Watch the State Officials Dance to Big Coal's Tune

I swear, there is absolutely nothing Kentucky politicians and officials will not do to please Big Coal. Their desperate and humiliating dances are simultaneously hilarious and depressing.

Bill Estep at the Herald:

HARLAN — To federal prosecutors, Mackie Bailey is a witness who provided information about dangerous practices at an underground coal mine in Harlan County where a man was crushed to death in June 2011. The company and three supervisors pleaded guilty in federal court.

To state authorities, Bailey is a miner who broke the rules. The Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing filed a complaint against him for taking part in the dangerous activities he reported to state and federal regulators.

To Bailey and his attorney, that's an injustice, not just because supervisors ordered Bailey to do unsafe work, but because his information helped convict the people responsible.

Note that Bailey doesn't have a union backing him up.  That's because Kentucky is a Right to Freeload state and the once-might UMW is weaker than it's ever been.

Here's an idea: have the feds arrest Governor Steve Beshear, Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters, officials at the Office of Mine Safety who came up with this brilliant plan, and every coal-bought legislator in the General Assembly, and give them life sentences in the Super Max at Marion, Illinois for terminal corruption.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/12/17/2447156/kentucky-officials-seek-to-punish.html#storylink=cpy