Country Roads Parody Video

[zeroman22oh]

u dumb bitch that coal made electricity for ur lap top so u could make this gay ass video without coal there would be no power in this county

[sentry964]

If you think you've got problems in West Virginia, you need to come out here to Victorville, California. That famous L.A. smog you hear about? It gets funneled thru the mountains straight here. Or Trona, where it smells of rotten eggs from the mining. Maybe Hinkley made famous from Erin Brockovich? West Virginia is a beautiful state that is underapreciated and while there may be screwed up areas in West Virginia, like all states, you ain't got shit compared to this wasteland.

[MrJoey1211]

Would you rather have shaft mining where good men get buried alive? Just be glad you have a mineral that keeps families supported.....Quit complaining, you F-ing Liberal!

[PTWarrior66]

this is fucking stupid

[CloneBassPlayer]

In Soviet Russia, strip mine owns you... oh, wait! yah...

[Dojocho]

In regards to clean mining..it dont exist...processing yes but there is always the waste....

[1234build]

SCRAP METAL- YOU GET PAID, ITS FUN, AND IT MEANS LESS MINING FOR METAL- WIN+WIN!!!!!!!!

[thelostpiranha]

Seems more apt as a protest song than a parody.

[Whitewolf777RULES]

FOR ALL YOU CITY MORONS IF YOU WANT TO BLOW UP SOMETHING FOR POWER BLOW UP UR HOUSE THEN SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!!

[useockhamsrazor]

This video would have more impact if they just used John Denver's version of Country Roads while the mountain top removal was being shown. I think the juxtaposition of the lyrics and video would be moving.

[HORNHost]

@Funtrix9 Do you kiss your mama with that filthy mouth, boy? Please pardon my mistake. Masseyholes communicate on about a 6th grade level, so my mistake is, therefore, understandable.

You can drop out now, twig. Don Blankenship has a job for you and if you're not careful, you edumicate yourself right out of your future.

[HORNHost]

@Funtrix9 Wow, indeed! All I have to do to get blocked by a knuckle-walking, spit-dribbling, high-school dropout Massey worker is reply? Consider it done!

[HORNHost]

@Funtrix9 You're a hoot. Typical Masseyhole idiocy: facts = "random." No, moran. Facts = facts. They sell "coal tampons" at Hot Topic? I'll take your word for it. Obviously you've been shopping there.

For casual observers: please note the typical Masseyhole response to facts: scream obscenities, make casual ad hominem attacks and do ANYTHING but deal with unpleasant facts.

This is why they wind up running heavy equipment on toxic waste sites. It's all they're good for.

[jeremyhillaryboobphd]

btw "we will never cede a single square inch of our birthright, of our mountains" pretty sure they were the American Indians, wouldn't exactly call that birthright, i'd call that occupied territory.

[jeremyhillaryboobphd]

@Funtrix9 ??? bit aggressive. does the fact your country has abused itself, the fact your government has abused its people, and the rest of the world, the fact that most of your population is illiterate and living in substandard conditions without ETHICAL healthcare, does the fact your were forced against your will to pledge allegiance to this facist state before you knew what it was, does that get to you when you realise it's true from time to time?

Cos you know it should.

ps. my mum's dead.

[HORNHost]

@wvufanngarner You're fat? Not surprised, you filthy Masseyhole. Most of you swine are. Here's hoping the atherosclerosis (big word, sorry. Look it up, dropout) catches up with you sooner rather than later. Not surpised a disgusting Massey goon like you doesn't know how to push back from the table.

B-T-W, turd, we're winning. Haven't you noticed? The majority of the nation despises you for supporting the Communist Chinese while you destroy our land and our families.

[HORNHost]

@Funtrix9 Could you convince him to do the whole country a favor before he gets a chance to screw us all in the Senate of the United States and just kill himself, instead?

P.S., dumbshit: you can't "make" coal. Typical Masseyhole. Big mouth, tiny brain. Damn, but you're stooooooPID! WV's coal goes to Communist China. Less than 5% of America's electricity comes from mountaintop removal coal. Fact.

[acecoolman123]

fill the river of what was the mountain and we won't have a water pollution problem

[Charles3368]

I'm sorry but this sucks!!!!!!

[2001MUgrad]

WOW. What trash.

Is this Ashley Judd singing or someone else that doesn't live there?

What do you suggest WV do for an economy if you quit digging for coal #1. Let's don't drill for oil either.

Let's drive unsafe little 3 foot long cars that go 30 MPH that run on solar power. Or better yet, let's all drive mopeds.

I bet you are in favor of socialization of the entire country too?

Let out of staters come in and buy up all the property raising cost and forcing real WVians out.

[HORNHost]

@2001MUgrad Is that you, Don? Or are you just parroting that sleazy, greasy homicidal maniac's talking points?

[ivartjes100]

wow you can't sing for shit dude

[UWrosesdawg]

Time to rise up and demand a better future. Massey's going down! Peabody's next.

[wvufanngarner]

i show this video to people to show them what i do. thanks HORN.

[jeremyhillaryboobphd]

this isnt a parody this is a serious message

[wvufanngarner]

i blast for a living. so FIRE IN THE HOLE!

[wvufanngarner]

still at it are ya? well ole Donny got me back on and im knocking them down as fast as i can. so turn on your lights and furnace,stay warm while i help continue to flatten west virginia. its my state, you tree huggers might want to look up a lil history and see what happens to people who get in the way of true west-by-god-virginians when their families aren't able to be provided for. put me in the mine you said. well im there thank god! and my bills are paid. lot of deep hollows in west virginia

[dldgiraffe]

@wvufanngarner , you are no truer a WVian than I am.

I am glad you can provide for your family. Everyone has to eat. We do need a better way for you to provide and for me to turn on the light. Do you drink water? Water is more important to life than lights and even food. Without clean water we can do nothing. MTR is like standing on a raft in the middle of the ocean and selling it off one log at a time. Sooner or later, you're screwed.

[wvufanngarner]

@dldgiraffe cuz, let me say, I see what it does to the land. I'm not proud of "it", but it's what we have. I must have came across as an ass in one of my comments but truth is i was layed off for a while and was a little anxious. I made a comment on this video and the maker of it sent me message after message being a prick. I am one who hopes like hell they figure out another way, but they gotta come up with it first.

[dldgiraffe]

@wvufanngarner You are right. We gotta figure something out. The owners love that they have us WVians over a barrel. You wont find them living anywhere near the mess they have us make. you are also right in that change cant come from us fighting each other. I dont know how we get changes to start. and I dont know how to provide good jobs. I just know clean water is tough to find once the mountains get ripped apart. but until then WVians reamains "another day older and deeper in debt."

[wvufanngarner]

@dldgiraffe Thanks for understanding it and "getting it" I was just razzing an internet MFC fighter there. Was born and raised in WV i know what please, thank you, your welcome , excuse me. yes ma'am/sir no ma'am/sir means.

[HORNHost]

@wvufanngarner You're dumber than a 50 pound sack of stupid. Boy, my people have been in this state since before yours learned to walk upright without a wheel-barrow for help.

An idiot like you who brags about blasting mountains and poisoining families and communities DESERVES to starve when we end mountaintop removal, and I sincerely hope you do, you miserable, lick-spittle swine.

[wvufanngarner]

@HORNHost FIRE IN THE HOLE !!!!!! you tree humping faggot. Please, please lay down in front of my truck so we don't have to suffer you anymore. I'm fat and happy so you have NO HOPE of me starving.

There goes another shot. the future is bright and you have no hope. Go push a pencil and be a good little fag-boy.....BOY!!!

[tvargan]

I'd say this was more protest than parody.

[wvufanngarner]

stuff like this is why i am layed off right now. Let me ask you something people, how will you keep the lights on if we stop using coal today? until something else COMES ONLINE we need coal like it or not.

[HORNHost]

No, you're laid off because your corporate owners have decided the price of coal is too low. Environmentalists didn't do that. Corporatists did. Blanksenship admitted it, as did Consol and Peabody. Don't try to blame people who are trying to save this state for ALL of us for your failure to get a job that isn't subject to corporate dirty-dealings, profiteering and avarice.

In other words, don't lie.

[HORNHost]

By the way, coal propagandist, by last estimates coal now accounts for 42% of national electricty production and that number is falling. In total, MTR accounts for less than FIVE percent of national electricity production. It's not the necessity you claim it is. We could end MTR tomorrow and the lights wouldn't even dim.

We are moving toward a coal-free future. When are you going to get off the dozer and find honest work? The time to prepare for change is before it hits you. Like NOW.

[Lucas6194]

We still need to mine coal for the good of our economy... but I need to study this more...  I hope to run for a public office (harrison county) and I need to know more on this issue. Are there alternatives to strip mining?

[HORNHost]

Absolutely. Before the advent of MTR, there were thousands more miners in WV. There are less than 4000 Mountain Removers in WV, by the industry's own estimates. There are literally more florists in WV than there are mountain removers.

If you're thinking of running for office, then you need to start thinking about the future. That future is NOT coal. WV's coal will be gone in another 20 years. Our future is in wind and solar, of which we have an abundance FOREVER.

[Lucas6194]

The only thing is there are downsides for all forms of energy. If we were to begin making coal to oil refineries, we would have an estimated 250 years of coal to power ourselves. This will give us more time to develop technology to either reduce or completely eliminate the down side to the others.

[ericbrianward]

MTR has a 95% resource recovery rate. Deep mining is about 40%. If you want to protest something wait until the long wall mines start trying to recover what the deep mines have left.

[HORNHost]

No thanks. The time to protest is now, while Appalachia still has some mountains left. The Coal Mob has already destroyed 500 mountains and buried over a thousand miles of streams.

"Resource Recovery Rate." How Orwellian of you. Have any of the shills for the coal companies calculated the lives lost, the permanent damage done? Dr. Michael Hendryx at WVU did. We spend $5 for every dollar coal brings in. Some "recovery rate!"

[EmmyOfTheMntns]

Thanks for portraying the hell we are stuck in so poignantly. Maybe the rest of our country will wake up and realize the sacrifices us hill-folk have been making for generations. I will never stop loving my mountains and i will continue fighting in her name.

Also, i think i'll be addin this to my repertoire, if that is allright with ya'll.

[dkline22]

Thanks Darrel Hannah and Ken Heckler for bringing attention to this.

[lotyboy]

This is why so-called "clean coal" is a lie. Even if they made it so it emits zero Co2 when burned there is more environmental damage caused by the mining of coal. There is no way to undo that.

[jobrafo]

I appreciate how many structures have been built  on MTR sites. Let's not forget that you can't build anything useful on the side of a mountain.

I've flown in a CH-53 and peered out the opened back-end and observed the square miles of UNUSED land in WV, VA, NC, GA, AL and MTR affects about .9% of actual land in the state. Residential sewers affect streams and water tables more drastically than MTR.

[gmayork]

Why does anything have to be "built" there? God "built" a mountain there! All those square miles of UNUSED land are being used. They are being used for wildlife! They are being used for creating the oxygen you breath. My greatest memories as a child are of walking out my door and hitting those mountains and just wondering for hours alone or with my brothers and sisters, just us and the mountains. You should try it, bests going to the park for a walk!

[jobrafo]

Born and raised here, know it well. God built a desert and now it's called Las Vegas. We're humans and we build things. In WV it happens to be so mountainous that to build you have to level off some land to do so. Maybe you should boycott WalMart or Lowes for disturbing all the mountains. Those two corporations cover more land in WV than MTR.

[gmayork]

There is gold in mountains, diamonds in mountains. I don't see any where else in the entire world allowing a mountain to be torn down to get these precious metals. Only coal. Do we still consider that "mining" or is it cultivating? Looking forward to the day when there is a Walmart or Lowes built in NAOMA, WV!  What a laugh! Maybe an airport?

[jobrafo]

I believe you missed the point. You're against mining because it distrubs land and wildlife. But when towns, stores, banks, McDs, and WalMart, and the like disturb land noone is offended or concerned for the creeks. Yet when the same occurs to recover the MOST precious natural resource in this state and the world, everyone frets. Coal still accounts for better than 50% of electricity generated in this country. Sometimes sacrifices are made by the few to sustain the multitudes.

[ericbrian05]

Keep protesting mining and there won't be a NAOMA, WV. Lets see, how do I explain this. Some coal is deep under ground. That is mined by underground mining methods (Deep Mines). Some Coal is very shallow and is thin layers. Deep mines cannot recover this coal. The only way to extract it is surface mining. The landowners have a say in the reclamation. Everyone wants to do everything they can to protect the environment.

[chachb57]

Not true. A lot of people don't give a damn about the environment.

[HORNHost]

No, "everyone" doesn't want to do "everything they can" to protect the environment. If that was the case, MTR wouldn't exist.

MTR is not a process about extracting coal. MTR is a process about extracting coal AND profit as quickly and cheaply as possible.

It is well past time (at least according to Thomas Alva Edison back in 1931) that we stop burning the world's filthiest fuel for our energy. The way forward lies in the expansion of wind and solar, not in an 18th century fuel source.

[RGMorgan]

They definitely should be boycotted :)

[leppy111]

I'm an Atheist , but I agree why not just let them be, for the sake of being.

[ericbrianward]

Where do you live. on a hill or inthe stream bed (flood Prone Area). If you live in WV that are your choices.

[HORNHost]

Saying MTR affects less water than sewers is, like coal itself, a dirty lie. Sewers don't put barium or arsenic into the tap. MTR does.

Which structures? The Federal prison in KY where the doors won't close because the ground won't stop settling? The one the locals call "Sink-Sink"?

The majority of that "unused land" of which you type is owned by out of state corporations. There's not much us West Virginians can "do" with that land.

500 Mountains: Dead

1000 streams: Dead

MTR Kills

[jobrafo]

As far as construction goes, any engineer should know about soil compaction and settling. If the contractors messed up, how is that MTR's fault. Where would they have built it before? Sophia High School is built on MTR. When MTR is in progress it doesn't look "Pretty" but when it is reclaim it's great. Coal companies plant trees, grass, design efficient drainage to prevent severe erosion. The "unused land" is probably owned by the State. Corporations only own mineral rights to avoid property tax

[ericbrian05]

False statements like the barium or arsenic comment must be meant to distract readers from facts. 15 years of sampling have never had detectable barium or arsenic.

Most land companys allow people to live on their property for a minimal fee ($60 /year).

As far as the Mountains and streams dead thats also a complete lie, propiganda.

Based on USGS Land Cover most watersheds have more disturbance from housing than mining. Stop mining and there will be neither.

[ericbrianward]

Coal does affect water quality far less than strait piped human waste or farming/gardening. The timber industry is devistating to local stream systems. You can bury your head all you want but the truth is there for anyone that cares to look. If you want to help the bugs you could lobby to use coal severance money to install sewer systems.

[HORNHost]

Coliform bacteria can be treated and killed. That's the kind of pollution that comes from human waste. The same cannot be said of Selenium or other heavy metals that Mountain Removal puts into aquifers, streams, lakes and rivers. That stuff KILLS humans.

It's not about the bugs. It's about the HUMANS. I guess, being an apologist for coal's toxins, you've never heard of "marker species."

[ericbrianward]

Try looking at the impaired streams in WV. Most are traced back to your trailer sitting on the creek. Selenium is a joke. I attend all the presentations. If you ask the experts they dont know if there are negative effects. Check your Vitamin Bottle. Nothing that is released by mining kills humans. Nothing. I know about marker species. If you perform Sampling below mines the populations of Benthic Microinvertebrates increases every time. Isnt that what we all want Ecological Diversity?

[ericbrian05]

What this video doesnt show is the restoration of the mountains. I am ready to stop using electricity as soon as the rest of you are. If mining is stopped in West Virginia no one will be left to enjoy the mountains, because mining not only provides 50% of our nations electricity but 80% of the jobs in the Coalfields. Just remember when you give money or time to save the mountains, you are costing miners jobs and raising your electric bill.

[elophan10538]

Oh, really? They're able to restore the mountains?? Then how come they look so fucking flat when they're done raping for coal, huh?

It's not like we can't get electricity produced by other means, that also provide jobs. No one would have to go without it.

The pro-coal arguments get weaker everyday, and you just proved it.

[ericbrian05]

Regulations require the "Mountains" to be returned within 50' of original grade. Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about. There are seven different permits required to start a mine. Each of these requires companies to ensure that every thing that can be done to protect the environment is done. If you really want to help the Mountains find better reclamation techniques.

It is exactly like we can't get electric from other sources, if you think we can name one

[elophan10538]

Wind, solar, hydro, geothermal - that's 4 sources.

How are valley fills protecting the environment?

You obviously parrot what you read off a "Fiends of Coal" pamphlet. And, yes, I meant to say "Fiends".

[ericbrian05]

Wind, solar, hydro, geothermal. Don't be ridiculous, Nuclear might help, but the others have very limited uses. Each has their own environmental problems. Each would have you chained to a dozer trying to stop construction. It must be nice to set on a high horse looking at the complex world as black and white. It seems a little ironic for you to use a coal-fired computer to protest mining.

[MountainMemoirs]

Actually, Studies show that we could put large scale solar farms in the deserts of the west that could power the entire Nation and more, right now. It's in the works. Let hope. That way Eric won't have to blow up my homeland and I won't have to argue with him about something as silly as him thinking that Grade has any real effect on making a mountain a mountain again. You cannot make a mountain be a mountain again once it has been blown to hell. The grade of how the ruble is piled means nothing.

[ericbrianward]

Electric generation in the west won't supply power to WV. Transmission lines waste enormuos amounts of energy. Thats why we have power plants all over not just near the mines.

[derek24701]

If you have ever seen the end result of mtn top removal than you would snub your nose at this video. I guess its ok to remove mtn tops completely like in eastern Tn for the purpose of making flat land. Mtn top removal supplies multiple jobs in many ways even tho alot of so called tree huggers want to decide how the people of WV live if you dont like it leave it. Sincerely from a coal miner and WV mountaineer.

[feelytouchy67]

That is like saying that it is "ironic" to protest anything the government does using the freedom-of-speech guaranteed by the constitution.

Coal has been force-fed to us as the primary source of electricrity generation via massive government subsidies -- not due to some market driven force of the public.

On 2nd thought -- given that much of the public "thinks" like you do -- then maybe it is market driven! Fools rush to vote and buy according to their mental abilities - or lack thereof.

[zapatista512]

Are you kidding me? Each has their own environmental problems? You're seriously comparing wind/solar renewable energy sources to coal from strip mining? It doesn't compare.

[ericbrian05]

P.S. I dont have to read the Friends of Coal web site, I live it every day. I hunt and fish on reclaimed mine lands and almost everyone I know makes a living producing electric for you to use to protest our way of life. If there were a better way We the people that live hear would have found it. Dont worry I was once ignorant like you, there is still time.

[elophan10538]

Seriously, can't you say anything that hasn't been printed somewhere already? You really do sound like a Fiends of Coal pamphlet.

Speaking of ignorance, thanks for all the hits you're giving this video. Each time you come back, you give it one more hit to bump it up, which means more people will see it, and the destruction, you're advocating.

[RGMorgan]

Your way of life - OUR way of life - is the problem. We all treat energy like its free and unlimited and the coal barons are happy to keep it this way so they can keep their profits high. Nevermind the externalized costs that the laughably poor regulations do nothing to account for! Just look away everyone, after all, this is an American tradition and source of employment for many people. Don't go criticizing those whalers either, their families depend on it!

[gmayork]

Can you eat the fish you catch? I've seen the flier put out telling you where you can and can't eat fish and the streams where you CAN eat them, how many a month is safe. My question.....if i can't eat it, why do I have to pay for a fishing license?

[ericbrian05]

Yes, you can eat the fish. The pollutants that everyone is up in the air about are found in your multi-vitamin (selenium, Iron, etc.) There are very limited studies that show they have any effect on fish. I am a Biologist and I work with water quality. Even in Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia the greatest impact on water quality is farming and open sewer systems. MTR gets huge press and its a great buzzword for protests. I guess it makes people feel important,.

[HORNHost]

You sound like Michelle Bachmann with her "CO2 is in the air and it's natural, so it can't be BAD for us." roflay

Selenium is, indeed, bad for people in the kinds of concentrations MTR puts into groundwater. So are the other toxins.

If you really ARE a biologist, it's clear you're in the pay of some corporate master tied to MTR, in which case your work is highly suspect. "It's hard to get a man to understand something when his paycheck depends on him NOT understanding it." That's you.

[MountainMemoirs]

@ eric - Grade (slope) does not equal height. I could make a pile of dirt in my front yard have the same grade as any mountain the used to stand in Southern WV. Grade means nothing. Rhetoric of the OSM and Army Corp to try an justify the madness that is MTR.

[ericbrian05]

Grade does equal height. There are exceptions where the property owners ask to leave the land usable after mining. Im sure that your use for the land is more important than the property owners or communities use. I think if you want to control what the land is used for you should buy it and decide for yourself. You could drive up and look at it. Of course if you owned the property you might want to make a house seat and plant some non-native species and install a sewer system?

[ericbrian05]

Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Mark Twain

[elophan10538]

My, do you have any other original thoughts? Oh wait! You didn't even think of that one! You had to quote someone else.

[MountainMemoirs]

@ eric - Coal no longer supplies more than 50%. It is around 47-48% now. If you are ready to stop using electricity, I commend you. Please do so now. It would be a big help and prove that you are a man of your word. I'll know you meant what you said when you do not respond to this comment.

[mtnmamma]

Look, I'm from WV and we have an awesome mining heritage. But there are other ways of getting coal besides MTR. According to the wv workface website, mining provides 31,500 jobs. Education provides 116,000, Service provides 620,200, Leisure/Hospitality provides 68,900. MTR actually reduces the #s of mining jobs! Even in Wyoming Co, mining only provides 1,390 jobs and service provides 4,120. If coal is so good for WV, why are we one of the poorest states? we are still the BEST state though ;-)

[BibcottUnitas]

Nice work with this video, I just hope that the mountains of West Virginia are still there when I finally get to go see them.

[HORNProducer]

Thanks to everyone viewing, sharing, commenting, Stumbling and Digging this video. You've made it really start catching on!

The more it's seen, the more the Mountain Removers know we're onto them, and that we're not giving up.

[RussianRiverkeeper]

I hope this helps to get young people "fired up" about protecting our land and waters...now is the time to make the leap to solar and wind power.

[HominyKisses]

I think money needs to be raised so that air time can be purchased and this can play on local television stations in West Virginia. You need to reach a broader base and get them motivated to fight.

[Katesghost]

This breaks my heart. I grew up in WV. and it's hard to stand back and watch the greed that is sucking the life out of this beautiful land and its people. Stop mountain top mining. There is no such thing as clean coal!

[jetphixer1]

Wonderful Super Love it. I am 70 yrs I owned a flying service in Buckannon&Petersburg about 30 yrs back wen i got out of the navy.I was raised in the mountains of NY.I love the old mountains. This is why I pray dearly for wind power, for a lot of reasons but this one is a major one! Blankenship should b placed b4 a firing squad along with the bought off judges More BOOSshit TIME HAS COME TO FIGHT>

[pegwv]

Really good video & song remake! No such thing as clean coal technology for mining the stuff. The challenge is finding an acceptable alternative in our mountain state -- there seems to be some kind of opposition to every renewable energy source - wind, solar, hydro. I wish there was an answer that we could agree on.

[Bettied68]

Its not like it was when I was born 72 years ago when they had been minning just a few years now when I go home its not the same .

[grodhagen]

Much more poignant than the orginal song, and better sung, too. Straight to my favorite list, and this will be passed around.

Energy produced this way is not worth the cost to the people or the land. Get active no matter where you live: demand of your Congress Critter and Senate Snakes to make mountain top removal illegal.

[unionmaid01]

I've pasted this into my Myspace and will probably add this parody to my repertoire. Very well done! Thanks for your work! In solidarity, Anne Feeney

[Naskeleng]

Just added it to Digg...

Look for: "Country Roads" (Music Video about Mountain top Removal)"

and get it Dugg... ;o)

[Naskeleng]

Awesome! Anyone who sees this should comment, give it 5 stars and add it to their social networking site, if they have one, to help it go viral...

[HominyKisses]

Excellent video! We need to save our beautiful state before it is lost forever.

[stopmtrplease]

Awesome!

It is time to fight.

[mountainjustice]

Good one Tonya - thanks HORN this is awesome

The Blankenship video made me laugh