Tuesday, October 16, 2012
I'm writing a piece for Newsweek now and waiting to get the copyedited manuscript to my new book The Price of Justice. It's coming tomorrow and it's the last step. The cover looks fantastic. I'll post it on my website as soon as I get the final copy. And things look great. Although the book is finished, the case I'm writing about goes on. Dave Fawcett argued the appeal on Caperton before the Virginia Supreme Court today, and tomorrow Bruce Stanley argues before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia his possible historic case that victims should be able to sue the federal government when mine safety officials fail to protect miners. I wish I could be there for that one. I don't know how Justice Davis has the audacity not to recuse herself. At least Justice Benjamin realized he had no business hearing the case.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
The Miners are screwed
A friend of mine sent me an article about a rally planned next week of coal miners and their friends. It sounds like it will be quite something, people lined up for miles. From the description the event sounds like a prayer vigil or a kind of witnessing. It seems to have nothing to do with politics but is an almost desperate reaching out hoping to save their jobs and their way of life.
My friend thought I might like to go. I find it so immensely sad that I would not want to be there. The fact is that the richest, thickest seams of coal are gone and the price of natural gas is brutally low and in all likelihood the coal industry in Appalachia is in the beginning of long, steady decline. Ken Ward in the Charleston Gazette has been writing about this for years in one impeccably researched story after another. But nobody listened. Not one politician has had the profile in courage to stand up and to talk about the need for a different kind of economy.
Of course, it's not the politicians sitting in Washington who will be hurt. Nor will the top coal executives who don't even live in coal country. It's the average person who will suffer.
Nothing's going to save this dying world, not speeches, not prayers, not exhortations. The people of coal country have been duped for years. I'm sorry but that's the way it is.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
DIRTY COAL
As I begin to research my book about Caperton vs. Massey, one of the strangest things is the attitude of so many people about coal. They sit there in front of their computers running on coal-generated electricity in rooms lit up by coal-generated electrcity, looking out on almost everything before them that has in some measure benefited from coal energy. And yet they have this idea that coal is dirty and the coal business in dirty and anybody who gets near to it is soiled. One of the few journailsts to see it in a different way is James Fallows who wrote a terrific piece in the Atlantic about coal, a realistic essay about the role that coal will inevitably have in the forseeable future.
I think about the only acceptable prejudice left in American life is toward southern accents expecially if they're from West Virginia or Kentucky. Anybody who sounds like that just has to be stupid. And if you've got a New York accent, you've got to be smart.
I think about the only acceptable prejudice left in American life is toward southern accents expecially if they're from West Virginia or Kentucky. Anybody who sounds like that just has to be stupid. And if you've got a New York accent, you've got to be smart.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
PLUGGING A WEASEL HOLE IN WEST VIRGINIA
Recently the West Virginia House of Delegates plugged what Associated Press news editor Brian Farkas called a "weasel hole." In doing so the elected officials by a unanimous vote asserted their rights as the people's representatives over a West Virginia Supreme Court corrupted by money and power. They delegates said that from now on the five justices cannot claim an exemption from the state's Freedom of Information Laws.
If there is one man who deserves credit for this important legislation that now must pass the West Virginia Senate, it is Hugh Caperton, who, for the past thirteen years, has been fighting a legal struggle against Massey Energy, the largest coal company in the state, and its CEO, Don Blankenship.
Massey Energy drove Caperton's small mine into bankruptcy in 1998. Caperton sued and he and his Harman Coal Company won a $50 million verdict in the circuit court in 2004. Massey Energy appealed to a West Virginia Supreme Court that Blankenship turned into an instrument to do his bidding. He spent over $3 million electing a conservative corporate lawyer, Brent Benjamin, to the high court. In a landmark ruling, the United States Supreme Court said that a plaintiff in a lawsuit cannot contribute large amounts of money to a candidate who will then vote on his case before the court.
Benjamin had to recuse himself, but Blankenship had not limited his largess to one justice. Blankenship had an even more special relationship with Chief Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard. As the case was before the court, Blankenship and Maynard vacationed together on the French and Italian Riviera with their girlfriends. When photos of the two happy couples mysteriously showed up in Caperton's attorney's office, the judge had to recuse himself. But the court, nonetheless, for the third time voted against Caperton, citing an obscure procedural error.
The AP sued under the Freedom of Information Law to get hold of the emails between Blankenship and the chief justice. These emails may show evidence of bribery or they may show nothing at all. But they are a crucial part of the public record. The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the mails must remain private.
In West Virginia, the political system has in many respects failed the people, and the courts have become the last refuge of true justice. Plaintiff lawyers are often not the most heroic of figures, but they are the ones standing up and taking on companies that have hurt the people of the state and needlessly damaged the beautiful hills. But what happens when justice can be bought? What happens when the highest court in the state is a repository for the lowest political motives? Where is justice then?
The House of Delegates is telling the people of the state that their elected officials are the true guardians of justice. There is restlessness in West Virginia now. Since 29 miners died in Massey's Upper Big Branch mine last April, Blankenship has been pushed into retirement. People are waking up to the damage Massey Energy did to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways. The politicians can feel the ground moving under their feet, and they are rushing to get ahead or be trampled.
If there is one man who deserves credit for this important legislation that now must pass the West Virginia Senate, it is Hugh Caperton, who, for the past thirteen years, has been fighting a legal struggle against Massey Energy, the largest coal company in the state, and its CEO, Don Blankenship.
Massey Energy drove Caperton's small mine into bankruptcy in 1998. Caperton sued and he and his Harman Coal Company won a $50 million verdict in the circuit court in 2004. Massey Energy appealed to a West Virginia Supreme Court that Blankenship turned into an instrument to do his bidding. He spent over $3 million electing a conservative corporate lawyer, Brent Benjamin, to the high court. In a landmark ruling, the United States Supreme Court said that a plaintiff in a lawsuit cannot contribute large amounts of money to a candidate who will then vote on his case before the court.
Benjamin had to recuse himself, but Blankenship had not limited his largess to one justice. Blankenship had an even more special relationship with Chief Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard. As the case was before the court, Blankenship and Maynard vacationed together on the French and Italian Riviera with their girlfriends. When photos of the two happy couples mysteriously showed up in Caperton's attorney's office, the judge had to recuse himself. But the court, nonetheless, for the third time voted against Caperton, citing an obscure procedural error.
The AP sued under the Freedom of Information Law to get hold of the emails between Blankenship and the chief justice. These emails may show evidence of bribery or they may show nothing at all. But they are a crucial part of the public record. The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the mails must remain private.
In West Virginia, the political system has in many respects failed the people, and the courts have become the last refuge of true justice. Plaintiff lawyers are often not the most heroic of figures, but they are the ones standing up and taking on companies that have hurt the people of the state and needlessly damaged the beautiful hills. But what happens when justice can be bought? What happens when the highest court in the state is a repository for the lowest political motives? Where is justice then?
The House of Delegates is telling the people of the state that their elected officials are the true guardians of justice. There is restlessness in West Virginia now. Since 29 miners died in Massey's Upper Big Branch mine last April, Blankenship has been pushed into retirement. People are waking up to the damage Massey Energy did to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways. The politicians can feel the ground moving under their feet, and they are rushing to get ahead or be trampled.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
For Wealthy Tax Cheats, The Day of Reckoning is Here
I posted this blog on Huffingtonpost.com yesterday. It has created a firestorm of controversy. A friend said that people in Palm Beach are going to be upset. I said that only the tax cheats will be upset.
In some of the great houses in Palm Beach and the penthouses of Manhattan's East Side, wealthy Americans are sleeping fitfully, their nights haunted by fear of exposure. In the Bush years, the IRS became so lax in its enforcement that cheating became routine and hidden Swiss bank accounts almost as much a status symbol as private jets.
Why not do it? Everyone else was doing it. You knew you would never be caught, and you were protected by accountants and lawyers to hide your tracks. Your deceit and betrayal of American laws was shrewd strategy. It's grossly unfair that after all these years you might have to take the perp walk. And doing it, you're not going to look as nonplussed as Bernie Madoff did either.
It was so simple. Say you had a women's clothing company importing dresses from China and you were purchasing $1 million in dresses. You had the Chinese manufacturer send you a bill for $2 million. You wired him the money and he immediately wired half into your Swiss account. And say you've got a half billion dollar company and you keep doing this for ten years. Figure it out. Nobody could ever catch you as long as the Swiss kept their accounts secret.
This is big business. A person I know decided to check out her account in Switzerland. She walked into a tiny bank that looked like a 19th century cuckoo clock and took the old elevator upstairs. It opened up to a modern trading floor as big as a city block.
And now in the early days of the Obama administration, the gig may be up and there is stark terror among the knowledgeable. The sheer amounts of money waiting to be discovered are staggering, billions upon billions of dollars. There is so much money out there that once the taxes and penalties are paid, it could have a significant impact on the budget. And it couldn't be happening to a greedier, more selfish lot, most of them faux patriots to the core.
The first moment of truth arrives Monday when Attorney General Eric Holder meets with Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Swiss councilor in charge of police and justice. In the wake of the UBS debacle, the American government is seeking information on 52,000 American customers. The Swiss are willing to give up 250 customers whose tax fraud is most obvious, but not the others.
The Swiss have a special gift in masking their hypocrisy and narrow self-interest in a veneer of morality and principle. The bankers of Zurich are not happy at this seeming attempt to abrogate treaties that allow thieves to hide their funds with impunity.
Faith Whittlesey, a former ambassador to Switzerland, is a brilliant woman and a dear friend of mine from whom I learn even when I disagree. And I've rarely disagreed more with her than I do on this one. I find her stern warnings in The Financial Times Monday hardly enough reason for the American government to back off. She writes that "one of the largest Swiss political parties is agitating for retaliation that would include discontinuing Swiss representation of US interests in countries such as Cuba and Iran, where the US does not have embassies" and warns of "more virulent anti-Americanism."
I don't know about you, but I'm not sitting here quaking. If it comes to it, I'm willing to give up Swiss chocolate. But as an American who pays his taxes, I want these wealthy tax cheats to be found and punished severely including serious prison time for the worst of them.
In some of the great houses in Palm Beach and the penthouses of Manhattan's East Side, wealthy Americans are sleeping fitfully, their nights haunted by fear of exposure. In the Bush years, the IRS became so lax in its enforcement that cheating became routine and hidden Swiss bank accounts almost as much a status symbol as private jets.
Why not do it? Everyone else was doing it. You knew you would never be caught, and you were protected by accountants and lawyers to hide your tracks. Your deceit and betrayal of American laws was shrewd strategy. It's grossly unfair that after all these years you might have to take the perp walk. And doing it, you're not going to look as nonplussed as Bernie Madoff did either.
It was so simple. Say you had a women's clothing company importing dresses from China and you were purchasing $1 million in dresses. You had the Chinese manufacturer send you a bill for $2 million. You wired him the money and he immediately wired half into your Swiss account. And say you've got a half billion dollar company and you keep doing this for ten years. Figure it out. Nobody could ever catch you as long as the Swiss kept their accounts secret.
This is big business. A person I know decided to check out her account in Switzerland. She walked into a tiny bank that looked like a 19th century cuckoo clock and took the old elevator upstairs. It opened up to a modern trading floor as big as a city block.
And now in the early days of the Obama administration, the gig may be up and there is stark terror among the knowledgeable. The sheer amounts of money waiting to be discovered are staggering, billions upon billions of dollars. There is so much money out there that once the taxes and penalties are paid, it could have a significant impact on the budget. And it couldn't be happening to a greedier, more selfish lot, most of them faux patriots to the core.
The first moment of truth arrives Monday when Attorney General Eric Holder meets with Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Swiss councilor in charge of police and justice. In the wake of the UBS debacle, the American government is seeking information on 52,000 American customers. The Swiss are willing to give up 250 customers whose tax fraud is most obvious, but not the others.
The Swiss have a special gift in masking their hypocrisy and narrow self-interest in a veneer of morality and principle. The bankers of Zurich are not happy at this seeming attempt to abrogate treaties that allow thieves to hide their funds with impunity.
Faith Whittlesey, a former ambassador to Switzerland, is a brilliant woman and a dear friend of mine from whom I learn even when I disagree. And I've rarely disagreed more with her than I do on this one. I find her stern warnings in The Financial Times Monday hardly enough reason for the American government to back off. She writes that "one of the largest Swiss political parties is agitating for retaliation that would include discontinuing Swiss representation of US interests in countries such as Cuba and Iran, where the US does not have embassies" and warns of "more virulent anti-Americanism."
I don't know about you, but I'm not sitting here quaking. If it comes to it, I'm willing to give up Swiss chocolate. But as an American who pays his taxes, I want these wealthy tax cheats to be found and punished severely including serious prison time for the worst of them.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Dinner in DC
I’m up in Washington for what I call a blizzard and my friend from New England says is a dusting of snow. Yeah, five inches.
I am an intellectual bigamist. When I’m in Palm Beach, I dress like the natives and am indistinguishable from the rest of the poseurs. Then when I come to Washington I don my journalistic garb, a ratty jacket and scruffy shoes, never leave the house without my hands stained with ink, pepper my conversations with the word “fuck” and snarl greetings to anyone outside my sacred circle of journalists.
In Palm Beach, there are more Italian restaurants than there are in Rome. At dawn the trucks laden with pasta make their way onto the island. In Washington, there are Ethiopian restaurants by the score, Indian takeouts on every corner, Thai places squeezed among Vietnamese restaurants and hardly any Italian restaurants. Oh there is an Italian chain restaurant. It starts with an “M” and that’s all I’m saying. The portions are gigantic, at least four times what a normal person would eat. They don’t give you plates. You line up at a trough.
I am an intellectual bigamist. When I’m in Palm Beach, I dress like the natives and am indistinguishable from the rest of the poseurs. Then when I come to Washington I don my journalistic garb, a ratty jacket and scruffy shoes, never leave the house without my hands stained with ink, pepper my conversations with the word “fuck” and snarl greetings to anyone outside my sacred circle of journalists.
In Palm Beach, there are more Italian restaurants than there are in Rome. At dawn the trucks laden with pasta make their way onto the island. In Washington, there are Ethiopian restaurants by the score, Indian takeouts on every corner, Thai places squeezed among Vietnamese restaurants and hardly any Italian restaurants. Oh there is an Italian chain restaurant. It starts with an “M” and that’s all I’m saying. The portions are gigantic, at least four times what a normal person would eat. They don’t give you plates. You line up at a trough.
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