The airport, the air national guard, and economic development.

Ok, before I go into my rant, let me just say, all things being equal, I'd hate to lose the air guard base at the airport. For no other reason, than it helps with the cleanup when the people who live along X Creek in the spring get flooded each year. If given the choice of it closing, and not closing, I'd obviously pick not closing it. But if it closes, I'm not going to lose any sleep, either.

That being said, let's look at the whole situation. We need to cut government costs, so closing some bases, would be a good idea. My personal prediction (and I could be wrong) is that the base will survive this round of cuts, and it will be a purely political decision. Bush would LOVE to stick it to Byrd. And what better way to do that, than to feign closing the base, and then let Arch-in-a-dress come in on a white horse and save the day for the base at the last minute. Bush will allow Arch-in-a-dress to take the credit, and thus allow her to use that against Byrd as she has now saved jobs. Whoopedo. Then again, I could be wrong about that.

However, let's look at how the local politicos have reacted. Danny "worker tax" Jones, Kent "I've never seen a microphone I didn't want to have sex with" Carper, the local legislators, etc. have all acted like chicken little. Holy crap, the sky must be falling if the base closes. We'll lose 1000 jobs!! Oh the horror. Whatever shall we do? [And good, old fashioned conservative loudmouth Agnello is again (surprise) against any kind of fiscal responsibility, when it comes to dollars doled out to HIS area or something he wants - that would be hypocrite example number 1,400,234 for Agnello for those of you keeping count.]

Here's a tip, kiddies. If the aforementioned political jackasses have been doing their jobs with regard to economic development, and jobs and young people were flooding into the state (God knows, we've thrown enough $$ at economic development) thanks to all the economic development projects that have been funded, we'd be able to more than compensate for the loss of those Air Guard jobs. In fact, if they have been doing their jobs correctly, the loss of 300 fulltime/1000 total jobs wouldn't even register as a blip on the radar screen. That is, if the aforementioned jackasses have been doing their jobs and got this State and region's economy on the fast track to prosperity. And remember those are job losses due to government cutbacks, NOT economic downturn. If Charlotte lost 300 air guard jobs, nobody would even notice. Hell, there'd be a rush to the pentagon from real estate tycoons to see if they could buy the base and turn it into office buildings and condos before the ink on Bush's closing order is even dry.

So, in closing, BUCK UP CAMPERS!!! Quit pouting, Danny. Keep your chin up, Kent. The new ballpark should provide enough economic development and new jobs to more than offset the loss of jobs at the Air Guard. That is, unless all your rhetoric about the economic benefits of the ballpark and other such economic development projects is all crap. In which case, I think it might be time to bust out the pitchforks and torches, and maybe a vat of tar or two and a couple bushels of feathers and have us a good ol' time.

Nick Casey claims the Greg Stowers indictment is politically motivated.

Ok, I haven't really said much about the Greg Stowers indictment because, well, it's just too easy. It's like clubbing a baby seal. Sure I could do it, but does it really prove anything? I mean, would the outcome ever really be in doubt when I step off the icebreaker ship with my club just a few yards from the furry little guy?

Does it come as any surprise that there's vote buying going on in southern West Virginia? I know I'm not surprised. I'm actually more surprised the US Attorney's Office did something about it. But, I've got to give Kasey Warner credit for sticking his hand down in a big bucket of goo and not being squeamish about it.

On Hoppy's show today, I managed to hear Nick Casey, State Democratic Party hack on the radio talking about this. But before we get to Casey's line of crap, let's put it in its proper perspective. Papa Joe Cheerleader, was Secretary of State for the last four years. He's supposed to make sure the elections are square. Evidently, he was too busy campaigning for governor (his entire four year term as Sec. of State) , to make sure the rest of us, got a fair election. Evidently he was too busy signing up high schools seniors to vote, to watch the elections. Same with that old relic Ken Hechler. He was in that office for god knows how many years. And all this stuff with Stowers was going on the whole time, back to as early as 1990.

When asked for comment the other day on this mess, Papa Joe Cheerleader, was amazingly reticent. No outrage. No condemnations. No expression of disgust, or dismay that our political system may have been compromised for a few dollars or a few "swallers.". The ONE thing we pride ourselves on as a country is being free from the types of shennanigans witnessed in the Ukraine, or any number of other bannana republics around the world where democracy and fairness is just a pipe dream. WE are supposed to be the standard bearer. And yet, the system was compromised for swigs of liquor, or a couple of bucks per vote. Manchin should be DEMANDING retribution for this affront to one of the few things this country holds sacred. Yet, he was essentially silent. Where's the vim and vigor that he was going to change this State we heard during the election, and during the first couple months of his term? Sadly, it was non-existent. One would think, a "take charge" kind of guy like Manchin bills himself, would be out on the front line, demanding accountability, or at least someone's head on a platter. But instead, we got a mealey-mouthed soundbite from a Manchin flunky. (I wonder if the fact Manchin was on the "slate" in question, had anything to do with his surprising silence?)

Which leads us to Nick Casey's comments today on Hoppy's show. He did everything but answer the questions. If I were Hoppy, I'd have just shouted him down and told him he was a jackass right to his face (or whatever the applicable term would be for over the phone). Casey complained the investigation was politically motivated because US Attorney Kasey Warner is Monty and Kris' brother. Hoppy quickly pointed out that Booth Goodwin (of the Democrat Goodwins) also works in that office. Hoppy mentioned a couple of other non-republicans in that office, and Casey would have none of it. He tap danced. He denied, he deflected. He pointed fingers. He made accusations. He did everything short of telling Hoppy the indictment was actually just a conspiracy concocted by aliens and Scully and Mulder from the X Files.

To this DAY, none of the Democratic Party heads have accepted ANY fault. Even if they didn't know it was actually happening, they could have said, "It was on our watch, we messed up." It's not like the Justice Department is pulling stuff out of thin air. Logan Sheriff Big John Mendez plead guilty to vote buying. If he didn't do anything wrong, why plead guilty? Is Casey claiming those charges are also bogus and politically motivated? If so, he might want to clue in Mendez, because Mendez surely thinks he did something wrong. Casey needs to "cowboy up" and quit whining about politically motivated investigations. The Feds took down Arch Moore, and that was during a Republican's term in the White house.

Also, Casey (and a number of callers to Hoppy's show in the last few days) tried to deflect the issue to "well, the republicans did so and so.... why isn't anyone going after them." Casey couldn't get a sentence out without pointing out the Bush/Warner sign controversy and characterizing it as being some sort of captial offense, but couldn't bring himself to actually utter the words "If someone bought votes, they should be smacked." He'd just say "if someone did something wrong, they should be punished." But he went into excrutiating detail about the Bush/Warner signs every chance he got. Hell, if he was so bent about the signs, why not go whine to Manchin himself? Remember, Manchin was supposed to be ensuring clean elections as the Sec of State. Again, we are back to the fact that a) Manchin was asleep at the wheel, or b) he didn't want to draw attention to himself that his name was on the "slate." All in all, it was a pretty disgusting show of finger pointing and denial of the actual problem, from the State Democratic Party head. You could tell Hoppy was getting frustrated, but he let Casey continue with his nonsense. If I was Hoppy, I'd have taken about 2 minutes of his crap, then called him a pathetic piece of garbage, and then kicked him off my show and sentence him to about 6 months of no radio access to spew his crap.

Get a clue, Casey. Your party is struggling to hang on to the reins of power. Your continued obstinance on these types of issues, makes you look like greedy little punks, who throw temper tantrums, when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar.