beginning of the year, she opposed sending more troops.

“The No. 1 issue is how to get our troops out of there as quickly as possible.

She was even more forthright with West Virginia’s Hoppy Kercheval, the dean of West Virginia talk radio:

“Capito told me candidly, “I don’t see it (GeeDubya surge plan) as the solution to the problem.”

“The four term congresswoman believes sending more troops would simply put them in “very precarious situations to try to settle a situation that really doesn’t affect our vital national interest.”

“There, she said it. She doesn’t believe the “surge” makes America safer.” Hoppy Kerchival.

But what did she do when it came time to act?

Here’s how the Huntington News described it in an editorial:

Capito sliced it about as thinly as one can in a floor speech during in the House of Representatives yesterday as she made “clear” that, while she still opposes President Bush’s new surge of troops in Iraq, she cannot vote for a House resolution that says…exactly what she believes.

Come again, Congresswoman Capito? Which is it now: yea or nay?

Capito’s tortured reasoning is that, while she agrees with the content of the resolution, she fears that the Democrats may see it as a first step towards taking away funding from existing troops in the field.

Nevermind that the resolution nowhere states such a thing. Moreover, nobody is saying that Capito has to sign on to any further resolution or action by the Democrats if she finds sound cause to reject such future actions.

She said the resolution would be “tying” the military commanders’ hands by not giving them the “resources” they need.

In other words, she for opposing the escalation of the war before she was against opposing it.

Now the problem is that while some of the media did an excellent job in reporting her reversal, the others did not. Poor media coverage of her actual votes and work on Capitol Hill is one of the reasons she’s been able to market herself as a political moderate.

She’s not. She’s a hard-core Rubber Stamp Republican who is able with the complicity or ineptness of some of the media to mask her true self.

Now here’s where we ask you to action. The Rev. Jim Lewis took action. He was escorted out of Capito’s office by police after staging a protest for 10 hours in her Kanawha City office. We’re not asking you to occupy her office. We’re just asking you to call or email some people.

Room for Improvement

Martinsburg Journal, WV – by Lauren Hough – Capito comments on troop resolution

Contact Martinsburg Journal
By Email: news@journal-news.net

By Phone: 304-263-8931, extension list
Form for Letter to the Editor

Key points:
– Their coverage does not make Capito’s two-faced stance clear. Isn’t it odd for a Representative to say one thing and do the complete opposite? Isn’t it newsworthy that her actions (her vote) conflicts with her words?

– Urge them to cover the brave actions of Rev. Jim Lewis and Patriots for Peace. Capito’s action is unpopular. The depth of displeasure is news.

Improving

Daily Mail – Charleston, WV

Original Article by Jake Stump – Capito speaks against resolution critical of Iraq troop surge

Updated Article by Jake Stump – Capito opposes Iraq resolution

Contact Jake Stump

By Email: jakestump@dailymail.com.

By Email via form.

By Phone: 304-348-4842

Key Points

– Thank them for correcting the mis-impression left by their original coverage.

– Urge them to cover the brave actions of Rev. Jim Lewis and Patriots for Peace. Capito’s action is unpopular. The depth of displeasure is news.

Nice List

HNN Huntingtonnews.net – WV
Article (by HNN Staff): Capito Opposes Troop ‘Surge,’ Also Opposes Democratic Iraq Resolution in House

Editorial: Capito Has Her Cake, Eats It, Too, and Then Some

Contact HuntingtonNews.Net

Contact information.

Key Points

– Thank them for their strong coverage of the story.

– Express your interest in hearing more news about anti-war protests in the area including Rev. Jim Lewis and Patriots for Peace demonstration at Capito’s office.

Thank you for your help. This is how we stop the Iraq war, this is how we turn a red district blue by fighting every day for what is right.

As I plunged a clogged toilet at Mike Callaghan headquarters on Saturday afternoon, I thought, “This sums up what we’re trying to do for the country.” The Republicans have left us with a shitty mess and we’ve got to get the system working again to benefit everyone.

Let me begin at the beginning.

The Apple Harvest Parade was Saturdayin Martinsburg. Mike Callaghan’s local campaign office is on North Queen Street along the parade route.

We met early to make up signs and even though I suck at sign making (my daughters do better at making the signs than I do since I have trouble making my letters and staying within the lines).

Mike said he needed to wash his truck since his was dirty. When you don’t rake in the big money from the DCCC for your campaign, you wash your own truck for the parade.

Jane  (injured foot) and I (torn calf muscle, partly torn Achilles tendon) decided to stay at the headquarters to pass out apples and allow parade watchers to use our restroom.

Being nice to parade goers, of course, is part of our nefarious plot to win votes. At least, I’m sure that’s how Republican Rubber Stamp Shelley Moore (I never said stay the course!) Capito would describe it.

Afterall, she’s the one who calls this ad by Mike Callaghan an “attack” on her.

Apparently those who live in fear of terrorists organizations like Florida Quakers and human rights activists are really weak-kneed when a Democrat criticizes bad decisions to go to war and Republicans protecting a sexual predator to hold on to political power.

When she marched in the parade, she stayed in the center of the road surrounded by her supporters like they were human shields to protect her from harm. When she marched by Callaghan headquarters her smile froze. She went “tharn” as javajunkey aptly described it in the comments Saturday. I burst out laughing and kept laughing as she and her supporters walked by and laughed even louder with some Republican named Raese’s supporters marched by. A Raese supporter said “Vote for some first name Raese, our next U.S. Senator.” I chuckled loudly and he looked up, and tried to pass out literature to people who wouldn’t reach out their hands to take it. Say what you will about Senator Robert C. Byrd (and I’ve certainly said my share) he’s got a lot of supporters among Democrats and Republicans in this state.

Callaghan didn’t ride in his shiny and clean truck, which was covered by signs (My “Vote 4 Mike” sign didn’t look too bad from the distance). Instead he walked along the parade route, shaking hands with people along the route.

So Jane and I watched the parade route from a table set up with campaign literature and bumper stickers to pass out and when people asked to use our rest room (long parade with no public facilities nearby) I’d show them where it was.

After one use by a young girl, her mother told me the toilet was clogged.

Being a campaign volunteer often involves promoting the lofty ideas of the political party.

And sometimes it means wielding the plunger.

I thanked her for telling me, told her I was experienced at this with three children of my own, and went to work.

You see, even if you’re angry at the Democratic Party for whatever reason, this is not the time to bail out on them.

This is the time to roll up the sleeves and do what ever it takes to get Democrats elected.

We have plenty of Torturecrats to oust from office in the future (I’m looking at you Senator Rockefeller), but the only way to put the brakes on this illegal war in Iraq and the on-going corrupt looting of the U.S. treasury by the Republicans.

The only way to protect Social Security and to provide real Medicaid drug benefits for the people instead of the pharmaceutical giants is to elect Democrats. The only way to implement real security measures as recommended by the 9/11 Commission is to elect Democrats.

Get off the computer and go volunteer. Go canvass neighborhoods and march in parades and wave signs and phonebank and yes, plunge toilets when needed.

Because if you believe this administration and Republican-controlled Congress has left us in a world of shit, you’ve got to roll up your sleeves and unclog the mess. Because a clogged toilet isn’t going to plunge itself. And it can’t be fixed just by posting on a blog.

Donate – Join the dedicated team of volunteers

Also please freep this poll (on the right) for Mike at the Charleston Gazette.

UpdateSince writing this, I learned the DCCC selected Mike Monday as an emerging race. Hurrah!

I’m at Mike Callaghan headquarters, making signs. I suck at sign making.

Mike left to wash his truck for the parade he’s riding in. There’s beautiful weather for it.

There’s not a lot of time left in the campaign and people are working hard here to get Mike elected.

We’re doing it even though the experts predict a win by Shelley Moore Capito. We’re doing it even though Mike’s not been picked by the DCCC in the expansion funding.

We’re doing it because, like Mike, we have faith in a better America.

SLJ blogged well about Mike’s first TV commercial.

It really is a strong ad in my opinion.

There’s not been any polls published for this race. Shelley Moore Capito, a Rubber Stamp Republican who has literally been tied to just about every scandal in this administration, from Tom Delay to Jack Abramoff to being on the page board to forming a PAC with Mark Foley, did a poll earlier, but never released the results.

She never released the results.

She also has gone negative against Mike in her advertisements, mentioning him by name.

That’s also never a good sign for an incumbent. She’s never campaigned negative before.

If she didn’t think this race could be won by Mike, she wouldn’t be doing these things.

But to those of us here, it’s not about winning or losing.

It’s about doing everything we can to elect a candidate we believe in.

I’ve blogged before about Mike’s positions.

I’ve also blogged about my fears of the direction the country is going.

I’ve said before love is the cruelest emotion and I love my country.

Because I believe in the U.S. Constitution. I believe in the rule of law. I believe war is a last resort and you don’t sacrifice the military for political polls and to enrich your friends.

I believe in defending the country, tolerance and the separation of church and state and helping those in need.

Those seem like basic, decent, American traits. But in the past six years we’ve seen the right wing in this country work to counter every one of them. We’ve seen an administration ignore warnings of Osama bin Laden’s plan to attack the United States. We’ve seen them promote intolerance and racist policies. We’ve seen them promoting “values” under the guise of Christianity while ignoring the teachings of Jesus. We’ve seen them remain on vacation while an American city drowned in a hurricane instead of sending aid.

Is Shelley Moore Capito to blame for all the ills of America?

Of course not.

But she’s been a reliable, rubber stamp to approve the plans of those damaging the country.

She’s voted for more than 80 percent of Bush’s proposals. She’s taken money from Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff.

Capito is one of those Republicans that must go.

Mike Callaghan is a former federal prosecutor, who has put criminals behind bars. He’s taken on coal mine operators who violated safety and environmental laws.

He’s a good-old boy with a shaved head, a Southern accent, genteel manners and a take-no-guff core.

Callaghan is the kind of person all of us as citizens need in the U.S. House of Representatives. Because he too has faith in a better America.

Donate – Join the dedicated team of volunteers

Also please vote for Mike in this poll on the Charleston Gazette. (On the right).

UPDATE: Capito went by in the parade. She looked at me waving my Mike Callaghan sign and her face froze. HAHAHA. Raese’s supporters followed. Larger than expected group, larger than Capito’s and he doesn’t have a chance in hell. His marchers tried to pass out stuff to people sitting on the curbs and no one would take it. Byrd, for better and worse, rules this state. They were soon followed by our Democratic county commission candidate Ryan Frankenberry driving his John Deere tractor covered in his signs. He’s young, but a great future. I’ll be blogging about him in future races I’m sure. Then our delegate candidate Jerry Burton, good group with him. Mike just went by in the parade with our group of marchers. Very loud cheers for Mike. “We Like Mike” chant echoing off the downtown buildings. Sounded really cool. You can’t judge an election by a parade, but you can judge enthusiasm. Capito got a few cheers but walked in the center of the road surrounded by her people. Mike moved back and forth, shaking hands with people and waving.

“To the living we owe respect. To the dead we owe only the truth.” Voltaire.

It is not about the movie.

It’s not about polls or politics or the election of 2006.

It’s about them.

It’s about Christine Lee Hanson.

She was 2 1/2 years old and on United Flight 175 with her mother and father when the hijackers took it over.

She did not know that when President George W. Bush took office in January, he and his National Security Advisor Condi Rice would ignore the warnings presented to them by the outgoing administration and by counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke.

She did not know that for months Clarke and others attempted to issue warnings to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney about a gathering threat.

She did not know that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft produced a budget to cut funding for counter-terrorism measures.

She did not know that when President Bill Clinton had attempted to kill Osama bin Laden, Republican Congressmen and media pundits denounced him for trying to distract what they saw as the more important investigation into whether a young woman willingly performed oral sex on him.

She did not know that on Aug. 6, 2001, a CIA briefer gave Bush a report entitled “Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S.”

She did not know that Bush told the briefer he had “covered his ass” but Bush remained on vacation and took no action such as ordering increased security for airports or any other counter-measures to stop the attack.

All she knew was that she was on a plane with her mother and father.

The flight must have been incredibly rocky with the hijackers taking the jet into a power dive as they headed for New York City.

Her father was on the phone with her grandfather during those last moments.

Her father knew they were about to die.

Imagine if you will what it was like to be Christine’s father and mother. You know you are about to die with your young daughter next to you. Your dreams of growing up together with her, teaching her to read a book, watching her climb a tree, playing catch with her, sending her off to school, are about to end.

It must have been horrifying. Yet at the same time you probably fight to reassure her and reassure your father on the phone with you that it is all right because you do not want her last moments on earth to be terrifying. You probably want to fill them with love, with comfort.

Christine’s grandfather said later that his son told him, “Don’t worry, Dad. If it happens, it’ll be quick.”

One plane had already crashed into a Twin Tower.

Then the plane sped into the second tower.

Christine’s father said, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God” and her grand father heard a scream and he watched on television as the second plane flew into the World Trade Center.

Moments after Christine died, the president’s top adviser whispered in Bush’s ear.

Bush went back to listening to children read “My Pet Goat” to him.

Just six months later, Bush said he did not know where the man who masterminded the scheme to kill Christine was. And he didn’t spend that much time on him.

That is the sad truth we owe Christine.

composerMN provides a link to an orchestral elegy he wrote for Christine.

Mike Callaghan is the type of candidate we say we want, but are we willing to support him?

For example, Callaghan is not afraid of being a Democrat while running in a district that went for George W. Bush in 2004.
While all of the other Congressional seats in the state are held by Democrats, the oddly shaped West Virginia 2nd District is held by a Tom Delay Republican, Shelley Moore Capito. Yet on his signs and campaign materials, Callaghan has Democrat in large letters. He’s not running from the party like others.

Indeed, if you see Shelley Moore Capito’s blue campaign signs, no where do you see the word “Republican” or her party affiliation. It’s not on her web site either. Go to it, and one of the most prominently displayed testimonials is from a Democrat. Now there is a candidate running from her party.

Kos mentioned the other day in a front page post that it bothers him when Democrats don’t include their party affiliation in their campaign materials, but he said he understood it when some of them don’t in the red areas.

Callaghan runs proudly as a Democrat.

Nor is he afraid of taking very progressive positions.

At a press conference the other day, he stated (pdf):

The key to restoring and increasing funding for vital children’s and healthcare programs within the state lies in rolling back the tax cuts to the wealthy and immediately forming a plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq, Callaghan said.

“[The war] is a huge financial drain on our country,” he said. “I demand an immediate plan for the withdrawal to stop the bleeding of resources.”

See his very effective online ad on children’s funding cuts at his web site.

This district had long been held by Democrats. Capito, the daughter of the convicted and corrupted Gov. Arch Moore, took the seat in a narrow victory in 2000 when then Congressman Bob Wise ran and won election as governor. Capito has seemingly followed in her father’s footsteps by being the largest recipient of the crooked Tom Delay’s campaign contributions. In return, she’s been a loyal Republican rubber stamp. However, the certainty of her votes for the Republican party has not translated into any benefit at all in her District. A recent analysis of her efficiency showed her the least effective of all the West Virginia delegation — and she’s the only one in the majority party. How ineffective is she? Go to the “Getting the Job Done” page on her own web site. It’s blank!

I canvassed for Mike today. (Fellow kossack blonde moment canvassed with me and provided a lot of support — literally by letting me leaning on her and going up the stairs.)

We are competing against a well-financed campaign. We have not seen any good polling data on this race in months. But the fact Capito is dropping a lot more on advertising in this race compared to 2004 indicates to many of us she knows something we don’t know. She’s nervous about losing.

She should be. Mike is a former federal prosecutor. He’s served as the secretary of environmental protection where he went after coal mine operators in violation of the law pretty hard (which is one of the reasons the state’s robber baron Don Blankenship is so opposed to him). Mike can talk the good-old boy talk that many West Virginians want to hear because he is a good-old boy who grew  up fishing in the stream in the front yard and hunting in the woods in the back of his house.

People in this district are beginning to wake up to the fact that Shelley Moore Capito has not done anything for them. The right wingers also are beginning to realize that while Capito may be an extremist to us, she’s not as rabidly right wing enough for them. In other words, she’s a closet pro-choice supporter. Go to the “Meet Shelley” page of her web site. It’s blank too! Indeed, no where on her site does she describe her position on the issues. So why should they come out to support her?

Mike is the kind of candidate the net roots should be behind because he’s on our side on the issues.

So if you haven’t contributed to Mike, I ask you to do so. If you’ve given before, thank you. And I’m sorry to have to ask you to dig into your pockets and give again.

You can give either through Act Blue or by mail.

You can also contact Mike’s campaign here brandy@mikewv.com or sign up to volunteer at frontoffice@mikewv.com.

Please.