Don Zeigler dot Info

After the passing of the nation’s longest-serving senator and one of our state’s most famous sons, the obituaries have been generally focusing on a similar narrative: That Robert C. Byrd was a man of transformations, from Ku Klux Klansman to a supporter of Barack Obama.

Most of these obits are omitting another important transformation Byrd underwent; from a longtime supporter of all things coal to a man who recognized the importance of beginning a transition to a clean energy economy. Indeed, one of the last votes Byrd cast was against the infamous Murkowski Amendment, which would have stripped the EPA of the ability to regulate greenhouse gases.

To call West Virginia a coal-heavy state is a massive understatement — it provides 50% of the nation’s coal exports, and accounts for tens of thousands of our state’s jobs. Any politician publicly rebuking coal here is just asking for trouble, and Byrd was noted for being a champion of coal.

But in December 2009 Byrd wrote an op-ed that criticized modern-day mining practices and accused the coal industry of “having its head in the sand” on climate change. State pols were sure there must have been some mistake. Governor Joe Manchin chalked the whole thing up to a “misunderstanding.”

But it wasn’t a misunderstanding… after 50 years in the Senate, the 92-year-old statesman had apparently revised his views on both coal and global warming. Byrd found it increasingly difficult to argue that the interests of coal companies and the interests of his state are one and the same.

Between noting the clearly debilitating effects of mountaintop removal mining and noting the reality of climate change, Byrd found it increasingly hard to continue to support coal. Many other politicians in his position would likely have continued to support it anyway — that being the politically safe thing to do. But Byrd spoke up, despite a lifetime of backing coal.

This shift should give hope to all those who recognize that the environmental practices and energy policies we have now are not sustainable — even the most stalwart of fossil fuel supporters can see the light, if, as Byrd did, he has the conviction to keep the long term interests of his constituents at heart. His transformation would have been completed would he have been able to vote for comprehensive clean energy reform.

You can read Byrd’s op-ed here. Rest in peace, Senator.

Bob Cesca at the Huffington Post takes a look at one of the right’s new heroes.

I never thought I’d write this, but I think we’ve discovered a new level of stupid below the heretofore impenetrable Sarah Palin floor.

It’s not unlike the discovery of a previously unknown species of protohuman deep within a cave somewhere, revealing some new twist in the constantly expanding canon of human evolution. There is, in fact, a Republican of national prominence who makes Sarah Palin seem brighter and less contradictory by comparison. That’s not to say Palin has miraculously become smarter or better spoken, it’s just that the idiot curve is now redrawn in her favor.

Yes, Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi is arguably the new king of all Republican stupids. Palin must now relinquish her Twitter feed, her fork cork and her trident. For Haley Barbour has arrived.

What is it about Republican governors? They’re either appearing in interviews with a blood-soaked cletus geeking turkeys in the background, or they’re lying about hiking the Appalachian Trail, or they’re honoring the Confederate States of America while ignoring slavery, or they’re entertaining the treasonous option of state secession, or they’re bitching about government stimulus money one minute, then posing with giant stimulus checks the next minute.

And now there’s Haley Barbour, who said this week about the $20 billion escrow fund to compensate victims of the oil spill:

It bothers me to talk about causing an escrow to be made, uh, which will, which makes it less likely that they’ll make the income that they need to pay us.

Let’s ignore the Palin-ish phrase “causing an escrow fund to be made” and focus on the substance. Paraphrasing Jon Stewart’s analysis: Governor Barbour appears to be suggesting here that if BP sets aside $20 billion to be paid to victims of the oil spill, it won’t have enough money to… pay out to victims of the oil spill. In other words, Barbour is against compensating victims because he supports compensating victims.

Perhaps next time, Barbour should consult with his smarter sidekicks Roscoe and Enos before speaking about complicated topics like “causing an escrow fund.” (Jon Chait gets full credit for the Boss Hogg comparison.)

Of course, this isn’t the first and it surely won’t be last blast of stupid from Barbour during the ongoing oil spill disaster. He’s a study in colloquial southern language and exaggerated accents, a real life character from an unproduced Coen Brothers movie, and it seems that whenever Barbour opens his mouth for something other than pie, stupid things gush out.

For many weeks, Barbour has been downplaying the toxicity and danger of the oil. Back in mid-May, Barbour said the oil spill will have “minimal impact,” rivaling Tony Hayward’s infamous remarks about how environmental damage will be “very, very modest.”

He’s also coined some of the finest “the oil is just like delicious food and therefore harmless” metaphors during the whole disaster.

Who can forget the classic description of the oil as “weathered, emulsified, caramel-colored mousse, like the food mousse.” Yum. The caramel colored food mousse. If you’re like me, you can’t wait to sample some delightful Gulf seafood that’s been marinating in the food mousse.

And the good news is, according to Barbour, “Once it gets to this stage, it’s not poisonous.” Oh boy!

Seriously, if that’s the case, I’d like to see Barbour strap on a pair of inflatable arm floaties and dive into a big old slick of the food mousse and flail around in it for a while. See if he can eat his way out. Maybe the Mississippi tourist bureau could videotape it for their next advertising campaign. You know, because the food mousse is both delicious and not poisonous.

Yet, at the same time, Barbour said, “But if a small animal got coated enough with it, it could smother it. But if you got enough toothpaste on you, you couldn’t breathe.” This made me wonder if Barbour has had one or two mishaps with a gigantic tube of toothpaste. “Dagnabbit! I’ve accidentally caused toothpaste to be made all over myself again! Can’t… breathe! Glug! Glug!” Aides rush into Barbour’s bathroom to find the governor coated from head to toe in toothpaste like a real life version of the Shmoo.

But, as with many Republicans carved from the George W. Bush cloth, the doofish behavior tends to overshadow Barbour’s more sinister underbelly.

According to Newsweek, Barbour is quite a fan of the Confederacy and all of its trimmins’:

The Republican governor of Mississippi keeps a large portrait of the University Greys, the Confederate rifle company that suffered 100 percent casualties at Gettysburg, on a wall not far from a Stars and Bars Confederate flag signed by Jefferson Davis.

When Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia fumbled his way through “Confederate History Month,” Haley Barbour rushed to his defense, declaring that there was no need to mention slavery in the process. Everyone knows about slavery, Barbour reasoned, so why bother to mention it? Barbour, here, played up the debunked Lost Cause mythology — deemphasizing slavery as a means of ennobling the South’s instigation of the Civil War. Barbour said of the slavery controversy in Virginia, “It’s trying to make a big deal out of something doesn’t amount to diddly.”

Newsweek also reported:

Barbour was embarrassed by an aide’s nasty remarks about “coons” at campaign rallies. But in reprimanding the aide, he only made things worse. As The New York Times recounted it, Barbour warned the aide that if he “persisted in racist remarks, he would be reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks.”

Right. Everyone knows you don’t speak the truth out loud. You keep your racist remarks to yourself. However, Confederate flags signed by Jefferson Davis are fine and dandy. And if you’re Haley Barbour, it’s also okay to appear at a Blackhawk fundraiser hosted by the Council of Conservative Citizens, a paleoconservative white nationalist organization that, among other things, proudly advances the positions of the old Confederacy.

It gets better. Barbour was also the founder of Barbour Griffith & Rogers, a DC lobbying firm with significant connections to the tobacco industry. When Barbour left the company to help run the George W. Bush campaign in 2000, the firm signed a deal with R.J. Reynolds worth more than $17,000 a month. Nothing like being steeped in lobbying and cancer money on top of everything else.

And Haley Barbour is looking like a frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2012. I ask you, though: Who better to represent the Republican Party against the first African-American presidential incumbent in the entire history of civilization? Here we have an overweight, southern-fried, tobacco-funded, lobbyist superfan of the Confederacy with a history of racially questionable ideas and connections who can barely string together a comprehensible sentence. What better way to put a face and voice to the increasingly regional, homogenized, sophophobic GOP than to nominate Haley Barbour for president.

Keep going, Republicans. You’re doing great!

Like so many others in the Princeton/Bluefield area who enjoy seeing a movie in the theater once in a while, I have decided that Carmike Cinemas at Mercer Mall will no longer get any business from me. All it took was one trip to Marquee Cinemas in Beckley to convince me that it would be the theater of choice from this point forward.

The additional gas expense is well worth it. If you’ve never been to Marquee Cinemas, picture in your mind neat premises, clean screens, roomy and comfortable seats, and concession prices that aren’t through the roof.

Now, contrast this with what Carmike offers us: screens so dirty it detracts from the viewing experience, cramped and uncomfortable seats, sticky floors, overpriced snack items and absolutely filthy restrooms.

The few good words I can muster are for the employees, most of whom try to be friendly and helpful.

It’s a no-brainer… should I pay for a miserable experience, or pay just a few bucks more and have a great one?

The community deserves much better than this, Carmike. I’d bet that if your competition were closer than Beckley or Wytheville, the business you have now would probably dry up to literally nothing.

AFTERNOON UPDATE: Aéropostale coming to Mercer Mall » Local News » Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV.

Oh, boy, just what Mercer Mall needs…. another clothing store for the teen and young adult market. I predict a FAIL within a year’s time.

I visit the mall occasionally to shop Rose’s or to gawk at the new smartphones on display at AT&T. (I plan to dump my iPhone for an Android device *if* I even stay with them) Other than that, the place has nothing to interest me except a once-in-a-blue-moon sale at Penney’s that actually features something I want.

But, the entire Mercer Mall situation deserves a separate rant of its own, so watch for it!

Could an undead Ronald Reagan be the savior of the GOP???

Something about the Internet causes some people to take on fake identities (referred to as nyms or aliases), act rudely, and say things they ordinarily would not even consider saying to someone face to face.

The brain doesn't fear authority online, and neither does it feel anybody's displeasure. Specialists call this the "online disinhibition effect".

Maria Bakardjieva, a Professor of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary and author of the 2005 book Internet Society: The Internet in Everyday Life, says that people just feel free to overlook social rules which would hold in other circumstances.

The disinhibition effect is why you may feel enticed, or give in to the bait, to say offensive, unkind or otherwise horrible things online, which you would never say in person.

According to a 2004 article by Rider University Psychologist, John Suler, anonymity coalesced with invisibility are two major constituents of online disinhibition. He wrote in the journal CyberPsychology and Behavior, "When people have the opportunity to separate their actions from their real world and identity, they feel less vulnerable about opening up".