can you hear me now? good.

In honor of this coming Labor Day, exercise some of those American rights by signing this petition from Credo Action, a green phone company and activist network, to have Verizon Wireless withdraw its support for a "pro-coal, anti-environment" rally co-sponsored by the dastardly dirty coal company, Massey Energy.  This so-called Friends of America rally is scheduled for Monday, September 7th, at a former surface mine in West Virginia. The event's conservative political agenda is buried underneath an ambiguous website; at first glance, the only information one can glean from its amateur red, white, and blue design is that it is a free event, no alcohol allowed, and will be headlined by Fox favorite radio host Sean Hannity and entertainers Ted Nugent and Hank Williams, Jr.  Only after probing around did I discover a link under "Register" that belies the rally's true intentions: "If you would like to sign a petition against the Waxman-Markey climate bill..."  If that is not enough to make you shake in your boots, watch this 18 second YouTube introduction from Massey Energy CEO, Don Blankenship.  He begins, blah blah, and then, hold on to your Stetson, "...we're also going to learn how environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your jobs." 

Massey Energy is behind some of the most heinous violations of the Clean Water Act to date.

In 2000, a Massey Energy subsidiary company based in Martin County, Kentucky, accidentally released 306 million gallons of coal slurry waste into two mountain streams, a $50 million dollar disaster that wreaked havoc on the aquatic wildlife and contaminated the water supply for local residents.  The EPA has named the spill the worst ever environmental catastrophe to hit the southeastern United States.  Also, their practice of mountaintop removal, a destructive method of coal mining that involves blowing up mountain tops, has buried rivers and streams under rock debris  and caused epic eco-problems in the Mississippi region in terms of polluted water and flooding, and destruction to the biodiversity of the Appalachian Mountains [see image above] in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

I hope this has outraged you as much as it has me, and, if you are a Verizon customer you have an added impetus to sign this.  Takes less time than a text.