West Virginia
updated
9:06 a.m.
Congressman Rahall's team is letting folks know that tickets are available starting today for the debate between himself and the disgraced Spike Maynard. This is the first of two debates mentioned in an earlier post by Heath Harrison that can be read here . The debate will take place at Bluefield High School's auditorium at 7:00pm on September 7th. Tickets can be picked up in adva...
West Virginia Blue - Wed 9:41 a.m. - 4 clicks 
From the Charleston Daily Mail, we learn of the the disgraced judge's first TV spot of the fall. It's more of the same conservative-by-numbers stuff Maynard's been pushing all year, complete with scary references to the "War on Coal" TM and images of President Obama and Speaker Pelosi. Then Maynard, the former Democratic Supreme Court justice, appears on screen wearing the reflective overall...
West Virginia Blue - Tue 12:24 p.m. - 7 clicks
From a West Virginia Democratic Party e-mail: September 1, 2010 - Gilmer County Democratic Headquarters - Foodland Plaza - Glenville, WV ...
West Virginia Blue - Mon 4:04 p.m. - 8 clicks
Metro News reports that the ethically-bankrupt FOX News cast member will be coming to help raise funds for Republican David McKinley's bid for for Congress. Dick Morris, a nationally syndicated columnist and best selling author who used to be a Senior Advisor to President Bill Clinton, will be part of a 5:30 p.m. rally on Wednesday, September first in Downtown Parkersburg. Morris has a h...
West Virginia Blue - Mon 1:22 p.m. - 11 clicks
The votes are almost counted, and Gov. Joe Manchin and teabagger John Raese have won their nominations handily, with each earning over 70 percent of the vote. This comes as a surprise to no one, given the governor's popularity and the amount of ads on Raese's side. Former Congressman and WV Secretary of State Ken Hechler is coming in with about 18 percent - a respectable protest vote for a 95-y...
West Virginia Blue - Sat 7:43 p.m. - 12 clicks
On the eve of the special election primary, Ken Hechler attended a "Meet the Candidates" picnic hosted by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in Barboursville. Earlier in the day, Hechler stopped by the studios of WRVC AM in Huntington, where he took his message to the voters in an hour-long segment on Bobby Nelson's "Tri-State Talk." The audio of the discussion of his U.S. Senate candidacy ...
West Virginia Blue - Fri 6:05 p.m. - 7 clicks
I worked on Capitol Hill for a long time, and I do not consider myself naive about the inner workings of Washington. But even I was surprised by two revelations this week exposing the amount of money the oil industry is spending to buy political influence. The first eye-opener came from recently released lobbying numbers. The OpenSecrets blog reported that the oil and gas industry poured $174 ...
West Virginia Blue - Fri 8:09 a.m. - 7 clicks
Climate Ground Zero: Joe Hamsher and Sarah Seeds, activists with Climate Ground Zero, were arrested this morning while blocking the entrance to the headquarters of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). They have been charged with trespassing, obstruction of justice and disrupting government processes. Their bail was set at $5000 dollars each. Hamsher has posted bail. ...
West Virginia Blue - Thu 2:25 p.m. - 8 clicks
- Early voting in the primary for the special election to fill the seat of Sen. Robert C. Byrd is underway. Turnout could be high. - UPI provides a good look at the race. - Ken Hechler's campaign made a stop in Huntington over the weekend. It's nice to see a candidate actually taking time to travel the state and meet the voters, and not simply coasting on the idea of inevitab...
West Virginia Blue - Aug 24 - 4 clicks
It's clear that the Republican Party would rather talk about wedge issues instead of offering real ideas to improve the lives of Americans. In response to their latest faux outrage issue of the day, I've reached the conclusion that they're correct... Rev. Jeremiah Wright should NOT perform gay marriages or abortions for illegal immigrants in a mosque at Ground Zero. As for the proposed is...
West Virginia Blue - Aug 23
Well, Charleston City Manager David Molgaard has been on the job approximately 3 years, and now is asking for a raise. Evidently, he's SO good (coughbullcrapcough), that other cities around the country are now clamoring to give him a huge raise if he would only come and be their city manager. In last Friday's Daily Mail, there was an article about this, but aside from that, it seems to have slipp...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13 - 2 clicks
Ok, by now, everyone knows that Mike Garrison will be the next President at WVU. Everyone knows it. Garrison has been angling for this job ever since he first shoved his head up Alan Hammock and Bowtie Bob DiClerico’s collective ass. He’s been student body president (yay, WVU student government elections have a such a pathetic voter turn out, you can win if you can manage to get half of your dorm ...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
The latest federal indictment of former State Senator Lisa Smith for tax evasion, filing false election reports, and mail fraud, is just another example of exactly why this State's government, is a complete, and total joke. What do the following incidents have in common: Lisa Smith's indictment, Greg Stowers' indictment and guilty plea, Logan Mayor Tom Esposito's indictment and guilty plea, the ...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
I don't have time for a big, normal sized entry about this topic (but one is in the works), but I'll just throw this one nugget out there, because, well, it's just too good, and you should be able to get the point in with a minimum of ranting. According to recent reports, our very own Nowhere Man , Alan Mollohan, allegedly is funneling federal money to several non-profits in West Virginia. Th...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13 - 3 clicks
From left to right: That big black hole is Congressman Alan Mollohan. He basically became Congressman when his dad vacated the same office. Gotta love that free name recognition (especially in a state where we elect people like Glen Gainer Auditor). His new nickname should be "Nowhere Man." He doesn't actually exist on the internet as his Wikipedia entry points out (and is backed u...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13 - 3 clicks
Today the Daily Mail (and supposedly the Gazette too, but it wasn't online) exposed a problem that was basically mentioned 3 weeks ago. Remember where you heard it first, right here (if you haven't read that blog entry, I'd strongly suggest reading it now, to help you get up to speed). Papa Joe Manchin is paying his top "executives" monstrous salaries, for state workers, by leaving them in "a...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
This story has been kicking around for about a week, and not getting too much coverage, beyond a few little news items in the papers. The Charleston Area Alliance, some sort of non-profit (today's codeword for "scam funded partially by you and me through "grants" of our tax dollars") pro-business facilitator group, hired this Patricia Bradley Pitrolo chick. Not only did they hire her, they...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13 - 2 clicks
47 to 5. Take that, Garrison fanboys. The faculty Senate at WVU sent you and your posterchild for all things bad about West Virginia politics, a nice big fat steaming cup of "HELL NO." They voted 47 to 5 to support Nellis for the President's position. That's a resounding defeat. They weren't even close to supporting Garrison. Good for them. Faculty were getting the blow off on the whole selection...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Sigh It's just too easy in this state to hammer State officials. It's like they WANT to be looked at as greedy, scummy, ignorant, buffoons. The really sad part is, that the ignorant electorate in this state keeps sending the same greedy, scummy, ignorant, buffoons back to Charleston. Betty Ireland was in the news last week over accusations she put her name on some mugs she handed out at some...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Well, as you can see, I haven't updated in almost two months. For some reason, I just didn't have the outrage I normally do. Maybe it was the weather. However, now that the weather is heating up, I've noticed a change in my outrage level. So, with that, I give you a scattergun approach to several little items over the last couple months that have pissed me off, but not enough to warrant a full...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
I'm getting tired of seeing 20 "anonymous" posts all saying the same things. So, because I can see your ip addresses and know that there's only about 4 or 5 of you, I have to start making rules, because you can't be trusted to act like semi-adults. First, you can start by using a fucking name, so there's not 50 straight messages by "anonymous," all saying basically the same thing cluttering up...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Hmmmm. Where to start. There's so much I could write about over the last 3 months, so I'll just throw out some short comments on a couple different things. Let's go with some shots at our old pal Chicago Furlip (Mike Agnello) on 58 Live. Oh, how I loved to hear him squak and squeal like a little baby who got his toy taken away after the mid term elections. I guess they don't teach you how t...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Evidently, our very own Chicago Furlip, right wing radio ranter non-extraordinaire, Michael Agnello, got busted for DUI over the weekend. Evidently, Good Time Furlip thinks it's ok to down a few, then get behind his car and swerve all over the interstate. I didn't hear his first admission, when he started the show at 3pm talking about his latest dealings with the criminal justice system. But...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Well, the Vic Sprouse thing has reared its ugly head, again. Back in March, in one of my all time favorite posts, " Hoppy to Vic: Lay off the sauce, dude ," I reported on the Vic Sprouse marital problems issue. If you don't know, Vic Sprouse the Republican Minority Leader in the State Senate is now going through divorce number three. That in and of itself, is no big deal. However, when you ar...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Well, Papa Joe Cheerleader (our illustrious Governor, Joe Manchin) has responded to the latest gutter level scandal of state contract bidding shenanigans, and General Service Division workers falsifying timesheets to steal thousands of dollars of overtime pay. Yes, Papa Joe has responded. Oh, he made it clear, that the "practices of the past, are not acceptable in his administration." Yes, Papa J...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Ok, I can't let this go any longer. The whole "Heathergate," Heather Bresch, Manchin, WVU EMBA scandal would be something that the ol' Binger would normally be commenting on daily. But I just can't devote as much time to this as I would like. But, for a quick primer, for those who've been living under a rock for the past month here's a quick "get up to speed" lesson. Just go over to the Fifth Col...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Well, well well. Lookee what we have here. Not hardly a blip about this on the local talk radio scene (that I was able to tell). Wyoming County Delegate Rick Staton, seems to have a bit of a problem paying his taxes and is going to have to declare bankruptcy. He doesn't have any problem spending YOUR tax money, but just can't seem to find any extra at the end of the day, to pay his own. How...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Well, again, there's just so much stuff that needs mentioned, I'd feel like I was doing myself a disservice if I limited myself to just one issue. And even then, there's more deserving targets, than I have time to adequately address. Maybe I'll give you a bonus entry later this week. So, let's start with Nowhwere Man's (Alan Mollohan) recent decision to step down from the House Ethics Com...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13 - 2 clicks
In previous posts ( here , here and here ), I had mentioned the vote buying scandals in southern West Virginia. One of many defendants (like Mark Hrutkay, "Hound Dog" Adkins, Tom Esposito, and probably a couple of dozen more I'm forgetting, and all of who, should be summarily hung from the highest tree we can find) entangled in the sordid pathetic excuse for legitmate government found in southe...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13 - 3 clicks
...........And that's all I gotta say. Since I did get some publicity in this week's Sunday Gazette Mail in their little "Outlook - Personal Technology" extra section in an article about blogging, I figured the least I could do would be give the few hardy souls who managed to find this blog a new entry. Even though the article got the address wrong, if you are reading this, you managed to...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Well, again, it's just like shooting fish in a barrel here in the Sweatbox. These clowns can't even make it somewhat challenging for the ol' Binger. Former State Senator Lisa Smith, along with her husband, have been indicted on 16 federal (see above blog entry for a further discussion of the relevance of this) charges, ranging from mail fraud, to tax evasion, to filing false campaign reports. ...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
Well, there's just been sooooooo much activity over the last 2 weeks, It's almost hard to know where to start. For today's post, let's just go with Thornton Cooper v. Danny Jones and the Charleston worker tax. I think Danny Jones should try out for some pro wrestling circuit. He could be nicknamed The Charleston Crybaby. On Jerry Waters' radio show the other day, he had Thornton Cooper on to...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13 - 2 clicks
This guy has been on the radio, newspaper, etc. lately pushing this book . Dr. Allen Loughry evidently is a clerk for Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard. Of course, Maynard is big buddies with Don Blankenship. He didn't finance his campaign, like he did with Justice Brent Benjamin, but evidently, Blakenship and Maynard have at least had dinner at the Chop House together . That alone is normally ...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jul 13
