The term “canaries in the coal mine” has been around for a long time. Unfortunately we are a nation of urbanites, suburbanites, and ex-urbanites who have no idea what it means. For that matter most Americans have no idea where their food comes from either, but that is a story for another day.
Here is the best definition I have found, courtesy of wisegeek.com.
“Life for an actual canary in a coal mine could be described in three words – short but meaningful. Early coalmines did not feature ventilation systems, so miners would routinely bring a caged canary into new coal seams. Canaries are especially sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide, which made them ideal for detecting any dangerous gas build-ups. As long as the canary in a coal mine kept singing, the miners knew their air supply was safe. A dead canary in a coalmine signaled an immediate evacuation.”
In modern terms, the canaries were an early warning system to keep the miners out of danger.
Lately as the election coverage has deteriorated into “ESPN for politics” with incessant analysis of non-issues, rehashing “red states vs. blue states”, electoral college vote counts, enough polls to make one want to strangle all pollsters and bloviating Washington “strategists” and insiders who sound like they are interviewing for jobs in an Obama Administration.
But there are serious issues out there that have been totally disregarded by the very press who constantly complain that campaigns are just attack ads and false promises.
Now what in the hell does that have to do with canaries in the coal mine? Here are two stories that appeared recently that were covered by Bloomberg News and the Associated Press news services. They never appeared on Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, the New York Times, CBS, NBC or ABC or any other mainstream news organization.
These are early warning signs of what might come that should send a shudder down the spine of every voter.
First, there was the story on October 17th that the State of Hawaii had ended its universal child healthcare system a mere 7 months after its inception. The reason was succinctly stated by the program’s administrator.
"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don’t believe that was the intent of the program." See the whole story here.
If people think they can get something from the government for “free” of course they are not going to pay for it. To me this is pretty scary stuff. It is exactly what will happen with DemoCare, the universal healthcare plan Democrats are promising. And with Obama promising that almost half of all Americans will pay no Federal income tax, you can see what will happen. The burden to pay for it will rest on the shoulders of the few of us left paying Federal taxes,
Did anyone ask Obama about this? He is from Hawaii! Did anyone ask McCain? No.
So with healthcare poised to take center stage in the next four years, don’t you think this is important? What about it Chris Mathews? How say you Wolf Blitzer? Or is it more important to interview Republican Washington insiders more interested in preserving their seat in the Washington salons, invitations to Georgetown cocktail parties and White House State Dinners during the Obama Administration.
Second, there was the story about Obama’s energy adviser saying that a President Obama would instruct the EPA to list carbon dioxide as a pollutant joining lead and carbon monoxide. The implications of this are dramatic but once again only reported by Bloomberg News Service.
This move could halt construction on almost half of the 130 new technology coal plants in the nation. That is also scary stuff for me. Read more about it here.
It would also have extremely devastating effects on American industry. Even Joe Biden told a young voter in Ohio that we would build no more coal plants.
The Obama campaign quickly “corrected” Old Joe and said they favored clean coal. But the Democratic Party’s environmental wing led by the “non partisan” Sierra Club is dead set against coal. And California wants no energy produced from coal!
Perhaps the Obama folks should check with the Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer, who has declared that America is the “Saudi Arabia of coal”. He drives a Dodge pick-up that is fueled by a coal synfuel and he takes his Border Collie Jag to work every day! Read about him here.
Republican or Democrat, Governor Schweitzer is my kind of citizen politician. He understands that the Mountain West from Canada to Mexico is rich in fossil fuels that need to be explored and used. He promotes new technologies to make these fuels more clean burning. And most of all, he is a Westerner who is more concerned about getting things done than in partisan hackery.
This quote of his says it all, but it puts him squarely at odds with his party led by the Coastal Elites and the Sierra Club.
“Anyone who thinks the world can fuel itself without coal is smoking his own belly lint”.
Need a match, Senator Obama?
But look out Governor Schweitzer, your days are numbered under your party’s candidate. Clean coal? No way. Shale oil? You must be joking. I hope the folks in Montana didn’t see the Bloomberg article.
These are but two of the “canaries in the coal mine” out there giving us an early warning of what is coming. I am sure there are many more that will never be covered by the mainstream media. They are not as important to them as what was said by Joy Behar on “The View” or how much was spent on Sarah Palin’s wardrobe.
And newspaper and network executives wonder why their circulation and viewers are the lowest in history and will continue to fall.
Just yesterday, the Los Angeles Times laid off 75 people from its newsroom.