[Hoot Gibson]

I only discussed one and I would say I know as much about his background as you do Mr. Blankenship's. Mr. Blankenship has a history of pulling political strings to assist in his agenda. You keep bringing up union mines for which the one I referred to is not. Where is all the union mines in Kentucky, I can only think of one because it is on land for which the Scotia Mine Disaster took place. As far as companies greasing the political gears, there has probably been no company use more grease then Massey and Teflon Don.

Our federal government and the state governments of Kentucky and West Virginia have never been any more corrupt than they are today. No large corporation, union or non-union can avoid falling prey to the shake down artists who run for public office and "regulate" the coal industry and remain in business. That is just the reality that every coal company faces. Whether companies funnel money to corrupt politicians and regulators through legal means or through intermediaries delivering bags of cash under the cover of darkness does not much matter as the effect is the same. Dirty politicians warp our legal system to line their own pockets and nowhere is that more evident than in Appalachia.

You are correct that union coal companies in eastern Kentucky are rare but they are rare for good reason. Mining the thin seams of eastern Kentucky according to the terms of a typical UMWA contract is simply not possible. I remember the days when union mines were common in eastern Kentucky, the roving UMWA pickets hiding behind ski masks, and the inflexible UMWA contract terms that led to the rise of non-union mines in the area. Without Massey and the other companies who dared challenge the UMWA, poverty in eastern Kentucky would be much worse today.