While America was enjoying the wealth of the industrial revolution, these people were mining the coal that fueled it. They mined the coal that fueled us through two world wars. They mine the coal that lights our lights, and drives this weird and wonderful internet thing, that several recent posters are now using to denigrate them.

That is appalling.

Now, in modern times, having lost their livelihood to machinery, their relatives to disease, and their sense of place in the modern world, some would dismiss them.

I doubt many here have mined for coal. I know I haven't. I doubt many of you have lived in this area.

A story: I took a bicycle trip with a friend on summer in college (Sidebar: these people can afford neither) from Chicago, though Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland, and on to D.C.

WV is some tough terrain, and I don't mean just for biking. It is no wonder that it remains, even today, geographically and socially isolated. My friend and I were long haired weirdos with fancy bikes and funny shorts. It was my experience that all it took was a genial (But not overly gregarious) approach and a simple "Hi" to have a conversation. We would sit in the most rural of diners and people would approach us.

Now, we were white boys, but my sense was that it just takes an open mind. We outsiders are the ones who need to take that initiative.

I'm a city boy, born and bred, but I now live in a rural state rife with the kinds of predjudices some see in WV. From personal experience, I can tell you that it is possible to have conversations about race, and gays, and abortion...and change minds.

I had not even scrolled down to the NRA part when I was wondering about that exact comparison.

I have to wonder if the whole "He's a card carrying member of the ACLU" meme has turned away people who might otherwise have joined. That's been around for quite awhile now.

The ACLU has clearly had a hard time, in some circles, shaking off the idea that they take away peoples rights, rather than preserve them.

Plus, it's much cooler to shake you fist in the air and say "From my cold, dead hands..." than to discuss the subtleties of some pesky lawsuit.

Maybe someone else already mentioned this, but it's no accident that they picked a clip in which a black guy is openly oogling a white woman. Although not specifically an ad against Obama, I think they are just warming up, planting the seeds.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, though.

Way back wheb I was in high school, there was a another national contest for a memorial in Washington, to honor the memories of the dead of that war.

When the winning design was made public, veterans groups were up in arms. "It's too stark" they said, "It's too sterile".

When the designer was revealed, James Watt, Sec. of the Interior under Reagan, same that he was ashamed that a memorial of such importance would be designed by a person of "Foreign Descent"

Maya Lin, an American citizen of Asian descent and sophmore at Yale Architecture school, went before these various commitees and groups, head held high, and in the end, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as one of the most powerful reminders of the cost of war. Veterans across America wrote letters of gratitute, and apology, to Ms Lin. No other memorial, to mu knowledge, has evoked the kind of reponse that this one did, a response that can so clearly be seen in the archive of writing and artifacts that have been left at The Wall.

I saw the picture of the proposed statue in the Sunday NYT. It is appropriate, in my opinion.

Carpetbagger has posted this today

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15623.html

Per Turnip, above.

Isn't gay sex still illegal in many states? At least until recently, I believe it was.

Looks like a scarf to me.

But, just to be sure, we must start spelling the word "Dough-nuts" just to ward off those evil terrorists who hate our capitalist dollars

Too bad she didn't wrap it around her mouth -

Gawd, how I hate that voice.

The Liberal Media (tm) is wimpy BECAUSE it's liberal.

"You know, I've never served in the military, but last time I checked you don't start a career at the top of the chain of command"

Unless you're Bush. Explains a lot, actually.

"Our recourse, if we don't like the output of a certain media organization, is to not watch it,"

A fine option that is.

We have a free press like we have free markets - That is to say, we don't. We have a press, and markets, (And an increasingly blurred line between the two) that heavily favor big players, consolidation, and limited views.

It's all trumpeting elephants in the room. You couldn't hear one braying donkey if you tried.

Why give "journalism" special protections? Clearly they are not respecting those privledges. News is good - It doesn't matter if it's true of not. Sara Jessica Parker and Mr. Big should discuss Iraq in the sack. Whoever has advertisers selling the coolest shit shall be deemed most newsworthy.

"Terrorists", "Big Meanies", "Evil-Doers", "Stoopid-faces"..

Ah, Gotcha...No, not gonna do it...Not gonna play that game. See, you're tryin' to fix it..I mean, trap me into sayin' something that isn't true. I won't be bullied into sayin' something that isn't true, that's lyin', plain and simple. See, that thing is that these haters, they just hate. They're evil...evil-haters. They hate evil...No, I mean...See, this is what I mean by playin' gotcha politics. And I'm not gonna do it.