Rand Paul: Primary issue with mountaintop removal is "they should name it something better"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Rand Paul Opens Mouth, Puts Coal-Covered Foot In
By karoli Friday Jul 30, 2010 7:00am

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/rand-paul-opens-mouth-puts-coal-covered-foo



As if Rand Paul's flippant "No one will miss a hill or two" comment wasn't egregious enough, his latest PR effort on behalf of the coal industry is even worse. In an interview with Details magazine, he makes some of the dumbest and most offensive statements I've heard yet about mountaintop removal.

See, here's what Rand Paul thinks. Seriously.

Paul believes mountaintop removal just needs a little rebranding. "I think they should name it something better," he says. "The top ends up flatter, but we're not talking about Mount Everest. We're talking about these little knobby hills that are everywhere out here. And I've seen the reclaimed lands. One of them is 800 acres, with a sports complex on it, elk roaming, covered in grass." Most people, he continues, "would say the land is of enhanced value, because now you can build on it."

Forgive my skepticism, but the dual images of a sports complex and roaming elk just don't quite mash together well. Either the elk roam or there's a ton of kids, parents and cars up there on that mountain, but I tend to doubt there's both.

Of course, Rand defends his rebranding push with this argument:

Let's let you decide what to do with your land," he says. "Really, it's a private-property issue." This is a gentler, more academic variation on a line he used the evening before, during his speech at the Harlan Center: "If you don't live here, it's none of your business.

I'm getting awfully tired of this line of thinking. It presumes that each and every one of us live in this place called the United States with no responsibility to anyone but ourselves. It minimizes the whole idea of community, and presumes that one's actions have no impact on anyone else.

The picture at the top is what those "hills" look like after the coal industry gets their hooks in it. The picture below is what Harlan, Kentucky looks like before that happens.

[mike r]

1. Dr. Paul calling Frank Luntz

[Blue Owl]

2. GOP 101

I am rather surprised they haven't given this the "Clear Skies Initiative" or "Clean Water Act" treatment.

[niyad]

3. reminds me of james "if you've seen one tree, you've seen 'em all" watts

honestly, WHAT do these people use for brains?

[no_hypocrisy]

16. Didn't Reagan say that first when he was governor?

[upi402]

4. It affects the commons

Mr Paul. So it's much more than a private property issue.

But he knows people are simple and easy to fool.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Cosmetic topographical improvement.

Yeah, that has a nice ring to it . . . .

[Curmudgeoness]

7. Don't try to help them out. If I start to see this used,

I'm blaming you. Got to admit from the "before" picture, that is not a place where you can build a sports complex!

[randr]

6. How about Valley Enhancement?

[Newest Reality]

8. Rename it, reframe it

but a rose is a rose, or in this case, despoiling is despoiling.

Resource based terra-forming offers new environmental aesthetics though geological altitude adjustment.

[Paladin]

9. Who The Hell Would Trust Their Eyes To Somebody This Blind?

Rand Paul is stupid to the point of being dangerous. He's even more stupid than his father, which is really saying something....

[txlibdem]

10. Mountaintop Removal = Elevation Mitigation Program

:fistbump:

[Johonny]

11. They should have named Rand Paul something better

I can think of a few better names to call him right now...

[FSogol]

12. Fountainheadtop Removal? Mt. Atlas Shrugged?

Is Rand Paul America's stupidest politician? :shrug:

[spanone]

13. what an intellectual!!!

:sarcasm:

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

14. What would he do...?

Mr. Paul speaks of Private Property issues but I would love to know what he would do if these issues had affected him and his family. Would he give the mining companies a free pass if their spoor spilled into the creeks and streams that his family uses for recreation, livestock watering, and such. What about when that same spoor leeches into the ground fouling the local groundwater resources. I would assume he wouldn't mind it and gladly go to install costly filtering systems on his wells to make the water potable again.

It really irks me to see these people who believe that we can do all of this with few safeguards for the environment and the populous. I understand that we are still a society that requires the use of fossil fuels (I hope that we can move further into renewable energy at a much faster pace than we have seen so far), but damn it; we can do more to make it safe(r)!

[Javaman]

15. Honestly, he just had to be dropped on his head as a child. nt