WestVirginiaVille

Life in West Virginia is generally good. Except for days when West Virginians vote for imprisoned felons in their Democratic primary. On days like that, you need a little wonder to rescue your mood.

Thought for the day: “The richer the world economy becomes, the more the collective imagination of those who rule seems to atrophy. Ultimately, all common goals collapse into nothing more than efforts to increase production and trade.”

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.

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.

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.