Rebuttal to article originally provided by the Charleston Daily Mail

March 26, 2006

Rebuttal: Patty Sebok addresses Blankenship's outrageous quotes in Daily Mail's March 13, 2006 article, "'Do-nothing' session irks Blankenship."

Dear Mr. Stump,

After reading your "Do-nothing" article I have a few things to point out.

Blankenship says the top 3 priorities for legislators should be protecting children, tax reform and job creation.

Well I would agree except he thinks he and his company should be exempt. If not then why doesn't he do the "right" thing and protect the children at Marshfork Elementary School from the coal dust that is polluting their school and playground? He wants parental notification before an abortion for girls under 18 but its ok for his company to poison them before they are 18.

Some girls who attended this school are dying from ovarian cancer. But I guess that's ok cause he needs the money.

Tax reform--well I'm for the out-of-state land companies paying more taxes for the large amounts of land they own, instead of raising taxes on poor people who live here and can't afford the property tax. But Blankenship wants to take back millions of tax dollars because the coal he mined here was exported. Oh wait a minute-- didn't he say we are providing energy independence from other countries by using our coal reserves? So why would we export it? Oh yes, that's to make him a billionaire! He's not worried about anyone in this state but himself.

Job creation--well we could have a booming tourism if we could keep our streams from being polluted with heavy metals from his mining operations or filling them in with his waste from mining. We could also have timbering and our own furniture companies, build cabins for camping, fishing and hunting seasons. I'm sure plenty of people would pay to stay and hunt. Talk about spin-off jobs! But then it would cut into his income if he couldn't destroy everything in sight.

He's really crazy if he thinks he could be elected and mine safety not be an issue. He can defend his safety record all he wants because he doesn't have a good one. If he did he wouldn't need to defend it. He's not fooling anyone in the coalfields. People talk and even his workers are talking about how production is his number one goal, not safety. Guess he forgot about that memo he sent to his mines [see below].

Last but not least talk about a pot calling the kettle black! He's really out of touch with West Virginians. He didn't even know which state he was registered to vote in last election. So he should crawl back to KY and leave West Virgina alone.

Thanks and I am a coalminer's wife.

Patty Sebok.