Massey's Montcoal Disaster: Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.

Pray for the 25 miners killed at near Montcoal WV and their families and friends. Pray for the four miners (or more) still missing.

Not many folks outside the region had heard of Montcoal, until yesterday, when Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine blew up at 3:27 p.m.--the worst mining disaster in the US for 25 years, worse than Sago, if you can quantify horror. Performance Coal, a subsidiary of Massey, operates this underground mine beneath a vast expanse of Massey's mountaintop removal surface mines that I have written about before.

My friends at Coal River Mountain Watch in Whitesville, three miles north, note on their website (via

filmaker Adams Wood's website for On Coal River) that the Upper Big Branch explosion is also:

the worst mine disaster to strike the Coal River Valley

In looking at the coverage, what galls me is the printing of quotes--unexamined and at face value--about Massey's "mourning" for the miners. Take a look at this screen shot (emphasis added) from the website bragging about the company's safety on the same home page that links to their statements about the Upper Big Branch mine.

Some though have been examining Massey's safety record at the mine, although, as Paul Blumenthal notes at the Sunlight foundation,

The Upper Big Branch Mine that suffered the most serious mining disaster since 1984 on Monday has received the most serious citations from the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in 2009 of all Massey Energy-owned mines in West Virginia. Data collected from MSHA shows that over the course of the last year, the Upper Big Branch Mine received 48 "unwarrantable failure orders," far exceeding Massey Energy's number two recipient of serious citations in West Virginia.

Ken Ward filed story that this afternoon officials said that

Rescuers at the site of the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in more than two decades likely won't be able to resume the search for four missing miners until at least Wednesday evening.

In another story he looked at the inadequacy of reforms after the Sago disaster and asked Davitt McAteer, who ran MSHA during the Clinton administration how this could happen.

"It tells me one of two things...One, the law isn't being enforced or, two, the law didn't go far enough."

Shout out to the Naughty: Fred Phelps May Be Coming to Town

Photo of a March 2009 University of Chicago counterprotest by Chris Salata (email , website) used by permission.

Westboro Baptist Church's Reverend Fred Phelps, rose to infamy for protesting at the 1998 funeral of Matthew Shephard. Now he's making his list and checking it twice and Blacksburg is one of his desired destinations. Again. (He planned to visit after the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech, until dj Mike Gallagher offered two hours of free air time for him to stay away--similar deal to that he had made to keep Phelps away from the five slain Amish school girls.)

Expect Phelps on April 9, according to a letter he sent town officials Monday, March 22. This disbarred attorney, known for his God Hates Fags website (accept my apologies for using the term and understand why I'm not linking) has disrupted funerals and memorial services not only of gays, but of soldiers who have died in Iraq and miners who have died in explosions, and, yes, even Mr. Rogers.

Preying this time on the murder of Tech student Morgan Harrington, he'd like to have demonstrations at three locations: the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center, Blacksburg High School and near the Tech campus. And he wants police protections, although he promises that his protests will be peaceful and respectful of the law, according to the Roanoke Times.

Well I agree with the students who think it's time use his visit to help raise money for a cause he despises. Remember, that actually drove him away, when he threatened to come to Roanoke, after the shoot out by a homophobe in a gay bar. As I wrote in January 2006 ("Rev. Phelps preys on Sago deaths")

We all remember Phelps here in Roanoke, where he threatened to show up in 2000 for the funeral of a gay man murdered at the Backstreet Cafe. Mary Bishop’s September 27 Roanoke Times story reported organizers as saying:

For every five minutes Phelps protests, the new Hate Free Roanoke Task Force is asking people to pledge a dollar amount toward the victims’ medical expenses and for counseling of others in the club that night. Kathryn Marlow, 22, had heard of a similar counteraction at a Ku Klux Klan rally years ago and helped hatch the plan.

The task force will post a pledge box near Phelps at the funeral in Vinton and at any other events where Phelps protests. A poster thanking Phelps for picketing will say, “Fred, you’ve already helped us raise” — followed by a blank space where the amount will be updated every five minutes.

*
Or for those who prefer levity, how about a God Hates Figs protest?

(photo from Avi Schwab via Flickr)

similar to the one at the University of Chicago, which included the brothers of Alpha Delta Phi, as pictured by Salata at the top of the page? According to Nathalie Gorman's account the frat members:

lined their porch in bathrobes, awaiting the arrival of the protesters. When they appeared, the brothers stripped off their robes and began dancing to Diana Ross & The Supremes’ “I’m Coming Out,” Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” and the Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men.” The “Tiny Dancer” lyrics “Jesus freaks/out in the streets” elicited a loud cheer from the crowd on the other side of the street.

Of course, that protest, although fun, didn't faze the Phelps clan according to Gorman. She quotes Fred's daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, the family's spokesperson as saying,

It is so awesome when you juxtapose this little group of servants of God with this restless mob of humanity...These people think that they have the power, this arrogant nation, to change God. The little girly boys up there with their clothes half off gyrating around—they might as well flip off their god.

NewsTrust: looking for how the recession is affecting New Yorkers

Illustration by Jonathan Keegan (website, email) from "Helicopter Parents Make Boomerang Kids" by an anonymous blogger with the nom de internet of "makeitadouble", an upstate NY "Dad, Writer, Poet, Sarcastic Malcontent" who also blogs here.

*

At the bottom of this post you'll find one of my reviews for today about how the recession is contributing to the phenonenom of boomerang kids. Thanks, in part to funding from the Omydar Network, NewsTrust will be spending the last two weeks in March rating local news coverage on how the recession is affecting New Yorkers. Some of you remember I served as community developer for NewsTrust back in 2008 and I've been hired to help w. this project. If you'd like to join us or have suggestions for sources or will be publishing on the topic, drop me a line.

*

During the New Hunt, we will review news and opinions on local economic issues ranging from unemployment to government cutbacks in New York City. Newstrust will be collaborating with the Huffington Post’s NYC portal and its Eyes and Ears team, as well as City Limits. Based on our collective ratings, we will feature the best (and worst) local news coverage and post them on the NewsTrust and HuffPo blogs on Wed. April 7th, 2010.

Starting this week, I'll be finding coverage and next week I'll be coordinating the coverage on goverment cutbacks. My assigned sources are:

• The New York Times
• New York Post
• Reuters
• Bloomberg
• Village Voice
• New York Magazine
• El Diario (in Spanish, not sure I'll be doing this.)
• Indydependent
• Gothamist
• Center for an Urban Future
• New York Globe (not sure about this--may be defunct)
• and borough sources for Queens and the Bronx (which I'll list in a future post.)

Heading up the effort is NewsTrust associate editor Kaizar Campwala.

The other members of the team are freelance writer and editor Kristin Gorski (blog, email, bio--assigned to real estate and to Manhattan. ) and writer and musician Jon Mitchell (blog, email, twitter, bio--assigned to jobs and to Brooklyn, Staten Island).

And of course, NewsTrust founder and Executive Director Fabrice Florin willl be handling the business end of things, as well as adding his reviews.


*

So here's a piece I reviewed today from Sam Roberts (article archive)
"Facing a Financial Pinch, and Moving In With Mom and Dad" by Sam Roberts, NYT.

Roberts, who has written other pieces on the recession's effects in NYC, cites examples of several young people living at home, a census analysis by the NYT (no link) and links to a survey from last fall by Pew and the census's current population survey. He quotes Andrew Beverage of CUNY. In all, a thorough piece which also provides the reader with resources to dig deeper.

BTW in 1985, Roberts was the the second recipient of the Fund for the City of New York's annual Peter Kihss Award for excellence in reporting about New York City government (now seemingly defunct--Kihss has won the first award in 1994, shortly before his death at the age of 72 Nicholas Pileggi (IMDB listing), contributing editor of New York magazine got the award in 1986. Pileggi, Nora Ephon's husband, is the author of Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, which he adapted into the film Goodfellas. ):

Hollins Literary Festival

Photo of Molly Peacock by Marc Royce (email, bio)


Photo of David Payne (uncredited)



Photo of Valerie Martin by Murdo Macleod (website) in September 20, 2009 Guardian interview.

Novelist David Payne and 2010 Louis D. Rubin, Jr., Writer-in-Residence (Back to Wando Passo), poet/memoirist Molly Peacock (The Second Blush) and novelist Valerie Martin (Property) will be the featured writers at tomorrow's Hollins literary festival with readings and a panel in the auditorium of the Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center (next to the Dana Science Building and across from Moody Center.)

10:30 a.m.--David Payne (bio, email)
11:30 a.m--Molly Peacock (bio, email)
2:00 p.m--Valerie Martin (bio, email)
3:15 p.m.--Poetry panel discussing student-submitted work

There will also be a 12:45 p.m. luncheon in the Moody Dining Hall (pay at the door) and a reception in the lobby of the arts center at 4:15 p.m.

Here's a poem by Molly Peacock from her 2002 collection Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems (W.W. Norton)

Don't Think Governments End The World

Don't think governments end the world. The blast
the burnings, and the final famine will
be brought on by mistake. "I'm sorry," the last
anxious man at the control panel will
try to say, his face streaked with panic, red
hives rising on his neck. He'll have been a jerk
all his life, who couldn't get through his head
that his mother couldn't love him. Work
at the panel would give him the control
that she had denied him again and again.

Thus the world will burn through the central hole
of his being. He won't really be sure-again,
having never been assured of her- of what
he is supposed to do. That is, he'll be sure
at every exercise until the shut
blank door of the final moment injures
his gerrybuilt control and BANG, BANG, BANG.

It won't be his fault, his childish mother's fault,
or the fault of what produced her or what
produced what produced her back through the vault
of savage centuries. If he'd just known what,
he'd have done it to please. He might have known himself
through what he'd felt, and thus might be clear.
She might have said, "That's nice, dear,"
and we wouldn't be dead.

Aren't you scared of your life in his hands?
But of all the men whose hands you'd hope to be in,
Name the one you're sure of. The history of nations
is cold; the world burns by generations.

Coal Ash is "Out of Control

Cover image from Out of Control: Mounting Damages from Coal Ash Waste Sites, from the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice February 24, 2010

Coal ash, a by-product of coal combustion of coal at power plants, gained national attention in December 22, 2008 when when TVA spilled 2.66 million pounds of 10 toxic pollutants into the nearby Emory and Clinch rivers -- more than all the surface-water discharges from all U.S. power plants in 2007, according to a December 2009 report by the Environmental Integrity Project, issued in time for a congressional hearing December 9, The One Year Anniversary of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Ash Slide: Evaluating Current Cleanup Progress and Assessing Future Environmental Goals.

The EPA had committed to issuing new requirements for coal combustion waste by the end of 2009--something that had been in the works since at least May 2000, partly as a result of inconsistencies in state requirements. In a press release issued December 17, however, EPA announced it would miss the 2009 deadline because

the agency is still actively clarifying and refining parts of the proposal.

Evidently, the rule is stalled at the Office of Management and Budget and a slew of lobbyists would like it to stay stalled. For instance, November 2, 2009, the Associated General Contractors of America asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to slow down regarding regulation or at the least, to designate coal ash as non-hazardous because

even a conditional designation of coal combustion waste as hazardous would strongly discourage the construction industry from making the [sic] any beneficial use of such material in the future. At a minimum it would stigmatize all such material. It could also trigger a host of other regulatory requirements for the transportation of such material, and both requirements for the storage and handling of even small quantities. It could also frighten the surety and insurance industries, making bonds or insurance coverage for any beneficial use of such material either difficult or impossible to purchase. It could even trigger a wave of frivolous but still expensive litigation.

Interesting that the group writes about "small quantities" in the same letter that it boasts that the industry uses over 20 million metric tons of fly ash annually. Of course,
U.S. coal-fired power plants generate nearly 140 million tons of fly ash, scrubber sludge, and other combustion wastes every year.

One of WV's patron saints of coal, Governor Joe Manchin has chimed in to say the combustion waste should go unregulated:

Coal ash recycling is a multibillion dollar industry that provides thousands of truly green jobs across our country...Hastily raising its status to "hazardous" could actually cause more environmental harm and place undue financial burden on countless thousands of Americans.

And, while industry and its friends sees fly ash as "non-hazardous, " EPA indicated that coal ash dumps significantly increase risks to both people and wildlife: the EPA's 2007 risk assessment estimated that up to one in 50 residents living near certain wet ash ponds could get cancer due to arsenic contamination of drinking water. And a 2009 survey found "high hazard potential" at least 49 impoundments.

Now, the Environmental Integrity Project and Earth justice have released a February 24 report revealing that arsenic and other toxic pollutants have been found in water at coal ash 31 additional coal-ash contamination sites in 14 states (DE, FL, IL, IN, MD, MI, MT, NC, NM, NV, PA, SC, TN and WV) in addition to the 70 sites named in the EPA's justification for the pending rule. And the levels are up to 145 x the federal limits.

Earth Justice is urging folks to write, call (202-456-1414) or fax (202-456-2461) the White House. The link includes sample letters and scripts.

And my source for Congressional Research Service reports, Steven Aftergood of FAS, has promised me he will obtain and post a digital copy of a report on coal ash, probably in about a week. I'll post the link when it's available. Meanwhile, if you want a paper copy, you can write your Senator or Congressperson:

Luther, Linda, Managing Coal Combustion Waste (CCW): Issues with Disposal and Use (January 12, 2010), , Report number R40544.

Virginia General Assembly's Gift to Stealth Development

Illustration from application for rezoning submitted in a sucessful request for passage of Blacksburg's Ordinance 1412.

*

Barely a year has past since Virginia Supreme Court ruled on February 27, 2010 in Hale v. Board of Zoning Appeals in favor of the Town of Blacksburg and Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth (BURG) and against Fairmount Properties. Critics of Fairmount said it had used a bait and switch to secure rezoning of a rugby field next to the elementary school. The promise: upscale mixed use development including apartments. The plan submitted following rezoning: a shopping center "anchored" by a big-box Wal-Mart.

Richmond attorney Philip Strother (email), whose firm represented BURG in the case summed up the switch in the article he wrote for the University of Richmond Law Review. Peter Vieth also wrote about the decision March 16, 2009 for Virginia Lawyers Weekly.


Today, the Virginia State Senate with a Dem majority (of 22 - 18) unanimously passed the Republican-held House of Delegates' gift to developers, HB 1250, which lowers the threshold for vested rights to include cases in which

the zoning administrator or other administrative officer has issued a written order, requirement, decision or determination regarding the permissibility of a specific use or density of the landowner's property that is no longer subject to appeal and no longer subject to change, modification or reversal under subsection C of § 15.2-2311.

Writing about HB 1250 in "A letter isn't enough Lawmakers would make it easier for developers to sneak projects past public scrutiny," the Roanoke Times contended today that

It is the sort of rule only developers could love -- developers who prefer to sneak projects past elected officials without genuine public oversight.

*

The Roanoke Times also opined that

if this law had been in place a couple of years ago, Blacksburg almost certainly would have never been able to block a big-box store in town.

I'm not sure. After all, the Blacksburg case involved the failure of the developer to adequately specify use. Justice Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. ruled,

There is simply no language in the proffers and nothing in the attendant materials that were submitted with the rezoning application that would ‘specify use’ so that it could be found the developers clearly intended to reserve … a vested right for an unrestricted retail sales use of the property.

I checked w. Daniel Breslau of BURG and asked what exactly HB 1250 gives the developers and whether the provision would have applied to Fairmount. Daniel replied,

It's not clear if it would have changed the outcome in our case. But it could have. There were a series of letters between the developers and the Blacksburg zoning administrator in early 2007. The letters did not exactly give an order that a big box was permissible. But there was a big box in the plans and the zoning administrator did not list the big box among the things that were not OK in the plans. They tried to claim this was vesting under the existing law, but the courts did not buy it (although the BZA [Board of Zoning Appeals], which accepted every one of the developers' arguments and even invented some of their own, did). The issue is not as clear cut with the change. If the new bill becomes law, zoning administrators in Virginia will have to include a disclaimer in all of their correspondence with developers, saying that their letters are a courtesy and do not represent an "order, requirement, decision or determination," etc., unless their intention is to confer vested rights.

He added,

In some ways the law may backfire on developers. The more they try to ease the conditions for getting vested rights, the less any jurisdiction will want to approve a project without a very detailed and binding plan.

I agree.

*

But, here's what I really don't get about the paper editorial--its warning that

Virginians who care about their communities should take notice before it is too late.

WTF? Why wait to warn us when it is within hours of being "too late." Where was a heads up when the measure was submitted by recently elected Virginia Beach hog farmer Barry Night on January 18 or when it passed the House on February 12? Daniel and otherswrote their Senators today and for what? We all would have appreciated at least the appearance of the ability to affect public policy if indeed the measure only benefits developers.

Oh, and by the way, the bill patron's website says he had a "strong dedication" "protecting citizens' rights." Here's my question for the good delegate:

Since when are developers, whom you count among your financial backers, the only citizens with rights, Mr. Night?

*

Update: former Goochland Andrew McRoberts , who served as Goochland's County Attorney through May 19, 2009, and now is part of the County and is now part of the Local Government practice at the law firm of Sands Anderson Marks & Miller, P.C. in Richmond (email, bio) posted on HB 1250 on March 2 at his informative blog, Virginia Local Government Law (and linked to me. Thanks!) His post looks at vested rights and the ramifications of the new bill and concludes:

whether HB 1250 benefits many or just a few, this step is a big change by its very nature. It is a step toward government in the dark to the detriment of the public will as expressed by its elected officials. A major shift, indeed.

Moving Day (again)

Photo from a blog on low-carb diets.

Since my second cataract surgery was cancelled (twice now) and Rhoda hadn't signed on for a permanent roommate, I spent today loading up what remains out of storage and moving in with Mary Holliman publisher at Pocahontas Press and former Blacksburg Town Council member.

She was entertaining her grandson for dinner, so Mike and I went out to Souvlakis for gyros with tzatziki sauce. If you want to make your own at home, here's Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network (a channel I became addicted to while living with Rhoda. I've been making yogurt, so maybe I'll pick up a cuke and some mint on Tuesday at Kroger's. Not sure about the lamb. But maybe...

* 1 medium onion, finely chopped or shredded
* 2 pounds ground lamb
* 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
* 1 tablespoon dried marjoram
* 1 tablespoon dried ground rosemary
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* Tzatziki Sauce, recipe follows

Directions

Process the onion in a food processor for 10 to 15 seconds and turn out into the center of a tea towel. Gather up the ends of the towel and squeeze until almost all of the juice is removed. Discard juice.

Return the onion to the food processor and add the lamb, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt, and pepper and process until it is a fine paste, approximately 1 minute. Stop the processor as needed to scrape down sides of bowl.

To cook in the oven as a meatloaf, proceed as follows:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Place the mixture into a loaf pan, making sure to press into the sides of the pan. Place the loaf pan into a water bath and bake for 60 to 75 minutes or until the mixture reaches 165 to 170 degrees F. Remove from the oven and drain off any fat. Place the loaf pan on a cooling rack and place a brick wrapped in aluminum foil directly on the surface of the meat and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F. Slice and serve on pita bread with tzatziki sauce, chopped onion, tomatoes and feta cheese.

To cook on a rotisserie, proceed as follows:

Form the meat mixture into a loaf shape and place on top of 2 overlapping pieces of plastic wrap that are at least 18 inches long. Roll the mixture in the plastic wrap tightly, making sure to remove any air pockets. Once the meat is completely rolled in the wrap, twist the ends of the plastic wrap until the surface of the wrap is tight. Store in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to overnight, to allow the mixture to firm up.

Preheat the grill to high.

Place the meat onto the rotisserie skewer. Place a double-thick piece of aluminum foil folded into a tray directly under the meat to catch any drippings. Cook on high for 15 minutes. Decrease the heat to medium and continue to cook for another 20 to 30 minutes or until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 165 degrees F. Turn off the heat and allow to continue to spin for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees. Slice and serve on pita bread with tzatziki sauce, chopped onion, tomatoes, and feta cheese.

Tzatziki Sauce:

16 ounces plain yogurt

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped

Pinch kosher salt

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

5 to 6 mint leaves, finely minced

Place the yogurt in a tea towel, gather up the edges, suspend over a bowl, and drain for 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Place the chopped cucumber in a tea towel and squeeze to remove the liquid; discard liquid. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the drained yogurt, cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and mint. Serve as a sauce for gyros. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

I'm old enough to remember Christopher Plummer from 1965 in his turn as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Over a half century later, I got to see him tonight as Dr. Parnassus in Terry Gilliam's 2009 fantasy,The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, in which he plays thousand year-old monk.

The devil, Mr. Nick (played by Tom Waits), you see, had come to the monastery where Parnassus believed he was keeping the world intact with his fellow monks by reading a story. Mr. Nick "proves" Parnassus wrong by stopping the monks' mouths; the world still continues. Parnassus counters that someone elsewhere has continued to tell the story, thus preserving the world. Mr. Nick wagers he can win more souls through desire than can Parnassus through stories and imagination. Parnassus wins and thus gains immortality, but his body continues to age and Mr. Nick offers him youth in order to win the heart of a woman he loves. In exchange, any child he fathers will become Mr. Nick's property when the child turned 16. At the age of 60, in a miracle reminiscent of Sarah's, the Mrs. gives birth to a daughter, Valentina(Lily Cole).

Parnassus has been reduced to performing a sort of medicine show from a decrepit wagon with Valentina and two other troupe members--barker/sleight of hand expert Anton (Andrew Garfield) and dwarf Percy (Verne Troyer)--outside the pubs of London. Mid-act, a drunkard barges onstage, crashes through the stage mirror without paying the price of admission and is thrown into a journey of the imagination that culminates in his being offered a choice between enlightenment and a pub. After he enters the pub, it explodes. Parnassus has lost another soul to Mr. Nick.

It is three days before Valentina's 16th birthday and Parnassus is depressed and drinking, having drawn the tarot card for the hanging man and is about to confess to Valentina when Mr. Nick (who, like a cat, seems to want to play with his prey) offers another wager: Parnassus can save his daughter by winning five souls before Mr. Nick can do so. On the troupe's way to the next venue, Anton spots a man dancing beneath the bridge. On closer inspection, it is a hanging man, (Heath Ledger playing Tony) whom he rescues with the help of Valentina.

Heath Ledger had previously worked with Gilliam in The Brothers Grimm. He asked to play Tony, according to Gilliam's On 12/18/2009 interview with CNN's Andrea Mineo:

he was in London working on the Joker, and at the same time he was working on a music video that he had written. They were designing animation and they needed a place to work, so I put him to work in my effects company. We had a space there and they were happily working. One day, I was showing my special effect boys and talking through the scenes, and Heath slips me this little note saying, "Can I play Tony?" And I said, "Are you serious?" He said, "Yes, I want to see this movie."

Almost anyone conversant with popular culture knows that Ledger didn't live to see the movie. He died in January 2008 of an accidental overdose of prescription medicines while on hiatus before the filming, started in London, resumed in Vancouver.

Gilliam, with a history of plagued productions, was ready to give up the project, according to David Morgan's story, "Resurrecting Heath Legder's Final Film," when his daughter Amy and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini persuaded him to finish. (See also, and an interview with Gilliam on the UK site, The Last Broadcast.)

Gilliam also talked to CNN's Mineo about Johnny Depp's role in rescuing the film:

So one of the people I called was Johnny Depp, because I introduced him to Heath and they had become very close. I was commiserating with Johnny and said, "I think the film's over. I'm going home." And he said "Whatever you decide to do, I'll be there." And that's a heartening statement. That is the beginning of the process of re-imagining the film. It was quite easy to rewrite it. All the premises were there. The ideas were all there. The first scene when Johnny goes through the mirror and his face changes.That establishes the principle very clearly and the rest fell well into place.

And since there were three trips behind the mirror (and perhaps because Depp was only available for a day or two, as he was filming Michael Mann's Pubic Enemies ) Jude Law and Colin Farrell play Tony, on trips two and three respectively. The rationale for the shapeshifting was elegantly accomplished by adding a scene where the initial drunk's face changes while he is within the imaginarium.

I'm amazed by Gilliam's imagination. The imaginarium is gorgeous: see the 12/18/09 photo essay "Designing the Imaginarium," from CBS News. And, despite the opinion of some other critics, I'd say the story is well told and compelling revisioning of Dr. Faustus.

Happy New Years 2010!

Reuters photo of fireworks above the Sydney Opera House published in the Daily Mail.

Looks a bit like Roanoke's Taubman Museum of Art (but less shoehorned in):



The "noughties" are gone. To celebrate the New Year Barry and I tried out Zeppoli's Italian restaurant across from University Mall in Blacksburg. Mussels in garlic butter (the poor woman's snails until they rename slugs--a la Patagonian tooth fish, which is so successful at luring diners as Chilean sea bass that it is seriously overfished )

And Barry brought gifts. Books: The Appalachians (the companion to the pbs film by Mari-Lynn Evans, who also brought us Coal Country); The Complete Novels of Flann O'Brien, Chief of Station, Congo, The Given Day (Dennis Lehane), and Just Enough Liebling.

Plus a tin of brownies from the recipe in Moosewood Cookbook. Until Barry disabused me of the notion, I believed my mother's dictum that no one could make brownies like Duncan Hines. Actually brownies are easy. Unfortunately, neither Moosewood nor Mollie Katzen has the recipe up online, although there are lots of other good ones archived, as well as links to other sites. But, Heidi Swanson has the recipe posted with permission here at her site, 101cookbooks.

And if you want a recipe for a fudgier brownie, here's one by Annemarie Huste, who once said on a cable tv cooking show that she used to make these ones for John John Kennedy:

9 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 sticks of butter

9 eggs

3 1/2 cups suga

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups pecan nuts

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a heavy saucepan melt the chocolate with the butter over low heat stirring constantly. When the chocolate is melted put aside to cool. In a mixer combine eggs, sugar, salt and the vanilla extract and mix until light and fluffy. Then add the melted and cooled chocolate. Combine well and fold in the flour and pecan nuts. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper, rubbing both the pan as well as the paper with a little vegetable oil. Pour the brownie batter into the preheated pan and bake in your preheated 325 degree F oven for 25 minutes.

Note: The brownies will be very fudgy inside and not dry. When cooled, cut them into 1″ squares.

"After years of doing our part to undermine Wall Street, the darned thing fell on us!"

Graphic design used on a t-shirt used in many union actions...

Northland Poster Collective dedicated itself to placing art and humor at the center of organizing strategy. I just learned that it is no more, as of June, after 30 years and three months.

We don't have to tell you that maintaining a small, insurgent political art organization, without institutional backing or grant funding for thirty years in a capitalist economy is a struggle. That we did it for so long is an achievement we can celebrate. A couple of years ago we engaged in a major fundraising effort that retired a mountain of old debt and set us -- or so we hoped -- on a course toward long-term stability. Given a few more years of steady growth without any global financial meltdowns we may well have gotten there. We didn't get an opportunity to find out. After years of doing our part to undermine Wall Street, the darned thing fell on us!

One of the original members, Ricardo Levin Morales, has a gallery of work here. He will be selling his work online sometime in the future. If you're on facebook, you can view many of the posters here. And some of the website was saved by the the Internet Archive. (If you reach a dead end, you can sometimes do a google search on the name of the poster and artist to find it elsewhere on the internet. You can buy buttons (and soon bumper stickers) from River City Buttons. You can buy t-shirts (minimum order of six) from Aztech Graphix. Email edup1972@hotmail.com.

For other political art distributors, still in business, see:

• Labor Heritage Foundation www.laborheritage.org/
• Labor Notes http://labornotes.org/
• Donnelly/Colt http://donnellycolt.com/catalog/core.shtml
• Syracuse Cultural Workers http://syracuseculturalworkers.com
• Northern Sun Merchandising http://www.northernsun.com/
• Progressive Portal http://www.progressiveportal.org/

No Impact Man at the Lyric

Tonight, for the 7:00 show of No Impact Man, the President of Virginia Tech, in honor of sustainability week, bought any student a ticket and a drink. 200 took him up on in. The 9:15 show was slower, but Matt, Shawn and Mark were among the folks I sold popcorn and drinks.

Forget the snarky review in the NYT. The movie is worth seeing, even if you have to pay to get in. It's a candid look at the experiment one writer and his family make to lower their environmental impact, all while living in NYC. It includes a look at the need for political action beyond individual action and the health ramification of our consumerism on, for instance, low income neighborhoods which are often the sites for landfills and the worst traffic.

The filmmaker's blog is here.

EPA Protest goes to Texas, thanks to Charlee

What I've been doing today. Charlee is handing this out tomorrow at the Mountain Justice Road show in TX. With my thanks to Scott Parkin at Rainforest Action Network for the map.

Mark-up for Local Community Radio Act of 2009

Graphic from the Future of Music Coalition.

~

My friends at Prometheus Radio are leading a campaign to get the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (H. R. 1147) passed to local communities to set up low-cost radio stations.

Boucher's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet issued a media advisory Wednesday, 07 October 2009 09:42 a.m. that it would be meeting at 10 am October 2009 to consider H.R. 1147, the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Sure doesn't give folks much time to weigh in, if they hadn't already. I had written Boucher April 7, but he's still not a co-sponsor. So, dear readers, weigh in if you will. Especially if you are represented by someone on this subcommittee.

I didn't think that Rick, given his stances, would favor new media outlets for those who want single payer health care or a stop to the destruction of mountains by MTR. So, instead I decided to advocate for old time music:

Dear Congressman Boucher,

As a fan of old-time music and your constituent I'd ask that you co-sponsor the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (H. R. 1147), introduced by Congressman Doyle on February 24. This bill will implement the recommendations of the Federal Communications Commission report to the Congress regarding low-power FM service (LPFM.) LPFM has enriched this country's cities and towns- and has yet to reach its full potential. This bill has bi-partisan support and backing from the FCC, and responds to the conclusive results of the 2003 MITRE study which found that concerns of interference are not an issue.

As you noted in your address in Wytheville in 2007 at the "Putting Southwest Virginia's Unique Heritage and Culture to Work Conference," communities along The Crooked Road including Fries, Floyd and Galax "share a common musical heritage, each of them possesses a unique and interesting identity and heritage." Access to a locally-owned and locally-controlled radio station will enhance culture and public engagement in our community. More LPFMs in Southwest Virginia will mean more opportunities to introduce citizens to a wide range of Virginian artists, musicians, religious groups, cultural and business leaders, and government officials. Local broadcasting can also provide on-the ground content in the case of local emergencies, when on-the-ground content is essential for a rapid response.



The FCC established LPFM radio in 2000, when schools, arts organizations, churches, municipalities, and thousands of other organizations advocated for new radio licenses. The FCC began licensing 100-watt, noncommercial, local radio stations to churches, schools, local governments and community organizations across the nation.

WKJV-LP, licensed to Belle Meadows Baptist Church, and WRKE-LP, licensed to your alma mater, Roanoke College, are examples of community radio stations providing opportunities to learn the art of broadcasting, and an important forum for news, sports, culture and community. Unfortunately, two-thirds of the applications for LPFM licenses in Southwest Virginia remain unapproved, leaving out many such as one requested by Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands, which hoped to include a student and community radio station in its new Learning Resources Center. Your support of The Local Community Radio Act, could drastically impact the community media landscape in our district, and beyond.

April 2, The Daily Yonder published Kate Blofson in an article, "Low Power Radio Turns Up Local Pride." Blofson quoted Shawn Dakin, a community member involved in a LPFM station in Newcomerston, Ohio: "As far as local news and sports coverage, we’re a forgotten step-child in this part of the county. Too often we only get coverage only if something bad happens, and then that's the only impression that people get."

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, you are in a unique position to advance Local Community Radio Act of 2009, moving towards a mark-up, hearing, and vote. I hope that this letter helps you consider the value of the LPFM radio service for communities throughout Southwest Virginia and across the nation and that you will co-sponsor this measure to utilize and enrich the radio airwaves.

Sincerely yours,

Beth Wellington
(address)

Wondering how to raise $50k for Energy Justice Network

Illustration by Linda Zacks from Orion Magazine for Ted Nace's article on Energy Justice Network, "Stopping Coal in It's Tracks."

~
Can you spare $10? (Or more, if you have it...)

I'm trying to figure out how to provide financial support to Energy Justice Network. Thjs shoe-string operation hosts the No New Coal Plants list which is so helpful to us here in Appalachia (plus lists and fact sheets on biomass, natural gas, ethanol, nuclear energy, incinerators and more). It also provides organizing help to a myriad of local activists fighting polluting energy industries.

The goal is $50,000. All deduction are tax deductible. Online, you can charge a donation Action Center, Inc., Energy Justice Network's 501 (c)(3) umbrella. The link is: https://www.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=30-0246999 There, you'll be able to donate once or sign up for a recurring monthly donation. Willing to tweet about donating or post a request to your facebook or myspace feed? The short link is: http://tr.im/give_Energy_Justice.

It's a good investment. I'll quote from the funding request Mike I sent out earlier this year:

Since 2001, Energy Justice Network has provided activists with web pages and fact sheets on the hazards posed by a variety of energy and waste technologies. We've linked the most-threatened communities with the resources and energy of students and with the wisdom of hundreds of hard-to-find grassroots leaders with whom we furiously network. Rather than take the NIMBY approach (Not In My Backyard), we always fight for NIABY: Not In Anybody's Backyard. We've done more with less money, and based our assessments on the grassroots realities so many of us face, not a compromised sense of what will make it easy to get foundation funding or earn us the admiration of industry collaborators.

If you'd rather write a check, make it out to Action Center Inc.and mail it to:

1434 Elbridge St
Philadelphia PA 19149

I've already chipped in and hope you'll join me. If all of us donate and ask our friends to join us, we can continue to build this resource for our fight against polluters and their suporters. Remember, "Not in ANYbody's backyard!"

End Mountaintop Removal Day of Action: October 30

Photo by Robin Markle of the "We need 86 Mountains Because..." project in Philly 9/11/09

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is questioning 79 of the Army Corps of Engineers permits for mountain top removal mining in WV, KY, OH and TN. Questioning, but not cancelling. I'm glad the EPA has taken this action and we need for the agency to do more. The Corps needs to be overruled. And Lisa Jackson, the agency's chief has yet to accept our office to come to the region and see exactly what is being destroyed.

Mountain Justice and Energy Justice Network are again calling for rallies in every city where the EPA has an office. This is our third national action, following up on ones in June and August. At that time the agency, in response to an letter from WV Congressman Nick Rahall, had rubber stamped 42 out of 48 of the permits to blow up mountains in in that state for thin seams of coal.

Chris Irwin and I are looking for bottom liners and other who will attend a rally in each of the 11 cities. Here's who we've got so far:

*Boston
*Atlanta
*DC--Kate Rooth
*NYC
*Philly--Robin Markle
*Chicago
*Dallas
*KC--Kellis Bayless
*SF--Scott Parkin
*Denver
*Seattle

Can you please contact us and let us know if you can play a role. Write me at beth@energyjustice.net.

And if you can't attend, you can still help:

*spreading this invitation to your friends
*donate to our two small, shoe-string operations, so we can continue to do this work
*write your epa regional office on October 30 and say you support the protesters

To Donate:
Energy Justice Network:
Use this link or send a check to our 501-3c umbrella
http://tr.im/give_Energy_Justice
Action Center Inc.
1434 Elbridge St
Philadelphia PA 19149

Mountain Justice:
Use the pay pal button at
http://mountainjusticesummer.org/ or send a check to
Mountain Justice
PO Box 86
Naoma, WV 25140

To find your epa regional office:
http://www.epa.gov/epahome/whereyoulive.htm

Check this space as we provide updates for each city.

Thanks!

If you're on facebook, you can find out about more event like this, by joining The Dirty Truth About Coal:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=80582077303&ref=ts)

Are Electric Co-ops All So Different?

Photo taken by Joseph Robers on September 10 on his way to work.

The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative argues it is different than commercial utilities because it adheres to the "Seven Cooperative Principles," the last of which is

Concern for Community—While focusing on members needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policy.

But sustainable development evidently includes forging ahead in its efforts to build yet another coal fired plant in Virginia, which I first wrote about last December 6, at a time when utilities in other states are abandoning such efforts--the proposed Cyprus Creek Power Station, currently slated to cost $6 billion.

Tamara Deitrich (email), news columnist for the Daily Press wrote on June 7, 2009 in " "Surry coal plant: Just say no,"

1.7 million adults and 400,000 children in Hampton Roads are already within 30 miles of three existing coal-fired power plants.

And those plants happen to be among the four largest in the state: the Yorktown Power Station in Williamsburg, the Chesapeake Power Station and the Chesterfield Power Station in Chester.

No wonder the Environmental Protection Agency keeps putting us — as it did again in April — on the list of places with air unhealthy to breathe. [I've written Dietrich to ask her for her sources and will update to include them if I hear back.]

Groups opposing the plant include the Coalition to Keep Surry Clean, the Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Appalachian Voices and Chesapeake Climate Action Network. They suffered a blow September 14, when the Dendron Town Council reversed a July action and voted Monday 4-3 (with Mayor Yvonne Pierce breaking a tie) to cede to Surry County Planning Commission review of Old Dominion Electric Cooperative's yet to be filed application. According to Cory Nealon's (email) September 16, 2009 Daily Press story "Dendron Town Council: Surry County to review coal plant plans" Councilwoman Misti Furr said that since the 1,600-acre facility would be built on Dendron's main street,

I felt this should've been put in the hands of the people of Dendron.

Furr had submited the resolution establishing the town's own planning commission in July.
ODEC had objected and Town Attorney C.B. Fison advised that the July vote was illegal since such a commission had been on the books since 2001.

The Smithfield Times's Jim Tuttle (email) reports in his September 16 story "Dendron to send project to county planners," that about a dozen people spoke in favor of retaining town control. Bill Richardson, a nominee for the town commission said,

Surry may not have the best interest of Dendron in mind

Local businesswoman Julie Verdaguer, another nominee added,

I don’t believe we should make anyone else responsible.

According to Tuttle, after the opposition had spoken, Mayor Pierce invited a representative of the supporters to speak. Thomas Byrd held up a petition that he said contained the names of 190 people in favor of using Surry’s Planning Commission. (Tuttle does not report how many of the 190 were town voters, but it seems likely that not all were, since the total population of the town in 2000 was 297 and that, of course, includes children.) Although there are 11 on the County Planning Commission, Byrd argued that the membership of Councilwoman Furr would serve to represent the town's interests.

Economist Paul Krugman (email , webpage) told us on September 24

The truth about the economics of climate change is that it’s relatively easy being green....

He explained,

Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the effects of Waxman-Markey, concluding that in 2020 the bill would cost the average family only $160 a year, or 0.2 percent of income. That’s roughly the cost of a postage stamp a day. By 2050, when the emissions limit would be much tighter, the burden would rise to 1.2 percent of income. But the budget office also predicts that real G.D.P. will be about two-and-a-half times larger in 2050 than it is today, so that G.D.P. per person will rise by about 80 percent. The cost of climate protection would barely make a dent in that growth. And all of this, of course, ignores the benefits of limiting global warming.

But ODEC and and its member cooperatives, with their sustainable development are part of an effort to get co-op customers to contact Congress complaining about how climate legislation. The form letter reads,

Now more than ever, I am very concerned about what rising energy costs will do to the average person. Many do not have the ability to pay higher electric bills. Please balance any votes you cast about electricity with the need to keep it affordable.

Sounds familiar? It reminds me of those forged letters that Bonner and Associates sent to Charlottesville CongressmanTom Periello and others, which I wrote about on August 28. So do ODEC's statements that the arguments brought by the Southern Environmental Law Center are fiction.

Makes me think that electric co-ops don't seem all that different than others lobbying to preserve coal interests.

I have here in my hand...

This cartoon by Herblock (Herbert Lawrence Block) is from the 2000 Library of Congress exhibit and appeared in the May 7, 1954 Washington Post.

Dendron resident Thomas Byrd waved a petition before Town Council September 14, saying he had 190 supporters for the plant, according to Smithfield Times's Jim Tuttle (email) reports in his September 16 story "Dendron to send project to county planners."

Dendron Councilwoman Misti Furr tells me that she has never seen Byrd's petition up close (see also this post regarding the proposed plant and Byrd's petition.) That had me thinking of ol' Joe McCarthy and the list he waved February 9, 1950 at a Lincoln's birthday address to the Women's Republican Club of Wheeling, West Virginia According to the U.S. Senate's site, he said,

While I cannot take the time to name all the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205.

But as Robert Griffith (email), now the chairman of the History Department at American University wrote in In The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate (2d ed., 1987),

McCarthy, of course, had no list at all.

Griffith explains, that McCarthy might have been extrapolation from a a letter from Secretary of State James F. Byrnes to Congressman Adolph J. Sabath of Illinois, dated July 26, 1946, which had appeared in the Congressoinal Record (page 50)

...a preliminary screening of some 3,000 federal employees...had resulted in recommendations against the permanent employment of 285. Of these 285, the employment of 79 had already been terminated as of July 1946; 285 minus 79 leaves--if your arithmetic and logic ar enone too scrupulous--2005 "communists in the State Department.

The next day, enroute to Salt Lake City for a second speaking engagement McCarthy changed planes in Denver where

he was surrounded by reporters clamoring for the list of "Communists" in the State Department. He offered to show them the list, but then "discovered he had left it inhis baggage on the plane." there was an engaging picture of the senator peering into his briefcase for the elusive list [in the Denver Post of February 11, 1950.]

Mr. Byrd's list--of those he claims as supporters, rather than enemies--also is not readily available for inspection. And no reporter has even reported asking for it.

~

I grew up reading the WaPo, so Herblock was my hometown cartoonist. His last cartoon appeared on August 26, 2001 and he died on October 7 of that year. I still miss him. I've got to wonder what Herblock would have drawn about 9-11 and the subsequent attack on civil liberties, on the shrill attacks we hear now of socialism and worse being attributed to Mr. Obama who is nothing of the sort--although his critics to the left of the political spectrum might wish he were.

I'd love to see what he do with health care reform, which continues to flounder--the Senate Finance Committee deleting the public option. Nick Anderson's (email, blog, bio) 8/11/09 cartoon "Bipartisanship" for the Houston Chronicle foreshadowed the latest on money, politics and healthcare from Open Secrets today.



With Herblock gone, I'd argue we can still get an idea of what he might have done by looking at Anderson's 9-11 gallery. Anderson started at the Chronicle February 13, 2006, after starting his career at Louisville Courier-Journal 1991. He won the Pulitzer in 2005. for instance here's one from November 23, 2001:

Anderson's philosophy according to his bio:

An editorial cartoonist, fundamentally, should be anti-establishment. No matter which party is running the government, it is the essence of satire to question authority.

Herblock would be proud.

Grace Bauer: "Oh, baby. Boom or bust."

Cover of the Fall 2009 issue of Prairie Schooner.

~

I've know poet Grace Bauer (email, some of her poems) back from the time when she taught at Virginia Tech along side others such as Ed Falco, David Graham and Jeff Mann. Since 1994, she's been at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she has stepped in for Hilda Raz (email, webpage) to edit the Fall 2009 issue of Prairie Schooner.

As she explains in an introductory essay, "Baby Boomer Issue(s),"

Maybe it was all the recent news stories about the very first baby boomers on the verge of retirement—and the warnings about the financial havoc this was bound to wreak upon Social Security and the national economy, which was already in pretty dire straits. Or the headlines, one after the other over the last few years, announcing that cultural icons ranging from Ginsberg's Howl to Motown Records to the peace sign—even the ever youthful Barbie—had hit the half-century mark. Maybe it was the ads for Barneys NY in a December 2008 New York Times Magazine, wishing the world a "Hippie Holiday"—complete with DayGlo-colored images of those fifty-year-old peace signs and a declaration that the store was "having a COUNTER-CULTURE moment" "remembering 1968 forty years on." Or the advance reviews in the Arts & Leisure section for the reopening of Hair on Broadway. Maybe it was because the daily reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were sounding vaguely like the reports on Vietnam more than thirty years ago (which is maybe why they are restaging Hair). Maybe it was the recent election of Barack Obama, which reminded at least some people of the election of JFK—not since then had they seen so much youthful exuberance and idealism so unabashed it even led to "an open apology to boomers everywhere" from Gen X'er Heather Havrilesky on salon.com, where she said "We're sorry for rolling our eyes at you all these years"—though she couldn't resist mentioning those of us who might be wearing socks with sandals or smelling like we'd "been on the bus with Wavy Gravy for the last three decades." Maybe it was just that, to paraphrase a boomer-era song, "something's in the air"—which is maybe just my own personal sense of "time's winged chariot" (disguised, perhaps, as Wavy Gravy's bus or a compact SUV) drawing nearer. But when Hilda Raz asked me once again to stand in as acting editor of Prairie Schooner while she enjoyed a semester of well-earned leave, and asked further if I might want to do some kind of special issue, I immediately said "Baby Boomers!" A bit self-serving, no doubt, since I'm a writer who was born in the midst of that boom, but I wanted to see what such a gathering might look like, and so I set out to see.

On line, you can find excerpts from the Fall issue:

• Marly Swick's story, "Nothing Extra"
• Albert Goldbarth poem, "W"
  
• A. E. Stringer's poem, "Evolution of Rock and Roll"
• David Wojahn's poem, "Mix Tape to be Brought to Her in Rehab"
• Marianne Boruch's essay, "The Lincoln Boys"
• Charles Bernstein's poem, "On Election Day"
• Stephen Gibson's poem, "Ghazal on a Reading by a New York City Poet"
  
• Judith Ortiz Cofer's poem, "The Arrival of the Heavenly Corps"
• Ai's poem, "A Cigar Is, Oh Never Mind"
  

There are also poems from her former colleagues Graham, Falco, and Mann, plus Naomi Shihab Nye, among others (contributors' notes). The blog for the magazine indicates there will be an interview with Grace about the Fall issue here.

And speaking of permalinks, due to magazine's method of assigning links, all of the above will be broken once the Winter 2009 issue comes out. But you can still find them by substituting in the url "archives/fall09" for "current". James Engelhardt, the magazine's managing editor wrote to let me know that he's passing on a suggestion to change the linking, but it's up to the IT guys at the College of Business Admin which hosts the site.