We found out the hard way when my husband Erik ran for the Virginia state legislature* that too often issues within states and localities are drowned out by the political noise blared out across the nation by the Washington news media. (Transition Voice readers will know Erik as our publisher). It was 2009, and on the local campaign trail, almost all Erik ever heard, … [Read more...]
How the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street differ
When the Tea Party came along, clamoring to "take back our government," all dressed in the resonant and nostalgic regalia of our founding revolution, it was an intriguing moment in national politics. Sadly, the more the Tea Party called for such aims, the more it exclusively targeted Democrats, Liberals, Progressives and an alleged "big nanny government," while caring nothing … [Read more...]
The overburden: Review of “The Last Mountain”
"Coal River Mountain is our last mountain in the Coal River Valley that hasn't been blasted to ashes." -- Bo Webb, a military veteran, coalminer’s son, and former tool-and-die shop owner in Cleveland who moved back to his family home in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia For the past twenty months or so I've curated The Local Motion Film Series for our area's Transition … [Read more...]
Coal industry punk’d by hilarious spoof website
"Why free inhalers? Because COAL CARES. For kids who have no choice but to use an inhaler, Coal Cares™ lets them inhale with pride," announces a website that claims to be "a goodwill campaign from your neighbors at Peabody Coal." But Coal Cares is actually a spoof done in the culture-jamming style of Adbusters or The Yes Men by a new coalition called Coal Kills Kids. As a … [Read more...]
Transition Voice to become industry mouthpiece
In a move that stunned media and energy industry observers, Transtion Voice, the upstart Web rag that emerged last year to cover peak oil, climate change and the Transition movement, announced today that it would shift its focus to cheerleading for Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Nuclear instead. "There's not a lot of money to be made in telling the story of energy decline, … [Read more...]