This is scary

[wallybarron]

During his speech, Blankenship dismissed reasons often given to explain West Virginia’s economic problems, including the lack of roads, lack of flat land, coal mine mechanization and people’s laziness.

“Do you really think the problems are caused by a lack of flat land? Leave me alone, and I’ll give you all the flat land you want,” Blankenship said.

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2005082014

[Lasher]

1. Republicans Love this Jackass

Blankenship is the epitome of the evil, ruthless coal barrons in our history. Republicans obsess about having a 19th century US economy, so he is their idol.

Republicans say it's time for a change in WV. That means replace all Democrats with Republicans. They say that's because we're in terrible economic shape in this state, and it's the Democratic leadership that's to blame.

Well, it's obvious that Democrats are better economic stewards than Republicans are, despite the right-wing myths to the contrary.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20059-2005Apr1.html

http://www.ibew.org/Rev042304-JustFacts.pdf

We have really not been totally under Democratic control for decades, as Republicans say, because we have had some Republican governors. But Democrats have controlled the legislature, so I will play their game.

In April 1983 the WV unemployment rate was a staggering 18.3%. This was primarily brought about by the mechanization of coal mining jobs, and by the Reagan recession. The national unemployment rate was 10.2% at the time.

Under Democratic leadership, WV unemployment has improved, slowly but steadily. In October 2001, WV unemployment was 5.2%, compared to a national rate of 5.3%. This is the first time in recent history that WV's unemployment rate was lower than the national average. The numbers show that this improvement occurred, DESPITE Bush's sorry economic performance. Since that time, WV's unemployment rate has closely tracked the national rate.

http://www.bea.doc.gov/beahome.html