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Below are the 1 most recent journal entries recorded in
bigcoal400041's InsaneJournal:
| Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 | |
| 1:31 pm | BIG COAL ravages Community of DINGESS ` Usually when people mention Dingess, the word tunnel isn't far behind. The community's most unforgettable feature is the half-mile-long, single-lane tunnel through a mountain as you approach Dingess from Laurel Lake to the southwest. It's dark and scary in that tunnel. As you halt at one end, you squint and peer into the tunnel, looking for any faint sign of lights from a car. Gathering courage, you edge into the tunnel and pray until you see daylight at the other end Like the darkness of the tunnel, Dingess is a hidden corner of Mingo County. It seems to suffer from the worst roads. The county route is dotted with nearly a dozen one lane bridges with wooden ties. Often a few ties have popped up and present a valid road hazard. Parents worry constantly about the school buses crossing these bridges. Rumors of vote buying abound. In the election of 2000, the candidates for County Sheriff and County Commission who campaigned against vote buying held their breath until the votes from Dingess had been counted. True to form, Dingess was one of a handful of precincts where the vote was strongly against the good-government slate. The mining problems in Dingess have been able to fester with little notice as well. The community stretches along Route 3 from the intersection with the road from Laurel Lake all the way to Breeden. Most of the houses are clustered close to the road without too many hollows. The road sways back and forth along the curves of the streams. A number of substantial brick homes are interspersed with more modest modular houses. There are a few houses that date back to early decades of the 20th century, and even a few small farms. The community is sandwiched between several mining operations. For most of the 1990s, the mines were along the northeast side of Route 3 and were of the smaller persuasion--about 300 to 700 acres. More recently, the Marrowbone mine, now owned by Addington, began expanding up from Laurel Lake and will nearly touch the southeast side of Route 3. But just because the mines were smallish, the blasting problems weren't. They just moved around a bit. In 1997 and 1998, Pen Coal was mining in back of Route 3, and its blasting drew complaints all the way from the Dingess Post Office to Breeden. "You would think an airplane blew up." That's how the blasting felt to Loretta DeJesus. "I thought my whole house was sinking," she said. The damages appeared about six or seven months after the blasting began. The cinder blocks have cracks, and the house seems like it's pitching forward precipitously toward the creek. Teh water is undrinkable. She spent $5,000 on a filtering system, but it doesn't purify the water. "I know they have to make a living," she said. "But Lord, oh mercy, the damage is bad. I've been here 27 years and never had such problems." Sharon Johnson lives about three miles from DeJesus, in a comfortable home tucked under the hill from the mine. Usually she was at work when the blasts came. The only sign she saw was the damage. Like ghosts at work, there would be a pretty lamp with a china top fallen and smashed, the fireplace wall crakced, the foundation blocks split. But one day she came home from work early. Next thing she knew it felt like they were having an earthquake. Themirror above the couch fell to the floor. Thinking the mine would reimburse them for damages, they called. It was two months before someone arrived. They were given a number to call for an insurance adjuster. They wanted to find an attorney but doubted any would take the case. "I don't want any money or anything," Russell Johnson said. "I just want my house fixed the way it was when it started." Unfortunately, fixing the Peggy and Bill Parsley's house is impossible. It burned to the ground while they were on vacation in September 1997, and they blame the blasting. Peggy Parsley doesn't like to look at the shell that was once her home. For about a year after the fire, she and Bill lived in a trailer they placed nearby. Arguments with the insurance company over compensation for the furniture and other belongings stretched for months. She could describe the lost antiques in loving detail. Finally, they just moved out of Mingo County completely. They lived with half a mile of the mine entrance. When the blasts came, the house just shook. Their neighbor Clarence Marcum could stand in front of the still-standing chimney and describe the damage from memory: one to one and a half inch cracks in the walls, the wall that pulled loose from ceiling, oil in the water. "Pen Coal shot so much harderthan anything else," he said. "It was like shaking earth all around you." The official cause of the fire was a short in the air conditioning system. But the Parsleys and Marcum think the blasting just shook everyting so hard that it weakened the electrical system. No one will ever know for sure. Stanley Marcum lives halfway between Dingess and Breeden. His house shook, too--for several years. First it was Pen Coal; then Tri-County, owned by two local men, bought Pen Coal's coal leases and mined along the ridge across the road from his home. It was small mine, purposely designed without any valley fills. And the blasts were small, often less than 1,000 pounds. But that didn't reduce their impact. Marcum, a disabled miner in his 50s, lives where he was born, in a two-story house on the banks of the West Fork of Twelvepole Creek. Steel blue, the house has been carefully restored. Birds gather at the feeders near the creek bank, and Marcum built a garage a few years ago. His wife has a beauty parlor in the rear of the house and is home most of the day When Pen Coal was blasting about half a mile down the road three years ago, Marcum did complain to DEP a few times even though his home wasn’t among the closest. Last year and this past winter, his house was frequently just about the closest to Tri-County. Blasting was occurring on the ridges lying to the northeast, across the creek and road from his house. Only now, he was reluctant to complain because he had gone to school with one of the owners. Still, his wife kept careful track of the blasts, noting down the ones that were the most bothersome. Marcum believes the cracks in the foundation have grown worse because of the blasting. He showed me how the bottom wall of his living room bows outward into the room. Whether these irregularities were caused by blasting will be up to an engineer. What is clear, though, is that the blasting is annoying and sometimes scary. The house just shakes and shakes, according to Marcum and his son. The Marcum family has been working in the mines for decades. Stanley worked as a deep miner at Marrowbone for more than 20 years. In the early 1990s, Marrowbone ousted the UMWA, but Marcum stayed on. He had the misfortune to be in a mine fall, breaking his back in several places. Though he is fortunate to be able to walk, he can’t go back to work. The mine paid the medical bills for his accident, but he is now like many disabled miners in their 50s and early 60s: without medical coverage until he reaches retirement age. Marcum’s son drove a coal truck at Pen Coal, but recently switched to driving for Marrowbone. A new permit for Marrowbone’s mountaintop mine is approaching Marcum’s house from the southwest. The pond for the valley fill will be about 300 feet from his backyard. "I was born here," he said. "But if they bought me out, I would leave." `
book: Big Coal, The Dirty Secret; by Jeff Goodell book: Greenwash, The Reality Behind Corporate Environmentalism; by Jed Greer http://www.stopgreenwash.org book: Earthsummit.Biz: Corporate Takeover of Sustainable Development; by Kenny Bruno book: Battling Big Business: Countering Greenwash, Infiltration, and Other Forms of Corporate Bullying book: When Miners March; by William C. Blizzard book: Bloodletting in Appalachia, The Story of West Virginia's Four Major Mine Wars; by Howard Burton Lee book: Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields; by David Corbin book: Battle of Blair Mountain; by Robert Shogan book: Storming Heaven; by Denise Giardina book: Unquiet Earth; by Denise Giardina book: Lost Mountain; by Erik Reece book: Coal River; by Michael Shnayerson book: Bringing Down the Mountains; by Shirley Stewart Burns book: Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal; by Penny Loeb book: Missing Mountains; by Kristin Johannsen book: The Buffalo Creek Disaster; by Gerald M. Stern book: Bringing Down the Mountains; by Shirley Stewart Burns book: Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds; by William S. 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The military claims the Wind Farms are a threat to national security. Maybe the Wind Farms are a threat to Big Oil and Big Coal? HOW STUPID ARE AMERICANS? http://pickensplan101.livejournal.c FOSSIL FUEL ECONOMIC DISASTER http://ovl.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/2 http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/200 ~ book: Tyranny of Oil; by Antonia Juhasz book: Halliburton Agenda - The Politics of Oil and Moneyl; by Dan Briody book: Cronies - Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas; by Dan Briody book: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man; by John Perkins book: Economic Gangsters; Ray Fisman book: Sound Truth and Corporate Myth - The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill; by Riki Ott book: Poisoned Wells - The Dirty Politics Of African Oil; by Leandre Poisson book: Justice Under Siege; by Eva Joly book: Texas Oil and the New Deal; by Steve Isser book: Corruption In Iraq & World; by Vance Jochim book: Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country; by Laton Mccartney book: Untapped - The Scramble for Africa's Oil; by John Ghazvinian book: Eating Fossil Fuel - Oil, Food and the Coming Crisis in Agriculture; by Dale Allen Pfeiffe book: Blood and Oil; by Michael Klare book: Backstabbing for Beginners; by Michael Soussan book: A Culture of Corruption; by Daniel Jordan Smith book: THE RISE, CORRUPTION AND COMING FALL OF THE HOUSE OF SAUD; by Said K. Aburish book: Greed and corruption in the Caspian; by Derek Brower book: Corporate Corruption - The Abuse of Power; by Marshall B. Clinard report: All the Presidents’ Men - The Devastating Story of Oil and Banking in Angola’s Privatised War; by Global Witness book: Curse of the Black Gold - 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta; by Michael Watts book: Crude - The Story of Oil; by Sonia Shah book: Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights and Oil; by Ike Okonta book: The Prize - The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power; by Daniel Yergin book: A Game as Old as Empire - The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption; by Steven Hiatt book: Blood Bankers; by James S. Henry book: Grand Theft Pentagon - Tales of Corruption and Profiteering in the War on Terror; by Jeffrey St. Clair book: Oil and the Glory - The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea; by Steve LeVine book: Indonesian Production Sharing Contract, an investor's perspective; by T. N. Machmud book: Grand corruption in the regulation of oil; by Tina Soreide book: Oil on the Brain; by Lisa Margonelli book: Many Faces of Corruption; by J. Edgardo Campos http://www.thebushagenda.net Pure, clean air is the invisible staff of life. Smog is the invisible staff of death. book: Super Power Breathing for Super Energy and Longevity; by Patricia Bragg Does Big OIL or Big COAL have a Body BAG with your CHILD'S Name on it? http://vegcar.livejournal.com/24663.htm http://air301.livejournal.com http://air309.livejournal.com book: Big Coal, The Dirty Secret; by Jeff Goodell OIL - GAS REFINERIES = DIRTY AIR & DEATH http://www.refineryreform.org GENERAL MOTORS and the NAZIS War Profits at any cost - Auschwitz - Death Camps - Slave Labor Is there any difference between the Neo Nazis and the American Neo Conservatives? ARE YOU DRIVING A GM HITLER CAR? DVD: Who Killed the Electric Car? http://www.amazon.com/Who-Killed-Electr http://vegcar.livejournal.com/24209.htm book: Internal Combustion; by Edwin Black http://www.internalcombustionbook.c WHY DID GENERAL MOTORS DESTROY ELECTRIC CARS http://www.saveev1.org http://www.dontcrush.com GM - BIG OIL destroyed RAPID TRANIST & ELECTRIC Trains http://bigoil600040.insanejournal.com NAZIS in the AMERICAN MILITARY Defense Fund for Freedom from the Extremist - please donate. Keep the Nuts away from the Nukes - Book of Revelation. George Bush and the End of the World Death Cult society of america http://bigoil600036.insanejournal.c http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.o CRIMES AGAINST NATURE DICK CHENEY Made Millions with SADDAM HUSSEIN Enemies of Democracy http://bigoil431.insanejournal.com SHOCKING CORRUPTION by BIG OIL http://bigoil101.insanejournal.com DO WE HAVE TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION? Are your politicians taking Bribes - campaign contributions - from Big Oil and the Drug Companies? Is your Congressman a Drug Pusher for the Pharmaceutical Companies? Halt the incestuous relationship of sleazy politicians in bed with Big Oil. CAMPAIGN FINANCE INFORMATION CENTER Where does the money come from? http://www.campaignfinance.org/stat CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY stop the Fat Cats from BRIBING your politicians http://www.publicintegrity.org DVD: Capitol Crimes by Bill Moyers The fall of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff has exposed what may be one of the biggest political scandals in America's history. What does the dizzying scope of corruption say about how laws are made and who really owns the U.S. government? Bill Moyers and his team of investigative journalists untangle the web of relationships, secret deals, and political manipulation to open a disturbing window on the dark side of American politics. stop ELECTION FRAUD, support Honest elections. www.blackboxvoting.org www.verifiedvoting.org www.votevets.org mediamatters.org www.investigatethevote.org www.votersunite.org www.citizensact.org www.solarbus.org/election/cd/test/videos.h www.sourcewatch.org/index.php state info: http://victorygard379b.insanejournal.co DVD: Uncounted; Director: David Earnhardt DVD: Hacking Democracy; Director: Simon Ardizzone book: What Went Wrong In Ohio; by Congressman John Conyers book: What Happened in Ohio; by Bob Fitrakis Protect your business from the Oil Pirates and Robber Barons. Stop the Oil Barbarians from Ravishing your Family, Friends and Community' Prevent Big Oil and Big Coal from Molesting you and your children. Halt the incestuous relationship of sleazy politicians in bed with Big Oil. Tell Big Oil and Big Coal - We want our democracy back. Vote for Renewable Energy and sustainable technologies VOTE SOLAR http://votesolar.org http://votesolar.livejournal.com http://www.seia.org http://solarstate2.livejournal.com IS GOD GREEN book: Care of Creation; by R. J. Berry book: Serve God, Save the Planet; by J. Matthew Sleeth book: Our Father's World; by Edward R Brown book: Redeeming Creation; by Fred Van Dyke book: Earth-Wise; by Calvin B. Dewitt book: Caring for Creation; Edited by Sarah Tillett book: A Moral Climate, the Ethics of Global Warming; by Michael S. Northcott book: For the Beauty of the Earth; by Steven Bouma-Prediger book: Saving God's Green Earth; by Tri Robinson book: God Is Green; by Ian Bradley book: God in Creation; by Jurgen Moltmann journal: Creation Care Magazine http://www.creationcare.org Keepers of the Earth. IS GOD GREEN? http://solarafrica307.livejournal.c `  ~ POLLUTION and RACISM, INJUSTICE book: Confronting Environmental Racism; by Robert Bullard book: Environmental Injustices; by David Camacho book: Environmentalism and Economic Justice; by Laura Pulido book: Pollution and the Death of Man; by Francis Schaeffer book: From the Ground Up, Environmental Racism; by Luke Cole book: Struggle for Ecological Democracy; by Daniel Faber book: No Safe Place, Toxic Waste and Community Action; by Phil Brown Bush slams Christians, Bunch of NUTS http://bigoil600037.insanejournal.c book: Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction; author: David Kuo Republican Child Molesters and Pedophiles http://bigoil600039.insanejournal.c Homosexuals for Republicans & George Bush http://bigoil600038.insanejournal.c WINE INDUSTRY ANNIHILATED by GLOBAL WARMING http://www.ukfreepages.co.uk/publish/pa Global Warming Destroys Maple Sugar Industry STOP CLIMATE CHAOS and the DESTRUCTION of the POOR http://www.itdg.org/?id=stopclimatechao http://campaigncc.org http://stopclimatechaos.org WASTE NOT, WANT NOT http://em202.livejournal.com http://em203.livejournal.com http://pr.indymedia.org/news/2006/08/17 http://qc.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/51 GARDENING for VICTORY http://victory2garden.livejournal.c BIG OIL MAIN PAGE http://bigoil101.insanejournal.com GENERAL LINKS http://vegcar.livejournal.com/25537.htm ~ Proverb: A good person leaves an inheritance to their children’s children. What kind of inheritance are you leaving? ~  ` book: Miracle of Tithing; by Mark Victor Hansen http://tithing101.livejournal.com book: You Can If You Think You Can; by Norman Vincent Peale You never really lose until you quit trying. Mike Ditka NFL Football Coach DVD: Facing the Giants; director: Alex Kendrick BOLD SPIRIT http://bolderspirit.livejournal.com ~ I CAN DO (be) all things thru God who strengthens me. ~ Where there is no way, God can make a way. ~ With God all things are possible. ~ Whatever things you so desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. ~ The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. He gives power to the weak. To those who have no might, He increases their strength. To those who wait on the Lord, He shall Renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. ~ ~ book: Unlocking the Secrets to Living Your Dreams; by Jack Canfield book: Amazing Results of Positive Thinking; by Norman Vincent Peale book: Miracle of Fasting, for Physical, Mental and Spiritual Rejuvenation; by Patricia Bragg book: Fasting Can Save Your Life; by Doctor Herbert Shelton book: Super Power Breathing for Super Energy and Longevity; by Patricia Bragg book: Coconut Cures; by Bruce Fife book: Healing Power for the Heart; by Robert Abel http://adhd101.livejournal.com http://organic4school.livejournal.c http://em202.livejournal.com your HEALTH (Wholeness) is your WEALTH ~ book: Rwanda, The Land God Forgot; by Meg Guillebaud DVD: In Lies We Trust; director: Dr. Leonard George Horowitz ~ Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves. Choose to BE A WINNER. Be a bringer of the LIGHT. `  Earth Praise God. Be Thankful. Give God the Glory. |
