WestVirginiaVille

As an arts-and-culture blogazine based in the alternative mythical realm of WestVirginiaVille, we are pre-disposed to be intrigued by writers running for governor of the state of West Virginia.

Yesterday, Alpha Natural Resources CEO unveiled its new sign, signifying the end of Massey Coal’s controversial reign. So, how about talking to the state’s biggest paper?

I don’t often get to use the old Middle English word ‘parlous,’ but it comes to mind on this day in which West Virginia voters cast ballots in the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries.

The first set of awards for persons and groups acting heroically in the West Virginia public interest – a Hero Award. And a Nero Award, too, for who is fiddling around while things are burning.

A “No-Show Joe Manchin Compendium” of coverage, featuring selected articles and blogposts on the missed DADT and Dream Act votes – and The Apology.

Massey CEO Don Blankenship, recently dubbed “The Dark Lord of Coal Country” by Rolling Stone, is laying down his scepter and packing it in.

However Don Blankenship’s career ends, “his story is a deeply tragic one,” says Rolling Stone in a profile of the Massey Energy CEO titled “The Dark Lord of Coal Country.”

Raising the right questions, as some in the Navajo Nation are undertaking to do, would go a long way toward kick-starting the conversation about the future of coal in Appalachia.

There has been little humor in the Manchin-Raese race for Sen. Byrd’s seat – until now. View a couple YouTube videos the Manchin campaign has put up that are pretty funny.

The Huffington Post examined yesterday what could well be a candidate for the second most notorious TV ad of the West Virginia political season: Spike Maynard’s attempt to portray Nick Rahall as a terrorist sympathizer.

“Inspiring” and “Joe Manchin” are not words that have been used much this election season, but A Salon article praises “Joe Manchin’s oddly inspiring debate performance.”

Take a read on a reprint of a West Virginia Blue post on how West Virginia’s governor might win back voters turned off by how he has tried to out-Raese John Raese in the unexpectedly tight race for Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s seat.

There’s a good post at the “Coal Tattoo” blog and an even better discussion in the comments below of the implications of Gov. Joe Manchin’s “dead aim” ad.

The Charleston Gazette’s ever-vigilant “Coal Tattoo” blogger Ken Ward asks a good question in the lee wind of the remarkable Chilean mine rescue.

One has to wonder exactly what the worth of the word ‘Democrat’ is when a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held formerly by Robert C. Byrd posts an ad such as this.

If you missed it, here’s the John Raese ad — quickly pulled after a firestorm of attention — that features actors as fake local West Virginians, instructed to look oh so hicky. Thin stripes? You progressive, you.