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What is a UC client?
What do vendors mean when they refer to a UC client? Learn what a UC client is and how it is used.
Can you explain what a UC client is? Is it the same thing as a unified user interface? Could you give me a few examples?
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WhatIs.com defines a client as a program that delivers data from servers. A Web browser is an example of a client: A browser makes requests to display Web pages from servers from around the Web. Likewise, a unified communications (UC) client allows an end user to use a UC system by delivering data from multiple communication applications. In the context you read "unified user interface" it likely meant the same thing as "UC client." What the client is called depends on the vendor -- one might call it a UC client, another might call it a unified user interface. The interfaces will vary depending on whose system you are using. It could be a softphone interface, an app on a phone or other software that allows the user to be part of the UC system.
For more information:
- Define unified communications: Learn what components make up unified communications and why components alone don't define UC.
- Connect users with a mobile UC client: Learn what options are available to enterprises to connect mobile UC clients and improve productivity and collaboration.
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Fouten. Iedereen maakt ze. De één meer dan de ander, maar iedereen maakt ze en al helemaal op het gebied van e-mail marketing. Dit artikel van Kath Pay op BeRelevant geeft ons de gelegenheid om te leren van fouten van anderen. Dat is dus kennis opdoen, zonder eerst op je bek te gaan. Profiteer ervan!
Here's what I found in just one day's worth of email messages recently:
1. Wrong landing page
2. Spelling mistake in the subject line
3. Test subject line not removed
4. Email sent to the wrong company division list
5. Personalisation code showing instead of name
6. 2007 copyright date
7. Broken link to Web version
8. Images failed to load even when enabled
9. Brand name misspelled
Yes, everyone makes mistakes. But how you recover from them will either save your reputation and business or make readers think you're unprofessional and untrustworthy.
A good recovery isn't enough, though. Know where your greatest vulnerabilities are in your email program and what you have to do to make sure errors either don't happen or get caught before you click "send."
First Rule: Don't Panic!
Don't rush out an immediate email correction. Sending a second email to your entire list right after the first one can make you look like a spammer to ISPs if your list has too undeliverable email addresses. You look like you're pounding on addresses that don't exist, belong to closed accounts, have become inactive or are temporarily unavailable.
If the mistake doesn't involve an email function – broken or wrong links, wrong price, incorrect image, wrong copy — or won't mislead your readers, don't send out a follow-up to the whole list. Instead, include a short apology in your next regular email.
Second Rule: Fix the Mistake
You must correct the mistake if it could mislead readers or if it breaks the email's functionality. Also, if you are sending the email on an advertiser's or partner's behalf, you have to make good. However, it's still not time to rush out a correction email to your entire list.
If the mistake involves your Web site –- the landing-page link is broken, or you published the wrong link or the wrong offer –- post a note on the page with an apology and a link to the correct page. Post a similar note on your front page, again with a link to the correct page.
How to send follow-up emails:
1. Send a follow-up email only to those who either opened or clicked within 24 hours. This is a typical watch period for most ISPs and spares you from hitting all those inactive or undeliverable addresses again.
2. Send a follow-up email after 24 hours to your list if you can't segment out your openers and clickers. If you email more often than weekly, wait until your next regular email, then including an apology and the correct information.
Yes, you could lose some sales, but that will motivate you to make sure your emails are correct before they go out,
Third Rule: Apologise the Right Way
What not to say: "Ooops! We goofed!" or "Did ya ever have one of those days when nothing goes right?" if you mail to a business list. It looks unprofessional.
Better: "We apologize for the mistake and the inconvenience. Here is the correct link/information/price." Imagine what your typical reader would say, and match your apology to that.
Fourth Rule: Look for List Churn
Scrutinise your list metrics for higher unsubscribes and changes in open or click rates. Also, watch for more spam complaints and act on those immediately.
Fifth Rule: Step Up Your Quality Control
These steps can help you spot mistakes better without adding too much time to your publishing schedule:
1. Create a checklist that includes all relevant information for the email, including deadlines, who's responsible for it and who signs off that the information is correct. Include the offer, price, images, graphics/design, lists/sublists/segments the email will go to and any other relevant information.
2. Create a fresh email message every time, using an error-proofed template. You won't forget to change the subject line or placeholder copy or images.
3. Create a test message before it goes live. Spelling and format mistakes will stand out. Unlike the test you use to try out subject lines and offers, this test goes only to a few people inside your company.
4. Have others review this message in different Web browsers, on different platforms (Mac, PC, smartphone and not just iPhone) and in different email clients (desktop, Web client and smartphone).
5. View message without images and in preview pane. Then, turn on images and open message, view content and click all links.
6. Watch all mailboxes to spot bounces or customer complaints about mistakes as soon as the message goes out.
Sixth Rule: Know the Traps
1. Content:
•Old/placeholder subject line left in final mailing
•Wrong/placeholder pictures
•Old content retained in reused message (headlines, head shots, graphics)
•Spelling/grammar/punctuation errors
•Wrong offer in mailing (old, not approved by client or sales team, etc.)
•Outdated contact information
2. Format:
•Errors in links
•Coding incompatibility resulting in unreadable or broken formats in different browsers or on different platforms
3. Landing page:
•Page not updated to reflect offer or before articles are uploaded
•Link error redirects to homepage or an interior page
•Page taken down too soon
4. Mailing list:
•Mailed to the wrong list
•Mailed test message to entire list
•Mailed general message to single segment
•Wrong segments identified for targeted mailing
•Mailed live message to do-not-email database or to unsubscribe database
Mis onze e-mailmarketing tips niet langer
Schrijf je in voor onze maandelijkse nieuwsbrief en blijf zo altijd up-to-date!

subset: commoncrawl


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Comedy is the flavour of the season on the tube. Zee is the latest to join the bandwagon of stand-up comedy shows with Gangs of Hasseepur. No, it's got nothing to do with Anurag Kashyap's gangster film Gangs of Wasseypur, instead it's a lot to do with the current political situation in the country and the upcoming elections, albiet with a humourous take. When asked if the channel was giving in to the trend of stand-up comedy shows (Comedy Nights With Kapil, Mad In India, Comedy Circus) Namit Sharma, programming head, Zee, denied it.
"It's not because we also wanted a comedy show that we are doing this. The idea behind it is to reflect what's happening in the country and humour is the best way. The whole show is meant to have fun. The line of the show is 'Jo cheezein aapko rulati thi wohi aaj hasayegi'. Everything that is a pain point for the country is fodder for humour on the show. It's a variety show with different styles of comedy. It's election-related with issues like inflation, lack of trust in the politicians etc forming the basis of humour."
Bharti Singh, Suresh Menon and Raju Shrivastav will be toplining the show with new actors and characters being added as the show progresses. Mandira Bedi is judging the variety entertainment show even as the channel is looking at roping in another celebrity.


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Vortex Extreme Spin Rackets
View Single Post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 496
It Has A Place
Originally Posted by
Murray Mound
I think you should try the stick first .
The racquet may not be for you ( I Loved it) but the "company" is basically this senior USTA player named Tom and his son Wase both who have been really nice to me.
It's a family owned business and there are 12 employees total in the "company".
Anyway , I found Tomd and Wade very helpful, I could even text message on theor personal cell phones. One night Tom interrupted his dinner out just to talk about a string issue I was having.
I personally find it refreshing to work with a family owned "ma pa" business rather than staying on hold on an automated system with a billion dollar faceless corporation.....but that's just my humble opinion
I have tried almost every cutting edge inovation.The results have been the further away from a normal frame the worse they were.
The POWER ANGLE stringing pattern was a good thing but, not exceptional.
The WEED has a place in Seniors tennis has has the Big Bubba. You just have to weigh up if the good outweighs the bad for you.
Now on to the VORTEX
The balance on the 100 and 108 6pt hl suites me and i do not mind 27.5 length but on one part of the site lists the 100 as 11.2 oz strung and the other lists it as 10.8 oz strung. The 108 has a similar difference on different parts of the Vortex site.They have a string pattern that might have merit.
I would even be willing to try it. What i do know is they have no 27 in around 12 oz frames that would appeal to a lot of the serious tennis population. So they appear to be making a play for only the recreational crowd. Now they only ship to the U.S., Austria and South Africa. As i live in Australia i, have to wonder why? Our postal system is first class as would be many of the countries they exclude.
Now this is a question and a guess. They seem to be pushing an affliate program which gives a commision on sales you direct to them. I wonder if this is part of the problem on International shipping? My understanding is South Africa is not the safest place to ship to but is one of the two International countries they ship to!
It may be unfair but i have to wonder if this is more a marketing ploy than really innovative racquet.
I hope i am wrong but, I really have to ask this question.
View Public Profile
Find More Posts by tailofdog


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Millennials in Texas and in California reject home ownership for vastly different reasons
The study that claimed chocolate helps you lose weight? It's fake
Tesla, Southern Co. partner in utility-scale battery-storage projects
Sen. Al Franken: Student loan debt is damaging America's economic growth
European stocks lose ground on mixed messages over Greece deal
Will a jump in pending home sales translate into more deals?
4 things to know about the fund industry's new, opaque creation
What the Supreme Court's fixes for retirement savings may do to your 401(k)
Consumer Confidential
Behavioral Economics
Strength in Numbers
The RetireMentors


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At the 2008 Doobie Awards in Austin, Texas, rock legends Blue Cheer took home two awards, one for pot song of the year ("Rollin' Dem Bones") and the other for lifetime achievement.
HIGH TIMES' music awards, The Doobies, are held each year in Austin during the SXSW festival. While many celebrities are in town for the event, Bobby Black and Potstar host a contest to determine the best weed in Texas.
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HIGH TIMES News Hit with Mike Hughes
This episode of the News Hit examines the past month's top pot stories and includes an interview with anti-salvia crusader, Bill Williams.
HT Interview: Tera Patrick (Video)
Tera Patrick discusses her longtime love for marijuana while getting photographed for the cover of High Times magazine's August 2008 issue.
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OG performs a perfect bong stand on the Slightly Stoopid tour bus.


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Hubway or MyBike for a month long stint in Boston? I'm an avid urban cyclist, have rented a bike in boston before and was recommended these two options. Any opinions about them?
DataLounge get your fix of gay gossip, news and pointless bitchery.
Talking to DataLounge servers.
Please wait a moment...


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Around Independence Day recently, countless people on social networking sites apparently swept by a wave of patriotism posted a picture of Shahid Bhagat Singh's ramshackle house in Khatkar Kallan (Punjab) along side that of a top politician in Delhi. The idea was to drive home the point that while many who laid down their lives for the country's freedom remain unsung, those who aggrandise themselves in the very same nation live amid fame and luxury.
The story laced with this prickly truth was played out once again – for the umpteenth time – before a nation teeming with thankless patriots using the Tricolour as their profile picture on WhatsApp and Facebook in a remote village in Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday morning.
The body of Indian Army Havaldar Gaya Prasad, recovered from Siachen Glacier in Jammu and Kashmir, 18 years after he was reported missing from the world's highest battlefield, was cremated in his paternal village Kundariya in Kishni area of this west UP district. Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag had on Wednesday paid homage to the 'well-preserved' body which was buried in ice at the Glacier, where temperatures drop to minus 60.
Though the 15 Rajput Regiment carried out the sombre ceremony with military honours, no senior district official cared to visit the long-grieving family. Neither the District Magistrate (DM) nor the district police chief nor any state minister had any time to spare for the unsung martyr. An ADM completed the formality on behalf of the district administration.
'Netas', being the vultures they are, descended on the site to reap electoral returns as the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, recently vacated by Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, goes to polls on September 20. So, Yadav's nephew Tej Pratap Yadav, the SP candidate, was there with his followers. So was another Yadav nephew Dharmendra, already an MP from Budaun (west UP) assuring the family that he would take up the matter of getting maximum financial aid with UP CM Akhilesh Yadav.
The martyr's wife Rama Devi, who had been waiting for "good news" about her husband for 18 long years, didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Initially, when they told me that he (Gaya Prasad) had been found, I felt happy and relieved that my wait had finally come to an end. But, then, he has come back in a coffin. I don't know what to say," she said between sobs, beyong herself with grief. Her son Satish, who was 17 when his father was reported missing, consoled her, trying hard to fight back his own tears.
Hordes of villagers had started gathering at the martyr's house ever since his body was brought to this village around midnight on Wednesday. By morning, thousands had gathered at the cremation site, and the 15 Rajput Regiment jawans had a tough time controlling the crowds.
"There is no honour for the martyr," lamented Gaya's friend and 15 Rajput colleague Subedar Singh. "What does the family get from a military ceremony and laying of wreaths. They should be well compensated and Gaya's martyrdom should be adequately honoured. No such announcement has been made as yet," he told reporters. The villagers, too, complained about what they considered "dishonour" to a martyr.
Prasad, a native of Mainpuri district in Uttar Pradesh, had gone missing during "Operation Meghdoot" on Siachen Glacier in 1996 and his body was recovered only last week. The Havaldar was declared 'Missing Dead' 18 years ago while serving at Khanda Post in Siachen (Northern Glacier).
As per Army records, he was collecting stores dropped by helicopter at Khanda Dropping Zone, when he fell into a crevasse on December 9, 1996. "All attempts to rescue him could not succeed despite sustained efforts over three days," an Army release said. The body was recovered by a unit deployed in the area after it had partially surfaced and was identified as that of Prasad. He is survived by his father, Subedar (Rtd) Gajadhar Singh, wife, a son and two daughters.


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Recent Coxsackie Reviews
Clean, up to date and relaxing
A group of 14 of us rented the house 4/17/15-4/19/15. The weather was perfect and we were able to enjoy the outdoor fire pits, the dock and the BBQ. The kitchen fit our group well and we were able to cook and hang out and we spent a lot of time in the game room with the Karaoke. Since there was so many of us it was nice to have the game room at the opposite side of the house so those who went to bed earlier weren't disturbed. Jodi was more than helpful showing us around the house and answering our questions while at the house and prior to going. I would recommend the house to any large group of people who want to bond and relax. The game room has so much to do, there is stuff for all ages and tastes everyone in our group had a good time. I will definitely be planning a trip back in the future.


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Saucy Ground Meat Towers
24 Sep 2009
|Lean ground beef
|2 Pound
|Instant minced onion
|2 Tablespoon
|2 , beaten
|Worcestershire sauce
|1 Teaspoon
|1 1⁄2 Teaspoon
|1⁄4 Teaspoon
|Monosodium glutamate
|1⁄2 Teaspoon
|Garlic salt
|1⁄2 Teaspoon
|1⁄4 Cup (4 tbs)
|Herbed tomato sauce
|1 Cup (16 tbs)
|Stuffing mix
|4 Ounce
Lightly mix the ground beef, onion, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, monosodium glutamate, and garlic salt.
Shape into 12 patties, making 6 of them slightly smaller in diameter.
Brown patties on both sides in heated fat in a heavy skillet.
Remove to absorbent paper.
Prepare Herbed Tomato Sauce.
Prepare stuffing mix according to directions on package for moist stuffing.
Shape into 6 patties, using about 1/3 cup stuffing for each.
Arrange the larger meat patties in skillet; put a stuffing patty on each, and top with smaller patties.
Pour sauce over and around the "towers"; heat thoroughly, basting occasionally.
Rate It
0 Comments
Saucy Ground Meat Towers Recipe


text:
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2005, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection.
Friction is at once an exploration of big ideas (such as connectivity and the portability of universalisms) and a narrative of environmental disaster in Indonesia (particularly South Kalimantan) immediately before and after the fall of Suharto in 1998. Centered on "friction"--"the awkward, unequal, unstable, and creative qualities of interconnection across difference" (p. 4), Tsing examines the intersection of universals (broadly conceived as prosperity, knowledge, and freedom), globalization, and natural and human-made environments. Although self-styled as an ethnography, Tsing's account actually derives from snippets of short-term fieldwork, other sorts of encounters (such as attending a meeting on global environmental change), and news reports, "formed in discrete patches" (p. x). Anyone thus expecting something along the lines of a classic ethnography focused on the details of local-level social life will be greatly disappointed, but that is not the aim of this study: Those local-level details are obviously important here, as Tsing makes clear, but must be "stretched" (p. 271) in order to pursue larger issues of connectivity and the "friction" produced--those "zones of awkward engagement" (p. xi). Besides, Tsing herself admits that her own academic schedule and life circumstances did not permit the kind of long-term fieldwork doctoral students are freer to conduct (p. x, 273 n. 1). This would seem to better justify the methodological emphasis on "ethnographic fragments," rather than as some profound theoretical breakthrough (p. 271).
In the first section of the book, on "prosperity," Tsing considers the wide disparities produced by economic development, ironically billed in nationalist discourse as the route to prosperity. She focuses on the expansion of capitalist frontiers with a particular eye on the development of road networks in South Kalimantan into the Meratus Mountains and the subsequent influx of legal and illegal extractive timber operations and labor migrants. (One thing that struck me in this section was the singular lack of maps throughout the book, which would be a real problem for those unfamiliar with the contours of Kalimantan.) She touches on the rank corruption surrounding logging and plantation development, the haze during 1997's El Nino, the Maduran-Dayak violence of the late 1990s, and coal extraction (a highly understudied subject despite its historical importance following the arrival of Dutch steamers in the mid-1800s). She also addresses the complex issue of scale in description and analysis, something geographers and geographically minded anthropologists have been dealing with for decades. Her primary attention here is on the bizarre story of Bre-X mining company and the interconnections among nation-making projects, corruption, and foreign investment (which she dubs "franchise cronyism"). Her aim "is to show the heterogeneity of capitalism at every moment in time" (p. 76) and across spatial scales.
"Knowledge" is the theme of the second section, this time under the premise that "[t]he play among multiple, contested universals" produce one type of friction, upon which both "knowledge of the globe" and "globally traveling knowledge" are dependent (p. 87). Tsing again covers a wide range of topics, including the Asia-Africa Conference of 1955, hosted by Indonesia, that highlighted the "global dream space" of science, modernization, and political sovereignty; the order-producing classification of nature inherent in European scientific ideology; the culturally specific claims about universals seen in John Muir's environmental philosophy; the global-scale models in early climate change research; the International Tropical Timber Organization's futile attempts at sustainable forest management; indigenous ecological knowledge; and occasionally contradictory but collaborative relationships within environmental campaigns. A special focus of this section is on the melding of moral/ethical piety, social justice, and environmentalism in Indonesia, a combination that grew in strength in the 1990s even before the fall of Suharto. Here she examines the cosmopolitan claims of largely young, urban, educated Indonesian "nature lovers" and how circulating knowledge becomes localized. Though Tsing spends a good deal of time on this topic, her treatment exposes the fundamental flaw in such "ethnography of discrete patches:" It can be highly superficial and prone to miss some essential factors, particularly revolving around a deeper examination of social relationships. Such "ethnography" generates an anthropological impressionism aimed at evoking feeling over content, "meaning" over social contextualization.
That being said, Tsing's description of the intricate and complex Meratus Dayak swidden system in Chapter 5--appropriately titled "A History of Weediness"--is very nice, and she notes how the highly social nature of its landscape has been misread continually by developers and policy planners (p. 193). Those of us who have worked in and researched similar systems will see many parallels here but will also come away absolutely dumbfounded by her blanket and unsupportable assertion that "[r]egrowing secondary forests ... have never garnered sympathetic attention among either scholars or policy makers" (p. 189). Nowhere does she cite the many scientists, even anthropologists, who have for decades studied swidden systems and their fallow forests--sympathetically. Her sole reference to such (in another chapter) is to Conklin's Hanunoo Agriculture.
The third section concerns "freedom" and builds on the contrast between the repression of Suharto's regime and the rampant near-anarchy of the reform period immediately after Suharto's fall from power. Tsing deals with Indonesian nationalism promoted through the environmental movement, its use of the Suharto-era courts, and the growth of "indigenous rights" campaigns and its problematic translation within Indonesia. Movement and mobility, of people and ideas, is especially emphasized throughout this section, and Tsing explores how stories travel and translate across the globe, such as the allegorical use of Chico Mendes (the Brazilian labor rights activist) and Chipko (the environmental movement of Indian villagers to protect trees from being logged) by Indonesian environmentalists. From this, she moves on to critiquing the capitalist/acquisitionist strategy of the Nature Conservancy and the largely successful collaborations surrounding efforts to protect forest in the Meratus Mountains during the late 1980s, despite fundamental differences in actual aims and perspectives.
Despite the interesting stories she weaves together on topics of considerable environmental and social significance, Tsing's motivation to be "a hair in the flour" (p. 206)--that is, to "speak truth to power" or to be a fly in the ointment--is unfortunately and severely undermined by her own writing style (which has nonetheless become clearer and considerably less dense than in her first book, In the Realm of the Diamond Queen). Coming from the humanities end of the American anthropological continuum, her "evocation" and clever literary turns-of-phrase will simply put off most of those who need to read of these things--foresters, ecologists, policy-makers, and the like. (I would argue that the usual culprit of postmodernism is not the main issue here.) The scholars chosen by the publisher to write back cover blurbs--Goenawan Mohamad (an Indonesian literary figure), Mary Steedly, and Ann Laura Stoler (both American anthropologists largely on the same end of the continuum as Tsing)--underscore the intended audience: one that does not need such hairs in its flour, is already converted to such lines of argument, and is quite comfortable with Tsing's writing style.
My prediction for this book is that it will become, like Diamond Queen, widely cited (if not thoroughly read) within particular brands of cultural anthropology and environmental studies that emphasize political things (e.g., political ecology). There has already been a special session at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) devoted to it. Over the next few years, like James Scott's "resistance" and "legibility," it will launch a spate of writing using "friction" and her other neologisms; one will not be able to attend the annual meeting of the AAA without bumping into numerous presentations about it. But will it become the hair in the flour that it should be? I fear not (Reed L. Wadley, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA).
Reader Opinion
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text:
Gov't agencies unaware of new Malampaya scam
MASANTOL, Pampanga—An emergency agricultural aid project funded by government's share of royalties from the Malampaya gas project in Palawan did not have the cooperation of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Central Luzon or the local government here, officials said on Saturday.
"It did not pass through the DAR regional office," said Agrarian Reform Assistant Secretary Teofilo Inocencio, a former DAR Central Luzon director, when asked for details regarding the agency's Farming Yield Emergency Contingency Project in 2009.
Some supposed beneficiaries of this project denied having received agricultural input packages, each worth P35,781, that consisted of a heavy-duty sprayer, an organized container, farming paraphernalia, gloves, various seeds and seedlings.
The farmers also reported that their signatures, which appeared on DAR documents, were falsified.
The Commission on Audit's (COA) special audits office has been conducting a sectoral performance audit on the project, which the DAR implemented through Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation Inc. (KMFI).
Arnel Cunanan, Teody Salarda and Gerry Viray, all fishermen, said they learned about the project's anomalies through letters sent to them by Susan Garcia, COA director of the special audits office, who asked them to confirm if they received the kits.
According to documents, the kits would have cost the government P89.2 million.
Former Vice Mayor Marcelo Lacap Jr. said he has tried to communicate with COA, on behalf of the supposed recipients who want to be removed from the lists.
"My town mates are worried because they are afraid that the amount would be charged to them, or that they may face charges and be jailed. They are only subsistence fishermen. To earn more, they double up as caretaker of fishponds. They must be cleared [of any liability]," Lacap said.
Mayor Peter Flores said he does not remember meeting DAR employees or KMFI coordinators about the project.
"My God, I don't even know that they coordinated with me," Flores said. "Whoever did that does not know Masantol. Most of the lands here are used for fishponds. We don't have agrarian reform communities."
An online check revealed that KMFI operates at L10 Phase 3, Rosal St., TS Cruz Subdivision, Almanza Dos in Las Piñas City.
Pampanga Board Member Nestor Tolentino said the irregularity "must be threshed out," suggesting that the provincial board's agriculture committee should initiate an investigation.
Lacap said he and the fishermen are trying to find out who supplied their names to KMFI.
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text:
A few days ago, I looked at a newly published report that challenges the economic wisdom behind the tar sands gold rush in Canada. "The Bitumen Cliff," written by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, points out that economies built around natural resource extraction are doomed to fail. This typically goes beyond bubble economics because government policies and the rest of the economy reorganize to primarily benefit the companies harvesting the resource. There is plenty of history to back up the concepts, including the "Dutch disease" phenomenon. While The Bitumen Cliff was written as a cautionary tale for Canada in its tar sands frenzy, I want to call attention to an economy that has gone over the bitumen cliff, namely West Virginia.
Before getting too far, let me make my biases clear. I am a hillbilly at heart and by blood. My father came from Pikeville in the heart of eastern Kentucky. Many in my mother's family came from the western Virginia sticks. My wife comes from southern West Virginia. It is all coal country and ground zero for mountaintop removal mining. Relatives with black lung, climate change, and mountaintop removal mining make me openly antagonistic toward the coal industry.
West Virginia has been dependent on bituminous coal for nearly a century. There was a time when most people in the state worked for King Coal or in industries that served it. Those days are over. The legacy of coal will be economic despair, decaying infrastructure, impotent government, poisoned waters, and abandoned mines and slurry ponds. Natural resource extraction has never been nor will ever be a sound foundation for economic development at the local, state, or federal level. West Virginia is the perfect example.
What does going over the bitumen cliff look like? The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy (WVCBP) produced a report last year that documents the state's dire condition in excruciating detail, although the title is innocuous: "Creating an Economic Diversification Trust Fund." It opens with a quote from the late Sen. Robert Byrd from his autobiography about his beloved home state.
It is a state whose rich resources have been largely owned and exploited by outside interests. Absentee owners, while living outside the state, wrested from theThose absentee landlords are coal and railroad companies; coal is the rich resource in question. As Byrd eloquently notes, those riches have not trickled down to the hills and hollers. Moreover, nearly 80% of the state's mineral resources remain in the hands of out-of-state companies.
West Virginia earth the wealth that made them rich — rich from the toil and sweat and blood and tears of the people in the hill country who worked out their lives, all
too often, for a pittance.
Here are some noteworthy statistics compiled by the WVCBP about how West Virginia stacks up in the nation: economic diversity (46th), workforce participation (50th), post-secondary education (50th), and fiscal capacity (47th). Crumbling infrastructure ($8 billion in unmet needs) and high rates of poverty and disability compound the nightmare. Dependence on coal has left the state at the bottom of the economic barrel with few resources to transition to a broader based, technologically-sophisticated economy.
Slurry pond failure in Lyburn, WV, 2002
Since the election of Barack Obama, politicians in West Virginia have blamed the state's woes on the president and the federal government. These politicians, whether from the Democratic or Republican Party, are calculated liars. Here are some clever deceptions in the inaugural address of Earl Tomblin as governor of West Virginia in January.
Our state budget is not just balanced; we continue to have a budget surplus! Our credit rating is higher than it has been in decades and our Rainy Day Fund is the envy of the nation.The state has cut spending on education, particularly higher education, and infrastructure while relying on the federal government to support many of its citizens, particularly the large percentage of disabled, old, and poor in the population. West Virginia has by far the lowest percentage of workforce participation of any state in the nation. Some numbers from WVCBP report:
In November 2011, only 775,600 state residents were in the labor force, the lowest number in 18 years. For more than 30 years, West Virginia consistently has had the lowest labor force participation rate in the country, even among prime age workers. In 2010, only 54.5 percent of the state's potential workforce was working or seeking employment, compared with the national average rate of 64.7 percent. West Virginia's participation rate is four percentage points below the next lowest state, Mississippi.Having an economy built around coal is a major factor. Mechanization and reliance on mountaintop removal mining help cut the mining workforce from 70,000 to 21,000 in the past three decades, while allowing coal production to remain steady and industry profits to remain high. There are few non-coal employment opportunities to pick up the slack as the coal industry downsizes its labor force.
Tomblin went on to pledge allegiance to King Coal and Prince Gas.
We must continue to promote our energy industries. Our nation, our state, and our great citizens depend on West Virginia to power their future. I will work tirelessly to defend these industries. I will fight for our state's coal industry, the backbone of our economy.He also spoke of the state's sworn enemies.
We will continue to take on the federal government and oppose efforts by the EPA and others to stop production of the most efficient fuel our country knows.Tomblin received the most applause when he complained about the time he spends "fighting the federal government to get off our backs and leave us alone."
A recent editorial in the Charleston Gazette pointed out the disingenuous nature of those claims. The federal government contributes $11.5 billion to the state economy, paying the living expenses of 700,000 residents while the state government collects only $4.7 billion in taxes. And the federal contribution does not count federal highway and transportation funds, military retirement, and disaster relief. It also means that federal austerity programs will send West Virginia into an economic tailspin. By the way, the Rainy Fund that supposedly is the envy of the nation contains less than $1 billion.
Acid Mine Drainage
So how does a state that has generated enormous wealth from coal sit mired in a failed economy while political leaders continue to pursue policies that will only benefit the coal industry? The Bitumen Cliff warns of the potential for the oil industry to take over government.
In general, the notion of a petro-state has to do with the extent to which the petroleum industry exercises a disproportionate amount of power and influence over public policy, in comparison to and to the detriment of, other sectors of the economy and society.In West Virginia, takeover by the coal industry is complete. Here are few indicators.
An analysis of the state's budget in 2009 by Downstream Strategies found that coal-related revenues barely covered costs from infrastructure and oversight.
Among the report's findings were that the coal industry in 2009 paid $307.3 million in severance taxes, corporate net income tax, business franchise tax and other taxes. But the state spent $113.7 million to support units of government that regulate mining and for the repair of the state's coal-haul roads. So, the report concluded that the industry in this respect provided a net benefit to the state budget of nearly $194 million.Revenues generated by coal have remained stable, government costs associated with coal have increased, and state officials have created enormous tax breaks and subsidies for the coal industry. Without $174 million in corporate welfare payments, West Virginia would have close to $200 million every year to invest in education, job training, and creating a more diverse economy. There is enormous potential for clean energy development in the state, but loyalty to King Coal means opposing development of alternatives.
But the state provides a variety of a tax credits and subsidies that amounted to nearly $174 million in 2009 -- all of which show up in the report as "expenditures," or costs to the state budget of the industry.
Any talk of increasing severance taxes or decreasing subsidies is quickly shot down. The WVCDP report called for a small increase in severance taxes to create modest permanent fund to help state residents prepare for a life beyond coal. It was ignored. The only viable political option is to cut the budget for agencies responsible for environmental regulation and worker safety.
Rather than talk honestly about the future prospects for coal-related employment, state officials have resorted to fudge and fabrication on coal job numbers.
Very little in West Virginia government passes the smell test. Here are bills now up for consideration in the state legislature. HB 2571 creates a special exemption to allow coal company representatives with active or pending permits to serve on the Environmental Control Board. What possible harm could come from letting foxes decide henhouse security? HB 2579 amends the state's water quality standards so coal companies can discharge more selenium into streams and rivers. Selenium beyond naturally occurring trace levels is toxic to aquatic life and poses significant human health risks, but costs coal companies a great deal to clean up. Bills like these are the rule, not the exception.
The final report by the panel commissioned by the governor to investigate the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster has a chapter on "How could this happen in West Virginia." That chapter describes influence peddling by Massey kingpin Don Blankenship in great detail.
"What is factual and well documented is that Massey Energy Chairman and CEO Don Blankenship had a long history of wielding or attempting to wield influence in the seats of government."No one in their right mind thinks that West Virginia regulates the coal industry. The coal industry regulates the state and has left the state in shambles.
There is no way to justify the costs of coal for the residents of West Virginia, even when it was the state's primary source of employment. Life with coal was a disaster for all but the coal industry. Bloody labor fights. Black lung disease. Mining disasters. Tricks and theft to hand mineral rights to corporate interests. Corrupt, stupid, and cowardly politicians making sure nothing but filth trickled down to residents. Cancer and chronic diseases rampant in people living near mines. Yet, even when the jobs are becoming scarce and recoverable reserves uncertain, few in power and in the media dare talk about life after coal. State political leaders simply lack the integrity to confront the toxic legacy of coal from poisoned waters, deadly slurry impoundments, millions of acres destroyed by mountaintop removal mining, and tens of thousands of abandoned mining sites.
The failure of West Virginia's coal-based economy also creates social conflict. People that question industry practices and political policies are now subject to intimidation. Taking a stand means risking your life. Just ask Marie Gunnoe, a vocal opponent of mountaintop removal mining.
Mountaintop Removal Mine, Kayford Mountain, WV
Gunnoe is one of the toughest people I've ever hung out with. The first time I met her, back in 2001, she gave me a tour of her home in Boone County, West Virginia, which had recently been devastated by floods caused by run-off from a mountaintop removal mine above her home. Then she tucked a silver .32 caliber pistol under her belt and took me on a hike up through blasted rubble into the mine. Protection from bears? "Or angry coal miners," she told me.The "war on coal" propaganda has further inflamed passions. Even the once proud United Mine Workers of America supports the coal industry on virtually every policy, even the job-destroying transition to mountaintop removal mining. Progressive political leadership is hard to find. Democrats have gone from reliable advocates for workers rights and progressive social policies to coal industry cheerleaders.
Gunnoe knows how rough things can get in the coalfields. I've been with her when she stared down a six-foot-tall miner at a gas station who clearly wanted to hurt her. Coal trucks have tried to force her car off the road, her brake lines have been slashed, and her family dog, a Rottweiler named Chaos, wound up dead at her son's bus stop, shot in the chest – a clear warning to back off.
"No leader or potential leader can talk honestly about both the damage coal does to workers, the environment and the climate, but also express concern about the lack of any plan for doing anything else in our coalfield communities."Most of my relatives that remain in coal country admit there are no opportunities beyond a few coal industry jobs. When I press them on the solution, they offer bromides like "maybe coal will make a comeback" or "we always find a way to get by." They have gone from fighting for decent pay and benefits to hoping a crumb or two will fall their way. In their minds, forcing the coal industry to pay more in taxes and clean up their messes will only make a bad situation worse. It feels like I am listening to Stockholm Syndrome victims.
I see little reason for optimism. It will take a miracle for progressive leadership to emerge in West Virginia until the coal industry collapses and coal money dries up in the political system. At that point, the challenges will be daunting and people will be desperate.
Those of us demanding action on climate change and fossil fuels industries pay to remediate their environmental impacts are often derided as naive. We are simply supposed to take it on faith that the economic benefits of everything from tar sands pipelines to mountaintop removal mining to the rush to fracture shale formations across the nation outweigh long-term costs and consequences. West Virginia is the perfect example for why we need to challenge those claims. Building an economy around fossil fuels extraction is guaranteed to fail and leave toxic wastes for future generations to clean up.
"In the US and across the globe, the movement for Climate Justice has been steadily growing, not simply demanding action on climate, but demanding rights-based and justice-based action on climate that confronts false solutions, root causes of climate change and amplifies the voices of those least responsible and most directly impacted."