Why West Virginia Reminds Me of Central Africa

It occured to me that West Virginia is much like Central Africa (maybe the Gates could buy that State instead).

You have despotic leadership installing themselves as an 'elected' leader for life (Sen. for Life Robert Byrd, broke the record last week, woohoo!), interested mainly in feathering their own beds and constructing monuments in their name, rather than truly helping their own people.

You have the surrounding governments (or in this case, Senators) unwilling to put a halt to this theft, so long as the main thief (of course we are talking about the Grand Keagle of Pork) helps in their own pilferage.

You have an area rich in natural resources, namely coal, which should have made everyone wealthy, but instead seems to fuel the cycle of poverty that has persisted in that region for as long as they've been digging coal out of the ground.

(maybe West Virginians will realize that all the pork Sen. Byrd has brought home has added to, rather than alleviated some of the misery that infests that small mountain state)

And should sensible folks everywhere need reminding come November, imagine this scenario in Jan 2007, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat - West Virginia.

(vote Republican as if your life, and money, depended on it)